The Hungry Runner

If you’ve talked to me at all in the past few weeks, you’d know that I was half dreading/half masochistically looking forward to a trail race that Jackie and I had signed up for on a whim. I think we were both looking for a short, fun race to do in January and stumbled upon the Chilly Cheeks 7.2 mile trail race from Pretzel City Sports, who put on lots of smaller races in central-ish Pennsylvania. We didn’t actually read the course description until AFTER we signed up and then we realized that maybe we had gotten in over our heads. An except from the description:

It tours the mountain overlooking the Pretzel Capital of the world and has rocks & roots, dirt & debris, maybe snow & ice and more rises and falls than most 401k plans in the past 3 years. It is NOT Pretzel City Sports’ hardest race, but on a per mile basis, it is darn close and is a real challenge for even the Type A’s who would normally laugh at the concept of only running 7 miles.

Eeps. Not exactly the easiest first trail race we could have chosen. But Jackie, being a type-A, and me, not one to give up if someone else is going through with it, decided to go for it anyway. Jackie’s trainer from PSC, who is a avid trail racer and ultra-marathoner (and who actually just completed a marathon trail race the week before) decided to join us. Sunday morning, with the temperature hovering around 10 degrees, Jackie picked me up and we all made our way to Reading, PA for the race, which is about an hour away.  After a few turn-arounds when we got close to the mountain (THAT WE WOULD SHORTLY BE RUNNING UP), we found our way to the super adorable Reading Liederkranz German Singing & Sports Club where we picked up our bibs and tee-shirts. We were running a little late so after pinning our bibs on, we walked outside with everyone else to the start of the trail. As soon as we got back outside, I was shivering and my toes and fingers froze.

We milled around for a few minutes while the race director told us about how the course was marked and then suddenly the race started! There ended up being a very large number of people doing this smallish trail run, so the first part of the race was a lot of slow jogging and short-stopping due to being in a huge group. The beginning of the trail was a nice flat dirt surface, which made for easy running. However, after about 1/4 of a mile, the trail veered to the right and suddenly I saw a giant hill that runners had begun *climbing* up. I knew the trail would be hilly, but honestly I was not prepared to have such a steep hill. Lots of runners were crawling on all fours and grasping for roots, trees and rocks to scramble up the enormous incline. It was definitely a sign of things to come and showed me just how difficult this race was going to be.

After we scaled the hill, we ran through a paved area, crossed a street then climbed up another hill to get back on the trail. From there the course stayed flat for about a mile and we were high enough up by then to have a scenic view over the town of Reading. About this time my hands started to painfully warm up.  I’m glad I ended up putting on mittens over my mizuno running gloves, they definitely added a lot of warmth. Also the huge crowd of people started to thin out and it made for much easier running. Sadly, though, this easy flat trail quickly turned back into the woods, where we had to jump over so many fallen trees that I lost count. The trail turned very rocky at some points too, which meant I had to be really careful when I ran. I kept looking ahead at other more experienced trail runners and tried to mimic how they attacked the terrain by sort of jumping *off* of rocks side to side quickly instead of running straight down them. I also learned that on sharp declines, you need to drop your arms and hands and have them ready to shoot out in front of you in case you lose your balance or fall.

For the next 4 miles or so, the trail was a serious of steep, sharp inclines followed by rough, slippery declines. At least 5 other people near me fell.  One woman slid all the way down a hill right before the first water station.  Luckily, I managed to keep my footing and balance and never ended up falling, which was my only goal for this race (for practical reasons: since I don’t have health insurance, I dread getting an injury). On many of the inclines, we were mostly forced to walk briskly because it was too steep to effectively run. There was more jumping over fallen trees and leaping on rocks and also a beer station, where I gladly nabbed a cup of half frozen beer. Yes there was an ice cube of beer floating in my cup.

Eventually, around mile 5, we began our final ascent to the top of Mt. Penn. Surprisingly I still felt really strong, and was having no trouble passing other wheezing (male!) runners. I actually felt like the hills were where I made a lot of gains. My thighs felt pretty strong, so I tried to jog up as many as I could, while other runners had resorted to walking.  The final stretch to the top of the hill felt like it would never end, every  time you thought you were closing in, you had to make another switchback. Once we got to the top, it was a quick hop over a guard rail to the road. I tried to take some victory self portraits while running and they turned out really silly. see right.

From there, I had about 3/4-1/2 mile left in the course (though according to my garmin, there was still a full mile). We ran briefly on the road at the top and I craned my neck to try to get a glance at the view but we were on the opposite side of the road so I didn’t see much. Soon after, the course veered back on the trail into the woods and it was thankfully flat, but stony. Lots and lots of hopping on stones, hoping they wouldn’t slide under foot! We shot out from the trail into a grassy area and crossed over a small bridge. At this point I knew I was close to finishing. We crested the top of a very muddy, grassy hill and had to side step (or as I did – gracefully slide) down the side of the hill back to where we started the course. Except this time instead of continuing back on it, we had to scale one last huge hillside to get to the parking lot and the finishing chute. Let me tell you, that last hill was KILLER. Also, I got a bit tangled up with another woman who was going slower. I felt like a jerk but I just wanted to pass her so I could scramble up faster. At one point, I sort of ran into her while grabbing ahold of a tree and she said “just go for it” and moved out of my way. Once I got to the top, there were tons of people cheering and someone was blowing a fog horn. I had to walk for a second because the hill almost killed my thighs but when I saw I had mere seconds to cross the finish line before it turned to 1:31:00, I booked it to the end and unofficially crossed the line at 1:30:58 (what can I say, it sounds better to say “I finished in 1:30″ rather than 1:31. I like even numbers)!

After I finished, I grabbed some fig newtons and tried to get water but it was so cold out that the nozzles on the coolers had frozen so no one could get water until some genius took off the top and we dipped cups in. We all got a free “hot breakfast” with race entry too, so after meeting up with Maggie (who, being a pro, had finished in 1:15) who was warming up in the clubhouse, I ran to get my gelatinous scrambled eggs and pancakes. While I was waiting in line, a girl actually came up to me and said she had been running behind me for a good portion of the race and that I was “fucking amazing.” She kept telling me how impressive I was and looked at me very seriously as she said it. It was really really flattering, but I honestly had to bite my tongue so I didn’t laugh. Me, impressive? On my first trail race, and a hard one at that, in the middle of January? Well ok, I’ll take it!

Jackie met up with us a few minutes later and we all started recounting our personal race stories. Unfortunately Jackie had a small tumble and landed right on her butt, leaving a bruise and hip pain (I hope she’s feeling better today). It also turned out that Maggie had run so well that she may have placed in her age group, so we decided to stick around till the awards to see if she’d get a trophy. After a bit of waiting and lots of other awards being announced, we found out that Maggie DID place! She ended up getting 4th in the 30-39 age group, which was so awesome. Now she has a trophy with a little naked baby on top to commemorate the day. I later asked her how this trail race compared to her previous trail races, in terms of difficulty and she said it definitely ranked up there.

In the end, I’m kind of glad this was my inaugural trail run because now I feel like I’m prepared for anything. I actually had a really awesome time during this race, despite how painful it was. I felt really strong and I didn’t feel the need for headphones at all during the race because navigating the trail and having to keep an eye on surroundings kept my brain active. And in a way, running through the woods just plain reminded me of being a kid again. I honestly can’t wait for my next trail race now and I know Jackie said she would definitely sign up for this race again next year. I need to find another one for the springtime, obviously. Now I just need some dedicated trail shoes!

splits: some of my splits were absolutely hilarious. also my GPS watch measured the race as only 6.71 miles, so who knows:

mile 1: 14:27:15
mile 2: 12:30:13
mile 3: 14:06:38
mile 4: 14:41:62
mile 5: 11:11:78
mile 6: 16:28:37
mile 7: 7:37:91

average pace: 13:34, avg speed: 4.4,

Below is a gallery of some other photos I took during and after the race (some of the photos in this post are credit to Jackie – she took more interesting ones during the race than I did). Today my calves are definitely sore from scaling that mountain, which is a nice feeling. Now if I can get out for my 4 mile easy run today, I’ll be happy!

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