TARC Wapack and Back 2016 - RD Report

Section of the Wapack Trail along New Ipswich Mtns.

Start line of the 21.5 miler (race starts with 1/8 mile of pavement before the Northern Terminus of the Wapack Trail)

For the second year in a row I did not run the TARC Wapack and Back Trail Races, but instead my wife and I organized the event. After witnessing so many people cross the line after completing a favorite trail race of mine and being inspired by their drive and focus on goals, we continued to put on the event this year. Compared to last year, this year was so much easier due to familiarity and being more prepared for the day-of activities.

Laying out the gear into 5 aid stations

All the TARC stuff fits well in the box truck

The permitting process and planning for the food purchases went smoothly since I had an idea this year what I was doing and we decided to plan our logistics better with getting all the TARC gear from Hale Reservation. Instead of getting the rental truck (that I need to bring each aid station’s gear to each location) the day before the race like last year, we decided to gather all the TARC gear the weekend before and sort it out to see what we needed to buy for food ahead of time. This allowed us to get a plan together for the purchases ahead of time and helped to control waste after the race was through. We decided to go mostly cupless as some (or all) of the other TARC races are doing, and in turn cut our trash in half. This made the packing at the end of the race a breeze and it made everything much less messy to clean up.

Snacks taking over the dining room

A beaver dam flooded the trail about 500 feet into the race

Ben Thompson after cruising to a course record time

The race conditions included cool temps in the 40s and 50s with a misty rain most of the day, while last year the conditions were very dry and temps reached the 80s in the afternoon. Despite the wet rocks, there were some fast times up front for both races. The 21.5 mile course record was lowered this year to 3:19:36 (9:17/mile pace) by Ben Thompson and Loren Newman came close to the record for the 50 miler (8:51:34) coming in at 9:10:56 (11:01/mile pace). It was exciting to see how the race played out from our vantage point.

This year we had Ian Torrence testing out the course as a comparison to the Zane Grey 50 to see which was the tougher 50 miler. His interesting write-up about how our East Coast gnarly course stacked up to the Southwest Zane course can be found here. It was nice to meet him and his friend Emily Harrison at the race and I'm glad they enjoyed our New England rocks and roots. 

It was great to see some of my friends and running partners have great races. Tim Connelly, Phil Carcia and Jason Gray especially had good times that were a reflection on how well their training through the spring went. Tom Graves, Mike Barrett, Anthony Tieuli all had good races as well and it was fun to share some training runs with them this spring in preparation for the race. My wife and I love to see each and every runner accomplish what they set out to do and it is with great satisfaction to watch them come across the finish line.

Keeping with last year’s tradition, we decided to try to take photos of each finisher at the Mt. Watatic gate and posted them to the Facebook page. Here are a couple photos of some finishers and winners of the different races:

Ben Thonpson with his prized slab of wood

Loren Newman, 50 mile winner, finishing up the run in a third fastest ever time of 9:10:56

Joanna Wang, 1st place in the 21.5 Miler with a time of 5:00:13

Meredith Marx, 1st place in the 50 miler with a time of 11:20:54

The final results for the 50 miler are here

The final results for the 43 miler are here

The final results for the 21.5 miler are here

Since my wife and I knew how pre-occupied we would be at the race and setting up, we sent the kids to their grandparents’ house for the weekend so we could put all our concentration into the race. Being a local race to where we live, the kids came up to visit us at the start/finish line with my parents and got to see all the runners coming into the finish and everybody having a good time hanging out and talking about how the race played out.

Trillium Fort Point went down easy after the LOOOOONG DAY

Thank you to all the volunteers for making our jobs look easy and really stepping up and running each aid station well. Secondly, the runners who sign up for this race each and every year to keep such an awesome event going are great. This year’s race registration opened on February 1^st and the capacity sold out in less than 8 hours. I am very grateful to my wife for all she does for me, allowing me to follow my passion in trail running and getting out into the mountains for training when I can. Without TARC’s gear and assistance, I personally would not be able to organize the event. Allowing me to use the gear for the race, and pillage snacks from the late April race at the Spring Classic in Weston eases the logistics on our end.

I'm really looking forward to next year and hopefully will be able to convince my wife over the next year that I can still run the 21.5 miler and perform duties as an RD (we'll see how that conversation goes). Next year's registration for the race will be live on February 1st at midnight, per tradition and will be on the day before Mother's Day, May 13th.

Goat Hill 50k - Race Report

My first planned race this spring was the TARC Spring Classic 50k in Weston, a race I did last year and spectacularly blew up at. (Race Report here) I was hoping this year to run it again, but I am coaching T-ball for my son’s team and there was a schedule conflict. That’s when I took a look at the Goat Hill 50k in Uxbridge, MA, and the date lined up being on the Sunday of that same weekend. It is a first-year race organized by the MRA group out of the Blackstone Valley area, they have several fun races they organize and I figured it would be a good course for a training race.

A few friends were running the 50k as well as some of the other distances that day and I figured it would be a fun atmosphere along some good rolling trails. I did a couple course previews with friends prior to the race, including a group run with about 20 people, so I had a good idea of what the course entailed. The majority of the 8 mile loop (50k runners repeat 4 times) consisted of singletrack mountain bike trails as well as some doubletrack and one steep climb at approximately mile 1.

The morning of the race I learned that Patrick Caron would be running the 50k, and he has put up some fast times at the Fells Winter 40, Hale and Back 6 hour, among other races. I had a hard time planning what would be a good target time for each loop and I was thinking it would probably be around an hour or an hour and ten minutes per loop, at least to start with.

We started the cool and dry day with the National Anthem, as they do at all MRA races, and got ready to settle into a pace that would work for the duration of the run. I started out the race with Patrick leading and Anthony DelleDonne setting the pace not far behind. I chatted and ran with Anthony for the first lap and we ended up coming into the end of the first lap right behind Patrick at 1:04 (8:27/mi). Anthony had to stop for a minute, so I tried to hang with Patrick as long as I could for the second lap. We talked about races coming up and adventures we had in the mountains, and the second lap went pretty well for me at a little slower (more comfortable) pace in 1:10 (9:11/mi). It was a well laid out course and we had a middle lap aid station to look forward to at about mile 3.5 where Kristen and Luke Legendre were cheering on the runners as we went by.  The start/finish aid station was spot on for the water filling, I didn't end up taking any food from there until after the race. My running partner and friend Jason Gray and all the other awesome volunteers at the aid station and throughout the course did an awesome job keeping the runners moving.

Finishing the second loop, mile 16. Photo courtesy Ben Kimball at Northeast Race Photo

Just after the start of the third lap, Patrick was still running up the steep hill and I decided to walk so that would be the last time I would see him until the finish. At this point I just tried to run a consistent pace and stay on top of fueling and hydration. The third loop went by pretty quickly at a 9:57/mi pace in 1:15 and I just tried to hold onto my second place standing for the last lap while really slowing down. It got pretty ugly on this lap and I walked some of the flat sections, somehow I was able to finish in second place with a last lap time of 1:27 (11:30/mi pace) and overall race time of 4:59:12, pretty far off my PR on a different 50k course from 2013. A bunch of people came in only ten minutes behind including Anthony who I ran the first lap with, and Patrick ended up with the win in 4:34. It was great to finish and see my family there cheering me on. I love to go to the local races that they can easily attend to include them in my hobby. I owe a lot to my wife for letting me take off for long runs and mountain adventures, and it is great to be able to include her and the kids in what I love to do for fun, trail running.

My kids hydrating while they wait for me to finish

For a first year race, the organizers had everything marked well, aid stations stocked with good stuff, and the scene and food afterwards was great. I would suggest to anyone looking for relatively technical course with a decent amount of climbing in Central Massachusetts, to check this race out next year. Great trails!

Gear:

Shoes: Scott Kinabalu Supertrac

Socks: Darntough VT Herringbone Micro Crew Ultralight
Shorts: The North Face Better Than Naked 5"
Shirt: Wapack and Back 2012 shirt, with Patagonia All-Weather Long Sleeve

Hydration: Ultimate Direction handheld with Honey Stinger gels stuffed in (maybe 6?)

Strava link

Results link

Twisty singletrack loop

Overall pace was okay, but you can see how it really went down in the last 6-8 miles