I successfully ran and finished the Laurel Highlands Ultra on 14 June.
- Distance, 70.5 miles.
- Time, 18:54:08.
- Elevation gain, 3,218 m (10,558 feet).
- Calories burned, 6,653.
Here is the garmin trace with the details.
Here is the full report.
First, the preparation was kind of “on again/off again” over the last 6 months because of various injuries. In late December, the outside of my left foot started giving me pain along with the chronic pain in my left big toe and I had to miss about 5 weeks of training. At that time with 4 months until the LH Ultra, I had serious doubts about being able to run it. I saw a podiatrist and he prescribed some arch support inserts that seemed to help clear things up. He said the big toe will always hurt due to onset of some arthritis, but the added arch support should help alleviate the pain.
In February and March I got in some good training weeks and was able to complete the 80 km (50 mile) Paris Ecotrail on 29 March which included a good finish and gave me a lot of confidence. See the write up here: Paris Ecotrail.
In April I came down with a sore throat and effectively missed 2 weeks of training time where I only was able to do 34km and had to skip the Marathon de Gatinais.
The 37 km Trail de l’Oise at Compiègne on May 4th got me back on track.
Then in mid-May I planned to do the 54km Donjon Trail, but the week before, I injured my right achilles tendon during a day of yard work around the chalet. I missed about 10 days of training to give the achilles time to rest.
Training time was getting short, but I was able to put together two good weeks of training with a 42 km run one weekend and a 50 km run the next Sunday, backed up with a 20 km the next day. Then for the final two weeks before the ultra I went into my pre-race taper.
As I stepped to the ultra start line at 5:30 AM on 14 June I was feeling confident considering the last month of preparation and the 80 km race where I proved to myself I was able to push through extreme fatigue.
I had the pleasure of running with Terry and Joe on the first leg. Our tactic was to start near the back of the pack and conserve our strength until we got over the first hills and reach the top of the mountain with still some degree of freshness remaining. Somewhere along the way Terry took a tumble and blood did flow. As we came into the first aid station at mile 11 we were huffing and puffing, but feeling strong. We ate lots of raspberries and blackberries, topped off our liquids and headed on down the trail.
We got separated about 3 miles from the checkpoint and I came in a few minutes before Terry. I got some stuff to eat: pretzels, bananas, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, potato chips. I need to replace lost salt or else I get cramps. Every couple of hours in the race I reached into my back pocket and took a salt pill.
I completed the first section in 4:30 which was 40 minutes slower than I had done last year which is a lot. The footing was somewhat slippery and I wasn’t taking any chances. One of the bridges was wet and wobbly. Fortunately I was forewarned by the guy in front of me who nearly did a double backflip onto the jagged rocks below. Likewise, on the downhills, I was being extra careful and not taking any unnecessary risks.
Section 2 has a lot of hills, including the stretch through Seven Springs ski area. Tiredness started to hit me here as I made the climb to the lake in the open under the sun. Thoughts of the remaining 40+ miles came into my mind. I tried to avoid those thoughts and just think about getting to the next checkpoint to refuel, regroup, rest and then go on from there. I finished the section in 3:09 compared to the 3:01 time of last year. So that put me almost 50 minutes behind my time of last year. I was aware that I was going slower but remained confident that I could keep it going longer that way.
Section 3 is the second toughest out of the 5 sections because it’s long (14 miles), rocky, with treacherous footing, starts with 3 quick hills, ends with a series of hills and includes hills in the middle. When you start this section you’ve already done 32.3 miles and you’re not even halfway done yet so you try not to think about that. In this section I was able to keep running for the most part, except of course on the steep climbs. As I approached checkpoint #3 at Route 30 I heard the distant rumble to trucks. I crossed the road trying to maintain good form for my fan club. All the cheers lifted my spirits.
My time ended up being around 3:07 for this section as I crossed Route 30 at 4:15 pm. That time compares favorably to last year when I ran the section in 4 hours, completely disintegrated and was forced to abandon.
I enjoyed a well-earned 10 min rest in a lawn chair, changed shirts, refueled and headed out to the section of trail I know best that goes between Route 30 and Route 217, and which passes within about 2 miles of home sweet home where I grew up. After crossing the famous Forbes Road, the trail takes you down to Machine Run and you attack the major difficulty in this section, the 500 foot climb back up to the top. Before the race I said to myself that if you can just make it through the climb out of Machine Run, then you’ll be able to finish the race. Well, the climb did just about do me in as I had to take frequent stops to catch my breath and rest my legs. About 8 other runners passed me on this climb as I suffered both physically and mentally. Finally, I made it to the top and continued on through well-known territory, that brought back memories of many camping and hiking trips. On top of the ridge the forest opens up with sparsely scattered trees and a forest floor covered in a sea of luscious green ferns. It’s very pleasant as you jog along the trail with the sweet scents of ferns.
From there until checkpoint #4 I did a lot of walking also so I completed this relatively short 10.7 mile section in 4:11 which turned out to be my slowest pace for any section. The support crew was there waiting for me so I pulled up a chair and got some hot ramen noodles into me. It was about 8:30 PM and darkness was coming on so I put on my headlamp and also picked my small hand-held flashlight out of my bag.
I met up with John who graciously volunteered to be my pacer even after putting in a strong 14 miles earlier in the day with our relay team. After a 20 minute rest, we stepped off into the forest and I somehow got my legs moving again. We quickly got into a pretty good rhythm, alternating between jogging and a fast-paced walk. Somewhere in the first few miles the hot soup kicked in to give me a boost and I started to feel stronger. Also being with John definitely helped keep the positive attitude going. We chatted and swapped stories as we went along. It would have been difficult to be out there all alone in the dark, both mentally and physically. Pretty soon we started to pick off the runners that had passed me back at the climb out of Machine Run. It’s always a motivator to be the passer rather than the passee.
We made it to the dirt road and in the distance at the end of the road saw the final aid station. We arrived in good spirits, still with good legs, I had a couple cups of hot potato soup and then, set off again for the final push. There was one hill remaining which turned out to be less daunting than I feared. Then it was really all downhill from there. My thighs were aching quite a bit on the steep downhills, but fortunately I had no cramping.
The final few miles are quite rocky and treacherous in the darkness. We picked our way down the hill being very careful about foot placement. Amazingly, all day long, I never fell, never turned an ankle, never stubbed a toe, or never slipped over the entire 70.5 miles of trail. If I estimate that I took a step for each yard of trail, that makes 124,080 sure-footed steps without a mistake!
Anyway, as we approached the finish at nearly 00:30 AM we heard the generators whirring and saw lights ahead. I went into my final “sprint” to look cool for anyone who happened to be crazy enough to sit out in the middle of a forest at that hour waiting for even crazier runners to arrive. To my surprise the entire fan club was there back-slapping and high-fiving! What a great feeling to have completed the race!
Some final stats. I finished in 18 hours, 54 min for 74th place overall out of 145 runners and 105 finishers. There were at least 3 older guys that finished ahead of me so I didn’t get on the podium for my age group. Average pace was 16 min/mile or 6 min/km.
The next challenge is the Mont-Blanc Marathon on 29 June. Leaving for Chamonix tomorrow morning.