Capon Valley 50K - Baby, I'm Back!

I had planned to run an ultra sooner, but with the baby one thing led to another and I didn’t run anything significant in 2009. I signed up for the Greenway Trail but then the whole family came down with stomach flu the night before… So the next thing open on the calendar was Capon Valley.

Now there is one word that describes my training: abysmal. Ok, I got in some good long runs, including a 5 hr run at Little Bennett. But my week-day training has consisted of 2 mile roundtrip walk to work. So my primary goal was to enjoy however long I ended up in the woods, secondarily to finish. Amanda was coming off 2 marathons already this month, so I figured there was a good chance she’d spend her ‘recovery run’ hanging out with me.

We left Friday night around 4:30 and battled traffic, stopping in Fairlakes where I happily discovered the Whole Foods carries Gaelic Ale. Had dinner from the hot/salad bar/deli counter and grabbed some things for breakfast the next day. We camped at Hawk, and noted the streamers from the course as we drove in. So I figured worst case scenario I abandon and go to the campsite and drink beer for the rest of the day. Hawk is a really lovely campground and MUCH quieter than staying in the field at the start/finish.

Next day, Joe tells Tony directions and we head out for the start. When Tony starts to pull into the Capon Resort, that’s when I realize Joe had no idea where the start really was, and we have a bit of a frantic detour trying to “find” our way without maps or GPS or cell service. Got there about 20 minutes before the start, enough time to get registered and put my bib on while I anxiously waited in line for the toilet, feeling like I was pulling a “Paul”.

It was pretty muggy at the start, but luckily a misting rain started – just enough to cool you down without getting you uncomfortably wet. It banked down the pollen, too, for a little while. Then the wind picked up, so when the sun came out, there was always a good breeze to cool you off. Amanda & I really missed Michelle and thought it would have been her kind of day (although she’d still say it was on the warm side!)

I won’t go into too much detail about the course, as we’ve covered it in other reports. There were a few differences for me: places that had been logged, parts I didn’t remember that were maybe course changes. But mostly the familiar trails – beautiful stretches of runnable old railroad grades or old forest road, that lovely downhill singletrack around Hawk, and almost always a burbling stream to cross… multiple times! And the “hills.” Lots more upgrade than I remember, particularly after aid station 5. And those nice breezes turned into a REALLY stiff headwind at that road that passes the General Store which was very annoying since you wanted to be DONE but felt like you were running in place. Here are the pictures

We saw a lady take a dramatic spill in one of the stream crossings as she tried to tiptoe across the a shelf of slippery shale. We came across a lady sobbing just after North Mountain who thought she’d have to give up trail running because of her knees. Amanda convinced her to take some ibuprofen. She turned up all smiles at the finish, probably about 30 min. behind us. We also saw a turtle and a black snake!

But most amazing was how good I felt, all day. If I wasn’t well trained, I guess I was well rested! We kept up a really good pace and ran it in 6:52:25, my best time at Capon so far. Here are some things that I experimented with that I think really helped despite my abysmal training.

Luck: The weather was just perfect. I didn’t fall down. Amanda didn’t fall down, either. Just when I went south on food, Joe showed up at aid station 4 with a really cute baby and the flask of honey I forgot.

Less is More? Generally I feel like I have to eat a LOT to fuel my race. I ate some quinoa salad, green beans, and roasted sweet potatoes at whole foods the night before, but the other grain/carb salad I bought was too gross to eat. I ate a muffin before bed, then I ate a banana and half a bagel for breakfast. During the race I ate 2 1/2 PB&J, half a Luna Bar, 5 Pringles, a handful of wheat thins and about 6 -8 shots of honey. No salt pills. No gels or shotblocks/luna moons. This is a LOT less than I normally take in and I did not lose energy, I actually felt better because my stomach didn’t go south.

Downhill/Uphill Form: Amanda & I practiced short quick steps on the downhills, trying to keep our feet slightly back from our center, rather than forward and ‘braking.’ Likewise with climbs, shorter steps. Bizarrely, the day after the race I can walk down steps fairly easily – is it because I didn’t kill my quads on the downhill?

Born to Run: I finished the book on the way to the campsite, and thought about the whole evolutionary thing – that if we evolved to run down prey, it makes sense to run like you are hunting. Lifting your head then opens your chest and gives you more air. So whenever I started to look down too much, and get tired, I told myself to “hunt the deer” and I’d look up and around and really just start to enjoy the scenery again.

Joy: I mean, really! What could be better?! Maybe because I haven’t been able to get out as much, I just enjoyed the heck out of it. I got to run through the beautiful woods all day, catch up with Amanda, then eat a delicious chicken dinner and later some beer. Only once or twice during the run when I started to feel down did I remind myself the alternative could be cleaning house or devising a metrics chart for work. Instead there I was on a beautiful day, running strong on some fantastic trails … whoo hoo!!!!