I fractured a bone in my left foot on July 11when I missed a step in the house. No surgery was necessary, but I spend eight weeks in a cast, which didn't come off until September 14. While I could walk, I didn't resume until October 3 when I managed four miles on the treadmill. From then I ran nearly every day, usually 3 - 6 miles per day. Uncertain of my stability on trails, I bought a pair of Leki trekking poles.
Emaad had signed up for the two-loop Patapsco Valley 50K on October 29. Looking at the course map I recognized that I have run on much of it while running the Maryland Heat Runs in 2015 and 2019. While it is nice to know what the course offers, in this case I know it offers plenty of steep up and downs. I know that I'm not in shape to take on the 50K, but one loop for 25K with a generous cutoff seems doable, particularly with trekking poles. I sign up.
I get one ten mile run on trails in with Emaad on October 23. It's a chance to get used to the trekking poles.
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| Typical Single Track |
Race Day
I drive Emaad and myself to the race start at Baltimore County Community College on the edge of the the park. The weather is just about perfect - maybe a tad warm. We chat with fellow runners and he goes off with the 222 50K runners at 730. The 25K starts an hour later. I chat with friend Gretchen as we wait, and once we are off she is quickly gone.
We run a few hundred yards on a grassy field before getting on the single track trails in the park. It is a bit of up and down, but mostly down, as we need to wind up at the Patapsco River before crossing over to the other side of the valley.
As time goes on the runners spread out and I move further back in the field. The poles help on the steeper rocky and rooty downhills, and at one small stream crossing, save me from slipping from a rock.
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| Tunnel under train tracks (Mile 6) |
Memories of the course come back from the Maryland Heat Races although we are largely running the trails in the opposite direction. After about 3 miles there is a water-only aid station, but my pack is pretty full so I thank the volunteer and go on.
Near the river we cross under the railroad tracks and in a short while come to the first full-service aid station. I get my usual fill of cookies and M&Ms and eat them while going on.
We cross the river on a road, pass the Avalon Picnic Area (start-finish for Maryland Heat Races) and turn uphill on the trail.
Plenty of climbing and descending small valleys are in store, but I'm in no hurry and am mostly walking anyway.
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| John Smith Marker (about mile 8) |
On top of a ridge overlooking the river I stop to look at a monument by the side of the trail. "Capt John Smith" on one side, and "to the cross hath been discovered A.D. 1608" on the opposite.
I'm a bit confused as are several other runners. We are a couple of hundred miles from Jamestown, Virginia. the only thing I know about John Smith is the story about Pocahontas. While much about that story is unclear, disputed or romanticized (or all three), it turns out that Smith did visit the place where the monument sits.
A year after arriving in Virginia, Smith extensively explored and mapped the Chesapeake Bay, apparently looking for a passage to the Pacific Ocean. The Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail follows his journey, including his visit up the Patapsco to that site.
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| Cascade Falls (mile 10) |
Onward I go (plod?). I pass the log by a now-dry intermittent stream crossing where I lay down during the 2019 Maryland Heat Race to recover from the heat. (That picture is worth a look if you want to see what not-fun running looks like.)
Downhill leads to the picturesque Cascade Falls. There are two photographers there, both with cameras on tripods, on either side of the pool. I wonder why they chose the side they did. Many other people are also taking pictures at the photogenic location and I can't resist either, asking a fellow runner to take mine.
Crossing over the stream outlet of the falls to get to the trail on the other side requires navigating over medium size rocks. Near the end of the rocks a father is helping his pre-teen son get from rock to rock while his mother and a couple of other children wait. The father is describing the rocks ahead and instructing the son where to feel for his next step. The boy reaches out with his rubber tipped stick and feels the contours of the rocks. He is blind. Courage, trust and love are together in that moment.
In half a mile I get to the next aid station, refuel with some bacon and candy and return to the trail for more up and down.
Ahead of me are "Tweetle Dum" and "Tweetle Dee," a pair of women with matching shirts with the afore-mentioned logos on them. I press to keep up with, and even catch up to them. We pass a large group of women out walking all wearing matching shirts proclaiming their support for abused women. One has fallen, and some of the others are gathered around her, but she isn't hurt and doesn't require assistance. There are two hikers that I repeatedly pass, and they repeatedly pass me, when I stopped at the falls, and the aid station.
I finally catch up to the Tweetles, as I dub them, around mile 12, and see Gretchen just in front of them. Another runner, Nicole, is with her. Mercy sakes alive, looks like we got us a convoy!
Along the Bloede Dam Trail, to a right on Ilchester Road, another right past the second water-only aid station, across the Patapsco Swinging Bridge onto the paved Grist Mill Trail and a sharp left back onto the trail. We are headed away from the river, so it is uphill. And more uphill.
We pass Ilchester Rocks, where rock climbers practice their skills (although there are none today), It's then a long downhill on the Sawmill Branch Trail, where there is a very steep boulder drop that requires me to go bottom first, and then a 300 foot climb out.
Somewhere along here Gretchen and I decide that we should finish together. Maybe it is a way to bank any competitive fires we have, or a mutual decision to be companionable, or a mutual decision to be compassionate. In any case, even as we leapfrog a bit we stay together. We come out of the woods together, and as we cross the field we join hands and cross the finish line together.
Post-Race and Results
I finish in 4:49:24 for 162/186 overall, 106/114 males and 1/2 in my age group. Gretchen also wins her age group, even though there are no prizes.
Waiting for Emaad I go off to Subway and get a foot-long which I devour without any problem. Picking him after his 50K finish we go off to Hysteria Brewing Company for some refreshment.
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| Swag: Shirt, tote bag, magnet, bib and medal |
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