The sun'll come out tomorrow...

Sometimes tomorrow is better than today and sometimes your best on a certain day may not be enough.  Two weeks ago I had the painful experience of my first DNF, or did not finish, and today if I close my eyes I can still see the race official write "DNF" next to my name.  The following few days I tried hard to pinpoint why the wheels fell off so hard and quick, and why I couldn't shake early fatigue.  Fortunately I have a short memory and try to live by a "no excuse" attitude and I am looking forward to the next event.  But even with a disappointing finish the West Virginia Trilogy was a uniquely nice event.  Here's the recap on half the race.

Kelly and I started our trek at noon on Friday to make the five hour drive to head to the beautiful mountains of Circleville, WV.  Once we made our way through northern VA, I am still not sure how people make the commute through that area, our drive up and over the mountains was smooth.  As we made the ten minute drive on a dirt road to The Mountain Institute, the race headquarters, we watched the temperature drop ten degrees and the views become incredible.  We parked our car and followed the signs that lead us to a yurt.  A yurt??  Exactly!  Until this weekend I had not only never saw a yurt, I had no clue what a yurt was.  We checked in, dropped our bags off at the dorm, and made our way back to the main yurt for dinner and a pre-race meeting.  We loved this place.

Dinner was so cool.  All the food was homemade and served buffet style.  There was plenty for meat eaters and vegetarians.  Could it get any better?  Yes, there was a keg of beer sitting outside on the deck, which overlooked a meadow, full of Clipper City Ale.  Kelly and I made our plates, poured a beer and grabbed a seat at a picnic table with a few others.  Turns out we sat with the race director, who is a badass ultra guy, the winner of the 50k earlier that day, and a guy by the name of Joel Wolpert.  Do yourself a favor and google Joel, he is a freelance photo/videographer and a Running Times correspondent.  All incredible people, and all so down to earth.  After dinner we were briefed at the race meeting and then headed back to grab some shut eye and get ready for the next morning.

Race morning lead us back to the yurts, yes I like saying yurt, and there was plenty of hot food and drinks for everyone.  All the runners stayed inside to stay warm, the temps were in the mid to upper 20's, and then darted out the door right before the gun went off.  The first couple miles of the race lead us down a gravel field and crossing a meadow and then we began to climb.  The hills were crazy, tougher than Vermont, and the trails were fairly clear but un-groomed.  We finally hit the highest point of the course at mile 7, just under 5000ft.  After a quick stop we made our way down through a  beautiful rocky trail that was referred to as the "Enchanted Forest".  This trail was crazy and was actually fun to run and the views were great.

Our next trail was called "Huckleberry" and it would lead us to our next aid station at mile 16.  This section of the course became more and more frustrating.  Kelly took an early fall and I had to stop to take care of blisters.  For a stretch of what seemed like 5 or 6 miles there was no way to gain a rhythm and made any sort of extended running tough.  The trail was fairly wide but was mostly leaf covered rocks with sections of mud.  We did the best we could but it was near the end of Huckleberry were I started to unravel.  Frustrated and fatigued we entered the second aid station.

The second aid station of the race was literally in the middle of the mountains, the two volunteers had to bike in with all the supplies.  They had made a campfire and were serving soup and cheese quesadillas.  We fueled up and headed out with another 9-10 miles before the next stop.  This section of the course had us follow a pretty stream that we would cross a few times including one where I took a fall and soaked up some cold West Virginia water.  Despite the fall the views were again amazing, I believe that we saw at least 3 waterfalls during this part.  Once we made our last crossing we began to climb, and climb, and climb.  I am pretty sure that we climbed 1000ft in less than a mile.  The air became a little warmer and again I became more fatigued.  Once we reached the ridge we would start a 6 mile descent.

What's funny is that even though we were in the process of descending almost a couple thousand feet there were still hills.  How can you go up when you are climbing down?  At this point I started running numbers through my head all the while trying somehow to get out of this funk that I was enduring.  I ate, drank, and tried everything I could but it just wasn't my day, it wasn't our day.  After another fall and dodging a couple big piles of bear crap I checked out and knew I was done.  There was no way that after making the descent that I could physically make it to the the next check point in time.  Kelly and I called it a day at the halfway point.

We had planned this race months prior and planned to stay together and have fun.  I was having a hard time keeping up and I don't believe neither of us were having the fun we had so much wanted.  We came in under the cut off but made a decision that we would stop.  Initially I was disappointed in my efforts and more upset that I couldn't pull it together to finish the race with Kelly.  But now two weeks later I have a bit of a different view.  I am happy that I was able to spend grueling hours on some of the most beautiful trails I have ever ran with someone who I not only love but is just as passionate as I am about this sport (Thanks Donahue for sticking with me).  I think though it wasn't our best day and we didn't complete our goal we learned a lot about ourselves and each other.  The best part of it all is that running offers a new day, perhaps time for redemption, and new footprints every time you lace up your shoes.

Heading for the hills!

I wasn't sure what would happen after I completed Vermont.  I was sure that I would continue to run although not sure if I would still take time to collect my thoughts and find time to put them on here...a couple months and yes I am back, but maybe not so frequently.

This weekend Kelly and I are heading to West Virginia for a scenic 50 miler that will give us our share of hills and hills and hills.  This weekend will certainly be a challenge and leave us both with lasting memories.  We are both excited that we found this quaint and somewhat hidden race that at the moment has less than 60 participants.  Personally I can't wait to get away and shuffle through the mountains with Kelly, it's going to be great.  I'll do my best to update with a race report within the next couple weeks.

Wish us luck!