Manitou's Revenge

Manitou’s Revenge was my fifth finish of an ultra around the 50 mile distance.  It made all the others (North Face NY, Ice Age, McDowell, and North Face MA) look like kids races.  This wasn't surprising to me.  When I think technical terrain, I think of the Catskills.  The race took place in the Catskills, going from Windham to Phoencia, gaining close to 15,000 feet of elevation gain over 54 miles.  It was what felt like to be my strongest performance of the year so far and at 54 miles, it was technically (new distance) my 10th PR of the year.  This race ended 6 weeks of racing ranging from 10k on the flat road to this mountainous 54 miles! 

I was in the waitlist for the race till two weeks ago, after I finished the North Face MA 50 miler, so I didn't have enough time to get specific training in for the race.  Perhaps the most important factor going into this race was the 50 miler I did two weeks ago.  I usually say that 50 milers on trails take 2 weeks to recover from (equal to a road marathon) but I never really tested it.  Though my legs still felt a bit stiff the day before I feel like the North Face MA 50 miler helped me prep big time for this race.  During that race my legs cramped a little more than a quarter of the way in so this time I had a stronger nutrition strategy.  My quads burnt out during the later parts of North Face so I focused in getting in a few short workouts to work on that (still not enough time though and I worried about the quads going into the race), and it helped me mentally in that by doing the distance before my body sort of got used to it, like it doesn't freak out like the first few times.

Strategy

This was the first race I really looked at race reports for.  An important thing I got for them was to run the runnable sections, even if it's only 50 feet before you have climb again, run!  I looked a lot at the times of the middle of the pack runners and their times were a big warning to how difficult this course was.  You had to qualify to just enter this race so these weren’t newbies to the distance. 

For nutrition I pretty much stuck to gels every 40 minutes like North Face but this time I also added one salt tablet per hour.  I didn't cramp at all during the race.  I snacked on some fruit and small sandwiches at aid stations but real food was more on feel.  Towards the later quarter of the race I lost the ability to keep track of when I was eating gels so I went by feel.  If I felt hungry, I ate.

For running, I pretty much jogged uphills that I could see the top of, hiked/climbed up other uphills and ran the flats and downhills.  The only uphills I could see the top of were in the first few miles.

For the last year and half I decided that I would be racing ultras so I stopped taking pictures.  Then Rene took a few pictures during North Face MA and still finished well.  I decided that I would bring my cell phone and quickly snap a few pictures if I made up a hard climb.  I think overall this thought made me more relaxed going into the race.

Race morning

I had to take the bus from the finish to the start at 3:30 am so just like North Face I got 3 hours of sleep.  I also got some in and out sleep on that bus.  I had stuffed everything I needed in my drop bag and started setting up on a table at the start.  There were only 5 aid stations for this race and I looked at average splits between them to see that the average person spent at least 2 hours apart between some of them.  That was too long for me to not bring my ultimate direction racing vest.  For my last two 50 milers, I had used a combo of hand bottles and hip belt in hopes of being lighter and thus faster but I found that it doesn't seem to really make a difference.  I had a 1.5 litter bladder with two nuun tables (about 60% of what the directions say), a hip belt with 6 gels with one pocket open specifically for gel garbage, and 8 more gels and a zip lock bag with hammer gel salt tablets.  There were no gels at the aid stations so the only place I could restock was my drop bag at mile 30.  Good thing I volunteered for North Face NY and had just the stockpile of hammergels (leftovers that they let the volunteers take home).  In addition to hammer gel I had some muir energy, powerbar gels (from the Brooklyn half) and science in sport gels.  It seemed like a lot of the runners ran the race before and that they only got a few new people each year.  I was surprised at how many people had hiking poles!  I picked up my bib and found out I was in wave 8.  The last wave!  I guess my qualifying race wasn’t that impressive (I used McDowell Mountain Frenzy from last December).  I think wave 8 were barely expected to finish.  I would pretty much spend the entire race passing people. 

The Great Wall of Manitou (escarpment trail)

I started off 5:40, there was 5 minutes between waves.  There were 15 of us in wave 8.  I started running around the 11 minute pace for the first 3 miles on the road.  A couple of the runners of the wave were ahead of me.  Just before we turned into the trail was an aid station 1 but I skipped it.  Then we hit the trail and I quickly passed all of wave 8 but two.  The initial trail mile was very runnable, even the uphills.  We then hit the escarpment trail and started south, starting the climb to Blackhead.  The escarpment trail is a 21 mile trail in the Catskills and I always have overlooked it because of the more famous Devil’s path.  There were parts of the climb were I had to use my hands to pull myself up, similar to what the Devil’s path would be.  I soon caught up with a pack of runners who I assumed were wave 7.  They were a bit slow power hiking uphill but it was early so I went behind them.  Then they continued walking on the flats, I waited a minute and when it was clear they were not going to run I asked if I could pass.  They were quick to get out of the way (experienced trail runners - so much better than North Face MA).  I soon caught up to a woman from my wave.  I thought I would run with her for a bit but I passed and she didn’t keep up.  A few miles later I caught the last of wave 8, a man that I recognized from another local NY trail race.  I reached the second aid station at about two hours and a half.  That’s about the median time and I adjusted my finish time to 17:30 instead of sub 16 hours.  I made it here at high sprites and having fun so I wasn’t worried yet.  At the aid station I ate the last peanut butter sandwich.  I heisted at first but the volunteers insisted.  I moved quickly through the aid station starting the climb up.  Passed a few more.  I listen to a few songs on the radio on the drive up and the song broken got stuck on my head.  After I couldn’t get the songs out I started playing the beats to pace myself.  I used faster parts to pace downhills while using the general slower beat for the flats.  I passed an airplane crash and turned around to take a picture.  A man behind me said he didn’t notice it the first time around.  The views were beautiful, I could see why it inspired the first art movement in this country.

Reached the third aid station.  From here I noticed that they had signs with distance and elevation gain and loss to the next aid station.  It was 5 miles downhill so I ran the next section hard.  It also wasn’t technical and I got to a 10 mile pace.  It was long though and I was worried that it would do a number on my quads.  At the North South Aid station I refilled my bladder with tail wind.  Passing the aid station the trail split and I got second doubts on where to go.  I didn’t pay attention and with a little rain on the rocks I got my first fall.  Nothing major.  I passed by parts of the North-South campground and the views here nice!  I have to come back and camp here.  I also didn’t realize how high up the campground was. 

The Long Path

The 4^th Aid station was at the end of the descent and I grabbed some fruit, crossed the road and briefly ran on the road before merging with the long path.  The long path is long distance trail that technically starts in Manhattan (though the trail part starts in the palisades across the GWB).  I met two Canadians and asked how they were.  They asked how I was doing and I said I was fine.  I got some remark that it was because I was young.  The next part wasn’t technically but very steep fire road type of road.  I struggled a bit here but no one caught up.

After a bit of a climb we descend a bit towards aid station 5.  It rained a bit but my body felt super light at this point and I cruised though.  I passed by someone I recognized on Instagram being from mountain peak fitness.

Aid station 5 was the only place to have a drop bag.  Since no aid station had gels I had packed 30 plus gels in the bag and my head lamp.  I reached a little before 2 pm but I remember that the race director wrote in his instructions that it may seem silly to have a headlamp leaving at 2 pm with 30/54 miles done but you would thank him.  Volunteers checked if you had a headlamp leaving too.  There was definitely an emphasis on having one.  There were a lot more runners at this aid station and I figure that I caught up to the middle of the pack.  A volunteer got me my drop bag quickly and he put it away after I was done with it.  I wish I had pre pack the bag with exactly what I needed instead of shifting through and counting how many gels  I needed (I would end up bringing too little).  I ate some tortillas with peanut butter and jelly which I liked better than P&J sandwiches.  This was the biggest aid station and I could understand why many would spend time here.  After 30 miles we were about to hit the climax!

The Devil’s Path

We took a blue trail from Palenville to the devil’s path.  On the way there a fellow runner cracked a few jokes about my shoes.  My brooks puregrits are ripped on both sides of the feet (I think because my feet swelled on them).  I mentioned that the lugs under them were still good and he said he had the same problem.  That his shoes rip from the sides way before the lugs under break off.  It was nice talking for a bit.  I soon passed on a flat section as I was continuing to run what was runnable.  I never been on this short blue section before but if you look up maps of the devil’s path you end up with a Hudson Valley Hiker’s Devil’s path plan.  For some reason they start their hike from Palenville too.  This skips the first easy miles of the Devil’s path and goes straight to ascent of Indian head.  I passed a lot of runners getting to the devil’s path, it looks like most people were preparing for a long hike.  The climb up Indian was steep and at parts I had to once again use my hands to climb.  I quickly understood why a younger version of myself, new to hiking 4 years ago, got easily crushed by this trail.  Indian head went pretty smooth, I ran good sections of it.  Then the climb up Twin Mountain.  I knew exactly where the viewpoints were and where to go.  The descent down Twin Mountain was tough, rocks were just shooting out at different directions everywhere and I had to hike a lot of it.  Then the climb up Sugarloaf.  Here I started losing my ability to ascend strongly.  I was so worried about my quads going into the race that I forgot that I needed my calves for the steep uphills.  I caught up to a woman named Sarah and two other runners and we ran down Sugarloaf together.  They sped through aid station 6.  I took an extra minute, drinking 3 cups of coke before I headed out.  I got hyper and started running hard up Plateau.  I quickly passed the group but the climb up Plateau got to me.  I caught up to a man named Ryan and as we struggled up we talked.  He done two 100 milers, Devil’s dog and Grindstone.  He was also signed up for Easterns 100 which got cancelled.  He didn’t have access to technical terrain and despite his accomplishments this race was crushing him.  He was also from wave 3, though he thinks most of wave 4 passed him.  I didn’t mention my wave.  At a runnable section I lost him.  At this point, the technical terrain was really draining me.  Running was actually my recovery.  Bouldering after long runs might be good practice with this.  I remember a story about Scott Jerek who was struggling to do a 24 hour fells challenge in the UK.  He was struggling going through the technical terrain but the author remarked that he’ll be okay once they get on runnable terrain.  I finally understood what that meant.  Shortly after passing the summit of Plateau we moved out of the Devil’s path and descended towards Silver Hollow Notch.

Edgewood Mt and Tremper

I passed by an older runner who I told I was happy that the hard part was over but he warned me that it wasn’t over yet.  I started tripping at the downhills.  The rocks were wet, and a combo of fatigue and mud on my shoes made me lose grip.  I almost face planted into some rocks but I was more worried that both my feet that hit a sharp edge of a rock.  I still descended strongly and passed by two runners.  One was Mendy who cheered as I passed by.  I heard them talk about the Schunemunk mountain race and I wanted to badly join in the conversation but had to keep running.  I thought about how mountain races have almost no crowds and that it’s pretty much up to us runners to cheer for each other.  Sure they are volunteers and crew but they are limited to a few spots.  Then I tripped and landed my right knee.  This hurt and I briefly walked before starting to run again.  My descents now became slower.  I started braking more, using trees to come to a complete stop to regain myself before continuing.  Eventually I figured out that if I land my feet at a slight angle (instead of straight down) that I had better control of slipping.  After the descents I talked briefly with a woman from Central PA.  She was a 4 hour drive away from the Catskills and said my 2.5 hours away was lucky.  We talked about how we didn’t really want to use our headlamps.  Then I passed.  I was a bit sad but the talk helped motivate me.  Then came the climb up Edgewood Mt.  The climb was a struggle and then we descended crazy.  Now started the last large climb.  It felt like forever.  I ran out of gels but still had some salt tablets.  I accidently got water instead of tailwind at aid station 7 so I had less calories than I wanted.  I was also no longer tracking calorie intake, I wasn’t able to remember when I last ate something.  I guess I could write it down later stage calorie intake like people do with split times.  Anyway the climb toward Mount Tremper was horrible mentally.  Finally made it to aid station 8, the last one.  Mendy and the central PA women shortly caught up.  I stuffed two half peanut butter jelly sandwiches in my belt to eat later, I couldn’t figure out where in the vest to put them.  I ate some veggie noodles in broth. 

The final stretch included a 300 foot gain but then it was all downhill.  Mendy left the aid station a few seconds before me and let me pass saying I was faster but I kind of knew that she would catch up on the 300 feet climb.  I played around with headlamp on and off and decided to keep it on.  There was a bit of fog so you couldn’t see that great with them but I guess once it’s on you get used to having more light.  Mendy and another man caught up.  Not sure where the guy came from but he was surging through with his pacer.  I did recognize the pacer from the start and saw her waiting at the aid station after sugarloaf.  We briefly talked about how cycling could help strengthen the quads before they both passed.  On a straightway I caught up with Mendy and pasted.  Finally made it up on Mount Tremper firetower.  Now it’s all downhill.  Ryan earlier had said that the fireroad may be easy.  To be honest, I didn’t believe him but the trail became wide and steep downhill.  I shortly caught up to the pacer who had gotten dropped.  She said he felt good and went on ahead.  I mentioned that it feels good to be on this trail.  After a little while the descent got rocky and I slipped and fell over one of the rocks.  I knew it!  There are no easy miles in the Catskills.  Talyor Swift’s 22 song played a bit in my head, no idea where that came from.  Soon I caught up with another man who had blew up his knees who said he was lucky to have his trekking poles to slowly climb down.  Later on I would hear stories up how he charged uphill.  After a brief check I passed by.  I definitely heard animal sounds in the distance.  Here and there I thought I would see a street light, think I was close to the road, only to find out that I was definitely still in the woods.  Eventually the ground passes a stream which I use as a sign for being close.  Takes a few more minutes but finally emerge out of the woods.  Just before I got on the final 1 mile road run two men gave me a reflective vest.  Running world magazine logo on it.  I fumbled a bit to put the vest on and then on to the final run.  I think I ran it about the same pace I started off at, a slow 11 minute jog.  Mendy passed me a bit in.  She was running super-fast, looked like at 7 minute mile to me.  Finally made it to the finish!  It was a pretty simple setup.

Afterwards I went inside the Parish hall and ate some food.  I was able to talk with a bunch of the people that I passed since the devil’s path and I hanged out for an hour.  The guy that cracked jokes about my shoe made it and Ryan also made it with pretty good timing.  After an hour I started the drive home.  I would have loved to have stayed and cheered on a few more finishers (time limit was 24 hours) but I forgot a change of clothes and I definitely would have needed a jacket.  Plus I was hiking the next day so had to get back to NYC and get some sleep.

I finished in 16:27, about an hour faster than my B goal.  A goal was sub 16 but still pretty happy with the result.  Now with break from racing I could focus a bit on the trail 50 mile nationals!