I was very excited for Tussey. It was the first race, where I would need to travel and spend the night in a hotel. It’s a nice drive up to State College, as it’s very scenic from Philadelphia. You get a sense of the terrain as you pass the mountains, on the drive that makes up the “Mountainback” part of the race. Our destination was the Nittany Budget motel. The best, cheapest place, if you are thinking about doing this race and need a hotel. The other perk is that it’s a bottle shop, to bad I couldn’t drink, with the race the next day. After check in, we made our way to packet pickup, which was located at the Toffee Trees hotel. I thought maybe this would be an expo of sorts, since it’s considered the championship race for 50M, but the race really isn’t that large of an event. We grabbed a bite to eat at the Allen Street Grill, which was excellent and not too expensive. It was also next to a convenience store to grab some last minute race essentials.
Once back at the motel, I tried to get some sleep, but the constant stream of cars to the bottle shop kept me awake. Someone also decided to let their motorcycle idle outside our hotel room for 10 minutes at 12AM. It didn’t really matter much, as I wasn’t going to sleep well, with the race constantly on my mind.
Morning came and our breakfast was delivered via a double sided lock box accessible from outside. We headed off to the race start, which was at the Tussey Mountainback ski lodge. I said goodbye to my Dad, who was driving the support vehicles, and the race was off to a start. Looking back, it’s both good and bad that they allowed vehicles on the course. Great when you can see your support at every check point, not that great when a car needs to pass every few minutes.
Dad made the trip up to drive the support vehicle.
It didn’t take long until we hit our first climb and passed the first aid station. It wasn’t that far into the race, maybe 3 or 4 miles that I met my new best friend for the day, Shaun Sauer. We got to talking and realized we both had around the same time goal for the race. The more we started talking we both realized the larger goal was just completion, and barring no major problems, we were going to complete the race together. Shaun’s farthest run at the time was 27 miles, mine 31. We both had some doubts about what would happen once we were past the farthest distance we had covered in training. It’s uncharted territory for any runner and you don’t know how the body will respond. That was the part I was fearing the most, what was I going to feel like when I passed 31 miles. This would be where your mental preparation comes in, which should be a part of your training, but I’ll post on that some other time. Running with Shaun, we just kept focused on the course and climbs that we needed to conquer. Both of us were in shock at the long hill in the middle of the course (2300FT from my Garmin). This was the hardest, longest climb I have run to date. I would recommend hill training in your routine, at least once a week, if you plan to do this race. I used a hill near my house to do repeats once a week. The hill takes two minutes to climb, with about 100 ft of elevation. I also did long runs done on a pretty hilly trail system.
The two differences between my training and Shaun’s was that he did upwards of 70 MPW, and I felt he pushed the pace more than I did. The training plan, that I was on, had me at 50 MPW. In hindsight I’d say this wasn’t enough, and at the time of the race, I regret not getting in more. I’m sure most people say the same thing after the fact, but I fit in as much training as my schedule allowed. As the saying goes, don’t force it where it doesn’t fit, and I definitely couldn’t fit in any more mileage. I did get in multiple runs over marathon distance and think that was my only advantage. Also, my training had more technical terrain. For Tussey, I would call this more of a road race than a trail race. This is a perfect first 50 mile race because it’s not rocky or difficult terrain. Personally, dealing with the distance was tough enough, so I didn’t want to add technical terrain on top of that.
For me, the race became a death march around mile 36. I developed a blister on my pinky toe, that caused pain with every step I took. I decided to change shoes because I could feel the hot spot coming on at mile 27. I put Vaseline on it, which seemed to help for a few miles, but didn’t completely resolve the issue for me. At two different aid stations, I had to cut the blister to relieve the pressure. It was still painful but bearable. I did try to patch it with moleskin, but it didn’t seem to stay on my toe. Next time I would try to prep with more body glide. I have also picked up some feetures socks since then to avoid this in the future. In training I had zero problems with blisters, but I never ran farther than 36 miles.
Allowing cars on the course is both good and bad. It’s nice that you get to see your support crew at every aid station, but having to deal with cars passing every few minutes was annoying. If I had to choose, I would say it’s still more of a benefit. It was nice to be able to tell my dad something as he drove past, and he would have it ready at the next aid station. This is also necessary for the relay portion of the race, so I understand why it’s needed.
For the last 10 miles of the race, we switched to a run/walk combo. Almost everyone that I know that does an ultra walks at some point. In your training you should practice walking fast. It’s a tool you can use to give your legs a break. We reached the final aid station, which is 5 miles from the finish, and my last chance I had to check my blister. I cut it again to relieve the pressure and try to put some moleskin on it. I picked myself up, and joined Shaun after he met with his wife for the final time. This was the last leg of the race and it was all downhill. We pushed the pace as much as we could, but my quads, at this point, were destroyed. The pain was horrible, so much that it was really turning me off wanting to attempt something like this again. I just couldn’t wait for this thing to be over, I felt so much of relief when I turned the corner and could finally see the finish line. I asked Shaun if he was going to go for it and, and one second later we started sprinting toward the finish. Behind us I could see there were two runners that were gaining on us, and then, finally it was over. We crossed the finish line in 8:26:33. This was faster than I thought we were going to run it, and a great time for my first, and possibly last 50 miler.
I could not imagine having to do this race alone, I actually think I had such an advantage with having a running partner. It’s less time you would have to listen to your own internal monologue telling you, “This is painful”, “Please stop”, “Why are you doing this?”. If I had to do it again, the only thing I would change would be upping my weekly mileage to 70-80MPW. I think that played a big factor in the amount of pain I was feeling in the end. My final thoughts on this race/distance is that it takes a ton of time to be competitive. More time than I’m willing to commit, I’m happy with the 50K distance. I’ll try to perfect my 50K before I would ever attempt another 50 miler. I keep going back to my first experience at Blues Cruise, and nothing compares to it. So for next year I think that’s going to make that my main focus and set a goal to place in the top 10.
There’s three people I have to thank for my big success at this race. First, it’s my wife for giving me the time with a newborn to train for this race. Second, it’s my dad for making the trip up to State College to support me. Finally, it’s Shaun for running an entire race with a complete stranger. This was the most difficult race I have ever run, but running with Shaun made the experience easier. It did not feel like 8 hours when the race was over. His support helped me through some really tough patches during the race. He said I did the same for him, so I’m glad that I could help him achieve his goal. I really don’t think I would have completed this race otherwise when the pain became almost unbearable. Running is not a solo sport when you think about it, it can be a team effort. So if I didn’t have my wife, Dad, and Shaun helping me I could not have completed this race.
Post race I didn’t really like their food selection. The soggy hoagies from Subway didn’t taste that great, but they did have live music and beer which was great. I quickly proceeded to burger king to get a greasy burger and fries with a tub of coke. I was pretty sure I earned it since I just burned upwards of 7500 calories. Overall, this race provided me with a very enjoyable first 50 miler experience. So if you are looking for your first 50 that’s not extremely difficult I would say pick this race for sure.
Patrick is an ultrarunner and coach from Philadelphia who loves documenting his running career. His mission is to provide useful tips and tricks to assist others along their ultra journey. You can find his coaching services at https://ultraruncoach.com.
So how did I get here? That’s what I usually ask myself. It’s always when I ‘m pushing myself to some new extreme or event that I had never done before. I was browsing this subreddit when I came upon the video “Running Madness”. If you haven’t seen it you can check it out here (WARNING: You may feel the need to enter an ultra after watching. ) That video helped spark the idea of, “Would it be possible”? Would I be able to get ready for an ultra in under 2 months? I had already put in a decent amount of training to complete Steelman a few weeks ago. In my previous post, I had mentioned I was following this schedule. I would fit the long runs in during the week with running to work, and then get the rest in during the weekend. At least that was the plan…
This same time last year, I was preparing for the Philly marathon and having some issues with top-of-the-foot-pain. I worked hard to correct my form, I even recorded myself running on a treadmill to analyze it. That information helped me correct my form and I haven’t had an issue since. I’ve done high mileage and some of the hardest runs to date. So everything was falling into place, if I was able to get in more miles and stay injury free the ultra would be easy, right? Well that’s what I originally thought, I would later find out that they made a HUGE change to the course.
I felt as though the training was difficult but not unbearable, I actually started to really enjoy my long runs to work. They were a time to relax and unwind, except for the part where I run through a state park at 5:30AM in the dark. Running in the dark was a new experience and I picked up this. Either way, most of my miles were done with a mix of road and light trail. This didn’t fully prepare me for the new course this year.
Stephan Weiss informs us how much we will suffer.
Of course the night before the race it starts raining. This has me worried about what conditions would be like, and to top it off, it starts pouring on the way there. I know that this won’t be good for the trails, I had run a trail race earlier in the year, the Mt. Penn Mudfest, in the rain and nearly twisted my ankle twice on the course. The idea of doing that again was starting to worry me, I was fortunate in the fact that the rain stopped right before the start of the race.
So the race is off and I seeded myself near the back. I know I’m going to be in for the long haul and I wanted to avoid as much pain as I could. I was amazed at how fast some people went out, I guess I was expecting more of a leasiurly pace but that wasn’t what most seemed to be doing. They have you start with running on the road for a half mile before you enter the trail. It was 98% trail, there was only a few short sections where you had to run on the road. Most of the time you spent it running parallel to the lake, or opposite corn fields. The rain had made conditions very slippery. I can’t count the number of times I had to catch myself from slipping on mud and going down. The week before I had spoken to multiple people who had done the course last year. They all said the same thing, it wasn’t much of a challenge, and it’s relatively flat. They had done an out and back but this year they opted for one big loop . The first 10 miles were relatively easy, as you can see from my Garmin data below, the difficult hills didn’t come till later in the race. I had done hill work but nothing near the level of what I experienced. Looking back, I know I should have spent more time with hill training. I had heard from someone else that you should walk the larger hills of a trail race, so that’s what I did. I think this helped save my legs for the finish.
That's COLD!
If I had to say anything about the people you meet in a trail run, it’s that they just seem to be a nicer group. I talked to a few different people along my 31 mile journey and they were all very friendly. I actually took a spill going down this one hill and a guy took the time to stop and help me up. He even turned around and pulled the tree root out of the ground that tripped me so it didn’t get anyone else. You don’t experience this when you run the big city marathon. Everybody has their headphones on and focused on their run. There’s a bond between trail runners as you suffer the course together, it makes you talk to your fellow runner. That, and the fact that there’s not 20,000 people running the race at the same time.
I had an additional “ace up the sleeve” to help me get through the race. My parents were actually worried about me heading out on such a long run, my Dad offered to drive up with me. In the “Running Madness” video they talked about pacers, so I asked him if he would be willing to meet me for the last portion of the race. I can’t begin to explain the difference this made, after mile 22 I had been running alone. When I got to the last aid station to meet up with him, he had already run 4 miles out to meet me. I was dead at this point and my legs were in pain, but when I got behind him to finish out the last leg of the race it gave me a second wind. I was able to pick the pace up and continue on to the finish. I wouldn’t have done nearly as well for those last 4 miles, the most difficult to complete. I can see why a pacer is so critical, especially if this had been a longer race.
"Pacer Dad" helped me finish the 50K
When I did cross the finish line it was the single best experience in running to date. I have never felt such a sense of accomplishment as I did completing that race. As for my results, I was 17th with a time of 4:45. I’m pretty happy with all things considered. I learned a lot in this race, and I learned just how critical your pace can be. I should have taken it easier on the start, maybe walked a few more hills, and pushed a little harder on the downhills. This was the most fun I have ever had running a course. The aid stations were packed with good food and good people. I can say for sure that I will be showing up next year. I heard they are doing the course in reverse!!!
Patrick Durante is an ultrarunner and coach from Philadelphia who likes to document his running career. His goal is to provide useful tips and tricks to help other along their ultra journey.
