7 Sisters 2006

I’ve been slacking in my race reports lately, and when I finally decided to get back to writing, I realized I had to go back to some earlier races. The quality of some of the early season trail races was impressive, and the stories need to be told. For many of the New England trail running stalwarts, 7 Sisters is the start of the trail racing season. If this is true, then the season got off to a very fast start.

I spent the night prior to the race over at the Low’s. Paul seemed to be running well, after a course record at Merrimack, and I asked him what his plan was for 7 Sisters. As I had expected, after the first year he ran the race and destroyed the course record, he hadn’t been tapering much for the race. This year, he said he backed off a bit in his training so he could give himself a chance to lower his own record. I made a mental note to wish him a good race, and let him go very early on.

At the start, Paul and I got out into the lead, and after a couple minutes, he took off. That’s about all the first hand knowledge I have of his race. I settled into my own pace, with Leigh Schmitt and Dmitry Drozdov close behind. Dmitry had beaten me at the Muddy Moose trail race two weeks before 7 Sisters, but I thought he might struggle with the rough Sisters terrain.

As we got to the top of the first hill, Leigh snuck by me. I tucked in behind him, and soon realized he was very fit. I was able to stay with him for the first two climbs, but he began to pull away on the third climb. If you start racing too early at 7 Sisters, you will pay the price in the second half, so I backed off a little. As soon as a gap opened up between Leigh and myself, Dmitry passed me and closed on Leigh at a rapid pace. I was definitely wrong about his trail running abilities. He was handling the rocks and roots as well as any of us.

I was able to maintain contact with Leigh and Dmitry almost until the turn around at halfway. Not long after I started the long downhill to turn around, I saw Paul coming back up. He said he hit halfway in 49 minutes, which is pretty insane. He was definitely going for the course record, and then some. Dmitry and Leigh weren’t all that far behind, either. I still felt good, and was hoping to reel them in over the second half of the race.

I never saw either of them prior to the finish, though. Leigh’s ability to run fast on technical trails wore down Dmitry, who probably didn’t gain any time on me after the halfway point. Leigh set a big PR of 1:48:15 for the race, and became one of the very few to dip under 1:50 at 7 Sisters. Dmitry ran 1:50:19, which is probably the fastest debut.

After winning the race last year by a whole 2 seconds over Leigh, it was all I could do to hold onto 4th place this year. I noticed Matt Estes behind me about 20 minutes from the finish. I tried to drop him on the last couple of climbs, but it wasn’t enough. He’s a phenomenal descender, and I only had about 10 seconds on him when we began the final descent. Just like last year, I had to bypass my brain and throw myself down the boulder-strewn free fall that is the 7-Sisters finish. I was able to stay on my feet long enough to hold off Matt by 5 seconds. I managed to run an even paced 1:52:03, which is my second fastest time.

However, the race of the day belonged to Paul Low. He destroyed his old course record by over a minute, and even though Leigh had the race of his life, Paul still won by over 6 minutes. It would be interesting to see if Paul would run any faster with some competition, but who would you get? Train a mountain goat to run the course and pin a number on it?

Thumbs up

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Originally uploaded by gbridgman.

Dave Dunham cresting Mt. Washington.

Some Stats from Dunham:

Five people finished in under 1:05 (best is 8 in 1999)

Seventeen people finished in under 1:10 (best is 20 in 1999)

Seven women finished in under 1:20 (previous best was four, in various years)

Nineteen women finished in under 1:30 (best is 23 in 2004)

Anna Pirchtova ran the 4th fastest women's time ever

Nicole Hunt ran the 9th fastest women's time ever

Laura Haefeli ran the 23rd fastest women's time ever

Eric Blake ran the 18th fastest time ever

Paul Low ran the 23rd fastest time ever


Team results

CMS won its 15th consecutive title, running the 13th fastest time ever.

CMS 40+ won its second consecutive title, again setting a course record with a 47 minute win over the PR Moose milers. CMS 40+ time was good enough for second overall.

PR Moose won the 50+ with the 5th fastest time and a 3.5 min. victory over WCRC.

La Sportiva set a new women’s CR by 8 minutes in a 6 min. win over Moving Comfort (who were also under the record). The CMS women finished 3rd with a time that ranks as histories 8th fastest.

PR Moose won the 40+ women’s with the 2nd fastest time ever (behind only their CR from 2005).

PR Moose also won the 50+ with the 5th fastest time ever.

Paul Low

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Originally uploaded by gbridgman.

1st CMS finisher and 2nd overall.

Eric Morse

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Originally uploaded by gbridgman.

Mt Washington, 2006.

1st Place Men's Open; 1st Place Men's 40+

Return to Nipmuck Trail Marathon 2006

Back in 2001, I ran the Nipmuck trail marathon mostly due to the fact that it was on the Grand Tree trail racing series circuit. It left such an impression on me, I haven’t returned until this year. It’s not really that dramatic. In the five years between races, I’ve been doing more mountain races, and Nipmuck seems to either conflict with the Wachusett mountain race, or I end up being out of town for the race. Of course, the fact that Nipmuck tends to be hot and more challenging in the second half didn’t help.

After a rough start to my trail racing year, with no wins so far and a 4th at 7 Sisters after winning it last year, I figured I should give Nipmuck another trail. The worst that could happen would be that I would get a better idea of the state of my endurance. Although sections of Nipmuck are fast, it is at least a three hour affair, with only Dave Dunham coming close to running under three hours. Due to fact that my long runs have been mostly around 2-2.5 hours, I planned on running easy for the first half. Going out too hard at Nipmuck is not fun; the course gets progressively harder in the second half, and it usually starts to get much warmer.

After Dave’s lengthy warnings about the dangers of the Nipmuck trail, the runners bolted for the singletrack. I was pleased to find myself in the lead without much effort. At the front I could control the pace and make sure things didn’t get too aggressive early on. Of course, this plan depends on cooperation from the guys following me. Well, I led for a little while, but when the trail opened up, three guys came flying by me. Considering how many trail races I do in NE, I was surprised that I didn’t recognize any of them. The guy behind me, Dave Herr, I knew. Dave and I have had many close races on the trails and at mountain races. Dave had actually just PR’ed in the marathon the week before with a 2:29 at age 41. Obviously Dave was in shape, but it remained to be seen how his recovery was progressing.

The runner leading our pack was a young guy by the name of Nick, and he seemed to be in pretty good shape. Dave seemed pretty comfortable with the pace, but the two other guys were breathing hard considering we were only a few miles into the race. The first half was pretty uneventful. Nick lead for a ways, but I ended up leading again to the turnaround at six miles when he got a bit off course. I took my time getting drinks at the turn, and everyone was content to let me take the lead back to the start/finish area. About 9 miles into the race, I had to take a pit stop, and Nick was back at the front. The pace now seemed to pick up a bit. By the time we hit the aid tables at 12 miles, Nick, Dave, and myself had separated ourselves from the rest of the field.

As Nick dashed back to the trail for the last 14 miles of race, I grabbed my water bottle and followed. Dave was the last to get back on the trail, but quickly caught back up with me. Although he surely could have passed me, he seemed content to relax in third place. He probably noticed that I was keeping contact with Nick, but not getting close enough to encourage an increase in the pace. At this point, the day was definitely warming up, and both Dave and I had suffered bad experiences on hot days at Nipmuck.

It’s always when you are relaxing. I was trying to put it on autopilot to conserve some energy for the last hour of the race, and I fell, hard. I caught the toe of one shoe on a rock, and didn’t even have time to get my arms out in front of me. To make matters worse, I ended up finding a nice pile of rocks to land on. The damage consisted of deep scrapes on my right arm and rib cage, and a bruised quadriceps.

Now, a lot of trail runners fall quite frequently. I don’t happen to be one of those people. I can remember the first time I feel on trails; it was three years after starting to run trails, and was caused by a low-lying strand of barbed wire. I was not only shocked at falling, but it was probably my worst fall in 15 years of trail running. I’ve never had to drop out of a race due to a fall, but suddenly I had to consider this strange notion. The scrapes were fine, I could deal with that. However, my leg was really sore, and I had more than 90 minutes of running on treacherous, hilly terrain. If I had to pull out of the race at the second turn around, it would probably be hours until I would be able to be driven back to the finish. Most importantly, I might be doing permanent damage to my leg.

I decided to give it a shot, and although it took awhile, my quad began to feel better. The downhills were always painful, but the flats and uphills were manageable. I was pretty astounded to catch up to Dave and Nick after 15 minutes of limping. They were taking there time at an aid station, making sure to drink enough. Dave bolted away first, still looking quite fresh. Nick seemed to be struggling, and I passed him soon after the aid station. He was having problems on the technical sections, but was still very strong on the uphills. By the time we hit the second turn around, I had about 20 seconds on him.

The 16 inch high stairs leading back from the turn around aid station sent sharp pains up my leg, which didn’t help my speed over the last miles of the course. Dave had passed me well before the turn around, so it seemed he was headed for the win, but I still wanted to salvage second place. I was getting used to the stinging of sweat in my wounds, and my leg was feeling marginally better over miles 18-25. However, by the last mile, my quad wanted to quit on me. I backed off even more on the downhills, and hoped that Nick wasn’t getting a second wind (an unlikely occurrence at Nipmuck). The long last 1.4 miles was longer than usual, but I managed to stay about two minutes ahead of Nick. I stumbled out of the woods and pretty much directly to the EMT, who did a great job of cleaning up my scrapes. I got a pretty bad infection at 7 Sisters one year from a cut hand, and didn’t want to deal with that again.

Dave won in about 3:21, nine minutes ahead of my battered carcass. After congratulating Dave on his strong run on a hot day, and his marathon the weekend before, I eased myself into my car for the drive home. Standard transmission. This is going to be a bit painful. With my shirt sticking to my chest wound, I wondered if I should have just dropped out. In hindsight, I luckily did not do any permanent damage, so I think I choose wisely. The fact is, I doubt I would have beaten Dave even without the fall. It would have been a closer race, though. Falling down on the trails……..I think I need my inner ear checked out.

Merrimack River 2006

Merrimack River 10m Trail Race 2006

Merrimack is the type of trail race that does not always get the respect it deserves. Trail races in New England are likely to become well-known for their rugged nature, and most people don’t think of Merrimack as rugged. However, if you come back enough times, you’ll see just about everything. While most of the race is extremely runable, the short, steep power line hills in the middle miles never cease to elicit colorful commentary after the race. For those unfamiliar with the course, it consists of three fast and mostly flat miles along the river and two miles with some short, steep hills. You hit five miles, turn around, and run right back at all the people you beat to the turnaround; and it’s all tight single track.

When I first moved to the Boston area to go to school, Merrimack was one of the first trail races I did. It’s also one of the races that been on my schedule every single year. With it being so early in the year (some years later than others due to piles of snow), it’s always a good test of fitness after snowshoe season. Before I get to the historic 2006 race, I’d like to initiate my case for the importance of this overlooked gem of New England trail running with a few personal historical anecdotes.

As I mentioned previously, on average, Merrimack can be almost be described as a road race on dirt. Perhaps the greatest divergence from this comment occurred in 2001. That winter we had a great deal of snow, and the river was very, very high. Most directors would have called the race off, but not Steve Peterson and Dave Dunham. They decided to go for it, and it ended up being far from the typical Merrimack experience. In addition to several areas of sloppy, slippery mud that was unavoidable due to the narrowness of the trail, two extended sections were underwater. I’m not talking deep puddles, I’m talking the river overflowing its banking and drowning the trail for 100 meters in waist deep water that was barely warm enough to be in liquid form. We hit the worst area around 2.5 miles into the race, and it took me a full minute of hard running to warm my legs up to point where I could feel them. You know how when you run into the ocean, you eventually fall when the water gets to mid-thigh depth? Although I managed to stay upright, many runners were fully submerged by the time they realized how deep the water was. I ended up winning by about 4 minutes, and my time had nothing to do with trying to run a fast time; I was just trying to warm up!

In 2005, the course was in pretty good shape, with the exception of one very bad turn. In one particularly shaded section, a large patch of ice was hanging on into the spring warmth. To make matters worse, it was covered by a thin layer of mud. About a third of the field ended up going down on that icy turn, none harder than the winner, Paul Low. Paul is quite skilled on the trail, and rarely goes down. In 2005, he went down so hard he thought he broke his arm. This is a perfect example of how even though the course is not technical; the speed you can attain can turn a minor stumble into a major crash.

My third anecdote doesn’t involve a specific race; it concerns the competitive nature of the field year after year. This aspect of the race is especially relevant to my own experience. Merrimack was one of the first races that forced me to come to the realization that I was meant to be a trail runner. In 2000, I ran 58:31 to beat Dave Dunham by three seconds. At that point, Dave was running about 50 minutes for 10 miles on the roads, and my PR was 56:30. You can say Dave is not a trail runner, but he is the only runner to break 57 minutes twice at Merrimack. The next year, I managed to hold off Richard Bolt by 20 seconds, who also crushes me on the roads by several minutes. When Paul Low started winning the race in 2003, I was second to his 57:32 by 10 seconds. In his four wins, no else has been within a minute of him at the finish. While Paul is doing his best to win Merrimack by a mile, overall, there are still many close races throughout the field.

This was certainly the case for myself in 2006. After the hectic dash into the woods, I settled into 4^th place behind Paul, Kevin Tilton, and Greg Hammett. All three in front of me had beaten me at Snowshoe Nationals, and although Paul and Kevin seemed to be at a higher fitness level, I was hoping to move up to third and join my CMS teammates as the race progressed. Paul and Kevin moved away from Greg and I, and the two groups passed the mile in about 5:05 and 5:10. This is conservative for furious first mile of this course, but I was in no hurry to push the pace. Greg seemed to moving well, and I was content to follow for a while. Nothing much happened until the 4^th mile. Paul proceeded to crank up the pace over the hand-over-foot steep power line hills, and Greg seemed to struggle a bit. Paul put distance on Kevin, and I ended up passing Greg to reach the turnaround in about 29:40. I was later told that it took Paul only 12 minutes to run miles 4-6. In comparison, Greg and I ran about 14 minutes for that section.

Greg was right behind me keeping the pace honest as we made our way through the 190 people in back of us. I managed to steer clear of collisions, but he was on the receiving end of a solid shoulder check. At just past 7 miles, he mentioned that Kevin was fading. We hadn’t seen Kevin since 5 miles, and it was easy to see we were gaining ground every minute. Just past 8 miles, Greg passed me and went for Kevin. I didn’t feel strong enough to stay with him, but I tried to minimize the gap. Kevin seemed to pick up the pace when Greg appeared on his shoulder, and it seemed as though I was out of the race for 2^nd and 3^rd. By the time we got to 9 miles, it seemed as though a gap had opened up between Kevin and Greg. At first I thought Kevin had accelerated, but soon realized that Greg was struggling. Although he still had about 10 seconds on me, I thought I had a chance at catching him before the finish. I was practically hyperventilating the entire last mile, and pulled to within a few seconds of Greg at the final turn, but he saw how close I was and blasted away to finish a few seconds behind Kevin.

All four of us ran under an hour, with Paul breaking Dave Dunham’s old course record from 1999 by 12 seconds with a 56:30. Kevin ran 59:35, Greg 59:30 and I came in at 59:44. It was interesting to note that 4 out of the top five were wearing the exact same pair of Inov-8 Mudroc 280’s, even though we are all from different parts of New England. There were plenty of other close races throughout the rest of the field of almost 200 runners, including a 2 second gap between Steve Peterson and Dave Dunham. Merrimack River is no 7 Sisters, but 7 Sisters is no Merrimack River. Long live the Rivah!

Ben

8 TUFF MILES

8 TUFF MILES, St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands 2/25/06

The first thing you need to know about the 8 Tuff Miles race is what the course looks like (see elevation profile at 8tuffmiles.com, and note that each line represents 200 feet). The second thing you need to know is that the Caribbean is a warm place. As everyone in NE learned in the summer of 2005, hills and heat are not a healthy mix. Fortunately, the race starts at 7:15 a.m., which is still warm, but considerably better than a noon start at Boston on a hot spring day.

Although I was down in the islands primarily on vacation, this race is quite a big deal on St. John (population 3,000), and some friends of ours had been spreading rumors about how I was going to win the race. When I researched the past results, it was obvious that the two-time defending champ, Jeremy Zuber was a solid runner. I’ve run a few hilly races, and when I saw he had averaged under 6:00 pace for 8.4 miles with 1400 ft of climb in the first 5.5 miles, I figured Jeremy was quite talented.

I arrived in St. John a week before the race, so I had plenty of time to check out the course. My cousins, Tim and Heidi Coyle, who own THE pharmacy on the island, actually live about 200 meters off centerline road, which traverses the entire island. While I was intimidated by the hills during my early training runs on the course, after I adjusted to the heat and the undulating roads, I figured I might be able to run close to 6:00 pace. After running sections of the first five miles of the race hard early in the week, I wrote down some predicted splits and a final time of 50:50. This was at least 45 seconds slower than Jeremy’s winning times, so I knew I would need some help from Jeremy to pull off the upset.

On race day, we were greeted with a nice, relatively cool morning. Among the 627 runners on the start line in addition to me were my cousin’s sons, Ian and Alex (11 and 12 years old, respectively), along with Steph and my Heidi. While I was anxious about racing for the win, Steph was worried about a troublesome hamstring, and Heidi was racing for the first time since her second knee surgery.
As the race started, I quickly worked my way into second place, but left a few steps between Jeremy and myself. I didn’t want him to thing I was pushing the pace this early in the race. As the race started to climb the major hills in the first mile, I was able to maintain the small gap between us. Our first mile was about 6:10. Although the first second miles look similar on the elevation map, the second mile feels much tougher. I ran this mile in 7:10, with Jeremy about 10 seconds ahead. Jeremy took advantage of the downhills in the third mile, and I had to work to keep him in range.

The fourth mile is the toughest of the 8.4 tough miles. Jeremy pushed the pace up the steep winding road, and I couldn’t risk increasing my pace that early in the race. I had never run the whole course, and wanted to make sure my legs were still functional on the last 2.9 flying downhill miles. By the time we reached the end of the climbing at 5.5 miles, Jeremy had about 45 seconds on me. It took me a little while to get my legs rolling on the steep downhill, and was disappointed with my split time of 5:20 from mile 6 to 7. My splits from 4-6 were 7:20 and 6:00. In spite of the rapidly increasing temperature, I tried to make up for lost time in the last 1.4 miles. Mile 7-8 passed in about 5:00, which made me realize I had a shot at running under 51 minutes. This realization resulted in pure agony for the end of the race. As you can see on the elevation map, you lose the advantage of the downhill during this section, and there is almost a bit of a hill right before the finish. I had to hammer all the way through the finish to creep under 51 with a 50:56. As far as I can tell, only three runners have run under 51 minutes. Jeremy, fueled by rumors that I was a serious contender, broke his old course record, running 49:20. He put about 45 seconds on me over the last 2.9 miles. Obviously, snowshoeing is not helping my leg speed!

Immediately upon finishing, I was interviewed by three print reporters and one TV reporter. It was really great to see such local interest in the event. As soon as I could, I made my way back up the course to cheer for Steph. She came screaming down the last hill in back of a group of women, and I was surprised to see her so early. In spite of her pledge to “just run it” it looked a whole lot like she was racing to me. She finished strong, and was soon followed by Alex, Heidi, and Ian. Alex had the race of the day, beating his previous time by 26 minutes! Ah, how I miss those days of knocking minutes off my bests! For his efforts, Alex was awarded a $500 scholarship for winning his age group.

All in all, it was a pretty good day for the Coyle and Nephew families, even though I didn’t live up to the pre-race rumors. Oh well, it gives me an excuse to return next year to give it another shot. Yes, it is 8 Tuff Miles, but it’s in St. John, which makes it well worth the effort.

My first 50 Mile

JFK 50 Mile 2005

I have never felt so overwhelmed trying to write a race story. Fifty miles is a long way, even if there isn’t much real racing that goes on. My first 50 mile had more passing than most of my Grand Prix road races. Before I get to all the racing, though, I should put the race in perspective.

Although I had good intentions of getting in ever longer runs in preparation for this race, I ended up spending more time working on our new house. With a typical trail or road race, this might not be too detrimental for me. The rest would probably do me some good. However, JFK would be 19 miles longer than I had ever raced. A couple more hard 3 or four hour runs would have helped. In the end, I had to rely on my training and race at the Pisgah 50k in September, and the Cape Cod marathon three weeks before JFK. I was definitely recovered from Cape Cod, but I wasn’t all that confident of my ability to run for over 6 hours.

The key to my race was a fellow competitor, and I knew this several weeks before the race. While I was running the Savoy 20 miler with Leigh Schmitt, he had me informed me of his intention to run JFK. Leigh and I are of very similar abilities in New England trail races, and he had graduated to 50 milers a few years ago. As soon as I knew he was running JFK, I planned on running with him unless it became obvious that I was unprepared for the distance. Based on his strong finish at Savoy where he easily pulled away from me, I thought I might be running by myself beyond 40 miles.

There were several reasons why I chose JFK as my introduction to 50 miles. The course seemed to suit my abilities. It had some trail, and even when it wasn’t singletrack, it was mostly on dirt, and I find soft surfaces much more enjoyable to race on. JFK typically has a deep field which would make it more likely that I would have people to run with. It also is the oldest ultra in the U.S., and many of the best ultra runners over the past several decades have run the race.

I guess I should get to the actual race. My race started at 7am, but I wasn’t the first person on the course. A few hundred people started at 5 am to make sure they finished under the 14 hour time limit. I was shocked at the speed of the start. Two runners went through the mile in about 6 minutes, but most of the other frontrunners came through at least a half minute behind. The first 2.5 miles of the course climb 500 feet, mostly between mile 1 and 2.5. As the road steepened, I gradually drifted to the front of the field as the two frontrunners drifted back. I think by the time we got on the Appalachian Trail at 2.5, Leigh and I were in 4th and 5th.

I thought the pace might slow down on the singletrack, but most of the lead men were quite good on technical trails, at least on level terrain. On one of the first singletrack downhills, people started to change gears, and the better trail guys pulled away. Leigh are I are both reasonably good on singletrack, but neither of us felt the need to take any risks by pushing the pace so early in the race. Ian Torrance dropped the rest of the field at this point. Over the next several miles of rocky trail, there was quite a bit of passing back and forth between the rest of the top seven. Howard Nippert and his running partner would do well on the easier terrain, an ex-rower (I could tell by his long sleeve rowing top) took advantage of all the uphills, and Leigh, Paul Dewitt, and I were somewhere in between. Remember all those 5 am starters? We had to pass most of them on the AT, which takes some effort due to the difficult nature of the footing. Fortunately for me, Leigh did a phenomenal job of clearing the path.

As we got to the first main aid station at 15.5, there were tons of people cheering, and it made it hard to find my handler, Fritz Wells. Fritz is the father of my old teammate, Kit, and was graciously hosting me for the race. I was able to spot him, exchange water bottles, and head off after Leigh, who seemed to be tearing back onto the course. I told myself that I would let him go if he keep this pace up, but it seemed manageable for a little while. I was glad he didn’t slow down, as when we got to the train crossing, the train was only about 200 meters down the track! I was sure no one would make it behind us, but the train actually stopped for a couple minutes soon after we passed. This made it possible for Paul Dewitt, Howard, and his training partner to sneak by. Leigh and I had caught up with Howard on the switchbacks leading out of the AT. As we started down the C and O canal path, we could see the ex-rower, but Ian was out of sight. Leigh thought he was about 2 minutes ahead.

As I started to try and get mile splits off the markers along the canal, Leigh told me that he heard that they were not that accurate. After two splits of 6:30 and 7:30, this became obvious, and we only used them as a rough gauge of pace from time to time. During the first few miles on the canal, we were passed by Paul, Howard, and his training partner. By 20 miles, were firmly in 6th and 7th. However, the ex-rower seemed to be fading, and before long, we passed him and could suddenly see Paul closing on Ian. Howard and his friend were out of sight. We passed the ex-rower and went after Ian. As we closed on Ian, he stopped on the side of the trail to take care of some business. All of a sudden, we were in 4th and 5th.

At every main aid station, Fritz was right there with my bag full of sweetened ice tea, coke, Swedish fish, first aid supplies, as well as extra clothing and shoes. The thing is, the only thing I ever did was switch water bottles. I knew that I would need a ton of calories to stay upright and running for over 6 hours, but I couldn’t make myself eat on the run. I just wasn’t hungry. I was drinking lots of sugary beverages, but was still extremely concerned that I was going to run out of gas somewhere beyond 31 miles. When Leigh would stop to load up with supplies, I would actually just wait for him to continue.

When we hit the aid station somewhere around 27 miles, they informed us that we were in 3rd and 4th. I had postulated that Howard's friend might drop out at some point, and that is what had happened. We also learned that Howard was 10 minutes ahead, which did not surprise me at all. Leigh and I simply continued on at the same pace, or at least what felt like the same pace. By this time he was ready to get off the monotonous canal path, but I didn’t mind it quite as much. I knew my legs would not like 8 miles of paved rolling hills after 42 miles.

Somewhere around 34 miles we saw Paul Dewitt off in the distance. The pace probably quickened for a bit following this, and as we approached, he started walking. I had heard him twist his ankle on the AT a couple times, and now it was really starting to bother him. We wished each other good luck as we passed. The satisfaction of moving into 2nd and 3rd place was short-lived however. Within a couple of miles, I spotted Ian coming back on us. Leigh and I would have been content to run the rest of the race together, but now it became more competitive.

At the aid station at about 38.4 miles, I couldn’t wait for Leigh with Ian closing in on us. I still felt fine energy-wise, and Leigh was grabbing some food. After filling my water bottle with Pepsi, I took off. I picked up the pace a little, and it felt easy. I quickly had a decent gap on Ian, who was pulling away from Leigh. A local journalist rode up on a bike to tell me I wasn’t supposed to be in second and congratulated me on a good run so far. He asked my name, and I just said, “Ben.” Ian couldn’t seem to close the gap, and as climbed onto the final road section at 41.7, I started to pull away a little more on the uphill. Unfortunately, this only lasted until 43 miles. The incessant undulations on the pavement were ruining my legs. My energy level was fine, but my quads were shooting pains straight through my skull. I would have given anything to get back on that canal path. Ian passed me around 44.5, but I managed to pass him back at the aid station at 45 miles and hold him off for a couple of minutes. The only thing I could hope for is that he cramped. It was not to be. He expressed his displeasure of the road as he went by, but looked very strong.

Those last five miles were almost unbearable. I have never been in so much pain while racing. I guess I could have backed off, but I wanted to try and hold off Leigh, and then try and stay as close as possible when he moved into third. I tried to get off the pavement, but the side of the road went off into a ditch. I was gritting my teeth so hard, I thought they were going to splinter, and odd, guttural sounds were emanating from my mouth. I just wanted to fall off the road into the grass and curl up into the fetal position. The worst thing about it was that I wasn’t absolutely exhausted, it was just that my legs couldn’t take it any more. Looking back, it is easy to say that I should have been a bit more patient in the last 10 miles, but I’m pretty sure I would had a slower time if I had not taken advantage of those last 3 miles on the canal path. Of course, the real key was trusting in Leigh’s experience and not pushing the pace too soon. My project for next year is to get them to drop the road section at the end. It shouldn’t be too hard, the race has only been held for the past 43 years.

I have to thank Susan and Kit Wells for making it possible for me to run 50 miles without eating anything during the race due to their superb pre-race fueling, and Dave Dunham on detailed advice from his second place run in 2001.






THE 43TH ANNUAL JOHN F. KENNEDY
50 MILE RACE
Hagerstown, Md November 19, 2005 5 & 7:00 A.M.

Place Name Ag S Div/Tot City Sta Time Pace
===== =================== == = ======== ================== === ======= =====
1 HOWARD NIPPERT 40 M 1/235 FORK UNION VA 5:51:28 7:01
2 IAN TORRENCE 33 M 1/166 BOULDER CITY NV 6:15:11 7:29
3 LEIGH SCHMITT 33 M 2/166 CONWAY MA 6:17:46 7:32
4 BEN NEPHEW 30 M 3/166 MANSFIELD MA 6:18:39 7:33
5 MARK LUNDBLAD 36 M 4/166 ASHEVILLE NC 6:24:36 7:40
6 ANDREW BARTLE 29 M 1/103 SAN DIEGO CA 6:27:06 7:43
7 ANNE LUNDBLAD 39 F 1/62 ASHEVILLE NC 6:29:42 7:46
8 PAUL DEWITT 37 M 5/166 MONUMENT CO 6:31:08 7:48
9 BLAKE BENKE 29 M 2/103 NEW YORK NY 6:34:58 7:53
10 GREIG ARENDT 29 M 3/103 CAMBRIDGE MA 6:35:48 7:54