Salomon Trail Running Festival-50km

It was getting hot. Sun was directly on me. I saw the aid station on the other side. I saw the picnic tables with the kids. I just had to get through this last climb. It took me 30.9 miles to get here. I started to run faster. My eyes were looking for the finish line. As soon as I crossed the picnic tables, I knew that the finish line was just around the corner. I picked up my pace. I was now sprinting towards the finish line. The crowd was with me. I was hearing claps and that made me sprint even faster. When I was a step away from the finish line, I jumped over it. It was surreal. I hugged and kissed my family. I had just completed my first Ultra Marathon.

26.2 miles is a Marathon distance. Ultra Marathon is any distance that is more than 26.2 miles. 

The idea of running an Ultra Marathon first hit me when I was driving back home from the Quebec City Marathon. The drive was through the Vermont roads. These roads were full of nature around them. While filling up gas in Vermont, I did a quick search for marathons that are run on trails in New England. A series of Marathons showed up including a few Ultra Marathons. As I was reading through them, the Salomon Trail Running Festival caught my eye.

Back in June 2013, running a marathon was still a lot of miles for me. In October, when I broke through my wall at the BayState Marathon, I knew I was ready to take my running to the next level. The thought of running a distance higher than 26.2 miles looked doable. This thought started to grow roots and I knew I was going to run a Ultra Mararthon in a matter of months and not years.

I registered for the 50km (31 miles) race at the Salomon Trail Running Festival on 1/19/2013. 

Going through the website (Salomon Trail Running Festival), I noticed a sense of seriousness about this race. This did not feel like your typical city-sponsored marathon that is heavily advertised or has a commercial feel to it. This event was going to host a 5km, 5km (barefoot), 5km(canicross), 10km, 25km, 50km and 50miles. Each of these races were going to start at different times. I was participating in the 50km race and it was scheduled to start at 8am on May 25th (Sunday).

We (with family) left home at around 1pm on Saturday. It was about a couple of hours drive to the Pineland Farms. We reached Pineland Farms at around 3pm. We drove into the farm area and it immediately felt like a university campus but without any students in it. It was the weekend and buildings were closed. We slowly drove to the area where the race event was being setup.

This race event was setup with tents for registration, a starting area and a finish area. I parked the car and walked over to the registration area and picked up my bib. 

The entire setup was beautiful to look at.

Salomon Trail Starting Line at the Pineland Farms

This event is marketed with a rooster as its brand identity. This was on full display when entering this event.

There were two large water coolers that were probably holding hundreds of gallons of water with multiple spigots on every side of the water cooler. 

We went back to our hotel which was about a half an hour away. I was planning out the Sunday morning sequence in my brain.

Wakeup-Get Ready-Pancakes-Drive-Walk to the Starting Line

I woke up at 5:45am on Sunday. I put on my gear and left my hotel room at 5:55am. I was at Denny's at 6am. I ordered two pancakes. I was out of Denny's by 6:25am. Back to the hotel, the family was already getting ready. We left the hotel at 7:15am. We were at Pineland Farms at 7:40am. Parking was plentiful. We parked the car and walked over to the starting line.

This crowd was different from the usual marathon crowd that I was used to. None of the runners were wearing bright colors. Their overall look was rugged. Their shoes were built for endurance and they had accessorized themselves for extra water and nutrition. I felt out of place with my bright green technical T and bright green shoes. 

The announcer who was dressed up as a cowboy was doing a good job of informing us of the trail conditions and the services we would find as we run the trail.

It was 8am.

We started running. 

I immediately noticed the hills that were going to be a part of me for the next 31 miles. The race started as a descent of about 10 feet over 0.1 miles and then a quick climb of 10 feet. This pattern became the new norm as I continued running. The ascents and the descents were sometimes less than 10 feet while at other times they were over 100 or more feet. The maximum ascent was 300 feet at the 10th mile.

We started on a well maintained cross-country trail which soon became a path through the farm fields that was recently cut by the farmers. The grass on this path was wet and there were muddy spots that needed attention during the run. I was running in my Asics Nimbus 14 which are not trail-rated. I made the decision to not invest in trail running shoes yet because this marathon had non-technical trails. My Asics were prone to let in water, mud or any other element that touched it. This made it susceptible for getting wet faster. I had to be careful. If I had trail shoes on, I would not have to be careful during this run.

I started chatting with one of the runners that had run this race before. He was very complementary of it. He advised me to take it easy when climbing up the hills that were 30 degrees or more in angle. He said, "be smart cause you will need it later". I understood what that meant. I started to walk through my ascents and sprint through the descents. This allowed me to keep my average pace at a respectable level. My walks up the hills were small and with quick steps, my head leaning forward and my arms helping me climb through the use of forward motion.

We were running through forests that were lush green and a trail that was not overly muddy. It was evident that it had recently rained in the area since the grass, leaves and the path was generally wet. The trail was beautiful to run on. It was a good mix of a path through the forrest, freshly cut farms, cross country trails with turns every half a mile or a mile. Each turn on the trail gave it a new look.

At around the 4th mile, I hit an area that had me running at an angle. My right foot was always landing at an angle and never horizontally flat on its mid-foot due to the gradient of the path. This was causing my lower right leg to work harder while running through this path. I was worried that I was going to strain those muscles too early and may not have enough to finish the race. These uneven paths did not last more than a mile and were very infrequent in the race. I was able to recover from them, when I came out of them.

We had a little over 200 runners, running the 50k race. Each runner had his or her own race to run.  I felt that every runner was enjoying this race.

I was feeling good after my first loop of the 50k. Pineland Trails 50k is a two 25k loop course. It quickly reminded me of the loops in Hyannis Marathon and the Lowell Marathon. As soon as I started the second loop, I caught myself saying, "here we go again". 

This race does a good job of organizing aid stations. Each aid station is staffed by volunteers and each aid station had its own personality. Every aid station was competing with the other for a runner's vote. All aid stations generally, had the same nutrition except a few that also had salt tabs. A typical aid station had fig newtons, water melon, orange, variety of candies, wraps, cookies, water, gaorade and more. 

At around the 23rd mile, I started to feel nauseous. Constant hill climbing was getting to me and I was getting weaker. I was forcing my will through this part of the run. I started to focus on the movement of my feet to distract me. I knew that as long as I kept one foot in front of the other and found ways to distract me, I was going to be OK. This allowed me to zone out from the nauseous and it kept my mind and body in the race.

At the 25th mile, I saw my family again. I high-fived them and knew that I was very close. I had less than 6 miles to go. As soon as I realized that I was almost there, my nauseous feeling disappeared and the optimism of being able to complete my first Ultra Marathon set in. I now had a pep in my step and started to run faster than my average pace of the last 25 miles.

I finished my first Ultra Marathon strong. I set a PR for a 50k at 5:59:35.

Food was everywhere after I crossed the finish line. I grabbed a bunch of sandwiches, brownies and bars and relaxed with the family on the benches by the finish area. We watched other finishers cross the finish line and we cheered and clapped for them. It felt good.

This was an amazing experience. I will likely come back here again to repeat the 50k and try to beat this PR.