Vacation. Finally. Amanda and I had a little bit of a rough start after our flight was delayed three hours, but we made it home for our annual New England summer trip. I originally planned on racing at Pingree in the North Shore Trail Series race, but after getting in so late I decided to bag it and just get some extra rest. After we woke up and took the obligatory trip to Honey Dew, Amanda’s dad picked her up at my house to take her down to Rhode Island for the week, while I hopped in the car and headed up to Vermont to spend a couple days in the mountains with Josh Ferenc (aka @wildFerenc…aka the Last Hero & Only Hope).
When I got to Vermont, Josh and I headed out for 12 on the power line trails a short drive from his house, a nice little warm up for Sunday’s quest; a run from Josh’s house over to Putney Mountain some 16-18 miles away.
We woke up early Sunday and loaded up with a big breakfast, I went with two English muffins, one with Maple almond butter and one with nutella, while Josh did the same plus two fried eggs. I also downed half a Red Bull, knowing at some point I was going to be suffering for energy. Gregg Hammett met us around 8:30 and we set out on the trails behind Josh’s house.
The beginning of the run wasn’t too bad because it was so early, but things start off with an asphyxiating climb before things start to level out…a little. After what felt like an hour of running up we hit Athens Look out, a small clearing with amazing views of the surrounding mountains. In the distance you could clearly see Stratton Mountain and it’s wide cut skiing trails, which was really neat. From the lookout when ran down to a ridge trail called the Jamie Latham Trail over to the Pinnacle, another small summit lookout with a really cool lean-to shelter that looks like a log cabin that someone cut in half.
When we reached the Pinnacle, we met up with Justin Fyffe and stopped to take a gel (peanut butter GU) and have some water. I was carrying a 20 oz Salomon bottle, while Gregg also had a small hand held. The gel helped for about 30 minutes, but being 90+ minutes into the run already I was feeling pretty tired. We hopped onto the Pinnacle trail and started making out way to Putney Mountain. I took the lead for this section and tried to keep the pace solid, we weren’t running fast but I didn’t want to dog it either. After about 20 or 30 minutes in front I missed a turn and Gregg and Josh corrected the course while I settled in behind. This is where things started to go south.
Just short of the two hour mark things were going great. We were running conversationally, even on all the climbs, laughing about a bunch of dumb stuff and talking about different ideas for training runs and races. Once we’d passed the two hour mark and with all the climbing we’d done I started to run out of gas very rapidly. I was doing okay keeping up on the flatter and downhill sections but I dropped way back on even the slightest climb. I know how Richie Porte must have felt when he was struggling in the Pyrenees. Every up hill, even if it was only 20 or 30 meters was miserable. I put my head down and tried to grind up and when I’d pick my head back up I’d be 20 feet back. For all the excitement I felt at how well I ran the hills during the Peachtree, the mountains of Vermont quickly reminded me of why I said I wanted to spend more time in the north Georgia mountains next spring. I went from running to riding the struggle bus in a very short period of time.
We made it to the “Five Corners” trail intersection, where Josh originally wanted to take the West Cliff trail down then back up a tough switchback climb to the summit, but because he could see that I had cracked from the climbing and he could sense Gregg was starting to struggle due to the fact that he ran a 10 mile race the day before, Josh had us stick to the Ridge line trail that only included a short .3 mile climb to the top of Putney Mountain.
I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t hang, but told everyone that if they wanted to do the full 18 I would be all for it, but they’d just have to wait for me at the top. I knew that mentally I was still in it and still enjoying the idea of running, but physically it was going to be rough. I felt like I could do it, but it was going to be a battle for every step. Gregg and Josh both settled on being okay running 2.5 hours (16 miles) instead of 3 (18) and we went on our way.
We ran the ridgeline trail to where it met with Banning road then jumped back into the woods for the final climb up to the Putney Mountain summit. This wasn’t a long climb but as soon as we starting going up the wheels came off. I was instantly dropped and my left hamstring began to cramp up. After about 45 second, I thought I was going to be reduced to walking. At this point, I didn’t know we were only about a quarter mile from the summit, so I had to have a little personal Pow Wow to try and figure out how I was going to keep going. One minute into the climb and it was over for me. Josh, Gregg and Justin were all out of sight and I was battling to put one foot in front of the other. I tried to walk a little but that didn’t help my hamstring so I started shuffling up the mountain and just kept telling myself to get through it and if I could make it where they eventually stopped to wait for me then I could take a minute to stretch out. I took a few pulls from the water bottle, put my head down, and started grinding, but honestly, walking probably would have been faster.
After a few minutes, I came to a trail intersection and to my right I could see what would turn out to be the summit of Putney Mountain. Once I came out of the woods and realized it was the summit I was instantly happy to be out there running again. We stopped for a minute while I tried to loosen my hamstring then made the short half mile jaunt down to Fyffe’s car. It was an awesome idea by him to leave his car at Putney Mountain and I am eternally grateful to his wife for dropping him off at the Pinnalce, otherwise it would have been five miles down the mountain to his house.
When we reached his car, bingo bango, he brought gatorades! That was the best Gatorade I’ve ever tasted. According to my GPS the run was a little over 14 miles but since it was all trails and mostly pretty rugged I’m calling it 16. That’s what the map says, so that’s what I’m calling it.
We all piled into Fyffe’s car and hit the culvert, a swimming hole that was gloriously cold. Gregg had been talking about it since the first few miles of the run and it definitely, lived up to the hype. We also hit a natural spring on the way back to Josh’s house, which I thought was really cool. I don’t get a chance to do that much in the suburban sprawl of Gwinnett County. We all rode back to Josh’s to change then headed into Bellows Falls to the Shona Grill for some much needed caloric intake. I went with a VT cheddar bacon burger with maple mayo and sweet potato fries. It was amazing. I wish I’d ordered two burgers and went without the fries.
After pigging out we headed back to Josh’s to chill for a bit before we rode bikes down to the river for another swim, then hit up a local farm for some fresh maple walnut ice cream. Yes I had maple sugar on pretty much everything I ate. When in Rome right? It could be worse, a few years ago when I was living in Philly Josh came down and had cheez wiz on literally everything he ate for two days. See, maple sugar is looking a little healthier isn’t it.
Over all this was an awesome run. It was a real adventure for me. Despite the fact that I had some serious struggles I really enjoyed exploring some new dirt and running with good friends. Runs like this and the one I did the week before in Unicoi are all steps towards me trying to become a better trail runner and runner in general. I’m going to need more and more like this if I want to run some of the Rock/Creek races I’m eyeing for next year.
16 miles – 2:26 minutes – 3,086+ feet climbed.
Strava Data:
Now I need to find another Red Bull and some Vermont Peanut Butter Company peanut Butter.
