I did not fear the Catamount 50K in Northern Vermont, even with its 5000 feet of elevation gain. I’ve spent the last two months trashing my quads and crushing my glutes & calves with hill repeats at Prospect Hill Park, a local bit of woods with a short but steep 400-foot climb. On other days I’ll hit the hills in my neighborhood by running up to the conservation property, where I’ll do speedwork on the buttery trail. No injuries. High spirits. Excited and terrified to be running the VT 100 in 2 and a half weeks.
We opted to stay at the Trappe Family Lodge in Stowe, VT so we could be walking distance to the starting line… and, we needed to “get away from it all” after having zero get-aways since Christmas. It’s been all work, no play, and we needed frivolity. And the Trappe Lodge is significant frivolity. The Trappe family, who inspired “The Sound of Music,” had settled in Vermont in the 1950s, opened a guest lodge, renovated it after a (deadly) fire in the 1980s… and hadn’t touched it since! yet continue to charge premium resort prices… don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful place, but the amenities just didn’t add up to the premium resort prices.
But then again, race morning was luxury. I felt like a princess as I shoved nut bars into my mouth and applied non-chafing petroleum solution to my unmentionables in my hotel room, my own private bathroom, 2 minutes from the start!
Everyone looks intimidating at the start of a 50K. Of course the woman who ran an insane 4:30 on the course last year and the woman who recently represented the USA in the international ultra-trail championships in France looked especially intimidating… but really everyone looked fierce.
The start happened and we pranced up the gigantic hill with wayyyy too much energy. Too hard for a 50K., I told myself, yet I could. not. resist the lure of the herd, pulling me up the hill at a heart-pounding and non-sustainable pace.
In the first few miles, a slew of people passed me, including about 6-8 women. One girl (and I mean girl, I found out later she was 19) was running every single hill, no matter how steep. Unless you’re an elite, one of the biggest mistakes you can make in an ultra is to expend the energy running up a hill to gain a few seconds; everyone else fast-walks. Her breath was audibly ragged and strangled, and she wasn’t carrying water. I predicted she’d crash but for the first 10 miles I leap-fogged with her: she’d slog past me on the hills, and I’d pass her on the flats and downhills (she wound up finishing 20 minutes after me, as I was tucking into my beer).
Eventually the two of us settled in behind two other women on a flat section. I hung out, caught my breath, then made my move on a downhill. I knew they were all still behind me and that pushed me to maintain my pace. I passed 2 more women as I neared the end of the loop. My least favorite part was the uphill on grass, where a photographer happened to be positioned.
I really should have braided my hair…
… because it was a giant knot at the end
I finished the first 15.5 mile loop in about 2:35 minutes. Mr. P and Little Boy were waiting for me at the starting/middle/finish line with fresh socks, which were much needed due to the small but epic patches of thick mud. The older man at the aid station was very kind to me, filling up my handheld bottle as I changed socks and chatted with my boys. But it was obvious who he was catering to. “I want a banana,” Little Boy said. “Me too,” I muttered. Guess who was cute enough to dotingly get the banana;-)
Instead of saying I went out on the second loop “slow,” I prefer “cautious.” My pace on the first loop was significantly faster than I had projected; I was on track for a 50K PR, on a hilly/tough course! Yet I was not eating that much due to the limited number of aid stations, which only offered PB&Js on whole-wheat bread. So I went out on the second loop intentionally slow and got passed quickly by one man and then a girl I had previously passed; she looked young, cool, strong and was running smart.
She spurred me to pick up my pace. For about seven miles, it was almost awkward how I was running with her but just behind her. We came in around the same time at the final aid station around mile 25. She stopped, chatted with the volunteers, snacked; I asked for an ice/water refill, grabbed a PB&J and scrammed.
There were a bunch of senior citizens — random Trappe Family lodge guests — staring at me as I ran an 8-minute mile out of the aid station with rogue jelly literally all over my hand, hydration bottle, and on my shirt, trying to choke down the inedible whole-wheat crust, which was baked into brick by the sun. They looked concerned.
She was close behind me for the last six miles; I snuck peeks behind me only to catch a glimpse of her. Thank you, Competitor. You spurred me to a 50K PR on the hardest 50K course I’ve ever run. You finished less than a minute behind me. And we both finished strong!
And then I ate pizza and drank beer and quizzed Mr. P about the quality of the resort’s hot tub, and chatted with all sorts of folks, and loved life and running.
I finished in 5:24, a 50K PR, 27th out of 96 and 7th girl out of 32.
