lostc

Suds began to try to tell me about Escarpment on one of our West Woods runs, but I told him I preferred not to know. Mr. Bimble also tried to tell me about the Escarpment Run by telling Snobody, with me inadvertently listening. Bottom line is NO ONE CAN EXPLAIN THIS RACE TO YOU. It’s kind of running up MT. Washington; you have to do it to know it.

 

In case you haven’t noticed, although I have gotten slower (I’m going with Pulmonary Hypertension instead of “getting older” and “genetics”), I pretty much don’t shy away from anything. Escarpment was there, so why not do it. Mr. Bimble’s suggestion to Snobody of getting a couple of 3-4 hour runs in may have helped me, but I wish Lefty had suggested 12 hour hikes in steep mountains to me long before the starting line.

 

I drove half way the night before and was the second person into the finish area the next morning, making sure I had plenty (1 ½ hrs early) of time for the bus to the start. Lefty showed up 1/2 hr later. Catamount and Snobody caught a later bus, but the four of us were able to hook up before the gun (yell) start.

 

Escarpment starts at 1800 feet on single track. Lefty suggested that we don’t hang at the back because there really are very few places to pass and as the runners space out, you will get pushed to the back (my new favorite place). So I pretty much ignored his advice and hung out with Dick (RD) at the back. Now for those of you who do not know what “pulmonary hypertension” is, it is the inability of the lungs to move blood under stress (hills) causing the blood to back up into the right ventricle. I basically have to wait for a flat or downhill for the system to smooth itself out again. Needless to say the first 3.2 mile climb up 1200 ft was a chore. There was a lady in front of me with the Boston Marathon logo on her shorts. She was older than I, competing in her 12^th Escarpment, who kept telling me this was the easy climb. Shit!

Folks you basically run (hike) up a cliff, along a cliff and down the other side. In between are hard, harder and hardest climbs (can we say literally hand over fist pulling on roots and rocks) and then can we jump (crawl, scale) headwalls that are up to 20 ft? I ran (hiked) with people (nice) without (oh the solitude) and basically enjoyed the hell out of being in constant exertion (spell check that). There were vistas that Suds had alluded to that were vast. There was my favorite smell of balsam. There was the fact that my feet didn’t hurt because Forrest had convinced me to buy new montrails with a wider toe box (thank you thank you thank you; no lost toes). You could hear the aid stations long before you could see them and you couldn’t see them until you got to them. I busted my hump for 6 and ½ hours. I knew going in I would be slow (did we say there were hills in this race). As I told Lefty at the beginning, “as long as” I make it home.

I finished with Snobody waving and smiling at me, a very welcoming sight. I felt strong, legs felt good, feet didn’t hurt and it was still early enough to get home.

 

PS. This race was very well managed. The aid stations were great and still had plenty left when the last of us went through them. At the cutoff station (which I made with 20 minutes to spare), all I received was encouragement. There was a ton of supporters left and plenty of food at the end. Kudos to Dick the RD.

More to come on Escarpment when we recover. However, for a taste, you should know that Lefty (after much whining about what shape he would be in after the Pemi loop) posted a PR and got his 6th time shirt. Cat and Snobody both handled the middle of the pack well (and did their level best to downplay their shape after working/driving schedules/ not enough training blah blah blah). Lostc made sure the end of the run was well looked after (and made no bones about it).  Can I exchange my quads with anyone?