Tag: Elaine Cook

Race Report: Rocksylvania Trail Series (Granite Division)

by pagodapacers

by Elaine Cook

If you love hard trail races that have an unreasonable ratio of vert to distance, with tons of rocks and water crossings, and climbs/descents that lack any logical amount of switchbacks, and which would USUALLY be very muddy (just not in the 2024 season), then you’ve already found the PA Trail Dogs and their epic races.  

Like a lot of us, I crave a training goal that scares me and horrifies my non-runner friends. Struggling to train for ultras due to my cranky knees, I went with more races at a shorter distance. I’ve run a number of Rocksylvania races, so I was familiar with the trail series and its scoring, and intrigued by the idea of trying to complete the full slate at a sub-ultra distance. The races vary from 4 miles to 50K, and there are 5 divisions, 4 of them shorter than ultra distance. April Zimmerman advised me that while ALL of the races are beautiful and hard, the 25Ks are possibly the best sampling of Rocksylvania running. There are 8 races in the 25K Granite Division.  Here’s a link to the Trail Series page:  https://www.patraildogs.com/rocksylvaniaseries 

Race #1: Hyner Trail Challenge

The first race in the series was the Hyner Challenge in April. I had run the 50K twice, and this was my second go at the 25K. It is a huge event with 1,000 runners in the 25 and another 400 in the 50, so unlike the rest of the series, it’s very crowded for a lot of the run. I knew I hadn’t trained on hills enough, but I felt sure I could finish, and once school was over (forever since I was retiring), I’d be able to train properly. Ha!  The climbs at Hyner are outrageous and the views breathtaking. There’s a wonderful sense of community in running a race with so many participants, which we don’t get so much in trail running. The race starts and ends with about a mile of road to thin the pack. Then there’s a huge climb to Hyner View lookout over the Susquehanna, followed by 2 more monster climbs including the infamous SOB hill for a total of about 4,500 feet of vert, and some tricky descents. 

The after-party is a joyful celebration of our sport! ALL of these races have great after-parties, but of course the others are smaller. The weather was unusually nice for April, so lots of people hung out for hours after finishing. Hey, I love running ultras, but there is no denying how very much more fun the after party is when you get there much sooner and without having completely depleted your reserves!

Race #2:  Slate Run

Slate Run, in early June, is one of the hardest but also most beautiful of the series. I had signed up twice before, but circumstances had prevented me from toeing the line. I had run the course with Joanne Van Horn and Pete Groth in the past, so I knew what to expect. This was the only race that I went up and back day-of, because of an overcrowded family schedule. That was doable since my husband, Alan, drove, but not ideal. And that’s one of the big challenges in racing these series: it’s most comfortable to spend 2 nights in the area, so time and cost can be factors.    

Slate Run has a half-marathon and a 25K, all starting together. You begin and end with about 2 miles of rail trail. All the rest is pretty challenging single track! Like most of the races, it was longer than 25K–a free bonus of 1.5 miles. (According to my GPS, the races in the series varied from just under 15 miles to 18 miles.) There are 2 massive climbs, totaling almost 3,000 feet of vert, and the downs are treacherous.  The wildflowers were beautiful, and many runners saw a timber rattlesnake on course, but sadly I missed it! This was the first race I ran with poles, in hopes of giving a little relief to my knees on the descents. I was glad to have them, but after this race, I bought a quiver and kept my poles put away until the pack thinned out a couple hours in. No one likes poles waving around when runners are bunched! My apologies to those near me early on in this race. Another fun after-party, and Pine Creek right there for a post-race cold plunge.

Race #3: Sharp Top

I heard a rumor that this race at the end of June will be discontinued for next season, so I’m glad I got to run it. They had a 50K also (I was truly relieved to make the turn to 25K at the split!) There is a primitive campground at the start/finish, but we had a graduation party in NJ right after the race, so we stayed in Williamsport Friday night rather than bringing the camper. 

The worst thing about this one was the parking. We have an SUV, but had driven our sedan to the race. The last couple miles to get there were gravel and the parking was just a field which mostly wasn’t mowed. It was rainy, too, so everything was muddy and rutted. I know Alan expected to need a tow to leave (we didn’t). The race was pretty runnable, and “only” 2,600 feet in about 18 miles–and I missed a flag and ran some extra (my fault, markings were good). I had my poles, but never got them out.  Lots of Jeep-road type stuff and nice single-track, not especially rocky. I had one hard fall early on, probably because it was warm and misty/rainy, so my glasses were constantly fogged up. Speaking of fog, the big overlook was completely socked in, so no vista (see photo below), but the misty woods were spookily gorgeous. This race had especially good food and beer afterward, and in spite of the rain and mud the atmosphere was friendly and festive. If it is not discontinued, I would go back, but in the SUV!

Race #4: Cook Forest

Cook Forest in mid-August has only the 25K distance. It is the farthest drive, so we camped for four nights in the modern campground at the state park, where the race is held. We’ve been to this park several times now, and it was my second time running the race. We both thought the area has really improved as a tourist destination in terms of restaurants, breweries, and a rail trail nearby. Cook Forest is famous for old growth trees, AND it has lots of mushrooms, so: my kinda place! The race has a beautiful course, very smooth trails for Rocksylvania, and the least vert (2,200 feet in 17.5 miles) of the series. The only negative is a couple of miles of actual road in the middle, but that gave Alan an easy spectator spot.

There were lots of yellow jackets this year. I didn’t get stung, but several runners around me did, and I ran scared of them for a lot of the race. I’ve seen at least one trail race canceled because of them this summer! It was super humid, but the course winds through old growth trees, follows creeks and the Clarion River, and climbs to the famous fire tower. It is one of my favorite trail races ever. We had a really fun camping trip too, full of gravel riding and hiking and breweries, as the rest of the teachers and students went back to school.

Race #5: Boulder Beast

Boulder Beast in mid-September also has a 25-mile distance, which I did some years ago and loved, but this year I was happy to turn toward 25K at the split. Almost 3 miles of road at the start and finish in Lock Haven, so you’d think with only 10 miles of trail it would be fairly quick…but the boulder field mile took me 49 minutes, so, no! 

3,100 feet of vert, 3 main climbs, all hard. The boulder field is intense! I love this race once it’s over, but I’m actually kind of scared on the boulders. They go on for a VERY long time, and it’s crazy steep. After that, normal Rocksylvania stuff until the road.  Very beautiful course. The after-party is great, and there are hot showers! It was great to truly clean up before relaxing with tasty food and beer. This is probably one of the best ones for camping, conveniently located right at the start/finish.

Race #6: Green Monster

The Green Monster in mid-October has three distances: 15K, 25K, or 50K. The RD writes hilarious email updates and FB posts, which are a hoot. It’s in the cute town of Wellsboro, so we camped nearby for 3 nights. The race has on-site dry camping, but no amenities, and it rained. I know, right? During a truly historic summer drought, almost all my 25Ks were wet, and THIS baby was a true soaker! Some utter badass spent the night in a sleeping bag on the ground with just a tarp folded over top, and it was a monsoon! Anyway, 3,700 feet of vert, 5 major climbs, and finishing with a scary downhill called Frankenstein’s Forehead. I was dreading this the WHOLE TIME because I remembered it from running the 50K 5 years earlier, and being terrified back then on a completely dry day. The course is just beautiful: lots of running along creeks and sweet singletrack. On this day, it was very muddy and slippery–drenched from the start.

Finally, I was approaching Frankenstein’s Forehead. The rain had picked up. It was hard to see with my glasses. As I neared the last AS, it began to thunder and lightning in earnest. I expected to be held, and I knew I’d be frozen if I wasn’t moving, but also NO WAY would they send us down the Forehead in this weather! Just as I got there, a volunteer arrived in a jeep with beer for the AS workers, filling them with joy and distracting them from closing the course. Or maybe they never intended to! I don’t know. I rolled right through there with a couple of other runners in the 15K, and down we went! After a few minutes, we were all just whooping and sliding. Lightning crashed over and over and the rain was pouring down. Before I knew it, I was at the bottom–much less scary than I remembered. I gotta stop dwelling on my fears and just run through them! The rest of the way was largely under a couple of inches of water on a beautiful trail following a creek. Extra good swag for this one and super food and beer.

Race #7: Call of the Wilds

Wilds was only a week after Green Monster, in late October: the 2 hardest courses, back-to-back. It has a 50K as well, which I’ve run twice (my 2 slowest ever 50Ks). The 50K starts in the dark, so I was grateful to begin in sunlight. It was the first cold start of the season for me, but it turned into a hot and perfect fall day. 4,600 feet of vert, 3 huge climbs, stunning fall color, crazy rock formations, and vistas and vistas and vistas. 

The most nuts climb is called Torbert. Ugh. Glad when THAT’S over! Fun after-party, and I finally met Nancy, the woman I’d been challenging for the lead in our age group. I was ahead only because she’d missed one race, but she was gaining hard with one race to go. Sadly, she rolled her ankle badly at Wilds, and couldn’t run the final race.

Race #8: The View

The View, in early November, also has a 15K, and it is very similar to Hyner. By this point, I was toast. The Rocksylvania season is concentrated in the fall, and I’d also coached cross-country for the first time and taken a few other trips, and I was just plain tired. No injuries, just that little whisper your tendons give you when you’re not in your 20s anymore and in fact you’re barely still in your 50s, but you’ve been trying to do epic shit anyway.

 

Thank goodness this was the shortest one–I got under 15 miles–but there was still 3,600 feet of vert and a hefty dose of rocks. You start and finish with about a mile of road, and honestly I knew in that first mile I was in for a suffer-fest. I got cocky and didn’t give my body the rest it needed in the weeks before the race. So I had a long slow day on those trails and tried to savor the views and the trail camaraderie and enjoy a final epic trail race. The climb to the View at Hyner (first photo), SOB (below), the endless jeep road on the ridge, done.  Mission accomplished!  Great after-party and a very satisfying feeling of accomplishment!

Rocksylvania Trail Series Awards Party

The season wraps up with an awards party at New Trail Brewing in Williamsport for the top 3 finishers in each age group in each division. Here’s another event I don’t think I could have managed if I hadn’t retired, but wow it was fun! I had the absolute pleasure to meet several other runners during the series, and it was very nice to sit with them for a few hours when we weren’t sweaty and exhausted. 

The swag was super, and plenty of pizza and beer. I set out to try to earn the coveted Rocksylvania jacket, but there were lots of other goodies in the swag. Trail Dogs do it right! I can’t say enough about this series, IF you want to run super hard, crazy vert, gorgeous trails!

A few tips if you want to check out the Rocksylvania Trail Series:

  1. Some of the races fill fast (especially Hyner, which opens almost a year ahead and fills right away!)
  2. If you are bringing spectators, generally they can partake in the food, too, if they make a donation, or, in some cases, purchase a meal ticket in advance. Check to be sure, though, because usually other food options are not very close, and a hangry crew spoils your post race glow!
  3. Many of the races offer free or cheap dry camping nearby.

Race Report: Worlds End 100k, September 26, 2020

by pagodapacers

by Elaine Cook

I have wanted to run Worlds End for several years, after hearing Joanne Van Horn, Lori Johnson, Tom Chobot, Jess Gockley, April Zimmerman, and other rock stars talk about its beauty and ruggedness. After two years of fighting nagging injuries, I felt I’d turned the corner and signed up for the 100k in 2020. However, I continued to struggle with minor nagging tendonitis that never totally went away. I watched my calendar and training log with a growing sense of doom. THEN Covid hit and everything was cancelled or postponed. I took a hard break and started at ground zero with training. In April I was running 9 slow flat miles per week without pain, but I was sure WE would have to cancel.  

Fast forward to September, and the rescheduled race was a go!  I’d been running lots of mountainous 20 milers at Hamburg, but on an August training weekend at WE it took me 11 hours to run 50K–much too slow to stay ahead of the cutoffs. Worlds End allows 19 hours for the 100K.  I went into the race with the audacious goal of being able to run for 18+ hours, but knowing that unless everything went perfectly, I would likely get pulled at one of the later aid stations for missing a cutoff time. The late September start meant 7 hours of dark running on wild terrain for the back-of-packers: a real concern for me in keeping on pace.  

Since the 50K had been cancelled, and some runners deferred to 2021, only 109 runners started Saturday in the misty dark at 5 AM. Jogging across the starting line and through the park with Fran Mahalak, Joanne, Lori, and Laura Yoder, I wasn’t too worried about the first couple hours of dark–I knew there’d be runners around me. And there were–for half an hour or so. WE puts small reflectors on the ends of the ribbon used to mark the course, but I really wished for a lot more flags. I kept getting into gaps where I was alone, and then I’d fear I’d lost the trail and I’d slow to a walk while I searched for flags. Someone would catch me, but I was too nervous on the very rocky terrain to keep up in the dark, so I’d be right back in trouble. I kept tamping down panic until the sun came up, and I found myself running with Fran and Lea Becker, 2 veterans. Lea told me, “I’m going to finish, but I’ll be near the cutoff.  Anyone after me, even now, probably isn’t going to make it.” I took that seriously, but I lost her when my husband (Alan) was unexpectedly at Sones Pond aid station #2. I dropped off my light, got updates on the Pacers running ahead of me, picked up some food and water, and set out on a mission to catch Lea. 

The early morning was stunning! Golden light made the yellowing ferns glow along the rocky and low Loyalsock creek. Leaves were starting to turn, and there were purple asters everywhere. Rocks and waterfalls, up and down. There weren’t many runners around me at all. Up to Devil’s Garden, down to Worlds End, a small cluster of runners here and there passing me on technical stretches or falling behind me on runnable parts. I was focusing hard on those flags! I knew I didn’t have time to get lost and still keep ahead of cutoffs. At Worlds End my crew was cheering as I came off the Link Trail behind the Visitor’s Center and crossed the road.  I got a huge lift seeing Mike Whalen and Matt Brophy and knowing they were ready to run some miles with me! Alan was waiting with a chair and my gear laid out:  quick change of shoes and socks, some pickles and potato chips, water refill and a bag of gels, and I was off up the steep climb toward Canyon Vista. This section overlapped with the half marathon going on at the same time (the ultra was rescheduled to the half marathon date due to COVID).  Different colored flags were everywhere, and runners were going both directions.  It was confusing! I was grateful to finally branch off and onto ultra-only trail again. 

The view at Canyon Vista takes your breath away!  I was starting to believe I could finish, 20+ miles in and feeling great!  Still chasing Lea though.  I fully believed that if I could catch her, I would finish.  

After Canyon, the Pacer Aid Station is next at Coal Mine. I was gradually passing some other runners and listening hard for the horns and the yelling. The Pacers pampered me and got me in and out fast, with a bellyful of soup and grilled cheese and some sage words from the ax bearer, Jess Gockley. And surprising news: I was ahead of Lea! I knew I was close to Joanne, Lori, and Laura and on pace to beat cutoffs. Eight miles to High Knob at mile 35 where Mike Whalen would pace me the next 15 miles. I consider that stretch the most beautiful and most difficult. It’s also the longest gap between aid stations, but in return you get some amazing vistas and gorgeous waterfalls. When we trained here in August, this part was slick and treacherous, but on race day it was dry and I felt like I was flying. Even the wooden ladder and eroded trail at Rode Falls didn’t scare me. I got to share some miles with Laura, and before I knew it we had popped out onto the road, and I was rolling into High Knob, over 90 minutes ahead of the cutoff.

Alan had a well-trained pit crew by this time! New shoes and socks, a quick stretch and pack refill, and Mike and I were off, butt sliding down the first steep drop and then rolling along comfortably down a long, runnable descent, up an endless climb, and back down to Dry Run.  In and out, head lamps ready, another long climb and we were trying to cover miles. I was still feeling good, but getting tired and stiff and I knew I’d have trouble negotiating the rocks in the dark. Mike assured me I was on track to finish, but he kept me moving and made sure I ate and hydrated on schedule, entertaining me all the while. The woods at dusk were beautiful, but we were losing daylight.  We almost missed one turn as darkness fell, but were saved by some campers, and we made it into Brunnerdale mile 50 a little over an hour ahead of the cutoff.  

The pit crew was ready, and Alan got me in my last dry shoes and socks, fresh headlamp and flashlight, fuel and water, and Matt guided me out into the last leg of the journey in full dark.  I was stiff and sore and growing concerned that I was losing ground against the final cutoffs.  There were two big climbs after Brunnerdale; everything was rocky and difficult, and it wasn’t just dark, but also a little misty making my glasses fog up. Mike got a perky and talkative Elaine, but Matt got an exhausted, fretful, mostly silent Elaine–sorry Matt! Matt found me the flags and talked books with me–everything to keep my mind off my complaints. I know he was getting worried that I was moving too slowly. At the last aid station, Fern Rock, the volunteers told us we could make it but NO WALKING! It is entirely runnable for that last 6 miles…or would be if I hadn’t already covered 58 treacherous miles since 5 AM! 

So we ran (mostly) and ran and ran and ran, and where the HELL is that last steep drop?  FINALLY we were dropping down the last steep trail. I was bleeding time off the clock, too stiff to run the steep parts and scared I’d fall and in a terror of getting this close and missing the deadline. Matt was calm and measured every step. At last the trail flattened out, and there were Stephan Weiss and Dan Govern cheering us onto the paved path to the parking lot and the finish. 

18:49:41, 60th of 64 finishers.  As she’d predicted, Lea was the last finisher a few minutes later!  A belt buckle, a hug from Alan, a blur of congratulations, and an utter crash of nausea, exhaustion, and almost cramping muscles. I missed everything that happened for the next hour, a far cry from the celebration I imagined I would have if I somehow finished that thing! BUT I had the time of my life! Epic, hard, agonizing, breathtaking, magnificent! Every single person crewing, volunteering, running, and cheering was a part of making that day great! I loved everything about it. I could never have finished without my husband, my crew–especially Mike and Matt who gave up a fall weekend–and the advice and support of my training partners and the Pacers! I would absolutely do it again, if I am fortunate enough to get the chance. Don’t ask me to tell you about it unless you are ready for an earful!