Monroe Dunbar Brook 10.5 Mile Trail Race
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Monroe Dunbar Brook trail race info
2007 Monroe results
photo slideshow
When I ran the Monroe Dunbar Brook trail race in October 2005, the entire day was an adventure. The day before the New York-New England area got hit with an incredible storm that left roads (and trails!) flooded, brought down trees, caused mudslides, and turned the usually calf-deep stream crossings into raging rivers. That race was easily one of the most insane trail runs I've ever done.
Needless to say, the storm that blew through the area Saturday afternoon and evening did not fill me with confidence, especially after I had spent the week battling a cold. But I was a bit reassured when I got up Sunday morning and found the sky cloudy but rain-free.
The drive over was grey all the way to the Taconics - the cloud cover was actually low enough that the tops of the mountains were obscured. But as I drove through Vermont and into Williamstown and Adams, patches of sunshine began to appear. Had a few visibility problems as I drove along Route 2 up to the Western Summit through the cloud layer... but once I came out on the summit, the clouds were gone and it was a beautiful sunny day. Great conditions for heading deeper and deeper into the mountains to reach Monroe State Forest!
Snagged a decent parking spot and checked in, and was very pleasantly surprised to find that my $5 T-shirt fee had gotten me a very nice 50/50 sweatshirt with Monroe Dunbar Brook Trail Races color graphic... those folks at the Western Mass Athletic Club are the best! Wandered around snapping photos, spent a few moment chatting with some folks from other races, and waited in line at the Port-a-Potties far too many times... guess I was fully hydrated.
Eventually we all headed over to the starting area, one of the RD's had a few words to say about the course, and then with a very quick "Ready, set, go!" we headed off into the woods.
Since I was still recovering from being sick, I wanted to take it fairly easy, which is a great way of rationalizing the fact that I spent the first mile and a quarter hanging at the back with Konrad and Bill at a very easy pace. After an uphill stretch through the pines, the trail crossed the road and then headed along rolling singletrack above the stream... absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately, after the first mile, the trail headed up the hillside... and up and up and up. It seemed like forever, but actually it's about half a mile of very steep, switchbacking singletrack. A little ways up I passed Konrad and Bill and picked up my hiking pace a bit. Eventually it reached a point where the uphill was more gradual and the path widened for a while, becoming much more runnable before another singletrack stretch that took us over to eroded, rocky Raycroft Road. After another uphill run, I hit the first water stop, where I refilled my bottles before heading along more uphill singletrack to the top of Spruce Mountain.
Along there I caught up with Rich Busa, who was also hiking the uphill stretch. Rich is an incredible runner - I believe he turns 77 this October, and he regularly kicks my backside at races. I can only hope I'm as active as he is in another 35 years! We chatted about various races all the way to the top of the mountain, and then he took off when the trail finally turned downhill. Unfortunately for me, it was steep, technical downhill, so I had a creep down it fairly carefully to avoid losing a knee or two. It was along here that I abandoned any hope of finishing in under 2 1/2 hours!
After a long time of making my way downhill, I finally came out on eroded Raycroft Rd again, and headed down it toward water stop #2 and the first major stream crossing. Topped off my bottles, waded across the stream (the cold water actually felt pretty good), and found myself walking again as the trail wound up and down the hillside overlooking the stream. But eventually the trail widened a bit and I was able to get back to running somewhat consistently.
Two years ago we weren't able to run the trail along the north side of Dunbar Brook because the crossings were too dangerous... what a gorgeous stretch to have run today! Much of it was through pine and hemlock forest, past huge glacial erratics (boulders deposited by glaciers during the last Ice Age), much of the time along the boulder-strewn stream. Beautiful! Had a couple of minor stream crossings, and some sections were just too steep or too technical to run... but by and large I ran a good portion of that stretch, until finally I came out at the bridge by the end of the 1st mile of the race (a bridge which still sports a strip of green outdoor carpeting along its length... put there to provide traction two years ago, before they discovered that the bridge was unstable and would not provide safe passage across the raging river the stream had become.) Waded across Dunbar Brook a second time, asked the nice volunteer waiting there to take my picture, and then headed toward the finish, hoping to make it in under three hours. It was a slim possibility, if I could push hard the entire way.
Unfortunately, I didn't count on the steepness of some sections of the return trip, and I crossed the road and headed down into the pines right at around the three hour mark. But I did make good time down the final straightaway through the leaning pines, and crossed the finish at in 3 hours 2 minutes. Not great for a 10.5 mile run, but also not terrible, given the challenges of the course and my still trying to recover from being sick.
After that I snagged some delicious turkey chili and rice and a diet coke, then headed over to the car to change into dry clothes and eat. A few minutes after I finished Bill and Konrad came in - I chatted briefly with Bill, then packed up and headed out for the drive home.
The mountains were even more beautiful in the afternoon sunshine, so I stopped at a couple of places and took some pictures. When I pulled into Williamstown I decided to cross the Taconics using Petersburg Pass, and stopped at the top to get some photos looking out over Massachusetts to the east, and New York to the west.
view north on the way to Monroe State Forest
view from the top of the hairpin turn east of Adams
view into NY from Petersburg Pass
Despite taking a heck of a long time to complete 10 1/2 miles, it was a great day to be out in the woods, and my breathing felt better than it has for the past few days. I also accomplished one of my goals for the year, by completing the WMAC Trail Trilogy with all three long races - Greylock in June, Savoy in August, and Monroe today. So no PRs today... but a pretty darn good day all the same!
Next up: the first of two killer double-race weekends, with the Diamond Hill-Birchwold 22.5k Trail Race on Saturday down in Rhode Island, and the Mohawk Towpath Byway Duathlon up in Clifton Park on Sunday. I suspect I'm going to be a tired puppy by Sunday night!
JMH
2007 EVENT TOTALS
Running 228.4 mi, 53 hr 44 min
Cycling 46.2 mi, 3 hr 18 min
Snowshoe 31.3 mi, 9 hr 11 min
states visited: CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, VT
