The inaugural running of the Twin State 50K and 50 miler was last Sunday, and me oh my, the conditions were superlative. Blue sunny skies, warm sun, not too much mud… and the convivial fat-ass spirit that rules the very best ultras. (A ‘fat ass’ — I believe it’s an acronym — is a minimally supported race with no medals, no official timing, and not a lot luxuries.) The race director — who judging by his pre-race email barrage is a tad eccentric but entertainingly and intelligently so — delivered a nice, low-key race with lots of cool, inspiring folks to chat with along the way.
With less than a month until Miwok, I needed a hard, hilly run… and the Twin State 50 fit the bill. It starts in Windsor, Vermont and uses some of the same dirt roads that I crawled on for last summer’s Vermont 100. I knew Mr. P and Little Boy would enjoy coming along, breathing in the country air and scenery, staying at a hotel on Saturday night, romping in the swimming pool while I tore up my knees, and then accompanying me to Harpoon’s Brewery for post-race libations and victuals.
I signed up for the 50 miler. That was optimistic and I knew it. I thought if I was feeling reeaalll good, I’d do the 50 miler and go into Miwok with the utmost confidence. But with Miwok less than a month away, I can’t beat up my body so much that I can’t run at all for the next two weeks before my taper.
Every road in the area has the word “Hill” in it. Silver Hill, Juniper Hill, Cow Hill, Meadow Hill, Farm Hill, Hill Hill… The uphills were killer, but I train for uphill; I don’t specifically train for quad-busting downhills on hard-packed mud. Maybe I should. So when I started to “feel” my knees and quads at mile 20, I knew going 30 more miles would be a very bad idea. I’ll save the abuse for Miwok.
I don’t like to say… “I failed to run 50 miles.” I much prefer… “I ran a 50K!” A hilly, quad-busting 50K. I finished in the middle of the pack at 5 hours, 38 minutes. Which is pretty excellent for me, given the approx. 5500 feet of elevation gain and the fact I was pacing myself for a 50 miler for the first twenty miles. I was still running pretty good at the end. (In regards to Miwok: the elevation gain and distance is exactly half of Miwok and I’ll definitely slllooow the pace down since I have 16 hours to finish. It’ll be tough but, I believe, doable.)
Another runner captured this shot of me (in orange) trudging uphill
One of the highlights was crossing two covered bridges at the end, going into and out of New Hampshire (hence the race’s name). One of the covered bridges crossed the Connecticut river and carried a lot of car traffic. The other was small and deserted — the runner I was with at the time took my picture.
Blow-me-down Covered Bridge in Cornish, NH
I finished the race at the local high school at noon. I wrote my time on a piece of paper and then walked to the local playground, where Mr. P and Little Boy were waiting for me. We returned to the hotel so I could take a shower (thank goodness for late check-out) then headed to Harpoon’s. All in all, a great little getaway for the family and a nice bit of training for me!
