Amazon

Showing posts with label shoes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shoes. Show all posts

Thursday, May 18, 2017

2017 NJ Ultra Festival 50K

 

Missed Opportunities

 
Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man's character is, the better it fits him. ---  Cicero   (106 BC - 43 BC)

 

The bridge crossing the dam just after leaving the aid station.
Photo Credit:  Kleinschmidt Group
Have you ever had a race or a training run after which it left you in a bit of a funk? I’m not talking about what seems to be the somewhat common “post race blues” I see people posting about and hear people on podcasts talking about that occurs after the excitement of the finish has faded. I’m referring to a race experience that felt like something was missing from the start to the finish and although it for some reason feels incomplete, as many times as you replay the experience back through your head searching for that missing piece you just can’t seem to identify what it was that was missing. The deeper and more thoroughly you search you realize that there was nothing lacking with the course, the aid stations, or the organization of the race. You realize that the lacking piece was an internal factor, your interpretation of the experience and your outlook and attitude leading up to, during, and after the experience. I am not proud of it, but I am willing to admit that this was the conclusion that I came to after the process of searching and analyzing that I went through following the 2017 NJ Ultra Festival 50K.
 
The view of the falls overflowing from the dam.
Photo Credit:  Princetonblairstown.org
The 2017 Ultra Festival is a multi distance event put on by NJ Trail Series. The distances offered include half marathon, marathon, 50K, 50 mile, 100K, and 100 mile. Something for everyone, right? The 2017 race took place on April 1st at the Princeton Blairstown Center in Hardwick, NJ. The course consists of two loops which both start and end at the race headquarters which also acts as the solo aid station. The two loops were referred to as the forest loop and the lake loop. Respectively, the distances of the two loops according to my Garmin were 3.1 and 2.25 miles making each lap about 5.35 miles long. The 50K distance consisted of 5 full laps and an additional lake loop which my Garmin recorded as a total distance of 28.99 miles with 4200 feet of elevation gain, the majority of which was on the forest loop as the lake loop is relatively flat.  

I signed up the Ultra Festival 50K because the timing and terrain seemed to be perfect for a final long training run before the Hyner 50K, the first of the three “A” races (PA Triple Crown Series) I had planned for 2017. It was three weeks out from the Hyner giving me plenty of time to recover and taper. Little did I know at the time, but the weather and trail conditions of the Ultra Festival 50K would be the best possible training conditions to prepare for the Hyner. Looking back, this mindset of going into a race as a training run may have been part of or nearly all of the reason why I felt that something was lacking when the run was over. Every other ultra I’ve run has always been a test to see what I can do. There have been plenty of times where I have fallen short of my goals in a race, but even in those situations when I realize my top goal is no longer feasible I have continued to push myself to reach the goal at the next tier down. With this race, it felt like I gave up when my “A” goal of a sub five hour finish began to slip out of reach.
 

The first water crossing of the forest loop.
Photo Credit:  @khaosnrg (Instagram)
Race day followed a day of severe thunderstorms that dropped a tremendous amount of rain in a short amount of time. To say the trails were wet is one of the greatest understatements that could be made. Although there are four water crossings along the route of the course, many sections of the trail had become miniature creeks with flowing water due to the previous day’s storm. It was basically the best situation for someone like myself to overcome their fear of running with wet feet. Facing this fear and dealing with it was better than any training run I could have planned to prepare for the conditions of the Hyner 50K. Unfortunately I wouldn’t appreciate it until three weeks later when I was running some similarly wet trails at Hyner View State Park with soggy Lone Peaks on my feet. Just before the start of the 50K the race director, Rick McNulty, let us all know about the trail conditions. In short the message was to plan on having wet feet. With that encouragement and advice, we were off for our first time around the forest loop.
 

The second water crossing of the forest loop.
Photo Credit:  @rick.stahl512 (Instagram)
Both loops leave the aid station by crossing a bridge over a dam before coming to a “Y” where the lake loop cuts left and the forest loop cuts right. Shortly after the split, the forest loop makes about a half mile ascent along what appeared to be a maintenance road before hitting a true hiking trail. By this point my shoes had already sank ankle deep in mud and although my shoes had not been completely submersed in water, they were already saturated throughout. The course then has about
The wooden bridge near the end of the forest loop.
Photo Credit:  @khaosnrg (Instagram)
a half mile descent before reaching the first water crossing. This crossing had a downed tree with high and low limbs across it which you could walk across and use for balance to avoid getting wet feet relatively easily. However, given the trail conditions it did little good to keep your feet dry at the
water crossings. Following this came one of the muckiest sections of the trail and the biggest climb of the course. Water was actually flowing down the trail in sections as I climbed the next half mile up with a little over 200 feet of gain. Then it was about a half mile descent back down to the water for the second water crossing. This crossing had what appeared to be a slick, narrow limb that you could balance on to cross, but I opted to walk through the knee deep water rather than risk slipping and taking a bad landing in the water. By this point my feet weren’t getting any more wet. This was followed by another sloppy, half mile climb before a quick descent to a wooden bridge crossing the water. The trail then followed along side the water for a short run before the final water crossing of the loop. After this there was a short but steep climb during which we were treated to a view of the falls where the overflow from the dam is released to feed the stream we had just crossed several times during the forest loop before making it back to the aid station.
The final water crossing for both loops.
Photo Credit:  @khaosnrg (Instagram)
It was at this first aid station stop that I met another runner who asked me if I was racing this. It was still early in the race (about 3 miles) and I was still well within reach of my 5 hour time goal so my response was simply a “yeah, kinda…”. He headed out from the aid station as I was filling my bottle. Shortly after I started out for my first time around the lake loop. The lake loop was flat compared to the forest loop. It likely would have nearly all been pretty fast and runnable if conditions were decent, but on this day it had basically become a mudfest. Conditions had become sloppy and slick causing my pace to slow. The loop follows the east side of the lake from the dam crossing. At about a half mile from the dam the lake ends and the trail crosses the stream that feeds the lake. This crossing had a few options for getting across. There was a rope bridge or a fallen log that could be used to cross. The rope bridge seemed to always have a line at it and the water level was high enough to flow over the log so that option wouldn’t do much good to keep your feet dry. Dry feet, however, had become a lost cause altogether. I simply used the log for balance as I waded through the waist deep stream. And wow, that water was chilly, but it felt good to wash all the mud and grit off my legs. The trail then followed the west side of the lake back towards the aid station. Just when you near the aid station, the course cuts away and heads back into the woods for about a 1 mile loop where the trail merges with the end of the forest loop trail just after the bridge crossing and before the final water crossing. I spent the majority of the lake loop with the runner I had just met at the aid station and one other runner. After grabbing some food and refilling my bottle I headed back out for lap 2 alone.


  
Another view of the rope bridge.
Photo Credit:  @rick.stahl512 (Instagram)
The rope bridge crossing option.
Photo Credit:  @khaosnrg (Instagram)
Lap 1 had taken me just under 1 hour to finish. I knew I would have to move faster to meet my goal as I had a lake loop to do after 5 full laps. I could blame it on the conditions of the day or the fact that I hadn’t trained on hills much leading up to the race, but my target time slipped farther out of reach as I ticked the miles off. At the end of lap 2 my total time was just over 2 hours. At the end of lap 3 my total time was just a little further over 3 hours. It was during lap 3 that I was so desperate to shave a little time off that I urinated in my shorts. It wasn’t as bad as it initially sounds. During the deepest water crossing of the lake loop, which was about waist deep for me, I let it flow while wading across. The flowing water washed away the urine as it was released keeping me relatively clean and not smelling like urine while saving the time it would have taken me to hop off the trail to go. Even with this completely ingenious tactic, rather than gaining on my time goal, it was getting farther out of reach with every lap. Now just a little past the halfway point, I was beginning to accept the fact that today was not going to go as I had hoped. At the end of the forest loop during lap 4 around the 19 mile mark I was about 3 hours and 51 minutes into the race, well behind my target pace with almost no chance of catching up to my target time. It was at this point that I met up again with the other runner who had asked me about racing the event. I hadn’t seen him since the end of lap 1 and this time he asked if I wanted to run the rest of the race together. Having just realized that my goal time was completely out of reach I was feeling a bit defeated and not competitive at all. I said yes thinking it would be nice to have some company for the last few loops and take my mind off of what I was currently viewing as a failed race. I had the singular time goal for this race and if I didn’t reach that my only secondary goal was to get a good training run with some hills. With this mindset and my goal time a lost cause, I did not have any motivation to push myself harder to compete for a higher placing at the finish. Even considering the fact that as we left the aid station for the second half of our fourth lap we now shared the lead.

The muckiness of the trails was impressive.
Photo Credit:  @rick.stahl512 (Instagram)
We had some conversation during the lake loop and I explained how earlier I had been aiming for a time goal that was now an impossibility. We finished the loop at a comfortable pace without either of us pushing the other. It was during the forest loop of our next and final lap that another runner caught up with us. She past me and was on the heels of the guy I had been running with during the first big climb of the loop. I watched as they both climbed hard and eventually out of sight while my legs and my mind refused to push. It was like the shoe sucking mud I had been running through all day had sucked the will out of me as well. It was towards the end of the forest loop that I caught back up to the guy I had been running with. We basically picked up our plan to finish the run out together once first place was out of both of our sights. So together we ran the last 2 lake loops and finished at the same time about 16 minutes behind the first place finisher.  

     
   Left: Finisher medal; Center:  Race registration swag; Right:  Sweet placement prize

At the finish I was content with getting through a tough day in rough conditions and getting a good training run done leading up to the Hyner, but after leaving the race and some time passed I began
Drying my feet by the
 fire after the finish
feeling disappointed about it and just a bit empty. After examining the how and why I was feeling this way I came to a few conclusions. The first being that maybe I’m a bit more competitive than I thought I was. I tell myself and others that I don’t run ultras competitively, but for personal enjoyment. But when I think back to how I felt as first and second place raced up that hill and out of sight while I felt powerless to chase them and I didn’t particularly enjoy it. I ran decently in pretty tough conditions. I thought that I should have been proud of that, but for some reason I wasn’t feeling that way about the run. I ran about a third of the race with the company of another runner. This should have been a positive as well I thought. However, looking back at the day and my finishing time, I kept on asking if I really pushed myself to my limit and the answer I kept getting was no. Maybe part of the reason why I had this feeling after this race and no other race I’ve done is because of a conversation I had with my brother in law a few hours after the finish. He was basically asking how it went and I explained how I finished with one other runner for second place. He immediately asked “How’d you tie?”. I tried to explain that we ran the last 10 miles together then just decided to finish together. Just as a side note and some background info that may clear things up a bit, my brother in law was a competitive trampolinist who competed in the 2012 London Olympics. So even though I may be more competitive than I had thought I was, he may have an even stronger hunger for competition. It was after this conversation that I started questioning my race effort and whether I ran my race or someone else’s race. The more I relived and examined the experience the less happy I was with it. The last ten miles I ran with another runner had benefits for sure, but also negatives. Honestly, it left me with more “what if” questions than I liked. What if I had run the last ten miles alone? What would the outcome have been? Would I have been faster? Would I have been slower? I guess I’ll never know. I’d say the lesson I’m taking away from this race is how important it is to me, for better or for worse, to run my own race. Whether I meet my goals or fail spectacularly, at least I did it on my terms and have no excuse for the results other than the effort I put forth. Most importantly though, I want to enjoy the experience and the memories of it. If I am looking back on any given race and questioning my effort I feel it is somewhat tarnished as a subpar effort, even if I went into it with the mindset of it being a training run. Maybe this is a fault within me that I need to reconcile in some way. For the time being at least, I am recognizing it.


 
 

Scott Snell
May 16, 2017





Wednesday, February 15, 2017

2016 Navesink Challenge 15K




Author's Note (2/26/17):  Since posting I have been asked by several individuals how the crossfitters did. I debated whether to include the crossfit gyms' results compared to mine in this race report prior to publishing. I had decided that I wanted to close it out without it feeling like I was disparaging the performance of the crossfitters. I figured if anyone really wanted to know they would look up the full results, but they asked and so I shall deliver (full results). To quickly summarize, the fastest runner registered to a crossfit gym's team had a finishing time of 1:09:06.34.


I am confessing before even writing this race report that one of the motivating factors for me even registering for this race was to outrun crossfitters participating in it. I have nothing against crossfit or those that practice crossfit. I simply wanted to test myself against crossfitters in what I consider to be a mid-distance race. Since I have been focused on ultrarunning and endurance racing, I really did not consider myself trained for a 15K. Personally, and this is open to debate, I would in most ways consider an athlete who trains for 50 milers to be a practitioner of a different sport than an athlete who specializes in running 5Ks. Likewise, I would argue that crossfitters train for a sport other than running. So, after seeing some Facebook posts from crossfit gyms who were building up a bit of a competition between themselves about running this 15K, I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to test myself at a shorter distance against other athletes who do not specialize in those distances. Honestly, I saw it as an amature versus amature event. Me on one side and all the crossfitters on the other. I knew none of us would be near the winner at the finish. Let the marathoners and and half marathoners win this, I was here to test myself against the crossfitters. The second strongest motivating factor for me to do this race was simply the convenience of it. The race takes place at Bodman Park in central NJ, which is a short drive from my wife’s parents’ house. Which meant that we may even have a babysitter and we may even be able to participate in the same race.

Crafting a time goal was a harder task for this race than previous races. Reason being that my goal was to run it as fast as possible. With the given distance I had very little recent experience so I had few to no results to use to formulate a goal. Since my goal was “as fast as possible", it really became a question of where is the line between possible and impossible for my current fitness level and ability? I figured that the best way to determine this was to do speedwork trials and see where I stood.

I wasn’t extremely familiar with the course, but I knew it was an out and back with a small lollipop at
About 1 mile in and feeling fine!
the end composed of a mix of paved and gravel road with some elevation change. I wasn’t too concerned with the elevation changes given that the trail races I had been focused on had a far greater amount of elevation change. However, I was also aware of how much of an elevation change can have on the difficulty of a course and how much that can affect pace. Taking all of these factors into consideration, I settled on an 8 min./mile pace. Shortly after that decision and doing some speedwork, I realized that shooting for an 8 min./mile pace probably wouldn’t be enough to produce my goal of “as fast as possible”, therefore, I changed my goal time to a 7 min./mile pace for finishing time of 1:05:12.

With a solid goal in mind and the intention of going all out for the entire 9.3 miles, I arrived at the event about 45 minutes before the start time. For about the last two weeks before the race I had developed a bit of a chest cold and was battling it as best I could so it would not worsen come race day. I had managed to talk my wife into running this race even though she had not done much running since her first marathon about two months earlier. We got our bibs and swag: a pretty sweet neon orange long sleeve shirt, trial size deodorant sticks, and some Advil cold medicine (I know, strange but good for me). We were ready to run with the exception of making a final pit stop at the porta potties. I realize that the last minute bathroom visit is pretty much a race ritual for most runners, but with this race it was of particular concern for me. Reason being that the distance was shorter and the pace was, hopefully, going to be faster than what I had been accustomed to. Usually for an ultra event I expect to stop at some point to discharge some type of excrement. With this 15K distance I didn’t want to stop at all. In fact, I planned on not even taking any hydration during the race to avoid slowing down to grab a cup and drinking the contents.

So, this all leads to my only minor complaint about the event:  the limited number of porta potties. Long story short, there weren’t enough porta potties for the number of runners trying to use them in that last half hour before the start time. With the start time getting ever closer the lines were getting longer. Soon a hedgerow beyond a parking area became a popular spot and the lines began to disappear. Using the hedgerow option, I and many other runners were ready to race.

My wife and I grabbed spots near the starting line. After some short pre race announcements and a quick countdown, the race was on. I went out hard and faster than my goal pace trying to keep the leaders in sight for as long as possible. The course starts in the park and follows a short path out of the park onto a paved road. The paved section starts out relatively flat, but before the end of the second mile you are well into the biggest and longest climb of the course. Following this the course turns onto a gravel road at around 2.65 miles. There is a short climb left after hitting the gravel and although this felt like the steepest part of the climb, my Garmin data shows differently. After descending the majority of the elevation on the gravel, the course turns back onto paved road at the 3.25 mile mark. Getting over the hills and the elevation change in itself wasn’t so much of a challenge when compared to the elevation profiles of recent races I had run (my Garmin recorded a total of 576’ while Strava called it 533' of elevation gain for the entire course). However, trying to maintain a 7 min./mile pace while climbing them was quite a task for me. I felt like I was pushing to the max on the way out and questioning how I would be able to match this pace on my way back when I would have to run this climb again in reverse direction. With that bit of trepidation gnawing at me, I hammered down the backside of the hill. The course follows the paved road for about a mile until you make a small loop which forms the lollipop of the course layout.

Reaching the halfway point of any race is a bit of a turning point, whether it’s a 15K or a 50 miler. I did a quick assessment as I started the route back. I felt like I had been pushing hard since the start without totally red lining. I thought I had enough left in the tank to match the pace I had done on the way out for my return trip. My cold and congestion didn’t feel like they were affecting me too much. All in all, I was pretty much right where I wanted to be. With this positive outlook, I was pushing to get some faster miles in before hitting the hilly section of the course again. At this time I passed my wife who was on her way out to the turnaround. We exchanged encouragement which gave me a little bit of a boost to tackle the hills harder on my way back.


Around mile 7, near the end
of the unpaved section.
Once I hit the gravel road, I looked at my watch less and ran based more on feel. I pushed to the point where I felt like I was suffering, but could maintain the pace. I diverted my attention away from the pain by enjoying the scenery. The tree lined gravel roads may not have been trails (my favorite for running on), but they were about as similar as a road can be without being a trail. The hilly gravel roads stretched through heavily forested areas, giving the course a bit of a trail course feel and providing plenty of beautiful scenery. Given the time of year (late November), the majority of the leaves had already dropped. However, a good portion of the trees were made up of oak species. The majority of the always stubborn oak leaves still refused to drop from their limbs providing a reminder of the just passed beauty of the fall foliage colors.

With my mind wandering the majority of the time while running through the forested section, I was back on the paved road before I knew it. This was basically the home stretch, so I tried to refocus on pushing myself to the red line. I did a pretty good job of this until I came upon an unofficial pop up aid station where a guy was handing out cups of Heineken and Guinness. I had stuck to my hydration plan of no hydration up to this point, but when I heard Heineken with only maybe a mile to go I slowed down enough to grab a cup and down it. It was hard to say no as this was the first road race I had ever done where alcohol was offered during it. With a bit of Heineken gurgling in my belly, I pounded the pavement until re entering the park.

After re entering the park, the finish line was less than a half mile away, but a little (about 0.25 miles) past where the start line had been. In this extra little stretch through the park there is an extremely short section of trail, maybe five paces or so if memory serves. Being primarily a trail runner, I’m pretty accustomed to uneven terrain with plenty of roots and rocks to trip on. With this background, I found it kinda cute how they had marked all of the exposed roots on this trail section with flourescent marking paint. Getting a little chuckle from this, I cheerfully crossed the finish line at 1:06:19.75 a little more than a minute over my goal, but feeling like I had raced the best 15K I was capable of at the time. Was I disappointed I didn’t hit my target time? Yes, but at the same time I wanted to do my fastest time possible. If I had hit my target time, that would have meant that my goal time was not my fastest possible. I would rather set a difficult goal for myself and fail to reach it rather than delude myself with meaningless accomplishments by setting easily attainable goals. As Dean Karnazes said
The finish line!
“Unless you're pushing yourself, you're not living to the fullest. You can't be afraid to fail, unless you fail, you haven't pushed hard enough". With this quote in mind, I was pleased with the finish and my effort. I was also extra pleased upon reaching the finish because I had the opportunity to cheer my wife into the finish, which doesn’t happen very often just because she doesn’t race very often.

The finish celebration was festive with a pretty impressive spread of the standard race finish fare, but also had some pretty delicious grilled chicken soup. Although this was more than I expect at a standard race finish, it was the after party at a nearby Elks Lodge that blew me away. Between the one free draft beer per runner (that’s two for me since my wife didn’t want hers) and the baskets of Shipwreck Rum airliner bottles that were up for grabs, the pain from the run disappeared quickly. Add to the free flowing alcohol the live music and the full buffet of hot food, coffee, and cookies and I concluded that this was the most pampered race finish party I had ever attended. I realize that this is rather juxtaposed to most ultrarunning events, but so is running a 15K. Sometimes it’s fun to mix things up and get out of your comfort zone. Additionally, it’s also fun to be able to include your wife in the hobby that you are most passionate about and enjoy it together.
 

Scott Snell
February 14, 2017


Saturday, January 14, 2017

How to Turn a Routine Run Into a Marshmello Run



It wasn't an amazing run for the distance or difficulty,
but it did inspire the above meme and this blog post...


So this weekend started like most others: cooking breakfast for the kids, my wife is prepping for work, playing with the kids (Hot Wheels, Nerf gun wars, and Lego building), and I’m thinking about when I will be able to get out to get some miles in. My wife is working a split shift today, so I know I have a small window when running is even an opportunity. Call it serendipity, call it fate, call it whatever you want but at some point this morning Marshmello turned what I had expected to be a standard neighborhood road run into something more memorable (and worth writing a blog post about).

Recently my two and four year old sons have taken to watching Marshmello videos on youtube. I had noticed them watching these videos once before this morning, but didn’t give it much attention. Today, however, I ended up watching several videos for entire songs with my two year old. At some point during this time, I started thinking to myself that these videos are entertaining and this music is pretty good and could be pretty awesome to run with. Well, with that thought I decided I would take Marshmello with me to liven up my standard neighborhood running route I had planned to get in during the break between my wife’s work shifts. In some sense, it made it a new and fresh experience.


Here is one of my top favorites from Marshmello, "Summer".


Let me backup a quick second here. Marshmello is an electronic dance music producer and DJ. He definitely doesn’t specialize in my standard style of music that I listen to running or not. Anyhow, even though I usually don’t run with music altogether, I decided while watching these videos with my two year old son that I was going to listen to this music during my run today. Even stranger was the fact that as I was getting my stuff together and tying up my Altras with the Marshmello videos playing in the background my wife commented to me about how it would make pretty good music to run to!?! “Weird, I thought the same thing”, I said as I was just finishing setting up the Marshmello playlist on Spotify.

Here is another one of my top choices, "Alone".

With that, I was out the door and embarking on my first ever run synced to electronic dance music. For the most part, I am not a super emotional person. I tend to hide my emotions more readily than put them on display for all to see. Furthermore, I don’t buy into much spiritual stuff about “sending good vibes” and feeling people’s energy, not that I don’t see the value of support from others or self confidence. However, even with my rather cynical mindset I found this run to be more emotionally charged and filled with more out of the ordinary thoughts than my standard run of the same route. 

It started off like most other runs along my standard neighborhood route; the sidewalk and road cracks here and there, the resident turkey there. Maybe there was a bit more “pep in my step” due to the fast tempo in my earbuds that I wasn’t accustomed to, but otherwise it felt like a standard run. It wasn't until about five miles, the halfway point of my run, that I started feeling that this music was altering my thoughts and emotions during my run. I began thinking about appreciating our surroundings. Since I prefer trail running over road running, the fact that this thought popped in my head during my standard neighborhood road run route surprised me.

I looked at the houses and appreciated the architecture and the work that went into the design of them. How can one say that architecture isn’t an art in itself? For that matter, what about the landscaping? I appreciated the materials that went into the building of those homes: the years and labor hours that were spent on the research, development, and production of those materials. I thought about the chemists that were involved in the development of the paints, siding, shingles, and insulation in every home on the street I was running along. I admired the structural and environmental engineers that designed and finalized all of the minute details of the working parts of the home and macro impacts of the development itself. I thought of the foresters and mill workers that made the lumber and the drivers that transported those materials from the forest to the mill to the building sites. I thought of the landscape architects that designed the layouts of the yards with the trees and shrubs. That led me to appreciate the nurseries and their employees that produced the plants. Additionally, it led to the appreciation of the landscape companies and their workers for installing the shrubs, trees, and turf.

That last paragraph may sound like nothing but an unadulterated praise of capitalism, but it is in fact just my reiteration of thoughts during this run of my recognition of the worth of individuals’ contributions to a shared project. Whether it had been building homes, growing corn, or launching a satellite into orbit; I believe that in my state of mind I would have seen the beauty in the orchestration of any of them and appreciated them all equally. Basically, the point of this entire writing is to encourage the appreciation of your surroundings.
I’ll be the first to admit that I usually don’t appreciate my environment when I do my standard neighborhood runs. I typically view it as a convenient way to get some miles in. After this morning’s run though, I appreciated my standard running route in a way that I had not before. It really opened my eyes to how much a run can be influenced by altering one small aspect of it, such as auditory input. It amazed me that I had not been so aware of this fact earlier. I’ve run the same routes multiple times many times with mixed results. Sometimes it’s the weather that changes or just my attitude. Sometimes I’m too hungry or my stomach feels too full. Whatever the variable is that you choose, there is some impact from said variable on how your run turns out. The key is to realize that YOUR run is being impacted by these inputs. Once this is realized and accepted, one can run through and minimize the impacts of perceived negative inputs on their running regime. Additionally, one can breathe new life into old and boring running routines. Change your music, add music, run hungry, run full, run topless, push a stuffed armadillo in a stroller. The point is to change up your routine if the routine of it has begun to impact your motivation. It isn’t the activity of running that has become boring or routine to you, it is your perception of it.

Scott Snell
January 15, 2017

Saturday, November 12, 2016

2016 Batona 50 Race Report



The Batona 50 is point to point race with 53.4 mile and 50k options. The course follows the path of The Batona Trail. The trail derives its name similar to but not exactly in the format of an acronym: BAck TO NAture. It makes its way through the NJ Pinelands National Reserve from the north end at Ong’s Hat in Brendan T. Byrne State forest to the southern end at Lake Absegami in Bass River State Forest. Along the way it takes you on a tour through the heart of Wharton State Forest passing Batsto Village and numerous campgrounds.The trail is pretty typical of South Jersey trails in that it is a reflection of the common sandy soils of the coastal plains, resulting in high sand content and sandy trails. The second common feature of trails in Southern NJ and the landscape in general is a lack of elevation change. The Batona Trail shares the nearly total absence of climbs and descents with the rest of the landscape in the region with only 530’ of elevation gain recorded by my Garmin for the entirety of the trail. 
Elevation Profile
The Batona 50 event is organized as a “fat ass” event. Typically, “fat ass” events have no frills, no fee, no aid, no schwag, and no course markings; making them more or less a large group run. However, the organizers of the Batona 50 have gone beyond what I would consider to be the standard definition of a “fat ass” event. While there are no course markings, the trail is pretty well marked already by trail blazes so there really isn’t any need for additional markings. As for frills, there was no schwag for registering or finishers’ medals, but they did offer the option to purchase a
pretty nice looking long sleeve shirt. There was no registration fee, but the organizers did ask that in lieu of the fee that participants consider donating to the Pinelands Preservation Alliance or NJ Conservation Foundation. It was in the aid department where the event really went beyond my expectations from a “fat ass” event. The course had six planned aid stations along the 50+ mile distance, four of which doubled as aid for the 50k distance. A surprise aid station popped up during the event for the 50+ mile distance between aid stations on the second half of the course where they were about 10 miles apart. All of the aid stations were stocked with standard fuel and hydration donated by the runners and the amazing group of volunteers manning them. And heck, they even offered the option of transporting a drop bag to any of the aid stations for you!


This was my last ultra for the year and with it taking place only four weeks after finishing my first 100 miler, I was really questioning how hard I wanted to push myself while running it. I didn’t train much between the two events. I did some easy medium to short recovery runs following the 100 miler, one long (25 mile) training run, and some mid to short runs during a taper leading up to the 50 miler. In total, I ran about 75 miles in the four weeks between the two races. I was really banking on the fitness and endurance from the 100 mile training to carry over and get me through the race, which is a strategy I have never used and did not trust. Additionally, I was trying to comfort myself with the fact that the course was super flat and therefore the 50 miles would seem “easy”. All the while I knew that while one 50 miler may be “easy” relative to another 50 miler, running 50 miles is never “easy” and I knew that at some point during the run I would most likely be hurting and in pain. With these trepidations leading up to the event, I was telling myself that my plan was to go out at comfortable pace and maintain that for the entirety of the run. I stuck to that plan up until the race started.

I stood in the crowd while the race director made some brief announcements. Then with the start of the race imminent, a strange thing happened. All of the other runners towards the front of the crowd started shuffling backwards in small, barely noticeable increments. Without moving, myself and about four other runners were all at the front of the starting line and with that the race began. Three of the other runners that took off first had actually intended to be there. The one immediately in front of me, however, had apparently ended up there inadvertently due to the pre start backwards shuffle and hopped off to the side of the trail to let me pass after maybe 100 yards from the start.

The start of the race was 7 AM so the sun was just starting to rise and it was still a little tough to see the trail and blazes without a headlamp. My plan, or lack thereof, was to run with someone else with a headlamp for the first half hour or so until the headlamp would be completely unnecessary. I was going out at what felt like a pretty comfortable pace for me, but no headlamps were nearby behind me and one was not too far ahead. I figured I’d pick up my pace a bit to catch the pair of runners, one of whom had a headlamp, in front of me. I told myself that even though it was a little faster (around 8:30 miles) than I had intended to go out, it would be less than a half hour until it would be light enough that I would be completely comfortable running without any lighting.

After just a few miles with the two runners, it was daylight and one other runner that had sped up from the starting pack had joined up with us. With a little conversation between the four of us the miles started to click off and we were at the first aid station. We all passed through quickly (less than a minute) and continued on. And just like that, I scrapped my whole plan of taking it easy and decided to see if I could keep pace with these guys who were the lead pack with the exception of the front runner who was running a blazing pace and set a new course record of 7:11:00. As much as I had told myself that this is my last ultra for the year, I haven’t trained enough or recovered long enough from the 100 miler, and I should take it easy and just focus on finishing and enjoying it, I couldn’t convince myself to execute that plan. For me anyway, the attraction of ultras is to truly test yourself and find out what you are capable of. The way I see it, if you aren’t pushing yourself, you won’t find out.


One of the stretches of narrow boards.
Even though I was pushing harder than I had intended and in a bit of pain, I was still enjoying the run. The first couple hours were a bit chilly, mid 30s, but once it warmed up a bit it was perfect running weather. It may have been a bit past the time for peak fall colors as the sassafras and the sweetgum trees had nearly dropped all of their leaves, but many of the oaks still displayed the majority of their leaves ranging from green tinted with yellows to brilliant reds and earthy browns. Though the most stunning colors belonged to the blueberry shrubs that dominate much of the understory of the Pinelands. Running through the seemingly endless sea of fiery red was a reward in itself. Nearly every footfall was cushioned by a bed of oak leaves and pitch pine needles along the sandy trail. While much of the scenery along the Batona trail is consistent, it does offer some variety passing by several lakes and long abandoned cranberry bogs. Additionally, for some stretches it follows forest streams and passes through several low lying swampy areas where the trail weaves its way between the thick stands of Atlantic white cedars on treacherous looking narrow boards.


Between enjoying the scenery and the off and on conversations within our pack, we were a little over
Fall colors.
20 miles into the run before I even realized it or thought about changing my pace. It was around this point that one runner from our group picked up his pace and for the next few miles I could just barely catch a glimpse of his orange jacket in the distance every few minutes. Not long after that another from our pack picked up his pace as well and the one runner remaining with me slowed his pace. I ran alone for a good stretch of the trail after that and maintained just a slightly slower pace (just under 9 minute miles) than I had when running with the group until I started feeling some rumbling in my bowels. After assessing the situation for awhile, it became clear that I was going to have to resolve the issue soon. I didn’t want to waste much time by going too far off trail, but I also did not want to perform a public demonstration of how to wipe your ass with leaf litter and pine needles. My main worry was that I had no clue how far back the next runner was. I waited until the next side trail crossed the course and went just a little way down that trail and hopped off the trail behind some shrubs thinking “this side trail won’t have any traffic”. Well, one of the pre race announcements was to be very mindful and on the lookout for trail blazes because there are many cross trails and fire roads making it easy to go off course without realizing it. I had noticed this during the race as well as how often times along the trail there are braided sections that separate then quickly rejoin to a single trail. It turned out that this “cross trail” that I hopped off of was actually just a braided section of the Batona trail. I realized this shortly after taking care of business and going just a few paces down the trail to find the paths reconnected. Thankfully, there was enough of a gap between me and the next runner that my privacy was not disturbed.

With that catastrophe avoided, I continued on in good spirits. Soon after, I passed the 50k mark and checked my watch to realize I had just run my fastest 50k, bettering it by about 13 minutes. Even though my previous 50k best was on a tougher course (Blues Cruise) with far more elevation change, it was still a bit of a boost for my morale and encouraged me to continue to push as best I could for the remaining 20 miles or so. I was feeling a bit tired by this point so it really did help me out mentally. Although I was telling myself that I didn’t have a target time for this race, I was really hoping to keep it under a 10 minute per mile average. With that pace, I would improve my 50 mile time. I pushed on sustaining around a 9:30 per mile pace until around mile 40 when I caught sight of one of the two runners I had been with earlier that had picked up his pace. It was his first race greater than a 50k distance and it looked like the miles were beginning to take a toll on him. We rolled into the final aid station at about the 43 mile mark together.

I was feeling pretty tired by this point, but the excitement of running a faster time than I had hoped for and knowing that I could be at the finish within a couple hours had me pumped and ready to push on and wrap this thing up. After refilling my bottle and downing some bacon, a banana, and some coke I was ready to move out. I looked over at my running mate to realize that he did not look as excited or as pumped as I was to finish this run. A chair was set up just a few steps from the aid station table and one of the volunteers pointed it out and mentioned it to the guy I had been running with. I felt it was my duty at this point to tell him not to even think about sitting down. I told him to not even look at that chair, it’s only another ten miles until you’ll be back at your car and can sit down there. With that we headed out from the aid station and pushed on.

The next few miles passed quickly with the company and the boost of the caffeine and sugar from the coke. Then we found ourselves on a fire road and there was no sign of the familiar pink blazes we had been following on the trail all day. We turned back following the road until we found a faint pink blaze. Thinking that this confirmed we were still on the trail, we doubled back and continued on the road until it came out to a larger road crossing we had already crossed from the opposite direction not too long before the blazes had quit appearing. We saw the trail nearby where we had
crossed earlier and knew for certain that we had made a wrong turn. We got back on the trail, running a section we had already run, a little frustrated that we had probably just added about an extra one mile loop to the final stretch of the course. We got back to the point where we made the wrong turn and I immediately realized how we had both messed it up. What looked like an arrow pointing left where the trail met the fire road was actually an arrow directing hikers from the opposite direction onto the trail we had just come from. If either of us had looked to the right at that point we would have seen that the trail was clearly blazed in that direction. Clearly both of us were feeling the effects of the miles that we had logged already. Thankfully, that was the only wrong turn we made.

We continued on together until about 5 miles from the finish when my trail companion decided to slow down to take a gel and walk for a bit. I think his stomach was bothering him a bit as he had mentioned that he hoped the coke would help settle it shortly after leaving the last aid station. I’m guessing that he wanted to let the gel settle a little before continuing with the gyrations from the pounding of running. He told me not to wait for him, but I felt kinda bad about continuing on ahead of him so close to the finish when we had run the better part of the entire trail together. However, at that point I could practically smell the finish and was running out of motivation. I just wanted to be done as soon as possible. I just gave him a nod and continued on. My brain was feeling kinda fried at the time and in my mind it was a very encouraging nod that said “Stay strong, keep up the pace and finish strong!”. Looking back, I doubt it conveyed that entire message to him.
Lake Absegami at the south end of the trail.
For the last few miles I tried to run the tank dry, but there wasn’t a whole lot left. I was digging deep in an attempt to eek out one more sub 9 mile, but the closest I could get was a 9:15. I crossed the finish with a time of 8:40:45 which I was pretty impressed by since my time goal that I was saying I
Finished!
didn’t have was 10 hours. I am so thankful that I fell in with the group that I did from the start or else I don’t think I would have pushed myself to the same degree. To me, that really sums up what these ultra events are all about:  the eloquent intermixing of camaraderie and competition that drives everyone to be the best version of themselves.






Scott Snell
November 10, 2016