2013 Terrapin Mountain 50K

When I looked at my finish time for Terrapin from last year, the first words out of my mouth were "Holy crap, how am I supposed to beat that?!". In order to have a fighting chance, I knew I had to do everything right to the highest degree possible and pull out all the stops.

Still fighting residual fatigue from last weekend's epic 150-mile bike ride, I yawned my way through the 4-hour drive down to Big Island VA, rolling into the grassy lawn of the Sedalia Center at about 9PM. I quickly threw down my bivy, brushed my teeth, and settled in for a cold, sleep-deprived night. Whoops. A few lessons learned: A) I need to practice aligning my down quilt with my sleeping pad so my feet aren't on the ground B) down booties are never ever to be forgotten at home and C) when the temps drop to below 32 at night, wear a balaclava.

Bright moonlit night over Sedalia Center

After a restless night, I got up at about 4:30, ate a few Clif Mojo bars, took care of some business, and napped in my car for a bit to warm back up. I checked in, received my awesome Entrant's Mug, brushed my teeth, and got dressed. After a few trips back and forth to the car to retrieve miscellaneous items slamming down two extra-caffeinated Gu Roctane energy gels, I ran back to the start exactly as the gong was ringing to signal the start of the race. 

One of my more recent goals has been to run an entire 50K, minimizing the amount of walking I do. Terrapin Mountain is an excellent course to challenge this goal, because there are a lot of climbs that are right on the threshold of being too steep for me to run up and keep my heart rate in line. The first climb is a beast, rising almost 2,000 vertical feet in one 4-mile shot up to Camping Gap. Because I was still fresh, I managed to run almost the whole thing, although at an average pace of 12:00min/mi, I wasn't breaking any land speed records. However, my heart rate never crossed the threshold, and thus Blowing Up was avoided. 

Elevation profile and heart rate (HR) chart for the first 4 miles of the race. Yikes! 1,900' of ascent, with an average HR of 163BPM, which you can see is in the tempo/sub-threshold zone.

As we climbed up the rocky fire road, the mountain above was lit with some of the deepest ruby-red alpine glow I've ever seen - it was an incredibly beautiful start to the morning.

One of the great thing about these races is that they are so small and friendly. In the first 4 miles, I exchanged cheerful hellos with about 8-10 people I know, and saw several others throughout the day, in addition to making some new friends. Compare that to the sheeple-zoo of the 30,000 nameless bodies at the DC Rock and Roll Half-Marathon I ran last weekend, and for me the choice of which event to participate in is painfully obvious.

Coming down the dirt road on the other side of Camping Gap was a blast. Not only were we treated to the sight of the sun rising over a vast expanse of mountains, but the gentle downhill grade and smooth surface made for some smoking fast (for me) running. I caught up with Gray Weaver and we ran 7:00 minute miles together down to the bottom, while feeling like we were taking it easy. He was recovering from a recent 340-mile bikepacking trip on the C&O as well as last weekend's Elizabeth Furnace 50K; the dude is a badass.

At some point after the Goff Road aid station at the bottom of the hill I lost Gray and continued to push on at a steady lower threshold pace. I usually watch my heart rate rather than my speed; I can control my heart rate by varying my pace, but trying to stick to a set pace on a mountainous course like this would destroy me. I tried to eat a gel every 45 minutes, and ate sparingly from the aid stations. I also had Gu Roctane caffeinated sports drink in my hand bottle - I was really going for gold on the caffeine intake, especially after going caffeine-free for the whole week prior!

After passing through the Camping Gap aid station for the second time, the course embarks on a grassed-over fire road loop off to the right (west). I had completely forgotten about this section and had been expecting to climb Terrapin Mountain, but no... this gentle 900'+ climb lay in store first. I caught up with Darren near the top of this, who ended up yo-yoing with me throughout the rest of the race and proved to be good company. At the top of the loop we punched our bibs with the orienteering punch and took off down the hill back to Camping Gap. The downhill was welcome at this point, because with one brief exception, we had been climbing steadily for almost 3,400' vertical from the Goff Road aid station!

The elevation profile from Goff Road to the top of the loop - 3,388' over 10 miles! Heart rate is in red, I averaged 160BPM at a 10:34 min/mi pace over this section. The big dip in heart rate after the short descent is the Hunting Creek aid station.

After coming through the Camping Gap aid station for the third and final time, we started the tough slog up Terrapin Mountain. Darren was on my heels for the climb and stuck with me when we got to the two outrageously awesome checkpoints: the bib punch way out on the cliff at the summit, and the bib punch just on the other side of the gnarly rock-scramble-tunnel known as Fat Man's Misery. We stayed together on the rough and tumble descent all the way down to the final aid station at Terrapin Mountain Lane. This is easily the toughest descent in the race, dropping 2,300 feet in just under three miles, with some rough loose scree for footing. It also has some of the most beautiful running on the course, with gentle downhill-sloping paths wandering through green tunnels of mountain laurel.

I grabbed some water and slammed a gel at the Terrapin Mountain Lane aid station, which is at the very bottom of the descent on a short out-and-back section of trail. Slogging back up to the left turn onto the "endless" 10K back to the finish, I looked at my watch and realized that if I could just manage to maintain a 10min/mi pace, I had a good shot at meeting or beating my time from last year. Darren passed me, and I latched on and said "reel me in, buddy!". He pulled me up a couple of the never-ending rollers, and we kept on track for quite a ways. After a couple miles, I started to smell the barn and told him I was going to pick it up just a bit.

Looking at my splits for the last five miles, I dropped 1 minute per mile off my pace each mile, which just blows me away. It just goes to show that running is all in your head. The splits from the last aid station to the finish look like this:

 Immediately after crossing the finish line, both of my calves cramped up hard. I had to do a funny weird squat-walk thing for a little bit to work the pain out, as it was too severe to let me just stretch them. Eventually I pulled myself together enough to stretch me legs (heaven) and to eat some of the post-race food (delicious). I hung out at the finish for about an hour and then took off on the long drive back home.

Stoked to bring it home in under five hours, which is 21 minutes faster than my time last year!

Here is a little elevation profile / aid station chart I put together to help plan for next time:

 
And here is a link to the activity on Strava: http://app.strava.com/activities/45588541