Concept:
Over seven years ago, while starting my training for the
Hardrock 100 Mile, I endeavored to come up with a local training run that would
exceed 10,000’ of elevation gain in as few miles as possible and be on trails. After
some thought and looking at maps of Monte Sano State Park I had an “Aha!”
moment. You see, I discovered probably the best possible course, super steep, a
ton of climb, a “loop” course and best of all right out my back gate!
Unbelievable!
"HALL OF SHAME"
Finish Finisher Name Date Distance Time
1 1 Rob Youngren March 18, 2006 34.0 9h 45m
2 Rob Youngren(2) June 20, 2009 32.0 11h 35m
3 2 Josh Kennedy June 6, 2011 32.0 12h 50m
4 Rob Youngren(3) March 3, 2012 27.2 9h 24m
5 Rob Youngren(4) June 22, 2013 34.4 9h 29m
6 Rob Youngren(5) February 14, 2015 33.3 9h 7m
7 3 Martin Schneekloth February 14, 2015 33.3 9h 4m
8 4 David Holliday August 22, 2015 32.0 11h 50m
9 5 Benj Lance August 22, 2015 32.0 11h 50m
10 6 Jay Crosby October 29, 2017 33.6 12h 15m
11 7 Liz Canty February 17, 2018 31.6 9h 35m!
12 8 David Nast October 28, 2018 33.3 14h 10m
13 9 Mica Aguilar October 28, 2018 33.3 14h 10m
14 10 Craig Smith April 26, 2020 30.7 10h 43m
15 11 Aneta Zeppettella July 22, 2020 32.8 14h 20m
16 12 Wesley Ormand August 20, 2021 31.6 8h 46m!
The route I came up with drops down the McKay Hollow Trail
(“Death Trail”) then continues down the Natural Well Trail, crosses McKay Creek
and continues to ascend the Natural Well Trail up past THE Natural Well and up
to the Monte Sano Escarpment at the high point of Natural Well Trail and cuts
up a bootlegger trail up through the escarpment to Panorama Blvd. That is the
“outbound” leg, now reverse the route back to the picnic area and you have ~4.0
miles and ~1500’ of gain (equal loss). I tack on an additional .3 miles (out
and back) to get to and from my house. I call this route a “Dismal Repeat”.
Therefore, the Dismal 50km consists of 8 Dismal Repeats, this year 34.4 miles
and over 12,000’ of climb (equal descent). To understand the significance of
finding a route with this amount of climb over this distance consider the
Hardrock 100 mile has 33,992’ of climb and 33,992’ of descent over the 100.5
mile course which is 338’ of climb per mile. This Dismal 50km route climbs
12,000’ and descends 12,000’ over 34.4 miles which is 349’ of climb per mile.
So the Dismal 50km is a perfect analog of the Hardrock 100 course though only
over 1/3 of the distance with respect to climb per mile. However, this course
is obviously at much lower altitude where the average elevation at the Hardrock
100 is 11,186’ while the average elevation of the Dismal 50km course is
probably 10% of that number! However, when the Dismal 50km is run in the summer
months, the heat and humidity is also a perfect analog of trying to run at
altitude! This I know from experience!
But why “Dismal”? The inspiration for the name comes from a
section of the Susitna 100 mile course where it crosses the Dismal Swamp. I
pictured a harsh and formidable landscape. There is also the obvious meaning
that this route, especially multiple repeats, is a dismal prospect to endure
because of the massive amount of elevation gain/loss over some of the most
difficult trails in the Monte Sano State Park.
Figure 1: The Dismal Repeat
Figure 2: Dismal 50km Elevation Profile
History:
So the inaugural Dismal 50km occurred in March of 2006,
perhaps a bit early for a Hardrock training run but so it goes. That first run
I setup my mini-aidstation just inside my back gate; an ice-chest full of
colas, some gels and a couple pre-frozen hydration bladders. I’d only run all
the way to the aid-station if I needed to resupply, otherwise I turned around
just outside the picnic area on the trail towards my house. I remember I kept
track of laps by lying sticks side by side in my turnaround area. I also
remember that freezing those hydration bladders was a huge mistake as they
never really thawed out too well and so I didn’t get to drink very much! So on
that very cool clear day I finished the 32 mile route in 9:45, my legs were crushed!
Little did I know how “fast” a mark I’d set!
In June of 2009 I was once again training for the Hardrock
100 and this time around wanted to use the Dismal 50km as my last long training
run three weeks out from race day. Unfortunately for me this day turned out to
be the hottest day of the year with a triple digit heat index! The route that
year was a touch longer as all my turnaround points were actually through my
back gate in on to my garage where I’d set up shop with bags of ice in the
freezer and gallon jugs of water and iced tea at the ready. I remember also
discovering we had some Pedialyte ice pops that really saved my bacon in the
sweltering heat! This run totally destroyed me as it took me 11:35 to finish
the ~33 mile course! Ouch!
A year later I didn’t run the Dismal 50km but my friend
Josh Kennedy did in preparation for the San Juan Solstice 50 mile. His run was in June and again on a viscously hot day! I'd just finished my 335 mile speed-hike of the Pinhoti Trail a month before and was still trying to recover and taper for the same race Josh was preparing for. So, unfortunately for Josh I had no interest in spending the day on the rough
trails with the encroaching vegetation, spider webs, snakes and bugs. Josh was
a true testament to perceiverence as he had to endure several rattle snake encounters and a route that was extremely slick; wet, muddy and stinking humid! Josh started just after sunrise and finished in 12:50; not
long before sunset! I remember his wife Kirsten was so worried about him that she
drove up to our house, their three children in tow! Luckily Josh had just
finished and was cooling off using our garden hose! To date Josh is the only
other fool to complete the Dismal course that I’m aware of. Sucker!
The last time I ran this Dismal course was last Spring but
this time I was training for the Barkley Marathons which sports over 11,700’ of
climb per ~26 mile loop or 450’ climb/mile. Therefore, this time around I
shaved off a bit of distance per Dismal Repeat with the goal of making the
route significantly steeper per mile. The final route was 27.2 miles with just
over 12,000’ of climb (equal descent) or 442’ climb/mile that took me 9:24 on a
beautiful March day.
Current Run:
This past Saturday I ran the Dismal course for my 4th
time, once again for a last training run before the Hardrock 100. This year’s
route was the longest yet as I decided to have the turnaround at the front of
my garage which meant I had to run through the vacant lot next to our house. I
liked this set up because we have an outdoor refrigerator that I could use as
well as a cooler that I filled with ice and water for easy bottle resupply.
Also I wouldn’t have to tramp through the house and disturb our dogs every
hour! This change made the route even longer however, at 4.3 miles per repeat or 34.4 miles in total
for 8 repeats. I got started at 5:41
a.m. just after sunrise. The first repeat truly lived up to its name; dismal!
With the sun still just barely above the horizon the humidity was extremely
high though the temperatures were very mild. The humidity was tolerable but
what made the first repeat really bad was the 100s of spider webs I kept
catching in my face! Yuck! However, after toweling off the webs at the end of
the first repeat I had no other issues with webs; the course had been
cleaned. The next several hours on the
course were fairly enjoyable as the sun was now up enough to burn off the early
humidity but not yet high enough in the sky to really sear the Hollow; the
occasional cool breeze through the heavy canopy really helped as well. My approach was fairly conservative over the
first 4 repeats as I hoped to avoid a repeat of my 2009 effort! I just tried to
take it easy on the downhills and only run the easier uphill sections; basically
let my heart rate and perceived effort level be my guide.
Over the second half of the run it became apparent that I
wasn’t going to crash and burn and as I felt pretty darn good I decided to ramp
up my effort just a bit. My half way
split of 4:51 was very motivating as I was, unbelievably, on pace to surpass my
personal best for the course; remarkable considering this year’s route was at
least 2 miles longer and in much hotter and humid weather! Even though I knew
at the back of mind that that a sub 9:45 was possible I didn’t really focus on
that; just took it one repeat at a time. My lap times really started to drop;
the difference I think was I that I was starting to run more of the steeper grades
on the Natural Well Trail unlike on earlier laps. I also think I was pushing
the Natural Well downhill a bit harder as well. My effort on Death Trail was
fairly uniform throughout as this trail is technical and difficult enough that
you aren’t really rewarded very much by pushing too hard! I really smelled the
barn I think; my heat and vertical climbing training were really paying off!
Some amusing anecdotes from my run. With an out and back course one would think
that they’d soon learn and remember the location of every rock, every root and
every blow down along the way. Ha! I managed to remember to duck under an eye
level blow down the first eleven times I past under it but not the twelfth!
BAM! OUCH! Have a nice scab on the bridge of my nose! So dumb! What’s ironic
about this incident is that several weeks ago while training on the course I
ran into another blow down, at speed, that briefly knocked me unconscious and
bruised my poor butt on some rocks in the trail! The problem is that I wear a
ball cap most of the time on runs and the bill, with your head slightly bent,
creates this blind spot right at eye level! So dumb!
Anyhow, to wrap things up, I felt like I was riding the
building heat wave in the Hollow the last three laps, my energy was good but I
knew that if I slowed or stopped, that wave would crash over me and my shot at
sub 9:45 would be crushed! So I didn’t
let up on the gas at all although I had to take a bit longer pit stop after lap
six because the upper in one of my shoes totally blew out and I had to be
careful how I stepped or risk my whole foot coming out of the shoe! Doh! Finally I’d completed the penultimate lap and
ran inside the house and set the microwave for a 10 second countdown. While the
time counted down I announced to Kathy, do you hear that sound? When the bell
rang on the oven I said, “There’s the bell lap! Off I go!” And with that I ran
back out of the house and onto my last lap. Even though my GPS had died I knew,
off clock time, that I had over 1:22 minutes to cover the last lap to break
9:45. Piece of cake!
It had been a long day in McKay Hollow but for some reason I
really relish this challenge, the solitude, the simplicity yet extreme physical
and mental difficulty of it all. Time really just past by so quickly; I couldn’t
believe I was almost done! I passed by the same rocks, roots and yes eye raking
blow downs one last time; said my farewells and at last I was done; my fastest
lap yet to finish in 9:29, sixteen minutes faster than my best and more
importantly over two hours faster than my disastrous adventure four years ago!
Stats:
Lap
|
Mileage
|
Elapsed
|
Split
|
Stop
|
Net Split
|
1
|
4.3
|
1:11
|
1:11
|
:01
|
1:11
|
2
|
8.6
|
2:24
|
1:13
|
:02
|
1:12
|
3
|
12.9
|
3:37
|
1:12
|
:02
|
1:10
|
4
|
17.2
|
4:51
|
1:14
|
:03
|
1:12
|
5
|
21.5
|
6:03
|
1:12
|
:03
|
1:09
|
6
|
25.8
|
7:11
|
1:07
|
:06
|
1:04
|
7
|
30.1
|
8:23
|
1:11
|
:03
|
1:05
|
8
|
34.4
|
9:29
|
1:06
|
-
|
1:03
|
Total = :20
|
Avg: 1:08
| ||||
