Twin State 50km 2015 - Race Report

I remember hearing about the Twin State 50k/50m race from my friend and training partner Jay that ran it. The race is a "Fat Ass" style race run on mostly dirt roads run in the hilly Windsor, VT area and takes place on some of the Vermont 100 mile course that I had run while pacing Justin Contois there. This would be slightly different weather from the summer VT 100 race, with the Twin State taking place in the end of March (it was early April last year, and the VT 100 is in July), but the location is easy to get to from my house and Jay has a co-worker that allows us to stay at his place. I decided to sign up this year and initially went for the 50 mile course, but due to not really being motivated this winter season to get a lot of miles in I decided I would be better suited to run the 50k course. Additionally, I'm not sure I could physically (or mentally) run 50 miles on roads.

Map of GPS track

Elevation profile

Even though the course is on dirt roads, it still ends up having around 4,100-4,400 feet of climbing as you rise out of the town of Windsor to the hilly dirt roads and farm country overlooking Mt. Ascutney. The race runs around the area of West Windsor and at several times along the course, the mountain comes into view as you climb and descend the frequent hills. There were two start times to choose from either 6:30am or 8:30am and since we were going to be up there Friday night, we chose the earlier time. Also, that would give us a chance to finish the race a little earlier in the day.

There were probably 30 people for the start of the race, meeting in the Windsor HS parking lot. The beginning of the race starts with a 2.5 mile climb up to the dirt roads surrounding the town. The scenery from the first high point on would prove to be great, even on the grey day that we had. I ran with Jay and Mariana (the eventual third place female and 13th overall) to start the race and slowly pulled away somewhere around mile 3 or 4. I was trying to keep a consistent effort on what I knew would be a long run with a fair amount of climbing.

The hills and changing viewpoints went by pretty uneventfully until mile 28, when I had a tough time climbing up the last hill. The miles were starting to wear on me at this point, probably due to the fact I haven't run over 22 miles on roads for a long time. I talked myself into just pushing for those last few miles and the run would be complete. I ended up seeing Jay and Mariana coming up the last hill I struggled on as I was heading down. I got a major hamstring cramp just as they went by, but it went away quickly. Heading back across the covered bridge into the town, I had a small amount of energy left and just put it all into getting the race done.

One of the first downhills

Mt. Ascutney view

Panorama looking towards Mt. Ascutney

Cowshed Trail

The covered bridge across the Connecticut River

Jay finishing up his 50k with a 47 minute PR

I ended up finishing eighth out of 51 50k finishers and I am happy with the effort and run that I put in. It definitely lets me know where I am at after this inconsistent winter of training, and I know where I would like to be leading into the next race. Jay ended up placing 14th and took 47 minutes off his PR that day, and Mariana was 13th and 3rd female. It was a great race and I had fun up there for the weekend. After we were done, we headed over to Harpoon Brewery for some recovery drinks and food.

Coming up next, I will run the TARC Spring Classic 50k in Weston, MA on April 25th with an (far) outside goal of running a sub-4 hr effort. My "A" goal is to try for a personal record at the distance, which is 4:27, that I set at the 2013 TARC Fall Classic. The Spring Classic is a relatively flat course that I have run a portion of during the inaugural TARC 100 miler in 2013 with Justin Contois and Eric Ahern. I'm hoping to wrap these two 50ks into continued training for another attempt at the AMC Hut Traverse sometime in early July. I'm hoping to finish that one this time, read my report from last summer's attempt with Chris Dailey.

Gear used:
Shoes: Inov8 Raceultra 290
Socks: Darn Tough VT 1/4 light cushion
Pack: Ultimate Direction Scott Jurek
Gels: CarbBoom and Honey Stinger


Twin State Results can be found here

and the strava link is found here

Wapack and Back Race Directing, Ongoing Training

Race Directing

I have become the race director for my favorite local race that I have competed in the last four years, the Wapack and Back Trail Races. As far as my history with the race, I ran the 21.5 miler in 2011 and 2012, then the 50 miler in 2013 and 2014. Somehow I ended up winning the race in 2012 and ended my 4-year consecutive run of the race with a second place at the 50 miler in 2014. If nobody picked up the RD gig for this popular race, it was at risk of becoming a Fat Ass or minimally supported race and since I had some history with it and live somewhat local, I felt I could take over the responsibilities.

Getting a lot of help from TARC (Trail Animals Running Club) and Norm Sheppard (previously a race director of the race for many years), I dove into obtaining permits from the five agencies, required insurance, and booking the transportation and porta potties in mid-January.

Completing all of the requirements, it was time to get the race registration live on January 23rd at 12am. The race is extremely popular and registration for both races sold out in about 12 hours. As of today, there are about 30 people on the wait list for the 21.5 miler and 10 people on the wait list for the 50 miler.

Race Schedule

Since I will not competing in the race this year, I have decided to focus on other races around the same time and have put in most of my training for a few 50km distance races in Spring. The first race that is up will be the Twin State 50k up in the Ascutney Mtn. area of Vermont. This is a fat-ass style race and has around 4,500' of climbing on mostly dirt roads. I am hoping to put in a decent effort here, but I am not expecting to run faster than 4:27, a personal record for the distance. It might be possible to run sub-5 hours on a good day.

The next race will be the Spring Classic 50k in Weston, MA at the end of April. The trails are pretty flat here with relatively good footing and the race plan is to try to run sub-4 hours. This would be an all-out effort for the entire race for me and I'll give it my best shot. Hopefully we get a decent day weather-wise and we'll see what happens.

After the Spring Classic, I have a couple loosely planned mountain runs in the White Mountains. I'd love to try in late May or early June to go for a sub-7 hour Pemi Loop as I get ready to attempt the AMC Hut Traverse a second time. This trip will be a big focus of mine as I failed to complete it last year and I will hopefully be joined by Justin and Chris Dailey on the adventure across the Whites. After the Hut Traverse, I am not sure what will be next on the list but I am contemplating running my first 100km race in October at the TARC 100k/100m.

Training
It has been going well the past few weeks, trying to find some consistency in training and slowly ramping up the miles preparing for Twin State. The snow amounts in Worcester have been record breaking, so that has put a damper on the trail runs. Basically, I've been hitting roads, Mt. Wachusett, and the dreaded treadmill lately to try to get in a little speedwork. Below are a few key photos from some of the runs I've put together while training for this spring's and summer's adventures.

12/20/14: Half mile pickups at the Wachusett Reservoir

1/3/15: Some trails out to the Audobon and Wachusett Mtn. Best pre-sunrise light I've seen yet up there.

1/3/15: Zooming in to the Boston skyline, 14.5 miles at Wachusett, 3,400' climb

  

1/17/15: 3x6 min. intervals through Worcester before the storm

1/18/15: 13 mile tour of Wachusett with Chris and Phil, 4,200' climb

2/1/15: 11 miles at Wachusett with Jay, 3,500' climb

2/7/15: 20 miler through Sterling, 2x2 miles, 10 miles easy, 3x1 miles, 1,900' climb