Even though the run didn't start until 8am, I met Mandy at 5am to make the 2 hour drive to Wardensville, WV. We got there around 7am and chatted with some of the other runners. At 8am we all scampered off into the woods. The first 4 miles rolled up and down and were pretty runnable. That is, until we took a turn and ended up in what looked to be a quarry. Boulders, rocks, and more rocks! Had it not been for the runners in front of me, I would have wondered whether I had missed a turn. I should mention now that my footing is dreadful on a rocky course. This proved to be exceptionally difficult since (a) fallen leaves surrounded the rocks so you couldn't tell how far your foot would fall if you stepped off the rocks, and (b) some of the rocks - even the bigger ones - shifted when you stepped on them. After much internalized whining and grumbling, I got through that first challenge.
The next few miles to the first aid station were mostly downhill. Mandy took off since she's a speedster on the downhills, while I did my thing and eventually made it down to aid station #1 where Elvis greeted everyone. After topping off my Nathan and grabbing a cookie, Mandy and I headed off.
The next section involved a climb of about 1600' over six miles. This translates to lots of walking. Despite all this walking, my heart rate and profuse sweating were like that of an escaped prisoner. When we finally got to a downhill it was, what else, rocky. I chatted with a few other runners including Curt who was also new to the ultrarunning scene. He also ran the Skyline Challenge so we talked about how tough that run was and compared to it to what we had seen so far. Despite my turtle-like pace, I pulled away from Curt and caught up to Mandy. We passed a few people who looked like they were struggling including Carol, a woman who had been just in front of us the entire way so far. We checked to see if she was okay and she mentioned that she didn't do well in the heat and that she was hoping that a soda at the next aid station would help.
Aid station #2 was stocked full of too much good food and peppy volunteers. M&Ms, pita chips, soda, bacon, and PANINIS! I had a quarter of a panini and had to resist the urge to scarf down a whole one. The volunteers seemed to be having so much fun with their beer and 90s tunes that I almost wanted to stay. Mandy and I had had this woman Pam and Carol not far in front of us the entire way so far. The four of us decided to head out together since we were running roughly the same pace. Strength in numbers. During the first quarter mile Carol teetered back and forth between continuing on and dropping out, but eventually decided that she still didn't feel well enough to go with us. Bummer.
The remaining three of us headed off. Pam had done this run before and warned us that there were two really steep hills left to tackle. Sure enough we got to the first one. Unfortunately for us, the sun was beating down on the side of the mountain that we were climbing making for an even more difficult climb. Every time I thought we had reached the top, we'd turn a corner to find another hill. I took this picture at one point during the climb. I realize that it probably doesn't mean much unless you dragged your weary self up the mountain. Oh well.
After what seemed like ages, we started to go down. By this point, we had picked up another runner on the course - a guy named Pete. Our newly-formed foursome made it into aid station #3 which was decked out in a Hawaiian theme. Experienced ultrarunners tell you not to focus on the total distance, and instead focus on getting from aid station to the next. I was thrilled to see the volunteers and all their goodies. Carol had gotten a ride from AS#2 to AS#3 and decided that she'd try joining us for the rest of the course. Yay! Now we were five strong for the last 8ish miles.
Carol led the way and we all climbed one hill and stopped to enjoy the view. Looks like I shouldn't have gotten too excited about the view because we were still going up. I led the climb up the next hill which seemed to be getting progressively steeper. I knew the climbing had to stop eventually but was puzzled when I came across a wall of rocks. Did I miss a turn? I looked a little closer and saw that sure enough, a rock at the top of the wall was blazed with yellow indicating that this was in fact the trail. I often joke that I crawl uphills, but this time I literally had to use all fours to climb this rock wall.
We all got through the first rock wall and tackled the second one. Here's Pete and Mandy scrambling up the second one.
And here's the view from the top. It was pretty cool to look down and see just how far and how many mountains we had to climb to get to where we were.
After some picture-taking, we made our way down the mountain. Thankfully it didn't involve going down the rock wall because that would have totally freaked me out. We ran on a gravel road for what seemed like forever before making our way back into the woods. By this time, we had somehow lost Pam and Carol. We started to head downhill and I decided to let Pete and Mandy lead so that I didn't slow them down. They took off and I found myself all alone. By this time it was close to 5pm and it was getting a little harder for me to see. I trudged along for a mile or so and was happy to find that Mandy had decided to wait for me. All the water in my stomach combined with the 10 gels I had eaten throughout the day was making me a bit nauseaus. Strangely enough, I was also starving. I wanted real food. Not this gooey gel for runners, but solid food that required me to chew.
Mandy and I continued to follow the pink ribbon and found ourselves in a small field. I thought the rock stairwell down to the field looked familiar so I started to go up, but Mandy saw more ribbons on the other side of the field and thought that that was what we should follow. My sense of direction sucks so I followed her lead. We ran around the field and started running down this hill all the while talking about how we definitely put in the time on our feet today. After about 10 minutes Mandy stopped and said that she thought that the cliff to our left looked familiar. Had we been here before? We looked over the turn sheet and wondered if we were in fact supposed to take that rock stairwell up. We backtracked and took the stairwell and voila - there was the pond that we had passed not more than a half mile from the start.
We could hear the sound of cowbells and people cheering as we ran to the finish which was in a picnic pavillion. It was pretty cool that so many of the faster runners stuck around and showed that much enthusiasm for the rest of us. Pete was there to greet us; he had just finished about 15 minutes earlier. I thought for sure that Pam and Carol would already be there after our detour, but they came in a few minutes after we finished. We chowed down on some burgers, pasta salads, and Cheetos before heading back to NoVA.
My Garmin shows that we ran 33+ miles with an elevation gain of 6,130 feet. Overall it was a good day. A tough day, but I met a lot of great people and proved to myself that even though it was hard, I could do it - even if I am slow.
Next event... the Tussey Mountainback 50-miler.
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