Locals complete wild, wonderful trail ultramaratho

[kevinspradlin]

DAVIS, W.Va. — A handful of local runners found out just why West Virginia’s billed as wild and wonderful.

The seventh annual Highlands Sky Trail Run, a 41-mile venture through Canaan Valley State Park, Monongahela National Forest and the Dolly Sods Wilderness area, featured wild rain storms and wonderfully powerful wind-swept thoroughfares as 160 runners completed the journey on West Virginia Day, the state’s celebration of its creation from the secession of several northwestern Virginia counties in 1863.

Rande Brown, 39, of Bedford County, Pa., was 25th among 160 official finishers — the starting field was maxed out at 200 individuals — in a time of 8 hours, 23 minutes and 18 seconds, an average of 12:16 per mile under less than ideal conditions.

Kari Brown, a Cresaptown Elementary School teacher, was second among five area finishers and seventh among female finishers in 9:06:15. The 35-year-old averaged 13:19 per mile, good for 47th place overall.

LaVale resident Justin Taylor, 29, completed his first ultramarathon — any run further than the standard marathon distance of 26.2 miles — in 101st place. Taylor’s time of 10:30:29 (a 15:22 pace) placed him seven spots ahead of Cumberland’s Ronnie Bierman. Bierman, 42, crossed the line in 10:42:30 (15:40 pace).

Ellerslie’s Kevin Spradlin finished less than 15 minutes under the allotted 12 hours in 156th place. Spradlin, 30, competed in his first ultra in more than seven years and averaged 17:12 per mile, good for a finishing time of 11:45:42.

Christine Abbata, 27, of Cumberland, rounded out the area’s local finishers with a time of 11:52:40, good for 158th place overall.

Event details can be viewed online at www.wvmtr.org.

[brucedenton]

Wish I had been there with you. I ran the first Highlands Sky several years ago and it is quite an event of endurance. Anyone who finishes should be proud. I hope to hear more feedback and thoughts on your day!

[Justin]

I'm going to break this up into numerous parts and hope it makes sense. First I'd like to say congrats to everyone locally who ran. Kevin showed some toughness out there to make the cut-off. Kirk had a tough day and he'll be back stronger than ever.

Anyway, Part 1:

Here’s my race report, sorry if this is long it was a long race.
First off the park was awesome. The lodge wasn’t anything fancy, but nice. The Taylor clan arrived into Canaan on Friday afternoon at about 4:00. I pulled over and Rebekah went in to check in. While waiting I ran into Kevin and Kirk. We chatted a little bit, and then parted for our rooms. Friday evening we attended the pre-race dinner and packet pick-up. It was the usual stuff, spaghetti and bread and salad. We ate with Kevin and Kirk. After the pre-race talk by the race director, who is a real nice guy, we again parted to our rooms where I promptly went to sleep at about 9:00. I set 3 alarm clocks for 4:11am and got all my gear ready for the race and drop bag. I have never had to get so much stuff ready for a race before, I was using a Nathan 2L hydration pack for the run along with energy gels and S! Caps electrolyte pills. Saturday morning I awoke at 4:10 a split second before the alarms sounded. Got my stuff on and headed out the door without waking the crew and headed to the lodge. I noticed it was unexpectedly warm for that early in the morning and the ground was pretty soaked, so I figured it had rained in the night. At the lodge I checked in and grabbed a banana, cup of coffee, and ate 2 Snickers Marathon bars. At 5 sharp the bus caravan left for the start. I loaded onto the front bus and sat with a nice guy from Cincinnati named Joe. The buses arrived at the start area at about 5:30am and we all unloaded.

At the start area everyone was getting ready with some final preparation, bug spray was in the air and everyone was spreading Vaseline on their bottom legs. I didn’t know what that was for so I turned both down when offered. I checked the time and it was 5:55 so I figured I’d take a last minute stop at the Johns. When I got out everyone was gone and walking up the road. I walked quickly to catch up and ran into Ryan Howell. Ryan ran track for ALCO and attended the Air Force Academy, he is currently stationed in Boise and had run the HS40 before. It was neat running into him. He was 2 or 3 years younger than me and was a pretty solid 800m runner in HS. We were walking and chatting and all of a sudden Ryan starts jogging, I didn’t know it but my first Ultra marathon had just begun. Ryan and I stayed together for the whole road section (2.5 miles) and caught up. I forgot to turn my watch on, so I reached down and started it. It took about 10 minutes for it to find satellites while I was moving. I started it once it did. After the road section you make a left turn up into some fields and to the 1st aid station. I grabbed a quick cup of water and headed out fast. 8.1 miles to AS#2.

[Justin]

Part 2:

After AS#1 the course winds up and up and up. Switchbacks in a beautiful forest that made you happy to be there. At that time the rain started pouring. The sky opened up and the drops seemed the size of baseballs. The trail got muddy and then turned into a rushing stream. At this point I also found out why people were putting the Vaseline on their legs for, the entire course was covered with stinging nettle. It’s this small weed looking plant with real sharp thorns. The ripped me up pretty good, then the cuts sting and burn. That bothered me for about 5 minutes until the grade got steeper and the burning from my leg muscles made me forget about the nettle. The first climb is about 2000ft. change, but overall it wasn’t too bad. The next section was in my opinion the worst part of the whole race, I think it was called Roaring Plains. It was on the top of the mountain and across bogs. The trails were carved out in the bogs and really rocky. The worst part was because of the current torrential downpours the rocky trails were full to the brim with black water, so it was “running” in shin to knee deep water and you couldn’t see the footing below at all. I tried running as much as possible, but after getting beat up pretty bad I was relegated to a walk/shuffle/run. After that we were shot out into AS#2. I looked at the clock and I was almost an hour behind my expected time and in my mind I threw all time goal out and knew it would be a battle to finish. At AS#2 I grabbed some HEED and refilled my pack with water and started back out. I believe this is where I took the first S! Cap. 5.5 miles to AS#3.
For me the trip from AS#2 to AS#3 was pretty uneventful. I think there was a steep downhill section which caused my quads to burn, and I’m sure there was plenty of water and mud. This may be where the first of the large stream crossings were. I mean large too, waist deep and moving fast. I think I hardly stopped at AS#3 and continued onto #4, which was only 3.7 more to go.

The trip from AS#3 to AS#4 was probably the best trail running all day. I think there was another pretty big climb here, like 1700 feet, but the climbs didn’t seem to hurt me as bad as the steep downs and the water. It was in the bogs still, but the trail was better groomed. It had wooden bridges to cross the bogs and between them were sand-stone trails. There was still water, but being able to see the bottom was a ton of help. After picking up the pace and actually feeling pretty good you get spit out onto a dirt forest service road. On the road you go on for about a mile to AS#4. The halfway point and spectator open area and drop bags. I entered the AS with my family looking pretty nervous, they had been sitting in the car through the rain and I was still about 1 hour behind expected time. They started to loosen up a little when they saw that I was alive and actually not feeling too bad considering the circumstances. I got some fruit, HEED, and potatoes. I decided to not use my drop bag, which had a change of shoes and socks and more of my Powergels I like. I figured it was so wet that it wasn’t worth taking the time to change them just to get wet. Later on I decided this was a smart choice, but I wished I would have grabbed my extra Powergels, I just liked them much more than the Hammergels at the AS. The next couple sections were all run on the road. I was concentrating hard on this section because AS#6 was the last enroute cut-off.

[Justin]

Part 3:

AS#4 to AS#5 was 3 quick miles on the road. There were some gradual hills on the road, but nothing serious. I got into a good groove and was hitting 8:40 pace for the running and took some walking breaks to try and conserve energy on what I knew was going to be a tough last 15 miles. At AS#5 I took water again and was gone. I tossed my cup at the trash bag and started off. The cup bounced off the bag and landed on the ground. I bent over quick to grab it and put it in the bag and was off. Leaving the station you start by going down a pretty steep hill. At the bottom I noticed that water was running down my backside. I didn’t understand it and then realized my pack was leaking. I stopped quick and took it off and the hose must’ve come undone when I bent over to get the cup. I got it stopped and the hose back connected, but over ½ the bladder was gone. I looked back up the hill and thought about going back to refill, but decided to just go onto AS#6, another 4.3 miles down the road.
This section of the road was a little more challenging. My quads started cramping soon after the water incident so I loaded up with a double dose of S! Caps. Even with the cramps I was able to run at a steady 9:00-9:30 pace and caught a couple people, one of which was Joe whom I sat with one the bus in the morning. Joe was hurting at this point in time. At AS#6 the wind was howling and the sun was out now. I quickly refilled my hydration pack with water, grabbed some cantaloupe and Hammergels and headed back out into the trail. It was a shock to go back out onto some wet and rocky trails, my feet had gotten used to the dirt road. It wasn’t ½ mile out and I felt the water running down my backside again. I knew instantly what it was and reattached the tube to the bladder. I lost less this time, but I knew the 5.9mi section to AS#7 in the bright sun and stiff wind was going to get interesting without that water. My quad cramps were coming back and I’d take 2 S! Caps, then I’d get nauseous and take a hammergel. This pattern went on for this whole section. About 4 miles into the section was where the 1 mile boulder hopping section was. That had me hurting for sure. My body with the cramps weren’t ready to climb and jump boulders. I think at this point was my lowest point during the race, roughly mile 32. I would physically hurt worse later in the race, but my spirits would be positive, this section tested my mental toughness the most. In all though I made it to AS#7 finally and once I reached there I felt better. I stopped and went to grab some potatoes out of a can, and ended up cutting my finger on the edge of the can. I think I was having bad luck at aid stations, so I left after refilling my pack one more time. On to aid station #8 4.0 miles ahead.
This was another good section for running, it started kind of rocky, but cleared out into a nice grass trail. I was making some good time on a slight downhill, then it turned sharp right and went down a stream bottom. Actually enjoyable. Then you were spit out on a ski slope in Timberline resort and was faced with an uphill up a ski trail. I could see people in front of me and it turned out we only had to go up ½ the slope before taking a left into the woods. Once in the woods we were faced with a very steep mud decent that was just quad killing. I decided to go for it and had about 5 people right behind me and I didn’t want to be the reason for any of them to descend slower than they wanted. I treated the trail like a shale hill, jumping in and sliding in the mud until I stopped and repeating all the way down. This took a lot of concentration and also a couple tons of luck, but I didn’t take a spill and I was actually having some fun. I came to the bottom after a very long time and turned around to see how the others were doing and they were nowhere in sight. That made me feel pretty good. At the bottom it wasn’t long on first a muddy trail, then a dirt road to AS#8. I rolled in with people in front of me and happy to be near the end. I again refilled my pack, but only ½ way to save weight and headed out for the final 4 miles.
The last 4 miles was ½ road and ½ thick grass trail. The road felt horrible on sore feet, so I ended up running on the dirt on the side of the road. I left with 4 others and one took off and I couldn’t catch him, the others were moving slower than I was so I was alone for the whole last leg. It was pretty painful here, but I knew I was almost done and I knew I’d make the 12 hours easily. My goal was to just get there as fast as I could and to not let anybody pass me on the last leg. Nobody ever did and I ran most of the last 4 miles. The last ¼ mile had one last uphill and I decided to run it as hard as I could and when I crested it I was there, a slight downhill into the finish where the RD was there to greet me with my finishers shirt, a picture with the family and finally some grass to crash into.

[Justin]

Part 4:

Final thoughts on the race was that I had a blast. I don’t think I’ve had more fun running in a long time. I will definitely keep doing these crazy events. I know a lot of “serious” runners like to criticize ultra running as non competitive and glorified hiking, but I don’t really care. I say people should do what they enjoy and try to do it at the best of their abilities. I can tell you one thing though, it’s not easy. I got my butt handed to me by numerous guys and gals in their mid-50’s and I don’t feel ashamed one bit. There are a couple things I don’t like about the races, I would say my biggest pet peeve is the whole holding hands across the finish line thing. There are a lot of fast runners doing this and I just think it’s silly. I was helping others and encouraging my competition all day, so I’m not a jerk, but if someone was next to me on the last leg, I wasn’t going to hold your hand and I was going to try to do everything within my power to beat you to the finish line.

[gdbrown]

Sounds like a great experience, Justin - thanks for sharing.

Congrats to all who competed in the event!

[kevinspradlin]

Can't go into that much detail, but I'll echo Justin's sentiments that despite the advertise weather conditions, I, too, had tons of fun (and more fun, in fact, than Justin as it took me considerably longer to get to the finish line).

The first 10.5 miles took their toll on me. The rocky trails wouldn't have been so bad but the rocks were covered with water and I couldn't see my footing. I kept tripping over the darn things and my right knee took the brunt of the straining and stretching. It hurt a bit by AS 2, where I took my first 200mg of ibuprofen.

Around mile 5-6 or so I was caught from behind by some friends from Carroll County. They were a HUGE help and they carried me much of the way through mile 27 or so. Even during stretches when I wasn't with them, I knew they weren't far ahead.

At the AS at 27 miles, the group headed out a bit before I did (I wanted extra gummy bears). As I startd on the 5.9-mile stretch just off the roads, I felt my left hamstring twinge a bit. Knowing that if I pulled a hammy - with my right knee already in pretty decent pain - my race would be over. I recognized this about midway in this section - in the middle of nowhere.

Managed to make it to AS 7, 32.9 miles. By this point I was surprised to be passed by 2 people (I thought I was already last) and knew I was going to have to push it to earn an offiical finishign time under 12 hours. Pam, an ultra runner who volunteered during this event, was at AS 7 and encouraged me to continue on at leat to AS 8 just 4 miles later. When I reached that point, I was 15 minutes behind what I felt was going to be good enough to finish under 12 hours, but I wasn't in that much pain and the surface returned to even terrain - something my knee felt it could tolerate to run.

[kevinspradlin]

I did a 50-50 walk/shuffle the rest of the way. The last 1.5 miles seemed to go on forever but with about 1/2 mile to go a little kid was walking in the woods with his dad and screamed, "you're almost there!" I knew I had to finish - and I knew I could finish under 12 if I didn't trip.

I was surprised by the way I felt approaching the finish line - Kari, Rande, Justin and everyone else I knew (the Carroll County folks) had all finished and were all there cheering me on - it was AWESOME!!! But I felt so out of place because I was a muddy mess and they all looked so "clean" and rested, having taken showers and put on fresh clothing.

Until mile 32, with the exception of my right knee, my body felt great and "ready to run." The last 8 miles were tough for me. My training leading up to this event - longest run was only 17 miles - wasn't sufficient for a good performance. The knee and weather didn't help, but I couldn't change those two elements.

Not sure I'd do this race again - 50/50 at this point. Some parts very rocky and I struggled with those parts - that's where I got hurt, too. Definitely thinking about it. I will, however, definitely continue trail running. 41 miles and no blisters - I love it.

Part of me doesn't mind the rocks beating me up so much but the lack of quality training in the months leading up to the event - something I do have control over - is something I could fix for 2010. So, we'll see. Definitely want to do Capon Valley 50K in Capon Bridge next May (more "runnable" terrain).

Check out www.wvmtr.org - they've got some fantastic short and long-distance trail runs planned the rest of the year.

[Justin]

Kevin,

I think you showed a lot of guts to finish that race under the cut-off. I have been there before, I ran that trail marathon in GA totally unprepared and it would have been easy to bail, and probably the smart thing to do, but I stuck it out and made it in very bad shape, but from that experience I know I can get through a lot of discomfort to get to the finish line. I also learned what not to do. It was different than what Kirk was going through, he was genuinely injured so it was really the right thing for him to drop.

I can tell you a couple things I know I need to do differently in order to run faster. I really need to do more serious trail runs. I really hadn't done the correct amount of trail running. I also think I need to get back to some basic speed training. This past winter I was doing some pretty good tempos on the treadmill at work. Lately I've not been doing those and I think I need to get back to that. I'm beginning to find out what I need to do in order to run well in these long events, it seems my body responds to a mix of really long runs, hill workouts, and tempo runs. Lately I've kind of gone heavy on the long runs and my hills and tempos have suffered.

[brucedenton]

Great reports guys! I could visualize things just as you describe them. Having run this one and many other ultras and trail runs, I know where you are coming from. This event is a real test, but I also prefer the ones like Capon Valley where you can actually run a decent pace most of the time. I'm not a fan at all of all the rocks, and I've also been known to blaze past a few people in the final miles and not hold their hand at the finish line. There is another event coming up soon that you might be interested in, and it's not far away either...the Big Bear Lake 12-hour run is on 18 July. Basically, the run is on a 6.5-mile trail loop, and you have 12 hours to make as many circuits as you can/want to. From what I have heard, it is largely runnable. I am planning to do it as a training run, not sure if I will keep going for the full twelve hours or not. I've never done one of these before, so it will be interesting. They also have a relay option if you want to do it that way. Maybe I'll see you there!

www.iplayoutside.com/Events/2009/07/11740.html

[Justin]

I was thinking about doing the 12 hour one, but I will be on vacation during it so it's a no go for me this year.

[kw]

I'm impressed with those who ran! Justin, thanks for your recap. I haven't seen Ryan Howell in a few years but I saw he ran the GAR 15k a few years back. Good to know he's still out there running.