Driving to California- Weekly Log: August 14 to 20

Long drive West to begin a 16 month masters program in Southern California. Definitely not where I envisioned I'd be at this time as I was planning on staying in Southern New England for school, but saving a great deal of money through this program at California State University- Channel Islands. Getting to explore a new area is fun too, although I'd certainly prefer to be in the San Francisco, Portland or Seattle areas than greater Los Angeles. 

Taking the week to make the drive out, also fun to see some neat spots on the way. I hadn't been further West than Minnesota since 2017, so it was nice to get to see more of the country than usual. Overall, I probably like the West Coast slightly more than the East. The East Coast has history, better public transit, and is quite developed. West Coast has far less major cities, but most of them are pretty nice and there's significantly more undeveloped beautiful land. From a running perspective, I think the road running and racing scene is in the East and the trail running and racing scene is the West. There are certainly exceptions to that, but overall there are very few competitive road races on the West coast and vice versa, few competitive trail races in the East. 

That's the overall synopsis on the drive. I also used the opportunity to get two more highpoints- Iowa and Nebraska as they added little effort and weren't far out the way. Because this was significant traveling involving highpoints and some cool sights, I'll leave the bulk of the recap for a future highpoint post. So just basic details on each run to keep the weekly log going. 

Monday: 13 Miles- Hickory Run State Park, PA

Massive state park. Good day to do a longer run as there was lots of explore. Moderately hilly, but overall fairly runnable and enjoyable trails. No deerflies! Not quite as nice as some other PA trails I've been on, but certainly a good system. Pennsylvania is definitely a great trail state, I'll have to make a ranking of that when I explore some more (#1= Colorado?). But Pennsylvania would rank higher than RI, CT, VT, and ME for me, just many more expansive trail systems. Probably not over MA and NH. 

Park is known for a massive boulder field

Tuesday: 7 Miles- Indiana Dunes National Park, IN

First run in Indiana and first visit to this national park. Rainy and very windy, but made a nice mostly road loop that was surprisingly very quiet. The general flatness, proximity to a large body of water (Lake Michigan) and lack of traffic reminded me a lot of coastal Westerly roads. Also got on a few completely non-technical trails which was nice. Good short run after some longer days. 

Wednesday: 13 Miles- Minneapolis, MN

Dad met me here so it was nice to have someone else driving for some of it and someone to run with. 

First visit to this city, and definitely left a good impression. Made a medium long route that was almost entirely in bike paths and parks, very impressive running network that I think only a few U.S. cities do better. Another ranking I'll have to do, but probably something like 1. San Francisco, 2. Washington, D.C., 3. Minneapolis. Tried a 3 mile tempo which turned into a 2 mile tempo at 5:40 pace + minute on/2 minutes off to finish out the last mile. Felt quite bad, really straining to hit that pace. Not a big deal but on the other hand, I just came out a sub-5:20 5 Mile race so it was surprising to struggle this much. The next bike path was a long flat section and running easy was just a struggle. Got super dehydrated, nice save with a water fountain at the end. I'll expand more on thoughts of the city and state in the highpointing post. 

Thursday: 11 Miles- Lincoln, NE

Okay route. First visit to Nebraska, state #38 for me. Went out on a mostly nice crushed gravel path, although the urban scenery wasn't great and there was some cement in there. Middle miles were really cool through some typical woods on twisty but non-technical trails. Did not feel very urban. The last 4-5 were not so great as the path was all cement and then a busy road finish through a disgusting industrial area downtown. Dad embraced his Northeast brashness and was cutting off cars and running in the middle of the road, I opted for the more cautious and careful approach. 

Friday: 12 Miles- Denver, CO

Really cool run on the outskirts of Denver. Ran through a really nice neighborhood, then the highlight of the run was through Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. Lots and lots of non-technical gravel trails with the backdrop of the mountains 30 miles away. After a few miles, I started to have a lot of difficulty with chest/breathing, likely altitude related. Eventually I started to feel better but felt pretty heavy finishing up and took a harder than normal effort to run low 7s.

Saturday: 7 Miles- Red Rock Canyon, NV

First visit to Nevada, state #39. 7 mile run after racking up the miles last few days. I'll expand more upon this in the highpoint post, but this was a beautiful run and got really lucky post rainstorm with temperatures 20-30 degrees lower than usual. 

Sunday: 14 Miles- Irvine, CA

Left on my own. Time to start building fitness to run some half marathons and eventually a marathon. Good place to start is the long run- 14 a manageable number for now and a good start to work off of. I was really concerned about hurricane warnings and about flash flooding if I drove out. But the warnings were for all day and the hotel I was staying was not in a good place for running. Mapped out a route from Colonel Bill Barber Park a few miles away and hoped the rain wouldn't be too severe. 

This run was better than I expected. The rain and storm was quite mild, really just light rain or moderate and nothing by New England standards. But it drove everyone inside so I had the double benefit of empty paths and mild weather. The route was also quite nice, which surprised me in urban Orange County. 

2 miles on a creek path. Essentially a paved bike path along a canal, there seem to be a lot of these in the area. When the path would intersect a road, you could choose to go to the outside path up to the road, or go under the road and the path would turn to cement and have a dip (short downhill then uphill to go under the bridge/road). It was kind of nice to not to have to cross busy roads, but at the same time it wouldn't work well for workouts to be constantly running those cement dips. A few miles on wide, non-technical trails that were pretty nice. Ran through a few parks and through UC Irvine, which was basically deserted and I was able to run in the middle of campus roads. Brief section where I did have to run on the sidewalk before crossing into another park. Was looking down and rolled my ankle really hard on a crack in the cement path. Thought I was done, but it was mostly okay. Felt really uncomfortable for about half a mile then just a little stiff. The rest of the run was on a few different paths, and unfortunately this part was a little busier with a few traffic stops and some cement sections. Last two miles a bit quicker sub-6:30. Good run, explored Irvine a bit more over the next few days and it seems like a nice city. 

Weekly Total: 78 Miles

Movies Watched: Barbie

Run 4 Kerri

Once again I've fallen way behind on the blog. In my defense, hardly anyone is caught up these days but I do forget some of the important details after a few weeks and I'm mostly writing this for a record of my thoughts to refer back to.

Any local runner knows the big 3 races in the summer: Blessing, Kerri, Bobby Doyle. They are the most competitive races in Rhode Island and line up three straight weekends in the middle of the summer. I like to at run least one of them, if not all but in recent years, I've been out of shape or opted for other races. So I hadn't touched any of them since 2018, and I hadn't done all three since 2016. With my commitment to the Quebec Mega Trail in July and a subsequent break, I ended up coming into this one in poor shape, with little training and really questioning why I had signed up for these three. But I knew why- it had been 7 years since I ran the trio and they're all great races that I needed to get back to. I just wish I could have come in with a few more weeks of training.

Blessing went about as bad as it possibly could have. My hope was that with another week of training, including a 16:16 fun run effort, and the shorter distance is that I would be a little better. I set a goal of 21:30- just over 5:20 pace. Based off the fun run effort, I thought that would be a reasonably good effort. Andrew signed up for this one and we had essentially the same goal. I'm usually a little ahead of him in top fitness but wasn't at that level yet. Goal was to go out in 5:15 or so with the slight downhill mile, then try to maintain 5:20 for the rest. This would come to roughly 21:25 assuming an extra ten seconds of running on the watch past 4 miles. 

I was accepted into the elite field for this race, like 2018 which was a nice perk. Customized bib and got access to a separate elite room with some drinks/snacks. Nothing crazy, but quite cool to get special treatment at a low key race. I met Andrew in the parking lot around 7:15 and relaxed in the elite room. We got our own separate bathrooms, but they were quite small so I often opted to use the regular bathroom. Spotted Andrew McCann who would likely be in the top 3 or so. It's funny to think his marathon pace is faster than what I'd be shooting for today. DJ Principe and Mike Daniels were there, who almost always do the race. Tommy 5K, Shara and my Dad were also racing- I don't think any of them had done it in a while. Good Westerly representation this year though. 

Did 3 miles about an hour out. Probably a little too early, but I mistakenly thought there was an elite shuttle I needed to get back for. I can't remember too well, but I believe everything went smoothly and I felt decent. Strides and then lined up in the second or third row. Surprisingly, Andrew McCann was next to us who definitely belonged on the front line. He complimented my Supercomp Pacers, which makes sense as he works for New Balance in Boston. 

Strides

People go out really fast in races. Will Sanders rocketed out for the lead/money bonuses, with McCann chasing in second. DJ led a chase pack which was surprising as I thought he'd be racing all out (he eventually would win). I was in the next pack after that which included guys like Mike Daniels. I was running goal pace, but the guys I felt I should be ahead of were running slightly faster. Things evened out after a quarter mile or so. Another guy clung on to Andrew and I and I guess he overheard us talking because he liked the 5:20s goal and said he'd stick with us. I took charge of our mini pack as we separated from the other group, but was far behind catching anyone else. Matunuck Schoolhouse road is a downhill and I found myself running slightly faster than I wanted through 1K, before settling a bit. I felt very smooth and controlled going through the mile in 5:15, exactly as planned. Not quite perfect pacing as there were some surges and slowdowns, but pretty good. The clock (and Andrew's watch) were a little ahead, so he may have thought we were out a little fast. 

I continued to press through the flat and easy stretch on Moonstone and turn onto Cards Pond and roughly maintained 5:15 pace while also passing a few guys who went out too hard. After turning onto Moonstone, there was a car coming up on the right and I had to awkwardly squeeze by like it wasn't a race. Andrew and the other guy avoided this by running on the right side of the road, but I didn't like the idea of running extra distance (next turn was left). A few more cars came and I decided to rejoin my group on the right rather than squeezing by and almost running off the road. The second half of the mile felt a bit harder and heavier, but still relatively smooth. I got water at the mile 2 stop. 5:22 Mile 2, pretty good. 

I'm not sure what happened after that, but all of suddenly I found myself running over 5:30, getting dropped by the other guy and having a good deal of stomach discomfort. It went from feeling fairly comfortable to a survival. I was disappointed to be on the verge of falling apart and was starting to mentally pack it in. I began to turn to Andrew to tell him it wasn't my day and he should go for it, but realized I had dropped him slightly too. I got my head back in the game and told myself to stop being such a wimp. I prevented the gap from the other guy from opening anymore and kept an even gap on Andrew as well. We entered the neighborhood section which has been brutal in the past. I felt slow and tired and as hard as I tried to reel the other guy back in, the gap remained even. 

5:29 mile three at the top of the only hill in the race. My body didn't want to run 4 mile pace after the hill as I found myself running slightly under 6 minutes. Fortunately, this tired out the other guy as well but I kept trying to push and just could not close the gap. Meanwhile, I hadn't opened up much ground on Andrew and I knew he had a good kick. I needed to open up some ground before the final stretch, or I was going to get outkicked. I pushed a bit more and was starting to finally get some ground on the other guy. I saw no reason why I would lose to Andrew today and used my big move as soon as we got out of the neighborhood. This was enough to pull up to the other guy, and then create a small cushion on the following downhill. I felt gassed in the final stretch coming to the finish and really struggled to maintain, but had enough to hold my spot. 5:16 last mile with a good close- 4:25 pace for last 0.3 according to the segment. 

8th place in 21:31. A good result for current fitness. Happy with how I raced it- paced well for 2 miles, then the going got tough but I rallied after getting gapped and closed hard. Only 27 seconds off what I ran in 2018 off much better fitness. No disappointment with that one- hit my goal dead on and pleased to get top 10. A good rebound from a really bad Blessing too. Definitely could have been 15-20 seconds slower if I was alone when I started to feel bad, but having someone to chase/run away from really helped. 

Went for a nice 3 mile cooldown exploring a quiet neighborhood road. Good day, good race, glad to be back there. Probably my favorite of the three, just really enjoy the low key atmosphere and elite field while the other races feel huge and overwhelming. It's also nice to race through Matunuck. Hope to be back here soon, but not sure what that means. I'd really like to have some redemption at Beach to Beacon which is the same weekend, but hopefully 2025 or 2026 will work out as I really like this race. 

Blessing of the Fleet 2023

 After missing this race since 2018, I signed up in May or so. It was time to race it again. Unfortunately when the race rolled around, I had essentially zero prep. Just fell at a poor time after my long trail season and had taken a week off right after. So 1 week of training coming in which I had never done before for a longer race. Would have skipped it, but didn't want to miss it for the 4th straight year (2020 doesn't count- COVID/virtual). 

Pre-race week did two tune-up/race pace workouts. Really just feeling out goal pace of 5:45. Did a mile in Narragansett the Saturday before and then 5:40ish at the fun run two days out. The latter felt really easy so I thought I'd be okay. Race forecast was fairly hot- 83 at start but I thought I was pretty well acclimated. Wanted to try to hit a consistent 5:45 rather than leaning into the fast miles and slowing on the harder stuff. Andrew had the same goal so we'd try to race together. 

Past results at Blessing (thanks to Athlinks, given coolrunning ended its results): 

2012- 339th, 1:17:21

2013- 136th, 1:07:47

2015- 53rd, 1:01:42

2016- 12th, 57:42

2018- 6th, 55:30

Only great results here with every race faster than the last. I knew that would end this year, but figured a top 20/sub-58 would be a really solid run off no training. 

Got the bib #12 which I didn't feel great about given it wasn't a goal year. But I figured if I paced smartly and hydrated well, the heat could be an advantage for me and I could potentially crack the top 20. 

Got there around 4:45, with the traffic and parking in the fields being a significant delay. Hydrated very well. 3 mile warm-up with Andrew using the bathroom at the Boon Street tennis courts. Felt pretty warm when stopped. Pee stop back at the school. Everyone was complaining about the mosquitoes, but they wouldn't mess with me after I killed so many of them in Minnesota. Got a few strides, final sips of water and headed towards the line. I stupidly kicked the fence really hard on the final walk over and my foot hurt pretty bad which was concerning (not an issue after a few minutes into race). They started the race two minutes early which I find annoying. Was in a terrible position packed into the third row and noticed Matt Sweeney just walking past the start line as the gun went off. 

Pretty physical with pushing the first quarter mile, then settled in. Nothing felt easy which is not what I want a quarter mile in. Passed Jake and some others early and hit the mile around 5:35- a bit too fast. Went around some others in Mile 2, another 5:35 which was again too fast. Not feeling very strong all around, but the pace wasn't too hard to hit. Repassed by Jake and that group. The race was a blur and an absolute struggle, but somehow went by quickly. 5:40 for Mile 3, so about 25 seconds in the bank. Was disappointed with myself for failing to go out conservative considering I already wasn't feeling it. I surprisingly dropped Andrew after that. Things got real hard into a headwind at Mile 3.5 and my pace dropped to roughly 6:00 for that section. Moved past a guy or two on Knowlesway hill and then a respectable 5th mile on 108 which I believe was shaded. Kind of feeling really rough but still maintaining pace halfway- on schedule to run 57:30 or faster. 5:52/5:49 for 4-5.

Mile 6, always the worst mile of the race went into the sun and was real hot. Slight uphill here and I don't know what happened but suddenly I was really slow and seeing over 6:30s on the watch. I tried to fight and push some more but found I could not pick up the pace and felt terrible. Halfway through the mile I felt there was no coming back and I didn't want to go to the well for a mid-59, so I just gave up and ran whatever pace my body liked. Felt so flat and tired here. Andrew went by me and I encouraged him to leave me in the dust. A shocking 6:19 for Mile 6. 

The last 4 certainly hurt as I got passed left and right, making no effort to stay with anyone. It was very tempting to drop out back at the high school around Mile 8. Chafing real bad last two mile from being so wet from constantly going through sprinklers. Didn't even bother kicking but somehow managed to pass a guy at the line. Last two miles were actually my two slowest. 

Finished 36th for 1:00:36. Full results. The heat clearly played a role in this one and I significantly underestimated its' effect on me. 36th isn't that bad despite the terrible time. Just a quick look at 2022 results- 36th place was 57:33, a full 3 minutes faster than 2023. Overall, I do have a legitimate excuse of only being a week into training. I'm not going to blame the heat. But even given where I was at, this was a terrible performance. I think maybe had I paced a little smarter and tried a little sub-59 was in the cards but my second half was roughly 6:15 and just jogging out there. I'm not super disappointed, but it is a reminder not to race so early in the cycle, despite temptations to get back to races like these. 

That's a wrap on Blessing 2023. Post race I sat in the grass and reflected on what a miserable experience that was before a dip in the ocean. I struggled to get over the cement wall back onto the sidewalk and was going to go around, but some guy watching basically called me a coward so I mustered up the strength to get over. Lots of chafing pain walking back to car. Abandoned cool down due to chafing pain. Very little soreness post race, so I think the decision to pack it in was a good one. Lots of hard efforts next two weeks with Run 4 kerri and bobby doyle and not worth to totally destroy my legs when a good result was already gone. I'll be back here, but hopefully I'm smart enough to wait until I can put up a respectable result again. 

Bobby Doyle- Weekly Log: August 7 to 13

Last week in RI before a move out to Southern California. Bobby Doyle race, which I felt a little mentally burnt out going into but also trending upwards from Run 4 Kerri. Probably one of those races where I could use another week. Made my Notch Brewing race debut to actually race for a team in the USATF-NE Grand Prix. The next one will have to wait until I'm back in New England. 

Also got some fun runs in the Cape and Islands. Sweet region that I've neglected going to, opting to travel to mountains instead. I had wanted to go to Acadia around this time, but didn't want to wreck my body with some tough mountain runs between races. I'm disappointed it didn't work out to get to Acadia this year, but there's a lot of cool spots in New England and always more time to explore. 

Monday: 8 Miles- Edgartown, MA

Run in Manuel Correllus State Forest in the center of Martha's Vineyard. With Dad and Brady. Trip over was long and tiring as had to take a shuttle, then a ferry then a taxi and at that point I didn't have much energy. Which was a shame, because this was a really nice place. Mix of cool open singletrack and dirt roads and pine needle covered trails. But was pretty exhausted after this one and due to the transportation legs, took a while to get proper food. 

Tuesday: 13 Miles- Wellfleet, MA

Another trail explore, this time in the Cape Cod National Seashore. I've never actually run here so it was great to check it out. Longer route exploring a mix of coastal trails, dirt roads and some pavement. Excellent, winding and hilly route through fantastic stuff- lots of unique pine forests, epic coastal views from dunes and cliffs and generally just great quiet running. Absolute monsoon-like downpour to finish. Also ate at some excellent breakfast place in Orleans after. Need to make a mental note to make trips out here more often, so much cool stuff to explore. Maybe get in some winter long runs here and save the mountain trips for the summer. 

Wednesday: 10 Miles- Charlestown, RI

Around on watchaug pond on roads. Threw in a workout as I'm 3 weeks in now and need to get in some basic fitness before going for harder/more focused stuff and trying to get really fit for the fall. 2x10 minutes at a moderate pace with a 3 minute rest. On rolling hills- first mostly a slight uphill on Klondike: 6:00 pace with 5:42 GAP, then big downhill and big uphill on buckeye brook: 5:57 pace and 5:43 GAP. Solid intro workout. Difficulty: 3/5. 

Thursday: 10 Miles- Exeter, RI

Arcadia dirt road loop with Dad and Brady. Don't remember this one much except the deerflies being absolutely atrocious in 2023. Nice post run dip in Wood River. Rivers are much more full this year versus 2022. I'd probably take the less deerflies though, they're insufferable.  

Friday: 8 Miles- Groton, CT

Speaking of deerflies, Bluff and Haley have been the one deerfly free place I can rely on. Not anymore- after the horrific deerflies of 2023, they've invaded. Felt like crap on this one. 

Spent the day in Boston with Andrew- Museum of Science (some cool exhibits, but overall it felt a bit disappointing) and then went to my first concert for Earth, Wind and Fire + Lionel Ritchie at TD Garden. I'm not a mega fan of either group, so a good chunk of it was zoning out when I didn't know the songs but the hits were really great, especially Lionel Ritchie who put on a big performance with the displays and lights. Didn't enjoy the packed and loud indoor venue so much but a cool experience overall. 

Dramatic entrance for Lionel Ritchie

Saturday: 6 Miles- Charlestown, RI

Felt tired post Boston trip and ran late. Wasn't looking forward to the race and immediate drive out West after. 

Sunday: 12 Miles- Narragansett, RI

Bobby Doyle race, went really well. Fun day meeting some new people with Notch. Last run in RI, drive through CT was miserable after. 

Terrible traffic on I-95 through CT, as usual

Weekly Total: 68 Miles

Weekly Highlight: This was a good week. Starting to find some fitness and confidence 3 weeks into training. Highlights were a fun trail run in Cape Cod and a great race at Bobby Doyle. 

Weekly Lowlight: The deerflies. Had a few runs where I felt like crap, but the worst thing was how terrible the deerflies were. Missing New England now a bit but I don't miss skipping out on several weeks of deerflies. 

Movies Watched: The Super Mario Bros Movie

Weekly Log: July 31 to August 6

 Run 4 Kerri and last week of work. 

Monday: 5 Miles- Westerly, RI

Easy Rockridge loop. Nice weather at 58 degrees. 

Tuesday: 12 Miles

AM 8 Miles- Westerly, RI

Easy-avondale watch hill route. 

PM 4 Miles- Norwich, CT

Not really a frequent run spot or anything, but I did run Mohegan park 10-15 times or so as a post-work double and felt it deserved a final send-off run. It's a small, but pretty nice park especially considering much of Norwich is quite dumpy. There's a mix of hilly roads, hilly technical singletrack and flat or hilly easy XC trails as well as short bike path around a pond. 

Wednesday: 11 Miles

AM 3 Miles- Charlestown, RI

Easy Ninigret shuffle with Dad + Brady. 

PM 8 Miles- Westerly, RI

Last fun run of the season. Glad I made it work to make many of them this year, hadn't been the case recently and likely will be hard to do for at least the next few years. Typical OAB warmup on Ocean View, with Jonny Eckel. 

I wanted to run this one hard given it was the last one and I needed all the hard stimulus I could get ahead of Kerri and Doyle. In shape I'd go for a course PR, today I'd be content with a fastest time of the year- Jake's 16:34. I had run 16:36 the first week feeling mostly relaxed other than a hard finish, but I knew this would hurt. 

My watch did this annoying thing where it will automatically back out of the loaded start and lose all satellites, and this unfortunately happened seconds before starting. I had planned a controlled start at 5:20 pace but ended up blasting out really hard and making the whole thing uncomfortable. 5:08 through the mile then felt like I was completely falling apart Mile 2 which was a 5:22. Nearly got caught by the second placer near the hill, but I didn't want to go out hard and lose like that, so I shifted gears and pushed the third mile. Third mile felt better with a 5:02 close and pushed through the line to make sure I had the win. 16:16 for the season's best and tied for my second fastest here. This was nearly all-out but was a pretty good effort only a week and half into training. 

Short cool-down with Matthew Devillers, the second placer. 4 fun run wins for me this season and 3 sub-17s. I won't have those numbers again soon. 

Thursday: 11 Miles

AM 7 Miles- Westerly, RI

Just a bad run. Got a mile in and had the sudden urge to use the bathroom with nowhere to go. Found a port-a-potty a quarter mile later and had to run home to avoid chafing. Finished up with a Champlin loop and found my eye to be completely swollen at finish and had to go into work an hour late as I couldn't see well. 

PM 4 Miles- Preston, CT

Final post-work double, this time a farewell run to Preston Park. I had been doing figure 8s of the preston park 0.4 mile gravel loop and a 1.0 mile grass loop across the street in Ledyard. It's not as nice of a system as Mohegan, but I found the flat, soft surface to be a lot easier on the legs and it cut up the drive back. Won't really miss either, but both solid run spots. 

Friday: 9 Miles- Westerly, RI

Run from the high school with Nick Turo and Nick Cozzolino. Don't think I had been to the HS since 2019 or so. Nice to have company again, but Turo picked a really bad route on some busy roads. I felt decent overall but legs a bit heavy on the uphills. One of those group runs where it feels like people are surging the uphills and jogging the downs. 

Saturday: 6 Miles- South Kingstown, RI

Run 4 Kerri preview with Andrew. Did the course plus strides and an OAB on the dirt Moonstone Beach road which is actually quite nice. Westerly coastal roads are certainly better for running than SK, but really lacking dirt roads. Felt very weak and tired. 

Sunday: 10 Miles- South Kingstown, RI

Run 4 Kerri. Race felt hard but went well, was happy with it. 3 miles warm-up towards the beach and 3 miles cooldown first time on Sycamore road parallel to the school finish which was really nice and quiet. 

Weekly Total: 65 Miles

Weekly Highlight: Good hard efforts- both fun run and Kerri went pretty well and a nice turnaround from a really bad Blessing. 

Weekly Lowlight: Thursday morning struggles. 

Movies Watched: Logan Lucky, Nightcrawler

Both rewatches

Loon Mountain Race 2023

This was my 5th Loon and is thus one of the races I've done the most. It's not a particular exciting race as it's mostly on loose gravel service roads, but is consistent in having very high quality competition, especially in US championship years. It's been around for so long and hosted so many U.S. champs that it's one of the few mountain races in New England that is a true classic. Given the attractive surrounding area, relatively short drive and typically falling in a time period where I don't have race conflicts, I've been at this one many times. 

Race history here: I first ran Loon in 2016 being intrigued by the mountain running scene. It was fun and I was back for a non-US champs in 2017, not improving much timewise but running my best place of 11th. I had a good race in 2018, placing 33rd in the national championship. Then some years off- 2019 badly injured. 2020- COVID cancellation. 2021- prioritized other races. Return in 2022 but after a bad ankle sprain, so a mediocre result lacking much strength on the climbs. 

2016- 1:02:55, 67th

2017 (non US champs)- 1:05:19, 11th

2018- 1:00:22, 35th

2022- 1:02:25, 49th

Note there were slight variations in the courses, so a slower time doesn't necessarily mean a worse performance (2017 was pretty much equivalent time to 2016). 

This year it was not U.S. champs, probably more appealing to me. I convinced Andrew to run. I was hoping that after a few months of building mountain fitness, that I'd be really strong going into this one. But after feeling pretty tired and unmotivated post QMT, I really just felt like skipping it. My negative thoughts were only further enforced feeling really flat the day before. I adjusted my attitude to have low expectations and be okay with whatever result I put up (but secretly hoping to match last year's race). 

Race day. Andrew and I did 2.5 miles of warm-up with a few bathroom stops. One thing Loon is notoriously bad for is long bathroom lines. So the trick is to find some bathrooms further away. Last year I relied on a port-a-potty on the opposite side of the parking lot. It wasn't there this year, but fortunately there were bathrooms in the gondola building with no line. Did a few hard uphill strides not feeling great and not thrilled about how rocky the service road was this year. Saw Brightman and Jeff Allen. At least they returned to the normal start. 

There's been good weather here in the past, but quite humid and foggy this year. Pretty warm overall. 

I went out at what felt like a comfortable pace, but clearly wasn't the right one as I passed Jeff quickly. After realizing I was too far up, I let the next group pass until I probably settled in 15th or so place. Felt decent for the most part there and could see Jeff well ahead in the next group when going up Brookway Bypass- the first decent climb on a service road but runnable. I remembered really struggling here last year but felt more into a rhythm this time around.  

Then the fun part- two miles on the nordic singletrack/doubletrack. Quite fun in the woods and most trail like part. I strangely got into complete no man's land here with no one in sight ahead of or behind me. It seemed I had a pretty good gap on Brightman as I'd want to avoid a repeat of last year where he mowed me down easily on the steep stuff. That part was fun and I came out of the woods onto a downhill where I heard someone come up on me quick. I run relatively well on downhills at these races because most people are uphill specialists, but this guy blew past me. I recognized it was Brent Trail, the winner of the Black Fly in My Eye race. I had suspected he was a far better downhill than uphill runner in that race, and only further confirmed that when I passed him easily on the following uphill. He would later pass and beat me, although I don't remember this happening.

We quickly hit some steeper stuff and like someone had flicked a switch, I found I had absolutely nothing in the tank to run up steep hills. I was hoping that wouldn't be the case given my race had gone well up this point, but it just wasn't there. Last year, I was frustrated with my lack of uphill strength but today was another level- just nothing in the tank. The newer Loon course goes on a series of steep and ups and down before a longer climb. People were passing me quite easily. Brightman caught and passed me at one point, although I put some ground on him on the following downhill. My downhills were excellent at this race, it's just too bad it meant nothing given it's a 90% uphill race. 

We then hit some longer climbs and Brightman pulled away quickly and was soon gone. I eventually slowed enough that I was no longer getting dusted, but had probably moved back 10 or so positions. Eventually upper bear claw ended and we now had the haulback downhill and upper walking boss finish. I proceeded to feel great on haulback and run the fastest time I've had on this by far. I actually passed a handful of people despite it being short. It didn't matter as upper walking boss is brutal. It always hurts, regardless of whether you're having an excellent or very poor race. But since I had nothing for steep uphills, 40% grade was really painful this time around. Made my way up it but it was a real burn. I was so far back that I managed to pass one guy who was struggling even more, but this was by far my worst upper walking boss ever. To make matters worse, they once again had the women start 30 minutes before and it was now clogged. It's really frustrating that these mountain races continue to do this. Why would you have the slower sex start first with such a limited window when they're clearly going to get in the way? Either give a bigger gap or have the men start first. 

Finished in 1:05:42 for 24th (25th including women, but the results are separate). Not much to say, far and away my worst ever Loon. Last year was a little disappointing as my steeper climbs were quite poor but overall, it wasn't bad for my fitness at that time and still was on par with 2016 and 2017 races. 2023 was just garbage, my steepest climbs were so much slower than 2022. Some really embarrassing stats in there. Clearly my body wasn't ready to go again so soon post a very difficult 52K. I may miss Loon for 2024, so that's okay and I think great races like these it's good to get in as many races as you can. But of course it's disappointing to not to run to your fitness level, finish so far back and pale in comparison to past performances. I think I can actually run much better than my 2018 race which is my top mountain race pace/effort wise, but these last two years just had their own reasons why it didn't work out. I also think some steep hill work is a good idea. 

This race wrapped not only the May-July trail racing season I put together, but really the first half of the year. I finally took a week off which was overdue and now getting ready for the fall. Loon was a complete dud but for the most part the trail races went pretty well. Got to drop a stinker every once in a while. Classic race, excited for many more here.