The NYC Trail Mix 50K/50 Mile, put on by Redpoint Productions, took place on November 16th at the Greenbelt Conservatory on Staten Island, approximately one hour from my apartment in Stamford, Connecticut. I had been introduced to this race by a friend who had completed the 50 Mile last year, and who signed up again for the 50 Mile this year. While I had not originally intended to enter this race, a failed attempt at 100 Miles at the Ghost Train 30-Hour Ultramarathon in Milford, New Hampshire on October 20th had left a very bitter taste in my month and had created a desire to end the racing season on a high note. As such, I had registered for this race within two days of my failure at Ghost Train, which had resulted in me tapping out at 75 Miles after approximately 14 hours.
I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from this one. It represented the culmination of a year that had already included four ultramarathons and two marathons, three of those races which had taken place in the last two and half months. And, to top it off, race week brought with it a grizzly chest cold that nearly had me pulling out of the race before I even reached the start line. Needless to say, when I left my apartment at five in the morning to drive down to Staten Island, I felt anything but confident.
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NYC Trail Mix 50K/50 Mile by Redpoint Productions! |
I arrived at the Greenbelt Conservatory at approximately 6:10 AM, having just missed the start of the 50 Mile, which began ten minutes earlier. Thankfully, it was a relatively neutral weather day for mid-November with temperatures hovering around 40 degrees at the start with a bit of gusting wind. As I worked through my pre-racing routine, I considered my pacing strategy and fueling strategy, and whether I might be able to target the 4:10:31 course record set in the inaugural year of the race last year. While this was the initial target, I did not know what to expect from the course, which I had been told was fairly runnable, or how my legs or my lungs would react until I was out there. As the minutes ticked down to 7:00 AM, we began to line up at the start line, and, after a few words, we were off.
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| Start Line |
Pretty much right from the gun, I settled into first place, moving from the short opening at the start line into the narrower single/double track trail which was relatively smooth, but fairly undulating. Packed with pine needles and not very many rocks or routes, my initial impression was that it felt fast, which a 7:37 first mile confirmed, however, I could tell I definitely did not feel comfortable early on. For the 50K, we would be completing two laps of a 15+ Mile loop. Tracking in my shadow for the first several miles was 31-year-old Kristoffer Mack. While I felt like he wanted to move by me within the first mile or two, he never did, though, I had secretly hoped he would as I felt like I was running more to not get passed rather than running to settle into a rhythm. The first several miles of this course, working our way to the first aid station at Mile 3.6, High Rock, featured a few rolling climbs, which continued to take me out of my rhythm and pushed my heart rate higher than I had wanted. Kristoffer and I rolled into the first aid station at approximately 28 minutes. I paused for a few seconds to grab a handful of chips while he continued on, taking the lead.
High Rock – 1 – Mile 3.6, 1st Place, 28:44 Total Time  |
| A Mile In. |
Given that this race was not necessarily an “A’ race for me, I saw it as a great opportunity to work on refining my nutrition strategy. Historically, I have a very poor track record with gels, which do nothing but give me nausea by the fourth one I’ve taken, so for this race, at the recommendation of a friend, I was taking Precision Fuel 30g Carb Chews, which were basically akin to Turkish Delight. In a couple practice runs these chews had worked well for me and were much more tolerable than gels. The plan for each 15 Mile loop was to take 50-75 grams of carbs via Tailwind and 60 grams of carbs via Precision Fuel Chews, for approximately 60 grams of carbs an hour over four hours.
I departed the aid station with approximately a fifteen second gap back to Kristoffer, which, over the next mile on a wider fire road, I had managed to close back down. At the same time, we had another runner, who I could tell had been stalking us since the start, catch up to us about five miles in. I thought that he was working hard, and I also wanted to see what type of reaction Kristoffer would have, so I slowed our pace down and allowed the other runner to catch up to us before putting on a very significant surge for about thirty seconds. To my dismay, this seems to do very little, with both Kristoffer and the other runner closing back down on me over the next half mile. At about Mile 6, we went through probably the coolest two parts of the course, the first of which was a quarter-mile elevated switchback bridge, and the second of which was an opening along a ridgeline which opened up to the Richmond County Country Club with views of the Long Island Sound. While Staten Island may get a bad rap at times, I must say that this course overall was absolutely gorgeous, and I never would have anticipated trails like these on Staten Island. Mile 7-9 saw Kristoffer, me, and the other runner take turns controlling the lead, still, with each of us more content at this early stage to let someone else do the leading than to lead. I definitely felt like I was working very hard early, my heart rate continuing to hover in the upper 160s, which was close to the danger zone of above 170 bpm that I try to avoid at all costs early in ultras. By Mile 9, Kristoffer and I had dropped the other runner, and, as we approached the second aid station at Mile 10.1, La Tourette, he had begun to gap me as we exited the single-track trail momentarily and entered some faster paved road within the conservatory. After one road crossing, we approached the second aid station at approximately an hour and twenty minutes, where I had stopped to refuel my bottle, but Kristoffer went on. As I left the aid station with Kristoffer’s lead sitting at about thirty or forty seconds, I had to tell myself to calm down, run my own race, and that there were still twenty miles to go. In the past, telling myself “there are still twenty miles to go” having just been gapped and having not felt the greatest to this point in the race would have been more mentally fatiguing than calming to me, but the fact that I looked at this as a positive, rather than a negative, is a testament to the strength and endurance I have built this year that I have not necessarily had in the past. And, with two recent races within the last two months at 67 Miles and 75 Miles, I was confident in my ability to get through 50K without issue.
La Tourette – 1 – Mile 10.1, 2nd Place, 1:20:36 Total Time  |
| A Few Miles In; Kristoffer Still Hot on My Trail. |
Over the next mile, I really began to settle into my first rhythm of the race. It felt like it had taken me nearly ten miles with the cold weather and working through the remnants of the chest cold to truly warm up. The third stanza of the loops, like the first stanza, featured a number of rolling hills, though none of which were “unrunnable”, as well as some flatter more open portions of double trail. I was gradually beginning to close on Kristoffer as we went up the steepest climb of the race, and, after a steep downhill that opened into flatter double trail, I had closed the gap. We ran together silently for a minute before entering more single track where we began chatting and introducing ourselves for several minutes before shifting back to the task at hand. Over the next two miles of undulating narrow single track, I had begun to pull away ever so slightly. Nothing that bordered on an intentional move, but rather a much more subtle slow drift, like the two ends of a piece of gum being stretched thinner and thinner until it snapped. After a bit more winding single-track, I popped out onto a flat double track that ran along side the La Tourette Golf Course, which was approximately a mile from start and finish area. I was still working hard with the heart rate still redlining against 170 bpm, but for the first time I was beginning to feel good. About a half mile from the end of the first loop I got a much-needed burst of energy, seeing my friend Skyler who was also finishing up his first loop of the 50 Miler.
Nature Center – 1 – Mile 15.4, 1st Place, 2:01:13 Total Time Finally, I rolled through the start and finish area at 2:01:13, with Kristoffer just behind at 2:01:53. I grabbed my Tailwind bottle for the second loop and was off within thirty seconds, trying to prevent Kristoffer from narrowing the gap through the aid station. Miles 16 and 17 were fueled by the adrenaline of beginning the second loop, but by the time I approached Mile 18, nearing the High Rock aid station for the second time, I just started to feel gassed after having worked through a few of the bigger climbs of the course. Coming through High Rock 2:30:24, I stopped briefly to refill my quickly depleted bottle with the races Nuun electrolyte mix, planning to further increase my carbohydrate and fluid intake for the second lap. Historically, I have had a hard time with sugar-based calories during ultras, but I am trying to take a page out of the David Roche playbook and increase my tolerance for carbohydrate intake during races, and the limited practice I have had this year has already been successful. I left High Rock sitting on an approximately 1:40 lead, trying to hold the gap through the second stage of the course and fight the fatigue setting into my legs, knowing that I may be letting the course record target of 4:10:31 start to slip.
High Rock – 2 – Mile 19.0, 1st Place, 2:30:24 Total Time  |
| Second Lap. |
I rolled through the elevated switchback bridge for the second time, keeping my eye on bridge as I doubled back on the trail looking for Kristoffer coming down, but I did not see him. With my focus off the trail, I took my only wrong turn of the day, missing a flag at a critical intersection and having to double back, losing about 30 seconds. As I approached the ridgeline for the second time around Mile 22, I could feel a subtle change coming over me. I had just taken my third Precision Fuel chew and had steadily increased my fluid intake, and my legs were starting to respond and now felt much better than they had the first few miles of the second lap. Through 75% of the race, I was sitting at about 3:03:23 and on pace for a 4:05 – 4:07 finish but knew I would need to fight for it the last quarter for the race for a shot at the course record.
I continued to work my way through the switchbacks and inclines over the next several miles as I approached the La Tourette aid station for a second time. I powered through some of my quickest miles of the day from Miles 23-25 between High Rock and La Tourette, splitting in the 7:40s on the winding trail. I hit the faster paved road again and rolled into La Tourette at Mile 25.5 in 3:23, stopping for less than 10 seconds to refill my bottle. I knew the course record was mine if I could finish the last five miles in about 47 Minutes, and at that point I was thinking more about sub 4:00 than I was about 4:10.
La Tourette – 2 – Mile 25.5, 1st Place, 3:23:05 Total Time  |
| On My Way to High Rock Aid Station. |
I left La Tourette and entered more switchbacks and inclines, continuing to go by runners in the 50 Mile and the half marathon that had started a few hours later. I again made my way towards the steepest climb of the race, taking my final Precision Fuel chew after cresting, and then entered the flatter double trail before the final two miles of single tracks. While I was working hard here, the constant undulation of the single track was slowing me down and with two miles to go sub 4:00 seemed out the door, but I continued to push the pace through the trail before finally hitting the gravel path along the La Tourette Golf Course with a mile to go. The last mile I battled the headwind and slight uphill all the way down the final stretch, my heart rate now up to 180 bpm, but I ended up hitting my fastest mile of the day on the last mile. With a quarter mile to go, I could see the finish line ahead, and I began to kick it in to finally cross the finish line in 4:03:16 for the win and course record!
Nature Center – 2 – Mile 30.8, 1st Place, 4:03:16 Total Time I ended up splitting nearly dead even on my two laps, running 2:01:13 on the first lap, and 2:02:03 on the second lap. While I had only put seven minutes on Kristoffer through La Tourette at Mile 25.5, I put another seven minutes on him between that aid station and the finish, as Kristoffer ran a great race to finish second in 4:17:11. Overall, this was a fantastic event put on by Red Point Productions and I am very excited to give their Laurel Highlands 70 Miler a try in the future, which is a qualifier for the Western States Endurance Run. I also want to give a shout out to Jordan Buck who crushed the 50 Mile in a course record of 7:29:24 and to my friend Skyler Silsdorf who finished 12th Overall in 10:02:16! Finally, it was super cool to get a shout out from iRunFar on their article: “This Week In Running: November 18, 2024”.
https://www.irunfar.com/this-week-in-running-november-18-2024#disqus_thread
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