Mt. Penn Mudfest - Race Report

One of the things that continually amuses me is how easy it is to prepare, day before, for a race or tri.  This, compared to what it was like day before a horse show of any type, even a relatively informal one.  Even at the base level, there was a horse to clean, tack to clean, clothes to organize, a trailer to pack… add multiple events, and you added multiples of gear; add questionable weather, add another layer of gear.  And yet, even given the vagaries of the weather yesterday, it took me all of 15 minutes to pack a gear bag for the trail race. 

And there were vagaries to the weather.  With a couple of fronts meandering around the area, it was forcast to be BOTH cold and rainy and warm with thunderstorms.  So I packed both shorts and ¾ tights, and went with a long sleeve shirt (because I truly didn’t believe it would hit the forecast high of 70 while we were out there) and sleeveless wind/rain breaker vest up top. 

It rained the entire drive out to the race site, and it was pouring when I arrived.  Yay.  It was also 43 degrees, so I opted to go with the 3/4 tights.  Miraculously the rain stopped about 20 minutes before the race started, so we were dry, at least, while waiting for the race start.  This is a quirky event, as all of the events put on by this club seem to be.  It has a Clydesdale/Clydette division for people meeting certain height/weight requirements (they have their own formula: for women, weight in pounds divide by height in inches must be over 2.15; for men, 2.7).  Also, you can volunteer to carry a raw egg with you on the course.  If the egg makes it back in one piece, you can win something like 70# of Godiva chocolate.  I actually thought about doing that one, but considering I bit the dust a few times during my last race, I thought it might be a good idea to try to make it around a course without buying real estate once before adding raw eggs to the picture.  Maybe next year!

Also: The starting gun consisted of a stuffed pig (the fluffy kid’s toy kind of stuffed pig, not a pig stuffed like a turkey) that was fired from the end of an air gun.  When the pig hit the ground, we were off!  The first ¼ mile or so was on roads; I started about mid pack and as we worked our way to the trail head I looked down the road at the mass of people and was briefly reminded of running Broad Street in Philly, where you have wall to wall people heading down this one road, as far down as you can see.  Granted, in this case, the road was not nearly as wide, the crowd was more than an order of magnitude smaller, and it was low lying clouds, not buildings, that obscured the view, but it still made me laugh.

We turned off on to the trail and immediately started up hill.  The path was alternately rocky and muddy and slick, and while I’m sure some more sure-footed people galloped up the slope, I sure didn’t, nor did anyone near me.  The first 1/3 of the course was a series of steep, but not brutal ups and downs, followed by a long own hill that lead into a fallen tree obstacle course-type section.  From chatting with someone near me, I learned the course has always been routed this way, and the downed trees are a mainstay.  After another overlong downhill section (those sections leave one thinking, “rut ro” because for ever downhill, there is an equal uphill coming), we hit mid course, and the stream crossings. 

We were warned at the start that the course might be wetter than usual due to all of the rain we’ve been having lately.  Having never seen the course before, this meant nothing to me, since I had no idea what “usual” was.  We got to the first one and all I could think was, “Oh.  OK.  We’re getting wet.”  The stream was high and very fast, and at that point maybe 25 feet wide, give or take, with a rocky creek bottom.  There was no splashing through, just plowing through water that was up past my knees.  And COLD!  I got out and my legs felt numb and about 10# heavier.  And then, of course, there was a steep, rocky, muddy uphill that was mostly single track, so it was rather slow going.  At the top of the hill (I think it was this hill!), there was a series of tires set up, agility-drill style, a fun little surprise.  Then we came down to a slightly narrower but much deeper crossing; here, the water was almost to my waist.  I was definitely numb coming out of that one, but fortunately the path was flatter for a while, then up and down, and we hit the final crossing, which was narrower but must faster than the others.  And that was it for the water (except for the rain, which had started up again in earnest); what was left, though, were the steepest hills. 

In keeping with the Easter theme; there were some unusual aid stations along the way.  Instead of gus, they handed out marshmallow peeps at the water stops.  I can’t recall ever having a peep that tasted like anything other than cardboard before, but those really hit the spot and it was TOO funny seeing aid station people handing out these yellow and pink and purple things at the stops.  At the top of the next steep hill, which felt more like climbing a staircase than a hill, they had an alternate beverage station, where they handed out beer and margaritas, if one was so inclined, along with water.  Next up was a pretty fast down hill, followed by the last ugly uphill of the day.  By now people in my area were either walking or alternating walking and running these hills; the trails were pretty much single track, though, so if too many people got to walking, you were walking whether or not it was your choice.  It wasn’t always my preference to be walking, but truly? It was probably all for the best that I did anyway. 

Finally we hit the last section.  I knew this only because I had someone behind me who had run the race before and knew the course well; we were still in the clouds (for you aviation buffs, the weather was low IFR all the way) so it was impossible to see more than 50 yards or so ahead.  I had some gas left in the tank, but it was difficult to stop on the accelerator because the track was so muddy, you just slipped.  So my pace was what it was until I broke out of the woods on to a grassy field, and from there it was a straight shot to the finish.

In the end I finished about five minutes faster than my last 15K trail; it’s hard to tell if it’s a true improvement or if this was an easier course – although it didn’t SEEM any easier, overall, so I’ll go with improvement.  (Until I run that other course again, and take the ego hit.) 

My goodies – race shirt and finisher mug – are pictured below.  Also, I took a picture of my feet that I took as soon as I got back to my car, shown below as well.  I couldn’t quite get the back of my legs, which were crusted with mud, but you get the idea.  And yes, that is blood by my shoes, not cause by anything dramatic, just by the tongue of my shoes rubbing against my ankles.  I had never before run in those shoes in anything less than ankle socks, and I ran in ped socks yesterday.  I just randomly looked down and saw the left one was bleeding not 15 minutes into the race; I tried to rearrange things a little but it was a hopeless case so I just forgot about it until the race was over and I had a chance to clean up.  Oh well.  As my dad is fond of saying, the job is never done until some bit of blood is shed.

Kitteh photo layout/composition consult.

T-shirt and finisher mug.

 

 

Lovely, eh?  Probably would have been worse without the rain and water crossings.

Hip report:  No. Pain.  Nada, not a twinge on the course and none today, and no more than what I’d call an ordinary (at this point) amount of tightness.  Today I feel I did something yesterday, but have no unusual twinges anywhere.  Which is a good thing.  I have some ideas about where I want to go from here, but for today, I’m going to just enjoy the sunshine and the afterglow of a challenging race well done.