Philadelphia Trail Marathon - April 11, 2026

 

Beautiful Park on a Perfect Day

Finally this year I was able to run the Philadelphia Trail Marathon in Wissahickon Park. I'd run the race twice, but 2020 was virtual (on the Greenway Trail) and 2021 was in Pennypack Park due to storm damage.

Me, Emaad and Leigh Ann awaiting the start.

Emaad and I meet Leigh Ann at the start/finish at Houston Playground . Shortly thereafter, Beth and Eric arrive.  They are doing the half marathon which is one loop - the marathon is two loops of the course.  Despite my best efforts to persuade her that "training is bunk" she decided she wasn't ready for an early Spring marathon.  Now, at the start but too late she is regretting her choice.

Thomas Mill Bridge

Loop One

We start on the dot of 8 a.m. (The half marathoners start an hour later.)  I stay with Emaad and Leigh Ann for a mile or so, but soon they pull away and are gone. In about 1.3 miles the course crosses Wissahickon Creek on a red Thomas Mill covered bridge. The trails are up and down and rocky and rooty, so one much pay attention to the footing.  There is a flight of steep stone steps, to be navigated and a couple of large (six foot?)  diameter drainage? sewage? pipes that one must run along (no railings). 

I run with Tim, attempting his second marathon for a bit and tell him all my usual stories.  About mile 6.4 we cross Blue Stone Bridge to head back toward the start/finish on the other side of the creek.  This side is not quite as hilly as the other. We skirt the Walnut Lane Golf Course.

Looking back at the steep stone steps.

I get ahead of Tim and torment a pair of women runners with my timeworn stories before abandoning them and going ahead.  And soon the leaders of the half marathon begin to catch up with us, despite our hour head start.  

With less than a mile to go to the end of the first loop, the trail turns unexpectedly steep upward.  While I expected to have to go up, the steepness of the trail is surprising.

Loop Two

I look forward to changing my long-sleeved shirt for a short-sleeved one, but although the start/finish line is in sight, the second loop starts about a tenth of a mile short of there. No great inconvenience, but I will have to wear my long-sleeved, with the sleeves pushed up, for the second loop.

About a half mile into the second loop Tim catches up and passes me.  For the rest of the second loop I will not see a single runner in the race.  The half marathoners are finished, obviously. It turns out that there are five runners behind me: the two women I briefly chatted with and three others.  None will finish within 20 minutes of me.

But there are a lot of other people out in the park, strolling, fishing (with beers in hand), foraging (collecting some sort of leaves that only can be harvested when tender in the spring), rock climbing (at Mom Rinker's Rock), walking a cat in a harness, running, mountain biking, and otherwise enjoying a pleasant day.

Mom Rinker's Rock

While the environment is pleasant, my mind is not at rest. I'm concerned about making the eight hour cut-off, which didn't seem like much of a worry before the race. But it took me 3:24 to get through the first loop, and I figure that if I slow down on the second loop, as is usually the case, I won't make it.  If fact, I have 4:36 to do it in, but my mind isn't doing arithmetic well (it is one of the first mental capacities to go on a longer trail run). to  With ten miles to go I pull out my phone and use the calculator to compute the pace I must maintain to beat the cutoff.  At the same time I text Emaad of my concerns, and text Beth that I won't finish in the time I originally told her so that she doesn't wait around unnecessarily.  The pace is doable.  I repeat the exercise at each mile and am reassured that it remains the same or gets slower.  Finally, at mile 25, the required pace is in excess of 50 minutes/mile.  Even with the steep climb to come, I know I've got it.

As I cross the finish line and collect my AG Wetterhaus award, Emaad, Leigh Ann, Beth and Eric are waiting for me.  But even with the cheering section anxious to get on to refreshments, I have to pause, take a seat and tell the finish line volunteers the tale of how RD Stephan came to recognize that 70+ was not part off the 60-69 age group and created a new AG category of 70+.

Along the creek.

My story concluded, we head off to the Chestnut Hill Brewing Company for post-race refreshments.  Leigh Ann is heading off for dinner with husband Ron, and Beth and Eric are planning dinner, so only Emaad and I have something to eat, sharing fries and a pizza.  The other four have beer, but since I'm driving Emaad and I back to Maryland I opt for iced tea.  I have four glasses, apparently thirsty from my run.

Results

I finish in 7:25:30, my fears of missing the eight-hour cut-off woefully misplaced.  I'm 162 0f 167 overall, 118 of 119 males, and first and only in my age group.  I'm the oldest finisher by eight years.

Emaad and Leigh Ann finish together in 6:51. Tim, who passed me early on the second loop, finished his first marathon just two minutes ahead of me, and we shook hands at the finish.

Swab: Shirt, Medal, Bib and AG winner Wetterhaus.

Rocky Raccoon 50K - February 14, 2026

 Anxiety I - Weather

The weather for Rocky Racoon 50K is troubling.  Showers and rain are predicted, but with percentages in the 40 - 70 percent range.  And some are predicted to be heavy.  How will this affect the footing? The temperatures look OK, so hypothermia isn't an issue. But I don't want to be wet.  Since the course is basically two loops I figure to leave a change of clothes in my bag at the start/finish and run with a disposable poncho.

Anxiety II - Training

Since pacing for 26 miles at Rio del Lago on November 1, have have exactly two runs that could charitably considered longish - the 10 mile Turkey Burnoff on November 29 and 7.6 miles on January 18.  And it isn't like I have logged many miles at all - 68 miles each in December and January. With the generous 14 hour cutoff I figure I can do the race on muscle memory.  And anyway. as I frequently say (perhaps as an excuse), training is bunk.

Anxiety III - Alligators

The usual pre-race email brief is routine until at the very bottom, when the reader is directed to a note from the Texas Parks Department about Huntsville State Park being the home of alligators.  Is this Florida? Or Louisiana? Who knew Texas had gators? Apparently many people, but not me.  Can an untrained runner outrun a gator in the rain? It is not reassuring that the Alligator Safety page states gators "can outrun or out swim the fastest person for the first 30 feet." I'm not the fastest person in any case.

Race Day

Emaad gets ready to run.

Anxious?

Emaad and I arrive reasonably early and are directed to a parking spot convenient to the start/finish.  We complete our race preparations, find a place under a picnic table to protect our bags from any rain and join the crowd at the start line.  After getting last minute instructions from the race director and his gorilla assistant, we are off.

The course is well marked.  It rolls a bit but is is mostly two-wide and reasonably smooth dirt, with occasional rocks and roots. For Eastern trail runners like Emaad and I it is a less technical course than we have at home.

In addition to the 50K there is are 50-mile and half marathon races. With staggered starting times and slightly different variations of the course's loop, runners from all three races are soon intermingled.

Race director and gorilla assistant.

For awhile we run and chat with a trio of 50-mile runners.  I tell one of my well-worn stories of special beverages at an aid station in a different race and one of the trio tells me he couldn't do that as he has been eight years clean. He tells how he stopped after stealing his son's Adderall to support his habit.

A half marathoner tells how she had to beg off from a bike ride so she could run, but was still going to go walk with a friend later in the day.

We come across a runner prone on the ground on a dirt road section of the course surrounded by others trying to help him.  In a bit an ATV comes speeding to help him, followed by a pick-up truck.  Later, I go along with a runner who is also a firefighter.  He and a fellow firefighter had stopped to help the runner who was down and had possibly had a seizure and fallen, or fell on his head and had a seizure.  Later, we could see an ambulance, with lights on, waiting for the injured runner.

Lake Raven looking toward the Lodge.

The initial part of the trail along the shore of Lake Raven provides a good view of the Lodge (built by African-American crews of the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1937) at the start finish.  We run a bit with Spirit of Running who is making a YouTube video of his effort after DNF'ing last year.

Once we get to the other side of the lake we are close to its edge and I am hyper-alert for gators.  I see none. I repeat the paranoia passing this section on the second loop.  Perhaps even more so then, because being mauled, killed or eaten by an alligator so close to the finish would be - disappointing.

Signs

In addition to well marked trails the folks at Tejas Trails provided a large number of inspirational and humorous signs in a number of languages:

Early in the second loop a few drops of rain start to fall. I get out my disposable poncho, which is really nothing more than a very thin, transparent yellow trash bag with holes for the arms and a hood and struggle to put it on. My head goes in an arm hole and I weave along the single track trying to get things sorted out.  A woman runner comes along and rather than give the usual "on your left" warning she tells me to get out of the way.  I do, but I'm peeved at her lack of the usual trail manners. (Revenge comes a few miles later when I pass her.)  After about five or ten minutes the rain stops and I remove the poncho, never to put it back on.

Emaad crosses a wooden causeway.

With six or seven miles to go Emaad takes off. I run on with a woman who tells me that her husband is picking her up at the finish. "It's Valentine's Day," I note, "He should be there with flowers for you." I see them at the finish.  He does not have flowers, but she is happy to see him nonetheless.

Emaad cheers me as I finish. He finished in 7:47.

I finish in 8;18:32, good for 135 of 171 overall, 94 of 112 males and 2 of 2 in my age group. There are 16 DNFs (91 percent finishing rate). I'm the oldest finisher, by two years.

As we leave the park it starts to rain.  Twenty minutes later there is a deluge and driving is nearly impossible.  Our timing is good, but we think of the 50-mile runners still on the course caught in the storm.

But none of my anxieties came to be, so it was a good day. 

Swag: shirt, medal, parking sticker, bib, socks (purchased)