Yesterday I ran the Black Bear 23K trail race in Waterville Valley, my first longer distance trail race and only my second true "trail" (not mountain) race! Joy and I signed up for this back in like Feburary - I can't actually remember how I got the idea to do it, and I think I completely forgot how long a 23K was. My summer ended up evolving in a different way than anticipated and in the end my trail run training ended up being pretty minimal. I got out to the Fells for a 13 miles a couple weeks ago and Andrew and I have done a decent amount of hiking over the past couple of months, but my run mileage has been pretty consistently stuck around 20 miles per week unless I've had a race, so I didn't really have super high expectations and was hoping to just enjoy a nice day in the forest.
It was super hot and muggy in Boston on Friday but when Joy and I arrived in NH the mountain air felt CRISP and lovely. We stayed essentially right at the race start, which was amazing and luxurious, and the Waterville Valley town square had plenty of restaurants and we were able to grab pizza and beer, the perfect prerace food IMO.
Race morning we thought about getting up to watch the 50K start, but elected to sleep in another 45 minutes and then had a pretty leisurely morning - we walked over to get our bibs and shirts and then went back to the room to pack up. I had my usual breakfast of a banana, a sugary drink (Vitamin Water in this case as I couldn't find any juice I wanted at CVS and I do always love a throwback to high school/college and the dragonfruit C vitamin water lol), graham crackers, and about 3/4 of a Celsius, the rest of which went into one of my flasks. Joy convinced me to warm up so we jogged around the parking lot for about 10 minutes; I then realized I needed to pee AGAIN so ran back to the hotel and made it to the start line with literally minutes to spare. They were playing Thunderstruck at the start of the race which really made me happy; I actually hadn't even used it as my alarm in the morning, opting instead for my "MOUNTAINS" alarm of the Grizzly Hills music, so I got a kick out of hearing it anyway.
And then we were off! I really had no idea about anything related to this race, so my only goal was to run by feel, try not to be too much of an idiot at the beginning of the race, and just see what happened. I knew that the biggest climb of the race was right at the beginning so I tried to just find a steady effort. I ended up right behind this guy who was running at what felt like a really perfect pace for me as well, so it was nice to just zone out for a bit and follow his footsteps up the climb. I could see Lauren just a little ways ahead of me which was also a nice surprise; I never had any aspirations of sticking with her or anything but being in her vicinity made me feel good about the pace I was setting initially.
There were a few short power hikes interspersed through the single track section and then we headed downhill - this was the one section of course I'd been on before, as we'd hiked it when we did the Tripyramids, and I was really looking forward to it because I knew it was basically just a dirt road sending you downhill for a few miles and MAN did it deliver! The joy I feel when I'm running downhill through the mountains is pretty much unmatched. I passed several people once the trail opened up and found myself running near a man who initially looked like Andy (for the rest of the race he became not-Andy), a guy in a yellow hat (yellow hat) and then further ahead, a woman in a black shirt who eventually ran out of view. I think I probably put a little more effort into this section than I maybe needed to; I genuinely forgot for a second that this wasn't Wachusett and I actually needed to run 10 more miles, lol, but you know what, it was really fun so I have no regrets.
We reached the bottom of the descent around mile 5 and headed off towards the next section of the course, which consisted of a climb initially up a road and then up a dirt road, followed by a lollipop on trails with some small rolling ups and downs. This second climb was less steep and I ran the whole thing; at some point in this section "Race You To The Top of The Morning" came on my playlist which is such a random song choice but really felt perfect for the moment. I was really happy with how I was feeling and the effort I was putting in, and of slightly less importance I felt like I was maintaining my spot in the pack well. I started to see the leaders coming back as I headed into the lollipop, including Andy (who of course saw me as I was walking up a sharp little incline lol) and the lead woman. The forest was dark and green and beautiful, and there was something quite magical about flowing through the woods as "Lumiere" from the Expedition 33 soundtrack played on my playlist (hey, if listening to headphones during a trail race is good enough for Lauren Gregory, it's good enough for me!)
I was following yellow hat and not-Andy as we headed into the loop section - its still actually unclear which direction we were *supposed* to run the loop in but it seemed like the group mentality was that we should go clockwise. No sooner as I started into the loop than I caught my toes on a root and went supermanning to the ground - thankfully the ground was dirt and pine needles so it was a very soft landing (this would not be the case in future falls, as we shall see...lol). Both of my man friends turned around to make sure I was OK which was nice of them, and I popped right back up and kept running, catching up with both of them shortly after and we formed a nice little pace line for the next few miles.
Once we returned to the stick part of the lollipop I started to see a lot more runners coming out; it was hard to do my usual out and back cheering as I was trying to focus on my feet and not falling again! (This is foreshadowing!! Lol) I saw Joy and she told me I was 5th woman to which I was like...huh?!! I let that information percolate in my brain as I continued to follow my two man friends into the next section of the course, which was another GLORIOUS downhill with good footing on the dirt road and road road. Here I was able to hype up the people coming up the opposite way because I was feeling good, running downhill, and not having to watch my feet, so that was a happy time! I was grateful to be following the guys because the course veered into the woods (would have totally missed it) and then crossed a road which I also would probably have missed. I had meant to pull up the course file on my watch, but in the chaos of getting to the start so late I had forgotten to, and I was definitely starting to regret that.
I was continuing to follow my friends through an open grassy section when suddenly I caught my toes AGAIN and went supermanning down AGAIN! Ughhh. Once again, not a terribly hard landing, but enough to sort of knock the wind out of me. I got up and took a beat, then carried on, trying to keep my pals in my sights. I was aware I was becoming covered in dirt and every time I'd try to drink from my flasks I would get dirt in my mouth. It was disgusting, but felt very fitting for the trail runner life.
Despite telling myself out loud that I needed to pick up my damn feet, it wasn't long after this that I caught a rock hidden on the side of the trail and went down AGAIN. I was around mile 9/10 at this point and definitely on the upper side of the durations of runs I've done lately so fatigue + trail shoes with a toe box that is too damn wide was starting to take its toll. But really this was now just becoming entirely ridiculous; additionally this time I managed to land with my fist under my body, effectively punching myself in the stomach and knocking the wind out of me. It took a little longer to shake this one off and I walked for a few seconds before easing back into a run. My man friends were now sadly out of my view and I genuinely had NO idea where I was, to the point where there were a couple of times during this stretch that I stopped briefly to pull up the route on Strava on my phone (because I didn't have it on my watch, like an idiot) to make sure I was going the right way.
By this point I was pretty annoyed with myself for wiping out three times and losing my pack, but I really tried to keep myself positive and enjoy the mostly downhill section as I knew more uphill was coming on the last loop of the race. I took a Huma around 9 and started drinking from my caffeinated flask; the weather was SO nice and I was never really hot at all but I knew I probably wasn't drinking as much as I should have been and I'm sure that wasn't helping my sloppy footed situation. After another intersection which confused me but which I got right without the use of my map, I found myself winding back along the river towards the town square area - once again, even though it seemed like I was on the right track, I wasn't confident at all that I was on course because I couldn't see anyone. This was definitely a lesson learned about absolutely making SURE to have the course pulled up on my watch next time; I feel like I probably lost at least a couple of minutes slowing down and trying to wayfind over the last 5 miles of the race.
It probably didn't help that I was now past the 10 mile mark of the race and my body was starting to have some opinions about what I was doing - interestingly, it wasn't really my legs that bailed out on me, but I found myself really hitting a cardio threshold during the sustained climbing in the back half of this race. In a way this was a positive, as it really meant I was RACING which was cool, but mannnn the 2+ mile long winding uphill stretch on single track from about 10.5 to 13 was just not it for me. I was trying so hard to run the uphills but I just couldn't get my heart rate to come down and so I kept having to walk just to stop the fire engine breathing. I got absolutely smoked by another woman at the beginning of this section which didn't feel awesome, and while I somehow did manage to catch up to my two man friends at an intersection where everyone was deeply confused (there was a rope across the trail where we were supposed to go; we ultimately determind it was the correct way but it was weird) they pulled away again almost immediately. I was just roaming through the forest, hoping I would eventually find my way back to the finish line, and REALLY hoping that at some point the climbing would give way to a downhill! I hiked more than I would have liked in this section; I tried to keep the pace moving even when I wasn't running and the fact that my heart rate never really dropped even with all the walk breaks makes me feel like I approached it the right way, but it was a little demoralizing when every little rise in the trail made me feel like I was going to implode! Add to that the fact that this was probably the most technical trail section of the whole race and the way finding difficulties, and it was just a rough couple of miles.
A guy in a blue vest passed me near the end of this section and I tried to use that as a rallying point to not let him get too far ahead of me. I knew we had to be going downhil at SOME point and I just kept willing myself to hold on until that happened. Finally, the downhill appeared and naturally I immediately rallied. I closed a gap of probably 100 yds within minutes on blue vest guy and was considering whether to make the pass when I realized that the woman in the black shirt who I'd seen pull ahead all the way back on the first descent was RIGHT out in front of me, and running sort of tentatively on the downhill.
So I say I'm not competitive. I say I do these things for fun and it's not about place and yadda yadda yadda. And yes, all of that is true. But by God, when someone told me earlier in the race that I was in the top 5 and I gave that up and now I have an opportunity to get it back? I smelled blood in the water and I WENT for it. I went whipping around blue vest guy and immediately went into full send mode, absolutely hammering, and soon enough I had passed not only black shirt girl but not-Andy, who I'd somehow caught up with once again after all this time. Sympathy Magic was blasting in my headphones and I was a gazelle, a forest creature, a wild spirit just blazing down the hill with everything I had. It was utterly magical. AND THEN I caught a root with my toe and ate shit for the FOURTH TIME, harder this time because I had been running fast and downhill, and the sudden force of the landing caused BOTH of my calves to go into complete plantar flexor spasm!
It was insane. I was lying on the ground with my calves completely locked, it was excruciating, but I also in the back of my mind was just like oh my god you have to get up because that girl is THERE and you are going to be so angry with yourself if you let her pass you because you wiped out AGAIN! As I was physically pushing my feet into the ground to unlock my calves both of the men appeared and actually stopped to make sure I was OK, which was very nice. Once I was back on my feet the cramps subsided and I was just like, you know what, let's fucking go, so I started running again, quickly returning to full send pace, and almost immediately passed blue vest again. But then we turned into like the measliest little uphill towards the finish and he returned, along with black shirt, who passed me, and I was just like nooooooo I was so close! It was such a ridiculous whiplash of emotions over the span of this one mile, elation to pain to effort to frustration. The next emotion was confusion, as we all made a right turn which led back onto the first climb we'd done on the course. I almost immediately knew we were wrong, and I told everyone so. Having sounded the alarm, I decided that I might as well lead the charge back the correct direction and see what I had left to kick it in, and while it felt like I went absolutely into the well (my heart rate got up to 178, which pretty much never happens lol) I managed to hold off black shirt as well as blue vest and not Andy, ultimately taking 5th woman and 17th overall in the race. I had really experienced everything out there, and aside from eating dirt, I had absolutely loved it.
I hadn't even realized that I had gotten beaten up from the falls, aside from the obvious discomfort of the impact, but once I finished people made me aware that I had a pretty gnarly cut on my right elbow as well as some general trail rash scattered across most of my right arm and leg. Battle wounds, I tell ya!
All in all, I had an absolute blast at this race. I love the trail race energy, which is so laid back yet also full of the most badass people you could ever meet. I love being in the forest and I love feeling like I can do anything, even if anything also includes throwing myself on the ground a couple of times. I'm really excited for continuing to grow as a trail/mountain runner and learning how to handle these technical trails and climbs even better and to keep exploring and pushing myself...Joy and I were talking after the race about how the versions of ourselves 8-10 years ago would NEVER believe the stuff that we're doing today and it's so true. More dirt and vert to come in the future for sure!
Black Bear Trail 23K
2:10:49
5/53 F, 17/109 OA
No comments:
Post a Comment