Maryland | Hashawha Hills 50k
After a great finish
to 2017 with a couple of world major marathons, I had big intentions for 2018.
I planned a packed schedule that would stretch my limits and also get a good
number of states completed as well. This year started just as last year planning
to run Mississippi Blues Marathon. If you noticed, I said "planning"
to run.
Yeah it didn't
happen again.
I had booked the
race in the Fall once they opened our discounted rate from the weather
situation of 2017, to only find out later that one of my corporate video
clients had an event that same weekend. So I ended up losing the money from the
race for the second year in a row (but I made it back from client lol).
Taking a look at my
schedule, I was trying to have a race planned every month at least for the
first half of the year. As I do for 99% of my race searches, I went to
Runningintheusa.com to see my options. I spotted the Hashawha Hills 50k in Maryland at the end of February and felt
that would fit in the schedule. I have really been sticking to marathons but
thought it would good to mix it up some more this year and hit longer
distances. I checked out their website to find out that it was less than $20 to
register! No t-shirt, no extra swag, just a cool finishers mug and a great time
on the trails. I was sold on it, but then I saw it was a lottery entry which
meant not a guarantee. I had also been looking at the Baltimore Marathon in
October and had told myself that if I didn't get into the 50k, that I would
register for that instead. I had to wait a few weeks before the lottery opened
and made sure I got my name in early so I wouldn't forget and miss a cut off
date.
Race: Hashawha Hills 50k
Location: Westminster, MD
Date: February 24, 2018
Their lottery
selection was an interesting process. I won't go into all the details (you can
visit their website for that) but they would assign you a random 3 digit number
and based on how the DOW Jones market closed on the day after lottery closed
was where they started selecting numbers. If it finished up they went up on the
list and if down, they went down. There was no way that this was being fixed
and it made it even more special when I was selected as the 115th spot of 120.
Now usually with
races with lotteries, you find out about your entry and then you have a few
months at minimum until the race date. This was not the case with Hashawha
Hills. From when I was selected, it was just over a month until race day. I had
been training in a way that I was going to get it and would have been bummed if
"wasted' that training. I had used the Runners World holiday streak to
jump start my training and just kept up with the miles. So with just over a
month until race day I started the preparation.
I spent some time on
their website trying to get all the details from where to stay, course
information, race day information, etc. The only issue was that none of it
existed. Well it didn't exist in detail. There was some general information
about race start/finish, a little bit about what you would see on the course,
and some of the post-race festivities but no real details about the course
itself. This was not ideal for a few reasons. First, I wouldn't be able to prep
Kaela on where she would be able to see me during the race to cheer me on and
second, I had no idea what kind of training I should be getting in the last few
weeks.
They had a brief
course description that I took with a grain of salt:
"The course has about two miles of asphalt,
three miles of gravel road, and 26 miles of trail. The course is mostly single
track trails along with some old woods roads and open fields. The entire course
is runnable. There are no mountains, no rocks, and no roots, but there are a
few stream crossings (you WILL get your feet wet) and never ending small hills
to wear you down with a few bigger hills thrown in just for fun. The scenery
changes from mostly woods to meadows and open fields with beautiful views of
rolling farmland. The course will be well marked for the entire distance;
however, runners will have to pay attention to remain on course."
When they said
runnable with small hills and some a few big hills thrown in, I thought to
myself they must call "hills" what we do here in flat Ohio. Being
that the race was on the eastern side of Maryland I wasn't expecting much
elevation change. So that being said I just kept to my normal training plan and
got most of my runs just around town in Delaware.
So on the way down
to Maryland, we decided to split up our trip on the way down by stopping at my
in-laws farm, and the continuing on to Westminster, Maryland the next day. We
got to the farm late, so once we arrived I started to get ready for bed to try
and get some decent sleep. This is where my "first race of the year"
packing plans went to crap. I realized that I had forgotten my contact solution
which resulted in me having to throw out fresh contacts and use a new pair in
the morning even though they were less than a week old. In addition, I forgot
my foam roller and my stick that I like to use before bed, so yeah it was not a
good start of being "focused" for 2018.
One good thing is I
slept like a baby since I was so exhausted from the day of travel. Since the
bedrooms are smaller in the old farm house, Kaela and I sleep in separate beds
so we both can get a little bit of sleep. In the morning, I got prepped and went
out for my shake out run on a typical route I run at the farm, an easy 3 mile
out and back. Once back, I packed up all my items and had them ready for when
we were ready to leave. We just spent morning relaxing and chatting with Gram
before enjoying lunch and getting on the road.
Kaela, being the
loving wife that she is, drove the little over 2 hours down to Westminster so I
could keep my legs loose. Once we arrived, I had Kaela drive by the park just
to get an idea of the type of terrain I would be dealing with. As we got closer
to the park, the landscape started to roll and I then realized that this race
may be a little more elevation change than I originally expected. Heading up
and down a few steep hills after park entrance, I noticed the pink flags that I
knew just had to be the course but it was hard to see which direction they were
headed so we followed them up to where we believed the start to be.
I took a quick walk
on the trail to get an idea of the footing which would help me decided which
shoes/socks I would be wearing for the race. The ground was soft from previous
rain but overall it seemed very runnable. I knew that there were a few things that
were going to cause the conditions to change a little bit during the race, from
rain during the race, temperatures rising, and 120 people hitting the two laps
of the race. I got back in the car and after a brief stop at Walmart (I forgot
to pack contact solution, remember) we made our way to our hotel.
We spent the evening
in our typical planned way, warming up pre-made pasta dinner while chatting and
watching TV. Not only did I forget the contact solution but I also forgot our
Roku so had to deal with watching re-runs of Bones on USA or TNT or one of those
networks that seems to only play old shows. Being the first race of the year I
guess I was a little rusty in remembering all the items that I need to bring
along with us.
I prepped my vest
with all my nutrition, putting together the items for my drop bag and laid out
my clothes for the next day before stretching, cleaning up and trying to get
some sleep. I didn't get great sleep as our room was near an entrance door, a
stairwell and the vending/ice machines which were the cause of a lot of
traffic. There was also a large gap from the door to the floor so after I was
woken up the first time, I shoved a few towels in the gap to try and dampen
some of the noise.
Alarm went off way
too soon, or so it felt. I was a little bit rusty to races after a few months
off. Up and out of bed I started the morning routine. As I prepped my food, I
had to warm up my bagels in the microwave as the hotel breakfast area was locked
until 6:30am to be able to access a toaster. I've had to do this a few times
now and I never enjoy the chewy mess they become, but I've got to get in those
carbs. Bagels with jelly and honey stinger waffle the typical pre-race
breakfast before getting my stuff together and heading out the door.
It was just a short
10 minute drive to get to the starting area. Parking was limited so they had us
park in a few different parking areas in order to accommodate everyone. I
checked in to get my bib and was hoping for maybe a course map or something to
help Kaela navigate herself along the course for photos. But all I received was
a bib. I triple checked my vest and drop bag to make sure I had everything I
needed and then hung around until the pre-race meeting. There wasn't much
discussed other than following the pink flags, how to handle the turn around in
the single out and back section, and a high level course overview that wasn't
helpful to someone not familiar with the park.
After the meeting we
made our way towards the start area. Kaela and I discussed her plans and we
decided that she would just see me at the start/finish between laps and that
she would have a few hours before that took place. I gave her and Bella and
kiss before she made her way down the trail a little bit and I headed to the
back of the start. I have seen in almost every trail race I've done that people
take off way to fast at the start and then you bottle neck at the first turn,
so I like to stay in the back of the pack at the start to try and keep my
momentum moving. I said a quick prayer before making sure everything secured on
vest, shoes were tied and I was ready to go.
In typical trail
race fashion, a simple go from the RD was all we needed to take off.
go.
(race director was
very soft spoken)
At the end of the
descent we arrived at the start of the out and back. It was nice to get a gauge
of where I was within the pack of runners and also gave me some motivation to
see that I wasn't as far back as I thought I was. This section was tight especially
taking into consideration that we had two way traffic. The trail was already a
little soupy with mud and I knew that the second time through this would not be
a fun experience. After a few encounters with thorn bushes hanging over the
trail, I made it to the turn around. We were to grab a rubber band on each loop
and show at the finish to verify we hit that section. I grabbed my rubber band
made it back out to the split.
I had gotten into a
groove with a few runners as we exited the split and made our way to the
"cliffs". Now I remember reading on the website to watch out for the
cliffs and was really interested to find out more information. It was tight
single track that fell about 20-30 feet at some sections. We kept in a single
file line as we ran the edge and walk/climbed our way over roots and trees that
were along the way. After a few curves we made it to the steepest single
portion of the trail. It wasn't long but man was it a climb. I'm not 100% sure
if my mind is playing on tricks on me but I remember feeling like I could grab
the dirt in front of me at eye level while I hiked it.
I was with a good
group of runners that didn't just relax after the climbs but got back to work
which helped me keep pushing. I know I have a tendency to take a little too
long after a tough climb to get feet turning back over but having a guy in
front of me pushing pace and a few guys behind me clicking on my hills, it
pushed me to move. That was until we hit the "rope climb". In the
distance I see people coming out of what looked like a hole and getting back on
the trail. We then cut in and down a little just so we could get to a break in
the trail that they had tied a rope to a tree in order to pull ourselves up.
They could have easily just kept us on top of the trail but I guess that
wouldn't have made for as good of a story.
With all that
climbing I knew a downhill had to be coming soon and I wasn't disappointed.
Keeping my stride in check, I powered down the trail making our way to a
country road. Around this time is when I hit my time alert to eat. Ever since
North Country 50 miler, I have stuck to eating every 45 minute in races to make
sure staying on top of calories early on. Reaching for a delicious fruit
smoothie gel from Honey Stinger I hiked a flat portion of the trail right
before making it to a road.
As we hit the road
the skies opened up and the rain that was previously light and steady become
heavy and still steady. I turned my hat around just to keep it out my eyes and
kept moving down the road. We made our way back down the creek that was at the bottom
of the cliff from just a few miles before and as I looked up I could see people
making the climb up. I was really enjoying the downhill sections but I knew
that they were beating up my quads. When we hit the creek, we turned on an all
rock "road" that caused a little bit of uneven running. Not to long
on the road, I realized that it was a slow gradual climb and that my stride
would work better as a power hike, and that is exactly what I did. I put myself
into hiking mode and powered through the climb knowing that there was a lot of
race left to waste energy on this.
At the top of the
road, the rain had all but stopped and we made our way back into the woods on
the trail. Parts of this section got a little tighter with some growth coming
on to the trail. A few climbs and turns similar to what took place at the
beginning of the race. I maintained my effort hiking the hills and powering
through downhills to try to be as consistent as possible. We eventually made it
back to another gravel road, passing by some nice houses. It was nice to be
able to see a little further in the distance compared to the never ending of
trees. After some rolling in the road, there was a volunteer letting us know
that aid station was just ahead.
I took a look at my
watch and realized I was a little shorter than they had said when arriving,
which probably meant the course would be a little short overall. Heading into
the aid the volunteers were amazing. Grabbing my water bottle to refill and
trying to offer me all sorts of food options. I went with a trusty PBJ before
thanking the volunteers and walking and eating. I have been working on trying
to get better in not staying in the aid stations, so even walking while I eat
helps saves so much time. At this point we would be doing a 2.3 mile loop
before heading back to the same aid station.
Crossing a road we
made our way back onto a trail and an instant climb. Not terribly steep but
long, so it gave me some time to eat and get some fluids in before reaching the
top. I was back in a small pack of runners as we made our way down the trail. Around
mile 9, we hit a section that looked like a mud slide. Heading downhill, we
would just take a step and slide hoping that when we hit solid ground that it
didn't throw us forward. I tweaked my groin while trying to stop myself from a
slide but knew because of terrain that I couldn't just stop. Finally exiting
the mud, we made our way to the "prairie" that they spoke about in
the course description. Open fields where you could see runners a ways ahead of
you on the other side. As we followed the pink flags along the side, the angle
of way we were running just started to annoy me. It was that feeling of having
to run on the edge of a ditch on a back road. Luckily this angle wasn't for the
entire time, but long enough to really get my mind all out shape, especially
knowing that I was going to have to do it again.
I was still moving
at a pretty good pace and staying on schedule with my caloric intake. Getting
out of the fields, we had a fast/runnable portion of the trail that took us
back to the road where we would catch the aid station. Since I was just there
less than 30 minutes before hand and the start/finish just 4.5 miles away, I
blew right through it. It was funny to me how many people stopped and had to
refill again and grab even more food. I told the aid volunteers my bib number
and pushed through the parking lot and down unto the horse trail. Bouncing back
and forth on the trail trying to stay on even ground, I could hear the stream
off in the distance. They had said that there would be a few stream crossings
and I was surprised that I had yet to come across one. The water was crystal
clear which allowed me to see the large smooth rocks on the floor of the
stream. The water was mid calve deep and I stepped carefully to make sure I
didn't hit a slick stone. Even though I was careful, I tried my quickest to get
back out because that water was cold. It sent a chill through my body upon
entering and coming out my feet felt like ice cubes. The next 1/2 mile or so
was just mud from previous flooding causing soft ground, mixed with over 100
runners making the way on the trail.
After a few more
long climbs (seriously I didn't think the course would have these climbs) we
made our way to another clearing. You could see runners heading toward a road
across the field, but then quickly realize that they were a few miles ahead as
we were turning into the woods for the good part of 5k. I caught up to a few
guys that were chatting about just about everything and told them I would just
hang on to their shirts and listen to keep my mind off the hurt. Powering
through up and down's of trails definitely tested my legs going back and forth
from running to hiking to running. While with the guys we chatted about
previous races and all sorts of running stories. It got me talking about the
podcast which led into what some staple beers of the area. The guys told me
about National Bohemian as a Baltimore staple and to make sure I garnished it
with an Old Bay rim…yes, that old bay! They said that some places actually make
a "boh-tini" which is beer served in martini glass with old bay rim
and crab garnish. I made sure to make a mental reminder about this so I could
pick it up after the race.
We eventually made
it back out to the clearing where we saw the runners heading out and that took
us to a small trail that would wrap us around to the start/finish. Heading down
some cool looking trail line with pine trees, we could see the midway pavilion
in the distance. Kaela was set up at the pavilion taking pictures and one of
the guys said "should we flick off the camera" and I responded
"you could, but it's my wife" which got a good laugh from the guys.
I took off with
Blaize and Junior (a few guys I had been going back and forth with during the
first loop) down the trail to the rolling road and back to the start of the
climbs on the trail. As we were chatting, a fox jumped out across the trail
about 10-15 feet in front of us. At that point I knew it was going to be a fun
loop. We stayed together for a few miles before we made it to the out and back
and they took off. I had to walk and eat on my time schedule and just was
unable to catch back up. I spent really until the aid station running alone
trying to keep my stride in check and moving as fast as I could through the
climbs. My legs were just getting heavier and steps were getting harder. The
trail seemed to never end and every turn seemed like another hill. I was so
happy when I made it back to the road of the aid station and could hear their
music off in the distance.
I had a little more
food at the aid station this time, getting in some soup and a PB&J for the
road. I knew this little loop was going to be hell the second time around, so I
got out of the aid station as quick as possible to just get it over with. I
made it up the long hill that wrapped around to the mud slide area. After over
100 people hitting it twice, it was a complete mess. The plan of action again
was to take a step and slide down as far as I could. Once I made it to the
fields I just had nothing left in the tank. A few people had passed in this
section as I struggled to put some life into my legs. Once I made it out of the
fields I knew it was just a short jog to the aid station so I picked up the
pace and made my way back into the aid station. I consumed as much as I could
to give me enough energy to push the last 4-5 miles to the finish. Eating some
pierogi's, pickle juice, and yet another PB&J for the road, I thanked the
volunteers for their help and made my way to the finish.
I left the aid
station along with some bad ass runners and it helped me keep moving forward
hearing all the crazy races they have completed and have scheduled. The first
few miles clicked off pretty well and then heading into the final 5k loop, I
told them that I would see them at the finish line and the lady I was running
with (Aidee I think), said "no, let's go!" and it was just that
little bit of encouragement that forced me to hang with them. It was short
lived however because like I said previous, bad ass runners. A few of their
running friends caught up to us and they started talking and picking up the
pace. The last few up's and down's slowed me down and before I knew it they
were out of eye sight.
6:31:21
I shook hands at the
finish with RD and volunteers as I was given my finishers mug (and I might add
a really nice mug). I saw the crew that I couldn't keep up with and that
congratulated me for pushing through a little bit of pain to make it to the
finish. I took a seat to rest for a moment before making my way to change. My
shoes and legs were a muddy mess so we used water bottles from the car to get
as much off as a I could before heading into the center bathroom to change.
This was a wonderful
race! I was thinking that with the low entry cost that maybe it would be a
crappy event, but I could not have been more wrong. Yes you don't get a shirt,
swag, promo items, etc, but to me that is not what running events should be about.
The finishers mug was amazing but if they decided that they wouldn't provide
that either, I would still recommend this race to anyone. The race organization
was great, the volunteers and aid stations were on point and even the course
was great (even though must hillier than expected). Overall I am so glad that I
found this race randomly online and that I was lucky enough to get into the
lottery on my first attempt.
Next stop I head to
have some back to back fun in the middle of the country!