Friday night found me sleeping on the
air mattress in the back of Alison’s Vibe with some kind of bugs
eating at me. Alison doesn’t remember an bugs, but she kept
smacking or rubbing her face without ever waking up. The prelude to
our latest La Sportiva Mountain Cup race. I had commented on how I
hadn’t slept the best, but well enough. Alison said she had slept
well, what bugs was I talking about. I should have just put up the
tent, but it was raining when we arrived. So the car sounded easier.
I probably should have left the windows closed, but once I did that
about 11:30 to keep more bugs from getting in, I was hot. It must
have worked fairly well for me as I ran surprisingly well.
About the race, I'd consider this course pretty technical. It leaves the stabilizing muscles of my lower legs a little sore afterwards. The trail is quite rocky, or only rocks in some places. There is a long boulder climb at about 13 miles. Lots of steep ups and downs. I really like the race, except for a few runnable, rolling sections. Alison would say that there are too many rocks, but some of the rolling sections are nice. I did my warmup run solo as I found no
one to run with me. The RD announced the race would start in 5
minutes, 3 minutes, 1 minute. I looked at Bryon Powell and
commented, “No Matt?” RothRock is in PA, so not an especially
long drive for Matt. Someone counted us down and we were off. I
actually led us out and up most of the first climb, which seemed
rather odd. Really I am seldom the one leading races out and the
past two years here I’ve been more like 10-15 at the
start of the first climb about ½ mile in. No fast start today.
Near the top of the climb, Jacob Loverich passed, but I stayed close.
Jacob had won the race the previous two years. On the ridge, he
pulled away a little, but I caught him on the first steep and rocky
descent. Once we were on a more flat to rolling, non-technical
section that was the last I saw of Jacob. I saw one other guy when I
backtracked on the course to confirm that I’d gone the right way at
an intersection just after the first aid station. Probably an
overreaction to two weeks ago at Jemez. I had felt a bit flat and
dull early. I was also a bit flat mentally. I wondered often
whether I was running fast or not. One minute I’d think, “Yea
I’m moving.” The next, “I don’t think I’m moving well.”
Literally hours passed. I ran over technical rocky trails that is
Rothrock, streams in the trails created from heavy rain overnight,
puddles and muck in the low areas. Which my C-Lite 2.0s were light, grippy, drained well, and provided great traction. Time just went by with my random
thoughts. I asked myself often how much am I racing?
At the bottom of a tough boulder climb
I heard Jacob was a little over 5 minutes up. I hadn't looked at any
splits from the previous two years. Was I running well? I hadn’t
even remembered my time from last year. At the last aid station I
was told Jacob wasn’t too far ahead. How far is not too far? Turns
out it was too far. I finished second. I was pretty sure I was
faster than last year. I knew I was closer to Jacob than either of
the previous two years. Ian looked up my time from last year on his
fancy phone. I was 3 minutes faster than last year. I was also only
3:31 behind Jacob. I am quite surprised by my day. The course was
sloppy, but is challenging even when dry. It's always hard to say how conditions affect a course. Jacob was a couple of minutes
slower than last year. For my races maybe I should blank out more often. I never
felt distressed or like I was forcing anything. After the race, I did call Matt to
check on him. Rothrock was just not his best choice at
that point. I was glad to hear nothing was really wrong for him.
Furthermore for myself, I had a
shockingly good run last Saturday out at Longbottom. I was absurdly
fast up and down the super steep Bluff Mountain trail, 16% average
for 2.8 miles one way. I was a couple seconds faster on the climb
run/hiking easy versus my previous best run steady. I was 2 minutes
faster for the descent without trying to run fast at all. I was just
blanking out again. I did another, more gentle climb up and down the
mountain for 16 total. I’m feeling pretty optimistic about Mt.
Washington in two weeks. Time to rest and get fresh legged. Plus
I’m feeling good about Speedgoat 50K in July. Maybe I should blank
out on those too, or not.
Disclaimer: No turtles were harmed in the running of this race, but a few humans were.
Results:
Men -
1. Jacob Loverich 2:39.03
2. Jason Bryant 2:42.34
3. Stephen Hennigar 2:52.48
Women -
1. Megan Kimmel 3:01.18
2. Ashley Moyer 3:19.54
3. Gina Lucrezi 3:2?
