Loon Mountain Race

This weekend I participated in the final mountain race in the New England series that I’ll be doing this year.  The Loon mountain race is by far the most difficult race of the entire series, it is flat out brutal.  When registering the course map that was displayed on a screen said there was a 26% average grade from what I remember and it definitely felt like that.  The real kicker in this race though is the infamous upper walking boss which boasts a ridiculous 40% grade over 1000 meter.  Did I mention this course is brutal? Typically the race drops down again after the boss and then climbs up to the gondola for the finish.  This year due to the race being the women’s US mountain team qualifier the race finished at the top of upper walking boss. 

On the women’s side the race was stacked with some super tough ladies vying for the coveted team spots.  They race went out quick for them and they hammered up the mountain.  From the start though the team seemed to be some what decided, at least from what I could tell from the photos. A huge congratulation’s to the four women who made the team this year.  Morgan Arritola, Melody Fairchild, Brandy Erholtz, and Stevie Kremer.

Going into the race I wasn’t nervous but intimidated after reading the course description on the race website.  Add to that that the past week of training was basically nothing with a 10 mile day Tuesday, 7.5 on Friday, and 5 on Sunday.  Definitely not the kind of week that builds confidence that you’ll race well.  With that in mind I just went for it.  The race went out stupid fast with people blasting away out of the dirt parking lot the race started in to the start of the climbing.  Once the course started climbing it there were really only 3 spots that didn’t climb.  After the half mile there was a mellow down hill then around mile 3 there was a flattish single digit grade section, and finally as you pass the gondola there was a super steep downhill that mellowed out as carried us to the start of the boss.  Other than these sections it was climbing the whole 5 brutal miles up hill. Up to mile 3 I was feeling great in this race spreading my energy well.  After that it all ended the final 2 miles absolutely destroyed me.  Mile 4 was hard climbing up grassy ski slopes.  The start of five had that brutal drop off from the gondola and the downhill stretch which sufficiently beat up my legs before making the turn onto the walking boss.  Not having seen the upper walking boss before the moment all I could muster was “holy sh@#”.  Then the climb began.  1000 meters of power hiking and attempting to run up a wall.  When I finally finished it was official this WAS the hardest race I have ever run.  With that said I can’t complain about the outcome.  With a pitiful week of training prior to the race and no experience on an all up hill race I mustered out a 15^th place finish in sub 50min.  Would I have preferred a faster time? You bet, but I’ll take what I can, and come back next year much better prepared for the series as a whole with much more climbing in my training. 

This was another great race in the series with great organization and tons of prizes and raffle for all the participants. The amount of stuff being given away after the race was amazing with a Gopro hero 2 being raffled off, and then local food, tee shirts, hats, trail running books, gift certificates, water bottles and probably many other items being given away through race number drawings.  I came in 15^th and walked away from this race with a Scott water bottle as an entry gift, then got drawn in a give away receiving a t- shirt, reusable metal water bottle, and a free pair of Scott running shoes of my pick which I can’t wait to test out.  All in all this was a great last race for my New England mountain series.  There is still Ascutney left so if you interested sign up and try it out.

www.endurancestrengthspeed.blogspot.com

www.acidoticracing.com/LMR.html

www.club.penguincycles.com/AscutneyRun.pdf

Sleepy Hollow Race Report

On mothers day I had the pleasure of running the first annual sleepy hollow mountain race which was held in Huntington Vermont.  The race was being put on by Kasie Enman who is the 2011 World Mountain Running champion so going in it was obvious the course was going to be challenging. The race acted as the first race of the USATF New England Mountain Running Series.

I arrived at Sleepy Hollow Inn the night before the race and set up my tent in the field right by the start.  After setting up camp I took a quick run out to the course.  The course definitely didn’t disappoint in the toughness department.  In addition to the unrelenting climbs over the 3 loops totaling six mile, there was shoe eating mud for the entire first two loops making for some hard yet fun running.  On the steep down it was more like water skiing than running because of the mud and on the ups it was like one step forward two steps back.  None the less is was an awesome course laid out on cross country ski trails. Most of the running was on wide grassy and muddy trails with some awesome sections of single track tossed in to mix it up.  In the first 1/3^rd of the race we topped out to the high point of the course and hit some brutal climbs in doing so.  This was especially true in the second huge climb of the race which felt like I was going up for a good 15 minutes. 

The hills in this race definitely killed me as I way underestimated what I needed to be doing in training to be ready for them.  Not being able to climb the way I was hoping the game plan quickly changed to just get up the hills and hall ass on the downs to make up ground.  This definitely worked to keep me somewhat in the race but I paid the price in the last couple miles of the race as my legs where completely shot.  Trying to sprint in at the finish was an absolute no go.  All in all, the race kicked my but, I had a blast the whole way though.  I didn’t run nearly as well as I had hoped for, but can definitely say a huge overlook in what it would take to be prepared for the hills and some very sloppy conditions caused the not so spectacular performance.  I also can’t complain too much coming in 12^th place in a time of 43:36 in my second ever mountain race.

The race was awesome either way. Did I say that already?  It was great being able to camp in the field at the start, and it was very well organized with some great food at the end. I especially liked the fact that maple syrup was given out as awards, that was cool seeing as we where in Vermont.  Everything was efficient and you can definitely tell some very hard work was done on the course to get it ready.  I actually ran into Kasie on the course the day before working on it with a group. Sorry this isn’t a long or overly detailed report, I didn’t want to bore people.  On a side note outside of the race the Ben and Jerry’s factory is only 20 minutes from the race.  You better believe I made a stop there for a tour and some ice cream on the ride home.  There is no food I love more than Ben and Jerry’s.

http://sleepyhollowmtnrace.wordpress.com