West Virginia Trilogy Race Report and Tips
/
How do you succinctly summarize three days of beautiful fall trail running in a remote part of West Virginia’s Monongahela National Forest? Unforgettable. That probably sums it up.
Cool. Blog post complete. Man, I am good at this. Why am I not getting paid to write this kind of insightful material?
Fine. Ok. Let me try again.
The West Virginia Trilogy is: 1) a stage race, 2) a trail race, 3) an ultramarathon, 4) unforgettable. So that’s kind of a single orange sugar maple leaf on a twig that connects to a bigger bough on the massive tree of running. It’s a niche event, though remarkably well known.
Alright. You get the idea. Really got you with that tree reference, right? Now I can stop writing.
More? Come on people. I’m still tired from running this thing. Just go do it yourself and save me the trouble! At least try one of the days.
What? You only run on roads but love a good, or even mediocre, story?
Awesome! I’m full of mediocre stories. Watch this.
Once upon a time, in a magical Appalachian forest, not that far away, in a tiny village near the great kingdom of Circleville, there were 36 trail runners that embarked on an unforgettable woodland adventure filled with amazing creatures, treacherous terrain, and furious battles with their own minds and bodies.
Boo ya. Done. I’m outta here.
Oh no, now I can’t quit. Thanks a lot. Here’s a pic then.
courtesy anne foreman
Each adventurer had invested roughly 14,000 rubles ($200 American) during the summer’s most oppressive heat and humidity for a chance at traversing 94 challenging miles with 15,000 feet of ascent, a sunrise summit of Spruce Knob, a Patagonia zip-neck pullover, a cool T-shirt, six hearty and warm meals, pleasing beverages, and the ultimate finisher’s mug to support their bragging rights.
Consider these items critical to their success in completion of their self-inflicted mission/journey/challenge/adventure subscribed to in a moment of unclear thinking.
1) The clothing will be used in desperation to keep warm at 2:00 AM when the temperature drops into the low 30s and they don’t realize exactly how cold it is to sleep in a tent at such temperatures.
2) Food provides the nourishment necessary to run three long days in a row. You probably shouldn’t do that without eating, duh.
3) The beer numbs the painful legs and minds of the Trilogy runner and may provide finish line motivation for many. Or perhaps makes you more tolerant of the runner at dinner who refuses to shower between race stages. It may even help the frigid snoozing of those individuals sleeping in the two shirts just mentioned above. The coffee is a motivator that makes people think they can push themselves to phenomenal limits that they probably shouldn’t. Oh wait, that’s beer too.
4) Finisher’s mugs to sip hot cocoa in the coming winter months while reflecting on their adventure should they survive the mission/journey/challenge all while tortuously contemplating “Should I do that again next year?”
Don’t Do this Race if This looks like too much work
I understand some people stay in the yurts that are on site at Experience Learning but I could never do that, only because “yurt” sounds a little too much like a sound that your stomach makes at mile 40 of 50 before you emergently need to find a large tree to hide your bare ass. Not saying I’ve done that but just saying where my mind goes. I personally slept in the back of my truck curled up like a roly poly pill bug.
Runners are welcome to participate on any single day, but don’t be surprised if a competitive three-day Trilogy runner will do their best to run you and your fresh legs into the ground and make you feel bad about your clearly unwise decision to race only a single day. It’s popular for some people to run the 50K on Friday and the half marathon on Sunday, skipping the 50 miler on Saturday to do more important things, like trimming their toenails or maybe volunteering for the 50 miler, in which case THANK YOU! Also thank you for trimming your hideous toenails. By the way, you might want to see a podiatrist about that one little piggie.
The 50K appetizer
We had great weather for the 50K on Friday, though overnight temperatures dropped enough to leave frost in the lowest dips. I was surprised (yet not surprised) to see the number of runners hammering the first 2 miles of the course after the 7:00 AM start. I’m old and don’t like to experience 5K pain anymore, so I fully endorse a nice, gentle start when it’s going to be such a long weekend. No need to hurt my fragile, little quadriceps earlier than necessary. Although, on second thought, if you are racing me, please do go ahead and floor that accelerator as hard as you can for the initial three or four miles since we all know a 50K is really short, your pace never fades, and you’ll have so much trouble passing the slow conga line of people I’ll be leading in that fourth hour on all of the narrow cliff-lined singletrack.
courtesy anne foreman
I caught Trevor Baine just after the first aid station, which are, by the way, really close together for the 50K. Shortly after, as we descended the Elza Trail, I hooked my right shoe solidly on a sharp root and refused to disengage it, just to make sure Trevor was paying attention behind me. I had enough time to think “that was a dumb idea” and somehow saved myself from creating a crater in the earth with my face, sparing my already titanium teeth. The occasion did provide at least five more minutes of amusement for the two of us. We trotted and chatted along together for the next couple hours, occasionally catching a glimpse of a runner in front of us.
Trevor and I eventually came upon Bob Luther just past Judy Gap on Bear Hunter Trail, but then Bob proceeded to educate us on descending skills while coming back down Horton Trail. I became particularly timid while descending when I rolled my left ankle on a narrow, cambered section. We’d chase Bob up Seneca Creek, freezing our legs a more and more with each crossing. Bob rejoined us on the ascent of Judy Springs Trail. Being the phenomenal runner that she is, Judy Gap caught back up to us as well. If only Judy Gap was a real person and not the name of the aid station. Oh, the dad jokes you must endure to finish this unnecessarily long blog post!
For me, the most mentally difficult part came when running the flat but very rocky Lumberjack Trail from mile 24 to mile 27. After a brief gravel road section and a stop at the Seneca aid station, I didn’t run very long until I came into what appeared to be a beaver dam area and promptly fell flat on my face, just as I was recognizing that there were definitely some deep holes to watch out for amongst the water, sticks, and high grass. And that’s where I’m writing this entire thing from while I await rescue. Do you think they’ll be here soon to get me?
A brushy, briary section of old logging road eventually clears out and leads to quicker logging road travel. Pushing the effort up Cardiac Hill to catch Bob, I cramped at my inner right thigh muscles, briefly stopped to stretch, and somehow managed to catch back onto him in the field next to the Experience Learning facilities. I’m not sure either of us wanted to kick to the finish knowing more than 60 miles remained in the coming days but I picked it up to finish in 5:06:54.
The 50 mile main course
The good weather continued for the 50 miler on Saturday. A slight vehicular position adjustment of precisely 25 degrees in the coronal plane and 13 degrees in the transverse plane dramatically improved my sleep quality. I don’t need your Tempur Pedic mattress. It had warmed slightly in the night as cloud cover moved in, maybe to the mid to upper 40s. Enough to have less condensation inside the truck than the night before. Every degree counts when you are sleeping outside.
The start was an hour earlier at 6:00 AM, and perhaps the resulting fatigue led to a less aggressive pace than the day before, thank goodness. There was a brief confusion (loss of consciousness) at mile 2.2 where I followed a few runners onto an incorrect trail but everyone I could see in front of me quickly realized the mistake. This is a much easier mistake to make in the dark because you tend to focus only on what your headlamp lights, like the giant nocturnal woodrats and whistlepigs. This resulted in needing to pass a few extra folks up the climb but really left me wondering what position I was in for a long time.
Strange creatures on the game Camera courtesy Katie Wolpert
Striding along the only pavement in the entire race climbing up to Spruce Knob, I was in a group of fast moving folks. They must have saved that quick start for that stretch instead of the initial mile. It was still dark amongst the trees atop the mountain so I kept the headlamp. “NO WHISTLEPIGS GONNA EAT ME TODAY!, I yelled. I ran alone, surely talking to myself in increasingly greater quantities, for about a mile heading down Huckleberry Trail, then came upon Bob Luther and did my best to pace with him for the majority of the race. Hopefully he wasn’t counting on quality solo running time.
As we headed up the Allegheny Mountain Trail climb from the mile 25 aid station, the fog and drizzle were rolling into the top of the adjacent ridge. Within the hour, it had reached us, chilling me a little in the process. The aid stations were much further apart than yesterday’s race, which is one of the challenges/mind games you must endure. I was pleased to find warm broth to drink at the mile 33 Horton aid station (though I may have been better off to bathe my aching muscles in it). I also didn’t mind the brief chunk of gravel road after the descent had beaten me down.
Seneca Falls courtesy Anne Foreman
Bob encouraged me to use this last major climb up Spring Ridge Trail to push before descending back to Judy Gap at mile 40. So I did. Maybe he was tired of listening to my heavy breathing or hearing about my obsession with megafauna. Despite all the climbing, I was pretty chilled and anxious to get off of the cold ridge. He had described the portion after Judy Gap as being more quickly runnable and, if I had the legs left, to take advantage of the lack of climbing and lack of technicality.
Check Out these Nice Volunteers Dealing with My Problems. What’s in the Thermos?
I pushed the pace well through mile 44 up Seneca Creek Trail but was definitely getting annoyed with the taller grasses on the former timber road of the Allegheny Mountain Trail until the mile 46 aid where I definitely did not feel like eating anything and just wanted to be done. Of course the paparazzi (aka my wife) showed up to harass me, always in search of that ridiculous eyes crossed, mouth open, and drooling camera shot to sell to the National Enquirer. I caught up to Frank Gonzalez here, and we ran the remainder of the course hard (at least for me), hurdling a couple fences and power hiking the heck out of Cardiac Hill in the process. I passed Frank and pushed through the top of the climb and then proceeded to have Frank outkick me so fast in the final 200 yards that he must have a hidden turbo button. I was pretty cold and frazzled so I took a long, warm shower, and went back to sleep with the baby whistlepig in my truck for about 90 minutes. (Special thanks to the nice couple that felt sorry for the barely conscious idiot that I am and drove me to my truck!) Finish time: 9:03:27.
Courtesy Anne Foreman
The half marathon dessert
For the Sunday finale, the race directors brought in more fantastic weather for the half marathon. The sky was clearer and more chilly again overnight but at least this race doesn’t start until 9:00 AM. I wasn’t sure how my legs would fare on this third day, but why not just see what it feels like to go completely anaerobic for well over an hour after all those longer runs? Coffee! More coffee!
YURTZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Power
The start was faster and reminiscent of Friday, especially since there were 95 total half marathoners and 36 5K runners. Who are these people who lack sunken eyes? The legs felt good after the prologue loop and it felt easy to hit the first real trail descent down Cardiac Hill with intensity. The half course was very runnable, probably because of the gravel road sections, but definitely didn’t have a shortage of climbs, yielding 1800 feet of climb on my watch. I didn’t realize what a test I was in for with the gravel climb up to the Gatewood Firetower. That left a scar. At least you get to bomb back down it, though I felt like I was flailing like a used car dealership’s inflatable windsock man. Back along some gravel, drop down the hill, and once more through the bottom of the cow pasture with fence jumps and crawls to return to Cardiac Hill and the 94 miles of racing is, sadly, about to come to an end. Today’s time to completion: 1:39:26
Total Trilogy time: 15:49:47. Meanwhile some dude broke 2 hours in a laboratory experiment marathon and stole all of my thunder.
Courtesy Katie Wolpert
RESULTS Link
Tips for an aspiring Trilogy stage runner:
Do some back-to-back longer running, perhaps with some higher effort on the second day to mimic running on tired legs.
Have an understanding of your typical recovery time for a given type of effort. It takes much less time to recover from 20 miles of aerobic running where you were comfortable the whole time, eating well, and drinking plenty than it does to recover from the same distance where you were anaerobic, breathing heavily, and barely eating and drinking. Do not do that in this race!
Eat and drink constantly. Sure, in a typical ultramarathon you still have to eat and drink often to even complete the distances but if you get too far behind in your intake one day, the next day or days will suffer. You have to take more of a preventative attitude and remember you aren’t eating for the current situation as much as eating for the next day.
Along those same lines, eat and drink as immediately as you can tolerate after finishing each run. According to something known as science, or better yet, physiology, there’s a “glycogen replacement window” that remains most effective at rebuilding your spent muscle glycogen stores in the couple hours following exercise.
Hygiene. Shower as soon as you finish each day, otherwise you won’t make friends. But more importantly, there are just way too many bacteria waiting to flourish on your skin and cause jock itch. The warm showers on site made life so much more pleasant.
When it comes to gear, bring it, even if you don’t think you’ll need it. I ended up loaning some clothing items because I had extra. Of course I only loan the sweatiest, dirtiest items that I just took off. You are welcome, Anne!
And on a related note, bring extra pairs of shoes. Maybe even models designed for different conditions like super muddy or dry. Or in the case you really damage a shoe, you’ll have spares. I ripped a one inch gash through the top of a new pair on the first day when it hooked on a pointy root. You never know what’s lurking out there that might shred your shoes. Whistlepig teeth are also very sharp and are known to penetrate up to two inches of solid metal so your shoes are no match.
Run at least an open 50 miler beforehand. Unless you just love the process of suffering and learning the hard way, I would not suggest your first 50 miler to be in the middle of the Trilogy (unless that’s your open event) because your legs and body will feel like it’s 70 miles instead of 50 by the finish.
Don’t let your mind wander too much while running. The 50 mile cutoffs are more aggressive, so you have to stay on task. The rocks under the leaves want to hurt you. I fell down twice and rolled my left ankle once the first day, rolled my right ankle once the second day. Too much of an injury and the entire weekend is ruined!
Observe and apply the knowledge and methods of a veteran Trilogy runner. It drives me absolutely nuts when people think they know it all and completely resist the advice and help of their more experienced peers. There’s always something useful to be learned from someone else. For me this was Bob Luther, a previous winner of the Trilogy. He knows the courses well and gave me fantastic advice throughout the 50 miler but especially for the closing 10 miles. I was also able to pace with him for the end of the 50K and his input on the half marathon gave me an idea of when to best push my effort. Without his guidance and presence, my performances in all three races would definitely have been slower than if I had gone in blind.
Don’t forget about the climbs and power hiking. FYI: the mountains aren’t going anywhere.
If you have a bad day, don’t underestimate the power of good nutrition followed by a good night’s rest for improving the next day’s performance. Just get it in ASAP. This does not mean drink a bunch of beer.
If you plan on camping each night at the Trilogy, go camping a couple times before the race to work the kinks out of that process so it’s not another stressor on race weekend.
I’m continuing this already lengthy rhetoric to take time for a public service announcement on thanking your friendly, local race directors. Thank you Adam Casseday and Dan Lehman for mobilizing volunteers, marking and trimming a ridiculous amount of trail, finding sponsors, losing sleep, tolerating stupid questions from racers, stressing, and repeating the same things over and over again that you clearly posted on the event website. Thanks to Katie Wolpert of Experience Learning for inviting us all to your great venue. Thank you mom for watching my kids. Thank you Anne for not publishing those couple terrible drooling photos you took of me.
