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O.W. Link Memorial 10k Run<br>
Green Cove Station, VA, on the Virginia Creeper Trail<br>
and The Iron Mt 50M Trail Race volunteer report Damascus, VA<br><br>
September 29, 2007<br><br><i>The race starts and we’re off. I’m running hard in the top three headed down the road toward the first turn.</i><br><i>I take the lead ahead of two guys wearing white singlets, Wow, I’ve <b>never</b> done this well before. I’m wearing a white singlet???</i><br><i>Something’s not right, I don’t own a white singlet. I make a hard left, but I’m the only one!?!?</i><br><i>The rest of the pack turns RIGHT. Dang! I recover and try to catch up. I finish about 20th of 30.</i><br><b>Then I wake up, Thursday morning.</b><br><br>
This is about the first anniversary of foot racing for me. And the 2006 running of the OWL 10k was my very first race.<br>
I set a goal time for this race at the beginning of the year to sub 53min -last year’s time 58:22 – so totally doable I think.<br><br>
Well I’ve had a great past couple of weeks—a 5K PR, then a 15 mile trail run last Saturday. Keeping mileage down, but intensity up.<br>
Life has been good. I’m making new running friends. Running doesn’t hurt as much and my body seems to recovery better.<br>
I’m still pretty much a newbie at running and athletics in general. There is lots for me to learn and discover.<br>
Everyday is a delightful challenge, a quest, or an adventure.<br><br>
My DW has had plans to be out of town on this race weekend for months. So I get to play by myself this weekend.<br>
Rushing through Friday’s work by 1:45, I head to the house to pack. Camping gear and racing gear merge into single backpack.<br>
It ends up a bit heavy, but I’m biking -not walking. Lube the chain, squeeze the tires, and hitting trail by 4ish pm.<br>
The weather is fantastic with more on the way. I live a hop, skip, and jump to the Virginia Creeper Trail about mile post 7.<br>
Before the VCT was a multi-use recreation trail, it was a railroad connecting Abingdon, VA and West Jefferson, NC.<br>
Having evolved to a rail-trail it now ends at the NC state line -about milepost 34.<br>
This race is held near the end of the trail in memory of O.W. Link, a well-known photographer of trains several decades back.<br>
One in particular taken at Green Cove, shows the steam engine coming up Whitetop Mt to Green Cove with a work horse “Old Maud”<br>
appearing to bow her head to the approaching train. A sort of “old giving way to the new” commentary.<br><br>
I’m not a biker really, but have been on the trail riding a few times this year. Even did a couple of VCT round trip rides back in<br>
cool weather, but not carrying camping gear. I take it very easy. The first section of the ride is virtually flat, a topographic anomally in this area.<br>
But about 10 miles up the trail, entering the national forest, the trail takes on its more characteristic 1-2% grade.<br>
I’m stopping every 2 miles, usually on a trestle, for rest to insure no lactate buildup and just to watch the creek run.<br>
It becomes somewhat arduous, but a sunny afternoon has become a pleasantly cool evening with bouquets of stars and galaxies<br>
leaning across the furrowed brow of the mountains above. I want to find a convenient campsite for a “no frill” overnight<br>
and end up settling by a wide spot near a road, creek, and trail crossing.<br>
After stringing up my sleeping hammock next to<br>
Grassy Branch, by 1Opm I’m snoozing. At 2am I wake to a brilliant waning moon casting voluminous shadows through a tall, deciduous canopy.<br>
It’s pretty cool and takes a couple hours to get comfortable enough to sleep again.<br><br>
The race is only 2.5 miles further up the trail just past milepost 30, so a 6:30 wakeup seems adequate to repack and make it to<br>
the starting line on time. By 7:10 I’m pedaling through the open fields of Green Cove. There’s a heavy, silver dew on the grass,<br>
but no frost. I’m sure the temps are in the 30’s though.<br>
The moon is retreating to the western ridges but the sun is still pretty well hidden by Whitetop and Beech Mt just a mile to the east.<br><br>
At Green Cove Station, I was wrong about the frost. I hear some men talking about “a little on the windshield”.<br>
By 7:40 I’m inside at registration glad to be out of the chill. “Hey neighbor”. It’s runnerBeth.<br>
She ran and ended up with some pretty good scrapes at last weeks trail race. Come to find out, her falls unfortunately got her<br>
in some poison ivy too –she’s had a rough week. She left her car back in Damascus about milepost 15.<br>
She stopped to see the starting of the 2nd annual Iron Mt 50 Miler and caught a ride up with her friend Jim.<br>
He’s about my AG. They planned on running back to Damascus after the 10k. Sort of a 15 mile cooldown recovery run I guess <img alt="" src="http://www.coolrunning.com/forums/smile.gif" style="border:0px solid;">.<br><br>
I get a mile of warm-up with a few strides that are less than encouraging. I feel fresh enough but more like a snake<br>
that spent the night in a refrigerator fresh than exuberant and fresh. George and Kirstin with their two girls running the<br>
2k for Kids have arrived. The parents did well at our 5k two weeks ago.<br>
We are called to the line. I strip off an outer top long sleeve,<br>
within minutes we are headed up the hill. My strategy, or lets just call it fantasy, has been to get to the turn-around with 8:30,<br>
no worse than 9:00 miles and roll back down with whatever was left. So with the pack spreading out at about 200 meters we start a<br>
2.75 mile climb on 3% grade- about 150’ per mile- toward Whitetop Station. Beth, Jim, and George take off and leave me<br>
following Kirstin and most of the pack of 30. In typically paddock frenzy I’m caught down around 5K pace for the first ¼ mile.<br>
But I sober up fast on the hill. By the end of mile one, all the way down to 9:05. Couldn’t I do better than this? Apparently not, mile 2 -9:22.<br>
There’s no excuse, I’m feeling good, just couldn’t make the grade. Kirstin is following me now by several yards and we’ve passed a<br>
couple of people.<br><br>
By now, we have climbed. The sun has climbed. Then appears an image of totally distracting beauty. A deep shadow lays between<br>
the high walls of a two-sided cut. But a hard sun is filtering through a high canopy of green and yellow beech leaves –tingeing the shadow<br>
with an earthy chartreuse haze- a real unearthly effect. I agree with Dostoevsky when he said, “Beauty will save the World”.<br>
For a moment I felt more like I should fall to the ground and pray than run. 5 seconds of beauty can scar a soul for life.<br><br>
As we neared the top I knew that neither pray nor beauty was going to save this run, or rather my goal.<br>
We finished mile 3 @ 9:11 pace, a little ways past the top giving a ¼ mile of almost flat to the turn around.<br>
Kirstin pulls in front of me at the turn and we struggle back to the lip of the hill. Three miles of what ever<br>
is left - 8:24, 7:54, 7:37 and 7:47 for the .22. Finish time 54:32 - fun run, nowhere near my goal, but a lot of fun,- maybe 20th out of 30 OA <img alt="" src="http://www.coolrunning.com/forums/smile.gif" style="border:0px solid;"><br><br>
It seems the whole community has turned out for the race, with some live music from the old train station porch,<br>
and a fund-raiser BBQ at the community center served to<br>
the hundreds and hundreds of bicyclist that will travel from Whitetop Station 17 miles down to Damascus on a great day.<br><img alt="" src="http://i22.tinypic.com/xm0kkz.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"><br>
The mayor of Damascus (the lady wearing red in the picture) presents all the awards -to the kids first and then the adults and gives<br>
them all a hug. Beth got a hug for first in AG. Soon after, she and Jim head off down the trail on foot.<br><br>
By bike, I arrive at the finishing area at the town gazebo for the Iron Mt Run an hour or so ahead of them. It’s still almost two hours<br>
or so until the first finisher is expected and no one is hanging out.<br>
So the three of us swing by The Old Mill Restaurant for a snack and a brew on the back porch overlooking the millpond.<br>
Talking running and racing on an idyllic fall day is as good as it gets right now for me. We walk back over to the gazebo and<br>
the RD, Eric Grossman, is dropping cones from the last turn to the finish line. Soon Adam Cassidy arrives first OA, well under 8 hrs.<br>
First female Annette Bednosky arrives 8th OA well under 9 hrs.<br><img alt="" src="http://i24.tinypic.com/e687ki.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"> .<br>
She is one tough runner. She has a couple of scrapes but overall great condition.<br>
Beth and Jim leave to go back up the mountain to get his truck. Since I’ve volunteered to help here, Eric lets me fill in the times<br>
on the spreadsheet and hand out finisher’s shirts. Of 30-some starters, all but one runner and one DNF make the 12 hour cutoff.<br><img alt="" src="http://i23.tinypic.com/xp6mw2.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"><br>
After the award ceremony, I flip on my headlight for a chilly 8 mile ride home. After a good night’s rest, I’m ready for another<br>
day of running on the trail. But give me a coupla years for the 50 please.<br><br>
Thanks for reading,<br>
JJJ
Green Cove Station, VA, on the Virginia Creeper Trail<br>
and The Iron Mt 50M Trail Race volunteer report Damascus, VA<br><br>
September 29, 2007<br><br><i>The race starts and we’re off. I’m running hard in the top three headed down the road toward the first turn.</i><br><i>I take the lead ahead of two guys wearing white singlets, Wow, I’ve <b>never</b> done this well before. I’m wearing a white singlet???</i><br><i>Something’s not right, I don’t own a white singlet. I make a hard left, but I’m the only one!?!?</i><br><i>The rest of the pack turns RIGHT. Dang! I recover and try to catch up. I finish about 20th of 30.</i><br><b>Then I wake up, Thursday morning.</b><br><br>
This is about the first anniversary of foot racing for me. And the 2006 running of the OWL 10k was my very first race.<br>
I set a goal time for this race at the beginning of the year to sub 53min -last year’s time 58:22 – so totally doable I think.<br><br>
Well I’ve had a great past couple of weeks—a 5K PR, then a 15 mile trail run last Saturday. Keeping mileage down, but intensity up.<br>
Life has been good. I’m making new running friends. Running doesn’t hurt as much and my body seems to recovery better.<br>
I’m still pretty much a newbie at running and athletics in general. There is lots for me to learn and discover.<br>
Everyday is a delightful challenge, a quest, or an adventure.<br><br>
My DW has had plans to be out of town on this race weekend for months. So I get to play by myself this weekend.<br>
Rushing through Friday’s work by 1:45, I head to the house to pack. Camping gear and racing gear merge into single backpack.<br>
It ends up a bit heavy, but I’m biking -not walking. Lube the chain, squeeze the tires, and hitting trail by 4ish pm.<br>
The weather is fantastic with more on the way. I live a hop, skip, and jump to the Virginia Creeper Trail about mile post 7.<br>
Before the VCT was a multi-use recreation trail, it was a railroad connecting Abingdon, VA and West Jefferson, NC.<br>
Having evolved to a rail-trail it now ends at the NC state line -about milepost 34.<br>
This race is held near the end of the trail in memory of O.W. Link, a well-known photographer of trains several decades back.<br>
One in particular taken at Green Cove, shows the steam engine coming up Whitetop Mt to Green Cove with a work horse “Old Maud”<br>
appearing to bow her head to the approaching train. A sort of “old giving way to the new” commentary.<br><br>
I’m not a biker really, but have been on the trail riding a few times this year. Even did a couple of VCT round trip rides back in<br>
cool weather, but not carrying camping gear. I take it very easy. The first section of the ride is virtually flat, a topographic anomally in this area.<br>
But about 10 miles up the trail, entering the national forest, the trail takes on its more characteristic 1-2% grade.<br>
I’m stopping every 2 miles, usually on a trestle, for rest to insure no lactate buildup and just to watch the creek run.<br>
It becomes somewhat arduous, but a sunny afternoon has become a pleasantly cool evening with bouquets of stars and galaxies<br>
leaning across the furrowed brow of the mountains above. I want to find a convenient campsite for a “no frill” overnight<br>
and end up settling by a wide spot near a road, creek, and trail crossing.<br>
After stringing up my sleeping hammock next to<br>
Grassy Branch, by 1Opm I’m snoozing. At 2am I wake to a brilliant waning moon casting voluminous shadows through a tall, deciduous canopy.<br>
It’s pretty cool and takes a couple hours to get comfortable enough to sleep again.<br><br>
The race is only 2.5 miles further up the trail just past milepost 30, so a 6:30 wakeup seems adequate to repack and make it to<br>
the starting line on time. By 7:10 I’m pedaling through the open fields of Green Cove. There’s a heavy, silver dew on the grass,<br>
but no frost. I’m sure the temps are in the 30’s though.<br>
The moon is retreating to the western ridges but the sun is still pretty well hidden by Whitetop and Beech Mt just a mile to the east.<br><br>
At Green Cove Station, I was wrong about the frost. I hear some men talking about “a little on the windshield”.<br>
By 7:40 I’m inside at registration glad to be out of the chill. “Hey neighbor”. It’s runnerBeth.<br>
She ran and ended up with some pretty good scrapes at last weeks trail race. Come to find out, her falls unfortunately got her<br>
in some poison ivy too –she’s had a rough week. She left her car back in Damascus about milepost 15.<br>
She stopped to see the starting of the 2nd annual Iron Mt 50 Miler and caught a ride up with her friend Jim.<br>
He’s about my AG. They planned on running back to Damascus after the 10k. Sort of a 15 mile cooldown recovery run I guess <img alt="" src="http://www.coolrunning.com/forums/smile.gif" style="border:0px solid;">.<br><br>
I get a mile of warm-up with a few strides that are less than encouraging. I feel fresh enough but more like a snake<br>
that spent the night in a refrigerator fresh than exuberant and fresh. George and Kirstin with their two girls running the<br>
2k for Kids have arrived. The parents did well at our 5k two weeks ago.<br>
We are called to the line. I strip off an outer top long sleeve,<br>
within minutes we are headed up the hill. My strategy, or lets just call it fantasy, has been to get to the turn-around with 8:30,<br>
no worse than 9:00 miles and roll back down with whatever was left. So with the pack spreading out at about 200 meters we start a<br>
2.75 mile climb on 3% grade- about 150’ per mile- toward Whitetop Station. Beth, Jim, and George take off and leave me<br>
following Kirstin and most of the pack of 30. In typically paddock frenzy I’m caught down around 5K pace for the first ¼ mile.<br>
But I sober up fast on the hill. By the end of mile one, all the way down to 9:05. Couldn’t I do better than this? Apparently not, mile 2 -9:22.<br>
There’s no excuse, I’m feeling good, just couldn’t make the grade. Kirstin is following me now by several yards and we’ve passed a<br>
couple of people.<br><br>
By now, we have climbed. The sun has climbed. Then appears an image of totally distracting beauty. A deep shadow lays between<br>
the high walls of a two-sided cut. But a hard sun is filtering through a high canopy of green and yellow beech leaves –tingeing the shadow<br>
with an earthy chartreuse haze- a real unearthly effect. I agree with Dostoevsky when he said, “Beauty will save the World”.<br>
For a moment I felt more like I should fall to the ground and pray than run. 5 seconds of beauty can scar a soul for life.<br><br>
As we neared the top I knew that neither pray nor beauty was going to save this run, or rather my goal.<br>
We finished mile 3 @ 9:11 pace, a little ways past the top giving a ¼ mile of almost flat to the turn around.<br>
Kirstin pulls in front of me at the turn and we struggle back to the lip of the hill. Three miles of what ever<br>
is left - 8:24, 7:54, 7:37 and 7:47 for the .22. Finish time 54:32 - fun run, nowhere near my goal, but a lot of fun,- maybe 20th out of 30 OA <img alt="" src="http://www.coolrunning.com/forums/smile.gif" style="border:0px solid;"><br><br>
It seems the whole community has turned out for the race, with some live music from the old train station porch,<br>
and a fund-raiser BBQ at the community center served to<br>
the hundreds and hundreds of bicyclist that will travel from Whitetop Station 17 miles down to Damascus on a great day.<br><img alt="" src="http://i22.tinypic.com/xm0kkz.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"><br>
The mayor of Damascus (the lady wearing red in the picture) presents all the awards -to the kids first and then the adults and gives<br>
them all a hug. Beth got a hug for first in AG. Soon after, she and Jim head off down the trail on foot.<br><br>
By bike, I arrive at the finishing area at the town gazebo for the Iron Mt Run an hour or so ahead of them. It’s still almost two hours<br>
or so until the first finisher is expected and no one is hanging out.<br>
So the three of us swing by The Old Mill Restaurant for a snack and a brew on the back porch overlooking the millpond.<br>
Talking running and racing on an idyllic fall day is as good as it gets right now for me. We walk back over to the gazebo and<br>
the RD, Eric Grossman, is dropping cones from the last turn to the finish line. Soon Adam Cassidy arrives first OA, well under 8 hrs.<br>
First female Annette Bednosky arrives 8th OA well under 9 hrs.<br><img alt="" src="http://i24.tinypic.com/e687ki.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"> .<br>
She is one tough runner. She has a couple of scrapes but overall great condition.<br>
Beth and Jim leave to go back up the mountain to get his truck. Since I’ve volunteered to help here, Eric lets me fill in the times<br>
on the spreadsheet and hand out finisher’s shirts. Of 30-some starters, all but one runner and one DNF make the 12 hour cutoff.<br><img alt="" src="http://i23.tinypic.com/xp6mw2.jpg" style="border:0px solid;"><br>
After the award ceremony, I flip on my headlight for a chilly 8 mile ride home. After a good night’s rest, I’m ready for another<br>
day of running on the trail. But give me a coupla years for the 50 please.<br><br>
Thanks for reading,<br>
JJJ
