The first
race was the Segahunda trail marathon in Letchworth State Park. The race is a point to point from the Mount
Morris dam to the Civil War parade grounds near Portageville. This is apparently a little known part of New
York state, despite being called 'The Grand Canyon of the East' because most
people we mentioned it to just kind of looked at us blankly and shrugged their
shoulders, the one exception being a friend who works for the state Department
of Transportation who also has family living near that area.
I've been
to the Grand Canyon on more than one occasion and this bore no similarity. By Western Standards it was little more than
a gully, however, it was thick with trees so there may have been much that was
obscured from a trail runners view.
The race
course followed the Finger Lakes Trail except for the short sections that
climbed up side trails to the roadside above where all the aid stations were
located. These side trails are billed as
steep climbs to the road above but they were all pretty gradual and runnable
though I chose to hike at least sections of most to save my strength for
running the FLT, which was mostly mellow and rolling but it was punctuated with
several descents and ascents in and out of stream beds and washes.
The race
management said there were something like 120 such crossings. I have no idea as to the exact number but
suffice it to say I don't dispute their claim in the least. At the beginning of the race I was a bit
worried about all these crossings because I hadn't heard them described in any
detail so I didn't know if the were large or small, steep of relatively flat,
running with water or dry. I usually
like to have better information on a course, especially when it comes to the
signature challenge of the race but at the starting line I was just left to
find out for myself.
The
answer to one of my questions was that the crossings were all pretty much dry
and those that weren't were more moist than flowing. This apparently wasn't the case last year
when they had rain all week including race day and the course was full of
running water and sloppy mud. I'd say
the majority of the gully crossings were pretty flat but there were plenty
enough to make the course pretty difficult.
The other
thing that made the course somewhat difficult were the rocks and roots. It presented a surface that I'm not really
used to running on. In the southwest
where I do most of my running a rocky course pretty much means you are running
on a field of rocks, sometimes it's runnable at a slower pace and sometimes the
surface is so irregular that you just have to walk it for a bit. The rockiness on the FLT is more random. There is plenty of goos, smooth trail but it
is frequently interrupted by a random large rock or root with the occasional
small patch of rocks and roots combined.
This creates a situation where you can run pretty fast but you really
have to keep an eye out because the obstacles just pop up. The conditions were also made more foreign to
me because of the leaf litter obscuring some of the rocks and the low light
conditions caused by all the trees.
The race
starts off immediately on narrow single track in the woods so you really have
to position yourself well in the parking lot at the Mt. Morris dam and when the
starting gun goes off just commit yourself to plunging into the woods. I decided to position myselfk somewhere near
the back of what I figured was the front quarter of runners and this seemed to
work out pretty well. Once we
disappeared into the forest we were a smooth moving line of men snaking along
the trail in unison. I love that
experience! I'm not sure what it is
about forested runs but I always feel like I'm part of a prehistoric hunting
party or a small band of tribal warriors moving to engage the enemy tribe. I never get that same sense when I'm running
races without the dense cover.
At
Segahunda the women take off first, about 15 minutes ahead of the men. I was a bit skeptical about this setup but it
seemed to work out fine even on narrow trail.
We caught the last women at about mile three or four and it was pretty
easy to get by though I wondered how annoying it might have been to be trying
to run and suddenly have a huge long train of faster runners come plowing
through.
During
the early stages of the race I went back and fourth with a couple guys but
pretty much by mile 4 I was in a pretty familiar group of people that I would
mostly see on the out and back sections though while in the woods I was mostly
running alone or just barely in sight of one or two other runners.
I was
blowing through aid stations and I think this is where I passed a lot of
people, however, it was kind of hard to tell because the race actually had more
teams than solo runners so you would pull into an aid station and there would
be all kinds of people lolly gagging on the sidelines.
As often
happens I adopted the strategy of power hiking most of the steeper sections
pretty much no matter how short the climbs but most everyone else I could see
ran them until later in the race when they couldn't. I'm not sure what it is with people who just
seem to refuse to walk or hike in a race.
I think even if you are a very strong runner you still benefit from
saving a bit of energy by hiking the uphills and you can run everything else
much faster. Maybe it's an ultra runner
versus marathoner difference. In any
case as the race progressed I started reeling those folks in and passing them.
Somewhere
around mile 13 I turned my right ankle pretty sharply but it seemed only to
slow me down temporarily. Then at mile
16 I kicked the hell out of an unseen rock and stubbed my left big toe pretty
badly. That was seriously painful,
enough to take my breath away. I
continued to limp and hobble my way forward until the pain subsided enough that
I could pretty much ignore it and run.
Despite these two mishaps I was able to continue gaining ground on the
people in front of me and didn't lose any ground to the people behind me.
About the
last couple miles leave the FLT and get onto an old carriage path, which is
really nice because it is wide and easy to run and at this point in the race
you are pretty whipped. Within a quarter
mile of the finish line there is a evil hill you have to climb when you turn
onto a brief section of paved road. This
thing is steep and exposed and the day has become hot. I leaned into it and kept running because I
was so near the finish line. Close to
the top both my legs started to cramp pretty seriously and I thought I might
pull a muscle but I made it to the top of the hill just in time even if a
little stiff legged. Once off the hill
my legs relaxed and I was able to run into the finish line. It felt good to be done though now since I
was no longer racing the pain in my left toe came to the forefront of my mind,
something I could have done without.
I hung
out at the finish line waiting for the GeekGrl to finish where they had free
beer and burgers, both of, which were great. I found out I got second place in
my age group. The guy who won my age
group was nearly an hour ahead of me.
There were three guys who all ran about an hour faster that the other
front runners, maybe they are local elite runners.
Once the
GeekGrl finished and ate we hopped in the car for our long drive to Lenox, MA
where we were scheduled to run the Memorial Day Marathon. My toe was in bad shape and my ankle started
hurting as well so given the fact that Western States was just around the
corner I decided to bag the second marathon.
The next morning when we woke up to get the GeekGrl to the start line my
toe was really swollen and black and blue.
I was completely freaked out and thought for certain I had broken
it. We had a double marathon weekend
scheduled for the next weekend as well but I canceled it because I knew if it
was a break I would be forced to rest the whole time between now and Western
States. Emotionally I was in bad shape
but I just tried my best to keep it under wraps and enjoy our trip.
Next up, a
trip to the doctor!
P.S. ok,
the post is really late, got caught up with Western States. Saw the doc, toe was not broken, I was amazed
something could hurt, bruise and swell so much and not be broken. Since it wasn’t
broken and I had canceled our South Dakota, Iowa double the GeekGrl and I
signed up for the Taos marathon, which I’m sure will appear in an even
later race report.
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