Tag: refresh

Last year, I did this training run for Grindstone (here).

So much happened since last year.  They say you could never step into the same river twice.

I planned my schedule like last year. There were so much going on this weekend. There was a training run down at Damascus (VA) for the Iron Mountain.  I have been going there every year, but not this year.  I will be there on race day to volunteer.  I missed being there for the training runs. I have redeemed so many of my races, Devil Dog, GSER, MMT, and finally Burning River.  The only race I have not been able to “finish” is this Iron Mountain.  So ever since 2019, I have been trying to run it.  I have showed up at the training run years after years, but it is not happening this year.

Instead, this year, I hope to do better at Grindstone, a race I DNF’ed (did not finish) last year.  It hurts a bit but it was also a very hard race.  Last year, I started training for it since February.  This year, this weekend was my first training run.

I am familiar with the Grindstone course by now. Still, every year I learned something new.  This year, I explored the road portion a bit more than I needed.  So, I know can tell my crew how to get to each aid station because I hiked all those roads. 

I booked two nights at Camp Stokesville. This is different from last year, when I only showed up on Saturday night for a Sunday run.

The run is still on Sunday. Most people did trail work on Saturday. 8 hours of trail work is required to run in this race. I fulfilled my trail work with the PATC (our regional Appalachian Trail club), so my Saturday was free.

For me this year, instead of heading down to Damascus for Iron Mountian training run on Saturday, I joined the vhtrc people to do the MMB (Martha Moats Baker) Memorial Run. It is a 50k/60k.  The story goes, Martha (I don’t think was a member of the club, yep, about 100 years before our club was founded) died one winter while hiking the trail here (the Wild Oak Trail – Twot), so our club made a run in her memory. Twot is a wicked hard run.  Sorry for so many acronyms, but Twot, etc, is one of my favorite trails.  It is probably the very first trail that I know besides the Shenadoah, and Blue Ridge.

The Martha Moats Baker’s course is almost identical to the new Grindstone Course and has almost 40 miles of it.  I found out about this event from last year when some people who showed up for the Grindstone training and said they did the MMB the day before.  I said what? How come I did not know about the MMB. So this year I was prepared.  MMB run is the best training you can have for Grindstone and will mention below, way better than the official/unofficial training run (why unofficial? UTMB Grindstone training run no longer wants to be officially recognized or being affiliated with its training run — the run was still managed by the two race directors but Grinstone did not provide money for the weekend; I still called it the Grindstone training run).

So, I did this other run, MMB, which is not part of Grindstone, but it really helped me to get ready for it, because it runs on the same course, just a day before the official/unofficial training run. Hope I did not confuse anyone.

My whole purpose was going down to Twot to do the Grindstone training run, but instead, I ran the MMB.  I would recommend future Grindstond runners to do likewise.  MMB gives far greater value.

MMB though a 50k is one of the hardest 50k you can do.  There is actually a 60k option. The mileage might be 30-32, but the climbs total to 8000 ft.

I was planning to run the full 60k route but after the first 6 miles, my thighs started felt cramping up. I knew it was not my day, so I took the shorter route.

I ran with Costi and Robert.  Soon Robert felt behind and Costi disappeared ahead. He was fast and strong climber.

I then ran with Claudia. She is a fast lady.  She did Grindstone 100k last year (and finished). She also ran the Iron Mountain too. I was impressed.  Two races that I could not finish but she did. She also when down to Copper Canyons to run with the Tarahumara. Ureka, Chihuahua, Mexico, which was a race on my bucket list. So she was telling me about that.  It was a race (and a place) I always wanted to visit but was fearful of security concerns.  They say don’t let that be your last bucket list item, or you never will come back alive. Claudia said it was not that bad. Security has gotten better over the year, and there was heavy police force present when she did it.

After we reached the first aid station at Reddish Knob, she raced down ahead. She is a fast at going downhill and there was no way for me to keep up.  We had the next 15-20 miles of downhills.

A little fact, I have been to Twot so many times and heard about the Reddish Knob but this was my first time ascended to there, because it is like 4-5 miles out of the way. The view was incredible.  Too bad I did not have time to grab a picture. At the Grindstone race, we would be here around 9-10 pm, so we won’t be seeing anything, even with a full moon or not.

For the rest of the day I was mostly by myself. I was hoping to catch back up to Claudia. I caught up to Nick, who normally was fast. Then an older guy, Allen? (he was over 60, but is still going strong. He taught us how to use poles. Then Two older couples (Christiann and Andy, also over 60).  Lastly, a mile from the finish I caught up to Costi on Tillman Road.

Costi too originally wanted to do the full route but due to time constraint, chose what was known as the party route for a 50k finish.  I already decided to go the party route, so he and I ran the last mile in instead of climbing Grooms Ridge for a quad buster 3+ hours up and then descending the Grindstone Mountain/chestnut hill — I could not tell which mountain is which.

I think it was a great decision to finish early.  We got back before 4 pm.  It took us nearly 9 hours to do a 50k. The 50k course closed about then at 4:30. The sweeper (Charleen) came in.

We stayed to watch the 60k runners finishing. Our in house chef Jeff cooked us an amazing meal. It was a free event but the food beated all other paid races including UTMB Grindstone or Western States. We had shrimp and chicken Tacos. They were all you can eat good food.  I love the watermellon salad the most.

I stayed the next three hours eating. I was waiting for Claudia to finish, hearing that she and Nick were the final two people out on the 60k course.

Then it was getting late. I was getting sleepy and also badly need to use the bathroom (not because of the food). I needed to clean up. My things and car was at the Stokesville campground about a mile away so I started walking back to the camp. As I left, I heard shouting of Claudia’s name and the claps.  I knew she made it in around 7:30. I wish I was there to see it but also I had my own needs to take care of. (I had a ride back to camp, from someone, I forgot his name, one of the older folks).

The rest of the night was taking care of camping stuff. Showered, set up tent, cooked a second meal and prepared for bed.  By the time all said and done, it was already dark.

I slept like a baby that night for almost 10 hours. We had to meet at 6:30 am for our Sunday run, so I had to be up when it was still dark. My body did not want to run. Getting up was hard. I dragged myself out the tent. Packed up everything.

I came for this Sunday run and there was no way I would skip out. The whole weekend was planned around this one and only event.  MMB was a side thing that happened to be nearby.

I was smarter this year to pick a campsite right across where we were going to meet. So I had a bit more time to get dress and had breakfast while watching everyone gathered.

I did a last minute check on the route we would be running and was surprised that we were not doing the same route as last year.  Instead we were going to run the first 20-ish miles of the race course, which was the course I ran on Saturday. 

I did not like it.  I felt I already knew the first 20-30 ish miles. I ran on those miles the day before.  I preferred doing the true Twot loop, which was a combination of mile 30-50, and 70-90.  I felt this was a bit better and longer.

I understood the race directors’ reason for having a shorter training course this year (16/24 miles), because he wanted everyone to finish by noon, so we could all go home.  They had a long day on Saturday doing trail work, so no one wanted to stay too long on Sunday. Last year, I did not finish the run until 3 pm and we had a runner stuck on the mountain until 6 pm. So the RD was smarter this year to choose an easier and shorter route in opinion for the training run.

There were 36 people signup but only about 13 people showed up for the run. I was kind of hoping the other half were doing their own run out on the trail, though that did not seem to be the case.

They might had done it the day before.

Instead of joining them, I went and did my own route, primary the Twot route.  My opinion is the Twot route is way tougher and better as a training run. 

I ran with them from the camp to the park the while they took a right turn on Tillman, I went on and took a left to Twot and climbed the Lookout Mountain and did the Twot loop clockwise. I loved it.

When I descended from Magic Moss (Dowell Draft, on Betsy trail) or Hankeye Mountain, I took a right on the road, ran to Lake Todd and from there used the road FR95 back to Stokesville Campground. I glad the map on my phone worked, otherwise, I could have gotten lost in the park. Hence, this training helped me understand all the roads in the park.

This year, the trail was not busy. I did not encounter even one runner or mountain bikers. This was unlike the previous years where some runners started at night so in the morning we saw them  finishing while we started out.  No runners at all this year when I did the Twot loop.

While on the road, there were a few cars, but usually they were far and between.  Probably at most 10 cars during my two hours while on the road. I saw couple fishermen at a creek.

I got back to camp by 1:15. Most people had left.  I assumed maybe the RDs were still there. Camp felt empty. I heard and saw couple cars still at  camp spots up on the hill. The signup sheet was still at the pavillion.  I went by to check if my name was on there and to cross it off to indicate I was back. It was not necessary because my name was not on it.  I purposefully did not sign in during the morning briefing since I took a different route and I did not want people to look for me if I did not get back in time. It seemed all other names were checked off, meaning everyone was back. There were a bunch of left over food from people’s dropbags. I wanted to have some but was not sure if it was acceptable. I had food back at my car anyway. Note, last year when I got back, my friends and RDs were still waiting in the finish area, but this year was completely empty. It was just a different feel.

I went home.  Conclusion, I mentioned it was not like last year. Reason being, last year, I came to this camp with a few friends and we ran together. This year, everything seemed different.  I came a day ahead. My friends did not come. Not that I expected them to come since they are not running in the race this year.  Everyone was new. It was one of those things, if a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound if no one is around. I went to Grindstone trainimg, though mostly I wasn’t there.

Claudia said she would be joining us but I did not see her.  I bet the MMB event from the previous day wore her out as it did to me. Her drive back home was longer than mine and I bet she left earlier, probably on Saturday night. I ended up doing the Sunday training by myself. It was fine.  I enjoyed being out on the trail on my own. 

For the last two weeks after Burning River, I knew I needed to train for Grindstone.  It was hard to plan things on my own.  I planned them but usually I ended up not following them through.

Why?  They say its the post Marathon Blue! It is real.  I ran a lot of marathons and at the end of each of them after you gave your all, you enter a period of exhausion, mental, and emotional emptiness.  A very dark place. It was very hard to get myself back out on the trail. I needed the group run to give me that extra motivation to do it even though I was mostly by myself while on the trail.

This weekend was great that finally, I got to do something I enjoyed deep down on my favorite trails. There were so many memories and thoughts from previous years. I almost know every rocks by now.  The trail was not as hard as the first time I did it. It was a joy to be on it again.

Looking ahead, September is coming.  Meaning Wasatch 100, then Grindstone. But before these, I have Iron Mountain (trail marking, plus the actual race I will be volunteering in, I hope to do some running there too). It is a lot of activities.  Then there is Rock and the Knob. And then Stone Mill. Yes. Fall is an amazing time, like Spring is.  And then we will do it all over again next year.

My whole point is, sometimes when you plan for one thing, like the grindstone (un)official training run, then there are better options to do. Keep your eyes open. Also even when I tried to attend the same event, it did not turn out like in my memories.

What else I did? I watched a lot of Asmongold TV reaction videos.  Yep, he has quite insightful on how to be a Twitch streamer/content creator. I do consider myself one, even a small one. His primary take is be yourself and don’t be big head.