Raw and Honest
Unrelenting Sand of the Inaugural Hitchcock Woods 50k.
photo: RConaway via Flickr
Well I did it. I ran my first ultra marathon. It was simultaneously exhausting and exhilarating. Please read my Systematic, Hydramatic, In-Depth Hitchcock Woods 50k Race Report. I spent longer on the report than on the course.
I’m known as the guy trying to get to Boston. It’s a marathon thing. But when I announced I’d be running a 50k, a reader welcomed me to the “raw and honest world of ultras.â€
Wow.
Is the marathon somehow too glamorous? Full of poseurs perhaps? It certainly has become a populist sensation. Far fewer people run ultras. For them the marathon may have lost its luster. It’s become too accessible.
Ultras are smaller and attract little in the way of spectators, sponsors, or prize money. Marathoners ask, “Is the race shirt cool?†Ultra marathoners ask, “Is there a shirt at all?†Marathoners become radically incensed when mile markers are inaccurate (Like the horrendously misplaced three mile mark at Myrtle Beach this year… or so I hear). Ultras feature no mile markers, no massive clocks and typically no high school marching bands. Sometimes distances are merely close estimates.
Road marathoners fear the “wall.†With luck, they hit the finish line before fading horribly. In an ultra, the crash is inevitable. The trick is to plan for it, gut it out, and come out on the other side still moving. Not even Karno the magnificent has enough inherent glycogen stores for a forty mile run.
So, is the ultra better? Crazier?
No, it’s just different. If greater distance were the paragon of virtuous running, Roger Bannister’s ho-hum four minute mile would not be celebrated. I know I’ll never look askance at a marathon accomplishment.
Yet I can’t deny the lure of races run far from the maddening crowd, largely untarnished by the mass commercialization and commoditization of modern culture. There’s some purity in that, yes.
I loved my first ultra.
– Dean
Please read my 2007 Hitchcock Woods 50k race report. Then come back to this post to offer comments.
June 11th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Great report! I felt like I was there, which is good, I can live vicariously through you!
June 11th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
Sounds like it was really intense. You are the man, man! 🙂 I probably would have caught a cold and perished from pneumonia.
June 11th, 2007 at 9:12 pm
I’ve been waiting for this one. Congrats on a fine first ultra finish. You sure picked a doozie to start with. Why am I not surprised? Sounds like it was everything an ulra should be. This will help you in your quest for Boston – it will make you all kinds of stronger, of course crazier doesn’t hurt either.
June 12th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Now that you’ve “crossed the line” – and skipped happily into the insane asylum of Ultra-Running, you can only expect the madness to increase in severity.
What’s next? Well, after a 50K, it will take a 50 miler to sate your desire for even greater pain and suffering. And after that…
Well, that would be where I’m at – a 50 miler veteran, I’m currently planning my 100-miler this fall, and am crewing a friend at BadWater this summer – so who knows what 2009 may hold?!
Run on brother!
kestrou
June 12th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
That was an ultramatic report!
We have tasted the red Koolaid of the ultra world, and I don’t think that we will ever be quite the same. Hitchcock was a great introduction into the raw & honest world which holds many more challenges than the marathon.
The training you did for this will pay huge dividends at Steamtown! You better have some more triples in the plan, that will be the key workout to get you to Boston.
June 12th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
My Steamtown plan is titled “Triples-R-Us.”
For the uninitiated, A “Triple” refers to three 9.5 mile loops on the trails. Several of these triples form the backbone of my next Boston attempt; each at the “putting hair on your chest” distance of about 28.5 miles.
Yikes.
– Dean
June 12th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Kestrou,
Crewing Badwater? SWEET!
– Dean
June 12th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
I love the focus on the simple things such as the satisfaction the pizza gave you and the joy of having your shirt returned. I’m waiting to see a Major League Baseball player go on the disabled list with Nipple Discomfort. That’s hilarious. Congrats on a fine run.
June 13th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Dean, you’re a poet! That was memorable, wasn’t it? Well done. Sorry I won’t see you at NYC. Some other time!
June 13th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
#191,
Great run at Hitchcock. NYC is nice, but I will see you in BOSTON someday.
#540
June 14th, 2007 at 9:37 am
wow. that sounds awesomely horrible.
i used to live in south carolina as a kid, and my mom referred to sand as “the enemy,” infiltrating our house through the trojan horse of our shoes. sounds like you conquered that enemy and a few others.
June 15th, 2007 at 11:10 am
What a run…not really a race for me! I did my run on limited training…really none! A 12 mile run a month previous to Hitchcock was about it for me…it was a true bitch but I did it after getting lost on the first loop for about an hour. It is amazing what the human body can do with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and fruit. I consumed NO power gels for the first time…that is because I did not have any. I felt pretty good afterwards thanks to the pizza and barley soda my friends gave me! Lets do it again next year…make sure you make it wheel chair accessable for me please!
June 15th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Great report Dean, and congrats on your first ultra! Pretty exciting stuff. Once you get sucked into the world of ultras, Boston will seem like nothing. Don’t get me wrong, Boston is my favorite marathon I’ve ever run and an incredible experience. Road marathons just seem so tame after trail ultras. Both awesome, but apples and oranges, you know? Anyway, I can’t wait to hear more about your running adventures.
June 15th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Gretchen,
Much like Professor Snape, I am pulled in two directions.
– D
December 21st, 2009 at 9:45 pm
thank you. i know i’m commenting late in the game, but i really enjoyed the 2007 Hitchcock Woods 50k race report. so inspiring!