Recent Adventures

Due to slacking on the blogging, this is going to be a quick and dirty update on some of our more recent adventures.

The weekend prior to the North Face Endurance Challenge, we attempted our first intentional hike in the dark. We crawled out of our tent shortly after 3:00 am and headed for the summit of Cadillac Mountain, the highest point on the eastern seaboard, north of Brazil, for sunrise. We made the summit right at sunrise, but due to the massive amounts of fog we couldn't see much further than 15 feet, let alone the horizon. We were back at our house, an hour and a half drive from Acadia, before most people had eaten breakfast.

On the weekend of April 12 we traveled to New York for the North Face Endurance Challenge. We got to see three of my corps members in the city the night before our races. The city was a beast. We couldn't find the metro, the train in front of ours had brake issues and we were rerouted, Tarah got a lame North Face shirt and mine didn't have the race logo on it, no one knew that Tarah was supposed to be volunteering at the event, we hurriedly ate food, took three trains to get where one should have gone and got to our hotel at 11:00 pm. The next day, we got up at 3:00 am to make the short drive to Bear Mountain State Park. My race that started at 5:00 in the fog and eventual thunderstorm was absolutely brutal. There were hardly any spots were you could safely run due to large rocks in the trail and insane ascents. I ended up dropping out after 26.5 miles because I knew I wasn't going to make the hard time cutoff. Of the 106 runners of the 50 miler, only 19 made it in under the allotted 13 hours, and I was in the top half when I decided to not kill my body. The eventual winner came in an hour and a half after the projected winning time and he was well over an hour ahead of the second place finisher.

The following weekend we took it easy and only did a couple shorter hikes in Acadia. We were able to hit two trails that we hadn't done before.

For my birthday, I had planned on returning to the Grafton Notch Loop Trail, which Emily, Austin, Tay and I had attempted in October. The GNLT is a new 40 mile loop in the White Mountains. My plan was to start out early on Saturday, knock out between 25 and 30 miles in a long day and then wrap up on Sunday so that we could go out for a birthday dinner. My plan started off great, but before my first summit I hit a little snow. Then I hit a lot of snow. In places, I was post-holing up to my thighs. After 5.5 miles I was still on pace to be able to complete the loop in the two days. Just when I would think that the snow wasn't going to be an issue I'd turn the corner or come over a crest and be greeted by a white blanket. At 9.5 miles, I decided my best bet would be to turn around. After a hot meal, I started making my way back to my car. A couple of miles in, I completely lost the trail, due to it being a newer trail, lots of snow and downed trees. Fortunately I had a topo and compass. I knew the road where I was parked was west so I set my compass and started bushwacking. After a few hours and a couple of river crossings, I came out on the road about 50 yards from my car.

Last weekend, we went rock climbing with some friends at "The Verticals" in Camden Hills. After a short hike in, we repelled down to where we were going to climb from. The cliffs were a little damp, so Tay and I only climbed one route, but it was a great first experience. After the cliffs, we headed to Orono for two shows.

Hopefully we won't so infrequent in the documentation of our future outings.

New York Fun Run

While reading Dean Karnazes's "Ultra Marathon Man," I got wild delusions of running the Western States 100 and earning a shiny new belt buckle. The thought of a brutal, day long, run/hike through snow, over mountains, and across rivers sounded like the perfect way to spend a weekend.
In just over a month, I'll be a little closer to possibly realizing my dream (most people's nightmare). On April 12, I'm going to be participating in a 50 mile endurance race in Bear Mountain, New York. In order to run the WS100 you need to complete another "ultra" in a specific amount of time, volunteer a number of hours at a race or doing trail work, AND have your name drawn in a lottery system. Hopefully I'll complete the NY race in under 11 hours and I'll be able to get my name in the lottery for the 2009 WS100. My actual goal for my first 50 miler is 9hours. Which is a 10:48 pace. As long as I can go out slow, I'm confident that I will be at the tape in plenty of time for the awards ceremony, 10 hours after the 5:00am start.
Maine winters and hectic work schedules aren't very conducive to training for an ultra, but I've been hitting the YMCA 4 to 5 times a week for varied workouts: 8 mile jaunts around the 1/12 mile track, hills on the treadmill, 10 milers, speed workouts, and snowshoeing on the weekends. Unfortunately this past weekend I got as sick as I ever remember being, so I haven't been active for almost a full week, so the month leading up to the event is going to be that much more crucial.
For more info on this insanity check this out.