Bears have fun too

I am calling this race report the Bear Mountain fun run because it was just a blast. So, how could running 31 miles in a bit less than 7 hours be fun? Well, that is simple. I ran wth my best friend, we had no expectations and the previous day I was in the emergency room. Please don’t worry, I think I just had an allergic reaction but , needless to say, Shelly Girl and I drove up to Bear Mountain State Park on Friday both excited and nervous. To compound matters, we really have not trained enought to run any 50k, let alone one as diifficult as Bear Mountain. So we sat in our hotel room on Friday night simply glad to be with each other and decided to just have fun on Saturday.

While rain was in the forecast, we awoke on Saturday to a beautiful day. We got to the event about an hour ahead of race time in good spirits, met up with Lost C and got ready to take on the Bear. Having run the race last year, we knew what to expect so as the race began what did we do? I took out my camera and starting taking pictures. We ran easy, looked around and basically settled in for a seven hour tour of Bear Mountain State Park. The Bear is very difficult because it has a lot of climbing and it is quite technical. To us the most difficult part is the first 12 miles. As I mentioned in a previous report, the first 12 miles seem to be totally up hill. On this day, the advantage of both our laid back frame of mine and our experience in running the course last year allowed us to simply relax and enjoy ourselves.
Relatively speaking we got through the first two aid staions and about 9 miles of the course in good order. The third section, which last year kicked are collective tushes, was much easier this year. I think this was mainly due to the fact that we knew what to expect. While we got to the third aid section in about the same time as last year, Shelly Girl and I both knew we felt better and I started to think this was going to be a good day. My only concern was my legs, whcih were still quite shattered by my run at Seven Sisters last week, so the descent off of whatever mountain we were on was quite painful. I began to become a little worried that something was going to give so we stayed relaxed and took the run very easily. I kept shooting pictures with my camera, we played trail games and enjoyed the beautiful scenery that is a big part of the allure of Bear Mountain.

I am not exactly sure where but somewhere between mile 15 and 20 we really started to reel in a lot of other runners. We were not pushing hard at all but we kept seeming to go by people. I asked Shelly Girl if she thought we should dial things back a bit but she said no. This section was about three miles of gentle downhill so we kept going until we were dumped out onto the road that leads you to the mile 20 aid station. Right about here we had our first and only really rough spot of the race. Shelly Girl caught a really bad patch and mentally was done. We rolled into the aid station and were greeted by Diana (of Diana and Elaine fame). This was a gift from God. Michele seemed to be really revived by the encounter,combined with her grabbing my ipod, was enough to get us back on the trail.

To us, the next section is the worse on the course. It is about a one mile slug through an endless parking lot. It sucks! We walked the whole thing and this may have been the best tactic we employed all day. When we got back on the trail Michele was singing to the Ipod and life was good. With two climbs to go, we were back in the zone. Again, we found ourselves passing lots of other runners and I was simply astounded by what the human body is capable of . I am not kidding when I say we are completely undertrained for this distance. I am not kidding when I say Shelly Girl has been nursing a cold and I only ran twice this week becasue my legs were so beaten up by the Sisters. Still, we seemd to be douing just fine. It really is incredible!

One of the nice parts about Bear Mountain is the aid stations are really close together the last ten miles. This allows you to break the distance down in to managable chunks. We knew we had two big climbs to go but we also knew there was lots of downhill so we relived Trans Rockies by chugging up the hills and flying on the downs. I can’t explain why we are always able to go fast on the downs but we both are really glad we can. My favorite time running with Shelly Girl is when she is pounding down a hill flying by other runners. She has the heart and courage required for fast downhills that is second to none.

When we arrived at the final aid station, just over six hours and twenty one minutes in to the race, with less than three miles to go, not only did we realize we were going to make it but we realized we were going to beat our time from the previous year. Shelly Girl was suprised but I was not because I knew we were in flow on this day. Flow is the place all of us are when we feel in tune with all that is around us. There is a challenge to be met but you feel you have both the skill and desire to meet the challenge. That is how we felt on Bear Mountain today. It was wonderful and the last three miles are among my favorite runs of all times. I was going to finish a 50k , I was in a beautiful location doing sometihng I love with my favorite person in the world. It was magic! As we rounded the final corner and saw the finish line we both got a little teary eyed. Running is such a blessing for all of us and on this day, under these circumstances, I never felt that blessing more.

Postscript

Nadia rocked the marathon and was the 3rd female finisher. We loved hanging out with her and Diana after the race. Shelly Girl not only won her age division but she was the top 40-49 runner as well and 10th overall women. Lost C rocked more than all of us by completeing the course in 8 and 1/2 hours. What I love most about running is finishing time really does not matter. It is you against a course. If you finish and did your best that is awesome and it is as simple as that.

see ya on the trail.

Lefty