Rosaryville Veterans Day 50K - November 11, 2023

Jeanne sings the National Anthem while Justin holds the flag.

Return to Rosaryville

I last ran the Rosaryville Veterans Day 50K five years ago (race report here). Returning is a bit of a last minute decision, delaying registration until I'm certain that the weather will be pleasant. Since I wasn't planning to run it, I haven't done any organized training, but figure that the DC Road Runners 20-miler on September 24, along with my usual weekly running, is adequate. 

Jon and Stephanie
with Rebecca in front (obscured) 

Only after registering do I discover that the course has changed from the course I ran seven times previously. That course was notoriously short, likely 29 miles rather than 31.1 miles. But now the course is much closer to the 31.1 miles that equal 50K. The difference comes from replacing the .7 mile run on the park road to the finish with 2.25 miles on the 3-loop peremeter trail to the finish.  

In addition, there are now cutoffs.  There is an intermediate cutoff of 5:20 to start the third loop (about mile 21.6) and an overall 8 hour cutoff to finish.  I email the race director and he says they are hard cu-offs designed to save the volunteers from having to put in an even longer day. I understand, but have concerns about making them, particularly the final cutoff.

Running with Friends

At the start I meet Caroline and Stephanie and Jon, and Stephanie's friend Rebecca.  Caroline is her usual outgoing self, talking with old friends and making new ones.  Staphanie is there as a training run for a 100-miler in January, as is Rebecca.

In the first loop
(Photo by J. Valentine)

The five of us start together and stay together thru the first aid station.  On the way Jon takes an easy fall and is quickly up unhurt. I deliver my usual quip, "It isn't a trail run unless you fall down or get lost."

Jon tells how he fostered a dog, and then would up adopting it.

I figure if I stay with this group I'll make the cut-offs as they are all experienced ultra - and 100 mile - runners and I tell them of my fear of the cutoffs which they pretty much waive off  as unfounded.  Still, I am concerned that my usual "fly and die" running method could fail me.

As part of my plan to conserve time I do not linger at the first aid station. Grab some potato chips and cookies and keep moving, walking while eating.

Caroline comes with me while the other three linger.  I figure if I stay ahead of them I'm in good shape. The sun starts to break through the bit of overcast and the forest turns to yellow-gold.  The two of us exchange trail talk, and it isn't long before the leaders of the 20K race, who started a half hour after us, come flying by.

We reach the second aid station at the point where we entered the loop and I repeat my grab and go technique.  Caroline lingers, and it is the last I see of her during the day.

Not an aid station

Chasing the Clock

I've taken a few pictures during the first loop, but time for lingering is over. I run with Rebecca and a couple of other runners. One expresses concern that while the pre-race packet said the two-loop cutoff was 5:20, the race director announced it as 5:15 at his pre-race brief.

The course is single track, mostly in the woods, with a couple of crossings of a grassy power line right of way.  It rolls up and down and has a generous amount of fallen leaves to require one to be alert for hidden roots.

The cool temperatures at the start led me to wear my harlequin tights as they are fairly comfortable even when the weather warms up, as it does today.  By the second loop I had removed my outer shirt and soon enough had pushed up the long sleeves of the first shirt. But chasing cutoffs allows no time to stop to remove the tights.

The tights are distinctive and I get several complements from runners. Always on the prowl for new people to tell old stories to, I tell how they were made for me by Hall of Fame ultrarunner Eric Clifton, for whom Hoka Cliftons are named.

A little over between the two aid stations the leader of the 50K flies by. He finishes in 4:48, only 12 minutes slower than it takes me to complete two loops.

Having completed two loops, I now need to go the quarter loop to get to the start of the third and final loop. It seems to go on forever with the clock ticking closer to the cutoff. Rebecca is confident that we will make it but I'm not, so I push on.

The first, third and fifth aid station.
Bacon and pireogies the latter two visits.

Finally, at about 5:12 I make it. In response to an inquiry the volunteers there say they don't know what the cutoff is.  As I go past, the race director appears and I tell him of the discrepency in the cutoff times. Since I'm already on my way, I don't hear his response. But six runners were behind me, and three finished in over eight hours, so I suppose the cutoff was not as strictly enforced as I feared.

Into the third loop I continue to consult my GPS device and try to calculate what pace I must maintian to finish in 8 hours.  It holds steady in the 17 minute/mile range and then gradually starts to creep upward, meaning I'm going faster that the necessary pace.  

It is reassuring, but I don't let up. Aid stations are still grab and go, but for the first aid station, that means freshly fried bacon on the second loop and bacon and pierogies on the third instead of chips and cookies.

The race is run counterclockwise and there are small groups of mountain bikers riding clockwise.  With the exception of an encounter at one blind turn, it gives runners and bikers a good chance to see each other. Both groups of trail users are polite and take turns giving the other the right of way.  I encounter one group of riders three times.

 

Running to the camera
(photo by J. Valentine)

Finish

Leaving the final aid station (mile 29) I have an hour to finish the final quarter loop of about two miles.  While I'm now pretty confident about finishing in under eight hours I keep up the pace. I remain a bit ahead of Rebecca and Marvin. 

Only when I make the left turn off the trail and onto the field  with the finish in sight, do I ease up, stop running and begin walking.  Rebecca runs past, then Marvin.  A few people cheer as I near the finish line, and I run the last few yards, as one doesn't want the photographer to capture visual proof of walking. Across the mats I run right at the photographer seated in a chair as if about to run into him, veering off at the last second.

A volunteer removes the chip from my shoe while I sit in a chair to recover.

I get a bit of finish line food, negotiate a trade of the 50K finisher's travel mug for a 20K beer glass and head off to Bojangles for a spicy chicken sandwich before driving home. 

Results

I finish in 7:37:55 (chip time; 7:38:06 gun time), 54 of 60 overall; and first, last and only in my age group at an average pace of 14:55/mile. Caroline is DFL at 8:16 but still good enough to be first military veteran female and first in her age group. There are eight DNFs, including Jon and Stephanie who complete two loops.

The timing mats at the entry to the loops give lap times and position for the runners after 0.7 mile. What's particularly remarkable is that finishing position was pretty much determined that early in the race.  With the exception of a runner who started late, no one's position at the finish is more than three places different from what it was less than a mile into the race, and most are within one or two positions. I was 52 entering the loops and finished 54.

My splits:          

The start to the loop: 7:11 (ET 0:7:11)

First loop: 2:08:21 (ET 2:15:31)   

Second loop:  2:21:26 (ET 4:36:57)

Third loop: 2:23:55 (ET 7:00:52)

Quarter loop to finish: 37:02 (ET 7:37:55)  

Swag:Buff, sticker, bib, pint glass, wrist band