Mt Tom Road to the Pogue 6.2 Mile Trail Run
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Mt Tom Road to the Pogue info
2007 Mt Tom Road to the Pogue results
2007 Mt Tom Road to the Pogue photo slideshow
A while back I stumbled across an advertisement for a new trail race in Vermont - the Mt Tom Road to the Pogue 6.6 mi, run on carriage trails in the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park in Woodstock, VT. Between the appeal of doing an new race and especially a race in Vermont, I signed up immediately, since registration was limited to 400 runners. If nothing else, it was bound to be a fun diversion from doing longer runs in preparation for NIPMUCK.
I'm sure I checked where Woodstock was when I signed up, but it was still a surprise when I downloaded directions several days before the race and found out it was just under a 3 hour drive from Albany! Had I not been pre-registered, I might have bailed, but instead Saturday morning found me packing my gear for the drive to Vermont. Fortunately, the race didn't start until 1 PM, so I was able to sleep "late" (6 AM) on a race day.
The drive over was initially uninspiring, taking me an hour up the Northway to just past Glens Falls. From there I headed over toward the border, with a short stretch paralleling the Champlain Canal, which I'd never seen before. From there I headed into Vermont for a fast-paced drive along Rt 4 (which is a 4-lane highway) though some nice countryside into Rutland. But the really nice parts of the drive were between Rutland and Woodstock, where Rt 4 runs through the Green Mountains and after passing Killington runs alongside the Ottauquechee River. It's not the Berkshires, but it was still great to be in the mountains!
Arrived in Woodstock, followed the signs to park my car, and walked over to race HQ... or perhaps I should say, I walked up to race HQ. A couple of days before the race I received an e-mail mentioning that the course had been shortened to remove the steep hill at the start, and at the time I thought that was too bad. As I hiked the steep dirt road up to the field where the race was set up, I began to reconsider, especially when I had to hike back down to the car (about half a mile away, total) and then back up again to wait for things to begin. Along the way I snapped some pictures of the grounds of the mansion - if the rest of the park was as pretty as the hike in, we were in for a great run!
About 15 minutes before the start, we all hiked a half mile up the path to the starting area and proceeded to attempt to sort ourselves by pace... in theory, the race numbers were issued in rough order according to predicted finishing times, so I took a spot near the back and kept my eyes open to make sure I wasn't getting surrounded by faster runners. After a short wait, the RD arrived, did his best to get people to leave some room for each other, and then fired a starting pistol. And off we went!
It became clear very quickly that the "sort yourselves by pace" idea was less than successful, as many runners with numbers similar to mine blazed by me on the path. The first half to three quarters of a mile were a pretty steady uphill... I ran, but tried to stick to a pace that kept my breathing under control. At just before a mile, we hit the water stop intersection, which we would pass two more times before the end, and also were treated to one of the coolest things about the race: standing on the shore of the Pogue (a large man-made pond) was a piper in full Scots dress playing his pipes. That was a real pleasure... at various points during the race I could hear his pipes skirling away and it was always a pick-me-up.
We ran part of the way around the Pogue, then headed off into the woods for a loop up toward the northern summit of Mt Tom and then back down to the Pogue. Passed two mile markers on this section - the 1 mile at 10:20, and the 2 mile at about 22 minutes... a much faster pace than I've run recently! I guess it was a combination of good trails (they were wide, relatively clear, and very runnable) and short distance (so I had energy to burn) but I kept pushing at that pace as we returned to the Pogue and ran the rest of the way around it.
From there we headed uphill toward the southern summit, and had a couple of great views - first of more mountains off in the distance, and then, at the top, we had a panoramic view of Woodstock far below us. From there it was mixed down and uphill running, and a great stretch along a singletrack trail that was a fun break from the carriage roads.
Once we came back out on the carriage trails, it was about a mile and a half of downhill to the finish. Most of it wasn't too steep, so I was able to keep up my pace, and continued to clock sub-11 minute miles. I was also passed by several runners who I'd left behind on the climbs (that energy-to-burn thing again) but who were clearly much better downhillers than I am. (Of course, being worried about blowing out a knee while running downhill does hold me back a bit.) Still, I managed a good clip down the hill, and had hopes of averaging 10 minute miles at the end... I came close, too, coming down the final hill and "sprinting" the last level stretch to the finish in 63 min 8 sec. Another cool feature to this race - they had a spotter just before the level stretch radioing bib numbers to the RD at the finish, and as I came in I heard him announce my number, name, town, and state over the PA system. At times like that it's almost like I'm a real athlete...!
After that, I wandered around for a bit, scarfed down a couple of bagels with cream cheese, and claimed my T-shirt. I briefly considered walking back up to the Pogue and the overlook to get some better pictures, but decided that a 2 1/2 mile hike uphill wasn't that appealing. So in the end I made my way back down the steep hill to the parking area, and took my time changing clothes before climbing into the car to make the drive home.
Despite the long drive, I'm glad I did this race. I'd been concerned that all my long slow training had left me incapable of running faster, and that clearly isn't the case, since I averaged 10:10 miles today, which is one of the fastest paces I've run since resuming serious running two years ago. Woodstock and the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park are very pretty places to be, and the folks organizing the event were definitely a great group of people. (They also organize the Covered Bridges Half Marathon in early June, which sells out within a couple of hours of on-line registration opening in early December... maybe someday I'll get in to that race and have another cool run through the mountains of Vermont.) I will definitely keep this on the list of races to consider for the future, and would recommend it whole-heartedly to anyone who doesn't mind making the drive to Woodstock, VT.
Next up: the Rochester Spring Classic Duathlon at Mendon Ponds Park (I definitely seem to spend a lot of time there!) This will be my ninth duathlon, and my third year to do the Spring Classic... I'm curious to see how my times will compare to the previous years', given that I haven't done any riding much beyond 20 miles and I haven't done any bricks (that's where you run and ride in the same workout, to get your legs used to the transition between events.) I'm also just plain looking forward to doing the race... the Spring Classic was the first du I ever did, and the Autumn Classic last year was the first race I did after the Crash, so at this point those races feel like old friends.
JMH
2007 EVENT TOTALS
Running 57.2 mi, 13 hr 33 min
Cycling 6.2 mi, 33 min
Snowshoe 31.3 mi, 9 hr 11 min
states visited: CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, VT
