This weekend was my last opportunity to have my last run before my trip to Chamonix, France. At this point I still had no Schengen Visa but I tried to keep my hope alive and kept training. My plan was to do a long easy run with less or non technical trail run. We headed out to the Shawangunk Ridge, it was the home for rock climber in North East of US, probably more than a hundreds route on these long ridge of rocks.
“There’s no small irony in the fact that New York’s tallest peak is merely the last challenge on this classic loop-and far from the toughest. The route scales nine peaks, including six 4,000-footers and the aforementioned 5,344-foot Mt. Marcy. But numerous cols and false summits, plus heinously eroded trail beds, wear you down physically and psychologically. From Keene Valley, the murderer’s row of peaks includes Rooster Comb, Hedgehog, Lower Wolf Jaw, Upper Wolf Jaw, Armstrong, Gothics, Saddleback, Haystack, and Marcy, from which you descend the Phelps Trail. Gut-check moments include a half-mile of teetering above a 700-foot drop on a knife-edge between the Wolf Jaws-inevitably followed by a steep climb-and the southeast face of Gothics, a scary-steep, exposed descent over open slab rock. (The face used to have cables to aid hikers, but, fittingly, they’ve been removed.) There are long stretches of scrambling and ladder-climbing, and you’ll need to carry enough water for the day. Contact: Adirondack Mountain Club, (518) 668-4447; www.adk.org”
Backpacker Magazine rate as the third AMERICA’S HARDEST DAYHIKES
Score: 90 Miles: 25 Elevation Change: 17,600 feet X Factor: Endless ups and downs
Distance : 18 miles
Finish : 4:29:03
Rank : #72 (overall)
This was my second year to run this year. The same trail, the same thunderstorm rain, and the same motto, “Mountain Goat Only”. It still fresh in my mind how was those words spoken for itself.
This race was my training race for my upcoming TDS race; actually this would be my first mountain run training after a couple of weeks of vacation from running. I planned to run it nice and easy, try to find the best pace and strategy that I wanted to apply in TDS. Also I had a bruised on my left knee, I fell on the subway train on Friday night. Doing a parkour after midnight on the stairs was not a brilliant idea, I was not even drunk at that moment. Slow and easy seemed the right mantra that day.
Thunder, Lightning, and Pouring
I drove with Joe to the car pool area (the finish line area) to get a bus ride to the starting line. I stayed with Delano’s family the night before and got a chance to hang out with Dylan, which was awesome.
When we got into the starting line, I met many familiar faces, especially the runners from Manitou Revenge that I did a couple of weeks earlier. It was kind of funny how I always see these same people in all of my races these years; I guessed we shared the same flavor of trail running on the mountain, technical terrain and torturing ourselves.
The new thing with this year Escarpment Trail Race was we started in waves, since the park regulated a new rule, they only allowed a certain number of people on the trail at the same time. The first wave was mostly the male elites. I saw a few familiar faces in that wave, Ben Nephew who has been dominating Escarpment trail for years, Ian Golden the RD from Cayuga 50 miles, and Ryan Wellts. On the second wave, mostly were elites female, I saw Kristina Folcik and Sheryl Wheeler.
Like last year, it was pouring again this year, but we had a bonus this time. We got a few paparazzi from the sky, who flashing lightning and thunder from its dark sky.
I was cold and wet, so when I stood on the starting line in my wave with Joe Delano, I could not wait to start and got warm.
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