Horse-Shoe Trail - Giddy Up!

So I've picked November 7-8 as my days to run the 142 mile Horse-Shoe Trail across southeastern PA. After combing over the trail description and maps, I've decided to start on the western end of the trail where it meets w/ the Appalachian Trail. I picked this direction for a couple reasons:

1) I won't have to hike an extra couple miles from the end of the Horse-Shoe Trail to the road when I'm done (I like to be DONE when I'm done...not have to still walk a couple miles to the car!). By ending the run in Valley Forge, I'll be right at the street when the trail ends.

2) The first 30+ miles on the western end of the trail are probably the most remote and challenging as far as terrain goes, so I'll happily glide over that on fresh legs in the beginning instead of shuffling like a zombie at the end.

3) The prevailing wind is generally W/NW this time of year in that area of PA (Hey, I do my research!), so I'll gladly opt to have it at my back more often than not as I head east to Valley Forge.

Since I'm doing this run unsupported, I'm plotting out my water supply points pretty carefully. There are a few streams/springs along the way that I've plotted, but finding others is proving to be pretty tough as the maps of this trail are printed in black and white (i.e. No blue rivers to easily pick out). I'll be fine either way, but the B&W maps are definitely proving to be a challenge in some regards.

Since I know I'll be running over some hills w/ cell towers and through a few small towns along the way, I'll be sure to send some audio posts to the blog as I make my way through the trail. Hopefully the Utterli site has ironed out some its issues of late and all my posts make to the blog in a reasonable time. Either way, I'll be sure to carry a camera with me and post a nice run report within a day or two when I get back home.

As far as a Speed Record goes, I have inquiries out all over the place right now to see if anyone knows of an existing record, but thus far one doesn't seem to exist. This is great news to me since I'll really be able to relax and take my time running w/ my semi-heavy pack (I'll post my complete list of gear/fuel before I take off next weekend).

One of the major reasons I'm doing this run is to practice how my Vermont Long Trail attempt will go next year, and I hope to gain some quality insight in terms of what gear to carry and how long I should stop for my quick snoozes on the trail. I know my Long Trail attempt is still a ways off, but I'm already excited to start ramp-up process for that big run!

Plans, They Are a' Changin'

Next year was going to be the "Year of the Trail" for me. I had designs on making three different Speed Record Attempts on various historic trails ranging from 140 to 370 miles. On top of that, I was going to kick off the spring by making a serious attempt at becoming the 9th person to finish Barkley. ....then the whole "World Championships in France" thing popped up in my schedule and forced me to re-think my 2010 plan. Obviously this is a good problem to have.

Since I'll need to focus lots of my training on flatter road-style terrain over the next 7 months, I'm scrapping Barkley and one of my trail attempts for the spring. The Race Director for the sold-out Umstead 100 was nice enough to let me into the race last week, so I'll have that as a suitable March warm-up for France. Running 100 miles on those park roads is just a wee bit more appropriate as training for France than the sawbriar mountains and 52,900 feet of elevation gain at Barkley.

Given that the France race also takes place on the same day as the Massanutten 100, I'll have to push my return to MMT back yet another year....which stinks, but isn't completely bad: I'll be able run on 71% of the course in February after earning my invitation to run the 71 mile "Reverse Ring" course by finishing "The Ring" last month. The extra experience and longer wait will only make my eventual return to MMT that much more successful, I'm sure.

Once I get back from France, I'll still have half the year to work in some of my trail plans, and the major focus will be on challenging the Vermont Long Trail record (271 miles in 4 days, 12 hours, 46 minutes). There are lots of reasons for me to make a serious run at this record, but I'll save those for a future post. As of right now I'm thinking I'll be ready to make the attempt in late August or early September of next year. Jonathan Basham broke the record this year w/ a September run, and I'll admit even before his record effort I also thought this was a good time to do the run for weather & bug reasons. I didn't spend the first 28 years of my life in the New England woods and not notice things like that. I'll talk more about the Long Trail as the time for that run draws closer.

As for the rest of 2009, I'm ready to focus on one more solid effort in the next couple months, but to be quite honest there isn't much to chose from on the race schedule! I would have loved to run the Pinhoti 100 in Alabama, but it happens to be one of those races that would randomly cost me about $3.2 million to get to. I think I'm better off saving my $$ for France this year. I'll save Pinhoti (which looks like a great point-to-point 100 miler) for another year when travel plans are easier to work out.

As an alternative I'll be pushing up one of my solo Trail runs from 2010 to next month. I still need to work out the logistics, but most likely I'll be heading out to run the 140 mile Horse-Shoe Trail in PA (Harrisburg to Valley Forge) in the middle of November. It'll be a little late to catch the foliage up there, but I'll still enjoy the countryside (and probably the company of a few horses too!) during my journey. Since this is a lesser known trail in the running world, I'm not sure an official "Speed Record" exists (still researching that), but for someone who is looking to take it a little easy on his run and appreciate nature a bit, I consider this is a good thing. Enjoying a little relaxing time on the trail before focusing seriously on France sounds like a perfect plan to me! Giddy-up!

More Photos from National Championship

In between his 3 million other duties, Crew Chief Jeff found the time to take a ton of photos during the NorthCoast24 last weekend...here are a few to help show the various stages of the race (and how cool the venue was!), Enjoy!

Pre-race photo...let's see how long that smile lasts on my face.

Finding a nice easy groove early on. ...and if you're wondering what high-end fancy shirt I'm running in, it's an $8.99 Target special.

Did someone say this field was a little stacked? Here's Scott Jurek and Serge Arbona cruising around in the morning. Jenny (Scott's crew) is in the Brooks Jacket while Lizzy looks on in a pink hoodie, which I can only assume is another $8.99 Target special. We're big fans.

Jeff kept me perfectly in time with split updates on every lap. You can see the Tent City view of the Cleveland skyline here.

Speaking of Tent City, here's Lizzy posing in front of the last section if it. Quite a cool place to run through during the day/night. Someone's crew was always there to give you a smile or clap as you passed through.

Still smiling early on, must be when I realized the sun was coming out and we might not get drenched like everyone was predicting.

Jurek leading the way as we practice for the World 24 Hour Conga Line Championships.

Lizzy shows off the view of the skyline from the middle of the park...

...then hops right back to business to hand me a full bottle as I passed through.

It wasn't all work for her though...she got to frolic with me along the lake for a couple seconds here. She's not much interested in running, but as far as frolicking goes, she's world class.

Jeff and Lizzy perfect the art of the self-shot w/ Cleveland in the background. Please note neither of them are from Boston, but they both wore their Red Sox caps all day - Talk about full support for this Boston boy!

It was too early to hallucinate, but I still think this lady is actually a ghost that walked straight out of the lake and stood in that random spot as the sun went down.

As the sun (and lots of the other runners) started to fade, I started picking up the pace.

Sharing a moment w/ Women's 3rd place finisher, Team USA member, and expert curler, Deb Horn

My love for running at night really helped me reel in the leaders as I kept flying when the hours got small.

Focus, Focus, Focus

Zombie, Zombie, Zombie

As the sun came back up I put the glasses back on and did my best to not be embarrassed by wearing tights in public.

Hey look, even though I've just realized there are two guys right on my heels for 2nd and 3rd place, I'm still smiling!

...and yes, the smile can't be wiped off my face at the Award Ceremony as RD Dan Horvath announces my 139.28 miles and 3rd place finish!