Yellowjacket Powerbar 4.5 Mile Trail Race
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Yellowjacket Powerbar Trail Race info
2007 Yellowjacket Powerbar 4.5 Mi results
2007 Powerbar race photo slideshow
After a couple of days of little sleep and lots of work, I was seriously questioning my sanity as I crawled out of bed this morning to get ready for the race. But then I realized there's no question about my sanity (I'm nuts) and that took care of it.
Great day for a race... the morning started out sunny and cool (though it seemed to warm up quickly once I was running!) The beach lot at Mendon was packed, in part due to record turnout for the race (over 200 runners!) and in part because the AMC Outdoor Expo is held at the same time in the same area. Managed to get one of the last parking spaces in the lot... of course, it could have been worse - when we left, there were cars parked along the road for a quarter of a mile in either direction.
Ran into Jim Fryer on the way to registration, along with a friend of his (Ryan, I think) who ran Leatherman's Loop back in April and apparently had a really good time. Jim was excited to be running today and was also excited that I'd be running, as well. After getting my number and timing chip, I hustled back to the car to change and then we had a fairly short wait for the fun to begin.
Boots had his usual words of wisdom about being safe on the course and at the road crossings, and about aiming for the big tree halfway down the really big hill to lose some momentum. He also mentioned the option for 9 milers to drop down to 4.5 at the halfway point (apparently they had one year where half the runners on the long course did that!) and for 4.5 milers to move up to 9 at the halfway mark (only one person has ever done that... I hope to be the 2nd, someday!) Then, with a very familiar honk of an air horn - it was time to run!
We started out running across a field, but after about a quarter of a mile hit the first singletrack and everything ground almost to a halt as the train formed up for running on grassy single and doubletrack for a mile or so. Gradually the group spread out a bit, especially once we hit some of the wider trails, but there were enough people and this was a short enough race that there were always runners right nearby. Early on I ran most of the hills and even managed to pass a few folks. I was also surprised to see that Ryan and Jim were about 20 feet ahead of me and running at what looked like a pretty easy clip (for them... I was working to keep them in sight.) About halfway through we came to a self-serve water stop, and they stopped to get a drink, so I thought I might catch them... but then they disappeared down the trail, and the major hills kicked in, and that was that.
Having run that section of Mendon several times since last year, I now realize that very few of the trails we were on were actual "official" Mendon trails (ie. the ones we used for the snowshoe race in January and the trail race in November.) I'd guess that about half was on the regular trails, with the other half on somewhat gnarly singletrack and game trails... fortunately, I had a fairly good idea of what to expect, and so I knew to start walking when the long, steep hills kicked in. Made it through about 2/3 of the race before feeling like I might throw up (an improvement over last year) but managed to maintain a pretty steady pace right through to the end, even up and down the last couple of nasty, short, steep hills. Ran as fast as I could across the field to the finish, managing to pass one person ahead of me but not the other, and finished in 54:00... a little over a minute faster than last year, and a good pace, considering the terrain, lack of sleep, and the fact that technically I'm still recovering from Nipmuck last weekend.
All in all, I'm glad I ran today... my legs didn't give me any trouble (hip included!) and I was able to give a good effort and had a good run. After the race I found Ann (she'd been wandering around the Expo collecting literature) and we headed home to have some lunch and get ready to head west to the Alabama swamps.
Jim Fryer had a great day, and ran his first trail race and 9 miler in 90 minutes - a phenomenal pace, in my opinion, especially considering he ran the first loop in 50-51 minutes! We didn't get to see him finish, but he's said since then that he had a blast... perhaps we have another trail runner in the making...
Next up: GREYLOCK. 13-14 Miles. No hike up the mountain this time (2400' elevation gain in 3.5 miles) because the roads to the summit are closed for the next two years due to road reconstruction. But the description says to expect " trails offering running worthy of the mountain" (in other words - hills!)
JMH
2007 EVENT TOTALS
Running 99.3 mi, 24 hr 46 min
Cycling 26.2 mi, 1 hr 55 min
Snowshoe 31.3 mi, 9 hr 11 min
states visited: CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, VT
