Trail races in the USA have tight cut-offs in general, and I hesitated to sign up for 50mile events when I first came over last year. The TNF Endurance Challenge Series is no different, and the NY and SF ones are the toughest in the series in terms of terrain and elevation. And it just occurred to me that I had ran three 50-milers in the past two months - the Marin Ultra which was similar to the TNF ECSSF route, TNF ECSDC and TNF ECSNY! But I digress.
I signed up for ECSNY since last year. The race, held in the scenic Bear Mountain State Park, was a homeground must run event. And since the registration fee difference between 50mile and 50k was marginal, I had to get my money's worth! I had heard much about it being a technical race with a 14h cutoff, I had to try it for myself. So off I went on Friday to stay over at the Bear Mountain Inn where the start/ finish point was. The bus dropped me off at 1pm and I had plenty of time to do some hikes in the area.
The 50mile flag off was 5am, and I was in Wave 4 (out of 5). It was a pleasant 6degC at the start - cold but not chilly as there was no wind. However, cold and dark induces me to 'switch off' and I took it easy at the beginning. Perhaps too easy as I would find out later. The major climbs in the race were all packed in the first 10mile (16km), and progress was slow. The trails either trended upwards, or were technical ascents and descents. We were looking at big boulders and rocky terrain. I literally had not 'woken up' and the weather was still around 6 - 7 degC in the first two hours. That meant I was on a slow shuffle, trying hard to stay alert on the rocks.
However, there was a hard cutoff at Aid Station #4 (34km, 5:26h) - ie. exit the checkpoint by that time. Mindful of that, I tried to pick up a run Aid Station #3 - #4. By then, runners still on that section were all time-conscious. I passed by a guy who asked whether we were the last runners. I passed a pair who were running together but eventually the stronger guy decided to go ahead as his buddy was slowing down. Alas, his strength was misplaced because he kept going the wrong way and missing the trail (which was brightly marked by orange ribbons!). I got tired of running behind him because every so often he would veer off course and I would follow. Then he decided to run behind me because I would follow the race course, even though his pace was faster. Bummer.... After a long stretch and repeated glances at my watch, I finally saw signs of people, vehicles and an aid station. So I had misread the cutoff time as 5:29h and was puzzled why the volunteer kept shouting that I had a minute left when I got close at 5:25h. It was panic moment when I dashed across the open space to reach the station, and sweetness was hearing the race marshal say 'I've got you' as he jotted down my number. I grabbed two drinks and bread, and the minute I stepped away from the table, the cordon ribbon came out to close the checkpoint. Then a sweeper came along to run behind me. Omg! I was that close! After chiding myself, I decided I had to start running consistently or I might DNF. Thankfully, the weather started warming up towards noon and there was sunshine. The tropical girl in me was grateful for the warmth - over the course of the day, the temperature would rise from 6 to 17degC.
The route to the next checkpoint was mainly flat and paved at some parts. I was happy for the run-able stretch and managed to catch up with some runners and make up for loss time. There was another hard cutoff at Aid Station #6 (47km, 8h), but by then I had gained about 20-30min. The race course guide had a timing cheatsheet that estimated the times the first, middle, and last runner would pass through each checkpoint, with the last one ending in 14h. The rest of the race was a blur to me as I sought to keep the time buffer. There was plenty of running at 8-9 min/km pace, lots of scrambling over giant rocks, running on loose leaves and crossing water puddles (it had rained the night before). I finally ran through the finishing line at 13:27h, sweet completion!
There were a couple of learning points from the race for me. (1) It was the first time I ran a technical course without my poles. I had also run ECSDC without poles, but that was a relatively flat route. It was quite agile running downhill without poles, and just being in sync with my body to balance myself. (2) Though the climbs were not as steep as say HK's trail races, the tight cutoff made up for the intensity and kept me on my toes (almost literally). (3) I tend to be overly conservative with my energy especially if the route was new to me, and then apply the power only towards the end of the race, ie. I always keep some reserve - not cool in this case where I nearly got cut off. I need to learn how to pace myself in a better/ faster way that is sustainable over long distances.
