Escarpment trail run race report, 2007
Summary:
For those who don’t know it, the Escarpment trail is an 18+ mile rough hiking trail in the Catskill Mountains in New York State. It’s very rocky, rooty, and has steep climbs and descents, with many ledges (short cliff-like sections) to descend.
This year I ran it for the 3rd time, in 4:17:51, 53rd place out of 200 odd runners. Heart rate average 169 (89% max). Weather low 60s to low 70s at finish, in fog most of the way near 100% humidity. The trail was wet from previous rain and the fog, so I soon had wet feet, and the rocks were very slippery the whole way, but luckily I didn’t fall (that took more concentration than usual and slowed things down somewhat). The good news is I made the best out of a too-fast start; the bad news is that I enjoyed very little of the run and faded badly at the end!
Last year, when it was hotter but the trail was mostly dry, I was 50th place (4:10:55), so I slipped a little in the placings this year and of course ran slower. The bottom line is that I was going for 4 hours, went out too hard for the conditions and then tried to survive. I achieved that to some extent, but I sure don’t like getting passed toward the end!
How it happened:
I felt fit and fairly well rested, though not entirely sure of my condition since my life’s been a bit chaotic this year leading up to the race. In any case I was ready to go for it, and that meant lining up about where I did last year - before the bulk of the people, but not right at the front. Since the race starts out with a 3 mile 1700+ foot climb, you don’t want to go too hard in order to save something for later in the race, but you also don’t want to get stuck behind too many people to pass later on the narrow single-track trail.
The race consists of 3 major climbs, and 5-6 descents broken up by rolling terrain, and my goal this year was to do the first ½ of the race about the same, maybe slightly faster than last year, making time on the rolling sections, and to have more gas up the last climb, and again to finish strong. In that way I hoped to improve and get close to 4 hours.
I felt pretty good as I started up the climb and got settled – maybe I got the taper right I was thinking. I could already tell that the rocks on the trail were wet and slippery, and my feet were soaked by the top of the climb from undergrowth. I settled in behind a group of about 5 and gave them space ahead of me as I looked for the right pace. We soon entered into the fog, or was it clouds, that was hanging over the mountains. We would be in that dense moist air for most of the day, with not a view to be seen until some misty ones toward the end. It wasn’t hot, and I remember feeling some cooler breezes atop Windham, but already everyone was completely drenched in sweat from the humidity.
I checked my watch after drinking at the aid station atop Windham – 48 something – hmm too fast perhaps, though I felt fine and it didn’t feel as hard as last year’s effort (as if I could remember well a year before exactly). On the initial descent, I found myself passing two, and had left two others back at the aid station, but I now was behind a guy who was descending ok, and though I could easily have passed him, I decided to just see how he went for a while. It turned out he was running a controlled and what seemed like a sustainable pace, so I just followed him for a couple of miles. After a few minutes of descent on some steep stuff, we heard yelling from behind as someone was smoking down the hill very fast behind us. He soon caught and passed us and looked to be having fun, but I was happy with my current pacer, who slowed a bit for technical sections, but otherwise was a fine trail runner.
The Windham descent is fairly short, and then the trail rolls for 5 miles or so to the base of Blackhead Mountain. It’s far from flat, and is very technical with roots and many small boulders, and there’s a water stop about ½ way. At the water stop my pacer stopped for longer, and the two who had caught up to us ended up going out with me and soon fell in behind me. I was trying to conserve my energy, and wasn’t pushing it, and these guys were both telling me what a nice conservative pace we were doing and commented on my trail ability, as we discussed the course in general, and the upcoming blackhead climb in particular. I remember the guy behind me was from Amherst MA, and he’d run it 3 times before, and the guy behind him 4 times before, so it was 2, 3, 4 years of experience – and I commented on them being smart to hang back. They in turn commented on me as a pacer.
I was sweating profusely from the humidity, and tried to drink as much as I could. Later, I saw that my HR during this section was over 92%, which baffles me since I was easily conversational, and wasn’t pushing. OTOH, I wasn’t feeling fresh, and knew I’d have to take it easy on Blackhead. The humidity was bugging me already, and the slippery rocks were eating up my concentration.
We hit the aid station in the notch before Blackhead and I ate a fig Newton and filled my bottle quickly and got back on the trail. My time was now 3 minutes ahead of last year’s, which felt good, but was it too fast? I didn’t want to think so but I was starting to realize it might have been too fast for the conditions. The guy from Amherst had told me his Blackhead goal was sub-20 minutes, because he didn’t want to go any slower than 3mph! Mine was either the 23 of last year or the 24 of ’05. I ended up with 24, and it hurt, but then again, it always does. I tried to pace myself, and I let other lighter folk pass me on the way up.
During the ascent of Blackhead I realized it was going to be a tough day from there on out. Yes, uncle Doug, I went out too hard! Had I watched my HRM it might have given me clues, but my policy during a race is just to record splits and not to use it to set my pace. OTOH, maybe my speed training this year made the pace feel much easier than it was on my body. In any case, I felt worse up on blackhead than I ever did before, and began to have worries of really ‘shitting the bed’ later in the race.
With that in mind, after I filled my bottle and ate some gel atop Blackhead, I took it easy on the descent. I didn’t really have a choice. A few times from there on out I would think what my pace might mean for my overall time. At first I was thinking I might improve on last year, but later I would revise my estimates to first sub 4:15, then sub 4:20, not really trying to run faster to meet those times, as I was just trying to run what I thought would be a sustainable pace from there, which was a few notches slower than earlier, and can be seen in my splits and heart rates.
After Blackhead, there’s a flatish section before the steep descent into Dutcher Notch, and at the start of that part Doug’s friend Jimmy passed me, and we had a brief conversation. I kept seeing him up ahead – he would run fast for a while then walk. I was to catch one more glimpse of him much later on Stoppel Mountain, though at the time I didn’t think it was him as I thought he was far ahead by then. Only after finishing did I find out he was just over a minute in front of me. Neither of us had great runs obviously; his probably worse than mine since he’s a faster runner.
The steep descent into the notch didn’t hurt badly as I was pacing myself now, trying to conserve enough energy to run all the way to the end instead of having to finish it out hiking. The rocks were slippery requiring great care, the air was thick with moisture, and my morale was poor. As I drank cups and refilled my bottle and started hiking up the climb to Stoppel, I hoped to conserve enough energy on this last climb to run it in well to the finish, and I paced myself with this in mind, jogging the less steep stuff and hiking everything else on the way up.
A few people caught up to me here, and some passed, but two guys fell in behind me and I was a pacer for a little while. It turned out they were both cramping, so I gave them salt pills, and after that near the top, one of them passed and disappeared. The other, and two more passed me as we got water at the Stoppel aid station, and I really wasn’t feeling good at all. I had no cramps, was trying to drink a lot, but I just didn’t have the legs at that point to finish strong. Normally the next section is a nice and fast slight downhill, but I just couldn’t work it as I had in past years. The next 50 minutes were tough.
I held an ok pace down to North Point, and just one other person passed me in there, though in past years I was the one doing the passing from there to the finish, and it wasn’t nice not being able to respond. After that, the steep ledges and technical stuff from there down really sapped my strength, and I walked or slogged through sections I really hammered in previous years. Lower down, several more passed me, but I didn’t care anymore. I just wanted to finish still running. As I neared the finish, yet another guy was behind and closing on me, but I managed to pick it up in the final 200 meters to avoid a humiliating pass right at the finish ;)
There was Doug at the finish and Parker was there helping him, and that was when I met him for the first time. Someone handed me water to pour over my head and another to drink. I was drained much more than in previous years. When I realized that my time was 4:17 something I was somewhat happy to have salvaged that out of my day. The conditions weren’t hot, though it was 60s to around 70 and very thick humidity, and I don’t go well in that stuff even if it’s not that hot. I didn’t feel great about my run, and I really can’t say that I enjoyed much of it, but it was done, and that’s always a satisfying feeling.
After lying down for a few minutes, I went to the lake with my replacement drink and went right in shoes and all, hoping the water was cold enough to chill my legs, but it wasn’t as cold as last year. It still felt good to wash off all the sweat and salt and to cool off somewhat. Then, after hanging at the finish with Parker and Doug for a while, I left to face the Sunday traffic, which lived up to it’s billing. Luckily a secret side route saved me hours of frustration, and I got home in time for dinner.
Splits year by year:
landmark 2005 2006 HR 2007 HR
Windham 53:58 49:06 167 48:20 172
waterst1 1:29:33 1:20:02 169 1:18:41 174
startclimb 2:01:18 1:50:31 168 1:47:26 176
Blackhead 2:26:10 2:14:13 173 2:11:52 178
Dutcher 2:58:27 2:46:08 164 2:45:21 166
Stoppel 3:35:22 3:23:05 167 3:24:34 165
NorthPt 3:56:50 3:42:21 161 3:46:12 159
Finish 4:24:40 4:10:55 164 4:17:51 160
Weight 164 168 169
Other thoughts:
I’ve had some nagging injuries and difficulties fitting training into life in the past few months. I think though that my training came together pretty well in the end. My sore forefeet persisted into the race, and hurt badly at times, but they didn’t slow me down much. I think that a too-fast start kept me from improving over last year, though this year I felt like going for it, and I did. In the end, I needed to lose more weight to improve significantly, but for various reasons that didn’t happen. I again struggled on the climbs, and carrying more weight on the descents drains your body also as you brake. I was just disappointed that I couldn’t jam the final technical sections that are normally a great deal of fun for me. I plan to adjust my training and be back next year.
