Ridgewalk & Run 14 Mile Trail Race
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Ridgewalk & Run info
2007 Ridgewalk 14 mi trail race results
photo slideshow
The short version:
That was easily in my top ten toughest events ever. I'd say toughest event this year, but it has stiff competition from the Nipmuck Trail Marathon back in June.
I finished in just under 4 hours (about 20 seconds under) thanks to a final sprint to the finish. Right now my legs feel worse than they did after running the Adirondack Marathon five weeks ago.
But oh what a beautiful place to suffer...!
The not-so-short version:
Set off once again in the dark, heading down I-390. Not much traffic at 4:30 AM, which is a plus. Unfortunately, a couple of exits before the one I wanted I was detoured off the highway... but a quick check of my map showed that the road I was re-routed to was one I wanted to be on eventually anyway, so I just stuck with it and eventually ended up in synch with my directions I'd downloaded from Mapquest. At one point I found myself thinking "this seems familiar - I think I've been here before" only to pass the entrance to Stony Brook State Park a minute or so later (so I was right!) As the sun came up, the countryside was beautiful - trees decked out in shades of yellow, orange, and red, mist riding from the valleys... definitely a good start for the day to come!
Once I got to Wellesville and the SUNY campus there, I checked in and learned that I'd won a door prize - how cool is that! Ended up with a bag full of goodies, plus a very nice T-shirt and poster, and for a mere $2 I even managed to get a T-shirt from last year's event, which I'd signed up for but then was unable to run or walk. After that it was time to gear up (I ended up with a short-sleeved shirt over a long-sleeved shirt - it was pretty chilly!) and waited around for the word to board the bus to the start. When we finally did get on the buses, I managed to get on early enough to sit by a window, and then we had a long wait while the stragglers made their way over... and finally, at about 8:40, we set off for the start. After a bumpy ride of about 15 minutes or so, we ended up on a road out in the middle of nowhere... you've got to love a race that starts on Stoney Lonesome Road... gorgeous country, with only a few houses in site. Four busloads of runners and walkers congregated in the road, the crazy folk who were in barely any clothes bounced around shivering, and we waited for the signal to begin. The race official who was there said a few words about the course (something about "you're going to head up this hill, and then just after you turn off onto the trail you hit the first real climb") and then off we went!
I started out running slowly up the hill but then decided that was silly and slowed to a fast walk (which really wasn't all that much slower than my running.) Watched lots of people disappear up the hill, including a few hikers who apparently decided to do a little running to start with. After about half a mile, we turned off into the woods, and I decided to stop and ditch the long-sleeved shirt - all that climbing was making me way too hot. Good thing, too, because the race official was right... just after that was when the real climbing began.
The trail went up and up and up... a climb of about 800 feet over 1 1/2 miles. I knew from the course descriptions that I'd be walking a lot of the first 2 miles, so I wasn't bothered, and the scenery was great... off in the woods, trees a mix of green and gold, leaves covering the trail. At the top the trail leveled off for a bit, and we even had a short stretch along a dirt road before hitting some rolling trail through more woods. Footing was a bit tricky as the path wound through some rock gardens. We had a short steep descent followed by a short steep climb, and then a long, winding, steep drop. Too steep for me to run safely, plus the path was fairly eroded as well. It was along this stretch that three hikers came blasting by me, hollering that they were going too fast to stop... I have to admit, I found that a bit annoying (both that they were very loud, and that they were not in control of their speed.) At the bottom I crossed a stream on a narrow bridge, and after crossing a road and grabbing some munchies at an aid station, started a long uphill hike on a dirt road.
One of my strengths became apparent as I passed folks who were also walking up the road... I'm not very good at running up hills, but I can maintain a pretty good clip hiking up them. I passed several runners and walkers who had gone by me earlier, though it seemed likely that they'd end up passing me again further along. As we climbed the road narrowed and eventually wound its way into the woods, but not before we caught some nice glimpses of views of the hills in the distance, covered with colorful trees. We also started passing signs of the old Alleghany oil wells - abandoned drilling and pumping machinery, and occasional pipes running next to and sometimes across the trail. Finally we came out of the woods and had a short stretch of road to run down, with another aid station at the end.
The view from this aid station was spectacular - we were up on a hilltop and could see hills covered with red, orange, gold, and brown far off into the distance. Spectacular! I had one of the volunteers take my picture - he indicated that he'd been doing that a lot. Then it was back into the woods for a downhill stretch of trail, some of it fairly steep, and then another long, gradual climb. I hiked part of it with another runner who was having a tough time with all the climbing - as she put it, she was in shape to run 14 miles without too much trouble, but not to hike 14 miles! Shortly after we reached the top we hit another aid station, where I refilled my water bottles and mixed some fresh Gatorade before heading off down another dirt road, shared with some riders on horseback and also an increasing number of hikers doing the shorter distance walks.
The next couple of miles had terrain that was easy to run (rolling, but nothing too long or steep) but challenging because the further I went, the more walkers there were ahead of me on the trail. Eventually it seemed like I was spending most of my time saying "excuse me" and then dodging around them on one side or the other (a few were very considerate and not only stepped aside but also hollered "Runner coming through!" to the folks ahead of them.) Much of the last few miles were through fairly thick woods, and I would have really enjoyed my surroundings if it had been safe to take my attention off the path for a moment... unfortunately, it seemed like there was always another hiker to get by.
The last few miles seemed to go on forever, between dodging walkers and having been out on the trail for three hours or more. I though I was in good shape when the path started going downhill again, but then I had a half mile long climb before the long descent to the finish... that hurt! We did have one hilltop with an excellent view, but I didn't dare linger - the trails were becoming more and more crowded (Ridgewalk gets approximately 900 participants, after all) and my pace was becoming slower and slower.
The final descent, to the finish at Big Hill Farm, covered a steep downhill - that was tough, with my legs trashed after all the miles of climbing and descending. We had a nice run along the perimeter of a field, though the footing got tricky at times when I passed the walkers. I hit the final stretch to the finish line and pushed as hard as I could, hoping to finish in under 4 hours... and crossed the line at 3 hrs 59 min 37 seconds. Ordinarily I'd be pretty bummed about taking 4 hours to run 14 miles... but this course was tough.
After that I picked up my drop bag of dry clothes and pulled on a dry shirt, then headed over to the food tent to try and snag some refreshment. Ate a bit, visited a few of the booths set up in the tent, and then slowly made my way outside to see what was going on. A bird rescue group had a large display set up, with owls, hawks, falcons, and a turkey vulture... I spent a while watching them and taking pictures of the birds. On the one hand, I found it a bit sad that these wonderful creatures were tied down and confined... but on the other hand, most of them would probably be dead if they weren't, so maybe it's not such a horrible trade-off. Watched the kids races for a bit, then made my way over to the buses and eventually caught a ride back to SUNY in Wellsville. Somewhat painfully changed clothes and climbed into the car for the long drive back to Rochester (with several stops for cold refreshing drinks!)
This was one of the toughest events I've ever done, but well worth it - what a beautiful fall day to be outside, and what beautiful countryside to be travelling through! I would definitely like to do this again sometime!
JMH
2007 EVENT TOTALS
Running 264.8 mi, 62 hr 20 min
Cycling 72.2 mi, 5 hr 15 min
Snowshoe 31.3 mi, 9 hr 11 min
states visited: CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, RI, VT
