Race Preview: 2010 Hook Mountain Half Marathon

On Sunday, I'll be running the Hook Mountain Half Marathon for a second time. This race, which happens every April at Rockland Lake and Nyack Beach State Parks, coincides with a 5K (which I've run once) and includes an ascent of the road that leads to the notch north of Hook Mountain.

The hill, which happens at about the ninth mile, is the crux of this particular race and what everyone will be talking about in the Post-Race Tent. It's not particularly long - somewhere between a quarter and a half-mile in length and maybe 300 feet of gain - but it is wickedly steep. According to a friend (and I believe him), it gets to 19%.

Because of this hill, the course has a reputation of being difficult - however, it is mostly flat and actually kind of forgiving. Even the hill, due to its short length, isn't that bad, though I may have a different opinion come mile 8.5!

Poster of the Core Team that was put in various places around the office.

The company I work for has gotten behind this event in a big way, and due to the awesome efforts of coworker Cathy Cox, 51 of my coworkers will be there to run the 5K or Half! Entry fees were paid for and we all got RaceReady shirts to wear at the race! There were ten of us in a core committee that helped her, and we were referred to as the Inspire/Dream/Achieve team. It will be fun to involve my job with what I'm passionate about when it's not 9 to 5.

Goals? Well, I'm pretty sure a half-marathon PR won't be a problem - it's currently 2:25 and my training has indicated that I can do that pretty easily. So my B goal is 2:20, A goal 2:15, dream goal 2:10. 2:10 in particular is a number that I'm pretty sure I can achieve right now on the perfect day, even on this course.

Come back Monday for a report! (Hopefully it won't be late like this preview.)


New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time

Palm Springs Tram Road - April 8, 2010

Last Thursday, on April 8, Vince and I made our regular trek up the Palm Springs Tram Road.

I think this was my fourth time up. My goal, as in the other three times, was to do it in under an hour. As I recall, my first time took 1:05, the second time took 0:58 (pr), the third time took 1:02. This time, it took 0:59:35.

Valley Floor, on the bottom of the road. The asphalt visible here ascends 300'-350' in about 2/3s of a mile. This is the most gradual part of the run, it gets much steeper the higher you go.

So, what's so special about this road? Every October, there's a race that runs up it. We use the same starting and finish line. From the race's brochure:

You start at 500 feet elevation and climb to 2,643 feet elevation in
3.7 miles (6K). The steepest part is the last 1K to the finish.

If you think about those numbers - averaging 579' of elevation gain per mile - you realize just how steep the road is. The average steepness is comparable to the average gain of the climb up Bear Mountain in New York - Not Perkins Drive, but via the much steeper Appalachian Trail - but more than twice as long and high!

The top of what's visible in the previous photo

The start

Joey took off ahead of us, but had to drop when he got to the truck. That'll teach him for going out too fast!

Hammering my way up. I felt like I was well above redline for the entire second half.

Crappy photo, sorry. But this is the same road, from about ten miles away. You can see it underneath the COMMERCIAL AIRPLANE in the FOREGROUND.

Another aspect to the tram road is its deceptiveness. When you're on it, it doesn't look nearly as steep as it actually is - it only feels that steep. The alluvial fan you're ascending is so flat that it looks level (see the difference?). Looking up the hill you wonder why you're so tired - until you look down below to see just how much higher you are than the valley floor you were just on.

Photos don't do it justice, but here we are 1500 feet above the valley floor, and it's about 15 miles to the start of the hills opposite the valley.

You see the same signs in Death Valley

2000 ft sign

Near the top

Finally, we're in the low desert in Palm Springs. Summertime highs are rarely below 100F, routinely above 110F, sometimes 120F. It's hot, dry, and there's no shade or water. This being the spring, starting at 9AM, that wasn't a huge problem in this case; it probably got to about 80F. I did get thirsty, but the distance is short enough that it never became a problem.

Joey, who was waiting at the top, running down to meet me.

The glorious sweaty finish in 59:35! I was exhausted.

I had barely started to recover when Vince came up the road.

His time was about 1:02

Having caught our breath (and got a drink!) we get a photo at the top, having celebrated a job well done.

I try to get together with Vince and do the Tram Road about every time I go to California. But one of these days, I am going to have to Man Up and accomplish the real challenge Palm Springs has to offer: Cactus to Clouds.

Trailhead of one of the most difficult hikes in the USA.

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time

Race Report: Warrior Dash Southern California

Update
Official results are in! I finished in 1971th place out of 5339 on Saturday - In the top half of the field!! And by a big margin - 37th percentile!! This is the first time I've ever come in the top half of any race.
Age group: M/30-34
Place in age group: 297 out of 633 - 47th percentile.
Chip Time: 37:03.75
Gun Time: 5:37:43.60
Average Pace: 12:02

If I subtract 5 minutes for the time I waited in line for that cargo net obstacle, I finished in 32 minutes. Yay!

Original Post
Ok, as suspected, it's just a 5K with some obstacles thrown in. But it was still fun, because 5Ks are fun.

Warrior Shwag

For obvious reasons, I didn't bring my camera on the course with me. This is unfortunate because, perhaps more than any other post in the history of this blog, this post is worthless without pictures. I'll do my best to describe the obstacles, then show you the pics that were taken by my wife at the finish line.

Update: Here is an image of the fire pit, courtesy Warrior Dash's twitter feed:

Going over the obstacles:

Hustle up and over giant straw bales

There was a mile of running before the first obstacle, presumably to thin out the crowd. Good idea. These hay bales were stacked in staircase formation about eight feet high.

Clamber over rusted wreckage in a junk yard

Five junked cars, that looked a little like what they put on the lawn of your high school during "don't drink and drive" week. We had to climb over them. Probably the most dangerous obstacle of the course. You could cut your leg!

Climb over a wooden wall

As I stepped over the three walls, each only three feet high, I wondered, "why bother?"

Crawl through a pipe, called "Tunnels of Terror"

About what I expected. 20 feet long, 3 or 4 feet in diameter. Hands and knees, crawl.

Traverse a Gully on Wooden Planks

the planks were about 6" wide and maybe 20 feet long.

Run through a ravine filled with tumbleweeds

The "ravine" is the same as the "gully" I just walked over on wooden planks. The "tumbleweeds" were actually "bales of hay" that were the same as the first obstacle, only not stacked.

Trudge through waist-deep water and over logs

It wasn't super hot, but warm. And it was definitely dry. Jumping in the lake and wading for 50 feet while climbing over the four 18" diameter logs was kind of refreshing.

Speed-step through hundreds of tires

I found that stepping on the tires, rather than in the tires, was faster.

Climb over cargo nets

"Three at a time" is what I kept hearing the volunteer shout at people as I waited three to five minutes for my turn at this obstacle.

Run through fire

The "warrior roast" was duraflame logs lined up, side by side, for about 15 feet. I felt the heat as I jumped over them. Neat.

Crawl through mud underneath barbed wire

Plenty of room under the barbed wire for hands-and-knees, belly crawl not necessary. Some people even stayed on their feet, ducking under the wire. I didn't feel that fit the spirit of the event, so it was hands-and-knees for me. (:

The field, about a quarter-mile in. I'm apparently visible somewhere in this photo.

Joey running up to meet me at the finish line.

Mud!

Mud!

Ok, I know it's hard to see, but this is a picture of the actual course. Starting from the right, runners are going up the hill, speedstepping through tires. Then, there is the cargo net, which is the big block on the near horizon. Right before running down the hill again is the "warrior roast", or fire obstacle. Then we actually go into the lake for some wading and log hopping, Then we run back up the hill. Not visible in this picture, to the left, is the mud pit with barbed wire and finish line.

Want to clean up? Go jump in the lake!

The very clean and disease-free lake.

A staff member told me that there were 9000 people signed up for this race, which took place in 30 minute waves over two days. Tons of people.

As far as time, I forgot to stop my watch at the finish line and I can't find results on the web site anywhere. I was probably somewhere around 35 minutes. Not counting the 3-5 minutes of waiting my turn for the cargo net obstacle, that puts me at 31 minutes, give or take, which is fine for this race. I was really very surprised at how many people I passed after a mile, but I guess I shouldn't be; this isn't your typical race and it didn't have typical racers. So there were a ton of people who apparently unable to run more than a mile or two, and who walked the last half of the course.

New entries for Steve's blog are published every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 10:00am NY time