2004 Wellsville Ridgewalk

    Here's my race report from the Wellsville Ridgewalk, a series of races and walks in western NY. I ran the "14 Mile Trail Race", since it sounded like fun (the event also includes 5K and 10K road races, 6, 9, and 14 mile trail walks, and a 2 mile walk. 900 people sign up each year for the various races.). The 14 mile trail race route starts in Alma, NY, and features several large hills, including the highest hill in western NY (El. 2598 ft), then ends at a farm a few miles from the beautiful town of Wellsville. When I first looked into this race, the times seemed rather slow -- if I trained hard this year, I thought I might have a shot at winning or at least placing. Race day dawned as a typical Fall day in NY: cloudy, cold, and windy. A strong lake effect rain band had dumped 2-3" of rain in Buffalo the night before, and even brought the season's first snow to areas further north, but the Wellsville area only had some sprinkles and 20-40 mph winds. Since this is a one-way race, they took all the runners to the start via buses. The 20 minute drive to the race start passed along some of the most gorgeous backcountry roads that can be found anywhere in the East. The Fall colors were definitely at their peak that weekend, and the strong winds had blown many of the leaves down onto the trails. The temperature during the race varied from about 40 in the valleys to perhaps 35 on the hill tops. Thankfully, there were only a few spits of snow and little if any rain during the race.

 

    A total of 93 people ran or walked the 14 mile trail race. I knew my grandiose plans for placing were in jeopardy when 20 people passed me within about a minute of the start!  I was hoping that the winning times for this race were slow because Western NY runners weren't all that fast. I quickly developed an alternate theory -- that the course was going to be harder than I had expected! I decided to run a sane pace and hope that I could catch some of them later. I had decided to use my heart rate monitor and keep it below 175 during the race. Perhaps because of the lower altitude, I found 175 to be pretty easy to sustain and allowed myself to push up to 180 on the hills. The first mile was actually on pavement and featured a gradual uphill grade, but soon the course veered off the road on what could hardly be called a trail. I quickly surmised that this 'trail' race was really a cross-country run on a 'route' that was a patchwork of 4WD roads, pipeline right-of-ways (this area of NY was one of the first oil fields tapped in the U.S.), grassy fields, actual trails, or no trail at all. The route was marked with blue and white ribbons every 10-40 yards, and yellow signs for all the important turns. The initial hill quickly became very steep, reducing most of us to a walk. At 2 miles, I crested the first hill (750 feet of vertical), then ascended and descended a few more minor hills, including a brief stretch on a road and some trails. At this point, I was interchanging place with the 2nd and 3rd place girls. At 4.8 miles, the route took a precipitous 650 foot descent down a rocky, leaf-strewn 'path' that I think must have been a trail for ATV's. The loose shale and uneven hidden surface was pretty exciting to run down, and I passed about 6 or 7 runners in an exhilarating swoop down the slope. Since this was my last trail race of the season, I figured I might as well go for the gusto and not take regard for life or limb, at least if it slowed me down. I rolled an ankle just a bit on this stretch, but only enough to weaken it for a few minutes. It tightened back up and didn't give me any trouble. The descent got even more exciting however, when the flagged route dived off of this already steep route through some tight fir trees. The dense pine needles underfoot took away some of the consequences of a fall, but even if you wanted to stop it was nearly impossible for the steepness (30-45 degrees?). This was just plain fun! The route bottomed out, crossed a stream, and immediately started ascending a long 700 foot hill on the other side of the gulch (dirt road). I walked this stretch as well, and eventually a couple of the guys I had passed on the downhill caught up to me. Near the top of the hill (7.5 miles), a sign proclaimed the halfway point. I was feeling pretty good so far, although this distance was about the extent of my training this Fall, so I wasn't sure how I would feel in another 7 miles. The route turned onto a road for 0.4 miles, then literally turned off into someone's driveway, went through their front yard, around the side of the house, and through the backyard, which had a spectacular view of the valley. This was definitely some creative routing! Another steep descent (-450 feet) and then a steep ascent (500 feet) ensued mostly on trail or 4WD roads. Some stretches featured massive mud puddles. At about mile 10, the route passed through some fields and gradually ascended to the highest point in W NY. The 6-mile walk route followed the remainder of the route, and all sorts of interesting signs were posted about the various trees, rocks, fauna, and such. It looked quite interesting, but there wasn't enough time to read them. At this point, the route was basically cross country, with very uneven grass, moss-covered rocks, roots, etc. My legs were starting to feel pretty tired, but at this stage I was just pushing on autopilot, counting down the miles. The footing became easier when the route traversed some fields. The last couple miles featured another hill and then a last fun, speedy descent, ending at a farm. I was feeling strong and passed a couple more runners in the last mile and sprinted in to the finish.

 

Results

    My total time was 2h35m20s, which was good enough for 15th place overall out of 93 runners/walkers, or 14th out of 66 males. The first woman came in 13th place, just 21 seconds ahead of me. The winning time was 1h59m08s. The 2nd place guy came in about 2h06m59s. To see the full results, click here.

    The post race festivities featured a large tent with lots of food (chili, hot dogs, salted potatoes, cookies, yogurt, fruit, cider), a local musician and radio station (?), kids events, door prizes, and complimentary massage. Changing areas for runners was provided in a barn, which was very helpful considering the extreme chill (about 40 at the race finish with gusty winds). I didn't stick around for the awards ceremony, but the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place runners overall of the 14 mile trail race received awards or medals (or both?), as did the Masters runner, and the overall winners in the 5K and 10K races.

    Overall, this was a fun and challenging trail race. It was definitely a community race, which added to the charm. The Fall colors and exciting routing added to the pleasure. Since my parents live in Western NY, I think I'll probably return to run again next year. If any of you are interested in joining me, let me know (this is an off-time to fly -- this year I flew round-trip for only $117). I think some of our faster FCTR runners could potentially win this race. Anyway, that's what I did this weekend.

This report is preliminary -- I'll post my heart rate/speed graphs later. Sorry no pictures were taken -- I set out to run a serious race, so I left the camera behind.