Fungi Loses His Ultra Virginity

I'd always heard that losing one's virginity can hurt.  Running my first-time Ultra at the H.A.T. Run 50K proved that it does although I suspect it will hurt no matter how many times I repeat the act.

It was a gorgeous, sunny day, but with a nasty wind.  As I showed up a Susquahanna State Park, I wasn't sure how to dress.  Being tall and skinny, I decided to go for warmth to begin: two layers, including turtleneck, up top, thick gloves, and a ski cap.  The other traildawgs, Margie, Carl and Hunt, had their newly acquired traildawgs GOLF SHIRTS for their outer layer.  I always question the wearing of cotton because it gets wet and heavy, but I understood the sentiment of declaring "We're dawgs and we proud!"

The start was a mile of road, allowing the field of 320 to stretch out before hitting the trails.  Then across a quarter mile of field and into the woods.  Being a single track trail, things quickly slowed to a walk at every minor obstacle and every hill.  Although I would pass every once in a while, I figured there was no rush and I intended to walk hills anyway.

Things soon became mucked up.  As the sun reached the trails in the woods, the top layer thawed.  (There was still a lot of moisture from the rain several days ago).  Being in the mid-pack, by the time I got to any section many feet had already passed through the glop, leaving a mess if you chose to ran right on the trail.  Most people tried to run on the edge, having the choice of the outer edge with the possibility of falling off trail or the inner edge which was usually steeply sloped.

After the first mile, the 15 mile, loop course can be roughly divided into thirds on each loop.  At mile 6 and 11 you arrive at the picnic area with many volunteers pushing water, gatorade, banana halfs, cookies, ju-ju-bees, and other carbo replacements.  I had loaded my water bottle with Powerade(went through a half gallon, including pre-race loading up) and was already using gels(went through eight plus a Hi-Energy Bar) before I hit the aid station the first time.  I figured I was going through 4000 calories on this jaunt and anything extra I took in would help.  I went for the bananas and found that they were green and unedible.  So I took a couple fig newtons and another cookie and away I went.

The second third of the loop is the easiest stretch.  After doing a lot of up-and-down trail running, there's about a two and a half mile stretch of hard packed gravel road that leads back to the picnic area.  On this section I caught up with Hunt, who apparently, got off to his usual fairly quick start.  The last third of the loop is the toughest with a lot of ups and downs on the trail.  Everyone was walking- A LOT!  I started to notice that my hamstrings were protesting more when I was walking than when I was running.  But a lot of the trail was so steep I had to walk.  I adopted the strategy of running whenever I could- a few more steps as I hit the ascent; starting running twenty yards from the top; jog a few steps whenever the ground approached level.  It worked enough that I got through it.

Right before the halfway point, we run on road for about a third of a mile.  Some of the volunteers were parked there with music coming from of a van.  Was it just coincidence that AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" was playing?  At the halfway point, which is right back at the start, where I had left my bag, I decided to lighten up a bit.  I got rid of the turtleneck, heavy gloves for lighter ones, and cap for hat.  I didn't have it all figred out because the turtle neck was under my other shirt, which had my number.  So I had to take both off and then put one back on.  Altogether the stop was over 5 minutes.  Off again, this time much more on my own.  I decided to count  how many people I passed.  I may not be built for speed, especially on trails with my long non-muscular legs, but I've got endurance.  Plus I'd been stoking up on calories.  I figured I wasn't going to bonk as badly as some of the others who were in front of me.  And I was right.  I counted 25 passed, while I was passed by 3.

The ground was a little more stable by now as the moisture had had several hours to soak into the soil.  By the time I did the first third again,  my legs were tired, but I had no doubt I could finish.  On the "easy" part I had nothing left to take advantage of the road.  Still, as slow as I felt, I was still passing people.  Back for the final stop at the picnic area, I felt a sudden urge to use the rest facilities, which I did.  (I'm sure glad the feeling didn't come a few miles earlier.)  I was real proud of the fact that I was carrying pre-folded toilet paper, so I saved myself a little time there.  Exiting the restroom and going toward the refreshments, why, lo and behold, there were Margie and Carl.  I said, "Did you just get here?", thinking they had come up behind me.  Then I proceeded to follow them onto trail, happy for companionship.  Camp said " You're going the wrong way" and I realized that they had five miles to go to complete what I had done.  I guess all the available glucose was being shunted from my brain to my legs at that point.

One more time through the last part.  Each hill I walked up, I was breathing as if I was running a 5K.  But I knew the agony wouldn't last and it was still a beautiful day.  At the finish in 5:48:50 and , instead of a finisher's medal, I got my HAT Run cap.  Hey, I've got a pile of medals collecting dust, but I can wear this cap proudly!  I saw that 256 finshed of the 320 who started.  So 64 people, in spite of their sweat and pain, didn't finish or get a cap.

Just as I got finished, I noticed a guy with a Runner's World jacket.  I figured it was the person whose name I had seen among the pre-registrants, Bart Yasso.  When I saw this name, I dug out one of the first Runner's World magazines I ever read from 1994, which had an article by Amby Burfoot, describing Bart Yasso's method of doing 800s to get ready for a marathon.  Having followed this prescription several times myself,  I brought the magazine in case I met him.  He gladly signed under his picture, dressed as a Professor explaining track work, "Dave, Keep running Yasso 800s."

After changing, I scarfed down a few things I ordinarily never eat- a hot dog, two cups of coke, some chili(but it was cold), and hit the road back to Delaware.  After dinner that evening, I slept for eleven straight hours.               --Dave McCorquodale

Carl runs H.A.T. two weeks after Buzzards Marathon and one week after CR 1/2 marathon (70 race miles in 14 days!):

Yep, we ran the race in Trail Dawg golf shirts.  However, Margie and I dropped ours after the first lap.  Hunt was a trooper and wore pima cotton the whole race.  I figure since it was Hunt's first ultra finish, he is obliged to do a race report.  In a nutshell, Margie and I spent almost exactly 7 hours on course, and it was a tougher course than I expected.  Hunt finished about 10 minutes behind us, and Dave probably was close to 5:30.  Beautiful trail, and we will have to do a Dawg's training run there sometime when the trees have leaves, etc.    --Carl

Hunt's Ultra Perspective

THINK TWICE, SPEAK ONCE has often been my creed.  But I did not even vaguely follow the first two words of that in considering the HAT 50K Trail Ultra. All in all, however it really was worth it.  My plans, as usual, were a bit uncertain on doing this run. My first encounter with the course, while running a section of the Mason Dixon Trail was questioning.  My second experience running one loop should have inspired a bit more sense.

I ran it to start more like a marathon, but walked steep hills. I should have walked ALL hills, or at least speed walked. Felt good at +/-16 mile halfway stop, and was just bit slower than marathon pace with 3 hour time.  (By comparison Margie and Carl who finished  just a bit ahead of me were at a bit over 3:30 at half)  By mile 20 or so, I had basically had it, and had very serious thoughts of just ending my misery then.  It was then that my whole approach really started to change, I really didn't care any more about time, and started to just take in the really enjoyable surroundings and views. Stopped for extended 5 mins  at rest stop and loaded up with a bit more energy, started towards finish. At this point just about everyone i encountered were those passing me by, but in doing so, there wasn't one who didn't go out of their way to ask how I was doing, did i need anything, and generally just encourage me to finish.  It worked, by mile 25, I was emotionally determined that I had it in me to finish.

Vitamin I was ultimately my savior, provided by Carl and Margie as they passed by at mile 26 or so.  Ibuprophen, really, really had a huge effect and by mile 27, I was back to slow jog; mile 28 a trot and actually passed several in last 2-3 miles, with an actual run at the finish.  I will do one of these, again. Different approach next time, but its really not as much of a race as it is just being out there for very very long run. At finish, and after, I felt tired, but not quite extended as have often felt at Marathon.      --Hunt