Eastern Divide 50K

Me and my "crew" ready for the start.

Whew! That was a tough one! Inaugural year for this race and I have to say, the organization was pretty much spot on. A point to point route that began at 2150' elevation at "The Cascades" outside Pembroke, VA and ended at The Mountain Lake Inn & Conservancy at roughly 4000'.

Race HQ - The Mountain Lake Inn

Total elevation gain over the entire course was 5500', loss 3600'.  Final mileage - 30.2.

Topo of the course route

Elevation profile for the course.

Overall, a nice enough course that started off along a picturesque mountain stream and passed by a beautiful waterfall around mile 1 or so.

"The Cascades"

The climb after passing the waterfall.

The vast majority of the course was gravel forest service roads. I would estimate that maybe 10 miles of it was single track.

Not nearly as rugged and arduous as The Promise Land, but also not nearly as beautiful. There were only a few spots that offered views and very few creekside portions.

Thanks to clear cutting, this was one of the handful of views we had.

This event was more of a mental challenge than a physical one.  Some of those really long, steady, unending climbs up the forest service roads took a major mental toll on me.

Majority of course was forest service roads like this one.

There was one 800', 2 mile long climb at the 16 mile mark that was quite memorable.  I went back later and looked over my Garmin data and calculated that this 2 mile stretch averaged an 8.4% grade.  It certainly felt like it!  Thankfully, the race had set up aid station 4 at the very top of the climb.  I was very happy to finally make it there.

Aid Station 4 - a welcome sight!

Highlight of the race - Hubby was able to accompany me to this event and he met me at aid station 4 (mile 18).  He ran along side me for 4 miles until I darted back on to single track after passing aid station 5.

My pacer - note the wine glass clipped to the back of his pack...that's my sweetie!!

I was relieved to make it back under the forest canopy and felt like the temps dropped a couple of degrees as a result.  This section of the single track was on the Conservancy's property and was in good enough shape.  Not too rugged, although there were a few sections with slippery shale to navigate.  Then we hit mile 25 and an abominable little butt kicker of a climb that really took the wind out of your sails.  This was definitely THE STEEPEST section of the course.  Thank goodness it was a short one!  My post race stats had that one pegged at an 18-19% grade over a quarter mile.  I had my hands pushing off on my thighs to try and gain purchase and was literally gasping once I reached the top.

Once you finished that steep little "gift", the trail opened out onto a gorgeous mountain top meadow as your reward for all that hard work.

We skirted around two sides of the meadow with Aid Station 6 in the corner.  I didn't feel the need to stop at the aid station, so I took advantage of the opportunity to pass a few runners who were catching their breath and refueling.  Around to the top of the meadow and onto more forest covered single track.  I was tired, no way around it, but I was feeling fairly good.  We entered a slight downhill portion and here my tiredness chose to make itself apparent.  My right foot caught on a vine that was spanning the trail.  I stumbled and fought for balance, caught myself with a huge stride on the left leg and felt a sharp pain in the inside of my left thigh as I did so.  It was fast, sharp and pretty powerful.  The runner behind me passed by with the comment "Nice catch", but I'm not so sure.  Perhaps I might have been better off just falling.  The pain brought me to a standstill and I could barely walk for a dozen steps.  The muscle on the inside of my left thigh was seizing up something fierce.  Here I was at mile 26, just a few miles short of the finish line and I was seriously wondering if my race was over.  I could barely walk, but kept telling myself over and over "Keep moving.  Keep moving."  Reduced to a very awkward and tentative hobble, grasping my thigh with both hands, I pushed on in the hopes that if I kept moving, it would eventually ease up.  After about 200' at this pace, I decided to try and shuffle/jog.  That proved to be a bit less painful and so I pushed on.  After about a quarter mile, the muscle loosened up completely and I was back on my way, albeit a little more tentatively.  Whew!

I ran by Aid Station 7 at the 28 mile mark without stopping.  I had hoped to see Paul here (and get rid of my hand held and my iPhone which was freakishly beeping at me every 3 seconds and driving me absolutely batty), but no familiar faces.  A quick thanks to the aid station volunteers and I headed back onto more single track with the finish line a mere 2 miles away.

At this point I kept yo-yoing with a guy by the name of Codie and an older woman who was using this event as a training run for the Vermont 100.  I stuck close to Codie, opting not to try and pass just yet, but keeping him in sight for company and a bit of conversation.

The course designers had a very cruel little streak.  At roughly mile 29, it takes you right past the finish line and back into the woods!  It was a real mental challenge to keep on trucking when you could see the finish line right there, hear the crowd cheering for other runners as they came in, and literally smell the burgers on the grills.

Head up, keep moving.  Still hanging with Codie, we passed the "1 mile to go" sign.  More woodlands, a sharp turn to the left, rolling single track...that mile seemed to be one of the longest I'd ever run.  Finally, we came out of the forest canopy and into the meadow where we new the finish line was just up ahead.  The trail widened here so I came up beside Codie and asked him if he wanted to push to the finish.  He was done though, so I forged on ahead with a little bit of a sprint to the end.  I had the ultimate motivator waiting for me just the other side of the line.  There was my honey cheering me on and holding out a chilled glass of wine and my fuzzy bedroom slippers ;-)

The motivation behind my final sprint - WINE!

 Final time: 7:16:39.7 

I grabbed my beverage and headed to the side lines, catching up with friends that had just finished and basically just enjoying being DONE!  As soon as I sat down, my left thigh started to go into very uncomfortable cramps.  Paul was right there with a bag of ice in hand.  Thank goodness, 'cause that was incredibly painful.  The icing helped tremendously and within 10 minutes, all was well again.

Ice pack on thigh, wine in hand, fuzzy slippers...life is good!

The race had finished in a beautiful meadow by the Conservancy's stables. There were grills going, tents set up, and plenty of family and friends enjoying the beautiful afternoon and the scenery as they waited for their runners to finish. Lots of folks hung out for a long time afterwards lounging on chairs and blankets and eating their fill.

Lauren, Linda and me...all smiles!

There was a large contingent of NC runners there and it was fun hanging out with so many familiar faces. I got to spend a good bit of time with several runners along the course and had very much enjoyed running some miles with John from Pittsburg. Number 53 was a gentleman celebrating his 53rd birthday by running the race. He had been given race bib number 53 in honor of the day and we all wished him "Happy Birthday" as he came across the finish line. Terri Hayes (race director of the SC Ultra Trail Series) was one of the runners and prided herself on being the "last finisher".

I placed 119th out of 173 finishers.  I'm really pretty darn pleased with that. I came in just minutes behind Gene Meade, Lauren Beach Wilkens and Mo Percy, all of whom I consider to be very strong and accomplished ultra runners. My previous best time at a 50K was 6:52, but that was on a much, much flatter course on a crisp winter day down near Ft. Bragg, NC. Temps here reached into the 80s and the mountains are always a factor.

I don't know if I'll return to this race as I really like for my mountain miles to have more views and scenery for all the hard work and I do like my single track. I give it a thumbs up though if you like running wider forest service roads and want to get in a decent mountain run workout. Aid stations were simple but adequate. The trail was exceptionally well marked and there were ample volunteers and support. The race had a 200 runner cap this year and had a nice, intimate feel to it.