Wapack 2018
An old friend.
I really have grown to love the Wapack Trail Race. It checks all the boxes for me. It’s long enough and challenging enough to push me physically and mentally. Its deep New England topography is interesting and comforting to me. It’s a small, almost intimate affair put on by my running club and I get to see people I might see only this time each year.
Challenge-wise the Wapack is the closest thing to an ultra without running an ultra. A bit like an ultra warm-up, you might say. It’s 18 miles of technical single path, out and back, over 4 mountains. It’s got chin scraping hike-ups and toenail rending descents. It’s only 18 miles but will take you longer than your marathon time.
At the Wapack, there is also the ultra-marathon zeitgeist. Difficult trails, a lightly supported course and the community bonhomie of trail runner nation. All in one, nice, compact, 18 mile stretch of New England wilderness, an hour or so drive northwest of Boston.
An unplanned gift.
I was excited to run this year. Usually, this race is a difficult notch in my training plan. Something I’m not quite in shape for. It is one of the strengthening steps that takes the place of a long run in a marathon campaign.
As a training run, I’m typically not specifically trained for this event and I have to do that delicate dance of going hard enough to make it a worthy effort without going so hard that I’m left out of gas by the side of the trail. Or limping around on shredded quads for a week. Or nursing a twisted ankle in the middle of a training cycle.
But this year I was on the rebound from the 100 miler. I had lots of trail work under my belt. A surfeit of trail work. Hours and hours of trail work. Days and days of trail work. A well of aerobic trail work so deep you can’t see the bottom.
And, even though I have changed gears back to road racing I knew I had this deep build up of aerobic conditioning and trail work to play with. This would allow me the freedom to push some sections harder and earlier than I usually would and still be able to potentially finish strong at the end, without dismembering my health or my training plans.
I was looking forward to it. My favorite trail running is when I can shut off the limiters and just run with wild abandon up and down the mountains. That’s a great freedom and a great joy. That’s when I love the trails.
A preview
I had run it one way with Paul the race director and a couple others 3 weeks prior as my first real run coming off the 100. I felt fine. Losing my stomach at mile 70 of the 100 had the silver lining of keeping me from destroying my legs in the last 30 miles and I rebounded quickly.
We went at a very casual pace on a warm, rainy, Saturday, sloshing through the puddles and clearing the fallen trees out of the trail where we could. There were no views at the tops of the mountains on this test run, the rain clouds were pulled in close like thick cotton, but I felt great and the trails were in good shape.
In the rain the efts were out on the trail. What is an eft you say? It is a newt. A sub-group of salamanders that are semi-aquatic. They are quite spectacular when you come across them in the trail. They are bright orange salamanders that are a stark contrast to all the grey, brown and green in the forest.
That 9-mile, one way, practice run of the Wapack a couple weeks after the 100 was a real confidence builder. My legs felt great. Like I had lots of strength. Plenty to spare. I felt that deep well of aerobic strength from the 100 training.
Preludes and expectations
I first ran this race in the 90’s. I was training for a marathon and saw an 18-mile race and thought ‘why not?’ As is my practice I didn’t really concern myself with the course description or warnings. I got out there in the mountains in my road shoes. I fell down a bunch and lost a toenail. (It was already coming off but with the steep, slippery downhills it came off and was floating around inside the shoe.)
All this was a novelty to me having only recently started racing marathons and a bit of an epiphany. I instantly fell in love with trail running and the weirdness of it all. Here were a bunch of guys with beat up gear, scraggly beards and dogs wearing bandanas. I dug the laid back vibe in contrast to the difficulty and intensity of the running.
Since then I’ve run it a bunch of times. In 2008 I ran it in 3:24, in 2010 3:32 and then I had a long hiatus with a few medical issues where I was focused on other goals.
I came back to it under-trained in 2016 and ran a 4:11 on a hot day that literally felled me in the last mile with cramps. I went on to qualify at Portland with a 3:37 later that fall.
Last year in a driving rain storm I ran a casual and happy 4:13, and went on to requalify with a 3:33 at Baystate in October.
This year, with the 100 mile training I was eyeballing being able to dip under 4:00.
The big drop in finishing times has been threefold.
First, I’m just not as fast anymore, so even in the places where you can break into a unencumbered run on the course I’m not making up as much time.
Second, I don’t run many of the climbs anymore. I hike them.
Third, I don’t attack the steep, technical downhills with as much abandon as I used to.
It’s just not worth breaking a shoulder or losing a tooth to take a couple minutes off my race time.
I don’t really think of this as a race per se anymore. More like a fun run with friends.
But I always care about how a perform and how I feel, as a gauge of where I am in my fitness.
Race time, good time.
Coming into Sunday we expected good weather, but when the day arrived the forecast crept a bit and we got a little heat. Not a lot, but mid-80’s towards the end. I know from experience that weather isn’t too much of a factor on Wapack. The course is almost completely under cover of the forest canopy. You can feel the weather, but you’re never fully exposed.
I had a great day. I felt good. I was able to go out reasonably hard. I hiked the uphills with good leg strength and had a good push. I ‘danced’ the downhills with enthusiasm and skill. I finished very strong, collecting 5 or 6 runners on the back half.
The race starts at 9:00 AM. We get there before 7:00 to set up and park cars. Then as we get close to the start I get my racing gear ready. Someone draws a line in the dirt for the start. Paul makes some announcements and I jump into the mid-pack for the start.
It starts off with a slight downhill section on a rough forest road. I tried to stick close to Paul and the other runners around my ability who I know from past races. You want to pace well in this first section so you don’t get stuck in the conga line on the first big climb.
I wore my old slant pack and carried two bottles. One was water and the other was ½ strength Perpetuem. I also carried a flask of Hammer Gel, which I put down and forgot at the 5 mile aid station and never recovered.
I had a problem with the bottle holder in my pack. The bottle kept jumping out and dropping into the trail. I don’t know if it was because I was working harder and that caused too much jiggling, or if I didn’t have it tight enough. I had just run 100 miles with this same pack without any problems.
I gave up and just carried a bottle in each hand.
I had my droid and my JayBird Run headphones in the pack for the turn around. On the way back I’m typically running alone and focused on closing the race, so I can put some music on.
I was sweating hard and feeling winded in the first climbs so I let the pack with Paul in it go. You have to run your own race in these long ones. There’s no sense getting sucked into someone else’s rhythm. You have to listen to your body and I felt like I was working too hard to sustain for another 3+ hours.
I hooked up with another pack of 2-3 guys and we paced well down the steep back of Binney Mountain and through the swoopy section by the pond into the first aid station. I felt great.
We powered up the road to Watatic and I interspersed some power hiking with the running so as to not lose too much time on the shallow uphill on the washed out road.
We pushed up and over Watatic and pulled into the turn around just under 2 hours. I said ‘hi’ to my friends, filled my bottles and hit the return path with a bit of renewed vigor, because I still felt great.
The quick turn around must have surprised the guys I was with because I lost them and never saw them again. I was alone now on the return flight.
I dug out my droid and switched the music on. I didn’t bother with the head phones, I just let it play in my pack. Grateful Dead, Ska-Punk and the Clash serenading the people I passed with weak musically comfort.
I felt good, so I pushed. I pushed up Watatic. I pushed down the back side. I pushed down the road to the aid station, stretching out my stride on the shallow downhill.
The only problem I had was the Hoka Speed Goats were really bashing on my abused toenails. The toenails were already insulted by the 100 miler and now they were slamming into the toebox of the shoes with each down hill foot plant and it hurt.
I love those shoes but why can’t they just give us a little more room in the toebox?
It was getting warm, but I wasn’t bothered by it.
I fell a couple times. Nothing bad. Just a roll in the trail to pick up some dirt. I had one piece of detritus stuck to the end of my nose that I couldn’t seem to wipe off. My hands were too sweaty. It bugged me, right there in the line of vision. You don’t want to be constantly absorbed with a piece of something stuck to your nose when you’re careening down a technical trail!
I leaned into the steep push up Binney and passed another runner. I was collecting them slowly and relentlessly the whole trip back. Some just hit the wall. Some had cramps in the heat. But, I had the energy and was still moving well.
Late in the race my legs were strong. Not rubbery at all.
As I pulled onto the final road up to the finish I could see a runner ahead and was slowly gaining on him. It was Paul. I didn’t quite catch him. We ran out of race. He beat me by 12 seconds.
I ended up with a solid 4:02 finish. Which actually surprised me. I thought I’d be well under 4 hours given how strong I felt. But, I guess the heat slowed me a bit.
I ended up coming in 26th overall, 4th in my age group of 13 guys. Paul said I was one of the few people who ran a better time this year versus last year.
More than the finish time I was very pleased with how good I felt. All those long miles over the summer seem to have benefitted me greatly. I had good energy the whole race. I had a strong close.
It was one of those days when you felt like you raced. Like you gave a good accounting of yourself. A full measure as they used to say.
Let’s see what else I can do with this fitness now!