the Way of the Turtle

WHO KNOWS? 2008 - Race #12
New Paltz Summer XC Series #1
Undercliff/Overcliff 4.7 Mile Trail Race
Monday, July 7, 2008

Had a few tense moments when I thought I might not make it to the race in time, but in the end I made it with time to spare, even with the quarter of a mile hike from where I parked to the starting area up on the bridge over 44. And I was glad to have that extra time, because it gave me a chance to wander around a bit and take some pictures of an area I'd never been to before (of course, that was one of the reasons I wanted to do this race in the first place...)

This was a fun run, a nice change after Saturday's miserable 25k. The scenery was fantastic - first I ran along the base of the Trapps ridge, with occasional views out across the valley, and then I climbed up to the top of the ridge and had some wonderful views of the setting sun and the Catskills off in the distance. Pushed fairly hard, which felt good in a torturous sort of way, and even managed to run much of the uphill. Crossed the finish in 50 min 16 seconds... not a PR pace by any stretch of the imagination, but still pretty darn good for how I've been running this year.

All in all I'm glad I made the effort to come down for this run - I got to run on some cool trails I'd never been on before, and I got to spend another summer evening in the Gunks, which is always a good thing to do.

Next up: the 2nd summer series race, Lou's Run at the Mohonk Preserve Spring Farm trailhead. I've run some of those trails during the Pfalz Point 10 mile Trail Challenge - should be interesting to get a different perspective on them during this shorter race.

JMH

2008 Event Totals
Run 91.6 mi / 20 hr 37 min
Bike 20 mi / 1 hr 32 min
Snowshoe 45.7 mi / 13 hr 19 min

states visited: MA, NH, NY, VT