Eastern States 2017, Pennsylvania Rocks!

  Somehow even though I have been on the Eastern States course every year of it 4 year existence I seem to have forgotten how rocky the course really is! I made it 75 miles in 2014, Paced for 40 in 2015, finished the entire 102.9 miles last year & yet seemed to have blocked out entire sections of the trails! Anyhow, that is probably the only reason I signed up for this beast again! I was pretty psyched for this years race as I was going to attempt it with no crew or pacers. To add a little more pressure, my wife Mary would be waiting for me at the finish of a 100 miler for the first time! Words will not do justice to the emotions felt when I crossed the line 34hrs 29 mins 11 secs after the start. However, this picture will!

That Finish Line Feeling!!

We arrived at Happy Acres campground late Friday afternoon after a long, construction delayed ride from NE Ohio. The fact that Mary was joining me for some well deserved R & R while I enjoyed my own R & R, (rocks & running) made this my most special ultra running experience to date!
We only stopped at packet pick up for a few minutes as the sky grew dark and the rain came.
A little later, my friend, Sean & his wife, Amy arrived at the cabin as he was trying Eastern States for the fist time and going for the PA Triple Crown of Ultra Running, Having completed the Hyner View 50K & Worlds End 100k this spring. Almost forgot to mention he also successfully ran The Western States Endurance Run in between all of this PA adventures! Congratulations on a great spring/summer of running Sean!!

I believe Mary was more nervous than I was, especially when she frantically woke me up wondering what time it was, thinking I may have slept through the alarm. It was actually 11:17 pm, about 20 minutes after we fell asleep!! I slept great as there was no need for me to wake up every 1/2 hour tossing and turning.  Mary had that covered!

I woke up at 3:17 and decided to get up rather than wait for my alarm to go off at 3:33 (Mary's lucky number is 3!) Had my pre race breakfast of 2 strawberry frosted Pop Tarts and a glass of milk. Said goodbye to Mary thinking it would be between 33 & 36 hours before I would see her again and headed to the start around 4:15.

I saw many friends waiting to check in/weigh in and get the journey started. During this 30 minute pre-race time you can literally feel all of the different emotions that the runners are sending out into the universe. I can honestly say this may have been the calmest I have ever felt before a 100. I was so looking forward to loosing(finding) myself in the woods for the next day & a half! Even though I have done solo 100's before, none have been this remote of a location or challenging of a course.

The calmness comes from months of physical & mental training for this 1 specific race. The many solo miles & hours spent running, hiking & walking in the woods left me confident and ready for the task at hand. I cannot stress enough the importance of "race specific" training. I know being 1 of 66 finishers out of 199 starters in 2016 was due in large part to all of my mid day heat training. Last year it was 94 with a heat index of 108. I won't even talk about the storm that blew down dozens of trees last year either!

The race started at 5am and we headed down the road for 1.5 miles before turning into the campground and eventually hitting the trail. The next couple miles before the first big climb were on a fairly slick, rocky trail. I actually fell twice, the second one was pretty hard on my left shoulder before making it to the climb. I would not fall again!!

I was pleased to spend some good trail time with Christopher Agbay, from Massachusetts who I met at the inaugural race in 2014. Chris was 1 of 3 people going for their 4th straight finish! Pretty damn impressive given that many people consider this a one & done kind of course.

Heading into the mile 17.8 aid station with Chris

 I was a bit taken aback by the fact that around mile 20, not too long after leaving the aid station I was feeling a bit down. You know that WTF am I doing here, I swore this was a 1 and done race, why did I come back?..I could DNF(did not finish) with Mary here....blah blah blah. Not really sure what that was about except maybe I blocked out how challenging the first 30 miles can be. Sean was ahead of me as was my friend Stacy who was also 1 of the 3 runners going for finish #4. I had the pleasure of pacing Stacy her last 40 in 2015 & seeing her fight through all that the course spit out at her gave me my 100 miler mojo back! I'm 3 for 3 in 100's since then, thanks Stacy!!!

One of the reasons I WILL BE GOING BACK IN 2018, no Matter what I said to Jade at the mile 80 aid station, or anyone else that would listen, is that I truly love seeing my PA running family!!

Not to mention the many years spent with my father, uncle & brother in-law hunting the woods of Pennsylvania. I belong to these woods heart & soul!!

In spite of the many miles I have on this course it is mind boggling to me how much of it I do not remember clearly. The next 15 miles were fairly uneventful and I was feeling pretty good. It was quite humid but almost 20 degrees cooler than last year. The highlight of my race was sitting at the Hyner aid station changing my shirt and hearing a familiar voice ask one of the volunteers, "Has bib number 31checked in yet?" My babe decided to surprise me and it was a well needed boost! After a 5 minute chat with Mary I was heading up the trail on my own again.

I want to take a second to thank all of the volunteers, especially a few people that made my ES 100 event truly enjoyable. Brian, Mary, Luke, Mark, Jade, & Jennifer THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH for all the enthusiasm & support!!!! It was great to see Craig, the RD of the race the first 3 years on the course too.

I knew it would be a bit different without my buddies Bert & Charlie pacing & crewing this year, but I was a bit shocked at how hard 2am - 4am were for me alone in the woods! At one point I almost convinced myself to lie down & take a nap knowing that the next runner would have to step on or over me to get by. Oh well, no nap, just left right left repeat until the funk lifted. Once I made the Long Branch aid station at mile 75 I was in good spirits and wasn't hallucinating anymore either!

I know this sounds a wee bit off, but I love the climb out of Blackwell at mile 80.5. Not very technical and not crazy steep!! I really felt awesome when I got to the top of that climb!

The climb out of Blackwell is one of my favorite parts of the course!

Getting to the Skytop aid station at mile 84+  has been my "I know I will finish" spot the last two years! Good pancakes & great volunteers! Even though I struggled early in the morning I was able to make up time in the 8 between Skytop & the Barrens aid stations. I have been quite pleased the way my legs have responded in the later miles the last 2 years. I 

Not sure what Happened but I seemed to have deleted the rest of my Blog!!! Quick summary was that I did pretty well the last 20 miles and had a great reception at the finish, lead by Mary!!! Congratulations to Stacy finishing her 4th consecutive ES 100 & to Sean who did both Eastern States & Western States this year!!!!