Round and Round
The Farm Park Challenge has several events to choose from - 3 hour challenge, 6 hour challenge, 10 hour challenge, marathon and a Fun Run. All are held on the same approximately 5.1 mile course at the Agricultural History Farm Park in Derwood. The challenge races all require that the runners complete the loop in less than an hour, and then begin the next loop at the start of the next hour. The Fun Run is just show up any time during the day and run as much or as little as one wants. I figure I could do one or two loops of the challenge before not being able to keep up the necessary pace, so running the marathon, which has no such requirement (just start and run until finished) is for me.
Race Day
Emaad and I arrive at the Park in plenty of time to pick up our bibs and be ready to start in the second wave of marathoners at 6:55 a.m. The first wave goes out five minutes sooner. Since there are only 25 starters between the two waves, the COVID rules of wearing a mask and keeping social distance at the start are easy to follow. The masks come off as we cross the start line.
The course is a folded circle around the Agricultural Park, almost entirely on grass or generally broad trails. The course undulates, but there are no significant hills. One small stream crossing is on the course, but the lack of rain in the days preceeding the race means that one can easily hop across on two or three stones without wetting a shoe.
The 35 or 40 10- and 6-hour challengers start at 7 a.m. and it doesn't take long for the fast ones to catch and pass us. Throughout the loop more and more of the challenge runners pass us. In fact, since it takes me 1:00:47 to complete the first loop, they all need to pass me so they can start their second loop at 8 a.m.
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| Emaad on the course |
I run much of the second loop in the company of Emaad and Tammy M., a veteran ultramarathoner with who has numerous 100-mile and 24 hour races to her credit, as well as the 2013 Badwater 135 (if you don't know what that is, watch the trailer for Running on the Sun.). She gives us valuable advice about various races we are considering, as well as training tips. Oh, her next race after the Farm Challenge Marathon is another marthon the next day.
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| He was a DNF. |
Emaad's foot is bothering him, so as a cautionary move, he drops out after three loops. I plod on, and finish in 5:42:24, good for 15 of 22 overall (there were 3 DNFs) and 13 of 15 males. I was the oldest finisher.
Vingettes from the Day
Approaching the park road crossing in the first loop, I spy Mike E. acting as the course marshal. "I have a cold Surrender Dorothy for you," he tells me. "Maybe on the last lap," I reply. On the last loop, he isn't there, but the beverage is. But I pass it up.
The course is pretty well marked and obvious, but it isn't a trail run unless you fall down or get lost. On a long stretch about two thirds of the way through the loop a couple of runners are coming toward me. They missed a turn (marked, but easy to miss) and are backtracking. On a later loop, a couple of runners just ahead of me miss the turn. "Stop! Left! Left!," I yell at them. They hit the brakes and make ther correct turn. Had they continued straight they would have rejoined the course in a few hundred yards.
To prove that I, too, lack navigational skills, or the powers of observation, I'm barely into the second loop when a buch of challenge runners overtake me running on a parallel trail. "Trail's down here," I conficently tell them. "You're going backwards on the trail to the finish," they reply. They are right, I quickly realize and cut thru to get onto the right trail.
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| Bacon! Or not. |
"Bacon!," I yell at a pair to a pair of pigs at the barn in the middle of the farm. "They don't like that," a voice replies. She is a farm volunteer caring for the animals. "Not really," she says, "We used to name the pigs Bacon and Sausage because we would sell them at the end of the season. but we stopped doing that and now give them people names. It's harder to eat them when they are named Alice and Bert."
On the fifth lap, a runner overtakes me wearing a mask. "I'm vaccinated," I say. "Me too," she says, removing the mask. "We're outside and I'm fully vaccinated," I reply, "I don't get why people don't get vaccinated, so my slogan is 'Get vaccinated or die." "My husband has to intubate those people who don't get vaccinated and wind up in the hospital," she points out. "I'm sorry he has to," is my lame reply. But I've changed my curse on anti-vaxxers to "Get vaccinated or get intubated." Less harsh, more alliteration.
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| Swag: Two Waredaca beers, a glass, shirt and bib. |
