First off, now that a couple of days have passed since the Pineland Farms Trail Running Festival, let me just point out that the race might not be for everyone, but only in the same way that a really hoppy IPA might not be for everyone. If you like trail running, you'd love this race. From everything I heard, the Saturday races all went well -- the 5k, 10k, barefoot 5k and canicross 5k (ie - running a 5k with your pooch). And when I arrived on Sunday morning, the place was hopping once again. I was a little nervous because driving down from my hotel in Augusta the fog on the highway was really thick. When I got to New Gloucester, the temp. on my car was 61 degees, but the humidity was high enough that I was already drenched in sweat 20 minutes into the run.
The course is great -- a double loop perfect mix of fields and forest, with a few dramatic ups and downs and enough variation that it stays interesting, but also by the time you hit them the second time, you have some judgement as to what's left of the course. It also seemed to be a great mix of veterans and newcomers, and if you ever needed conversation, it was easy enough to find. The aid stations also left nothing to be desired, fully stocked with everything you could possibly need, and since there was a cash prize at the end to the group putting on the best aid station, there was actually competition among them. At one point I had a girl at one of the aid stations run up to me on the approach, grab my water bottle, and by the time I reached the end of the table she handed it back to me -- full of ice water, with the top screwed back on correctly! The trails were clearly marked with orange flags anywhere you needed them, and there were numbered markers at every kilometer.
Despite my fears that the week(s) of rain leading up to the race would likely have made a mess of the trails, they were actually in pretty good condtion, with the perimiter of the fields having a clearly mown path through the waist high grass (as the race director e-mailed out ahead of time, the rain did stop them from being able to cleat the mown grass, so it was just left on the path, which didn't create the issues I thought it would). There was only one marked spot where it ended up being impossible not to go just over ankle deep in the wet mud, and despite my hopes, by the second lap it the swamp was still there, so just as I felt my feet were getting dry, I hit it again. My feet were never actually getting dry, though, because of a combination of the socks not drying as quickly as I expected them to, and the mud making it more difficult for the shoes to spit the water back out.
Personally, I can say with certainty that it was the most challenging race I've ever done, and also the most fun. I hit the wall really hard around the 21st mile, and it was exacerbated by what I think was really low blood sugar (I took 9 units of basal insulin the night before, usually I take 14 if I'm not running, or 13 if I'm running to and from work, and 10 or 11 before a marathon, so I was really subconsciously afraid of my sugars getting too high, so I was being cautious at the aid stations -- silly in hindsight, considering both the 6+ hours of running and the extremely high humidity) and possibly sunstroke, because although I didn't realize it at the time, my neck was (and still is) extremely sunburned. At my next stop at the Yurt aid station, I realized I needed to stop and recuperate, so I stopped and sat down for about ten minutes, stuffed my face with as much junk food as I could possibly manage and just a little too much to drink, and immediately felt better. Of course by then it was too late to get back (mentally and physically) to where I was before I crashed, but I managed to pull myself through until I really started to cramp up on the home stretch of the outside loop at around mile 26. Then my calf cramped up as I was coming down a hill and I almost took a header, and a few minutes later, both quads cramped up like rocks and I had to walk up a hill backwards because each time I tried to stretch it out, I ended up cramping up somewhere else..
So it wasn't a pretty finish for me, but it was a finish. And it was great to see a mix of 50 milers and 50k runners out there on the course, with a few 25k runners at the tail end. Plus, the finishers village was really chill, with tons of food, Muscle Milk and first aid under the tents. Plus, the cowbells made for perfect finishers medals. I know I'll be back for this race next year.. I might even run the 50 miler..
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