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What is this race? So, the RD, Stephen Weiss, is a German chef and an ultrarunner, and his attitude is that races should not be this ridicuous expensive thing. He typically likes to charge about a dollar a mile especially if you register early enough. There won't be an expo. There won't be a crazy amount of swag. What you will get is a top-class race experience. There's a shirt (which I really liked) and a some sort of medal or something (For The Dirty German, we got a book bag and a pint glass), and a great course. Also, the aid stations are typically awesome. There won't be an aid station every mile as usually his races are trail or trailish but what lacks in how many there are, he gives back in how they are. Even though this was "only" a half or full, he treats it as an ultra-marathon. It won't be water/gatorade but rather, water/gatorade/code/trail mix/pretzels/cookies/fruit/pickle juice and other stuff. They will NEVER run out of food like I've seen other races to. They will NEVER run out of water. It won't be 1 person either. There will be a team of people to get anyone who shows up. He also takes care of his volunteers which warms my heart as the volunteers are the ones who make the race. Case in point, skipping ahead, after the race, volunteers were trying to convince Jamey to come do more races. While in comparison, Jamey and I recently volunteered at a race RDed by David Drebsky (Frozen Flamingo) and while David took care of the runners, he most definitly did NOT take care of us. We suffered. While I might do his race(s) one day, I will tell people how he screwed us and I will NEVER volunteer for him again.
In any case, his races include "The Dirty German", "The 1/2 Sauer, 1/2 Krautt", "The Naked Bavarian", "The Naked Prussian", "The Dirty Austrian", "Blues Cruise" and "The Naked Nick". His website is http://www.uberendurancesports.com/. Go check it out.
I really would like to do all his races and I have slowly been getting them. They range from a Marathon (half too) to a 100K.
In any case, I signed up kinda late because I was stupid. I tried to convince people to join but nada. Mikey's wife birthday was that day so that was a no-no. Jamey wasn't sure. Other people were "thinking" about it. Surprisingly enough, Brandon from the YMCA immediatly signed up with his friend. Cool...
I was going to drive up there race day and that did weigh heavily against me. It's a 2 hour drive but coming back from PA, there is ALWAYS(!!!) traffic coming back into NY and that sucks. Still, my intent was to pull over if I needed too. It didn't help, that Stephen posted a picture of the medal with the caption "Probably the harest to earn (Half) Marathon medal in Philadelphia."
Awesome. He also posted that it would be about 2,600 feet of elevation. My runs at Alley Pond are typically 300-400 feet of elevation so that's saying something, but still, it is what it is.
With about a week or 2 before race date, Jamey suddenly signed up. Yay!!! Not only do I like to do races with Jamey, I knew he would drive. With a cup of coffee, he could drive far...
As we came closer to race day, the forecast was for rain. Lots of it. I wasn't sure how conditions will be but whatever. Can't focus on the weather. The latest became "some rain during the race". He picked me up around 3am Saturday I believe and we drove down. We like getting there early so that works. We got there and they weren't even ready for packet pickup. That's ok...
It was cold for me. As usual, I was not sure what to wear. Trails are usually warmer but I was freezing. I figured we would be there for a while and I prefer to be warm versus cold, so I wore my winter clothes. As you can see from the pictures, my friends chose summery clothes. I think everyone was happy with their selection at the end.
A couple of days before the race, Jamey discovered that Erik Kuhi was going to be there so we were looking forward to that.
Pre-race we found Erik and his buddy Russ McAndrew, and we talked a little.
Also, we talked to this dude, who I can no longer remember his name and he had an interesting story. He started working out and got himself ready to do a local 5K. He went and did it and as he crossed the finish line, he had a heart attack and collapsed hitting his head on the pavement. Why it took so long in the ER to realize that they could get his name from the bib he was wearing is beyond me but he ended up staying for a week at the hospital so they could figure out what was wrong with his heart and to deal with the concussion he had. He had to re-learn how to do certain things... When he went to see his doctor, his MD said, "So... You realize that your running career is over, right?". his response was basically a FU as he went and signed up for his first 50K. It's kinda funny that he has done a bunch of ultras but never a straight out marathon. Wow... Anyway, he was there doing the half which as Stephan said, "was very hiking friendly".
Brandon update: He called me up. He slept through his alarms. Too late. Not happening. Oh well.
We started. Wayyyyyy too many people. Single track initially. It's ok. I was really worried that the trail would be too muddy. Actually, it wasn't too bad. Only a few bad parts. For the most part, the course was beautiful. We crossed over streams using bridges. We crossed over streams by going from rock to rock. We crossed a much bigger stream by many rock to rock. There's a video in the images page. Raise the volume and you hear me (the ninja dressed in all black) saying that I'm going to pull a Jesus and walk on water. You'll also hear Jamey saying something like that he's Moses and will part the water.
The course really was beautiful. We definitly went down and as you know, what goes does, has a lot of climbing up. We did that too. At one point, we got to a slow section of single track and that was weird as things did open up. Turns out we had to go down a staircase. This staircase (look at the images) was made of rock and these stairs were not even in size. Not even in depth nor height. Add to that, they were slippery. We climbed some more. At one point, Jamey tells me that he would not be surprised if Erik and Russ would catch us and I questioned him about that. And... I turn because I hear a sound and they are right there. Nice!
We stick together. Nice bridges. Nice streams. Course was 99% VERY well marked. Good aid stations. We were joking around and having fun.
For those who really want to know about the course. There was also a wooden staircase to climb up. Each loop was 13.1 but the last mile in each loop was where the hardest stuff was to be found. There were 2 climbs in that last mile which sucked. We climbed the first and all thought that our quads were burning. Then to our horror, we proceeded to go down the mountain. Remember the what goes down, must climb back up again? We did and that last hill was bad.
Some shenanagins on the course:
Everytime I saw people walking the opposite way, I would tell them that they are going the wrong way and that the cool kids are going this way instead. It did NOT get old...
At one point, I saw this guy walking his dog toward us and carrying a duffle bag on his shoulder. When we were almost next to him, I said outloud in a mock whisper, "Shhh. Don't say anything. He's got a dead body in that bag". Yes - I was probably wayyyy to hyper but I had a good time. In any case, his response with a serious face, "Body ain't dead yet". Love it!!!
We saw a guy and a girl hiking and the dude was crouching take a picture of something. Of course, I immediatly yelled, "Look!!! He's proposing...". Oh boy, never saw a dude jump up so fast. I also never saw 2 people turn red so fast in my life either. We had 2 instances like this... Jamey of course, went on about imagine if he was really going to propose and the girl had just said "Whew... Thank God you weren't going to propose...". I hope I didn't cause any issues. I was having fun.
There was a close call instance... I think it may have been on the last mile trek. We had to cross a stream and it was a hard climb up the bank. I went first followed by Erik, Jamey and Russ. I went up without an issue. Erik went but only got 3 toes on the other side of the bank according to him. As I called it and later we all kept saying, "he was teetering on the brink of the abyss". Basically, he was kinda balancing somewhere between I got this and I am about to topple backwards. Luckily, last minute, he was able to throw his weight forward and clear it. Wow...
We did have fun even though it was challenging. We finished and got some food. Even Jamey was able to eat. While I went to the bathroom quickly, Jamey went to get a slice of pizza only to have Stephan try to force him to take a whole pizza pie. This is what I mean... The RD made sure that food will not run out. How many times have I done a race only to find out that there's no food. He was forcing the volunteers to take a few boxes homes. Awesome. On of the volunteers kept trying to convince Jamey to come back for more races. The volunteers love the RD... Nice.
Anyway, we both changed clothes at the car and drove home. Of course the 2 hour drive turned into 3 hours courtesy of the GW Bridge and the Cross Bronx Expressway. The next morning, we ran 5 miles in Alley Pond. It was a good weekend.
Just a testimonial as to how hard the course was: Only 4 people ran a sub 4 marathon out of 131 finishers. That should tell you something right there.
Interesting thing happened after the race that I thought I wrote down but apparently I forgot. So, we were back Saturday PM and of course ran the next day at Alley Pond. During our run, I told Jamey that while trying to go to sleep after the race, whenever I closed my eyes, I would see the course in front of me and it was weird. Avoiding roots and rocks and climbing etc. He said he experienced the same thing! I guess, we were so focused on the course that our subconscious was affected by it.
