A Minute It Has Been

Lots of things have happened. Mostly bad, like family voting to traumatize federal employees (side note: It won't help balance the budget!), my moving back to DC across the country away from Amy, and my colleagues that I worked hard to hire getting fired because consumer protection is bad now. But some good has happened. So here's the good running stuff.

The first few months of the year have gone mostly according to plan. 

February 8 I drove down to the Wild Oak Trail and started a midnight loop of TWOT. TWOT is a 29-mile loop that has turned into a twice-annual self-supported vaguely Barkley-esque run of one to eight loops. The website makes it seem much more sadistic then it is (my friend tells me the RD mostly just doesn't know how to update the website to get rid of the "you don't deserve to be here" tone.) I planned to do two loops, including the first with a midnight start. The creek crossing was high, and the rain was cold, so I wimped out and just did one loop plus one extra climb. It was a nice adventure, and the small field included some like-minded friends, so I enjoyed it enough that I think I'll go back for the Fall edition in October. As much as it pains me to say I don't think I'll be going back to Euchre Bar soon, TWOT could be my new Euchre Bar. Pour one out for me, EMB friends. I will miss you and the North Fork.

Later in February I got in my last trip to Yucca for a while and did a 28-mile run to Bighorn Peak in the Bighorn Mountain Wilderness along New Dixie Mine Road. Margo did the whole thing with me and got her longest day ever, with really no issues whatsoever. We even got a surprise visit from Berkeley-era friends who passed through the park while we were there, so it was an excellent trip, if basically a sad last hurrah for a while.
 
In March I ran the Seneca Creek 50K in nearby Maryland. It was nice to see a friend at the start, the course is almost entirely singletrack, and entry is cheap, but it's nothing to write home about scenery-wise. At this point mostly I remember listening to a podcast about how the Prince estate squashed an amazing documentary made from his vault that should have aired by now--big corporations (Netflix) gonna big corporation, and the last few miles around the lake were interminably long. I finished under 6 hours, which isn't amazing, given there was only 3,600 feet of vert, but I said beforehand that 6 hours was my "I'll be mad if it takes longer than X" time, and it didn't, so I can't be mad.

 

 
The next week I ran Elizabeth Furnace 50K out in the Massanuttens with a bunch of VHTRC friends. It had 6,670 feet of vert, and took me 7:41. I suppose I'm OK with that time. Mostly the rocks of the Massanuttens and the Tuscarora trail are pretty annoying. There were a couple of decent views, I think?

 
In April I flew back to Reno and Amy and I did a weekend in Sonoma County. I ran the Lake Sonoma 50-miler. I figured this race was a good build-up for Hardrock. I've been unable to actually implement a training plan, other than to sign up for races of similar frequency and length as I ran in 2017, the first time I ran Hardrock. (2017 I ran 100m, 50K, 50m, 50m, 100K between February and May, and 2025 I ran 50K, 50K, 50K, 50m, 100m) One of those 2017 races was Lake Sonoma 50-miler, which I ran in just under 10 hours. I was really hoping to repeat that experience, but of course the 2017 edition measured 49.2 miles with 8,650 feet of vert, and the 2025 version measured 51.6 miles with 11,470 feet of vert, so my 11:38 time feels a bit <i>explained</i> if not fantastic. Mostly it was a beautiful weekend. It was great to see M and Y, wine tasting was fun, the Thatcher Hotel in Hopland was cool, the cliffs of Salt Point State Park was as gorgeous as ever, and my inability to find a decent campsite along HWY 20 on the way home barely put a dent in the excellent trip.

Sadly, I then had to leave home and drive the dogs across the country to DC. In theory, this will make spending time with Amy easier and cheaper, since she can still sometimes work remotely. Reno to Salt Lake, to Denver, to Cedar Rapids, to Cincinnati, to DC with friend, friend, brother cousin. Part of me feels like it's my patriotic duty to contribute as little as humanly possibly to the economy, so I brought most of my food with and me only purchased two cups of coffee, a six-pack of beer across the border for my Utah friend, and gasoline on the entire trip.
 
In May I ran the Hellbender 100 near Asheville, NC. I had a nice road trip with my Mount Pleasant running buddy, stopping at a vegan soul food place on the way down and an excellent coffee and biscuits place in Asheville on the way home. (Directly contradicting my previous statement about contributing as little as possible to the economy, I very much wanted to contribute in Asheville after seeing the obvious devastation from Hurricane Helene. Mudslides were everywhere, train tracks and bridges were out, and excavators were still hard at work all over the place.) The race was very good. The course was significantly altered from the regular version due to the aforementioned Helene, but the mere fact of putting on any race in the region is a praiseworthy accomplishment. The course started and ended at a youth camp with cheap bunks for rent, making lodging extremely convenient. As with most 100s, I went out at about 24-hour pace and just tried to hold on. I did 25 in 6:30 (26 hour pace), 50 in 14:20 (28:40 pace), 75 in 22:30 (30 hour pace) and finished in 30:27. That's a decent amount of "holding on" for a race with 19,600 feet of vert, as I didn't get passed by runners with pacers during the nighttime, nor have to stop and sit by the side of the trail to rest outside of aid stations. GPS watches making you think you're further ahead then you are is super dispiriting, and my watch read two extra miles this time. 

 

 

My feet held up pretty good in my La Sportiva Karacals. I taped the inside of my arches where irritation was developing, but it was relatively minor. There was a lot of poison ivy along the trail but I washed with Technu after the race and didn't develop any serious irritation. I fueled with gels, PB and Js, and a tiny bit of broth, and my stomach largely felt good. It didn't get hot except for an hour or two, and the hottest moment coincided with an exposed scrambly bit on a cool rock formation, so the novel terrain with terrific views made it worth it. Aid stations were well run. I could have used a few more camp chairs to sit in and the Skratch could have been more concentrated, but they always let me add extra powder to my bottles.  Course marking was terrific. I was worried about marking because the course was a little confusing (a loop twice with two out and backs the first time around) but every junction was truly perfectly marked, including the multiple times where the course could very easily be cut (accidentally or deliberately). 

Since then, I've been back to weeks of 60-70 miles of running and 20-40 miles of riding. That's pretty consistent, but I haven't cracked 10,000 feet of vert, which is almost certainly what I should be focusing on. Unfortunately I can only vary the route to and from the office so much, which is how I'm getting a lot of my volume. We are now one month from Hardrock, so I have two good weeks left. I went to the Shenandoah and did 19 miles on the Roller Coaster section of the AT. I hope to go out and do repeats of the stupidest, steepest trail in Shenandoah National Park next weekend. I'm excited.