Mani-tou : Danny 3

As most of you know, I rarely put pen to paper to write race reports.  However, I feel like my reputation has been challenged by Forrest’s account of his Manitou experience.  I would like to set the record straight here: it was Forrest’s cunning subtlety that persuaded me to run this race, not, as he claims, the reverse. Indeed he employed a subtlety so cunning, even he did not recognize it.  That being said, once the idea was planted in my head, I was hooked.

As ever, Forrest was a terrific travel companion for the weekend.  We made our way up the Taconic Parkway to the Catskills and arrived early enough for the evening packet pick-up and a pasta dinner.  After dinner we decided to scout out the final mile of the race.  The trail emerges from a long downhill onto a paved road which then takes runners to the finish in the town of Phoenecia.  As Forrest and I drove down the road we looked off to the left for the emergence of the trail.  A first drive-by and we did not see any sign of a trail head.  Jay turned the car around and we drove back:  “It must be somewhere around here.” Forrest said, pointing to a dense thicket on the side of the road.  With no conclusive evidence of the trail, we drove back to Phoenecia to get a few hours rest.

The race started at 5am the next morning after a very friendly greeting and an understated, yet perfect, race briefing from RD Charlie.  “Follow the trail, turns are marked with pink streamers, keep your maps with you, now go!”  We were off.  Forrest and I ran down the first couple of miles on the road together and then he moved ahead as we hit the single track and started heading up the first slope.  Amazingly, even at this early point, I was running in isolation.  The trail is thick enough that unless somebody is within 20 feet of you, you’d never know they were there.  The first mini-peak of Acra Point brought stunning views of blue skies above and the Hudson Valley blanketed in a thin clouds below.  It was great to be out.  About 20 min later, I caught back up to Forrest and we spent the next 23-24 miles together.

A few peaks and aid stations later, the temperature had risen and we were running up Kaaterskill High Peak when we decided to stop for a couple of minutes break.  Forrest informed me that he was going to slow a little to rest up for the upcoming ‘Devil’s Path’ section of the course.  We returned to running.  The next time I turned around about 5 min later, Forrest was not in sight.  I decided to keep plugging on because I was feeling good at this point in the race and felt sure that with a temperature in the 80s and my history of dehydration, I would slow significantly later in the race.  Besides, Jay is a much stronger runner than myself and I had no doubt that he would be finishing.

Into the next aid station at mile 31 and it was impossible not to notice how impeccably well organized the race was.  The aid stations were fantastic – the volunteers were friendly, the other runners were friendly and even the Crystal Palace supporters were friendly (thanks for the encouragement and advice, Tony!).  I think we were all united by the feeling of “what the *bleep* have I got myself into?”

Onwards and upwards – the Devil’s Path was impressive.  One thing that is noted on the course description was the number of summits that the race heads over.  What isn’t noted is the vastly greater number of false summits.  If hiding the top of a 3 to 4 thousand foot mountain is a skill, then the Catskills has it down to a fine art.  What’s more, there are ascents and descents that, in any other race, would be a major call-out.  Here, they were just a minor inconvenience on the way to the next gut-busting summit.

Finally, I made it to the last summit – Mount Tremper.  By this time, it was shortly after midnight and it had been dark for a few hours.  I started down a rocky path that headed to the trail head that Jay and I had failed to locate the night before.  From the dim glow of my headlamp, I caught sight of something waddling down the trail in front of me.  As I got closer I still couldn’t tell what it was.  Soon I was just a few feet behind it and it was still waddling down the trail.  What on earth is it?  All of a sudden, it skidded to a halt and its rear end went to DEFCON 1.  Remember the scene in Jurassic Park where the guy falls flat on his face in mud next to a dinosaur and the dinosaur’s face fan’s out like a viper’s neck?  Well, this thing’s butt did exactly the same.  Ah – it’s a porcupine.  Apparently, porcupines can either run or stop to go on the defensive, but not both.  It was quite amusing watching this thing alternate between shuffling a few steps and then puffing up his rear spines, then shuffling a few more…

I got to the bottom of the final mountain and popped onto the road by an iron gate (how could we have missed that last night??!).  A short final mile along the road and I was done.  What a fantastic and satisfying day!  Jay finished shortly after and we managed to get a few hours’ sleep before our drive back to Connecticut.  In hindsight, I’ve never managed to complete a race of that length, in that heat, with those climbs without getting either trememdously nauseous or dehydrated or both.  Now to figure out what was different…