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Day one is 20k on the Sylamore Trail and the new Syllamo Mountain Bike Trails. None of us knew what to expect so we discussed taking it easy. This would be a good introduction to the trails, plus we had two more days to go, so none of us wanted to push too hard.
Since it was a short distance we started late (10:00) which gave time for the day to warm up. It was probably around 40 degrees when we started.
Here's the whole gang, ready to go. From left to right: Marla, Kenny, me, Frances, Katy. Kenny and Katy decided to do the 20k at the last minute. They mostly walked, with some running, and it took them over five hours. You'll soon see why.
Race Director Steve Kirk giving final instructions to the troops. The park ranger also spoke to us and told us that proceeds from the race would go to creating a third mountain bike trail; she said that next year there would be 7-10 new miles of trail to run.
Steve asked her to start us off. She asked what to do, and he said, "Just say 'Go!'" So she yelled "GO!" and we were off. I love that about ultras--in spite of the competition they are so laid back.
Since the race headquarters was at the bottom of the valley, the first thing we did every day was climb. Usually we did a few gentle ups and downs until we hit the first big climb of the day. This photo was taken during the early gentle, rolling hills (that's Frances breaking trail for us).
As the hills got steeper we stopped running/racewalking and started power walking the hills. If you look you can see racers farther up the hill; some of the climbs were really tough.
The trail surface was very diverse. There were some incredibly rough and rugged sections, as you'll see later, but there were also miles of beautiful soft dirt covered with leaves and pine needles. Here's a photo of Marla setting a nice pace on a soft, gentle downhill.
Ahhh, Aid Stations! One of the main reasons to race ultras. The aid stations at Syllamo were great, well stocked and well staffed. Here is Frances enjoying some honey at the first aid station, which also had honey roasted peanuts, bananas, oranges, M&Ms, peanut butter crackers (someone actually spread peanut butter on Saltines, not the store bought pre-packaged type), white oreo cookies, mini-moon pies, etc. Wonderful!
Marla getting a drink at the same aid station. Drinks included water, Gatorade, Coke, Mountain Dew, Sprite. I never encountered an aid station that was out of stock. The race was really well run!
Here's a photo of Marla and Frances on a particularly rugged climb.
Here's the same photo with more of the terrain visible. It barely resembles a trail! There were plenty of rocky, rugged sections like this on all three days.
There were two good things about the climbs. One of them was the view. Here's a beautiful view from the top of one of the mountains.
Another shot of the view!
The other good thing about climbs: going back down! Here's a nice shot of some rugged down hill trail. You can barely even tell there's a trail here. When the trail got very rough or very steep I would run the downhills. I'm glad I mixed some running into my training because I ran much more than I expected in this race.
More rugged trail.
Day one was a good warm up. Marla and I stayed together the whole time while Frances fell back (but stuck with her planned pace and effort). I found that I'm really strong on the hills and when powerwalking I very frequently passed people; Marla's very strong on the downhills and the flats. We traded pacing responsiblities depending on the terrain or whenever one of us got tired, and that really helped the time fly and helped us maintain a fairly strong pace.
Official results aren't posted, so here are the unofficial results according to my watch:
20k/12.4 miles: 3:24:30 (16:27 pace). This was very slow when compared to my road racing times (my half marathon road PR pace is 10:13). But when you consider the rugged terrain and the hills, and the fact that we took the first day easy to keep some fuel in the tank, I'm very happy with the time and the pace. Remember, we wanted to finish all three days; that was the main goal.
After we finished we soaked our legs and hips in Syllamore Creek. The water was freezing (after a minute my toes were aching) and it was shallow. Also, the bottom was rocky and slick. I almost fell several times and the rocks were killing my feet. It was hard to sit down to soak my hips, and it was even harder to stand back up!
We went back to Marla's RV and had macaroni and cheese, sandwiches and other snacks. After a shower we had a marinara pasta meal prepared by the race volunteers. Then we started preparing our gear for the next day's early start (6:00 a.m.). The night wasn't as cold when we went to sleep (probably in the 40s) but it rained in the middle of the night and the temp dropped into the 30s. It wasn't as bad as the first night but I still slept fully clothed and with hat and gloves, and I had to tuck my face down into the sleeping bag to stay comfortable.
