Ignorance is Bliss or Where is Cobble Hill?
Flashback to mid-afternoon on July 22, 2006: I have just crossed the
dam in the pouring rain while my wife and three week old daughter sit in the
car at the finish waiting for me. After a quick recap to RD Jim about my day
and a jump in the Cedar River Flow in a sad attempt to clean off, I was
headed home. As my wife
carefully navigated the soupy and treacherous Cedar River Road to head out,
I start to get changed into some dry clothes only to learn that I’m still
completely covered in mud. I
wasn’t sure if I would ever be back to the dam.
In fact, even though my registration for 2007 went in to RD Jim ASAP
to make sure I laid claim to one of the coveted entry slots, I wasn’t 100%
on target to arrive at the start until 10 days ahead of the race.
Okay, back to the present. Wakely
’07 marked my second trip to the dam, as I ran as a sweep in the 2006 race
(or does this mean I’ve really only run to the dam once? “You were never
there…”). My run in 2006 was
as sweep runner was a great way to gain experience with the unique
challenges of the DWDU and coming in to this year’s race, I was pretty
confident with the logistics of the run.
My fueling and hydration strategy worked great in 2006, so I didn’t
make any changes there, but that didn’t stop me from having nightmares
about other aspects of the run. Leading
up to the run, I became moderately paranoid that I was going to have trouble
remembering my way and staying on the trail.
Running with two other sweep runners last year was a nice safety
blanket for me and even when I split off from the other sweeps in the second
half of the race last year, there were so many runners on the trail in front
of us that I was never alone for all that long.
This year, I figured that I might spend more time out on my own.
Luckily, staying on the trail was a problem that never materialized
for me and the run went smoothly.
Off the
start, I saw a few runners take off right at the start.
How many of them…two, three, four?
I forgot about them and tried to find a rhythm.
I settled in to a small pack of four of five runners up near the
front. I recognized DWDU
veterans Courtenay Guertin (2nd place in 2006) and Greg Stone (5th
place in 2006) in this group and we took care of the relatively flat and
easy first couple of miles of the trail. By six or seven miles into the
race, our little group had splintered and Courtenay and I were running
alone, in front of everyone except that unknown number of speedsters in
front. At this point, I was
feeling good. My heart rate was
within the range I wanted, I was fueling and hydrating well and I was
running with a great runner. Indeed,
I had seen that Courtenay had recently finished second at the grueling
Pittsfield Peaks Ultra in Vermont in early June, only getting beat by east
coast ultra running star, Leigh Schmitt.
The miles ticked by and we arrived at Sampson Bog, where I planned my
first water re-fill. As I filled
up, Courtenay kept going and I lost him briefly.
I picked up my pace a bit to catch up with him, doing so about a mile
later. He told me that he had
briefly seen two of the runners in front of us ahead on the trail, but lost
them again when recovering from tripping and falling on a root.
We maintained a good pace, but I found the ~3 miles between Sampson
Bog and the halfway point at the former caretaker’s clearing to drag on
and on. We reached the clearing
in just over 2 hours 40 min and we were both excited about this time.
Personally, I had hopes of a sub-six hour finish and dreams of
sub-5:30. Until hitting the
halfway point at Wakely, I didn’t have a good handle on what kind of time
I was capable of.
About 20
miles in, Courtenay and I split up. He
stopped briefly on the trail, but I kept moving, as I knew that I would be
stopping soon myself to fill up my water again.
I did so at the bridge over the Beaver Pond outlet at about 22.5
miles and I expected that I would see Courtenay cross the bridge as I filled
up, but I didn’t. I got a bit
of an emotional boost when I saw the First Cedar Lake lean-to and was
greeted by two people staying there. I
remembered this spot from last year, as it occupies a truly magnificent
setting on the lake and more importantly, it is about 10 miles from the
finish. This high was sustained
when I saw the movement of a couple of runners up ahead in the distance.
I kept at my own pace, but eventually caught up to them on a short
climb somewhere before the Sucker Brook Trail.
As I moved in front of these two runners, one of whom turned out to
be Dan Dominie (owner of the 3rd fastest finishing time in the
history of DWDU), I knew I was having a really good race.
However, I still thought that there was at least one runner in front
of me. I began to press a little
now, thinking that I had moved into the top three and wanting to maintain
this position. I passed a park ranger on the trail and he offered me
encouragement, but made no mention that I was the first runner to pass him.
When I hit
the sharp left turn at the junction for the trail to the “carry”
lean-to, I looked at my watch: 4:43 elapsed.
I did the math and realized that sub-5:30 was in my sights.
However, the dreaded grassy road lay in front of me.
As any DWDU veteran can tell you, this section takes forever.
In my memory, I remembered it as essentially flat or gently down
hill. Wrong.
While the climbs aren’t steep and the trail is not technical, this
section hit me hard. My stomach
had begun to sour and I was wondering if it was from pushing myself too hard
or a mental mistake with treating the water along the way.
Now I was thinking: how long until Giardiasis sets in after drinking
contaminated water and how long after getting sick could I keep it together?
Luckily, I never had to find out the answers to these questions.
I soon passed a woman running at me in the opposite direction and I
surmised that she was headed back to pace someone to the finish and that I
couldn’t be that far from Moose River Road.
Eventually, I did hit Moose River Road and my spirits lifted again.
I came across some of the DWDU crew on the road (I guess they were
looking to see if the first runner was coming, but I just thought they were
out for a walk). They said
“you’ve got a good time going” and I said “thanks,” still thinking
there were runners in front of me. Not
long after passing them, I saw the Headquarters building at Wakely Dam and
knew the finish was imminent. I
tossed off my pack before the bridge and ran towards the finish.
I crossed the dam, gave a “thumbs up” sign and then looked
around. I quickly found my
parents waiting for me…they had driven over from Vermont to watch the
finish. I gave them a hug and
then the Dam Crew came looking for me and told me that I had won the race.
Tired and disoriented, all I could say was “really?”
I still believed that at best, I had run second.
A flurry of handshakes and pictures ensued and I was still in a state
of disbelief.
Dan and
then Courtenay finished soon after me, both with excellent times. I took a
post-race swim in the Cedar River Flow and this year made sure to get myself
cleaner than I did last year.
Post race thoughts: I
had forgotten just how technical the Northville-Placid Trail is.
Even though it is fairly moderate in its elevation change, the
footing is rarely even and can be down right nasty, especially on the
ever-present bog bridges (I have flashbacks to the scene in “Goonies”
when Data uses his “slick shoes” on the log crossing to slow down the
Fratellis). My running shoes
bear evidence of the rigors of the trail: they are all chewed up now.
In the
second half of the race, I kept mentally preparing myself for the climb up
Cobble Hill. However, I forgot
where on the trail it was. Eventually,
when I hit the grassy road, I knew that I had passed it, but had no
recollection of at what point I had done so.
Forgetting where it was in relationship to other landmarks turned out
to work well for me…Ignorance is bliss, I guess.
At the
start, RD Jim mentioned that a lot of work had been done to clear blow downs
and that was certainly true in the second half of the race.
However, I was still surprised how many trees were on the trail in
the first half of the trail. I
would like to say the blow downs kept me from besting the course record, but
that is insane. There is no way
I was touching Pat Hamel’s 5:05 even though I had as good of a day as I
could have hoped for. His record
is truly impressive.
While I
enjoyed running in the rain in 2006, I have to admit this year’s race
could not have been held on a better day.
Cool morning temps giving way to a sunny, pleasant day were ideal.
I just wish that I had more time to spend at the finish after the
race. I was able to chat for a
little while with those that had made it in and get some pictures with the
women’s winner, Kerry Arsenault, but I still had to head out sooner than I
would have liked. Next year,
I’ll be back and hopefully I’ll be able to spend Saturday night at the
dam and enjoy the full post race atmosphere.
