Tuesday: Zero. Bore witness to some enthusiastic hen hugging.
Wednesday: 7.0 miles, 515', 8:20 pace.
Thursday: Road cycling, 24.6 miles, 1250', 1:34:28.
I took a long loop from work and encountered an interesting scene on the way back into Manchester. A police officer was directing traffic at the intersection of Lake Avenue and Hall Street while two guys in haz-mat suits held spray bottles and scrubbed the asphalt. The cop kindly advised me not to ride over the trail of blood leading all the way across the road and down the sidewalk. It looked like someone had been shot or stabbed and had tried to make an escape. I decided it would be in poor taste to take a picture. I couldn't find any new articles in the following days, making me winder what the threshold of noteworthiness for violent crime in this town is. At least the ride felt great.
Friday: 6.9 miles, 566', 7:59 pace. Standard Ghetto Blaster Scrambling Circuit, with a few sub 7:30 miles thrown in near the end just because.
Saturday:
AM: 3.8 miles, 1919', 1:25:04. Pre-dawn hike up to Carter Notch Hut.
47.0 miles, 15912', 14:27:53 elapsed time. I'm not in the shape I'd like to be for this one, but when you get the kids at their grandparents', ideal weather, and an offer of a ride for the Hut Traverse, you don't pass on the opportunity. I woke up at 2:00 am, was on the road by 2:15, hiking before 5:00, and running at 6:25. A bit later of a start than I should have done but I sleep better in my own bed than I do stealth bivying in the Forester. I was hoping for low 13 hour finish but blew my chance when I ran out of gas on the Twinway and lost more time descending Lafayette in the dark. I was within a couple minutes of my 2012 times until Zealand, then bled time from there, finishing about a half hour slower with better weather and greater effort. Still, I kept a pretty good attitude all day and just accepted things as they came.
Approximate Splits:
Carter: 0:00
Route 16: 00:38
Madison (via the Gulf): 2:20
Lakes: 4:14
Mitzpah: 5:20
Crawford: 5:52
Zealand:7:30
Guyot: 9:01
Galehead: 9:59
Greanleaf: 12:53
Lonesome: 14:28
PM: 1.6 miles, 81', 48:33. Hungry, slow walk down to the highway from Lonesome Lake. Usually when I finish the hut croo is serving dinner and I'm able to beg some leftovers. This time the place was deserted when I arrived at 9:00 pm, but luckily Burger King is open late Gorham and I ate pretty much one of everything on the drive through menu.
Sunday: Road cycling, 38.5 miles, 2378', 2h 38m. I got home late and only managed four hours of low quality sleep before the daylight woke me up. Stumbled through a few household chores, then rode to my parents' house to meet my wife and pick up the kids. Thank god for sunglasses because my eyes were in rough shape. Pleased to tag 45 mph down Page Road in Bow. Fun riding through Warner and Sutton where I used to bike as a teenager.
Totals: 73.6 miles, 19488', 17h 32m running.
63.2 miles, 3625', 4h 12m cycling.
Hey Adam, can you compare and contrast a Hut Traverse to a 50 mile ultra? I understand that all ultramarathon races are different, but I'd be interested to know what differentiates the Hut Traverse from the ultras you've run of a similar distance.
ReplyDeleteI'd say it's the most difficult 50 miler I've done, certainly the slowest, because of the elevation gain and the footing. Manitou's Revenge in the Catskills and the UTMA 100K in Quebec are the most comparable ultras I can think of.
ReplyDeleteI've noticed a loose correlation in times between the Pemi Loop and Vermont 50. In 2008 I ran both the Pemi and VT50 in 10 hours and 8 hours for both in 2010. I've seen this same trend with some friends as well. This year I'm running Vermont, so I'll get another data point.
All this is to say the Hut Traverse is somewhere between a 50 miler and 100 miler in terms of difficulty.
Thanks for the reply!
ReplyDelete