Catoctin 50k

pictures from Catoctin

Lorrin reports:
The weather was cool in the morning, and there were promises that the already low humidity would burn off by the afternoon. Angelo, fueled by Oreos, took off like a shot. He never seemed to feel the effects of last weeks' Catherine’s, and I believe he should be tested, because he has become a machine.

Joe paced with me, Michelle, and Mical so as to get a very conservative start. He took off after Delauter. At the end of the race, Gary Knipling asked Joe "Do you run up all the hills like that?" and someone said, "oh, did you run with Joe?" and he said, "Yeah, for like 30 seconds, then he smoked me." Well, not all of us are lucky enough to be able to run away so quickly from a grown man with Mango panties on his head.

I got stung 40 min. into the run and am luckily still not allergic to bees. I'm so happy Michelle was carrying the anti-sting After Bite pen thingy. The poison/adrenaline gave me power for the next 3 miles. I hope they don't test for bee venom!

On the way down to Manor turnaround we started to see everyone coming back. Serge was 1st with the next guy 5 min behind him. A lady I didn't recognize was leading the women, with Bethany about 13 min. behind - she really made up time to come in first female. Then we saw what seemed like *everybody* else. Was there anyone behind us? We did see a lovely black snake off to the side, and luckily no rattlesnakes.

Michelle tripped over a rock, which the chivalrous fellow behind her picked up and punished by chucking it into the woods. Michelle wanted a second close examination of the trail, however, and went down again. She had persistant calf cramping the entire second half but persevered and won the prize haggis!

Paul and Megan were at the turnaround, so it was cheering to see them, even if they wouldn't let us stop & drink beer, but they did give us more ice. Thanks so much for volunteering. Next time, make sure I join you.

Somehow I was able to keep up with Mical and we actually managed to pass a few people, and other than some annoying blisters, I felt pretty good, not miserable and heat-stricken like some of the training runs. At one point, I thought, "wow! I am not passing out or vomiting! this is great!" The climb back up to the Tea Room actually seemed short, so I think we paced well and conserved our energy. The only navigational error was here, thanks to all our training runs, but a fellow we'd been leapfrogging up & down the hills called out and he & another guy actually waited until Mical & I regained our position in front of them. Would this ever happen in a road race?

I'm not good with remembering exact finishing times - I'm more focused on the Beverages for Enhancement of Endurance Running at the finish line. We all finished, which is the key thing, because it means we'll never have to run it again, right? Right?!!

Michelle reports:
Nice report, thanks Lorrin! I'm glad you mentioned the guy who took care of that rock for me. I have no idea who it was, I was so caught up in my disbelief that I had actually flown through the air and done a belly flop on the trail. I need to thank him for getting rid of that thing for me.

Like Mical said, it's hard to figure why the course takes so much more time. sed on my vast experience (right!!), here are my difficulty rankings for 50k's I have done: 1. Catoctin, 2.Capon Valley, 3. HAT, 4. Gunpowder Falls, 5. Greenway

By the way, have any of you seen my haggis?? It somehow did not make it into the car Saturday. If one of you guys didn't pick it up, I'm guessing some raccoon had an interesting snack Saturday night!

Mical reports:
Wow, Serge beat the next guy by almost 40 mins. Looks like 114/132 finished, 28 women. I'm proud of us! :) Results

I don't think I have a lot of other reporting to do. As far as reflecting on the race, it was interesting. It was never a death march, or really miserable (thank goodness it was in the 80s instead of the 90s!) and never really had any really "bad" spots like in some of my other races. I just can't believe it takes SO freaking LONG to cover that course. We were running at every point that wasn't an uphill and we were definitely moving faster than our training runs. I guess it's the rocks, and the numerous climbs, together with temps warmer than most of us ever race that kind of distance in. And that beer at the finish line tasted so good. I guess that was the best part. I'm glad we did it, I'm glad it was not as hot/humid as it has been lately, and I guess I did like the challenge of something like that.

Angelo compares the various local 50k races:
Pretty clear that Apple Orchard Falls at Promise Land is the toughest trail climb of the toughest 50k. Since it's a Horton race, I would have to say it's probably one of the toughest on the east cast. Apple Orchard Falls climbs from about 23.? to 26.? and it took Scott Jurek 42 minutes. It took Bob and I 1:15-1:30. It's so late in the race, that if you ran hard early (which you have to since you have a massive climb to start the race), you're beat. The race also ends with a long 5 mile downhill which you are begging your legs to do at 10 minute pace and wondering why you can't go any faster. Obviously I will be there next year and I implore many of you to come out and camp with David and friends at Promise Land. We can have our WVMTR Mid Atlantic Branch tent and induct new members.

Catherine's and Catoctin are fairly even for toughness. Catherine's has a very difficult climb (about 1:15) on the purple trail from Catherine's furnace to the top. It comes in the heat of the day from about 20-23 miles. You run a lot on gravel roads so you don't pound your muscles like you do on Catoctin rocks. Catching your foot on rocks when you are tired causes muscle spasms that really sap morale. The placement of the last two climbs at Catoctin are tough, but I'll conquer them next year. I had such a boost of energy from the overlook to the stream valley and passed quite a few people and I was very sad when I couldn't carry it through to the last two climbs and one downhill. 4-5 people passed me on the last two climbs (including Farouk) and Bob caught up to me. It would be very interesting to do the race in the opposite direction.

It's great that you can do both races for $20, huge difference compared to the $, travel and planning required for you roadies. Thank goodness I'm done with that stage of my life ;). I've now done 11 50ks versus 9 marathons.

Holiday Lake is long (34) so that just barely ekes out Capon. Capon was long the first year and was shorter this year. HAT, Gunpowder and Greenway round it out without much difference.

Joe reports:
Yes, it was a good race, after all, but tough. I don't know what it is about that trail, but the 16 miles you cover, then re-cover going back feel tougher than almost any 16 miles I've run. Nowhere else around has the loose rock, roots, erosion barriers and washouts on continuous rolling inclines like this. Add to that a few bee stings and rattlesnake sightings. The trail stands outside of time and space. I agree with Mical that when you're running it you have no idea how or why it's taking so freaking long. You just have to accept that you can't effect time as it ticks away.

Only the 2,000 ft climb at Highland Sky stands out in my mind as decidedly harder - and that only because it's longer. I'm sure a lot is psychological, but foot for foot, or mile for mile, Catoctin feels the toughest. The HAT course, Gunpowder Falls, Greenway, or the toughest parts of Bull Run have nothing on it for difficulty. Even the JFK section of the AT feels easy to me compared. Caren said it great when she exclaimed "there are sharp jagged rocks sticking out of the ground!"

All that said, I had a great day and felt great throughout the run. I took the hard lessons of hydration from HighSky and the Cat training runs, and kept eating and drinking, and walking to let it get in me. I think I paced just right. I started out conservatively, so that during the last 2/3 of the run I kept improving my pace and passing people and keep running till the end. I had a faster 2nd half than first half, which is usually the sign of a good run for me.

Michelle, that's terrible, I'm sorry you can't find the haggis. I was looking forward to bringing over some of the nice patés we brought from France and having a smorgasbord soirée of fine ground meat products.

Megan reports:
To all,
1. Congratulations on very successful finishes on Saturday. Each one of you has an individual triumph to relish, and collectively you probably pulled each other along in some way whether you finished first of the group or last. I'm glad to have volunteered: even though I choose not to run these things, you all make me feel part of the group and that is a very good thing in my mind.
2. As for the pictures, look for a Snapfish message later on this evening. I'll try and upload them this evening.
3. Like Pinkbottom, I believe Floyd and hope to be convinced with a credible story when Landis solves the mystery. (Reference to Get Fuzzy character)
4. Seriously---does anybody know what happened to the haggis?
5. As you all continue to follow Beelzebub, and outright encourage Him to greater depths, I look forward to watching the drama enfold.
See you all soon. When is the post race party?