It’s hard to run consistently when I’m on service, and right
now I’m just over halfway through a 2 month stretch of service. I signed up for the Frozen Sasquatch 50k as “free miles,” that is, 31-32
of them without the mental difficulty of sloughing out a long run alone. It also helped me do my best to get my runs in over the last
month, though I didn’t train specifically for this race (max run was 16 miles,
and I didn’t run at all for nearly 2 weeks when I should have been peaking for
this race). Finally, a beautiful course with great support and good company is
a good reminder that I like ultrarunning, helpful when winter and work encourage me to stay in bed when that 4 AM alarm goes off.
I got up at 3 AM to drive the 3.5 hours to Kanawha State
Forest in West Virginia in time for the race start. It had rained the whole
afternoon/evening/night leading up to the race and then stopped right before
the race started, leaving muddy trails but no active precipitation (and even
some sunshine!) for the race itself. It was a little cool to start (40 degrees) so I wore the amazing smartwool hat provided as race swag.
The course is 2 laps of a 15.8 mile loop, each with 3
significant (~600 foot) climbs up mountains. The first begins only ¼ mile into
the race. Early hiking: free miles! We then ran along the ridgeline awhile
(beautiful running = free miles). The descent that followed was on a wide
gravel trail/road, making a quick pace very easy: free miles! There was some
mud which occasionally made singletrack descent comparable to skiing and
rarely caused ankle deep mud puddles on the gravel/dirt trail, but really it
didn’t significantly slow the course. After the second climb, we were treated
to some flowing singletrack switchbacks, but the course was still too crowded
at this point to be able to really cruise down it. A mile of flat road
followed: free FAST miles!
I stopped at the second aid station to pick up some pringles
and was walking to eat them when I saw a man with a camera. Okay, I’ll run and
smile to try to get a good picture. I was working hard to look happy and take a
good picture when Sasquatch himself jumped out from behind a rock and roared. I
think everyone for half a mile heard my scream, and my hands flew up before
settling in to hug it out with Sasquatch. And now I had an adrenaline kick for
the third climb!
After the third climb, we had some easier running for awhile
before descending sharply on switchbacks to go through the start/finish (my
split was around 3:11 when I did so). Even though many of the runners I had
been around the whole first lap were doing the 50k, once the 25k runners
stopped, the course went from being a little crowded to totally empty. I passed
one runner on the first climb, and then went a whole 10 miles without seeing
another runner. I was a little tired and had slowed a bit (about 1 minute/mile),
but probably could have run a little quicker if I had the right motivation.
Then with 5 miles to go, I saw a woman (I later learned her name was Emily,
wife of Sasquatch) ahead of me. I actually said out loud, “Jackpot!” Perhaps “jackrabbit”
would have been more accurate, because 1 minute later she looked back, saw me,
and took off.
I caught her 1-2 miles later at the last aid station and
tried to pick up my pace for what I knew was a fast/easy last section. But then
2 miles later, I found myself running toward Emily. She was right and I was
wrong, of course, but I was stubbornly confident that I had been
following markers the whole way. We stood there a few minutes, pulling out
Emily’s map and finally deciding that I had done something wrong and a little
extra (free miles!) before the next runner came up behind Emily as the
confirmatory tiebreaker.
When I crossed the finish line, John Denver’s “Country
Roads,” was playing. My time was 6:41 but I’m encouraged that my
detour/standing around to look at the map falsely inflated my second lap split,
so I didn’t slow down quite as much as the time would imply. Finishers all
received smartwool socks (yes!) and BBQ lunch (perfect post-race food).
After driving back home, I was surprised that my legs were
fine getting out of the car and walking in: success! My Salmings are done: the
holes in the side are big enough now that rocks were slipping in the shoes that
was during the race.
Overall, I was super pleased with the race course and
organization and look forward to doing more West Virginia races!
-Jordan
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