I ran the Seneca Creek Greenway 50K the first weekend back in March. I should point out that this name is misleading, as the course was known to be somewhere in the realm of 34 miles. As I have now come to realize, in the world of ultra running if you are already running 31 miles, then surely another 3 will not kill you. This was to be my first "ultra". I didn't even sign up for the race until the Monday beforehand because I wanted to see how well I recovered from the Club Challenge (10mi, 2/26/12). As I was hoping, I was barely sore the next day which was different from the debilitating soreness I had for several days following the Lewis Memorial Run (10mi, 2/4/12).
Training for the race was not great, so I tried to tell myself that I would approach the race as a "learning experience" into the world of ultras. In the several months prior my longest run was 15 miles, and the weekly mileage leading up to it were 33.5mi, 8mi (recovering from Lewis), 41mi, and 45mi. The plan was to carry one water bottle, one gel, a handful of Hammer Endurolytes, and go from there.
I carpooled to the race with my former Scoutmaster and veteran ultra runner Dave Garman, glad to have some company along the way and chat a bit about the course and some other useful knowledge. Conveniently the forecast was for low 50's at the start rising to near 60 and sunny at the finish. The rain storms overnight were also supposed to clear out by the 8am start time. Despite getting to the finish line before the last bus left for the start at 6:45am, I and a handful of other runner were pleased to find out that the final bus had pulled away as we lined up to get on. Well, that might be a problem...
We had an entire bus load still to be loaded, and here the final bus was heading away. One of the race officials radioed up the line to have them send back a bus to get us. The only problem was that there were only three buses (usually they have 4) and so one would have to make the 30 minute drive back and pick us up, then drive back. It was almost certain we would not be there before the 8am start time. Fortunately the officials were nice enough to allow us to go back to our cars (it was still raining slightly) and wait while the bus would come pick us up at our cars. Finally around 7:40 the bus pulled up, and we all hopped on. The bus nearly ran a few red lights (yellow means pedal to the medal!) and managed to get everyone there by 8am, and with the race postponed to 8:05 we just barely had enough time to get out race numbers and take a quick pit-stop...
The race started without much fanfare. I believe the race director Ed shouted something along the lines of, "Go! Get out of here!". I had been chatting with Dave and some of the fellow Frederick Steeplechasers when this happened so I was rather far towards the back of the pack. The first mile was mostly road, and it was hastily spent trying to get ahead of most of the traffic so as to not be stuck behind a bunch of people when the singletrack started. I ran the first mile in 7:54 but I achieved my objective of getting into a good position. I only had to pass a few more people before I was free and running pretty well on my own trail. I took my first and only gel about a mile and a half into the race. The first 16 or so miles were pretty uneventful, other than this fun adventure:
In hindsight the "lifeguards" on duty had suggested that we cross the creek on the (my) left hand side, but I was too far into race mode to hear them at the time so I nearly was left to wallow across on the unsteady rocks on the right side. Somewhere between the stream crossing and Brink Rd. I popped an Endurolyte. The first aid station was where the trail crosses Brink Rd. (~7mi) I made sure to drain my water bottle between each aid station, a practice that ensured I was well hydrated all day long, so I filled it up here with the usual half Gatorade/half water mix, grabbed a few honey wheat pretzel sticks (yum!) and headed out. Moved along pretty well for the next few miles until the Rt. 355 aid station (~11mi), taking another Endurolyte somewhere along the way. I was passing a few people here and there, maintaining a pretty consistent 8:20-8:30 pace until I encountered a large group around mile 9 that seemed to be moving at around that pace so I stuck with them for a while. At the Rt. 355 aid station I noticed some chafing with my shorts (I usually never have problems), but fortunately the race director Ed was there to lend me some Vasaline-like-stuff which did the trick for the rest of the day. I filled up again with half Gatorade/half water, grabbed some more pretzels, took 2 Suceed S-caps, and took a bathroom break. The search for a chafing remedy, a bathroom break, and an the water bottle fill up made for a pretty slow mile (near 10 minutes) but I was clicking off at the same old speed soon.
The next few miles went by pretty quickly. I came into the Clopper Lake aid station for the first time (~16mi) still feeling great. This is where you get to decide if you are doing the 50K or the marathon. I am glad we got to make this decision here, because I was feeling great so I was happy to take a nice 4 mile look around the Lake. I also grabbed three Nutter Butters here, and boy did they hit the spot! I was running close to 8 minutes for these 4 miles as the footing was pretty good and it was flat relatively speaking. One mile was 7:57 I believe. Unfortunately being on the lake there was a strong headwind half of the time which definitely made me work a little harder. Soon enough I was back at the Lake aid station for the second time (~20mi). I refilled the water bottle, took two S-caps, grabbed some more Nutter Butters and I was off. I think one thing I did very well was getting in and out of aid stations. There were only two on the day I stuck around more then 20-30 seconds.
I cruised along pretty nicely for the next 2 miles, then around 22 I was starting to feel my lack of training kick in. I wasn't hitting the wall or cramping up but my legs just didn't have the strength to maintain the pace I was at. I slowed down to 9:00-9:30 miles and started to loose my focus. There was an aid station somewhere in here that I don't recall well. I think I filled up my water bottle, grepped a mini-doughnut, and then head off. There were then about 7 miles until the next aid station. These were interesting miles. Apparently each year there is some "theme" to the race. This year the theme was Pringles. They peppered the race course with plenty of signs about "fun" Pringles facts such as how the race director after he retires should go onto to model for Pringles (the resemblance is striking), or, "Everyone's favorite hyperbolic paraboloid!" . At least they gave me something to look forward to as I entered a long low point in the race. There was a "minimal" aid station somewhere around mile 26 where they only had water and (fortunately!) Nutter Butters. I topped off and grabbed my new favorite snack and tried to grind out the miles until this "Pringle aid station". The signs had said it was only two miles away, but I swear the actual distance was closer to 4 miles! I should mention that the pace severely dropped between mile 22 and the "Pringle aid station" near mile 29, from OK to terrible.
Training for the race was not great, so I tried to tell myself that I would approach the race as a "learning experience" into the world of ultras. In the several months prior my longest run was 15 miles, and the weekly mileage leading up to it were 33.5mi, 8mi (recovering from Lewis), 41mi, and 45mi. The plan was to carry one water bottle, one gel, a handful of Hammer Endurolytes, and go from there.
I carpooled to the race with my former Scoutmaster and veteran ultra runner Dave Garman, glad to have some company along the way and chat a bit about the course and some other useful knowledge. Conveniently the forecast was for low 50's at the start rising to near 60 and sunny at the finish. The rain storms overnight were also supposed to clear out by the 8am start time. Despite getting to the finish line before the last bus left for the start at 6:45am, I and a handful of other runner were pleased to find out that the final bus had pulled away as we lined up to get on. Well, that might be a problem...
We had an entire bus load still to be loaded, and here the final bus was heading away. One of the race officials radioed up the line to have them send back a bus to get us. The only problem was that there were only three buses (usually they have 4) and so one would have to make the 30 minute drive back and pick us up, then drive back. It was almost certain we would not be there before the 8am start time. Fortunately the officials were nice enough to allow us to go back to our cars (it was still raining slightly) and wait while the bus would come pick us up at our cars. Finally around 7:40 the bus pulled up, and we all hopped on. The bus nearly ran a few red lights (yellow means pedal to the medal!) and managed to get everyone there by 8am, and with the race postponed to 8:05 we just barely had enough time to get out race numbers and take a quick pit-stop...
The race started without much fanfare. I believe the race director Ed shouted something along the lines of, "Go! Get out of here!". I had been chatting with Dave and some of the fellow Frederick Steeplechasers when this happened so I was rather far towards the back of the pack. The first mile was mostly road, and it was hastily spent trying to get ahead of most of the traffic so as to not be stuck behind a bunch of people when the singletrack started. I ran the first mile in 7:54 but I achieved my objective of getting into a good position. I only had to pass a few more people before I was free and running pretty well on my own trail. I took my first and only gel about a mile and a half into the race. The first 16 or so miles were pretty uneventful, other than this fun adventure:
In hindsight the "lifeguards" on duty had suggested that we cross the creek on the (my) left hand side, but I was too far into race mode to hear them at the time so I nearly was left to wallow across on the unsteady rocks on the right side. Somewhere between the stream crossing and Brink Rd. I popped an Endurolyte. The first aid station was where the trail crosses Brink Rd. (~7mi) I made sure to drain my water bottle between each aid station, a practice that ensured I was well hydrated all day long, so I filled it up here with the usual half Gatorade/half water mix, grabbed a few honey wheat pretzel sticks (yum!) and headed out. Moved along pretty well for the next few miles until the Rt. 355 aid station (~11mi), taking another Endurolyte somewhere along the way. I was passing a few people here and there, maintaining a pretty consistent 8:20-8:30 pace until I encountered a large group around mile 9 that seemed to be moving at around that pace so I stuck with them for a while. At the Rt. 355 aid station I noticed some chafing with my shorts (I usually never have problems), but fortunately the race director Ed was there to lend me some Vasaline-like-stuff which did the trick for the rest of the day. I filled up again with half Gatorade/half water, grabbed some more pretzels, took 2 Suceed S-caps, and took a bathroom break. The search for a chafing remedy, a bathroom break, and an the water bottle fill up made for a pretty slow mile (near 10 minutes) but I was clicking off at the same old speed soon.
The next few miles went by pretty quickly. I came into the Clopper Lake aid station for the first time (~16mi) still feeling great. This is where you get to decide if you are doing the 50K or the marathon. I am glad we got to make this decision here, because I was feeling great so I was happy to take a nice 4 mile look around the Lake. I also grabbed three Nutter Butters here, and boy did they hit the spot! I was running close to 8 minutes for these 4 miles as the footing was pretty good and it was flat relatively speaking. One mile was 7:57 I believe. Unfortunately being on the lake there was a strong headwind half of the time which definitely made me work a little harder. Soon enough I was back at the Lake aid station for the second time (~20mi). I refilled the water bottle, took two S-caps, grabbed some more Nutter Butters and I was off. I think one thing I did very well was getting in and out of aid stations. There were only two on the day I stuck around more then 20-30 seconds.
I cruised along pretty nicely for the next 2 miles, then around 22 I was starting to feel my lack of training kick in. I wasn't hitting the wall or cramping up but my legs just didn't have the strength to maintain the pace I was at. I slowed down to 9:00-9:30 miles and started to loose my focus. There was an aid station somewhere in here that I don't recall well. I think I filled up my water bottle, grepped a mini-doughnut, and then head off. There were then about 7 miles until the next aid station. These were interesting miles. Apparently each year there is some "theme" to the race. This year the theme was Pringles. They peppered the race course with plenty of signs about "fun" Pringles facts such as how the race director after he retires should go onto to model for Pringles (the resemblance is striking), or, "Everyone's favorite hyperbolic paraboloid!" . At least they gave me something to look forward to as I entered a long low point in the race. There was a "minimal" aid station somewhere around mile 26 where they only had water and (fortunately!) Nutter Butters. I topped off and grabbed my new favorite snack and tried to grind out the miles until this "Pringle aid station". The signs had said it was only two miles away, but I swear the actual distance was closer to 4 miles! I should mention that the pace severely dropped between mile 22 and the "Pringle aid station" near mile 29, from OK to terrible.
After the Pringles aid station I was feeling really bad. The trail also took a turn for the worse as we encountered many low-lying areas where the mud tried to suck the shoes from your feet. I didn't run most of the uphills between here and the next aid station as I fought a mental battle to want to get to the finish line as soon as possible and to want to stop running. Eventually I rolled into the aid station around mile 32 which was a refreshing change of pace. I didn't stop for anything since I knew I was close but I did feel invigorated knowing the finish line was so close. As I emerged from the forest onto a back road near the finish line I knew I had about a mile to go and I found some strange burst of energy out of nowhere. I felt like I was practically sprinting to the finish line (although I imagine that was hardly the case in reality) and I finished around 5:31.
Overall I had a really fun time and I will definitely be returning to this race again next year. Most importantly I learned what things worked well for me in terms of fueling and preparing myself to run 30+ miles through the woods which was the main goal coming into the race.
