On The Rocks Trail Run Race Report - 15K

The On The Rocks Trail Run is now in its third year and it continues to evolve, this year offering 4 different distances: 5k (walk), 10k, 15k, and 30k.  It's held annually at Rocky Ridge County Park just northeast of York, PA, a town famous for its manufacture of Harley Davidson Motorcycles, York Barbells, and the original home of the York Peppermint Pattie.  My wife and I participated in the inaugural race 2 years ago simply because it was a local race that fit nicely with our training schedule for the (also inaugural) Hershey Half Marathon in 2010.  It was our first race ever, and we had absolutely no idea what we were getting into on so many levels.  It was a tough run with some bumps and scrapes, but we made it through and received our medals, less than 10 places from dead last.

Fast forward to this past Saturday, 8/18/2012...

I got up with the alarm at 5:30am: plenty of time for my pre-race routine, plus the 45 minute drive to York for the 7:30am start of the race.  Unfortunately, my routine didn't go as planned plus I forgot my breakfast, so I had to stop along the way to pick up a banana and yogurt.  I was now on my way, prepared to cut it close with an ETA of 7:12am, which is bit too close for my comfort.  To top it all off, there was a detour off the exit for the park, which delayed me another 6 minutes!

Parking and packet pickup went smoothly and I had my bib on and ready to go with 3 minutes to spare.  Without time to look into my race bag, I had to save that "Christmas Morning" goodness for after the race.

The start was pretty interesting logistically.  There were two different starting lines going in opposite directions on the same trail: one for the 10k and the other for the 15k/30k.  After the starting horn blew, we parted ways and us 15/30K'ers made a mad scramble down about a hundred foot descent to start the race.  This is the point when I first became extremely humbled as a mostly road runner transitioning to do more trail runs...

I've been doing considerably more trail training recently and figured I'd be ready for a race, but some of my fellow runners are just plain crazy!  I couldn't keep up on the downhill sections.  I'm not sure if I just need to "let go" and let my instincts kick in, but I really just don't feel comfortable going that fast on rocky, and sometimes slippery terrain.  Fortunately for me, I was able to sustain a run during 95% of all climbs during this race and passed quite a few others on the uphill portions.

There was one insane out-and-back section of just a few hundred yards that I would characterize as a "washout" trail: straight down the side of the hill.  It was a tough climb back up, but short.  I was very happy that this happened early in the race.

The next section took us through an exposed area with absolutely no tall growth.  The high banked turns for the bikes were fun to utilize as a runner.  The "bushy" growth was extremely thick and only 6-8 feet tall, giving a feeling of isolation on this winding trail even if other runners were only 50 feet in front or behind.

Aid stations were placed about every 2 miles, offering water, gatorade, some other drinks, pretzels, m&m's and other various snacks.  It was nice to see food offered for the 30K runners but like usual, I only take water and gels on a run (but no gels today).

A girl was setting a great pace in front of me for a few miles during the middle part of the race, until she took an ugly spill after tripping on a root.  I helped her up and confirmed she wasn't seriously hurt, then decided to continue on at the pace we had established.  Before the fall, she had mentioned she was doing the 30K and I'm confident she finished; she seemed like a very strong runner, but I didn't see her after I received the "are you sure you're okay?" confirmation.

By this point I was curious to know where I was from a mileage standpoint, but without distance markers on the course, my only option was to ask a fellow racer with a GPS watch.  Risking the fear of disappointment, I opted to stick with my mental mileage and keep on truckin'.  Around what I believed to be mile 8, I recognized that the course was roughly the exact opposite of the 8.3 course from two years ago, and I knew it wasn't far to the finish, with the exception of one last climb.  It was rough and I slowed down considerably; almost to a walk, but I couldn't justify walking with less than a mile to go.

Approaching the finish, I was pleasantly surprised to see the clock read 1:35 and some change, since I was expecting a time somewhere around 1:45:00.  It turns out my official time was 1:35:35, good enough for 12th place overall in the 15K.  Even while averaging over a 10 minute mile I'm happy with my time, given the significant rockiness of the course and the challenge presented by a few hills.

After the finish line, a young boy was handing out what looked like a mini fluorescent green purse (about the size of a cell phone) with a rolled up slip of paper in it.  This is when I realized that unlike 2 years ago, we weren't receiving medals for this year's race.  Instead, we got finishers certificates.  I don't do races just for the medal, but like many others out there, I really enjoy the feeling of them draped over my neck after crossing the finish line.  They're also nice souvenirs that usually possess a unique character of the race, something that bibs just aren't able to do most of the time.  I should note that at no point prior to the race was it stated that medals were to be handed out.  I simply had the expectation based on the race 2 years ago.  Interestingly enough though, there was a box of old medals near this year's finish line.

The post race food was served under a huge pavilion and consisted of generous quantities of subs, cookies, peaches, watermelon slices, donuts, chocolate milk, orange juice, and water.  At the point when I arrived, there was a good congregation of 10 and 15K runners seated at the picnic tables and chowing down on the goodies.  I got my fair share of water alongside two of my favorites: chocolate milk and cookies!

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but since one of the race rules was no headphones, I didn't bring my phone along for the run.  I may have to reconsider stashing it on future races regardless of the headphone policy for this purpose.  After all, sitting right against my skin, my Spibelt feels virtually weightless even when carrying a smart phone.

When I got home, I had the chance to check out what was included in the race bag which featured a technical shirt from Asics in bright yellow which will definitely come in handy on early morning runs!

In summary, here are some things about the race that...

I liked:

• Easy parking and packet pick up
• Cheap entry fee ($30)
• Bright yellow Asics technical race shirt
• Good selection of food and drinks at aid stations
• Post race food
• Nicely maintained, yet challenging trails
• Well marked course, despite many turns (maybe 25 or so?)

I didn't like so much:

• No medal
• No mileage markers
• Spectator turnout was pretty weak

As always, a big thanks goes out to the race organizers and volunteers; without you, races like this wouldn't be possible!

The next scheduled race for this guy is the Paine to Pain Trail Half Marathon just north of NYC in October - my first race in New York State - see you then!

Monster Geocaching Trip: Day 2, North Carolina

Sunday, 8/12/2012:

Started in Emporia, VA...ended Morganton, NC.  Lots of driving today, and very few geocaches.  There were a few "goal" caches in the central part of NC before we got out to the bulk of the caches in the mountains out west.

The day began with a pre-dawn alarm and we were on the foggy back roads north of Lake Gaston by 7am.  During the roughly 40 minute drive to the lake, we encountered at least three areas with dogs off leash, just running around on the road.  On each occasion, I had to slow down to a near stop to swerve and barely miss them.  It pains me to see how acceptable this is in rural South Central VA, and I'm glad to say the trend turned for the better the farther south and west we drove.  I should also note that about half the dogs we saw on the roads in that region were dead.  RIP pups.

Anyway...

The first stop was an enjoyable morning 2 mile flat water kayak out to the NC/VA state line in the water, marked by a buoy:

Next up, roughly 100 miles away, was a virtual cache at the Andy Griffith statue in Pullen Park, one of the nicest public parks I have visited...EVER!  (and trust me, geocaching generally brings you to a considerable number of public parks)  It was country club manicured, and complete with a mini train for the kids as well as a beautiful indoor carousel.  Here's a shot of my dad, Andy and Opie:

And what trip to Central NC wouldn't be complete without some SCNB?!?

Wilkesboro had some nice sights in a little historic area of the old jail:

At this point it was around 2pm, we had driven 300 miles and had only found 4 caches!  The final stop before hitting the Hampton Inn in Morganton was South Mountain State Park - namely High Shoals Falls after a mile hike and a couple hundred foot climb.  We got a bunch of shots on the way up, but this one is my favorite; I feel it best catches the beauty of the lower falls, framed by a couple of handsome gentlemen:

Once again, we finished the day in the hotel room watching Olympics coverage, this time though it was the closing ceremonies dominated by a bunch of crazy Brits singing and dancing.

And if you're curious, click here for a view of the day's route.

Monster Geocaching Trip: Day 1, Central VA

I recently had the opportunity to take a few days off from work to do pretty much whatever I wanted (what more can a guy ask for, right?).  After weighing my options, I opted for a monster geocaching trip to tie up some loose ends left in North Carolina, as well as enjoy some new areas of Virginia.  I invited my dad and being a Earth and Space Science Teacher, had some time to spend running around in the south in mid-August.

The main goals were:
1) To visit the 12 remaining virtual caches in NC west of I-95, leaving only a single cache left to complete the challenge of visiting every single active virtual in the state.
2) Finish the North Carolina Delorme Challenge, which I've qualified for for about two years, but haven't been able to find the final container, which is near Asheville.

Day one began in Central PA when the sun came up, and we set off on a 3 hour drive south to Culpeper VA, finding our first cache at 9am.  After a couple hours, we made it near Fredericksburg and the grave of Stonewall Jackson's Left Arm.  Yes, you read that correctly:

He's apparently a pretty big deal in the south.  I've even heard his portrait might still adorn the mantle of some homes.  I've also heard I may be related to some of these homeowners.

We later visited ground zero of the VA Earthquake of 2011, which was pretty uneventful, but neat to visit actual site of that event from recent history that I can remember vividly.

The night ended doing the "hotel shuffle" in Roanoke Rapids, NC with no luck in finding a room.  My wife came through in this clutch situation and found us an empty room in the nearby VA town of Emporia, which was within striking distance of the first cache of the following day: Gaston State Line, in the middle of a huge lake which straddles the NC/VA border.  We learned the hard way that night that being about halfway, Southern VA / Northern NC along 95 is prime hotel territory for families from the northeast travelling to and from Florida.  We fell asleep watching the last full night of proper Olympic coverage from London, and some speedy Jamaicans putting on a show in the 4x100 relay.

Fun with RunKeeper

RunKeeper is my go to app for recording workouts. It has been for almost a year now for the simple fact that I can take one item (my phone) which takes care of 1) my music and 2) my workout data. The greatest feature of this app is the customizable audio cues relating to anything from current heart rate to average pace. It also doesn't interrupt my music to tell me the information, which is great when I'm cruising along on auto pilot, rocking out to some System of a Down, or my new favorite Trust Company.

Though I often use the app for runs and occasionally hikes, today I decided to have a little fun and get some data on my lawn mowing activities. Overall, I was very pleased with the accuracy of the map: when zoomed out, it appears to "color in" my entire property. I was much less pleased with my pitiful average pace. It was however, fascinating that covering my entire lawn is just over a mile total.

A Trial Run

...and a trail run too...

This weekend I was able to test out some new gear on the AT, headed NOBO (trail direction "northbound", but in this case mostly compass east...and sometimes south!) from PA 225 on Peter's Mountain to PA 443 near Swatara Gap.  This was the final section of Pennsylvania Appalachian Trail between the MD line and Hamburg that I hadn't yet hiked; now I only have the 70 miles north of Hamburg to the NJ line left to complete my personal goal of the entire AT in PA by the end of 2012.

This weekend's section of trail was mostly through PA State Gamelands 211, also known as St. Anthony's Wilderness: one of the largest wilderness areas in the state.  This was highly appropriate for a trial run of some new gear and techniques, since my opportunities to "bail out" at a road crossing were few and far between.  Also, with the weekend's forecast highly favoring rain, my chances were good for a real field test of some of my gear's waterproofing.

The main goals of this short trip were to try out:
1) Some new lightweight gear, primarily:
 a) Golite PonchoTarp - freshly seam-sealed around the hood with Coleman Seam Sealer
 b) Golite Rush 20 pack
 c) Montrail Mountain Masochist GTX trail running shoes (picked up at the Columbia Outlet this spring for less than 40 bucks!) with Injinji toe socks
2) Fastpacking (i.e. a fusion of backpacking and trail running)

After working a full day on Friday, my wife provided the shuttle and I was on the trail by 6:30pm with a fully loaded pack: just under 20 lbs, which included 2 pounds of food and 3 liters of water.  I would have carried less water, but I was pretty sure I wasn't going to have a convenient chance to refill until sometime the next day, I figured I better play it safe in this humidity.

After a brief stop at Peter's Mountain Shelter, I arrived at an unnamed campsite before Kinter View around 8:15pm, around 5 miles into the hike.  I didn't want my first time setting up this shelter in the field to be with a headlamp, so I got right to business and it only took about 20 minutes to have camp fully set up and ready for the constant rain that was to follow that night.

My biggest problem sleeping wasn't the bugs, or the rain, but actually the lack of a pillow.  I normally stuff my sleeping bag stuff sack with extra clothing and anything soft, but with temps not expected to go below 60F overnight, I didn't pack much other than what I had on my body.  I ended up using a combination of my stuffed stuff sack (only about the size of a baseball) and a few extra accordion folds of my Thermarest Z-lite at the base of my neck to provide the comfort necessary for some sleep.  After a somewhat restless night, I awoke around 6am to the rain subsiding and a dry sleeping area.  The tarp performed flawlessly, and I was extremely happy to be able to break camp without rain coming down too!

I arrived at Kinter view after about a quarter mile, offering a unique scene of Clark's Valley this morning:

The next few miles were a descent to PA 325 at Clark's Creek for a breakfast and water stop, then up the mountain to the northern terminus of the 140 mile Horseshoe Trail, after crossing paths with two trail runners on their way down the mountain.

I ended up taking a little detour at this point to try and find some geocaches, but didn't have a whole lot of luck searching around the slippery rocks from the previous night's rain.

The detour brought me back down to an area where I visited on two wheels a few weeks ago, the Stony Valley Rail Trail, and then I made it back up to the AT on the blue-blazed Yellow Springs trail, bursting with rocks under every step taking a rather ambitious route straight up the mountain.

Rail Trail

Yellow Springs Trail along a rocky gorge

Yellow Springs Trail - straight up the mountain!

The next stop after a few miles on the AT was a side trip to "The General", which I'm not sure you'd find unless you had a guide of some sort (like a GPSr).  There's a sign at the intersection of the AT indicating the direction to the General, but nothing else.  The actual route requires one more turn, which isn't marked.  Anyhow...here's the General in all its glory:

At this point, I was ready to make some quick miles on the flat trail and ran the entire way to Rausch Gap shelter, where a trail maintenance crew was hard at work finding rocks, cleaning rocks, and transporting concrete mix to get this shelter back in business with what looks to be stone walls.  This appeared to be quite an undertaking and I'm grateful for their hard work and dedication - thanks trail maintainers!!!

Just down from the shelter, I ran across a fitting sight on the AT, but I can't say that I expected it way out here in the "middle of nowhere":

The remaining 5 miles of trail were fairly uneventful, with the exception of occasional army helicopters buzzing by right above the treetops, heading to and from Ft Indiantown Gap, barely a couple miles away.  Just a few hundred feet before I reached my car however, I came across a gorgeous trail portrait among wildflowers that is definitely worth posting:

So how did my gear work out?  Overall, I was very pleased.

- While I didn't get to use the Ponchotarp as a poncho, it worked extremely well as a shelter, keeping me dry and comfortable through the night.  I see myself using this shelter system for most backpacking trips in the future.  It's light, and provides all that I need given the climate in PA.
- The 20L pack size is perfect for a weekend trip, to ensure against overpacking, and only taking the essentials.  I only have two concerns with the pack.  The first is the zippered main compartment, which could potentially break or slowly creep open over the course of a hike, the latter of which I solved by tying the zipper pull cords together at the top of the pack.  The second is the shoulder strap fit, which is probably my own fault for ordering the S/M size pack rather than the M/L size.  The right strap rides up toward my neck and I found myself constantly readjusting it throughout the course of the day.  Loosening the sternum strap helped, but ultimately, I think I just made a mistake in not ordering the correct size for my torso.
- I liked the shoes, they provided great stability (I didn't twist either ankle in 27ish miles), but I found they are lacking in grip on wet surfaces.  I've found I get better grip from other rubber (like on my Vasque boots) than the "gryptonite" from Montrail.  Even with this point, they were still a steal at 40 bucks and I'll continue to use them.
- The socks however, I'm not sure if I'll ever use again.  Don't get me wrong, I actually loved the "toe socks" design, which kept me from getting blisters between my toes, and I really didn't end up with other blisters either.  The main problem with my pair is that the fabric holds foot odor like a magnet...and then amplifies it!  My socks were stinking rotten after this trip.  I think I'll use the wool blend version to see how they stack up on the smell test.

As far as "fastpacking" goes, I liked the idea of going minimal to "enjoy more" hiking/running.  I ended up splitting the running and walking about 50/50 through the course of 2 days, which I felt comfortable with and definitely do again.  Next time I'll probably try to challenge myself more with fewer side trips and a stronger focus on attaining maximum miles per day to see what I can really do...the final 70 miles of the AT in PA in one weekend?  Maybe, we'll see.

A buggy sort of run

I had quite a few brief encounters with bugs on a recent 3 mile trail run in PA State Gamelands 170 at the base of Cove Mountain.  Most of which ranging from unpleasant to painful, but one on the complete other end of the spectrum, and worthy of some pictures:

This is Limenitis arthemis, also known as the Red-spotted Purple Butterfly.  I was lucky enough to encounter a swarm (maybe 15-20) of these little guys twice on my out-and-back run, the first time I didn't notice until I was right on top of them, essentially startling them away.  I kept an eye out on my way back and was able to approach more stealthily to get some shots with my phone's camera.  A beautiful sight on an otherwise non-descript game lands access road.

GoLite Poncho Tarp

Part of my recent GoLite order included their Poncho Tarp for an amazing price: $44.99, but I haven't been able to set up until today because I didn't have any appropriate line, stakes, or line locks (I'm not very handy with knots). Those items were ordered from ZPacks, because I figured with a 7oz tarp, why weigh it down with a pound of line and stakes?

I don't have any experience with shelter building, my brain doesn't work like an engineer's and I wasn't a boy scout....so I do have a lot going against me facing the challenge of creating a shelter from a single sheet of silnylon. I do however, learn well from mistakes (most of which I hope to make in the backyard, not in the field).

With all the materials, I needed to find how to set it up. I found a few YouTube videos showing some configurations and I decided it was time to try out a few on my own. I'm a small guy at 5'7", 145lbs, so I favor the "cozy" configurations, giving maximum shelter without really sacrificing space. My favorite is pictured below which involves both of my trekking poles to give a little extra lift to the "roof". This is where the poncho hood comes out of the tarp.

From ZPacks, I used the 1.25mm Z-line Spectra cord, said to have a tensile strength of over 200lbs, which I don't doubt. For its weight, this stuff is strong. In lieu of knots, I opted for the super light Micro Line Locs from ZPacks which weigh in at only .025oz each and worked great at easily adjusting tension on the lines.

Full disclosure here...I did have to tie a few square knots on the ends connecting to the tarp or poles...I'm fairly comfortable with my abilities with this knot.

With the Tyvek groundsheet and all of the hardware, the entire shelter system comes in at 15.5oz (this doesn't include the yellow sleep pad pictured).

I plan to give the poncho tarp a try later this month out on the AT in either PA or MD. I'm hoping to set up camp somewhere with few bugs, but we'll see how that goes. I've got a bug head net that I can wear if absolutely necessary overnight. My pack base weight is now under 10 pounds, so I'm pretty excited to give it a spin!