Bull Run Run 2017
I've been terrible about keeping up this blog w/ race reports and training logs but it's my hope to get better.
Yesterday was the 25th Bull Run Run 50; it was my second running of it. The race is put on by the Virginia Happy Trails Running Club (VHTRC) - this is there premiere event - it's a good one, too. I'm pretty sure you can find my race report from last year somewhere on this site, maybe I should go back and read it sometime. First of all, going into this run I didn't feel like I was actually going to run 50 miles. My world has been shaken up so much lately that writing Bull Run Run on my weekly to-do white board didn't seem like anything other than another assignment, a box to check off for the week. Friday I had hoped to have a relaxing day - you know, get shit done so that it was done for when I got home on Saturday night but the universe, aka, the JOB, had other plans. I got sucked into helping out on a deliverable that was FUBR w/ conflicting directions flying around via email and nobody quite knowing what the other person was doing. After a full day of that I was done...packing up Ori around 4 pm to drop him off at friend's house for the weekend. When I got home from running errands and got settled in the house was eerily quiet. This dog-child has been a constant companion for the last 2.5 years - I was missing my boy. . .I packed my bags, packed the car, poured myself a Bourbon - finally looked up directions and read the pre-race briefing on the VHTRC site and then I fell asleep.
0345 Saturday morning came early, too early. My plan was to leave the house by 0430 to arrive NLT 0545. Around 0400 I rolled out of bed, shuffled to the bathroom and had a good poop (there is a difference) and was immediately relieved that was taken care of. I washed up, smothered Vaseline all over my body and got dressed. After making coffee and toasting a bagel I chugged a pedialyte and was out the door - everything went according to plan. . .it was 30 degrees outside. That was not according to plan. The drive in was uneventful - thank god! Once parked I consolidated my bag, remembered to remove the inner protection from the additional bottles of pedialyte I had in my drop bag and shuffled down to the start/packet-pickup area. The older I get the more familiar w/ races I become. I know what I need and what I don't need and I don't get too terribly excited about much. I've also found that I have less tolerance for that one person looking directly at you while wearing a headlamp. There's a lot more I could write here about the rubbermaid containers full of body glide, bandaids, and other sundries that every ultrarunner seems to tote with them these days but instead I'll comment on the conversation I had with a nice man from Toronto as we sat watching the ritualistic dance on display before us. He and I were sitting outside the pavilion on the benches when he turned to me and said, 'I really don't understand what's happened to trail running. Back in the day it was just us rag tag runners, bare bones, you know, and now they bring everything but the kitchen sink.' This mirrors the thoughts I had back in 2012 when I ran my first 50-miler. I recall sitting on a landscaping wall, drinking coffee and picking at a bagel, watching the hustle and bustle of all the runners which is to say - not much has changed in my approach to ultrarunning in the last 5 years. . . .to the Start - an an actual report on the race, right?
okay. . .but first - it really made my morning to see a friend w/ her son. Her husband was running and they were looking for him when they spotted me. It was a great pick me up.
The run started at 0630 - the temps still hoovering at or below freezing but hey, the sun was out this year! The first 1/2 mile is a big circle out and around to 'thin out the field' - it doesn't thin out the field. . but one observation does come to mind - in this loop there's a hill, everyone walked up that hill. After that initial loop to thin out the field we officially left Hemlock and made our way out and down to Bull Run [Bull Run is a 32.8-mile-long free-flowing tributary stream of the Potomac River].
It's along this portion that all 300 runners are essentially running single file for the next couple of miles. Everyone is still settling into their paces and jockying for a better position because there is always that one runner who doesn't really run trails or feel comfortable so they seem to stop at every complicated portion of the trail. . . yeah. . I've got a few photos of this.
The first couple of miles along Bull Run are exactly that, trail running along Bull Run and hundreds of runners settling in.
If it's a good year, like this year was, the basin is relatively dry and the clay muck is mild. Usually this first out and back is a good 16 miles - due to heavy rain and construction the last mile of the out/back was cut off so the initial out/back was only 14 miles. The first aid station is at mile 6 (I think). It's kind of annoying because you leave the trail, climb stairs to a parking lot where you gather up food and fluids before heading back down to the trail. There's a constant flow of runners either going up or down this set of stairs - twice! The second part of this out/back was not as pleasant as the first - granted it's only 1 mile out/ 1 mile back but due to the heavy rains on Thursday this portion of the trail was muddy - it doesn't drain well. I was very thankful to be wearing my Solomon Speedcross shoes w/ a good lug on the sole. Unlike last year when I was slipping all over the trail, this year my feet were firmly grounded where I placed them.
Something I forgot to mention earlier is the one stream crossing that caused a backup. A legitimate backup of at least 30-50 runners. . . It was during this backup that I ran into a running buddy from Philadelphia who I ran most of and finished Terrapin with. It was really good to see her and to run most of Bull Run Run and finish with her here, too!
Now back to that stream crossing. With all of the rain, a few of the cement cylinders that serve as permanent stepping stones had washed away. That must have been some serious current because those cement cylinders are massive. . .here is a photo of runners crossing and a photo looking back at those still waiting in line to cross.
Yesterday was the 25th Bull Run Run 50; it was my second running of it. The race is put on by the Virginia Happy Trails Running Club (VHTRC) - this is there premiere event - it's a good one, too. I'm pretty sure you can find my race report from last year somewhere on this site, maybe I should go back and read it sometime. First of all, going into this run I didn't feel like I was actually going to run 50 miles. My world has been shaken up so much lately that writing Bull Run Run on my weekly to-do white board didn't seem like anything other than another assignment, a box to check off for the week. Friday I had hoped to have a relaxing day - you know, get shit done so that it was done for when I got home on Saturday night but the universe, aka, the JOB, had other plans. I got sucked into helping out on a deliverable that was FUBR w/ conflicting directions flying around via email and nobody quite knowing what the other person was doing. After a full day of that I was done...packing up Ori around 4 pm to drop him off at friend's house for the weekend. When I got home from running errands and got settled in the house was eerily quiet. This dog-child has been a constant companion for the last 2.5 years - I was missing my boy. . .I packed my bags, packed the car, poured myself a Bourbon - finally looked up directions and read the pre-race briefing on the VHTRC site and then I fell asleep.
0345 Saturday morning came early, too early. My plan was to leave the house by 0430 to arrive NLT 0545. Around 0400 I rolled out of bed, shuffled to the bathroom and had a good poop (there is a difference) and was immediately relieved that was taken care of. I washed up, smothered Vaseline all over my body and got dressed. After making coffee and toasting a bagel I chugged a pedialyte and was out the door - everything went according to plan. . .it was 30 degrees outside. That was not according to plan. The drive in was uneventful - thank god! Once parked I consolidated my bag, remembered to remove the inner protection from the additional bottles of pedialyte I had in my drop bag and shuffled down to the start/packet-pickup area. The older I get the more familiar w/ races I become. I know what I need and what I don't need and I don't get too terribly excited about much. I've also found that I have less tolerance for that one person looking directly at you while wearing a headlamp. There's a lot more I could write here about the rubbermaid containers full of body glide, bandaids, and other sundries that every ultrarunner seems to tote with them these days but instead I'll comment on the conversation I had with a nice man from Toronto as we sat watching the ritualistic dance on display before us. He and I were sitting outside the pavilion on the benches when he turned to me and said, 'I really don't understand what's happened to trail running. Back in the day it was just us rag tag runners, bare bones, you know, and now they bring everything but the kitchen sink.' This mirrors the thoughts I had back in 2012 when I ran my first 50-miler. I recall sitting on a landscaping wall, drinking coffee and picking at a bagel, watching the hustle and bustle of all the runners which is to say - not much has changed in my approach to ultrarunning in the last 5 years. . . .to the Start - an an actual report on the race, right?
okay. . .but first - it really made my morning to see a friend w/ her son. Her husband was running and they were looking for him when they spotted me. It was a great pick me up.
The run started at 0630 - the temps still hoovering at or below freezing but hey, the sun was out this year! The first 1/2 mile is a big circle out and around to 'thin out the field' - it doesn't thin out the field. . but one observation does come to mind - in this loop there's a hill, everyone walked up that hill. After that initial loop to thin out the field we officially left Hemlock and made our way out and down to Bull Run [Bull Run is a 32.8-mile-long free-flowing tributary stream of the Potomac River].
It's along this portion that all 300 runners are essentially running single file for the next couple of miles. Everyone is still settling into their paces and jockying for a better position because there is always that one runner who doesn't really run trails or feel comfortable so they seem to stop at every complicated portion of the trail. . . yeah. . I've got a few photos of this.
If it's a good year, like this year was, the basin is relatively dry and the clay muck is mild. Usually this first out and back is a good 16 miles - due to heavy rain and construction the last mile of the out/back was cut off so the initial out/back was only 14 miles. The first aid station is at mile 6 (I think). It's kind of annoying because you leave the trail, climb stairs to a parking lot where you gather up food and fluids before heading back down to the trail. There's a constant flow of runners either going up or down this set of stairs - twice! The second part of this out/back was not as pleasant as the first - granted it's only 1 mile out/ 1 mile back but due to the heavy rains on Thursday this portion of the trail was muddy - it doesn't drain well. I was very thankful to be wearing my Solomon Speedcross shoes w/ a good lug on the sole. Unlike last year when I was slipping all over the trail, this year my feet were firmly grounded where I placed them.
Something I forgot to mention earlier is the one stream crossing that caused a backup. A legitimate backup of at least 30-50 runners. . . It was during this backup that I ran into a running buddy from Philadelphia who I ran most of and finished Terrapin with. It was really good to see her and to run most of Bull Run Run and finish with her here, too!Now back to that stream crossing. With all of the rain, a few of the cement cylinders that serve as permanent stepping stones had washed away. That must have been some serious current because those cement cylinders are massive. . .here is a photo of runners crossing and a photo looking back at those still waiting in line to cross.
Now back to the run. After running into my friend, she crossed a few people ahead of me and I wouldn't see her again until Fountainhead, which is ~mile 28.
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