North Face Endurance Challenge - MA

The North Face Endurance Challenge 50M MA was my fifth 50 miler attempt and 4th finish.  Terrain wise, it was my hardest yet.  The North Face DC was my first trail and first ultra-race and I done the North Face Bear Mountain 50 M and 50k.  Since I learned last year that there was a new North Face in MA I wanted to do it.  I didn't imagine it being a hard one.  Then Eric spoke of how difficult it was last year so I started looking it up.  Only 41% finished last year and they had to extend the cutoffs for that too.  This year they made the course slightly easier this year.  While I feel like I have maintained some fitness I didn't go into the race trained for it.  But that's okay, this race was meant to see where I am and what to work on as I prepare for my fall A race - North Face 50M in CA where I'll get to race against many of the stars of ultra-running.

With 2.5 hours of sleep, I met Rene and drove 3.5 to get to the start with a half hour to start.  It's an ultra and with their early starts you'll never get enough sleep.  I have long accepted that and try to get in some extra sleep the days before.  We had enough time for bathroom, packet pickup and bag drop.  One bag drop was transported to the course so you could retrieve things later.  I didn't really have anything prepared for the bag drop but I put an old pair of running shoes in just in case.  At finish line bag drop I had a change of clothes.  I planned on relying heavy on the aid stations.  I was very familiar with the starting area setup of the North Face races so I felt pretty confident moving through.  Got some sunblock and bug spray on and filled up on water before getting on to the wave.  I was looking to get some gels but didn’t see the hammergel station.  I had two on me and I knew the aid stations would have more so it didn’t worry me.  I was surprised to find myself in wave 1.  Dean Karnazes said his usually few words before the race.  He mentioned that he thought this was the most technical of the North Face races.

The race went off.  I went at my own pace so didn't really pay attention to where I positioned myself.  The first mile was the usual nice wide trail dirt roads.  Then it went briefly into a technical downhill where I passed many.  Then back to wide gently climbs.  I took it easily and got passed by many I had earlier passed.  After a bit we got technical climbs.  I met a young man named Ohare.  He started pacing off me and we talked for a bit.  He was a student that resided at BU but studied elsewhere.  He was looking to challenge himself.  I soon lost him in one of the technical climbs.  Seemed like a nice guy.  Approaching the top I met a man who asked how many miles I ran so far.  I said 7.  He said he got lost and has done 9.  Once on top of the mountain we reached an aid station, got a mark on our bib and went back down a bit to do another loop.  I met the man again who earlier got lost once again said he took the wrong turn.  North Face Endurance Challenge is pretty good on their course marking but I guess he just wasn't looking up as much?  On the second loop go around I met some people that were complaining about having to do the loop twice.  I guessed at this point they must have been the 50k runners.  Made it the top again where I saw some expense camera setups taking video.  Drones up there as well!  

Next we started to descend.  Caught up to a man who said he was glad the hard part is done and then immediately face planted.  Lucky he was okay.  The descent became very technical, you are pretty much dropping down 3-4 feet boulders.  I flew down.  I love technical terrain.  I passed a whole lot of runners.  Lucky the terrain here was nice and wide so I had plenty of space to play.  After the crazy descent we went onto the mid-state trail.  It was rocky and had a few climbs which you had to hike over but nothing crazy.  I ran fairly hard here, giving it a marathon pace effort.  Eventually I slowed down to take a hammer gel.  I knew nutrition would be key so had to make sure I was keeping my calories up.  A good numbers of runners quickly passed me.  I had no idea that so many were right behind my tail.  There wasn't anyone close enough behind me for me to give them space to pass by.  After the gel I went back to the marathon pace effort but ended up stuck behind some guy who was struggling.  I tried to ask if I could pass by as I felt this area was completely runnable.  He said he wasn't use to this terrain.  I guess he also didn't know he should move to the side a bit to let faster runners through.  I remember someone complain last year about trail etiquette.  A group of runners formed behind him.  I kind of felt sorry for him.  Eventually there was a descent over a rock that the guy crawled to his butt to get down and then the rest of us flew past him.  A man behind me remarked at how quick I was at the descents.  I mentioned that I love technical downhills but that I should be careful to not burn out my quads.  

After the 5 mile stretch of the mid-state trail ended we popped out of a parking lot and an aid station.  I started craving soda so I took a cup of coke.  The next aid station came up pretty quickly and I took a cup of mountain dew there.  At that point I had no idea why I was craving soda.  The terrain now became easy!  It was now wide open horse carriage trail like.  But my quads started cramping and I slowed down.  A lot of runners passed by.  I touched my face at a certain point and realized that I was sweating out a lot of salt.  I should have realized sooner!  Despite the race being in mostly shade it was still quite hot.  I was taking gels every 40 minutes with food here and there.  I switched to every thirty minutes.  At the next aid station I asked if there were salt pills but sadly no (the aid station I volunteered in North Face Bear Mountain had salt pills).  At that point I also realized how bare bones the aid stations were.  Yes compared to water stations that road races have the North face aid stations seem amazing but I done a lot of ultras now and seen so much better food options.  They also had less food options than North Face Bear Mountain.  I ate some potatoes dumped in salt which tasted horrible because I put too much salt but I forced it in knowing it would help.  I also started drinking a lot more soda.  The next 5 miles was an easy fire road but I still struggled through.  Around mile 27 I started feeling better.  It took about 10 miles for me to feel like I recovered from the cramping.  The trail also went back to single track which I loved.  At the end of it we popped back out at the parking lot.

When I got through the man asked if it was my second time through.  I initially said yes because I recognized the parking lot and it was my second time there.  The man said only five miles to finish turn right!  I looked at my watch, I was at 30 and told him.  He said I had to do the last 15 mile loop again.  I instantly dreaded it.  I was tired and I think mentally it would have been easier if I was heading home but instead I had to go farther away.  Demoralized I shuffled through back to the start of the 15 mile loop.  As I was filling up on soda I saw Rene come through to the aid station.  He was 5 miles ahead of him but seeing him made me so happy.  Now back alone I started imaging that something old and ancient within me was waking up (can’t say my mind was 100% at this point lol).  I got back to running at a good pace.  Back on the fire road again I met a man from Atlanta, Georgia.  He and 7 of his friends were preparing for the Leadville 100 and he was using this race like me to establish a baseline.  He didn't expect it to be so hard.  A woman in green joined us and we talked together for about 2 miles.  The man did a 45 day race across the Atlantic Ocean on a row boat which was pretty interesting.  He also fell 11 times at that point, I had fallen 5 times.  Eventually the man started passing me and soon the women.  I started fading mentally but held out hopes that making it to the single track would save me.  Towards the end of the 5 mile fire road stretch I passed by a young man named Pu who remarked that he was saving his energy for the end.  I actually been passing and being passed by him a few times by now.  I remember thinking that there is no saving energy at this point.  You're going to hurt now and you're going to hurt later.  Back on the 5 mile single track stretch my legs felt jelly and going downhill caused a lot of pain.  After 3 miles of suffering, at mile 43, I started thinking of just walking to the end.  I started thinking of the other types of pain I went through this year - the 800 meter track race, the 14ers and thought that nothing compares to this kind of pain (this is probably something I think every time).  I realized that when I think of these other pains that the pain I currently feeling disappears.  I decided to focus on deep breathes, in and out of the nose.  I am able to start jogging and soon catch up to the women in green, though she passes me a little afterwards.

Back onto the parking lot for the third time!  We now have to go through the technical mid-state trail to finish.  I knew it was hard and it was not reassuring when volunteers were saying only 5 more miles!  I understand why they would say, I said it too when I volunteered for the NYC marathon for the first time long ago, but each mile now feels like 10 on a good day.  I drink a little more soda and begin my climb up.  I start turning to emotions to fuel me.  I start thinking of the many times volunteers and friends have helped me during dark times.  Those memories get me back my downhill speed.  On the uphill, I find that the shortness of breath break up my emotional state.  So I switch to the focus on deep breaths to jog uphill.  I felt a bit odd, almost crying emotionally on the downhill and then switching quickly to mediation for the uphill.  Eventually I had to start digging through more memories to draw strength from.  I started thinking of others, non-running times that people encouraged me in life and finally I imagined my siblings cheering for me.  At mile 48 you could start hearing the finish line announcer and thinking I was close to finishing I let the thought of finishing fuel me.  At mile 49 you end up on a road stretch and it's clear you still got a mile to go.  I slow to a shuffle walk, drained out of motivation.  The race goes back into the woods and a 50k finisher who came back in to cheer told me that there is no more uphill, .3 downhill and .2 straight to finish.  He just needed to say .5 left.  I picked up some speed and finished strong.  Immediately upon finishing I fell to my knees, something I had not done before in a race.  A man cheering at the finish line joked don't be so dramatic, it was a walk in the park.

Afterwards I met Rene and we did some Normantec recovery boots (which was torture), got some beer and some food.  Vegan options were pretty limited at this point at the cafe which was very disappointing.  Again I think of Bear Mountain North Face which had some better food options.  Pu met up with us and we talked for quite a bit.  It was interesting to me that Pu was a 2:54 recent marathoner and Rene was 2:57 recent marathoner yet their finishing times were two hours apart.  Guess marathon times can’t predict times for races like this.  Two hours after finishing I started the drive back.  Took 4 hours with some traffic, it was a pretty tough drive back!  

I got a little over 100k in steps that day and I was up for 24 hours by the time I got back home.  I still find it amazing that the body doesn't want to just eat like crazy and sleep afterwards, it kind of just goes back into its normal schedule (no matter how much I feel like I should be sleeping to recover).  I was able to get up after 6 hours of sleeping and go volunteer for QDR's world cup 5k event.  Though to be honest, after the initial setup my mind kind of faded and I felt half there.