A few weeks ago the boys and I decided it was time to act on a bad idea that Brett floated last winter when we were getting ready for Umstead 100: Running the length of the New River Trail all at once. He figured it would be a good way to knock out a 50 mile training run. We couldn't get it together prior to Umstead, so it kept floating around in the background. Royce has been wanting to make the jump to running 100s, so we decided an all night training run was something that he needed to get under his belt. This created a perfect mix of ingredients for a great bad idea. With nothing pressing on anyone's calendar this summer, we've all been itching for a little adventure. Jordan was all recovered from San Diego 100, Royce has been killing it mileage-wise lately, Brett has been wanting to get out for a good long run, and Chris has fully invested himself in the world of bad ideas after the Eastern Divide 50K and Sundown 5K nonsense we did back in June, and I'm always up good time on the trail with friends. So, we decided to set a date and make it happen. Friday July 17th seemed like as good a time as any.
The boys assembled at our house on Friday after work, and Ginger saw us off as we loaded up the cars around 6 p.m.
First, we drove down to Pulaski to drop off a car at the Northern Trailhead, then we headed on down to Galax to get started.
Our journey began at 8:23 Friday night. It gave us a little time to get rolling before we had to break out the headlamps. The temperature at the trailhead was 86 degrees. We all thought it would cool off over night. But we were sooooooo wrong. It seemed like it only got hotter as the night went on.
The miles ticked off as the sun went down, and we jogged along having a good time. Somewhere around mile 2 someone said, "48 bottles of beer on the wall" in the sing songy tone of the 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall. We all had a good laugh and hoped someone would remember to bring that back at mile 49. We didn't. But we did have a lot of fun suffering our way through a lot of chaffing and what felt like a night of running uphill on a course we figured would be flat or totally down hill since we were following the New River downstream (It flows south to North). The lesson there: 50 miles is 50 miles and it's going to hurt no matter how "easy" you think the course is going to be.
I had the worst chaffing I've ever had on a run in my life. The heat caused me to feel pretty ill for a couple of miles and I even considered dropping out at one point. But, Jordan, Chris, and Royce all made sure I knew that dropping wasn't really an option. I also thought a lot about Travis Macey's book and the idea that no matter what happens: It's all good mental training. I vividly remember thinking: Would you drop at Leadville or Western States if you were chaffing? The answer is certainly not. So, I pushed on and decided it was a good lesson in pushing through the discomfort that you encounter when doing something that is difficult.
The sunrise was worth every bit of discomfort that I was feeling:
It was a wonderful sight to see the sun peaking above the horizon as we made our way to Pulaski in the early morning hours. We arrived at the northern trailhead in Pulaski happy to be back at the car and ready for breakfast. With 9:23 of moving time and 10:23 of total time since we left the trailhead in Galax, we all felt good about our effort. Here's the link to our Strava data if you're interested:
https://www.strava.com/activities/348818123
We were hoping to eat breakfast at the Draper Mercantile store on Saturday morning, but we finished too early. I won't complain about that. We decided to hit the IHOP in Dublin since it was open. They had a buffet. We dominated that buffet and amused our waitress and all the patrons as we shuffled into the restaurant looking like we'd been on a bender. I was walking with a hilarious gait because my legs were so chaffed (should have worn compression shorts), and I'm sure I was a sight to behold.
We couldn't find anyone's data on having completed the trail before, so we are thinking we have the FKT for the New River Trail from Galax to Pulaski at 10 hours and 23 minutes. Of course, someone else may have done this and not published the data. We weren't trying to go fast, and I'm certain someone will run it faster as soon as they have the idea to go knock it out. Plus, Jordan could have easily bolted off and finished hours before we all finished together. The FKT thing is just a funny side-note here, not the goal or the plan. Our goal was to have a fun 50 miles of communing on the trail with good friends. We accomplished that for sure.
My final thoughts on the adventure:
1. Running with friends for long distances in the woods is always worth it.The stories you have to share afterwards are always worth the price of admission.
2. If you're going out to run 50 miles, don't forget to plan for chaffing.
3. The New River Trail doesn't offer much in the way of water resupply. Plan for that.
4. I'm pretty happy with my fitness level. My legs weren't sore afterwards, and I'm pretty happy about that.
5. Big ups to Chris for running 50 miles for the first time in his running career.
6. Bad ideas are the best ideas. I'm looking forward to the next one already.
The boys assembled at our house on Friday after work, and Ginger saw us off as we loaded up the cars around 6 p.m.
First, we drove down to Pulaski to drop off a car at the Northern Trailhead, then we headed on down to Galax to get started.
Our journey began at 8:23 Friday night. It gave us a little time to get rolling before we had to break out the headlamps. The temperature at the trailhead was 86 degrees. We all thought it would cool off over night. But we were sooooooo wrong. It seemed like it only got hotter as the night went on.
The miles ticked off as the sun went down, and we jogged along having a good time. Somewhere around mile 2 someone said, "48 bottles of beer on the wall" in the sing songy tone of the 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall. We all had a good laugh and hoped someone would remember to bring that back at mile 49. We didn't. But we did have a lot of fun suffering our way through a lot of chaffing and what felt like a night of running uphill on a course we figured would be flat or totally down hill since we were following the New River downstream (It flows south to North). The lesson there: 50 miles is 50 miles and it's going to hurt no matter how "easy" you think the course is going to be.
I had the worst chaffing I've ever had on a run in my life. The heat caused me to feel pretty ill for a couple of miles and I even considered dropping out at one point. But, Jordan, Chris, and Royce all made sure I knew that dropping wasn't really an option. I also thought a lot about Travis Macey's book and the idea that no matter what happens: It's all good mental training. I vividly remember thinking: Would you drop at Leadville or Western States if you were chaffing? The answer is certainly not. So, I pushed on and decided it was a good lesson in pushing through the discomfort that you encounter when doing something that is difficult.
The sunrise was worth every bit of discomfort that I was feeling:
It was a wonderful sight to see the sun peaking above the horizon as we made our way to Pulaski in the early morning hours. We arrived at the northern trailhead in Pulaski happy to be back at the car and ready for breakfast. With 9:23 of moving time and 10:23 of total time since we left the trailhead in Galax, we all felt good about our effort. Here's the link to our Strava data if you're interested:
https://www.strava.com/activities/348818123
We were hoping to eat breakfast at the Draper Mercantile store on Saturday morning, but we finished too early. I won't complain about that. We decided to hit the IHOP in Dublin since it was open. They had a buffet. We dominated that buffet and amused our waitress and all the patrons as we shuffled into the restaurant looking like we'd been on a bender. I was walking with a hilarious gait because my legs were so chaffed (should have worn compression shorts), and I'm sure I was a sight to behold.
We couldn't find anyone's data on having completed the trail before, so we are thinking we have the FKT for the New River Trail from Galax to Pulaski at 10 hours and 23 minutes. Of course, someone else may have done this and not published the data. We weren't trying to go fast, and I'm certain someone will run it faster as soon as they have the idea to go knock it out. Plus, Jordan could have easily bolted off and finished hours before we all finished together. The FKT thing is just a funny side-note here, not the goal or the plan. Our goal was to have a fun 50 miles of communing on the trail with good friends. We accomplished that for sure.
My final thoughts on the adventure:
1. Running with friends for long distances in the woods is always worth it.The stories you have to share afterwards are always worth the price of admission.
2. If you're going out to run 50 miles, don't forget to plan for chaffing.
3. The New River Trail doesn't offer much in the way of water resupply. Plan for that.
4. I'm pretty happy with my fitness level. My legs weren't sore afterwards, and I'm pretty happy about that.
5. Big ups to Chris for running 50 miles for the first time in his running career.
6. Bad ideas are the best ideas. I'm looking forward to the next one already.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment