Mile Run 1/2 Marathon

Mile Run is another one of the North Central Pa trail runs in the same family as Hyner, Dam Half etc.  I did it in '13, tore up a ankle and ruined my plans to run Hyner 50k that year.  This year I signed up for it just to provide some early year motivation and hopefully run it with DS.  The first part of that worked out, the second did not.

I really did not go into this with high expectations. My goals were to not bust up an ankle and to finish, preferably in less than 4 hours. I was looking at it as just another training run. Consequently the day before the race I put in 14.4 miles with a lot of climbing, my longest run of the year.

Last year it was run right after a late season snow blew through dumping 2-5 inches on the course. This year it was just cloudy and spitting rain with some wind. Temps were between needing long sleeves and gloves to rolling up the sleeves and taking off the gloves. Probably did that 5-6 times.

Overall the race was boring enough that I almost didn't even write up a RR. The most interesting thing was in the morning before leaving the house.  I had decided to run in my NB 1210s. Since these are "Minimalist", by my standards, they don't get used too much.  As I dug them out of the shoe rack the snide remarks started.

1210s to the Hokas: "Ha ha, see you suckas later, have fun sitting here being lazy."

Mafates:  "Yep, I'll hang out here, then go see the world when he takes us to Delaware".  "Rail thin things like you ain't any good for long runs like that".

Speedgoats:  "Aw, both of you shut up. We'll get used for the tough race like the Boulder Beast. That's a race for real shoes, like us".

After prying them apart I went inside to put them on, right next to the Altras.

1210s:  "Your toe box looks weird and with tread like that you couldn't handle a smear on the sidewalk".

Altras:  " I hope you step in some Dog crap!"

Asics:  "Don't get too high and mighty, he was thinking about using us today 'cause we have deeper tread and more padding then you"

After getting that mess straightened out I mentioned it to DW. She gave me the "look"   and reached for the phone mumbling something about committing me. I think she then realized that would cost money and I'm responsible for about 62.58% of our income on top of that. Just wasn't worth it .

On to the race. It started at 10 am and as normal I got there early. It had a maximum of 500 spots and was supposedly sold out. The last 3 years it's gotten more popular, possibly due to now being in a points series.  This was the first trail race I've been to where there were literally dozens of people warming up. Not just lightly stretching and jogging around,  but getting real serious about it.

At 10 am, with no announcements that I could hear, we were off. They added a short loop to the race, probably 3/10 of a mile to break up the field. Didn't work very well. As normal too many people started off at their 5k pace.  I didn't want to get stuck behind a lot of people at the road to single track transition so I went out faster than I wanted to.  When I got to the single track things slowed just enough that it was a welcome break and allowed for some recovery.

The single track is fairly nice but has quite a few rocks. Easily runable going uphill but still have to pay attention to your footing. The first 3.5 miles are mostly uphill but it's very gradual and I was able to run most of it. Passed more people then passed me and the line kept moving with little walking.  This topped out at the first aid station, which was run by a very energetic young lady who was passing out H20, Gatorade, Nutrigrain bars, Pretzels and M&Ms.  Grabbed a handful of pretzels thinking I'd grab a banana at the next one.

The next section contained a lot more double track and access road than I remembered. Either they changed the course or some of the single track had been taken over by a access road for logging. It was a lot of downhill which would have been nice if it wasn't covered by 3A stone with some grade 4 stuff mixed in. Think a lot of 2.5 inch stuff with some 3-4 inch stuff mixed in. All just loose enough that I had to worry about my footing. Didn't seem to bother a lot of other people as they came bombing by me at high rates of speed.  Fortunately this turned into single and tight double track. Rocky but decent for running. Also got some uphill stuff in so I was able to gain some spaces back. Came to the next aid station. Same as first one......no bananas.....really??? What's a trail race without bananas ???

After this it goes to old forest road. Real nice running except for the one detour that didn't seem to add any miles, but shifted us to rocky, rooty single track, then put us back on the old forest road. Of course I got passed a lot here because I suck at descending, as in really, really suck .  After a short time we turned off onto single track. Straight up the mountain, where I, the fat man, started to pass people. The first section was quite steep for about 1/2 mile then it was flat single track.  At one point there was a nice access road that went uphill I'm guessing about 8-10%. I ran most of that passing a ton of people.  This dumped us out onto a road to the final aid station at about mile 11. The same girl that was at #1 was here. Still no bananas .

Grabbed a handful of M&M's, downed those and scooped up some pretzels to eat on the run. From here on out it was downhill. Fairly nice wide single track with a moderate amount of rocks.  Of course the same old parade started. All those fine people that I passed on the uphill now repaid the favor and passed me on the downhill.   Bet 30 people passed me in the first  1 1/2 miles of this section. Part of that was my lack of descending skill, part was that it was in this section where I rolled my ankle the last time.  That time I rested for several minutes and hobbled the last 1- 1 1/2 miles. As I now ran over the area where I had before hobbled over, I was amazed that I was too much of an Idiot back then to simply cross the creek and walk down the road and take a injury DNF.  Part of this section gets so bad that you slip and slide over the rocks, run a few steps and repeat.  One of DW's coworkers somehow gouged out a big piece of skin off the bottom of his foot in this section. Said when he came through someone had left a nice blood trail to follow!!

At Mile Run the light at the end of the tunnel is............................

After this section of rocks you run right into the creek and proceed under the Interstate. The water is cooold, very cold, to the point it's not refreshing anymore after the first dozen steps. I was hearing a bunch of girls coming up from behind, but I wasn't interested in getting caught by a bunch of women, at least not today , so I picked up the pace and got to the end of the water, only to run into a mud pit. This probably rivaled a pit at a Tough Mudder !!! After about 30 yards of this it got better but I had gained about 2 lbs per shoe. The final push is up a road and is a nice ~6-8% grade. Of course now I'm passing people, a 1/4 mile from the line.  I might have been able to catch the two ladies in front of me but we had flipped flopped throughout the race and it wasn't going to mean more than a few seconds so I backed off and just made sure I didn't get passed.  Crossed the finish line, got my medal,  turned to look for DW and walked straight into the guy wire supporting the finish banner !  Klutz.  Finish time 2:45:42.  197/373 finishers and 28/43 in age group.

........A pool of ice water.

Overall I was happy, I have to be.  I hadn't set a goal anywhere near this good. But at the same time I can't help but wonder how much better would I do if I could only descend better.

This is a low budget race compared to most of the other North Central PA races.  The start/finish is at a huge DCNR staging lot in the middle of nowhere, this year they gave out hoodies, but no goodies bag. Aid stations only stock minimal items and afterwards there is no big party with tons of food. They do have hotdogs, burgers, soup and beer.  Since I finished in the middle of the pack they were having trouble keeping up with grilling stuff so I only got a post race hotdog. Like I told DW, you get what you pay for and this race is cheap with decent trails but not much bling. And I'm Ok with that.  Another example of how low key this race is. I can barely find pictures anywhere and didn't carry my camera.

Oh yea,  Three dogs ran the race. All of them beat me, but despite the best wishes of the Altras I don't think the 1210s stepped in any dog crap .

And I was expecting an RR about a mile race on a track. Should have known better since this is the Trail Trash group and I have actually seen signs for Mile Run driving through that area.

Uh, I think you and I need to talk about this "talking shoes" thing.  Otherwise, cool!

Nice job, and agree with Jamie, you guys need to talk, professionally. 

Nah, not at all. Remember that question about dealing with stress.  Having conversations with the "voices" helps me reduce my stress level .

Actually it's just my warped sense of humor .

I'll echo, I thought this was going to be a mile race! and you have a lot of shoes.

Entertaining read, must've felt fun to pass everybody on the uphill. Maybe practice downhill so you can have it at both ends.

This race used to be called The Tiadaghton Half.  Most of it, I believe, is run in the state forest with the same name. Several years ago they changed it to Mile Run.  Apparently there was another race, a road 5k,  in the middle of the summer that was close enough for people to get confused.  The road that runs up into the mountains is Mile Run road so I guess that's where it gets it's name.  Can't figure out why there is a exit there to get off the interstate since there isn't anything within 10-15 miles. Maybe for fire fighting access?

Nice job killing your goal...I have multiple shoes of the same kind in my closet and they do not speak to each other because they have nothing to say because they are the same and think the same.  We trails runners spend way too much time alone with our crazy thoughts.