Ben Nephew's Stonecat Trail Marathon Race Report

A great recap by Ben of his CR at the Stonecat Marathon this past Saturday.

STONECAT TRAIL MARATHON 2009

I’ve been trying to get to the Stone Cat races for a few years, but either had work conflicts or the race has closed out. Last year I went up to VT to run the PEAK Funeral Run 50 miler with 13k of climbing, which was very different from Stone Cat. I decided to do the marathon this year, as the 50 miler seemed very similar to the North Face 50 miler down in DC, and I’ve got some other things planned for later this fall. I knew the course was pretty fast (two 12.5 mile loops with a one mile add-on), and that Greg Hammett was running, so I figured I’d have some company.

Instead of warming up or getting ready, I spent my pre-race time talking with some trail locals, the Schmitts, Rich Busa, Greg, Jack Pilla, and Todd Walker. I was a little sad about skipping the 50 miler, as it had a great group of guys in the field, but I was also looking forward to running on fast trails in pretty ideal weather. It was a bit on the chilly side, but the folks at Inov-8 will be happy to hear that the cold forced me to wear a singlet for the first time since France. Everyone was giving me a hard time about me not going shirtless, but it was 28F when we started!

Greg and I settled into a comfortable pace pretty quickly, and basically went for a long run. He admitted that it was probably a little too fast for him, but didn’t seem to be struggling at all. It was a little difficult passing the entire 50 mile field during the first loop, but things spread out pretty quickly. I was trying to focus on staying relaxed, as I tend to overestimate my fitness in my own long runs, where the first few miles are sometimes my fastest. Right as I was starting to get warmed up, the 6am start came back to haunt me. I just never have time to get things done at these early races, and told Greg I needed to make a pit stop. He kept going, and I soon got back on trail and was immediately confused at the first intersection I hit. There were a few other befuddled runners there, and I luckily realized where we all were supposed to go. I pointed them left and I went right, where Greg was taking a pit stop of his own. I slowed to wait for him and we returned to winding through the trails and fire roads of Willowdale State Forest.

It’s definitely a very flat course, but there are a lot of turns that wear you down after a while. Greg and I both thought I could run under 3hrs on the course, and I had an imaginary goal of 1:30 for the first loop (including a 6 minute start loop). He mentioned that last year, he had never caught Leigh, who won the 50 miler in 6:30. When we passed him with miles to go in the first loop, Greg wondered if he might be going too fast. We both noted that the lead men didn’t seem to be in much of a hurry at that point, and weren’t too far ahead of the lead women. At about 1:20, Greg started to fall off the pace a bit. As I focused on trying to keep things under control for first half of the race, I inched away from Greg. Including the 6 minute loop at the start, I hit the start/finish area sometime around 1:31:45, which wasn’t too far off my guess. I grabbed my secret fuel (flat Coke and Nuun tablets, sshhhh!), and headed back onto the 12.5m loop. I was still feeling rested at this point, and was looking forward to seeing how fast I could run the second half of the race.

The first couple miles of the last loop were much more enjoyable without anyone to pass, and I hoped I was on my way to running negative splits. I decided to start running hard with about 8 miles to go, which would be the first aid station. My legs felt fine, and my feet were perfectly comfortable in my 230’s. This is the second trail marathon I’ve run in my 230’s, so I knew that they would work well. It was fun passing some of the runners on my second loop, as everyone was very supportive. When I spotted Rich Busa, I noticed that he was wearing the hat we had just given him for his 80th birthday! By the time I hit the last aid station with 5 mile to go, the incessant turns were starting to wear on me. I was still holding a good pace, but I wasn’t accelerating as well out of the turns and following the few short hills. As I started to recognize that the finish was approaching, I cranked up the pace up last time. With a last loop of about 1:23, I ran a 2:54:48 to lower Greg’s CR from last year by 10 minutes. My 230’s did a great job of protecting my feet from roots and rocks, and my legs felt good enough the next day to go for 10 miles. It was an ideal day for running fast, and it was nice to be able take advantage of my current fitness.

Kevin Sullivan looked great coming through halfway in the 50 at 3:05, and it was too bad his calf started to act up. Brian Rusiecki held on best to win in 6:27 with Leigh and Jack Pilla in 2nd and 3rd, and Dave Herr in 4th. The race organizers do a great job, and it’s a spectacular course at this time of year. I think the entire New England trail running community appreciates the work it takes to organize an event like Stone Cat.