I have gotten a bit behind on blogging and way behind on reading other blogs. Sorry! Life has just gotten crazy lately and I’ve been on the road a lot and busy at work the past few weeks. I’ll get caught up 🙂 In the meantime, here is my race report from the Conquer the Cove trail race that I ran on Sunday, June 5. This post is part of the Weekly Wrap linkup, hosted by Tricia @MissSippiPiddlin’ and Holly @HoHo Runs.

So, as I mentioned last week, I ran the CtC 25K trail race last weekend. It is a tough race with two big climbs and this year many of us (including me!) had the bonus of black bear encounters on the course. But more on that in a minute. This race is held at Carvins Cove Natural Reserve, which is the second largest municipal park in the nation. It’s the anchor event to the Mountain Junkies Roanoke Non-Ultra Trail Series and it offers both 25K and marathon distances. Both races start early, at 6:30 AM, to beat the heat. This year wasn’t terribly hot (low 70’s), but it was very very humid.

My morning started early, around 3:30 AM, and by 4:45 AM Barry and I were on the road to Roanoke. Although he wasn’t racing, Barry decide to tag along and run some of the final miles with me. We arrived, got parked, and then I got my bib and race packet. This years ‘swag’ also included a bandana with the race maps and elevation profiles.

We had the prerace meeting where we got to find out about the race before the race 😉 This was my third year running the race, so I’m very familiar with the course. Josh, the race director, reminded us to be sure that a wildlife sighting on the course (bear, snake, etc.) was actually real before freaking out. He also added that there had been extra bear activity in the area lately, but unless we were in the lead pack we were unlikely to encounter any. Shortly thereafter, we were off and running!

The first mile and a half or so were on a road. Starting out I felt stiff and my legs felt heavy. But I knew I had miles to go (the race measures somewhere between 15 and 16 miles) and that I had plenty of time to settle in. It wasn’t long before we entered the Cove and turned onto some lush singletrack.

Not long after getting on the trail we began a steep, 1.1 mile climb. It was the first of two major climbs during the race, and it’s a tough one.

I hiked the whole climb, for the most part, and let me tell you I was not feeling great. My calves were on fire, my heart rate was much higher than I wanted it to be, and mentally I was not feeling it. But I continued on.

Finally, we popped out onto the fire road and had a gradual, rocky descent into aid station 1 (mile 2.8). I cruised through, thanking the volunteers on my way by, and was soon back on single track trail. This next section has a lot of downhill and flat sections. Some sections are fairly technical, but others are very runnable.

This section also has many old, burned tree stumps (from a past fire) that are really good at pretending to be bears. I always laugh at them… but little did I know I would be seeing a much more real bear this year.

The stretch between aid station 1 and aid station 2 (mile 8) is about 5 miles, and for some reason it always feels long to me. I still was not feeling this run at all, but I had hooked up with 2-3 other women and was enjoying their company.

The camaraderie and good conversation carried me to aid station 2, which sits at the base of the next big climb – about 1,000 feet over 2.5 miles on a fire road.

The group I had been running with broke up, as we all left the aid station at different times, to begin the climb up Brushy Mountain. I went back and forth with a few people (we were hiking and running at different times) and we occasionally exchanged words. This climb can feel very long, and the best thing you can do is just keep moving. It was also very foggy/hazy on the mountain, which made it kind of spooky.

The fog made it hard to see very far in front of me and also made it hard to see into the woods on either side. Around mile 9.5, I heard a loud rustling off to my left down a steep hill. I slowed and looked down into the woods but I couldn’t see anything. Not too far behind me was a woman named Lori, who I had run with on and off since mile 6 or so. I could see she had heard the noise, too, as she was also looking down into the woods. I felt a little anxious, but told myself it was probably a squirrel like usual, and kept going. Then all of a sudden a young black bear comes running out of the woods from the right. He stopped right in front of me on the fire road, looked at me for about 2-3 seconds, and then took off down into the woods toward where I had heard the loud noise just moments ago. I had stopped dead on the trail, and then as he was running into the woods I was backing toward Lori. Luckily, she was close enough to see the whole thing, so I had a witness 🙂 No picture, as it happened very quickly and I was too busy trying to figure out if I was about to be eaten or not. But he looked very similar to this bear my friend captured on his trail cam recently:

Lori and I stuck together after that, and it wasn’t until we moved further up the trail that I realized the young bear was definitely young enough to still be with mamma (he wasn’t more than 2 years old) and that it was probably her we heard in the woods. That means that we were briefly between her and her baby. Yikes! The fog got thicker as Lori and I climbed, and it unnerved us a little bit. But we did feel safer together and we took turns making random noises and clapping every now and then to make sure we didn’t startle anything. That distracted us from the climb and it wasn’t long until we were rolling into the next aid station around mile 11.

I knew we were in for a 2.1 mile technical descent, so I only ate a few orange slices at the aid station since my stomach gets upset during long downhill sections. Each of the aid stations after the first one is stocked like an ultra (candy, chocolate, potato chips, fruit, etc.) which I always appreciate 🙂 We heard that many other runners who had come through were also reporting bear sightings. Lori and I had already decided we would part ways after the aid station, but we stayed relatively close as we headed down the Gauntlet trail. We were still occasionally making our ‘bear noises’ just in case. It had felt fairly cool at the top of the mountain, but the more we ran downhill the hotter and more humid it became.

Finally, after mile 12 (and with a little over 3.5 miles to go) a switch flipped in my head and I was ready to run! Good grief, it took long enough! And then Barry showed up 🙂 He had taken a nap and then started running the course in reverse from the finish line toward me. Lori and I were still running together and he joined us. He got a kick out of the ‘bear noises” I was still occasionally making, and would laugh every time I made a little “woop woop” noise. Since I was feeling good, I started to naturally pull away from Lori. We wished each other well as Barry and I headed down the trail. I was relieved to make it down Gauntlet without falling or twisting my ankle, as we turned onto an old access road.

A little over a mile later, I was back out on the paved road where the race had begun. I was tired, but still feeling fairly fresh thanks to taking it easy during the race. But I was also ready to be done. Barry and I turned off of the road onto some more single track. It was here that I encountered the only mud of the day as I made my way back towards Loch Haven Lake and the finish line.

I crossed the line in 4:09:15 – my slowest time ever at this race. But my goals going into it were to finish feeling fairly fresh, to do some climbing, and to get some time on my feet. I accomplished all of those goals. After finishing, I collected my finisher’s medal from Gina, Mountain Junkie extraordinaire. I promptly asked her where my additional bear medal was, and she laughed out loud. 🙂 From there it was time to go in the lake! And with the heat and humidity, it felt oh so good.

Barry and I hung out in the relaxed atmosphere around the finish line and I soaked my feet in the lake while we cheered in other runners, including Lori! We made sure to get a picture afterward, because how can you not after sharing several miles and a black bear encounter?

There is always a great post-race food spread at Mountain Junkies races, and this one in particular also has a cookout. I enjoyed a burger, some grapes, and crackers with hummus along with ice cold Gatorade. Yum! Then it was time for Barry and me to hit the road and head home. It wasn’t even noon, yet, and I was in desperate need of a nap!

What types of wildlife do you have in your area?
What is the earliest you have ever gotten up for a race?

Have you ever considered the following: Why can we run a maximum of 20 miles and it feels tough in training, but then we can go out and run a 31 mile race?

There are probably lots of science-based answers concerning the training process… cumulative fatigue… tapering…. race day adrenaline… blah blah blah. But I think there’s something bigger than all of those things. The biggest thing is your mentality.

It’s all about your frame of mind. When you head out determining to run from point A to point B, your mind and body are on board – they adjust somehow. You mentally accept that you’ll be out there for 6, 7, or 8 hours. That’s why you can do it. The mind is a powerful thing.

I’ve run an ultramarathon. That doesn’t mean I can go out for a 15 mile run and not be tired and ready to be done at mile 15. Why? It’s all about that frame of mind. I set out to run 15 miles and on that day that’s as far as I can go.

Distance running is a metaphor for life. We adjust to whatever is in front of us and whatever we are up against. And each time, we find a way to keep going.

How do you get in the right frame of mind?

I’m linking up this evening with Holly @HoHo Runs and Tricia @MissSippiPiddlin’ for their Weekly Wrap link up. Be sure to click over to both of their blogs to check them out and see who else is linking up!

This week I’m going to share a few of the runs I have done over the past three weekends. My running lately has not been stellar. I haven’t run nearly as much as I’d like to. That’s partly due to time constraints and also partly due to a high hamstring tendinopathy thing I’ve been dealing with. The latter seems to have mostly resolved, at least.

When I have gotten out for some trail running, I’ve been making it count. I’ve also moved away from focusing on mileage as much. My primary focus has been on elevation gain and time on my feet. Over the past three weekends I have run a total of 42 miles with over 14,500 feet in elevation change.

Sunday, May 22
I headed over to the Cascade falls in the Jefferson National Forest with my little sister, Rachael, and my husband, Barry. Rachael hiked to and from the falls while Barry and I did our own running workouts. I chose to run two repeats to the falls for a total of 8 miles and 1,500 feet in elevation gain/3,000 feet total change.

I first hiked the Cascades when I was in high school and I never imagined that eleven years later I would be running “hill” repeats there! It’s crazy the way your mind shifts when you step into the world of long distance and trail running.

Friday, May 27
Just five days later I was back at the Cascades again to run more repeats. Three this time for a total of 12 miles and 2,300 feet in elevation gain/4,600 feet total change. My legs were feeling tired from Sunday’s run, but I still had a good time with this run.

I saw a large black snake on one of my trips up to the falls. I also saw a lot of hikers out enjoying the day. It was fun when I would see groups several times and they would either cheer me on or ask how many times I was going to run up and down. It gives you a boost when people are in disbelief at what you are doing (even if they also probably think you’re crazy).

Saturday, May 28
There’s no rest for the weary, so the very next day I headed up to Pandapas Pond, also in the Jefferson National Forest, for another day of climbing. No repeats this time. Instead, I just did one of my favorite 6-ish mile loops, which covers 1,100 feet in elevation gain and 2,100 feet in total elevation change.

This run was a good chance for me to continue to practice moving on tired legs. One of the trails I climbed is called Snake Root. It stayed true to form and had lots of roots and also another big black snake (this seemed to be the weekend for snakes).

Sunday, June 5
Today was another day with a lot of climbing for me. I was up bright and early (well, dark and early since it was 3:00 AM and the sun wasn’t up yet) for my third year running Conquer the Cove 25K trail race in Roanoke. This is a tough race! This year was super humid and I ran my slowest time. However, I was running this race as a training run and I finished feeling tired but still relatively fresh. I covered 15.8 miles and a total of 2,400 feet in gain/4,800 feet total elevation change.

There were definitely times when I questioned signing up for this race again. Some parts of the course are just so tough. In the end it was another great Mountain Junkies event. I even crossed paths with a young black bear around mile 10! The mountains are alive and I’ve certainly had my share of wildlife encounters lately. Full details on the race (and the bear encounter) next week!

So that’s what’s been going on with me lately!

What have you been up to lately?

What is it about the word marathon? The word itself seems to have a certain intimidating quality about it.

It sounds so hard to me. The big, bad marathon. The holy grail of road racing. The word everyone associates with running races (even when they make the mistake of asking you “how long is this marathon?”).

Want to know something crazy? When I had the flu and missed my second peak week during 50K training, I considered dropping down to a shorter distance. That’s not the crazy part, that’s actually probably the smart, logical part. I figured if I couldn’t train properly I probably needed to run something shorter and find another 50K later on. Here’s the crazy: The next option down at North Face was the marathon. For some reason, that sounded less appealing to me than the trail 50K. So I stuck with the ultra. Which leads me to another realization… I don’t feel like the word ‘ultramarathon’ holds the same stigma as ‘marathon.’ But that’s probably another post for another time.

What do you think about the word marathon?

I’m linking up today on the Wednesday Word linkup, hosted by Debbie. Each week Deb gives us a word prompt to write about. This week’s word is empower. I’m probably going a totally different direction than most this week, but that’s the fun part about this link up.

When you were a kid, did you ever think about having a superpower? I think back then I probably wanted the power to fly. That would be cool. But I’ve since changed my mind. Now, I would want the power to control time. Is that lame??

Let’s ignore all of the ramifications every movie has ever taught us about meddling with time (although it worked out fairly well for Sirius Black…). Just go with me on this one. Life seems so busy and rushed now-a-days and I often find myself feeling like I just don’t have enough time in the day. There are so many instances where I wish I could just stop time and live in that moment. The ability to slow time down, speed it up, or freeze it would be amazing. I have a lot of stipulations to go with that, but we’ll keep it simple today and just leave it at that.

Unfortunately, I do not have this superpower (or any, for that matter). When I go out on a run, particularly on trails, I refer to that time as “Western Time.” It’s the closest I get to controlling time, and for now that’s good enough for me.

If you could have any one superpower, what would it be and why?