Stone Cat Trail MarathonBy SillyC
I‘ve been running for about nine years, and I swore I’d never run a marathon. I’d heard about this “Wall,” and it sounded like torture. The training sounded brutal and devoid of fun. To be honest, for almost all of those years, a marathon was out of reach for me anyway, since I only ran about 12 miles a week.
Then came barefoot running, and everything changed. Within months, I was running faster, farther, more often, and getting much more pleasure out of it. On a whim, in August, I compared my recent mileage to some marathon training plans and realized I could be tuned up to run a marathon in about 8 weeks. I searched around for some local races, and found one that was 12 weeks away – the Stone Cat Trail Marathon and 50 mile race – and I signed myself up.
Since the race was almost a 2 hour drive from my house and started at 6 AM, I spent the night at a hotel closer to the venue. The hotel had a block for the Stone Cat participants and served us breakfast at 4:30 AM. Seeing all the other runners at breakfast took the bite out of the 4 AM wakeup.Then we all headed off to Doyon Elementary School to pick up our numbers. There were about 300 total participants, and it was pretty cold out, so the tiny gym filled up fast. I realized that this was likely the most perilous part of the adventure for my poor little feet. While the huaraches from invisibleshoe.com would be plenty enough protection on the trail, they wouldn’t protect me from getting stepped on! I backed onto the mats on the wall, but my “shoes” were still attracting a lot of attention. I had the following conversation several times: “Wow! Are you running in those today?” “Yes I am.” “Boy, you’re brave. Aren’t you worried about hurting your feet?” “Well, I trained in them, so….”The “I trained in them” logic satisfied most people, but I did have one obligatory conversation with a paternalistic jerk in boat anchors who wanted to give me some “advice” about my metatarsals. Thanks, Dad!We filtered out into the playground for the 6:30 AM start. The marathoners would do a 1.2 mile loop around the school first, and then follow the 50 milers out onto a 12.5 mile loop in the Willowdale State Forest. The weather was wonderful, in the upper thirties during the start, and not raining. I had been debating wearing injinji socks with my huaraches but opted against them because there was a lot of dew or perhaps frost on the elementary school field.It was my first “dark” start. I was scared about getting stepped on, so I stuck to the back. I was anxious, too, because I had never run trails in the dark before. But as soon as we thinned outand I stopped worrying about other people’s feet, my own feet got into a groove. The trail turned out to be a lot easier to run on than where I had trained. It wasn’t very rocky or rooty, had very few acorns, and large sections were covered in pine needles. Gils Athletic Club did a fantastic job at keeping us on the trail in the darkness. There were plenty of Glow Sticks up and enthusiastic volunteers at every intersection.About 4 miles in, I hit the beaver pond. A section of the trail had flooded due to recent heavy rains, and to call them puddles would be an enormous understatement. They were shin deep, and by the time I got through them, my tootsies were numb. I was happy I didn’t have the socks on, though, because my feet were dry within 100 yards. This was not the case for everyone else.The first aid station occurred at about mile 5. The volunteers from G. A. C. were awesome, and the aid stations were incredible! I admit that I love to eat and run at the same time; it’s sort of a bad habit of mine. I was in heaven at this race. They were making waffles and bacon and fed me pumpkin pie, Halloween candy, cheese and peanut butter crackers, Pringles, and a PB&J. OM NOM NOM! I made an absolute pig of myself at this race.After the first aid station, I started passing people. I had started very slowly, and although I never got fast, I ran strong the entire race. At mile 17, I realized that I still felt incredible and began picking it up a bit. I also made an effort to stop eating, because I realizing that I was in danger of being the first person to consume more calories than she expended during a marathon.I was still feeling fantastic when I passed the last aid station, around mile 21, and had a great time all the way to the finish. The only Walls I saw were the kinds in that Robert Frost poem. I couldn’t believe how good I felt running back up the elementary school field to the finish. Maybe it was just seeing the 50 milers heading out in the opposite direction, but I definitely felt like I could keep on running. My final time was 5:24, which put me in 31st place out of 62 women. I’m really happy with that because I typically finish just below the median.After the race, there were plenty of refreshments. There was a soccer game in progress at the elementary school, so I think that’s why they had the keg of Stone Cat Ipswich IPA hidden in the woods. I took my handheld out there to pick up some beer, and I felt like I was 16 again, drinking beer in the woods behind the elementary school. Then I sat down next to the playground full of kiddies, with my delicious beer, to listen to some live bluegrass musicand watch more of the marathoners come in. The 50 mile winner, Ben Nephew, came in at 6:24, setting a new course record.I had an amazing time at the Stone Cat Trail race, and I’d like to thank Gils Athletic Club and all the volunteers for putting on such a wonderful event.
Feets before...
