Ghost Train Rail Trail Races - 100 Mile Race Report

My friend and training buddy ran his first 100 mile race at the Ghost Train Rail Trail Race this past weekend in Brookline/Milford, NH and wrote up a report about his experience:

Background: I feel as though an introduction of myself might be necessary because no one knows me and why would you?  Jason Gray, husband and father, teacher, and all around fun guy, maybe, I don’t know.  I’ve been running since February of 2012 after deciding that moving was the only way for my back not to hurt--4 back surgeries, rods, screws, fusion, yada yada.

This year’s goal was to not get injured and most importantly to have fun running.  I decided early in the year that I would attempt my first hundo (100 miler).  This winter was a bitch, but my buddy Jesse, whose blog I’m hi-jacking because I don’t write or blog and he encouraged me to write up a race report, kept me going strong during most of it.  My plan was to do a bunch of 50k’s leading up to Ghost Train, the 100 that I decided on that starts in Brookline NH and goes out to Milford NH and back (a bunch of times).  I ran Twin States 50k with Jesse (a PR for me @ 4:49:28), Bear Brook Trail Marathon (which is basically a 50k @ 5:14:00), the TARC Fall Classic 50k @ 5:13:00, Wakefield around the Lake (in which I paced my dude, Luke, for 35 miles) and a bunch of trail ½’s and other shit.

I’m going to name drop—Justin Contois, the greatest runner that’s ever lived (at least that’s how he’s perceived in my head because he’s responsible for getting me thinking of ultra’s and introducing me to Jesse “I run way too damn early” Veinotte), along with Jesse really got me dialed in mentally for Ghost Train.  I was ready for this race.  Nothing was going to stop me.  I had only run consecutively a total of 35 miles before attempting this 100, but that didn’t even matter to me.  I set a goal, I got ready, and I was going to do it.  I was mentally in the right place.  Jesse agreed to pace me from mile 60 to the finish, so I knew that I would be in good hands—the dude knows his shit. 

The night before the race, my friends Luke and Tom all met for dinner with another friend of mine, Justin Fitzgerald and his wife Dawn, whom I met at other ultras.   Dinner was great, had a beer, and headed back to the motel to try to get some sleep and do some last minute preparations before the race.

Luke, Tom, and myself woke up, got the cars packed up, and headed out to starting point of the race, Camp Tevya, on a very chilly morning.  Luke actually had to hang his head out of the window as the windshield was frosted over, to drive over to the office where we checked out.  We arrived early, set up our tent and personal aid station, and just general pre-race stuff.  We met up with Justin and his wife Dawn and she agreed to take some of our gear to the other end after the race started.  Ghost Train is a 7.5 mile out and 7.5-mile back course so you have an opportunity to have a drop bag at each end, which was nice.

Jay prepping before the race, photo by Tom Ronan

Luke getting ready to go, photo by Tom Ronan

When the race started it was in the lower 30’s and the forecast for the day was partly cloudy in the mid 40’s with rain overnight.  The forecast was spot on.  I ran the first 15 miles with Luke in 2:32, stayed with him to the next turnaround at mile 22.5, and then let him do his thing as I felt I needed to conserve some energy for the later miles.  I came in the first 30 miles at 5:24 feeling pretty good.  My left front hip flexor thingy was acting up from the start of the race and never went away.  It was tolerable, but remained on my mind. 

The next 30 miles took me 7 hours and 15 minutes for 12:39 at 60 miles.  This stretch was full of ups and downs as every step past 35 miles was a PR distance for me and unchartered territory.  I began to take more walk breaks in this stretch as fatigue and inflammation began to creep up on me.  I made it to mile 45 without the need of a headlamp, but it was dark for the next 35-40 miles.  I saw Jesse, his wife Amanda, and their two kiddos, Matthew and Emma, at the Milford side at mile 37.5.  It was a good boost to see familiar faces cheering me on, especially the kids.  It made me think of my daughter and how I told her that I was going to be running 100 miles.  I couldn’t let her down. 

Mile 45, still smiling

I started to develop a pain on top of my left foot.  I decided to change my shoes at mile 52.5 as my feet were beginning to swell and I had a pair that were bigger and loosely tied in my drop bag.  That seemed to do the trick as the pain began to dissipate.  Tom and Jesse met me on the other side with coffee and encouragement, while keeping me moving in and out of that aid station.  Without them, I would’ve sat down, ate something delicious, and probably stayed way too long. 

Sometime right around mile 60, photo by Tom Ronan

I picked up Jesse at mile 60 at the Brookline side and he stayed with me until the finish.  At this point I put on some running tights, a base-layer shirt, and a thin hooded rain jacket for the rain that was coming.  The last 40 miles took me/us 12 hours and 47 minutes.  We did a walk/run thing for probably the first 15 miles or so to make it to mile 75.  After that, it was pretty much just a “do what hurts the least—walk/run/jog/shuffle.”

Jesse was awesome as a pacer.  I don’t know if he’d ever gone that slowly before, but he tolerated it and stuck it out with me—I really appreciate it man! More than words.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ISYT6EeUM0  He’d go ahead and push the pace a little at times, he knew when to back off and let me rest, he’d ask if I could run to the bridge, and he shut up without me having to ask.  He would run ahead and fill my Tailwind and water and let me know that the aid station had broth or potatoes or anything else that might interest me. 

Around mile 92 coming through the scented pumpkin bridge

I stayed up on my hydration and nutrition during the race and really didn’t have any issues/concerns with that.  Jesse made sure I ate and drank throughout the last 40.  I got to a point where I hurt so bad that I had to engage in butt kicks as I was taking a leak just so my legs didn’t rest and seize up.  Supposedly the loud howling we heard around 1:00a.m. was a pack/herd/whatever you call it of coyotes that probably just made a kill.  I kept thinking that I would have no fight left in me if I were to be attacked at this moment.  I would’ve presented my throat hoping they would take me quickly.   

“One foot in front of the other,” “Some people don’t have legs” “Quitting is for pu$$ies,” “If Contois could do it,” were all things I kept saying to myself to get through to the finish.  A few students of mine found out about this race and emailed me on Friday wishing me good luck.  I couldn’t let them down.  Mostly, it was thinking of my daughter that got me through.  She thinks I’m Superman and even said, “You’re running all day and night and day…whaaaaaat?”  Her smile was on my mind and that made me smile every time I thought of her. 

From mile 60-75 it took me 4 hours and 17 minutes, 75-90 it took me 5 hours and 4 minutes, and from 90-100 it took me 3 hours and 26 minutes.  Wow!  This is the first time I’m actually looking at these splits.  I think you want to do the exact opposite of this, but oh well, it was a great learning experience for the next one.

Nearing the finish, somewhere on the last 10 mile stretch

I remember distinctly at mile 93.5 having a shooting pain go up my right shin and I was sure that I just splintered the bone.  I couldn’t take another step and Jesse actually got worried, then pointed out that the middle aid station was real close and we could have someone call and pick us up if necessary.  We re-evaluated the situation, Jesse mentioned that it could ‘ve been a severe cramp that may have hit a nerve, and I tried to take some steps.  I had to walk sideways for a little while to avoid that shooting pain coming back.  Jesse told me to take some salt pills, which I did, and soon enough the pain was gone and I could resume a “as normal of form as one could imagine after 93.5 miles” death march to the turn-around and then finished the 100. 

Coming down the stretch, photo by Tom Ronan

With about a half mile to go, Luke and Tom came strolling into the woods to guide me back in.  I’m convinced they thought I collapsed and were going to drag me to the finish.  Coming back into the area where the start/finish was, was such an awesome feeling.  I took my race vest off, handed it to one of my buds and ran it in solo.  I saw Jesse’s kiddos at the finish line and gave them a wave.  Luke was convinced I was losing my mind as he thought I was waving at random kids thinking they were mine.  My wife and daughter couldn’t make it for the race.  They both came down with some sort of virus, which I ended up picking up after I returned that put me out for three days (Not good for recovery).  As I crossed the finish line, I looked down at my watch and it read 100.2.  I got a little emotional at this point for the first time in the whole race.  I shed a couple of happy tears, thought about my wife and daughter, collected myself, and then reported to the timing table to receive my very cool finishing railroad spike.  

Finishing railroad spike, photo by Tom Ronan

Overall, it was a great experience.  I saw a lot of brave runners out there pushing their limits in one way or another.  The volunteers were phenomenal, the race was flawlessly put together, and I had a blast. 

I have to thank Luke and Tom for joining me on this endeavor, both of whom achieved PR’s for distance.  They turned into my crew after their day was over, where they could’ve packed up and gone home.  I’d also like to thank Justin Contois for just getting the wheels in motion for this day (mentally and physically)—I miss you man!  Jesse Veinotte is the man!!!  This dude got me training for real, way early in the morning, in the cold, rain, heat, humidity, you name it.  He paced me for 40 miles and over 12 hours.  He crewed for me before that.  He gave me tips, podcasts, emails, words of encouragement, etc…I can’t thank you enough my friend.  Most importantly, I need to thank my wife, Greta, and my daughter, Gracie, for putting up with me throughout this whole thing.  The training, the ups and downs, my piss poor attitude at times, the time I took away from my family to race/train/recover, was all sacrifices they had to deal with.  I truly appreciate them and how they understand this passion of mine.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Results can be found here:  https://sites.google.com/site/ghosttrainrailtrailrace/results/2015-results

Jay ended up finishing 17th out of 41 finishers, in a time of 25 hours and 26 minutes.

Thank you to Jay for writing up an account on your experience and talking about the determination that it takes to not call it quits when you return to your car/tent/chair every 15 miles. It takes a lot of willpower to push on through the night and we all have our focus that helps us through a long race such as a 100 miler. After seeing everyone out there all night and being part of the Ghost Train again for the second year, I may make an attempt next year at a 100 miler. Not sure where yet, but it will be a big focus race for me next year and I hope to complete it in the fall sometime.

TARC 100km Trail Race Report - 10/10/2015

The start of the 100 miler at 5am. The 100k started at 6am.

After putting in several mountain training runs in the 50km/8-10 hour range this summer in the White Mountains of NH, I felt fairly ready to tackle the 100km race that has been on my mind since March. I figured what I had developed in leg strength and endurance from those fun runs would translate well to putting in a faster effort on the flatter trails in Hale Reservation, where the race took place.

Instead of driving my own car, I opted for my wife, Amanda, to drive me to Westwood Friday night as there was camping allowed at the reservation. After getting my tent set up, I made my way over to where the pre-race food was and grabbed a bite to eat with Amanda and a few friends I knew from the trails. She ended up leaving to relieve my mom of babysitting duties and I hung out for a while until I got tired and headed to bed. Waking up at a race venue was new to me and it was great to just roll out of bed and not have to plan for an hour or two drive.

After watching the 100 milers take off on their journey through the woods, I made the final preparations to race and headed back over to the start for the pre-race briefing. At 6am, with a Yeti howl (TARC race tradition), the 100km runners headed out into the woods in the dark. The 100 mile course consisted of four 25 mile loops all the way around Hale Reservation and Noanet Highlands on mostly singletrack and doubletrack trails with a short 1/4 mile section of pavement. The 100km course runs a 12.5 mile section on the last part of the loop and then does two 25 mile loops to finish back on the beach. This allowed us 100k runners to run alone and I think it took until about 37 miles in that I saw any of the 100 milers.

Jack Bailey and I decided beforehand that we would try to run together for a bit and headed out in front at a steady pace. It was great to have someone to trade the lead off with and chat about life in general while out there enjoying the weather and beautiful, sometimes rocky trails. We ended up running about 20 miles together (average pace 9:24/mile!) until I decided the pace wasn't going to be one I could sustain for the whole distance. I let him go hoping that I would be able to catch up later, and started to get into a funk that took me about 10 miles to shake. From miles 20-30 I felt like I didn't want to be running any longer but tried to push on through it knowing that during any long race there are ups and downs and surely this one would pass.

Jack heading out into the fields on the approach to Powisset Farm Aid

 

Nice long views of the early sunlight

I ended up catching up on my fluids as I had started to get a bit dehydrated and got a second wind as the end of the first loop was getting closer. I was looking forward to picking up my pacer Eric Ahern for the final loop and getting a few miles in with him, hoping it would help my enthusiasm and drive to complete the race with a good effort towards the end. Meeting up with Eric and spending minimal time in the aid station, we were off on our last loop of the course, getting closer and closer to the finish with each step. I kept getting updates at aid stations telling me how far Jack was ahead of me in the race, which helped to keep up my spirits knowing that I was still close to his pace.

As the last loop rolled along I would get updates from volunteers saying 8 minutes ahead...6 minutes ahead...4 minutes ahead, and I kept my mind on my pace and nutrition trying to stay in the race and hope that those times kept coming down in my favor. Eric really did a good job pacing and helping the hills move quickly as they were starting to wear on me at this point. Around mile 51(?) at Noanet Aid Station I got word that I was down to 2 minutes in back of Jack and I made an attempt at this point to pass through the remaining the aid stations without stopping, hoping to make up time.

As you approach the Powisset Farm Aid Station, runners get a long view of who is ahead and we could see Jack arriving at the aid station. I grabbed a water/coke mixture and moved through without stopping catching up to him just after leaving and checked on how his day was going. He said he was "ready to be done" and said he had a rough patch just like I did. I kept a constant pace moving past him and pushed the pace back up into the 9:30 min/mile realm for a couple miles and that seemed to do the trick holding him off. Eric and I relaxed a little, but not too much as we had about 4.5 miles to go to the finish. Eric was texting my wife and letting her know where I was at and a projected time I would finish so my son could be ready to run into the finish with me, something he loves to do at these long races. My son usually runs a bit faster than me after I have a lot of miles on my legs and he enjoys treating it as a mini race between the two of us.

It was a great feeling coming around the bend and seeing my family there to cheer me on, and it was an equally great feeling to have completed my first 100km race - the second longest distance I had ever run (Ghost Train 100 miler 2012 still is my longest). After a couple family photos and talking with Josh K. about the race course, I threw on some heavier clothes and sat over by the fire for a couple minutes until Jack came into the finish and I could congratulate him for a great race. He ran 11:44:39 and another runner, John Kemp, whom we didn't know was behind us came in for third place in 11:50:41.

Finishing up with my main man Matthew

Photo by Eric Ahern during the last few miles

Photo credit Josh Katzman or Jim Roche, they took a similar photo

Lots of fun and suffering were had that day on the rocky trails of Hale and Noanet. Congratulations to all the runners in both races, the course was not easy and all the little rocks and seemingly innocent climbs that were easy in the beginning of the race became exponentially harder as the fatigue set in. Once again, as with any other TARC event, the volunteers, course marking and trail vibe was great. Thank you to all the people that helped getting the event organized because it was a smooth, well-run race to be a part of.

Map of the course, in general it went in a counterclockwise direction

Elevation profile of the many small hills (with Blue pace line)

Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/411109001
Results here: https://ultrasignup.com/results_event.aspx?did=30062

Race Statistics:

Half Marathon: 2:06

Marathon distance: 4:15

50k: 5:15

50mile: 9:06

62.5 (100k): 11:37:10, with around 7,000' of climbing, overall pace of 11:09/mile

Gear Used:

Shoes: Inov8 RaceUltra 290

Socks: DarnTough VT Herringbone Micro Crew Ultra-light

Shorts: The North Face Better Than Naked Flight Series

Short-sleeve Shirt: The North Face Velocitee Crew

Long-sleeve Shirt: Patagonia All-weather

Gels: Honey Stingers, and one special Spanish gel donated by Eric

Food: not much, just a few bananas and some potatoes along the way

Tailwind and coke towards the end for fueling

I'll be crewing and pacing my friend Jay at Ghost Train Ultra as he works to complete his first 100 mile race. I can't wait to get back on the trails out there, it is where I ran my first, and only so far, 100 mile race in 2012. It will be a fun event and I hope to help in any way I can to get him across the finish line. Always a great party in the woods as people work to complete their goals they have worked all year for.

Next event coming up for me is the TARC Fells Trail Ultra Winter 40 miler. This time I aim to complete the whole race in decent time after dropping out the past two years. I took a week for recovery and suprised myself with a Personal Record for the 5k distance the Saturday following the 100k in 17:50 and a fourth place. My training through November will be specific to the Fells race.

MMD (More and More Difficult) 50k - Wild Descents and Punishing Climbs

I was first introduced to the MMD run after reading some of the other trail runners in the area's blogs and I immediately became intrigued with the low-key annual get together up in the White Mountains. I ran my first attempt of the event in 2012 when it was in the Evans Notch area, and loved it. Mostly self sufficient except a couple aid stations at trail/road junctions and A LOT of climbing, with a course around 31 miles. I ended up sitting out the last two years and was itching to get back to seeing friends, and tackle this years course - which ended up being in the Franconia Notch area.

The course this year started at Lafayette Place and traveled up Little Haystack, then taking the Franconia Ridge Trail to Mts. Liberty then Flume. We traveled down the Flume Slide Trail, then right back up most of Liberty on Liberty Springs Trail to the ridge and continued over to Mt. Lafayette, the highpoint of the course at 5,249'. Then the plan was to go down to the Greenleaf Hut and down Greenleaf Trail to the base of the notch, then right back up Cannon Mtn. via the Kinsman Ridge Trail. From Cannon, we descended Lonesome Lake Trail to the Lonesome Lake Hut, then up F'ing Jimmy to North Kinsman. We would then make our final climb up most of Cannon Mtn. via the Cannonballs to the Hi-Cannon Trail then descend that to the finish (and after party). The statistics ended up being around 32.5 miles and 14,000' of climbing. The volunteers were awesome this year and helped everyone out with water and the food spread at the end was great. Thank you to everyone who helped out!

Strava activity here: https://www.strava.com/activities/364766270

View down into the notch towards Cannon Mtn.

I decided to start the run at 5am to try to get some good photos from the ridge, for some reason I thought I could get there in 45-50 minutes to catch the sunrise, but I ended up taking just under an hour and missed it by a little bit. I headed out in front for the first climb and steadily made my push up to the first summit. I felt good on the first climb and the downhill/running was fun along the ridge trail, making my way to Mt. Liberty then Flume. Soon enough it was time to head down the Flume Slide, the part of the course I was unsure of my ability to get through unscathed. We ended up having pretty dry weather leading up to the day and the slide trail was not as slippery as it could have been. I didn't fall, but came close several times and before I knew it I was at the bottom and into some nice runnable trail for a stretch. Getting to the first aid station at the junction of Liberty Springs Trail first of the 5am starters felt good and I grabbed some water before making the long climb up Liberty Springs to the junction of the Franconia Ridge Trail. Getting back up to the ridge in 3 hours 30 minutes, I was moving along okay considering all the climbing we had already done.

Topping out on Little Haystack, with views of Liberty and Flume

Summit of Mt. Liberty

Early morning views looking at Franconia Ridge from Flume

Heading down the Slide

Great open ridge running

Last shot of the ridge before descending to the base of the notch, from Mt. Lafayette.

 After making it across the ridge in about an hour, I planned to grab whatever high calorie baked goods they had at the Greenleaf Hut before descending back into the notch. The snack of the day was a chocolate chip pumpkin cake, which hit the spot as I climbed down the wet, mossy Greenleaf Trail rocks. Making it down to the road in about 5:35, I still felt okay on the climbs but better on the descents - which has been a strong point of mine. Before starting the steep climb up Cannon I said hi to the aid station volunteers who were just setting up as I cruised through. After about an hour, I reached the top of Cannon and headed back towards the Lonesome Lake Trail, another exciting descent, to climb down to the Lonesome Lake Hut.

View looking at the summit of Cannon Mtn.'s fire tower

View from outlook along the Kinsman Ridge Trail on the way up Cannon Mtn.

Somewhere in this stretch, I smashed my right knee on a cut branch that I didn't see on the side of the trail. Normal bumps and bruises are to be expected in trail running, but this one was a bit more and limited my downhill ability and flexibility on the descents for the remainder of the run. This was unfortunate, for me, because I didn't have much left on the climbs at this point and normally rely on my downhill ability to carry me through the end of these long training runs. I even thought for a second that I should head back down to conserve my knee in case something bad actually happened to it. I used my (better?) judgement and continued the climb up to North Kinsman's summit.

View of Cannon/Cannonballs and Franconia Ridge, all the peaks of the day.

This stretch lasted a long time as I reached the summit in just over 8 hours and Phil Kreycik passed me at this point (he was the first person running in the 6am start group). I caught up to him on the downhill and we ended up running together for the remainder of the race. He kept up a great pace on the uphills with me dragging behind as I caught him on the downs. It was good to have someone to talk to as I had been alone for the previous 8 hours of exertion, and it helped to make the time and trail pass by. Before we knew it, we had climbed up the cannonballs and almost to the summit of Cannon before making our final descent down the Hi-Cannon Trail, another wild descent down a steep trail.

Viewpoint along the Hi-Cannon Trail looking at Lonesome Lake

All downhill from here! Coming down the Hi-Cannon Trail.

I ended up sticking with him for the downhill to try to conserve my knee and not do any further damage by falling on it or smashing it on a rock/tree again. We finished the race together, even though he had started an hour later, and promptly sat down in some chairs after a long day on the trails. Cheering on the other runners as they completed the course, I found out that I ended up in 6th place - the same place I finished in when I ran it in 2012. I am happy with the effort and it was a fun day exploring Franconia Notch.

Map of the course

Elevation profile with peaks identified

Route Statistics:
Mileage: 32.5
Climb: 14,202'
Start: 5:00AM
Summit of Little Haystack (in hrs. elapsed): 1:03, 3.3 miles
Summit of Mt. Liberty: 1:33
Summit of Mt. Flume: 1:49
Back up most of Liberty to the Franconia Ridge Trail: 3:30, 12.2 miles
Summit of Mt. Lincoln: 4:16
Summit of Mt. Lafayette: 4:34, 15.7 miles
Base of Franconia Notch (mile 20): 5:35, 19.5 miles
Summit of Cannon Mtn.: 6:34, 21.8 miles
Summit of North Kinsman: 8:13, 26.5 miles
Finish: 10:05


Gear:
Shoes: inov8 Roclite 295 (old style)
Socks: DarnTough VT Herringbone
Pack: Ultimate Direction SJ (old style)
Hat & Shorts: The North Face Better than Naked series
Gels: Honey Stinger Gold and Acai/Pomegranate

Upcoming Plans:
The next thing coming up on my schedule is to attempt a sub-7 hour Pemi Loop sometime in September. I have a few friends that are interested in joining me, we just have to work out the date that works, and hope the weather is decent for the run. I have done two Pemi Loops in the past couple years at a moderate/reasonable photo taking pace and I think I am ready to leave the camera at home and put in a hard effort on the course.

After the Pemi attempt, I have the TARC 100k trail race in Hale Reservation that I am preparing for. I will start to increase the miles and intensity over the following month or so, and hope that I can cover the distance. I have not run 62 miles since I ran the Ghost Train 100 miler in 2012, so I don't know what to expect for how it will turn out. Following up that race, I hope to maybe make another attempt at the Midstate Trail Through-run (95 miles), as well as getting some redemption at the TARC Fells Ultra 40 miler in early December.

Following up these efforts, I plan to work on my career as an architect - and begin studying for and taking the Architectural Registration Exams. These consist of a series of seven exams that normally take about a month each to study for, so I figured I would make an attempt to complete a few over this winter and a few over the following winter in hopes I can complete them in a couple years.

My wife has been very instrumental in my running, and I owe a lot to her patience, support and understanding of my time-consuming passion of running in the mountains. It has come time to work on my focus on the family and I plan to do that through bettering my career and getting registered as an architect.

Mahoosuc Traverse

Looking up towards the clouds and the climb of Old Speck Mtn.

My plans for attempting a Hut Traverse again this year are most likely put on the back burner until next year. Between trying to balance family, work and adventures in the mountains and only having a few weekends to choose from to run the route, I ended up deciding to wait until a more favorable time to try to complete the run. That's when another opportunity came my way.

Adam Wilcox, fresh off running Western States 100 and the Hardrock 100 a couple weeks apart, mentioned that he might be interested in putting in an FKT attempt on the Mahoosuc Traverse the same day I had open for the Hut Traverse. The route is mostly along the Appalachian Trail North to South (except the last 3 miles where the Mahoosuc Trail splits to the right), 30 miles, about 10,750' of climbing, and some of the worst footing I've ever seen. This was going to be Adam's third time running the route and since he just lowered the Pemi Loop FKT from 6:27:48 to 6:14:34, I figured the pace was going to be very fast right off the bat. I decided to join him and my plan became to see how long I could keep up with him, meeting up at the finish to gather the cars. He has a great report on the history of the route here. The time that he would have to beat was one that Ryan Welts and Ben Nephew had run last year in 7:45:17.

I feel like I've been making some improvements this year in my climbing ability, and I'm getting more comfortable on steep, downhill running. Driving up the night before and staying with my friend Chris and his brothers in Franconia made the morning's drive to Gorham, NH/Bethel, ME more tolerable. Heading over to Bethel to drop my car we made pretty good time and were ready to start our run at around 6:30am. A total guess at my projected time to finish was around 9 hours, then we would have to go back to Maine to grab my car and go our separate ways.

The run started out well with the 3.4 mile climb up to the route's highpoint, Old Speck Mtn. at 4,170' and then drops a bit before making the descent to Mahoosuc Notch. Mahoosuc Notch was a jumble of boulders the size of houses and cars that the trail climbs over, under and through before starting the steep climb up the other side of the notch. Among the whole route, this section was most intriguing to me as I haven't experienced anything like it in the past - and it definitely did not disappoint. We moved through pretty quickly and said hi to the many AT thru-hikers.

Old Speck Pond, all socked in

Somewhere around mile 11 or 12 I backed off a bit as Adam pulled ahead, then I began to run at a slightly slower pace still keeping my mind in the game for a sub 9 hour finish. I was pretty surprised that I got to where Adam said it would be about halfway and it was about 4 hours 15 minutes into the run, that gave me a little motivation to keep pushing the effort. One thing that I've found with these longer mountain runs, is that I definitely go through a lot of different emotions. If I'm really trying to push it, like I was on this run, I find that it's a lot like a race and there are clear low and high points that I need to just accept and overcome. This one was no exception as the footing was decent in some spots and there were some areas that really slowed me down, not to mention the fact that there are not a lot of bailout points along the route. In the direction we traveled, once you leave the car and you're past mile 13 or so, you are better off just finishing it out since the toughest part is in the beginning.

Things were starting to clear in the valley below

In the clouds along the open ridges

The rolling open ridges of Mt. Carlo and Goose Eye went by smoothly and I just worked my way across the miles of bog bridges that are present along the route. The blackest mud I have ever seen can be experienced up on the ridges on the way through, as well as varying levels of disrepair of the bog bridges. Some consisted of just one plank and nail heads sticking up while the other side was buried in the mud. It definitely made for a change of pace and rhythm along the way. Before I knew it, I was arriving at the last two peaks which are more wooded and quiet. I was especially excited to get to Mt. Hayes and only have 3 miles to go to complete the run. I took a few minutes to sit at the last peak and get ready for the final downhill of the day and the short run out the car, reflecting on a great section of trail along some mountains that I would like to get more familiar with in the future. Even though the footing was tough in spots, I felt like the last 20 miles went by smoothly and I would definitely recommend the traverse to anyone interested.

Skies started to clear at the end of the route

Some nice slabby running through here

Page Pond

Looking at Mt. Hayes, the final peak of the day, from Cascade Peak

Map of route with splits of the first 13 miles

Elevation profile with pace line

Splits for the run:

Summit of Old Speck (mile 3.4ish): 57 minutes

Speck Pond: 1:14

Goose Eye Summit: 3:07

NH-Maine State Line: 4:14

Page Pond (mile 22ish): 6:53

Cascade Peak Summit: 7:30

Mt. Hayes Summit (mile 27ish): 8:07

Finish: 8:49

Equipment used:

Bunch of honey stinger gels and a few bars

Filtered and unfiltered water

Inov8 Roclite 295s - did really well on the wet rocks, as always

DarnTough Herringbone socks - not a single blister despite the feet being wet from mile 1

Next thing I'm planning on is a group run up in the Whites, maybe around 30 miles. After that, I'll be attempting my first 100km race in October at the TARC 100 which is my main focus for the fall. I might attempt a Pemi Loop again, this time as a fast run, and maybe another mountain run if I can manage to find the time. It's really up in the air, as I haven't committed to anything - just looking to work on gaining strength from the mountains as much as I can.