New Year 2007 : Maryland Challenge

Inspired by the Washington Post Article about a couple of hikers.
40 mile + run from Pen Mar Park on the Penn - Maryland line to Harper's Ferry, WV.

Here are pictures from the Maryland Challenge.


Participants:
Mical & Paul Honigfort
Amanda & Bill
Cathy & Jim Blessing
Lorrin Harvey & Joseph Kilcoyne
Michelle Price & Megan Carroll
Sharlene Deskins
Katie Poole

Bill, Jim, Megan and Paul provided aid, driving the vans around and creating race-worthy aid stations. We started out cold and got lost trying to find the Penn. state line. Katie and Amanda competed for the 'best blood' award. Running south toward WV we got a lot of the really significant climbs out of the way, but morale was low around Washington monument park where the cold wind was blowing something fierce. But reinforcements in soup and additional runners at the inn (where the chef came to clear us from the parking lot with a pair of tongs) helped us go further than we expected. As it got dark, we got to experiment with running down a rocky mountain with our headlights/flashlights, and then trying to keep up the pace on the final stretch of the C&O. Afterwards, some welcome chili and beers at Paul & Mical's house.

Amanda reported the first 36 miles off her Garmin (before the battery died).

Total Moving Time (hrs:min) : 9:35.6
Total Distance (miles): 36.06
Average Moving Speed (miles per hour): 3.8
Average Moving Pace (min/mile): 15.8
Total Elev Gain (feet): 18,911

but... "motionbased.com (the web site that computed the 18K+ elevation gain from my garmin's elevation profile) seems to have an optimistic and very non-standard definition of "total elevation gain" because the number I get by a quick and dirty calculation from the raw elevation profile is closer to 7K. oh, well, it was still a great way to start the new year :-)" --Amanda

Sharlene's excellent report:
The Last Challenge of the Year — the Maryland Challenge

Little did I realize that when I started the RRCA Challenge that I was going to be involved in one more running challenge for 2006. My running friends had been talking about running the entire Appalachian Trail (AT) in Maryland which is about 40 miles. When the idea was first discussed – pre-JFK 50 miler, everyone was interested. But as time worn on I didn’t hear much more about it. Then the idea came up of running the Maryland Challenge (because that’s what we started to call it) on New Year Eve’s. I agreed to do it initially. However, the logistics of running 40 miles along the AT is tough. Unlike a race, you either have to carry everything yourself, drop supplies ahead of time and hope neither animal or human tampers with them or talk someone into to meeting you along the trail with food and water.

I thought the idea was over with for this year after JFK 50 miler. Michelle was injured, I was injured and a couple of other people couldn’t make it. I told them after NCT Marathon, that I could only run a maximum of 20 miles of the Maryland Challenge. The RRCA Challenge had left me too beat up to attempt the entire Maryland Challenge. I was only up to half a challenge. There was another event scheduled for New Years’ Eve which was an unofficial marathon along the route of the now defunct Marathon in the Parks (MitP). The unofficial MitP was also unsupported but there would be some food/water drops along the route and since the course went through the heart of Montgomery County you could drop out at any time and get supplied. I assumed that the Maryland Challenge had been postponed so I told a couple of people, that I would run the unofficial MitP with them. (I was always a volunteer for MitP so I never ran the marathon course and I would like to do that once.)

I opened my email one day in December to find that the Maryland Challenge was still on. It seemed that everyone was up to the challenge. Michelle had been cleared by the doctor to run. Amanda was recovered. Mical and Michelle had figured out a plan for running the entire AT including places for resupplying the runners. They had even figured out that if Michelle and I joined the group at the South Mountain Inn we could run the last 17 miles with them. And the date was still New Year’s Eve because we all had the next day off and could recover.

When I checked Mical’s schedule, it called for Megan, Michelle and I to met at 11:30 am to head out to South Mountain Inn. Diana and Patricia were planning on running the last half of the MitP course and they were going to met at 8:45 am. I told them that I could met them and run a couple of miles with them. So on December 30th, I packed enough gear to do a lot of running. On December 31st, I met Diana and Patricia at Aspen Hill. It was in the forties and overcast. I hadn’t seen them in a long time so it was nice to see them. We ran for 45 minutes and then I had to head back to my car and they continued running the MitP course. As I was running back, I saw the runners for the unofficial MitP which was mostly people from the XMP program. They told me I should come run with them but I told them I had to get out to the AT.

The Devil is in the In Place Names
I ate some breakfast at McDonalds after I finished running and changed into clean running clothes. I was extremely tired because I hadn’t been doing any distance running since the NCT Marathon. Michelle and Megan and I were all early so we left for the AT early. Michelle called Bill who had graciously agreed to supply the runners to find out where they were. It turns out they were running behind schedule. The schedule called for us to met them between 1:30 pm and 2:30 pm at South Mountain Inn. They were running at the later range of the scheduled times. Michelle told me it had been hard to determine times in planning the Maryland Challenge. There just wasn’t a lot of information on how long it would take to run the Maryland portion of the AT. Michelle had found an account by an ultrarunner named David Horton who had run this portion in 11 hours at the time he set the speed record for traversing the entire Appalachian Trail. Another ultra runner had a blog where she had listed how long it took her to cover this course and it was in the 11-12 hour range. So the schedule had been the best estimation of the time based on not a lot of information. Part of the reason, the reason the group was behind schedule was there had been a delay at the beginning when they had tried to find the Mason-Dixon line at the Pennsylvania border. Apparently, the sign had been removed and they had trouble finding where to start..

We had some time so we drove to Annapolis Rocks. There we found Bill waiting in the van for the runners. Bill had been up since 4:30 am in order to support the runners. Megan left us temporarily at this point. She was running along the AT from Annapolis Rocks to South Mountain Inn. The original plan was that she run with the main group of runners but they were off the schedule. Jim drove up. We all looked at a map of the AT with place names and elevation.

I realized as I looked at the map that even doing less than half the Maryland Challenge was not such a good idea. I noticed that one of the place names along the route was "Devil’s Racecourse". Here’s a tip I’ve learned over the years after having encountered unplanned trouble. Whenever you see the name "devil" or "hell" in a place name or the description of an event, you should consider that it could be physically and mentally challenging. And by challenging , I mean the potential for physical pain is a strong likelihood. So when I saw "Devil’s Racecourse" I wondered what I had gotten myself into.

Michelle and I headed to South Mountain Inn where we waited. I was cold. I had packed a lot of gear in my car but I had only transferred the essential gear when I was picked up and no emergency gear. So I had running gear with me but not all of my warm gear for waiting outside. I’m not sure what the temperature was but it was under fifty and a cold wind flared up. The first runner we saw was Megan. She had a good run but hadn’t seen the main group of runners. Bill called us about a half hour after the runners had left Annapolis Rocks. No one had any major injuries and we should expect to see them soon.

Around 2:40 pm, Michelle started a camp stove to cook some soup for the runners. The soup was ready but we didn’t know when they runners would arrive. Finally, after 3 pm we saw them. We weren’t sure who was running until the group arrived at South Mountain Inn because we didn’t know who had showed up earlier that morning for the Maryland Challenge. There was Lorrin, Joe, Katie, Amanda, Mical, Paul and Cathy. I didn’t want to say anything negative because I didn’t want to discourage them but all of them looked beat up. A couple of people admitted to some pain. For this group of people if they admit to pain it probably means that the pain is pretty bad because they are so tough that they only admit it when they are about to stop. Cathy had previously planned to stop at this point because she didn’t intend to run the whole thing.

Michelle and I got the runners some food and water and then made sure we were ready to run because we did not want to delay them. There was some discussion about whether or not to bring along headlamps. I had packed a headlamp in my gear but it was only really a back up. The only reason I had packed it was because I had seen an email exchange about what brand of headlamps people were using. I hadn’t paid a lot of attention to the email because I was busy with another matter involving the RRCA, which I won’t go into here so I hadn’t really thought through making sure I had a sturdy, dependable headlamp with me. Since I was only doing 17 miles, I didn’t think I would be running any part of the course in the dark. But it was 3:30 pm when we left and darkness in winter comes around five. We only had seven miles to Gathland so we would finish that part just after dark. Everyone decided to bring their headlamp. I was in a panic when I checked my gear and found that I didn’t have my back up headlamp with fresh batteries. I rarely use my Cyclops headlamp since I don’t like running at night and I avoid it. (The first time I ran in the dark I tripped on some broken pavement and nearly fell head first into a sidewalk. Ever since then, I am very reluctant to do any night running for any reason.) I had only used my headlamp twice in two years. It was working when I checked it last night but it still had the original batteries and I doubted they would last for more than an hour. I couldn’t find my secondary headlamp which I was sure I was going to need.

I was also dressed in what mountaineers would called Alpine style rather then siege style. The Challengers were carrying camelback packs with 40 oz water bladders and room to carry extra clothing, food and emergency equipment. I left my running waist pack behind because I couldn’t find the water bottle for it and I was just carrying a 20 oz bottle of water. I was also testing some new running clothes, so I didn’t know how the clothing would work. In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have used the run to test my new running clothes.

To Gathland
The Challengers were ready to start running around 3:30 pm. Michelle was in good spirits and lead. I was going to be the sweep so I stayed at the back. I thought the group was very brave to continue because they were worn out. Apparently, the part of the AT near Pennsylvania is a very tough section and it had taken its toll. There had been some falls and it had just zapped the energy of the group. The group was moving but slowly. I was familiar with this part of the course because it was the AT part of the JFK 50 miler. After we had traveled about twenty minutes it started to rain and it was getting dark. I keep my thoughts to myself but I thought the only way it could get worse is if someone gets injured. When the time came to turn on our headlamps because it was dark, the bulb part of my headlamp didn’t give off a lot of light to see the trail. I switched to the LED lights which provided some light but not a lot. I just hoped that the LED lights would last because if they didn’t I would not be able to see. It was 6:00 pm when we got to Gathland and my lights were still working. Megan and Bill were waiting for us. At this point, I thought the runners were going to stop. It was completely dark and all of the runners were exhausted. Paul had only planned on doing part of the route so he stopped.

The others had some soup and then decided to continue. I was surprised. My headlamp was still working and I thought it was a good brand so maybe it had a couple of hours of life. We headed back onto the AT. Joe was a lot faster then everyone else so he took off. It was overcast so we couldn’t see the stars but what was visible through the leafless trees were the lights of the cities below us. Another good thing was with the headlamps it was easy to keep track of everyone. You could look back on the trail and see where everyone was. Some of the runners had purchased green bulbs for their headlights and hand held lights. The green light made it easier to see the ground. The green light was much better than the white or yellow bulbs. My headlamp was doing an adequate job but not a great one. I could see just enough to slowly run along the trail and avoid falling on the rocks.

It was Amanda I think who said "Well, this will be a New Year’s Eve we’ll never forget." She was right about that. I told them that if someone had predicted at the beginning of the year that I would run the scariest part of the JFK route in the dark with a headlamp, I would not have believed it. Strangely enough even though it was now completely dark and we were running using only headlamps we were running much faster. Joe waited for us and then took off after we reached the crest of the second hill. I was anxious to reach the crest of the mountain at Weverton Cliffs. The only trouble we had was Amanda tripped over a huge rock. I was behind her and you couldn’t see the rock until you were right at it. Thankfully she did not hit a rock when she fell down. I was glad that she was not injured.

When we reached the summit at Weverton Cliffs, the descent took longer then I expected. When we reached the switchback portion we stopped to regroup. We agreed on a plan for finishing the challenge. When we got off the trail we would not linger to get food or water. There would be no need to refill the water bladders since there was only three miles to go. Once everyone was at the same point we began the descent along the switchbacks. Strangely enough the switchbacks were not as scary at night as they were during the day. I think that was because I couldn’t see how far it was to fall in the dark. I don’t think I screamed once. Then when we came to the end of the switchbacks, we had trouble finding the trail. It was hard to see so several times we paused to shine our lights until we could see the white blaze marking the AT. At one point, I couldn’t see the trail at all and it was Amanda who found the white mark. We weren’t sure we were on the right trail until I remembered a couple of rocks.

I wasn’t sure how much further there was to go until I stepped onto the concrete of the highway. In the dark we hadn’t been able to see that we were at the end of the trail. We had reached Weverton and we could see the lights from the cars in the parking lot. Bill, Megan and Paul were waiting for us with some food and hot soup. While they waiting, a member of the local police force had driven by and inquired as to what was their reason for being on a deserted road on New Year’s Eve. When they told them they were waiting for a group of trail runners, the police officer continued on his way. He wasn’t surprised to hear it.

Other than Michelle and me, everyone was very tired. After all the rest of them had gotten up at 4:30 am to start the Challenge. At 4:30 am, I had been sleeping comfortably. Mical said she felt nauseous. So we stayed long enough for her to drink some soup. Since we only had three miles to go, I was ready to finish this. My headlamp was working and I was getting tired. That six or seven mile run earlier and the day was getting to me. But I wanted to finish while my headlamp was still working.

To West Virginia
From Weverton, we ran along a near trail that goes under a bridge with a thirty foot drop to the river below. We followed the trail until it lead us to the level towpath of the C & O Canal. The AT runs along three miles of the towpath of the C & O Canal. When we reached the C & O Canal, someone asked where West Virginia was. I told them the lights across the river were Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. I have to say that one of the most beautiful sights that night was looking at the lights of Harper’s Ferry. I was getting tired because I was running in trail shoes. These were a lighter pair of trail shoes then the ones I ran JFK in but they still weren’t that great for non-trail running. They also were not illuminated like the shoes of the other runners. Probably because no one expects people to run trails in the dark. I guess, I should let the manufacturer know that they should add illumination because people do run trails in the dark as I learned that night.

Mical and Michelle said we were looking for a footbridge which would signify the end of the AT part of the towpath and also the challenge. We could hear the Potomac but we couldn’t see it. It was however, a warning that if you fell off the towpath in the dark you would fall into the Potomac. The Potomac sounded dangerous in the dark. The lights of Harper’s Ferry got closer. We could see Hilltop House. The lower balcony area was fully lighted probably for a New Years’ Eve party. Finally, we saw Paul holding a green light on the trail. We had reached the end of the AT. However, the runners didn’t want to stop. They wanted to touch West Virginia. Everyone agreed to climb to the top of the pedestrian bridge which runs parallel to the railroad track that leads into West Virginia. We ran along the bridge. I had never been on this bridge before but I had seen the railroad tracks and the tunnel from a distance many times. This was the tunnel where John Brown and the 21 men of his Provisional Army of the United States stopped an east bound Baltimore and Ohio train during their ill fated raid on Harper’s Ferry in October of 1859. The run came to an end when everyone touched West Virginia soil at the base of the bridge.

We then had to cross the bridge back into Maryland. The cars couldn’t park near the footbridge. So we had one short run to the vehicles. Joe was waiting in the van. Joe had finished twenty-five minutes before us. He had reached the footbridge and hadn’t seen anyone so he started heading back down the towpath. Paul, Megan and Bill had seen him (because of his headlamp) and called to him.

I was glad to finish but the runners who had done the complete 40 miles of the Maryland Challenge were even happier then me. I was so glad that two years ago, I had purchased a good quality headlamp because it had lasted. I don’t know what I would have done if the headlamp had failed. We finished just after 9 pm on New Year’s Eve.

Well, two of the challenges of last year are over with. The final scores for the RRCA Challenge has not been totaled but I am sure I came in second. I am also glad that I only did the second part of the Maryland Challenge because I doubt I could have done the whole thing. I guess that’s a challenge for another year.
So it’s three days into the new year and time to start other challenges.