Trilogy "Run for the Hills Trail Half Marathon" @ Mountain Institute

West Virginia Trilogy

Run for the Hills Trail Half Marathon

@Spruce Knob Mountain Institute

1st Place/Course Record

1:22:30

(1793ft elevation gain)

Strava Data: LINK

(I broke the previous course record by 8-Minutes)

From Trilogy website: "West Virginia’s Monongahela National Forest is a treasure where the mountains wrap themselves around you. The highlands of the Mon are a place of solitude, choice and challenge – a place where nature prevails and where we must adapt. The landscape embodies wildness and reminds you of yesterday’s people. The West Virginia Mountain Trail Runners and The Mountain Institute welcome you to the Trilogy. Come for these special autumn runs on Spruce Mountain and take home memories you will enjoy for a lifetime."

"Welcome to the fifth running of The Trilogy, a three day stage race through the Spruce Knob Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area . . . a run across West Virginia’s highest hill . . . a run of days with friends.

These very special runs traverse the WV Highlands and her unique landscapes.  Runners who choose to experience this event will be rewarded with spectacular views of waterfalls, beautiful fall foliage, and breathtaking vistas that will be forever etched upon their hearts. Race headquarters will be The Mountain Institute’s 400 acre outdoor education facility in the shadow of Spruce Knob. Take a look at the links below to get a sense of the event which is presented by the West Virginia Mountain Trail Runners in conjunction with The Mountain Institute.  Please contact us with any questions.
Adam Casseday & Dan Lehmann RD’s"

After reading that preview to the Trilogy events there was no question I would be making the 30-Mile drive from Green Bank to West Virginia's highest point at Spruce Knob to compete in Day 3 of the Trilogy "Run for the Hills Trail Half Marathon".

After a long Friday and Saturday in Fayette County for the Sticks and Stones Trail 15K we arrived back to Green Bank late Saturday afternoon and I tried to refuel better than I had the previous day. Luckily I was able to start that process with some wonderful post race food provided at Sticks and Stones and continued refueling once we got home.

The next morning I woke up feeling slightly sore in my ankles and a bit tired from racing/traveling but overall ready to make the short drive to the Mountain Institute for the race.

I arrived to the welcoming faces of race directors Dan Lehmann and Adam Casseday along with many faces I knew that would be racing or volunteering. (Most people camped out before the race so the grounds were covered with tents)

I was happy to win the 15K at Babcock the day before but I really wanted to win this race and break the course record much more so after registering and getting a sweet race shirt I relaxed in the race headquarters with other runners.

The race started off nice and quick for a trail race with Andrew Rhodes and me quickly jetting off the line over some rolling terrain (mostly hard packed dirt road) and hit an opening mile of 5:49. Right at the mile marker the course makes a left hand turn to return back to the start area through half beaten down grass fields. This was roughly what the next couple miles consisted of and although it wasn't too hilly, it was somewhat tough on my ankles as they were feeling weak at this point and I slightly kept rolling them especially on the uneven slanted sections. By the end of mile 3 we had started heading down Cardiac Hill a twisty and turning single track trail and Andrew took off. We had came through 2miles (picture below) basically together with a 6:39 mile but on the technical downs he left me big time. By the time I got to the bottom of the hill he was out of sight probably putting a good 30+ seconds on me if not more.  

2-Mile Mark with Andrew closely following

(Photo by Dan Lehmann)

Lucky for me the 4th mile was pretty good footing back on grass with some covered rocks/gravel beneath the leaves which I did continue to slightly roll the weak feeling ankles. Even with the slightly rolling up terrain and two creek crossings I was able to hit a 6:27 mile which brought Andrew back into view as we headed towards the real hills of the race.

Right as we come to the start of the tough single track trail climb I had caught Andrew and was content to sit on his shoulder while we slowly worked our way up the hill. He had other plans and peeled to the side to allow/motion me to pass which I did so without making any push after passing. But even without pushing the effort I was feeling a gap starting to form behind me as I continued up the single track trail climb hitting miles 5 and 6 in 7:35 and 8:31. The toughest part of the climb was the trail had a lot of slick spots where your leg would just slide to the side of the slanted down, giving you the feeling that you could easily tumble down the side of the mountain.

But just as the technical trail climbing was starting to wear on me I came out of the woods and onto a forest service road which is my strong point in trail races so I pushed the pace down knowing this was my section to bank time on both Andrew and on the Course Record I was after. I ran the 7th mile that included the start to the FR Fire Tower climb in 6:24 (I was sub 6 before the climb up to the tower started). I continued to push up fire tower hill and reached the top at around 8:20 pace in which I still had .4 of a mile back down the steep climb until the mile marker so I pounded away and dropped that overall mile split to 7:04 with that .4 of a mile probably being close to 5-flat pace. The 9th mile included some of the down of the fire tower road, the flat of the service road, and at the last bit some up heading back to the woods but it was my fastest split of the race as I hit 5:39.

At this point I figured I had opened up the needed time to win the race and shatter the course record but in trail racing you never know what to expect or what can happen so I headed back into the single track/grass trails with my focus on driving home as fast as I could. Mile 10 and the first half of 11 were in some ways my favorite section of the course. It was mostly downhill on a really narrow dirt/grass trail with rocks and mud thrown in but for some reason it was the best I have ever felt on somewhat technical downhill running. These sections also included four barbed wire fence crossings as this was hilly farm land that held cattle. I actually caught my left hand on the first fence crossings ripping open my thumb (turned out to be more blood than deep cut as it really looks more like a scratch now). My 10th mile was 6:38 on this terrain which looking back on I'm quite proud of as it shows I'm slowly getting better coming down tough sections.

The 11th mile started with the downhill trail running but ended with a single track climb back up Cardiac (hill I struggled on coming down early in the race). This climb is no joke if fresh but at the end of a race and coming off some downhill running the legs were screaming at me as I headed up the almost 500ft climb in less than 1K of running. I was forced to quickly power hike one section about midway up when I rolled my ankle so hard on sections of roots that I heard either my ankle crack or the sound of the root snapping (either way it hurt). I limped for a few strides up the hill before putting it out of my mind and just kept going, finishing the mile in 9:19.

The last .72 of the race on my GPS was back on the grass circling around the field looking down on the finish line which I painfully (ankle) ran in 5:06 to come across the line not only in 1st Place but with a huge new course record of 1:22:30 (previous record 1:30:21).

What a day and what an event to be apart of. I look forward to hopefully many trips back to this race and maybe one day testing out the Trilogy (50K, 50Miler, and Half Marathon in 3 days).

(1st Place Prize was 1-Night stay at one of he Mountain Institute Yurts which I look forward to using for next years race and also the post race picnic was one of the best I have been apart of for post race food)

Finish
(Photo by Dan Lehmann) 

Me and 2nd Place Finisher/WVMTR Teammate Andrew Rhodes

(Photo by Dan Lehmann)

Me, David Frazier (winner of Trilogy and former CR holder for the half), and Andrew Rhodes

(Photo by Dan Lehmann)

Results: LINK

Strava Map/Data: LINK

Garmin Map/Data: LINK

Trilogy Webpage: LINK

WVMTR Pictures: LINK





(Photo by Dan Lehmann)

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Below are pictures from previous years that I'm sharing so you can see the beauty of this 3-Day Trilogy of Races!

Photo Credit to Joel Wolpert for below pictures



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Photo Credit to Dan Todd for below Pictures 



Sticks and Stones Trail 15K @ Babcock State Park

Sticks and Stones Trail 15K @ Babcock State Park 
1st Place 60:53/ 1345ft elevation gain) 

Strava Map/Data: HERE

This was the first race of two during the weekend. We left on Friday morning and made the 2-hour drive to the New River Gorge region of the state arriving in Fayetteville right at lunch time which included a stop for a specialty pizza at Pies-n-Pints (our favorite pizza place). It was my first time stopping in Fayetteville and I was impressed. It doesn't have the mountains or in my opinion the overall beauty of Pocahontas County but they do a way better job of taking advantage of their wonderful outdoor recreation. They had 2 bike shops and a cool clothing/gear shop called Water Stone Outdoors that handled the packet pickup. The town had that historic feel and the places to eat were local and unique. I miss that feel here in Pocahontas County, we have Snowshoe Mountain that has all those things but it's a resort and does lack that local hometown feel to it like Fayetteville has going. 

(Dan Todd picture credit)

The race director (who is one of the best) did a great race recap here (http://sticksandstonesrun.com/2014-sticks-and-stones-run/) that I'm going to copy and post a section of below: 

"WOW – WHAT A RACE! THE 1ST STICKS & STONES RUN AT BABCOCK IS IN THE BOOKS. 
Weather: Fog, Fog and more Fog, though the temps were pretty ideal. Mud? Yes, plenty! Slick bridges? Yes, actually 5 of them! We did it though, and it all worked out well. I really liked the point to point format and thank you ACE Adventure Center and Adventures on the Gorge for the bus transportation. It was cool taking everyone to another location that most of them had never been to and just dropping them off, makes me smile thinking about it. 

The Start was perfect and beautiful with all those smiling and happy trail runner faces! It was certainly not fast conditions with the fog, flat light and slippery surfaces but some fast times were posted. The 1st Overall Man was Jason Pyles from Green Bank WV with a time of 1:00:04! The 1st Overall Woman was Morgan Gray from Milton WV with a time of 1:22:27, and check this out- Morgan is 14 years old!! Great work and congratulations to you both. The 2nd and 3rd men were only 2 minutes back and less than a tenth of a second apart. Wow. For the women behind Morgan they were only a couple minutes back as well. This was a strong field of runners and a first time Babcock running experience for several. Hope you can come back to join us in the spring for the Grinder! Check out the complete results!" 

As for my race recap, after arriving at the finish line area we boarded ACE provided buses and made the 15-minute or so drive to the start area at Camp Washington. I had time to only squeeze in a short mile warm up but I included a nice sized hill to help speed up the "warming up" process. There was quite a few friends in the race so it had that usual low key and relaxed trail race feel as we waited for the gun to go off. 

Right from the gun I took the lead as we had roughly 1/4 of a mile of downhill pavement to stretch out the field before making a sharp right onto Mann's Creek Trail which had ups and downs and like almost all of this race was rocky and root lined. The trail was muddy and slick from all the rain but that adds to the fun of trail racing. I was in cruise control early making little surges on the ups and taking the downs somewhat gingerly. With what has been the case so far in all my trail races, I have found that I'm in comparison to my competition a horrible technical downhill runner. Half of that is based off the fact that I know I can make my move and stretch my lead on any type of uphill or flat section. 

So at roughly 1.5miles into the race after a 6:39 opening mile, I first felt and than heard my former college teammate Zach Beckett come running onto my heels on one of those technical downs. Zach is a super talented "athlete", I use the word athlete just because he is all around talented let alone a former WV high school state 1600m champion. He has been a force on the trails for some years now and I knew his technical trail running skills are way ahead of mine so I wasn't surprised to hear his voice. We covered the 2nd mile of rocky trail in 6:49. During the 3rd mile I started to surge a little more when the footing allowed and could feel a lead start to happen. The tricky part of this mile was 2 slick as grease bridge crossings that both had no side handles (slide to the side and your in a fast flowing creek. But it was also during this stretch that we got on the narrow gorge trail that was basically flat and had good trail footing so I picked it up hitting the 3rd mile in 6:27. The 4th mile was one of those still new experiences for me as you hit a huge drop which was basically coming down rocks, trying not to slip off the hill side trail and finally crossing the last bridge of the race which was pretty long and not even possible to run across without going down. Had you fell off this bridge you were in a really fast flowing creek that would have resulted in a little white water swimming to stay out of trouble (no wonder we had to sign an extra liability release the night before! ha) My split for the 4th mile with all that was 6:53 as we had started to climb up a hill to end that mile. Miles 5-6.5 were basically a gradual climb up a forest road (paved but slick with water/leaves), I run scared in trail races feeling like people are right behind me so I tried to push this stretch and was 6:42 and 6:30 climbing over 600ft of elevation gain during the stretch and passing the classic Gristmill that was hard not to stop and just take in the sight. There was a lot of people during that section of the course (not common in trail races) since it is such a scenic section. After a quick and steep downhill we started up the toughest terrain wise hill of the race that cut though the woods and was narrow and rocky and included quite a few sections of rock steps early on. These were the toughest miles from mile 7 to the finish of 8.51 on my GPS. I had to power hike a few sections which I'm learning is not a bad thing in trail races if it prevents a complete blow up. AT this point in the race the in and outs of the trail were taking there toll just as much as the 1000ft plus gain I had just covered in the last 5.5 miles alone (1300+ gain total for race). So it was to great relief when I saw Dan Todd taking a picture and heard background music blaring not far behind him as I knew I was almost done. The finish usually greets runners with a very awesome scenic view I've seen in pictures but today the fog was so thick I could barely see 10 feet in front of me at this point. I was pumped to grab the win especially with a solid field of more experienced trail runners that followed in behind. 

I walk away from all my trail races thinking "how do you explain the toughness of what you just ran", I only wish I could put the entire course in pictures to better explain the toughness. I'm quickly learning that trail racing is an entirely different ballgame when it comes to running. But so far it is something I'm adapting to really well and my strengths as a runner are better suited for long term. 

(Picture from Tristateracer.com of me finishing, the Ace buses, and race banner)

One note on something that was happening and probably could have turned bad had the race been much longer was I was running out of fuel. The day before other than downing a big lunch of pizza, I really lacked the needed calories to power you through an entire trail race where you burn so much more energy with the much harder terrain and mental focus of watching your step. I dodged a bullet today but know more than ever not to make that mistake again. 

After shaking the hand of the race director, I looked to the right and saw two smiling faces cheering me on. It's always great to see Clara and Marian so soon after finishing a race! Clara toughed out the rainy foggy day and had a blast. Her pre-race pep talk to me included, "One, two, three....Get Set" and her post race first words were "Good job Dada". That pretty much highlighted a great day of racing! 

For winning I came out with some really cool awards. The race gave away awesome looking tech shirts but for winning I came away with a nice prize package that included a sweet Waterstonia shirt, a pair of Swiftwick running socks,  $25 Gift Card to Water Stone Outdoors, Free Pizza to PIES-n-PINTS (!!!), and another sweet coffee mug from Gauley Pottery (same company that made my Helvetia one...I would love to keep adding to the collection!) 

I can't wait to attend this race again next year and will definitely be signing up first thing for the Gristmill Grinder Trail Half Marathon (april race that sells out quick) when it opens up in a month. Top notch race director (Donnie Hudspeth), great state park of trails galore, and as always great trail running community of runners making the day so fun! 

Strava Data: http://www.strava.com/activities/206110614
Race Website Recap: http://sticksandstonesrun.com/2014-sticks-and-stones-run/
Race Results: http://www.tristateracer.com/resultsdb.php?race_id=3941&results=All
Race Pictures (Dan Todd): http://www.danieltoddphotography.com/sticks
Race Pictures (Race Director): https://picasaweb.google.com/104257724706729932844/BabcockSticksStones2014?authkey=Gv1sRgCIfHg5eNq5CzjAE#