Freight Train 50K - December 11, 2021

Caroline at the trail sign in Farmville

Friends You Can Rely On

Following my November run at the Pass Mountain 50K, I decide that I should finish the year with a December ultra.  I search around for something reasonably close to home and find the Freight Train 50K on December 11.  Emaad declines to join me but I sign up anyway.  Prolific ultramarathoner and friend Caroline lives in Virginia and might be interested so I send her an email.  Within minutes she responds that she is now signed up.  Further email exchanges confirms that I will drive down the day before but that she will drive down on Saturday morning.

Weather or Not

Caroline and I at the start

December weather can be fickle. Fortunately, weather at race time Saturday is mild, with temperatures in the 50s with some wind. But good weather may not be the day's entire forecast - there is a front on the way with rain and dropping temperatures called for in the afternoon.  The issue will be when the front arrives and when we finish.

Let's Run

Start time is a very convenient 8:30 a.m. The 100K runners started at 7:30 to get ahead start on their day. Cut-off times are very generous - 17. 5 hours for the 100K runners, 16.6 hours for the 50K, particularly given the course.  The race is held entirely on the High Bridge Trail State Park. The trail is a 31-mile long rails-to-trails on a former Norfolk Southern right-of-way with a few very gentle grades, a well-maintained 10-foot wide packed dirt surface and the main attraction, High Bridge, which is more than 2,400 feet long and 125 feet above the Appomattox River.  The right of way was originally the South Side Railroad, which played an important role in the Civil War, as you will soon see.

Caroline and I trade texts and meet up at my car, parked across the street from the start-finish.  This is one of the great benefits of the usually-small ultra races, where small fields are the rule rather than the  exception. There will be 33 100K finishers and 137 50K finishers today.   She eats a donut that I brought for us and we cross to the start finish area.

The start-finish at the Farmville Farmers' Market

The race is a double out-and-back on the trail from Farmville, first running 8.2 miles to an aid station at Rice before returning to Farmville, then heading west for about 7.5 miles to a turnaround about a mile and three-quarters past the aid station at Tuggle and retracing our path back to Farmville.  The 100K runners go further on each leg, basically covering the 31 miles of the trail twice for their 100K.

Caroline heads across High Bridge

I search for a place in the Farmville Farmers' Market shed to leave my drop bag and put it down amongst some of the other bags. It has more than enough items, including long and short sleeve shirts, socks, trail shoes (in case I found the surface too hard for my road shoes), the rest of the donuts, gels, and random odds and ends.

Crossing High Bridge

The Way to Rice

After the National Anthem, we are off promptly at 8:30. Caroline seemingly knows every other runner and greets them all warmly.  We mostly run together and are always in sight of each other. We chat with other runners, and in a couple of miles come to High Bridge.  The bridge was the scene of hard fighting on April 6, 1865, as Union troops tried unsuccessfully to burn the bridge so that Robert E. Lee's retreating army could not get across it. They were repulsed and the following day, the Confederates tried to burn the bridge so that the Union army could not follow.  Union troops saved the bridge and the wagon bridge below High Bridge from destruction and the Union army was able to continue its pursuit.

Railroad Mile Marker

I run awhile with Caroline's friend Yancy and we discuss the action and other parts of the Appomattox Campaign.  After crossing the bridge we pass Camp Paradise, a Confederate earthworks formation built to protect the bridge and the scene of hard fighting on April 6.

We get to Rice, refuel at the aid station and head back toward Farmville.  The wind is picking up and crossing High Bridge I have to hang on to my hat.

Who Moved My Bag?

Back at Farmville (mile 16.4) I eat a slice of pizza and head for my drop bag.  I can't find it. I as a volunteer and tell him where I left it.  He points to a paper sign on the wall that tells me I left it in the pile of drop bags that was being transported, mostly for 100K runners, to the Tuggle aid station, 5.7 miles further down the road.  I'm chagrined, but at least the bag is ahead.  Still, I'm unable to replenish my gels or change my shirt as I planned.

Caroline plays among the hay rolls

On to Tuggle and Beyond

Caroline and I go on, talking about serious and light subjects. A couple hundred yards from the start-finish we pass the Farmville train station, where on April 7, 1865, Lee's army received supplies before Union troops arrived and the Confederates moved north. General Grant arrived later in the day and sent a letter to Lee asking him to surrender his army.

True dat - especially at mile 8

We run - and walk - along the trail.  It is a pleasant run, and unlike so many of the usual trail runs I'm used to, it is pretty easy. There are no steep climbs, no rocks or roots, no stream crossings.  One can run and look around, without worrying that a moment's inattention will bring one crashing to the ground.  And since it is December, the leaves are off the trees on either side and one can see the farmland and woods beyond the trail.

We reach the aid station at Tuggle (mile 22.1) and I open my bag to do what I had wanted to do at Farmville.  There is a road parallel to the road and I realize that this must have been the road that Sheridan's cavalry, under George Armstrong Custer's command took to get to Appomattox Station ahead of Lee on April 7-8, closely followed by Edward Ord's infantry, cutting off Lee's route of retreat and leading to Lee's surrender on April 9.

On we go from Tuggle until we come to a folding chair in the middle of the trail. It has a sign attached to it instructing 50K runners to turn around and 100K runners to go on.

The turnaround

We turn around and return to the Tuggle aid station (now mile 25.4) and continue back toward Farmville.

Now the wind is picking up again and low ragged clouds are racing ahead of us from the west. We catch up to a runner who is mostly walking. It's his first 50K and our chatter and companionship lifts his spirits and he begins to run with us.  

With about a mile or so to go I glance at my watch and figure that I may have a chance to finish in 7:30.  "The horse smells the barn," I tell Caroline and our new trail friend and I take off.  While I don't say it, I'm also increasingly concerned that the dark clouds behind us are moving faster than we are. Not exactly a sprint, but I'm determined that I will run and not take walk breaks.  But after a mile and with the train station in sight, I realize that I'm not going to make 7:30. And perhaps the reason is that, recalling the race instructions, is that the course is described as "a bit more than 50K".  

I finish in 7:37:09, good for 98 of 137 finishers, 59 of 74 males and 1 of 3 in my 70-79 age group.  And I'm not close to being the oldest. Besides the two other older runners in my AG there is a 81-year old finisher. Caroline is close behind me in 7:37:45.

The truth

Postscript

After a post-race slice of pizza, and some fellowship with more runners whom Caroline knows, we walk to my car where I give her a couple of holiday-decorated cupcakes for the ride home.  I eat one myself before driving to Tuggle to reclaim my drop bag.

I'm not out of Farmville when the rain starts.  By the time I reach Tuggle, it is pouring and the wind is blowing it at an angle.  A pair of runners pass through the parking lot.  I finally get out of the car but an  umbrella offers limited protection. I get my bag which is sitting out in the open. The good news is that it has a rubberized bottom to protect the contents from wet ground. More good news is that I put the contents in a trash bag to protect against this very situation.  Unfortunately, I did not fold the top of the trash bag over the last time I accessed it and the contents are wet from rain through the zippered top. On the positive side, the extra shoes were in a separate plastic bag and they are dry.

I drive to The Fishin' Pig south of Farmville for pulled pork, fried catfish, homemade slaw and collards. Too much to finish, so the pork and slaw go home with me.

Swag: hooded shirt, ornament, sticker
and bib