Stone Cat 50 Race Report 2009

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As I was leaving my driveway on the Friday night before the Stone Cat 50 Miler, I said to Gretchen, lets zero the trip odometer on the car and really see where 50 miles is.  Running mostly in the trails, its hard to quantify that distance in my head.  You know, a lot of loops, out and backs, varied terrain, you get the picture. A couple of years back in Scranton,PA at the Steamtown Marathon, I drove to the start of that marathon to drive the route with Gretchen.  It was the first time I drove the route of a point to point marathon.  Wow, it was long.  I really got a sense of the distance we travel.  So, traveling up I-91 the odometer is clicking away.  We reach Hartford, we are not at 50 miles yet.  We turn onto I-84 East and head all the way to Manchester, near the Buckland Hills Mall, and the odometer finally hits 50 miles.  Holy ***t, this is far.  I know 50 miles is far, but “BLAM”, reality check.

I haven’t been nervous about a race in a while.  More thrilled for a new adventure, then nervous.  I have to say I was nervous about this race for a couple of reasons.  First, it was my first attempt at the 50 mile distance.  So, that was the unknown factor.  How would my body hold up,  will I eat and drink right, etc.  I felt confident in my training.  I had an ambitious plan which was constantly altered by life to make an adequate plan.  I had done several long runs in the 30 mile range and several long runs in the 20 miles range on the road.  Yes, I did say road.  I needed to improve my speed and get longer runs done in a shorter time, so I did a fair amount of road work.  Sadie was not happy about that.  Anyway, I was feeling good at the ends of those runs and was confident in my fitness level.  I knew I would finish, barring any mishap, and I was shooting for a 10 hour finish as my goal.

Then came reason number two for being nervous.  The Sunday before the race, I was part of a nice 9 mile run at Miller’s Pond and about a 1/4 mile in I proceeded to badly sprain my right ankle.  Tendons were heard to pop, and I had to walk/hobble out to my truck.  The race was in question.  That day, the pain was so intense, that I thought it may have been fractured.  I aggressively iced it, took Advil, and elevated it.  The next day it felt better and I was hoping it would get better.  Thursday night, Guthrie was kind enough to use me as a Guinea Pig and try out her new Kineseology Taping methods on me.  It was still hurting, bruised and swollen, so why not.  I had already made my decision to go and see what happens.  The tape lasted until race morning, when it started to come off, so I took it off before I got dressed.  I do believe it helped with the healing for those two days.  I had bought a light ankle brace to try and I was going to give that a go.  The ankle felt much more stable with it on.  But I had not worn it running ever, let alone for 50 miles.  Breaking the cardinal rule of not trying anything new on race day made me nervous, but I had no choice.

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Four o’clock came quickly after a night spent tossing and turning.  Breakfast was served at 4:30 and the room was stuffed with runners exchanging greetings and checking out who was there.  Its nice to be in a sport where you can say “Hi” to some of the sport’s elites, such as Ben Nephew and Jack Pilla, over a bowl of Cheerios.  Even saw a couple of those orange shirts from some race in Connecticut, very eye opening at 4:30 AM.  We left the hotel into a dark, chilly morning to get to the race location about 20 minutes away.  The car thermometer read 28 degrees.

Reaching the school that the race uses as its Start/Finish area, we were directed into the school parking lot.  The 50 milers get to park close, while the marathoners have to park farther away in another lot and walk to the school.  A little perk for the 50 milers.  I was already feeling special.  We walked into the warm school gym to register and got a nice long sleeve technical shirt in a modest dark blue color.  Prerace meeting was at 6:00 and the race was to start when it was light enough to see, about 6:15.  I made final decisions on my starting ensemble.  I was going with a SS shirt, LS shirt, Insulated LS shirt, trail shorts, throwaway gloves, BUFF made into a beanie, a Nathan handheld and my ankle brace.  I started out with my Montrail Continental Divides and Injini Toe socks and had my Salomon XT Wings and another style of socks in my drop bag if I felt the need to change them.  So there I was toeing the line with a new distance in front of me, a severely sprained ankle with a new piece of equipment bracing it, the knowledge that I had not run in over a week, and a lot of determination.  Ultra’s mantra “It is what it is” was playing in my head.  Circumstances dealt me this, so deal with it.  It was what it was.  It was a beautiful day, I was doing something I love to do, I was supported by my wonderful wife, and the day may be short with a 12.5 mile run on a new trail, or it could be my longest distance run ever.  Time to leap into the unknown.

The race starts with the approximately 300 participants of both the 50 miler and the marathon sprinting across a couple of soccer fields where the course enters the woods at the far end.  As you enter the woods, the marathoners take a quick left to do a 1.2 mile loop around the school to get their requisite 26.2 after they complete the two 12.5 mile loops.  This point was an obvious choke point, but past it the trail opened up into a wide double track, and I never saw it bunch up again.  The course goes up this double track for about 3/4 of a mile and then turns hard left onto single track and the biggest hill on the course.  This starts the loop proper.  The course is a mix of single track, double track and dirt roads.  It is a very runnable course with constant rolling hills and has little technical running.  Kind of like the Bluff 50K. (Insert Laugh Track)  Speaking of the Bluff, I met a young man who had overheard me speaking with another runner, that I was from Connecticut.  He had run the Bluff and asked me if I had.  I told him I had run an Aid Station, but had run the whole course.  He proceeded to tell(complain) that he wanted to use it as a training run for the Stone Cat but it had beaten him up and was a lot harder than he thought it would be.  He did say that the race was run well and the course was well marked and he had no problem following it.  I did notice other Bluff runners and actually the winner of the 2009 Bluff 50k was the winner of the Stone Cat 50 miler.

My ankle felt secure in the brace and had only a modest amount of uncomfortableness (word??) in it, so I felt good and was running well which immediately boosted my confidence.  At 4.2 miles is Al’s Cat Lounge, the first aid station.  Great bunch of people who have everything you could want. They have been known to knock back a few while attending to the runners.  More on that later.  They had bacon and eggs cooking on the griddle.  Tempting, but remember, nothing new in ultra racing.  So for my nutrition plan, I was going to eat early, and eat often.  I quickly grabbed a quarter of a grilled cheese sandwich with ham and some Pringles and headed out.  I like to get out of the aid stations quickly and walk with my food until I finish it.  This gives me a walking break where I can eat, but I am constantly moving forward.

I was now actually running the pace I wanted to for the race.  The second aid station is Fred’s at 7.5 miles. Again the routine, fill up the handheld, get food, get moving.  Only five more miles to finish loop Number 1.  After a mile or so, that right wheel started to wobble.  My plantar was starting to hurt and there was a pain in the top of my foot.  Now I had to start weighing the options.  Do I try to loosen the brace and maybe that will work or should I remove it and risk injuring my ankle.  As the last couple miles went by and I was headed in, the pain in the bottom of my foot became so intense, that I was changing my stride because of it.  The decision was made.  Take off the brace, put it in my pocket for emergencies and lets see how we do.  I was finishing one loop and was definitely headed out for the next.  I came across the finish line to check in for the first loop in about 2:15.  I took off the brace slid it into my front pocket, kept all of my layers on because it was still cold, replenished water and food and headed out on Loop #2.

The ankle felt very unstable and was very tender.  The aforementioned uncomfortableness (word??) was now a constant pain in my ankle.  I had to slow way down and pick my way around obstacles and watch each footfall.  The plantar pain went away and the pain in the top of my foot also did.  The pain in my ankle I could deal with and could run with it.  Every stride came with great effort to keep my form.  I was now worried if I developed some kind of weird gait to compensate for the ankle, something else was going to give.  I was cautiously confident now of my finishing.  Back through the aid stations I went, Al’s was getting a little more raucous this time around.  On my way out of Fred’s for the last 5 miles, my mind started to wander and I started having a tough time.  I was thinking too much of how tired I was and all the concentration I was using to run and I thought about after this loop I am only halfway done, not even in Rocky Hill yet.  I have a long way to go to get to the Buckland Hills mall.  I had to drag myself out of the doldrums and just concentrate on reaching smaller goals.  Reach the next turn, get to that tree, etc. until I finally was headed into the turnaround.  Most people find Loop #3 the hardest, but I found Loop #2 the hardest for me.  I came into the finish line for Loop #2 in 5:08.  That loop was hard for me and I knew I wasn’t going to make my primary goal of 10 hours, plus the loops were not going to get faster.  I think I had realized that subconsciously on Loop #2 and it got me down a bit.

In the Stone Cat 50 miler, you can have a pacer for the last two loops.  Gretchen had come with me and she was planning on doing the last two loops with me.  She needed a long run and this would have to do.  So she joined me at the start of Loop #3.  We had a great time talking.  Having memorized the course by now I would, point out some of the prettier sections.  This being her first time pacing, I would try to fill her in on what I needed.  Again we went by Al’s Cat Lounge who had ratcheted up a notch more and were having a good ole time attending to the runners and for themselves.  So Loop #3 finished pretty quickly, in my mind anyway, at 8:11.  At this time we had to grab our lights because it would be dark before we finished.

So we start out on Loop #4.  The last loop, thank goodness.  I think the boredom of the course was getting to me.  It was like National Lampoon’s European vacation when they were stuck in the rotary in London. ” Hey kids, look.  Big Ben, The Tower of London, Parliament”  I have a photographic memory and I had this course down by now and I knew how long it was between places.  The distraction of having Gretchen around kept my sanity, plus we had a mission to get as far as we could in the loop before it got dark.  We knew once the headlamps came out the pace would get slower.  This time at Al’s it was like being the only sober people at a party of drunks.  We quickly got out of there so as not to be caught up in the revelry.  The sun was waning as we ran to Fred’s.  I realized that I was running on this same trail while the sun was rising and now as it was setting.  It had been a long day.

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At Fred’s the sun was below the horizon and we need to put our headlamps on. 5 miles to go, yeah!!  It got real dark ,real quick.  Running in Vermont this summer there was some dark places, but the glow lights lead the way and added comfort to your navigation.  These woods had no glow lights and the course tape was not reflective.  It was a big challenge watching the ground, and trying to find the tape.  My recollection of the course was not as sharp, because you couldn’t see far ahead to have that confidence you were on course.  So for five miles we ran from tape to tape.  We ran into a mountain biker who was part of the race and he told us it was only a mile and a half to the finish.  We then ran into another volunteer about 3/4 of mile from the finish.  Finally we could hear and see the finish line.  I crossed the line in 11 hours, 33 minutes.  I did it.  I did my first 50 miler.  I got my finisher’s jacket, thanked everybody and went back to the car.

We stopped to get some Stone Cat Ale to celebrate and some fast food for the ride home.  Three hours later we arrived home.  I could barely walk into the house.  My legs were swollen and my feet and ankles were swollen to double their normal size.  I hadn’t felt this bad in a long time after a race.  After a shower and a tough night, my body started feeling better the next day.

The Stone Cat Trail races are a well run race, with plenty of runner support and schwag.  I would recommend it for a first time 50 miler.  I personally don’t like repetitive loops and they got boring to me.  Hmmm, I heard there is this nice ultra race up in New York that might fit my bill.  The Virgil Crest 50 may be in my future.