Stone Mill 50 Miler – 2015

Short version: Finished 11:32x 169^th place

400+ registered runners, 313 started, 282 finished. Winner in 7:04. Some finishers after the 13 hour cutoff.

Coldish windy day but beautiful.

Long Version:

What a day! Anytime you spend hours and hours on the trails and in the woods, it’s a good day.  I entered this race as yet another way to evaluate where my running is but also because it’s just pure joy.  Even in the suffering, it’s joyous.  Not sure that everyone understand that unless you have taken joy in the similar suffering.

I entered this year’s race very calm and in fact the week that led up to it, I hardly thought about it.  I was busy at work and at home.  Even the day before the race, my mind was elsewhere.  This was good for me—less anxiety, less of my thoughts given over to pre-race jitters.  This is how I want all races to be.  Not sure that will be the case.  It was easier to do that with a race I know fairly well.

The Pre-Race

Pre-race preparation came Friday evening and took me less than 45 minutes to get all my gear ready and packed in the car.  Went to bed about the time we put the kids down maybe around 8:45.  I was certain I would not get much sleep but I had to try.  Unfortunately my 5-yr old DD woke up around 10 complaining that her belly hurt.  She finally went back to sleep only later to wake up and “let it all out” if you know what I mean.  So 30 minutes or so of cleaning that up between DW and me.  So back to bed, looked at the clock and oh….I have to get up in 2.5 hours.  I woke up at 2:30…well not sure I would call it waking up since I hardly slept but oh well.  On the road by 3ish.  Again, knowing this race, I also knew the area and that worked to my advantage. I hit up a gas station about 2 miles from the start of the race for a bathroom.  I knew from past experience that bathrooms at the start of this race are not a good idea to rely on.  And I was right.  The race this year started and finished at an elementary school (as opposed to years past when they were up the street at the high school).  Someone was supposed to open up the school at 5am so bathrooms could be accessible.  That person must have slept in and a few hundred people were left to fend for themselves. Me, on the other hand, got my bib at 5am and walked back to my car (which btw was parked very close to the school since I left home so early) and relaxed in a nice warm car for 45 minutes.  Two good decisions and the race hadn’t even started yet.

The Weather   

It was cold, maybe 30’s to start.  Suppose to get up in the 50’s but with sustainable wind I dressed in layers.  The day was sunny with some periods of clouds.  It ended up being a day of sweating followed by freezing due to the periods of wind.  It was hard to stay somewhere in the middle but still was beautiful out.

The Start of the Race

My goal in this race was just to run and not care about finishing times or obsess over any of that.  So I ran without a watch.  Great idea! I walked up to the start of the race just a few minutes before, heard the pre-race announcements which included congratulations about a handful of runners who had run all of Stone Mill races and after today would be Stone Mill “300 milers”.  Hmmm….that means I would be a Stone Mill “150 miler”.  That was a pretty cool thought and a good way to stay motivated throughout the day.  They told everyone to line up and I leisurely walked over and…..boom…there it was.  Without even trying I was in the front of pack – maybe 3-4 rows deep.  I looked back and there were hundreds of people behind me.  “Ok I am way too far in front!”  But I wasn’t about to walk backwards simply because no one else wanted to be up there.  They said “go” and we were off.

The “Course”

So let me first say that Stone Mill, which started in 2010, was unofficially touted as the Anti-JFK 50 miler at that time.  It was run the same day at JFK, in the same state, but for much less money and mostly single track trail.  It was pretty cool.  But Stone Mill has become its own little race and is developing a reputation of being a very nice 50 miler all on its own.  It’s now run a week prior to JFK (unsure for the reason).  It still boasts a low cost and mostly single track trail.  But the thing I like most about this race is the course has a cross country feel to it.  It covers single track, double wide trail, road crossings, underpasses, people’s backyards, tunnels, creek crossings (with and without bridges), etc.  It’s just the kind of variety I love.  SM has no big climbs, although some feel that way at the end. It does have lots and lots of rollers.  It is definitely a deceptive course.  I would not call it fast but certainly not a slow course.

The quirkiest thing about SM is that the course has only been the same 2 years in a row (2012 and 2013 - I think).  It has changed 5 times in 6 years.  Other than the change from the inaugural year to the second year (out n back to a lollipop), the changes have all been relatively minor but nonetheless, it’s rather comical.

The Runners

So I have a love/hate relationship with other runners during races.  On this day, during the first half of the race, I had numerous times when I felt like someone was running practically on top of me.  I had to get over that because that is normal.  I found myself doing that to other runners because it’s helpful when their pace is nice and even.  So I took it as a compliment when done to me.  It was the second half of the race that sticks out to me most though.  Essentially, there was a group of maybe 15-25 runners that I remember flip flopping with during the second half.  As we pulled into the supposed halfway point, we then had the worst 3+ miles coming up.  Where JFK runs 26 miles on the C & O canal, SM only does 3 (and a little).  But it is the worst 3 miles.  It is flat as flat can be.  The rest of the race is not flat, even the road sections. For whatever reason the legs really hate this section.  I am not the only one who hates it. But I vowed to myself to run the entire thing. It’s purely a mental thing.  So I put in my earbuds and went to work.  I passed 5-6 other runners.  Don’t get me wrong, I was running slowly.  It’s not like I was killing it.  The other runners were all doing a run/walk thing through this section.  There must be something mystical about the C & O Canal – it’s some sort of vortex that sucks the running energy out of people.  It also didn’t help that there was a head wind through most of this section.

Every runner I passed, passed me at the next AS to which I did not care. But it was another 23+ miles of flip flopping with all of them.  One group was a foursome of naval academy cadets.  The four of them never left each other.  They started and ran the entire thing together.  I finally passed them around mile 40 for good but I saw them finish together a few minutes after I did.  That was cool to see them stick together.  I saw other pairs of runners that essentially did the same.  One pair of guys I flip flopped with more times than I can count.  They were an odd pair: two guys who had virtually no gear with them-- no packs, no handhelds, no hats.  The one guy might have had stuff in his shirt – with built in pockets in the back but I am not sure.  They were very clean cut guys – almost looked out of place. The one guy seemed to keep cramping and had to stop and stretch, which is most likely the reason I kept catching up to them.  But his buddy stayed with him which I admired.  In the end, we finished together (which I will get to later).

There were other runners that stick out to me too.  There were numerous female runners who just kept pushing through.  All I could think was how strong they were to keep going.  I rarely saw any female runners struggling whereas I saw many guys pulled off to the side stretching or hunched over.  There were 3-4 female runners (near me) that just consistently pushed their way to the end.  Then there was a couple of guys I could not figure out.  One guy was older (as in probably my age or so) and then the other guy looked like he might have been late teen or early twenties.  They reminded me of a Big Brother situation but I didn’t ask them so I don’t know.  They too kept with each other the entire way.  I do not remember when I lost them and do not know if they finished before me or after.

The Body

The most concerning issue coming into this race was my body – mostly my left knee.  It had given me problems in the past and was a bit painful in the last few weeks.  I taped up both knees with kinesio tape.  I also used an IT band strap just above my knee cap.  Amazingly, my knees felt good for most of the race.  I started to feel some of the tendinitis in my left knee around mile 43 or 44 but it subsided.  My stomach was partially nauseous the entire day but never unmanageable.  It never went to puke or bear attack mode and never really slowed me down. It just didn’t feel great.  My main issue was my lower back though.  My back usually hurts later in races but for whatever reason, it began early in this one.  This was not good.  I had shooting pain down the backs of my legs as a result at times.  At the halfway point, I popped some ibuprofen (which I carried in the event that my knee flared up).  It worked wonders.  I had a good second half of the race. At the last AS, with 4 miles to go, I had a feeling that a blister just popped (without the wet feeling).  I didn’t want to take my shoe off to take care of it since there was only 4 miles left.  I figured I could just deal with it.  The pain went away and I had my best 4 miles of the day in terms of how I felt.  After the race, I felt the normal tired, a little sore, back hurting, etc.   I definitely learned from this race that I NEED to work on strengthening my core and legs.  I have tried in the past and seemed to always tweak my back in the process but I absolutely have to find a way to do this to keep doing this sort of distance.

The Gear

I ran in my Hoka Stinson ATRs.  I am not sure why I chose these over my newer Hoka Challenger’s but I did.  They have 500+ miles on them and held up great.  I wore my newish UD pack.  I like the way it fits and feels but it does not have any pockets in front so that is one disadvantage.  It is big enough though that I could store plenty in there.  But here is my mistake for the day – the bladder that came with it is good size and is designed to contour to the shape of the back.  I liked this feature (although it is hard to clean).  It sits nice in the pack unlike the Nathan packs.  BUT the bite valve is horrible.  It doesn’t give enough water at any given time.  My mistake was I didn’t try this pack out enough ahead of time to realize just how bad it was.  I knew I had not emptied the bladder at the end of the race but when I looked, it was easily still 3/4 full.  I need to find a way to change the bite valve.

I wore my nice bright orange shirt I received for finishing Blues Cruise in October with two layers underneath.  At times I was sweating a good bit but the wind seemed to dry that up pretty quick so I never felt like I needed to shed a layer or two.  I wore my Blues Cruise “lucky” white running cap.  I wore a pair of black shorts. I wore a pair of grey gloves that were given in the “goodie” bag – nice item for a November race. And to top it off, I wore a pair of knee high (well almost knee high) striped black/gray/orange socks.  I had so many comments on my socks.  I am pretty sure most people were genuine but my sarcastic meter might have been off that day.

I used a very small but powerful handheld flashlight for the first 45 minutes of the race and then never needed it again.  My drop bags were as simple as can be – two plastics grocery bags – each with an Ensure plus (350 cal) and a pack of frerro roche chocolates (300-400 cal) used for a jolt of calories.  Plastic bags so I can just throw them away at the AS and don’t have to care about getting a bag back at the end.

The Aid Stations

SM has improved their volunteerism and Aid Station awesomeness every year.  For a race that only costs $45, the stuff at the aid stations is awesome.  Besides the normal chips, cookies, M & M’s, I made sure I ate the grilled cheese (so good when fresh), I ate the soup (several times and it was oh so good), pickles, oranges.  At mile 34, I chowed down on 7-8 orange slices – although I had work my way around the guy that was standing there and must have finished the bowl of watermelon – seriously.  The ginger ale though was the best.  It helped a lot.  At the last AS (mile 47), they had burritos.  I just couldn’t indulge but it looked good.  But the one item I could not figure out was the liquor.  I know many ultras have beer at aid stations but hard liquor?? There were two aid stations that looked more like bars they had so much liquor sitting out on the table.  One AS was pushing their “special hard cider”.  Can someone tell me what benefit hard liquor has during an ultra?

Like I said, the aid stations have just been getting better as this race continues.  I was happy to meet a fellow RAer – runtrailsdc at AS4 – mile 17.  Thanks again for volunteering! The RD said there was a total of 170 volunteers.  Wow!

The Sights

One of my favorite sights back in my first 50 miler (also at SM) was the conga line of headlamps through the dark woods.  At the beginning of this race, it was similar.  It started with a mass group of lights coming down the first hill (still on road).  I couldn’t help but look back a few times as it is not a sight you will see often.  Then we hit the woods and again the sight of hundreds of lights bobbing in the dark is pretty cool.

Lots and lots of leaves.  The trail was mostly leave covered.  This race would be better a month or more earlier with peak foliage.  At this point in November, the leaves were 90% fallen and very crunchy underfoot.

One of my favorite moments was a family of deer grazing a few yards off the trail.  They never moved.  I stopped and just stared at them for a while, even let some runners pass me by.  It was as if they were saying “you can run through here all you want, but this is our turf and we’re not moving.”

In the latter half of the race, the trail was very up and down-- as in perfect mountain bike trail.  And that’s exactly what we saw – numerous bikers.  They weren’t all the friendly either.  As they bombed down the trail, I gladly pulled off to give them space.  Not a one said “thank you”.  But maybe having to pass many dozens of runners wasn’t a pleasant experience.

The Finish

As I said before, I went into this race just wanting to have fun, not obsessing over times, constantly looking at my watch.  I left the watch at home.  I just wanted to run a relaxed and consistent race.  The first half was just that.  Even though I started near the front, I ran my race.  I didn’t care about anyone passing me.  I stayed fairly steady for the first half of the race.  My back, as previously mentioned, felt terrible but I maintained a consistent pace.  I have no idea what sort of time or pace I had for the first half and I did not care.  At the halfway mark I put on some music to get me through the C & O Canal but this came in handy through the rest of the day.  Further on down the trail, especially at aid stations, I often saw runners checking their watches or phones.  In these instances I quickly put the music back on because I did not want to hear what they were saying about what time of day it was.  It was a little bit like that sports game you cannot see live but also do not want to hear about the score from anyone else in the meantime.  At one point I found myself looking at the position of the sun trying to figure the time of day but in November, this is not so easy to do.  It all went well UNTIL one of the two clean cut guys said to the other “We just hit 8 hours”……DOH!!!! Now my mind instantly went into how much time I had left to beat sunset.  We were at 37 or 38 miles in.  It would be a stretch but I thought I could do it.  Thankfully I calmed the thoughts down and just simply ran.

After the last AS, I just wanted to be done.  I didn’t care too much about anything – just wanted to be done.  I left out of the AS and hit a rhythm behind four other guys.  I called myself the caboose and quietly they pulled me along.  We power walked the ups and ran everything else even passing a few runners.  The lead runner looked strong and was leading the way nicely followed by the two clean cut guys, another runner I had not seen before and then myself.  I rode this train for about 2.5ish miles and then all of a sudden the lead guy wilted.  The others passed and I stayed with him.  He kept wilting so I passed him and tried to catch the others.  I could faintly see them but they were a ways ahead – too far at this point to try and make it up.   We came out of the woods and hit the last stretch – one mile on road.  This section was already done in the beginning of the race so I knew what was coming – hills.  Two long ups and one decent downhill.  I powerwalked the first loooooong uphill. It sucked and I think I stated that I would never do this race again because of this hill.  But then it turned into a nice downhill that I somehow bombed down.  I was flying (or felt like it).  I passed a female runner and then passed the two clean cut guys who were walking.  One more hill.  I could see two runners ahead and tried to catch them but could not.  We got near the top of the hill and had to turn right.  I got held up by cars coming in and out.  I finally cut the corner and headed behind the cars and started booking it up the last hill to the finish.  I felt a rush of adrenaline and cannot explain why.  It wasn’t an overly emotional finish for me.  I pushed it to the end.  As I was closing in on the timing mat, I heard the announcer state something to the effect of having a three way sprint to the finish.  “Huh?” I had no idea but the two clean cut guys were sprinting to the end and one actually finished just as I did.  I don’t think they were trying to beat me but most likely racing each other.  The ironic thing is the guy who had been cramping along the second half of the race came across first leaving his buddy behind – the guy who always waited for him. (Oh BTW – these guys I later discovered were both 20 – half my age – that made me feel better).  Done, finished, felt great – maybe the best I felt all day.  Finished in 11:32x.  It was slower than I wanted but certainly a good run nonetheless.

The End

I couldn’t figure out why I felt so good at the end.  It made me wonder if I have a 100 in my future.  A few minutes later when I got to my car, my body acted like it was puking, almost dry heaving.  I never threw up, but every muscle in my front and back cramped all at once as if I was.  “Ok – I get it.  Not so ready for a 100”.

I drove home, almost fell asleep at the wheel.  Got home, kids and DW happy to see me.  They had plastered balloons and homemade signs to the back of the bathroom door knowing that was probably the first place I would go.  A nice long warm shower and a good night’s sleep are the only things I coveted at that point.

Until we meet again Stone Mill.

Nice job, Jamie! Congrats on the strong finish. I've never run a long race watchless, but it's sounding like a great idea to me now.

Thanks for sharing...you definitely look cute in those socks...how do they stay up?  Funny how the canal which is flat kills people's spirits and they actually start walking.  Can't believe it's 26 miles in the JFK..no thank you.  interesting idea to run without a watch...may try that next time.  Very sweet of your family to decorate the umm bathroom. 

Congratulations Jamie.  It was a good day out there, at least for my bit of the morning.  Funny you mention the navy cadets.  I remember seeing them-- they looked as if they were having a great time.  And the two guys with no gear.  One of them had a gatorade bottle he was apparently refilling at the AS.  Whatever works-- and it's different for everyone.

A pair of women came thru late in the pack, power hiking.  They mentioned this was their 'girls get-together'-- meaning instead of bars, shopping, vegas, they got together for ultras.   It's a fun race-- for the runners and volunteers alike.  Which might explain the 170 volunteers out there.

Next year we're looking at adding bacon to the grilled cheese, just fyi.

Excellent RR! Makes me want to run this again sometime. Glad you had a fun race and didn't stress about time.

Congrats Jamie! Great recap of the race!

Not fretting the week of the race and being relaxed in the mind is so huge in my book. It's often referred to as the mental taper of which I totally subscribe. Obsessing about the race burns mental energy and will leave you tired on race morning and it sounds like you played it perfectly!

I can totally relate to the C&O Canal! Yuck. Nice job running that section. I would have been one of those run/walkers. Can't believe folks run 100 milers on that terrain.

And you could totally do a 100 miler btw as long as you want to do it. If you can run a 50 you can run a 100!

Congrats, Jamie!!!!  You've come so far from your injuries.  I hope you're basking in the awesomeness of this one.

I also like your socks