S’not easy: Ghost Train Rail Trail Ultra Race Recap- Saturday 10/24/2015

Right now I should be working, as a grad student I really should always be working. But I like to not work and these are some of the things I do to not work:

1. Eat
2. Buy groceries to cook to eat
3. Watch the X Files
4. Exercise, I guess
5. Walk the dog

But right now, I’m not actually hungry (amazing!) and I’m super sore from my race, so I guess I’ll procrastinate by writing about my weekend.

After my MDI adventure last week, I signed up on a whim for Ghost Train in the car on the way home. I didn’t expect to get off the waitlist, but midweek I got that exciting and terrifying email congratulating me on making it officially into the race and off the waitlist. When I got that message, I was really freaking excited! Now I had the opportunity to try to test myself in a supported way! I was going to push myself and see what I was capable of, with the goal of enjoying the experience and not getting injured (because I have the TARC Fells Winter Ultra later this year still).

So Ghost Train is a timed race that is a 7.5 mile out and back through Brookline, NH. A “loop” consists of 15 miles, so you could run as many of these as you want. I knew I could do 30 miles (since I did 30 miles once before in my life so of course I could do it again), but I signed up for 45 miles. I wanted to test myself. What’s 15 more miles?!

The course is very, well.. flat. It is a rail trail. The terrain is soft and covered with pine needles. It runs through a few bogs and there is exactly 1 hill. It is a sizeable hill given the rest of the course, but because there is only 1 hill, when you hit it you feel it. I once ran a marathon on a canal tow path—every single ascent or descent felt horrible. Sweet. Bring it.

The week before, I didn’t run much. I was recovering from MDI and I did one 7.5 mile day run commute with the Sky ball monster. Other than that, I stretched and sat and ate a lot of food. That is my favorite training method.

Oh right! I’ll talk about how I trained for this race! It’s simple—I didn’t. See previous post. But I have an unduly amount of confidence for some reason so that’s pretty much half the battle, right? Right!?

The night before the race, I was ready to not sleep. I got a good night sleep Thursday night and Friday night my roommate and I hung in and ate pasta (for she was also carbo loading for a the Cape Cod Marathon!!!!) and we watched this movie called Dope which is a fun twist on nerdy high schoolers getting involved with grown up themes like drugs. I enjoyed the movie, and I might’ve enjoyed it a lot because I paired it with 4 glasses of wine. Whoops.

I ended up sleeping really well, surprisingly (thanks wine)! And woke up with my bags all packed. I put Sky in the car, dropped her off at Aunt Christine’s in Watertown, and then headed north to Brookline, NH. I got my pre-race doughnut and coffee and felt good to go. The weather was pretty decent. It was chilly at the start but warmed up enough to be comfortable. I started the first 15 miles with half tights, a short sleeve tech, a long sleeve tech over top, gloves, and my buff. I brought my pack with 1 Liter of water but I realized that I probably didn’t need it to start.

I brought with me a billion changes of clothes as well as some snacks and beers for the end. I set up a chair near the aid station and wore my coat until start so as to not get the Chill that killed me at MDI.

The first out and back 15 milers were really enjoyable. I was exploring the course and enjoying the sun breaking through. I didn’t run with anyone on the way out but ran back with some people. All these good feelings made me move much faster than I probably should have, because after checking in at 15 miles, I briefly stopped for a doughnut (I love doughnuts if you couldn’t tell), left the long sleeve and buff and gloves, and took off with arm warmers. This 30 miles was a bit harder, especially on the way back. Around mile 20, I walked a bit. I was just getting bored I think.. but then I started getting sad. I had 30 more miles until I hit my goal and that seemed impossible at the time. My feet were starting to hurt a lot and I took my phone out and did what is always a bad sign—texted my friends. I told them I was sad and crying and didn’t know why. I told them that I just wanted a snuggie and Netflix and running is dumb. They told me to grow a pair (in nicer terms than that) and I vowed to put the phone away for a while and sort out the pain and to at least reach my goal even if I walked the whole thing.

At 30 miles (5:40), I am back at my trusty chair. I find new socks and shoes and change from my NB WT110s to my far less experienced Topo Runventures. The 110s are snug and minimal and I’m pretty sure my feet were swelling in them. The Runventures are also 0 drop, but they have a rock plate and small platform. The toe box is also quite wide with them, room for swelling! I brought the Topos unsure if I would use them since I tend to turn my ankle with them, but I was out of options.
I’m trying to figure out what to do when some dude asks me if I was having fun. I imagine to him, I was just a person sitting in a chair with socks on staring at my feet for a while without moving. I said heck yes and looked up and thought I recognized him. Then I saw he was sporting a Leadville 100 hat and it clicked. I was friends with this guy, Jon, on the FaCeBoOk (but not real life) so I awkwardly just asked his name and shook his hand with dirty socks in mine. Classic Tess. Anyway, we talked briefly about feet and the crappy beer I brought (Name Tag Lager… horrible taste but $3.50 at Trader Joes!) and he said he’d be at the other AS and I’d see him in 7.5. At that point I didn’t really care but he ended up being a pretty important part of my race.

At this point I also drank most of a redbull, and ate a buttered roll (yum), and refilled the bladder and headed out for miles 30-45. My feet felt SO much better, I was able to run a good portion of the way, almost all the way to the middle aid station. After that I ran some with an older gentleman whose name is escaping me, Brian maybe? I enjoyed spending 6 or 7 miles with him. At the turn around, I saw Jon again and he promised me pizza if I finished 50. At that point, that seemed doable! So I turned and on those 7.5 miles back to the start, I felt horrible. My feet got worse again and it was metatarsalgia acting up, each step was awful. I walked a lot on that way back and once I hit the final trail back, I picked up a run. I can’t finish a race walking, no matter how bad. Just run, then it’s over.

I blow through the official tent, give them my number, and after that you have to run another quarter mile down over a bridge and back. I told them I was done, I saw Jon and said “no way, I am done.” and then I turned around and he was legit chasing me with a box of pizza and a beer saying “Wait, let’s talk about this!” which was just such a funny sight to me. It’s like a dream come true to have a boy chase me with pizza and beer! Anyway, I sat down and we talked a bit and within no time he convinced me to go back out for 5 miles to hit that 50 mile mark. But I wasn’t going until after I ate pizza and had a shitty Name Tag beer. Deal.

I ran out for the last 5. I ran pretty well for the first 2.5 (even catching Brian) and then it was time to turn around. At that point I was near a bunch of 100 milers who told me I should seek 60, that I looked too good to stop. They may have been right, but I am still really new to this game. I want to take it piece by piece, get some experience with the physical and mental struggles associated with the distance before I push myself for something big. Besides that, the course was hella boring! One day I want to run 100 miles, but not here. Not on a 7.5 mile stretch of out and backs.

I walked and then ran back with Jon and felt really freaking accomplished. I ate more pizza and drank more beer and hung with my new friend for a few hours. I recorded an official end time of 10:45 for 50 miles. Not amazing, but I don’t think I did too poorly.

We look kinda scary with the flash, but that’s in good Ghost Train spirit!

So how am I feeling today? Pretty damn good actually. My feet are a bit sore and walking up the hills to my house are painful in the calf and butt area, but nothing is injured. My neck and shoulders are sore also which is new, but again… I am not injured and I think tomorrow I’ll try to bike or swim or something.

I want to chronicle my lessons. First and possibly most importantly—I came into this race with NO plan and that was apparent to me around mile 20. I went very fast for the first 15 (coming in around 2:40) and that made me fatigued much earlier than I should have been. It also added to this wall that I hit. I could’ve tried for a very fast 30 mile race, or conserved and tried for a distance goal of 60 miles or more.. but instead of fell somewhere in between and that was mostly because I didn’t have a set plan. That is something I need to think more about while planning these races.

Secondly, as much as I like going by myself to accomplish things, without anyone to impress or feel pressure, I really wished I had friends at the aid station. I wanted to look forward to seeing someone. Jon did that for me at the end but I think the next 50m or more I race, I will bring at least 1 friend. I would be that friend for someone, I hope they would for me, too!

Third, I think I need to invest in some shoes that will be good for me for these longer distances. I love the 110s and Runventures, but they are the Corvettes of the shoe world. Minimal and speedy. I need a pair of mini-vans to strap on my feet for the long game.

Some points about my race:

• My face was the Mass Pike for snot. Breathing was hard.
• I made landmarks out of the boring stuff on the course. “Small Bog”, “Big Rock” & “Don’t go Left” were some highlights
• I swear at one point I smelled Sky’s farts. I even started looking for her
• This race is further proof that I need beer mid race

“Small Bog”

I guess, besides being proud of myself and shit, it’s nice to know that my TARC fall classic 50k finish wasn’t a total fluke. I think I’m going to up my strength training and swimming going forward. Overall, good experience, glad I went, happy I met a new friend, and I have even more unduly confidence now. I don’t know when, but I will get that 100 at some point.

But not 100 miles on this, give me some MOUNTAINS

MDI: Mount Desert Island Non-Marathon Finish

Back in… January or February I signed up for the Mount Desert Island Marathon. (Fun fact, most of the times that I type “marathon” I actually type “marathong” and picture runners racing around in thongs… I can’t tell if that would be comfortable or not.)

What happens when you google “Marathong”

I signed up, for a few reasons. 1. I have never been to Acadia and I really wanted to go. This way, I had to! 2. My foresight is not as accurate as my hindsight. 3. I ran a marathon before, why not? 4. I already planned on running a ton of hills this year (Re: Mountain Goat Series) so why not add one more super hilly marathon.

Okay great so I signed up super early, that meant that I had tons of time to train for the race, and arrive to the starting line prepared to run. Again, see aforementioned comment about my foresight. Let me tell you about how I trained for this race in the past few months.

In August, I did some hiking. I played a lot of soccer and tennis. I biked casually and I swam as fast as I could—which is not very fast.

In September I really upped my game and winged a 50k which I’ve already talked about.. that was another race I did not feel overprepared for. After that race, I started running 3 or 4 times a week in the morning with my dog. Dog runs can be anywhere between 8 min miles to 11 min miles depending on how the dog is feeling that morning. Either way, it was not much training. I also did not swim as often as I had in the summer and I stopped playing soccer. I think I went boxing and joined a yoga gym so I dabbled in other methods of cross training, but did I go on a long run? No.

In October I ran 2 to 3 times a week. Mostly it was extended Skyline loops at the Middlesex Fells and those were not very hard runs, I walked a lot more than I had last year doing the same loops. I would run with Bangers on Wednesdays but not more than 4.5 miles each time. I just wasn’t feeling it. I think my biggest weekend of training was 20 miles on a weekend between 2 runs at the Fells.

One thing I did do consistently throughout this whole year of races is strength training. Abs, legs, and arms. This is important and later I’ll tell you why.

So MDI. I was fortunate to have another friend, Jeremy, who was going up to run the race as well. He and a billion of his college friends were all going up to run. This is basically 4 years of college runners who wanted to do a destination race together. They were talking about how they were going to finish sub 3 or run the half with the goal of winning it. Yikes. Anyway, they rented a house near the starting line so I had a place to stay.  I opted to sleep on the floor since I know I don’t sleep before races anyway. On Saturday, Jeremy, myself, and 2 of his friends drove up and hung out in Bar Harbor.

Cadillac Mountain (we drove up)

It was kinda stormy all day, and snowing at the top a little.

I had never been to Acadia or Bar Harbor before and Ho-ly crap, is it beautiful! I started to get excited as we drove around the island and up Cadillac Mountain. It was breathtaking and the colors and foliage was out of this world. We drove some of the course and it was quite hilly and the road was kind of crappy. I had no idea how I would fair.

The night before the race, I met everyone… all 25 people. I played with a dog (that did not try to eat other people or dogs) and I ate some pasta and drank a ton of fresh local beer (nice, Atlantic brewing!) but I did not think at all about the race. It felt like being on a big friends vacation and I liked everyone I met. I went to sleep around 10:30pm, woke up a few times in the night but overall I slept really well. I am surprised and happy about this fact!

So the morning of the race, I grumpily got ready and ate a bagel with peanut butter. I packed up a drop bag for the finish and we started walking to the start. As per Seth’s recommendation, I packed a towel and change of clothes to shower at the finish line, since the year he ran it it was rainy and people were quite literally freezing. As we walked to the start, I had my winter coat and hat on and was so, so, so sad to take them off to put in the bag truck. Now, cold and at the start, we had about 30 minutes to the start. It was about 30 degrees at the start, clear and sunny. The high for the day was 42 degrees, so I wasn’t expecting to overheat.. and as you shall soon see– I did not overheat. I was wearing my thin-ass NB WR00’s on, half tights, arm warmers and a short sleeve tech with a long sleeve tech overtop, and glorious gloves. My goal was to run and warm up for the first few miles and then ditch my long sleeve tech.

At the start, I was running easy, easing into the race. I brought my iPod and some gels and salt in case I needed any of that. After 2 miles, I was still cold and it was weird. Usually after a few miles into a race, I am sweating no matter how cold it is outside. I decided to crank a little bit to see if that could warm me up… I left the 2 girls from the house that I was with and pulled ahead and started to feel a little better but I still wasn’t warm! I wasn’t even sweating! Do you have any idea how weird it is for me to be 6 miles into a run and not sweat 1 drop? Something was wrong. Steps started hurting, I kept going. Around mile 11 I took out my iPod and slowed down, I was feeling really cold and crappy. My friends caught and passed me around the halfway mark. By mile 14, I was walking some. I still had on all my clothes and I still hadn’t sweated. I took some water around this point just in case and did a walk-run mix for a while. There was a long section along the fjord that was in the shade, it was beautiful but so cold.

I haven’t run while listening to music in a long time—maybe only twice this whole year. I’m glad I brought it through because it carried me all the way to mile 20 (seriously, who can walk while listening to ‘Party in the USA’). I wanted to keep going but I also wanted to stop and save my feet. At this point, I stopped just to think about my options. If I kept going at that pace, I would’ve finished around 4:45-5:00 and I don’t know what my body would’ve done. I was at a junction with a lot of spectators so I could also easily ask for a ride to the finish. While I was stopped and thinking, I had a freaking asthma attack! That’s how cold it was out! I coughed it out and then called it a day. This is the first time I’ve run 20 miles and not sweat a single drop.

I started talking to this relay team and they offered me a ride to the finish. Then they immediately offered me a beers and food and warm clothes. Is this what Stockholm Syndrome starts as? I didn’t want to leave them! They were going to meet their final relayer so they could finish together. We parked ~1 mile from the parking lot at the end and I ran with them, beer in hand back towards the course. I said my goodbyes as I started seeing people I knew eating at the finish line. My new friends even invited me to a party! Man, I love runners and New England.

Overall: 21ish miles on the day, good friends, and BEAUTIFUL course. I’ll be back to Acadia.

Can’t wait to go back!

Granted I am writing this up only 1 day after the race, but I feel totally fine. I just winged a 20 mile run and nothing hurts at all today. Last year, when I would do anywhere from 16-20 miles, my feet and body would ache for a few days during recovery. I am so sold on strength training as a cross training necessity. My body recovers quickly and I am able to just go out for these long runs without worry for serious body injury. I’ve been doing abs/plyometric work every 3 days for months and I feel stronger and overall healthier. I heard a podcast a while back on 100 miler training using this method… foregoing long runs with strength training and I think it works in a number of capacities. Form doesn’t suffer as you gain miles because you don’t get as tired. It’s remarkably effective and I’m going to continue in this fashion, hopefully working on other at home strength techniques. Maybe I’ll even ask my roommates to go splitsies on kettleballs with me!

Anyway, going forward I have 2 races that I am in. 1. The Jack London 10k on Halloween. How could I now sign up?! Halloween? Jack London? It’s perfect. 2. The TARC fells winter ultra (40 miler). This is why I am obsessing over the Skyline trail. It is 5x Skyline! And in December so perhaps there will be snow, who knows!? Matt is signed up for this race as well… he and I just can’t stop racing together.

I put my name on the waitlist for the Ghost Train Ultra this weekend. I’ll be thrilled if I get in. I think I’ll try for at least 50 miles if I do!

All this from the girl who hates (road) running.

I hate running.

I hate running. This is my “coming out” post, or perhaps just a recent sentiment that I can’t keep a secret any longer. I hate it. For a while, it was just tiring. I wanted to run but I just felt tired too soon. Maybe that meant I should take time off and return to it fresh. Nope. It didn’t work. I go out, lace up my sneakers, put on my watch, and start…

After a few minutes, I feel my heart rate high, my energy level low, and my legs complaining. Surely, I am at least approaching a 5k, but alas I look down at my watch and see a womping 7 minutes have passed and I have yet to hit 1 mile. What the actual blue hell holy shit balls has happened to me?!

My friends are all still happy runners, and I hate them. I see strangers in their half tights and Nikes and I hate them. I drive down Storrow and see all the runners on the Charles and I hate them, with their bright yellow and pink layers and perfect, not sweaty hair, and even ear warmers. C’mon– ear warmers?! It is barely October people! It looked like a Lisa Frank craft kit vomited all over the Charles and the pieces are running happily.

“Hey want to go for a run?” “You bet, let’s go eat a box of highlighters and shit on the Charles while we run!”

I should clarify, my hatred at them is not actually directed at them. Instead, it is a hatred stemming from a jealousy. I am, afterall, a youngest child and want all the attention and praise all the time and I can’t have it in the running world if I hate running.

I used to hate that I hated running. It was a meta-hate, stemming from a confusion. Where did I lose my running way? But now, after over a month of meta-hate, I’ve learned to embrace it. I hate running and I don’t care who knows it!

What has replaced running? Well, to be honest, I haven’t really replaced running. I still go for runs. But the only runs I really enjoy are the trail runs with friends or my dog. But I’ve also acquired a taste for biking, swimming, yoga, tennis, soccer, boxing, jumanji, Netflix, reading, and I guess occasionally working on my homework.

I think running and I needed this break. The MG series was a real tiresome affair, I like to think I trained hard and worked hard during this years set of hill races. I started with the non MG race– Seven Sisters and soon I will finish out the hilly season with another non MG race– the Mount Desert Island Marathon. Will I finish the marathon? Who the hell knows, after all… I really hate running.