Recreation Through Endurance

Small events like the Trail Travail or Hilbert race have a lot of appeal and benefits over the big production events. The racers are more close knit, much more personal, and easier to talk with afterwards. The competition is more fun since "I'm not going to let him beat me this time!" The challenge of the event can also be greater, such as my last 10k which was followed by a enduro ride. Since I've had a great time doing these grass-roots events, I've gotten in my mind that the big events just aren't as fun. Still, if 25,000 are going to run down my normal loop, I'm going to be one of them.

A guy at work has been running a lot over the past 6 months or so, lost some weight, and feels a lot better overall. .It really reminds me of where I was 6 years ago when I started running to take up some of my free time and lose weight. He registered for the 10k with a goal of 1 hour, just as I did on my first 10k 5 years ago

Stricker met me at my house and we walked down the starting line talking about running and parking and running and improving. I told him my strategy of carrying a camera and he didn't tell me I was crazy, but I could tell he was thinking it. (That's 2 of the 3 people I told...) We said good luck and I lined up in the B group, noticing how deep the rest of the queued waves went down Broad Street.

The gun went off and I waited. Two minutes later, the next gun went off and I crossed the starting line at 2:20. A hole formed in the crowd and I moved into it, not to speed up, but to give me some room to take pictures. Then I started moving up, finding that pace just past comfortably hard that I would hold for the next 45 minutes or so. ...And I took more pictures.







The first mile was about 6:50 and the rest were just over 7:00. I couldn't believe it. Not only was I going to PR, but it was going to be by a good margin. I considered slowing down so it'd be easier to PR next time. I did slow a little, but I was starting to get tired. My fitness isn't about holding fast paces for long periods. I better at bursts with rests or LSDs. I held on though.


Results:

Bib # First Name Last Name City State Gender Overall 5k Time Finish Time (Chip) Finish Time (Gun) Overall in Div. Overall in Gender Class Age 1058 JARED STANGL RICHMOND VA M 599 21:41 43:48 46:08 88 525 F 28

I found a spot near the finish line and watched the other racers come in. I never saw Stricker or anyone else I knew, but I did see some interesting costumes.


...and my personal favorite:


I also watched thousands of other runners come in. Experienced runners not going for a PR, but just enjoying the crowds. First timers who have worked hard to be able to run 6 miles. First timers who haven't worked hard to run 6 miles. People struggling and determined. People happy to be there and lots that were glad it was over. I had just as much fun watching people finish for about 45 minutes as I did running for about 45 minutes. These popular events are for those people, the populous, who are succeeding in a way I understood when I did my first several 10Ks. Officially, Stricker finished in a couple seconds over 1 hour setting his first PR, but I bet he'll be out on the next one setting his next PR.

The Monument 10K is tomorrow and if you don't count the Hilbert trail 10k earlier this month, I haven't done a 10K since the last Monument. If I expect to beat my PR of 45:14, then there's going to have to be a strategy that's going to work.

Despite what it might seem like, this is a difficult distance because it's too short to hold a "comfortably hard" pace like I would in a half-marathon. I'm going to need to go uncomfortably hard and stay there, especially since I didn't do as much running this winter as I normally do. There needs to be something motivational, uncombersome, and distracts from the difficulty of the situation. What is it? I'm goiing to carry a camera. I may take pictures, I may not. They may turn out, they may not. I may be thinking about how much of an idiot I am, or it may work.

Either way, I guarentee the only photo-blog of the race from someone in the "B" wave...

Wow! I got my name on a webpage.

The majority of bike rides are forgettable. You take a spin around the trails or on the road, maybe by yourself, maybe with some buddies and a month later it blurs in with all the other rides.

Others will stay in your mind as great day, but the details get a little fuzzy over time, A year later you find yourself trying to resurrect the details when retelling the story. You'll end up saying things like "Were you on the ride when we had to tear down the Sherando switchbacks in the pouring rain and everyone bunny hopped that turtle?"

At the top of this pyramid are the rides you'll never forget. Each turn, even though you made it up along the way. Each section of road you were squinting on to keep the mud out of your eyes. Each icicle that broke on your helmet.

Yesterday, Steve, a second-year daytripper, and Chris, a first time daytripper whose previous longest ride was 15 miles, took off early and headed past Staunton out to the GWNF for a predicted 30-40 mile ride of fire-road climbs and single-track descents. Originally, I suggested riding the North Mountain Trail (one ridge east of the Shenandoah Trail, aka Southern Traverse), but Steve wanted to ride part of the SM100 course.

We parked in the loose vicinity of checkpoint 4 (to the best of my memory) and climbed almost 3000 feet over 15 miles past checkpoint 5 and up to Reddish Knob, which is one of the best and one of the few 360 degree views in this section of the forest. Besides the normal challenge of this ascent, the road started getting muddy, then icy, then snowy the further we went up. To stand a chance at staying in the saddle, you had to stay in the truck ruts and at one point we considered turning around when the snow was deep enough to stand the bikes up in. The thermometer on my camelbak bitterly reported that we survived a 20 degree drop in temperature also.

At reddish knob we enjoyed the view, plotted landmarks to my map, and guessed at where we would end up after we hit the singletrack. The cold wind started gusting and we headed back down the spiraling road to the trailhead. The trail gave us three long downhill options that would drop us just a few miles from the car. It also had a foot of soft snow on it that gave us no chance of riding it. As Chris, the most reasonable of all of us, said "I think we should take the road" the wind picked up again and gave us a 60 second ice storm as the trees dropped its frozen discards on us. (I've said it before and I'll say it again, helmet are for overhead obstacles.)

The road, which had not melted as I predicted it would have, was snow covered until we got down about 1000 vertical feet. Two snow-dives and the slowest downhill ever, we got down to the bottom where it was back up to 60 degrees again and everyone could feel all their appendages. We took fireroad 101 (Tilgman Rd) southish to the Stokesville area, which was the general direction of the car. This route was all too familiar for me. Since we left the car, the route was exactly the same as I took to my painful collapse at the top of the mountain during the SM100 and how I had gotten back to the campground. Unpleasant memories of dropping out of the race were coupled with a stronger interest in coming back in September to finish the hardest race I'll probably ever do.

Near Stokesville we caught an abandoned fireroad that was soft and energy sucking to a cul-de-sac/illegal-furtinure dump. We all commented on how it's amazing how people that live in such beautiful places can treat them so bad. Another fireroad dropped us at Hwy 250, which we slogged down back to Braley Pond, then 6 slightly uphill, slimy miles back to the truck.

We ended the ride with 53 miles (3x Chris's previous longest, which is further proof that life is better in the mountains), muddy faces, weak legs, and 5 Guys Burgers and Fries. Honestly, if I'd known the conditions were going to be such as they were, I'd probably planned this a week or two later, but my only regret is not bringing the camera. Even without pictures, I won't forget this ride.

Results are in. Congratulations to everyone that did it and had a good time. Everyone I talked to commented on how friendly the race was and how much it was what a local race should be.

I'm also super-stoked since I took my first event with The Challenge. Individually, I didn't do great in the 10k or the Enduro, but good enough put together. (Orange highlights are the fellow Challenge racers)

Being sick last week sucked. All of the pain and none of the benefits. Still well enough to go to work, but I didn't want to get in any workouts since each day I thought I've feel better the next.

The first Hilbert Race came along and saturday evening I finally decided I was going to do it. This was a new local series that I completely missed last year, so I especially wanted to do it. Plus, racing is just so much fun and it'd been a bunch of months since the last one. I just didn't know what class to register for. Sport just sounded too fast, and I didn't know if I had it in me to go all-out for two hours. Even on a good day, this is tough, I'd just be setting myself up for disapointment. Enduro, well, that just sounded like too long to be out there after being achy and sneezy all week. I'd heard about the Challenge and decided it was perfect. A no-stress 10K, followed by as much or as little riding as I wanted. I figured I couldn't be unhappy no matter how I did.

The run was fun. I stuck behind a promising local young racer named Garrett, also doing the Challenge, who kept a somewhat challenging but not killer pace the whole length. Finished up with a muddy steep hill at the end (that stayed just as muddy, but got much steeper later in the day) at just under 50 minutes.

After the run, changed clothes in the car (nicer than those transitions at the Tris), ate a little, drank a little, then lined up for the Enduro. Over the next 5 hours, I rode with Crankee 4 of them, only drank 1 camelbak, stopped plenty, passed and got passed by the same girl at least 8 times, zoned out so I didn't know what part of the trail I was on, and finished 7 laps.

Rumors are circulating that it was enough to win the Challenge. Official results aren't out yet, so we'll see. Regardless of whether I just won my first event, I still believe what I've always said. The only way to come out feeling good is if you do what you love, have fun doing it, and put everything you've got into it.

Frazz is by far my favorite comic strip. So much so that I subscribe to it online since it only comes to the Richmond paper on Sunday. The guy he realizes can laugh at his faults, but keeps the important things in mind, like enjoying life. He's a school janitor to he can be around kids but also so he can play more sports, especially biking and running.

This week, I've been kinda sick. Not sick enough to call in sick, just sick enough that it keeps me from doing anything active. I know it's been going on to long because I've passed that exercise-withdrawl phase known to some as taper madness. Just when I feel like I'm losing ground, Frazz reminds me I have a lot of time to make it up.

...and Hills.