Jay Challenge (19.5 Mile Trail Run) - Run

What an amazing experience this was! I have never done a trail run, so I tried to learn as much as I could and have a fun time in the process.

We started in a field in the little town of Jay, and immediately ran up a steep grassy hill and then off into the woods. Within the first mile we were onto some narrow trails and starting to have to pick our way around trees and over roots. We also very quickly came to some very steep and slippery little rises in the trail where people stopped running and started walking/hiking for some short intervals. I was out with the front pack of runners, so I figured that if they are walking, then it's probably smart to do so and conserve energy. Over the next few miles we continued through some moderately difficult wooded trails with some muddy sections (muddy as in "sinking down almost up to your knee and feeling like your shoe was going to get sucked off when you pull your leg out", that kind of muddy), as well as some sections of single track that were so steep and slippery that they had ropes to pull ourselves up. Hit the first aid station at mile 4.5 in about 48 minutes, which I felt good about considering that they told us the race leaders took nearly 45 minutes to get to that point. The next mile or so was mainly on some relatively decent dirt road sections where you could run almost normally.

Around mile 6 we came to the river. You had to follow the river bed - there was really no way to stay on the banks as they were so dense with brush, poison ivy, and (we were told) old barbed wire. We all jumped in and started picking our way up the river bed, over rocks, through little waterfalls, and through deeper sections of water (over our knees). I fell several times, but mostly the falls were in slightly deeper water where I got wet but not hurt. The novelty of the river section wore off pretty quickly, and then it seemed to keep going forever.

We finally got out of the river and made our way through some woods and across a grassy field to the base of the Jay Peak ski area. Had some banana, HEED, and water, grabbed a hand full of gummy bears, and started the 2 mile, 3000 foot elevation gain ascent to the top of Jay Peak. I quickly realized that there was really no way to actually run up the trail due to the steepness of it and the fact that it was largely comprised of loose rocks, so I settled into a fast hike. I did try to run at one point, and almost immediately caught a loose rock and rolled my ankle, after which I returned to hiking. I caught up with a woman who was the third place overall female, and we stayed together until we got to the top, occasionally running but mostly trying to keep up a brisk walk. It took forty minutes to cover those two miles. There was an aid station at the top of the mountain. I took my time drinking and eating, and probably hung out there for about five minutes before beginning the descent. The only bummer was that it had become cloudy and the visibility was limited from the summit - it would have been nice to enjoy the view a bit more.

Ahh, the descent. After climbing straight up hill for what seemed like forever, what could be better than a nice, fast descent? WRONG! Although it was definitely fast, the descent was also one of the most painful parts of the day. Most of the descent was very steep and you had to lean back and "brake" pretty heavily or else you would lose control and go down on the rocks. The quads took a serious pounding for a while here. After a few miles of coming down the ski trails, the course took us back into the woods and continued to be generally downhill, but also extremely muddy and wet. Went through several miles of thick, deep mud before finally reaching the next aid station at mile 14. My quads were screaming and feeling pretty crampy, so I took my last ibuprofen and salt pill, and ate some banana pieces and pretzels from the aid station.

The next 3 miles or so were on relatively flat and smooth dirt roads. On the one hand, it was nice because I was making really good time (around 8:00 miles), but on the other hand it actually felt kind of boring - I signed up for a trail race, not a road race! Finally we turned back into the woods and did a section of "bounding", kind of half running, half jumping around and over trees, rocks, roots and so on. We started to hear the sound of a river again, and sure enough, a few minutes later we were back in the river again, covering about a mile through the river this time. At this point the cool water of the river felt pretty good on my feet, and I stopped at several points to dunk my head in to cool off. Once we got out of the river, there was just about a half mile of running through a field and through some light woods back to the finish.

Had some food, waited for some other friends to finish.


This was such a fun event - I learned that attitude is everything. I worked very hard to not get caught up in my time and pace but just enjoy what the course had to throw at me and keep pushing forward. A lot of times you really had no idea where you were on the course, as the miles were not marked except at the aid stations (or if you happened to run by somebody with a GPS). You really had to just "be in the moment", as it took a lot of concentration to watch where every footstep was landing, what obstacles you had to avoid, where was the next flag marking the course, and so on. The great thing for me was that I did not spend the whole race worrying about my finishing time, but I still ended up with a time and placement that I am very happy with.

It was an awesome training day as far as endurance building goes, but it was also a great change of pace (no pun intended) from all the sub-7 minute mile road running I've been doing. Interestingly, the only person who ran sub-10 minute mile pace for this race was the winner, and he barely made sub-10 (9:57/mile).

My quads are pretty sore today, and going down stairs is not fun right now, but I am so glad I did this event, and will definitely do it again sometime.