Stone Mill 50 Race Report - A Fun Finish For A Fresh Start

I had been having a fun year of running. The high point was surviving The Laurel Highlands Ultra in June - 70.5 miles in 19:34 - there's something about finishing cross-eyed and hallucinating at 1:05am that can leave you on a high spot. I was stoked, training was going well and I even won my age group in a short race in August. Then September rolled around and without warning, the wheels came off. When you're running an ultra you're wise to be able to recognize a rough patch as just that and you push through it. Don't let it stop you. Somehow I failed to recognize September as a rough patch and I let it stop me. I let a whole lot of things that come with running bother me and I let that frustration stop me. I scratched from 3 races and completely stopped running. I had no real idea why, but that made sense to me at the time considering I have no real idea why I run in the first place. For about 3 weeks I sat on the sofa eating chips and drinking cans of Coke 3 at a time. I was having a blast, just me and the dogs chilling and eating chips. Taking naps was also a newly learned skill. Along with building a lovely waist line, I was reaching new heights of annoying Janice. I came to learn that she cherished those days when I'd disappear for 4 hours to run in the forest. Oh well, I'd just need to learn better ways of keeping my non-running self out of her way so she could still enjoy her "me time".

One Sunday, Janice went somewhere to do something with some girls from her softball team and I started to feel like my lard ass was sinking a little extra deep in the sofa that day. The dogs were sleeping off whatever container of snacks we had polished off and I realized I needed to run. It was that simple, I needed to run. I got off my butt and went for a run - did a lot of walking as the climbs on Blue Mountain hadn't taken off the same days I had, but it was a run just the same. The next day I was right back at it, in fact I ran every day for the next 20 days straight. Over the next 32 days, I ran 31 times. Some of those runs were awful, but for some reason I was running again. I got back to running with Mojo and Mollie too! I even found a couple of short trail races to hop in for fun, got my butt kicked like always, but they were fun.


Somehow when I was going through my "I'm done with running" period I had forgotten to tell the nice folks of the Montgomery County Road Runners Club that I wouldn't be at the start line for their Stone Mill 50 miler in November. After all, the conflict with the date of that race was one of the stressors that sent me spinning out of running, how could I have forgotten to ditch this race too? Now here I was running again. Sure I was carrying a bunch of extra pounds and I hadn't done any much needed long runs, but what could go wrong? The date seemed to be opening back up so who cared if a slow 15 miles was my longest run in many weeks? Yep, I burned some Hilton Honors points and just like that we had lodging and a November 50 miler was back on my calendar.



We packed up the Jeep and left Cody home to take care of Mojo and Mollie. After a short fight with DC Metro traffic we were at Fleet Feet Gaithersburg picking up my race number. Pretty cool timing as we ran into Janice's co-worker Matt Sinopoli and his friend Gene Gignac who were also running the next day. My only real concern at that point was if Matt would leave any finish line food for me. After a tasty dinner and brews at The Dog Fish Head Alehouse, we were off to the Hilton for some much needed sleep before the 6am start.

Pre-race prep at Dog Fish Head Alehouse



The morning went fast, the over-night rain stopped and after announcing some cool stats on what states runners came from (35 from PA), the race director said a very unceremonious "go".

One last headlamp adjustment.



Heading out to the 2.? mile turn around I heard guys talking behind me, put 2 and 2 together and soon realized I was somehow running in front of a Western PA contingent, Ben Mazur, Adam McGinnis and Todd Lewis - runners I spent the day leap frogging with during Laurel Highlands. A three man freight train.

Adam McGinnis, Ben Mazur

 

and Todd Lewis 

The Western PA Limited

It was dark so I wasn't looking at my watch, but I kept hearing comments about our average pace and although I felt fine, I knew I was going too fast. I think Todd was immediately behind me and I felt like I was running from a speeding car - these guys were going good, too good for me to maintain. Finally the sun was coming up so I used wanting to take my headlamp off as an excuse to pull off at the top of a small hill. Phew! As they flew past I thought, "now I can slow down and run my pace". 

Well that all sounds good, but I got caught right back up in the excitement of the race. I was hitting aid stations ahead of schedule causing Janice to miss me at the first one(no big deal) and I had to wait for her at the next(I needed to get rid of a shirt and my headlamp). Waiting a few minutes helped, it seemed to calm me some and drop me into a pack of runners closer to the pace I needed...or so I thought. I had told Niece and Nephew Heather and Jim they may be able to see me at the aid station near the Potomac at 11:00am and then 11:45am at the Stone Mill. I hit the marathon mark well under five hours and now I had just come through the 29 mile Stone Mill aid station just before 11 and was on my way 45 minutes ahead of my planned pace. There would be no way I could survive this pace.

Towing two shirtless guys into an aid station - they sure talked a lot.



Most of the aid stations were only a few miles apart so I chose to run with just a hand held.
Janice refueled me at each aid station with a full bottle and made sure I took two bottles when the next stop would be further than the others(some had 6+ mile gaps between them and in the later miles I was sucking down the liquid). I stuck to my schedule of a gel and an Endurolyte every hour and I used buffered salt tablets twice in the 50 miles(result=zero cramping). At the aid stations I made sure to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwich quarters and a piece of banana here and there - I drank a lot of Coke and Mountain Dew too.

Matt - Chocolate Chip Cookie Connoisseur & Gene - Refueling with Gatorade

I took a few extra moments at the Stone Mill aid station and trotted up the next couple of
ascents at a very easy(slow) pace and I was encouraged by hitting the 50k mark in about 5:50 - that was much closer to where I wanted/needed to be. Unfortunately it became quickly evident that I was not slowing down by choice anymore, fatigue was ruling at this point. I had hoped to finish at 10 hours or 4:00pm and at a later aid station I told Janice that goal was falling seriously out of possibility. I had 7 miles to go and it was 2:30, my pace had slowed considerably and I explained that I felt I was going to miss that mark. I was pushing hard, but I didn't have much left. I knew it was slipping away, but I felt I could really know how much time I could salvage when I got to the aid station at 48 miles. Much of the day, my trusty Suunto Ambit2 S watch hadn't been jiving with the aid station distances so I was relying on what the volunteers or signs listed as the distance. Well, I reached that aid station and I heard a volunteer say "you're doing great, just 3 more miles". Me and two other runners quickly asked, "what mile is this?" and "just about 47" was what we got. The race web site had labeled this last aid station as being at 48 mile and I know it's just a mile and I was going to miss 4:00pm whether it was 2 or 3, but to me that announcement was crushing. I was managing my physical and mental fatigue based completely on having 2 miles to go at that point. Fatigue totally took over and my next 3 miles were a mess.

I started to hear traffic and soon enough was I popping out of the woods onto the sidewalk we crossed in the morning darkness. I knew the High School and the finish line was close. After a short run along the street a nice volunteer directed me back into a forested area and I could see steep hills looming and before long I was looking up at the finish banner, but it was perpendicular to where I was. I heard Janice and others yelling my name. It was sort of confusing about how to get to the finish, but soon I heard the race director yell, "run to me" which meant run straight up a steep grassy hill. It was maybe only 40 yards up, but it was enough to bring flashbacks of running hill drills in football. I muttered some expletive to myself, but just had to laugh at that hill. As the exclamation point at the end of 50 miles it was easy to resolve to walk that last short distance.

Coming out of the woods one last time.

 



Crossing the line I was greeted by a volunteer with wire cutters to cut off my timing tag. When I explained it wasn't on my shoe it was in my pocket, the gentlemen doing the timing simply said, "not good" with a cross look - oops. I tried to explain that I expected to need to change my shoes, but that fell on deaf ears - didn't matter, I soon saw Janice and quickly recognized Heather and Jim who live in Virginia not too far from Gaithersburg. What a very cool surprise, having them at the finish. I hadn't seen them since the Goretex 50 Mile at the DC North Face Endurance Challenge in June 2012. I now knew who those other voices were yelling my name when I was at the base of that nasty hill.



The next day I read an article that said 80% of runners go out too fast at the start of races, so at least I've got company. The Stone Mill 50 offers an easy course. With nothing more than rolling little hills and nothing technical, "easy" is the only label I can give it. Heck, we ran more than a mile on a suburban sidewalk and 3 miles on the flat C&O Canal towpath. The 2 trails the race uses snake through suburbia, one minute we were hearing loud sirens nearby and around the next turn we were greeted by a beautiful buck. Hunters were there too, decked out in full camo carrying their bows on the hunt for Bambi with a couple hundred crazies running through their hunting ground. I was surprised by the amount of water crossings - my feet were wet much of the day. I saw a helmeted woman on horseback, but I also ran through a Starbuck's parking lot. The Seneca Creek and Muddy Branch Trails are beautiful and their gentleness will tempt you to run outside of your ability - take it from me, DON'T DO IT! After all, it is still 50 miles long. All in all, I'm happy with my finish, I got in with a 10:34ish - 89th of 179 male finishers & 115th of 252 overall finishers. 

The biggest deal? >>> I beat sundown and as Jim said, "in November that's hard to do".

Janice found fun while chasing me from aid station to aid station.



I now have completed 2 of the 3 events I found interesting when I first learned about ultra trail running. The Laurel Highlands and The Stone Mill 50 both caught my eye because of their closeness to home. I remember reading The Stone Mill site thinking the drawing of the old mill was very cool and I thought it had to be a fun event because it seemed to sell out in a hurry. Of course, just like Laurel Highlands, at the time I was confident I'd never enter such an insane endeavor. The third event that caught my eye? The 3rd was the JFK 50 and I've accepted I'll never run it and that's ok, I'm having more fun than all those miles on the towpath could ever provide.



Edinburgh Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon - TeamREFUEL Goes To Scotland!

Sunday April 14th I ran the Edinburgh Rock 'n' Roll HalfMarathon, without exaggeration; the toughest road race I’ve ever run. The race was the culmination of an amazing trip to Scotland provided by GotChocolateMilk.com TeamREFUEL. I apologize in advance for the lengthy blog post, but considering I got to fly across the Atlantic to run a race; I didn't want to leave anything out.

 

HOW IT HAPPENED: Last spring I won sponsorship from TeamREFUEL. Team members were also eligible for 3 grand prizes after the 2012 season and one was a trip to Edinburgh Scotland to run the Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon, complete with flight, lodging, free race entry and spending money. Janice and I agreed that Edinburgh would be a cool place to visit and last July I somewhat jokingly said, “Honey, we’re going to Edinburgh”. She of course said, “Yeah right, we’re not going anywhere”. After an active 2012 running season, completing 12 events flying the TeamREFUEL colors, I received the email congratulating me and announcing that I was selected to go to Edinburgh. I couldn’t believe it, but that’s how it happened.

 

GETTING THERE:  I can’t report on this race without mentioning the travel to Scotland. We decided to take our teenage sons Cody and Nathan with us. We got our passports in order, bought the boys' plane tickets, packed their skateboards and with our dogs Mojo and Molly happy at the kennel we were all set to go. The afternoon of departure I looked at The British Airways App and saw that the first leg of our trip (the flight to Chicago) was canceled due to weather. I called the airline and we found a replacement flight to London through Philadelphia. Good to go, right? Nope, they called back to tell us our commuter flight to Philly got delayed and there would be no way we’d make the connection to London. We went to Plan C which was hopping an Amtrak train to Philadelphia. A kind neighbor/friend gave us a lift to the train platform, bought tickets from the conductor and we were off to 30^th Street Station to catch the SEPTA line to the airport. Phew! Yep, we made it and everything was OK, right? As we waited at the gate I noticed that the severe thunderstorm was now bearing down on Philadelphia. We boarded the plane, but it was too late. The driving wind and rain shook the jet and we sat on the runway for more than 2 hours. I’ll spare you the part about us now needing to be re-booked out of London to Edinburgh, but ironically we were now late enough to use the original connection we would have used had we flown from Chicago. Thankfully Janice worked in the airline industry for 16 years and I traveled way too much in a previous career. Rookie travelers would have ended up in a Motel 6 outside of La Guardia, eating bad takeout and left wondering how to get to Scotland.

One Last Hop To Edinburgh

 

BEING TOURISTS: As soon as we hopped on the double-decker bus at the Edinburgh Airport, we were in full-on tourist mode. I think we all said in unison, “The cars are on the wrong side of the road!” We wound through neighborhoods, past small shops and beautiful cathedrals and then the Edinburgh Castle came into view for the first time. Perched high on a hill, it was an amazing sight. Just past the Scot Monument we got off the bus and we were on foot for the first time in Edinburgh, dragging our bags to the lovely ApexWaterloo Place Hotel. “On foot” would become key to the next days. I’ve read guidance to not get caught up in touring while traveling to an exotic place to run a race. Everything we wanted to see and do in Edinburgh was in walking distance. Sure I kept an eye on leg fatigue, but I’m not one to taper for a race, so off we went. I enlisted the advice of on an old friend from Scotland who provided an aggressive itinerary of things we needed to experience while on his home turf. We visited the Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace, Grassmarket, The Royal Mile, The Canongate, Cowgate, Calton Hill and Old Calton Cemetary, The Dynamic Earth Science Centre, walked up the Crags, learned the story of Greyfriar’s Bobby, made it in time for the One O'clock Gun, ate Fish n’ Chips at The World’s EndPub, descended Jacob's Ladder wandered in an out of Edinburgh’s countless “closes” and “wynds” and I’m surely forgetting a bunch of stuff. To say I rested my legs for the race would be an out and out lie. We got in some serious mileage; I should have worn my Garmin and logged it. To sum it up, we saw as much of Edinburgh as we could and we had an absolute blast doing it! (I have to mention that because the cars travel on the other side of the road, we found ourselves looking the wrong way when crossing streets. I was nearly whacked by a cab while out for a run and I lost count of the times I yanked Janice from the path of doom.)

Cody, Nathan & William Wallace

             

Janice & Cody High Above The City At Edinburgh Castle

"All done at the castle, let's go get my race packet"

 

EDINBURGH WEATHER: It was spring time in Scotland, a time to shed winter’s layers and admire blooming daffodils, right? This year however the Scots were experiencing one of their coldest wettest springs in quite a while. We arrived on a chilly grey day and that was pretty much the theme of the next day too, with temperatures in the low 40’s and a bit of drizzly rain added in. Listening to the weather forecasts in the UK only made it worse, 5° Celsius sure does make 40°F sound extremely cold.  Amazingly the Saturday before the race the sun came out and other than a building wind, with the temperatures in the upper 50’s it was quite a nice day. Those winds that came to visit on Saturday stayed for Sunday and they invited their friends “Howling” and “Hurricane Force” to join them. That leads me to my real race report.

Packet Pickup At Run4It on Lothian Road

 

ROCK N ROLL SURVIVAL: Race day was finally here. During breakfast I stepped outside to see how hard it was raining. It really was only a drizzle at that hour, but the wind was not to be ignored as it ripped the hotel door from my hand and I watched a cabby chasing his hat down the sidewalk. Janice and I took the 1 mile walk to the start line village as the winds picked up. The winds swirled and subsided and rains poured down just before brilliant sun would then burst through the clouds. I knew it was a bad omen when I saw porta-loos (porta-johns) blown on their sides and smashed. Race crew was scampering. Thanks to the weather, things obviously weren’t going as planned. I looked at the wind-ravaged main stage and I wondered if the event would survive. Janice had to hoof it back to the hotel to retrieve a forgotten memory card for her camera (yes, she made the trip twice) and I sought refuge at the VIP tent. The pouring rain and screaming wind was constant now, but oddly every now and then it would take a break and the sun and a beautiful rainbow would appear. After a brief respite, it would be back to near hurricane conditions. Janice made it back to the VIP tent telling me she had re-instructed Nathan and Cody about where the bands would be playing and what time they needed to be at the finish line. I wondered if they would actually leave the security of the hotel.

Porta-Loos In A Bad Way

 

The MC with the brilliant Scottish accent called for all runners to get to their starting pens (corrals). Janice found a vantage point at the base of Arthur’s Seat and I found my way to corral #3. The weather had created an environment of semi-panic. Runners were streaming into the start at the front and trying to make their way to their corrals through corrals already filled with runners. You’re assigned to a corral based on your forecasted finishing time and your bib number. My number was 3434 and I watched as runners with numbers as high as 8,000, 10,000 and 12,000 hopped over barricades and lined up in the front corrals. I assumed they wanted to get to their race started in hopes of getting out of the driving rain sooner. With all this dire wind and rain, at 50°F it was at least somewhat warm. I wore my TeamREFUEL short sleeved jersey with a sleeveless base layer, arm warmers and shorts. As I waited there hopping from foot to foot to a booming mashup dance mix of local favorite sons TheProclaimers “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)”, I had a fun memory of old buddy Adrian explaining their lyric about “havering” (Scottish for talking foolishly or babbling). I was watching Janice juggle cameras and take on the wind and pelting rain on the hill without the aid of a few thousand runners around her and I hoped our boys stayed in bed. We all laughed as a dozen young guys ran up the grassy hill to pee and avoid the scary porta-loos. Just as I was enjoying these rain soaked day dreams, that strong Scottish voice came over the PA system and announced that he had some bad news for us and then he paused. I thought, “oh no, here it comes, the race is canceled due to the conditions, we came all this way…”. Moments after his pregnant pause he went on stating that due to the deteriorating weather, some things needed to be “sorted” on the race course and our start would be delayed. Now I’ve never been delayed by a race director, but I have been delayed by airlines and we all know how that turns out. After about 5 minutes (this guy clearly never worked for an airline), we were told the countdown to start the elite runners was imminent.
 

Never Did Find The Pot 'O Gold - Perhaps It Blew Away

"Hi Honey!"

 



In short order, my corral was at the line and we were off. I knew the opening miles were flat/downhill so I went out quick to get out of the corral crowd and get warmed up. We wound through neighborhoods heading toward Leith, passed by 2 bands rocking on in spite of the conditions and we then came to the water front. We were now exposed to the real winds for the first time as we ran along the Firth of Forth. There was a DJ along there and he was encouraging the runners, but then he decided to announce that sustained winds were 60kph and gusts were maxing out at 110kph. I was running next to a couple wearing Canada shirts and the man converted those numbers to MPH, I didn’t need to hear that, I knew those wind speeds sounded immense. My pace was increasing and slowing based on the winds. I knew now that any strategy of maintaining a steady pace was gone. I changed plans to drop my mile time anywhere the wind allowed and just gut it out in the head wind sections. I knew I was putting out the effort for an 8 minute mile in places, but my watch showed 8:30 or slower. Cross winds were no friend either, I saw smaller runners stumble and fall and twice my right foot was blown into my left mid-stride. Managing my pace based on the winds also meant running the hills differently. Did I forget to mention the hills? Yep, while the first few miles were flat and fast much of the rest of the course snaked through the old city and over the hills it’s built on. Instead of cruising the climbs I was going to need to push up them when the wind allowed. There

was also that downhill on the back side of Arthur’s Seat that many talked about later. There was such a crazy tailwind, you couldn’t slow down. I saw 6:03 on my watch and wondered if I’d have much left after sprinting down this thing. It was nuts, runners were actually leaning backwards trying to slow their pace.

It was very cool to run through historic Edinburgh, but the coolest was to finally arrive at that last downhill which was even somewhat protected from the wind and find Cody, Janice and Nathan around the last turns at the finish line. In fact in the last few hundred meters, Nathan and Cody chased along after me with their iPods filming my last steps between The Scottish Parliament Building and Holyrood Palace towards the finish*. There’s just nothing better than having the one’s you love waiting at a finish line.

 

Soaked To The Bone & Stopping My Watch at 1:47:24

 

It was unfortunate that the winds caused such mayhem at the race expo at Holyrood Park, so much so that the headline band wasn't able to perform for concerns for their safety.
 

*With all my whining about the weather, I was able to manage a 1:47:24 finishing time, just slightly more than 2:24 off my 1:45 projected time. (I secretly told myself I’d be happy with a 1:50 while climbing one of those cobbled hills, so I’m elated with my time.)

 

BOSTON: Normally it doesn’t take me a week to post a race report, but this one has special circumstances. It’s been difficult to write about something so special to me during such an upsetting time in the US and the running community. We arrived at O’Hare on the way home to see televisions plastered with a bomb blast. All we saw was smoke, international flags blowing and crowd mayhem. While overseas, the UK was a buzz about the millions of pounds being spent on Margaret Thatcher’s funeral and we wondered if a protest had gone wrong. We soon found out about the tragic event in Boston that continued to unfold into the week. It was shocking to know that just the day before we were all at a finish line together and I was incredibly thankful we were all safe and ok. 

 

CHOCOLATE MILK ACROSS THE ATLANTIC: Yes I refuel with low fat chocolate milk. It’s been my recovery drink of choice for quite a while now. It is truly “MyAfter” and I recommend it to all. Janice was surprised when I told her it was not likely that there would be any chocolate milk at the finish line in Edinburgh. Accepting that challenge, she promptly froze a container of low fat chocolate milk and packed it safely in her checked bag. While they had all sorts of goodies at the Rock 'n' Roll finish line and VIP tent, chocolate milk was missing, but I had mine thanks to Janice! My TeamREFUEL attire didn’t go unnoticed, even in Scotland. Every race in the US, someone calls me the "Chocolate Milk Guy" or asks if I have any so it wasn’t a surprise that the accents of people commenting in Edinburgh sounded to be more from New Jersey or Ohio. One young Scottish fellow did tell me I was his rabbit and he chased my chocolate milk jersey down off the Mound to the finish. That was cool!

 You Can Count The Rock N  Roll Marathon Folks For The Coolest Medals

 

This was an amazing experience and I can’t thank the kind people at GotChocolateMilk TeamREFUEL and The Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series enough for getting us there, hosting our visit and providing me the opportunity to run a race around such a cool city!

Heading Home

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Posted By Blogger to Perry's Trails at 4/23/2013 06:51:00 AM

Tune Up For The Edinburgh Rock N Roll Half Marathon With TeamREFUEL - Chambersburg Half Marathon Race Report

Take the energy of a well attended community 5k, add about 10 miles and you have the Chambersburg Half Marathon. The Chambersburg Road Runners Club has a genuine family feel. I live an hour away and only know a couple folks from the area, but felt right at home with this extremely friendly crew. Their volunteers were great and those running were just as cool. I always laugh when I go to a run and the crowd is full of super serious game faces talking about their PR's and their split plans. Those guys were there, but they were out numbered by chatter about families, kids getting tall, the weather, etc. A half marathon in Pennsylvania in March? Sure, why not? It was positioned as a perfect tune up race for me. Truth be told, I had scratched 2 events this year and I was really Jonesin' for a race. I needed to run against the clock to get my year started. When I was looking for races, I couldn't believe the registration was still open on  Wednesday before the event. I asked Janice if we had plans for that day, she said "no" and I was in. 

 

The big story here though, is that the cool people at GotChocolateMilk.com selected me to go to Scotland and fly The TeamREFUEL colors in the Edinburgh RockNRoll Half Marathon. I get to take Janice with me, with our flights, 4 nights lodging and $200/day spending money paid for by TeamREFUEL. I was notified that I was chosen early last month and needless to say it was difficult concentrate on anything else that day. Running the Edinburgh Rock N Roll Half has dominated many of day dreams since. With that said, I wanted to see if I still knew how to run 13.1 miles at my best pace before I ran in Scotland. There's no true test to your fitness and pace management abilities than the atmosphere a race provides.


Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon Edinburgh - mackenzie films HD from mackenzie films hd on Vimeo.

 

I ran into Bill Dann, a co-worker from Chambersburg and he had Danny Mowers in tow. I know Danny through ultra trail running and Facebook. Bill had concocted a contest to see who could make the silliest face to the on-course photographers. I was definitely all-in. I knew Jim Grove would be there too, but I never found him in the crowd before the start. Jim I met in a beer line at a Harrisburg Senator's baseball game. He was wearing a Pittsburgh Marathon shirt and I was wearing a North Face Endurance Challenge 50 mile shirt and we were destined to talk. Jeff Reed, an old friend I graduated from high school with was entered in the same race. I hadn't seen him in many years so I was pretty psyched to see him.I recently found out Jeff had taken up running by seeing a post on Facebook. It's been nice to know that another guy my age was enjoying the same addiction. I was looking for a spot to stand as the race pack formed for the start and I ran into Jeff. We started talking, heard no race instructions and suddenly somebody said "Go" so we hit our watches and took off. I'm a solo runner. I really enjoy the solitude of running miles enveloped in my own thoughts, but when you're immersed in this kind of warm comaraderie that running provides; you realize you can't duplicate it many places.

 

This wasn't an ultra and I told Janice she should probably just wait for me at the finish line, but she wasn't having any of that. Janice was hot on her plan on how she could drive out to points on the course and still make it back for my finish. Heck, I guess she didn't need to worry about my whining for Gels and Coca-cola at aid stations so she must've thought this would be a sinch. I saw her stationed along the course with camera clicking and of course she was right there at the finish line too. 

When I see our Jeep along the course,
I know Janice and her camera can't be far away

 

Speaking of the course, I asked about it and Bill Dann said, it's got some nasty little hills. A
friend of his said there was hill at this mile and that mile so I thought, "ok this shouldn't be so
bad". I had run The Sol Lipton Half Marathon in Pottsville, PA where they have a mammoth hill climb in the early miles so I thought if I survived that with a 1:50, I could do ok on Chambersburg's "couple of hills". Well, I was told about 2 hills, but some how my trusty informant had forgotten about all the other hills. This thing was a roller coaster and I really saw it chew up some runners and spit them out. There were hills throughout, but somehow I found them as a welcome taper to my pace. I had to slow down on the uphills so oddly after I got my breathing back under control, I felt refreshed and even somewhat rested at the tops. In all the trail running I do, hills are a constant so perhaps I was prepared. The race route winds through beautiful countryside, passing numerous farms. There's an out & back stretch and the cows along that section were mooing loudly. I'm certain they were cheering for me in my GotChocolateMilk jersey. We definitely interrupted the country Saturday morning, but many folks were outside cheering us on with their children and their dogs. I did see a guy target shooting with his rifle and wondered what he really had in mind for a target. There was also a guy restoring old furniture in his front yard who didn't even seem to notice runners going past. Children clanging cowbells at the one hill-top was certainly an inspiration. The course wasn't closed to traffic and that got a little dicey in spots. There was even some yahoo in a white pickup truck who seemed hell bent on running over a course marshal and then he decided to see how close he could get to the old guy in the TeamReFUEL jersey. Sorta' reminded me of my lunch-time training runs on the roads around my office. The weather was beautiful and people were out everywhere.

Over one hill.

                                                                       

Hard right turn

                   .

And over the next.

 

I'm getting better at running within myself and not making the mistake of allowing the excitement of the race ruin my pace. Just before the half-way mark I looked at my watch and decided I felt good enough to maintain my pace at about 8 minute miles and finish under 1:46. There were some considerable hills remaining so this required me picking up my pace at about the 11 mile mark. With one last turn and the finish line almost in sight, I couldn't believe it, I was kicking and with a glance at my watch I thought I may just get that sub 1:46 finish. There was only one thing in my way and that was my own belief in runner etiquette. With just a few hundred meters remaining I was over taking another runner. I'm a firm believer that you don't pass someone as the finish chute appears. I think it's rude, bad form, poor sportsmanship, all of those things. So now I was faced with the dilemma of, "was I far enough from the finish to pass him?" We had a good distance to go and I wasn't changing my pace or sprinting, I was legitimately over taking him so I decided to pass. I thought, "well that wasn't so bad" and with about 50' to go he tried to beat me into the chute. I wasn't having that and I picked up my pace to maintain my position. Long story short and lesson learned(again), not everyone believes in that same runner etiquette.

 

I was happy to see that I finished in 1:45:something - my fastest half-marathon on a pretty tough  course. I met up with Bill Bann and Danny Mowers afterward who had run pretty darned impressive times and I hung out to cheer on Jeff Reed as he pushed it to the line. Later on I found Jim Grove and we laughed about seeing one another on the course and made plans to hookup at Senator's games. I ran into the guys who had been asking me for chocolate milk out on the course and now they wanted to know why my Jeep wasn't a milk truck and why I only had 2 Rockin' Refuels and I wasn't sharing.

2 Fast Guys & Me

 

Central Dauphin HS - Class of '79

I had a blast representing TeamREFUEL throughout 2012 and I hope to rejoin the team with a sponsorship for 2013. I'm especially stoked about running for them in Edinburgh Scotland next month! I've never been there much less run there. I'm hoping I'll be able to handle the excitement of travel and pull off a half-marathon too. I can hear them now, "look at the silly American who just tripped and fell 'cause he was gawking at our beautiful scenery"...I sure hope not. The race is Sunday April 14th in beautiful Edinburgh. Part of my being selected to travel to Scotland The Brave is to blog about my journey so stay tuned for coverage of my exciting trip overseas!

 

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Posted By Blogger to Perry's Trails at 3/11/2013 05:52:00 PM