What is it with me and making wrong turns?  It happens.  And for some reason it happened to me... AGAIN.  I need to get better watching for course markings and memorizing the course layout beforehand!

But on this day around some Green Lakes, I made history for myself.
This is my story...

There I am on the left before I bonked at the CT 50. Photo Credits: Lauren Ashley

Gotta love the polka-dot shirt! and Mammut MTR pack

After a few weeks since my Wildcat Romp 50k, I have been starting solid training again and really feeling like the Cole I knew last fall. I had chosen this race because I was looking for something that would be a late summer race and get myself a race test before my big races this fall. I always like to have my most critical races scheduled for the fall as cooler weather seems to suit me well.

I had the interest in running an ultra in NJ, my home state to see how that would go. Well, here is the story.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into…
Little did I know that this race would break me.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you--The Devil's Path and the mountains that we were tasked to summit in succession.

Running from Crested Butte to Aspen, CO on a late summer day Photo © Doug Shepherd

It's been a hectic late summer and fall season so far.  First off, my wife and I moved from Los Alamos, NM to Denver, CO in August and I have been trying to take advantage of living at the base of the Colorado Rockies as much as possible.  The weekend after moving, I joined good friends for a 40ish mile run from Crested Butte to Aspen, CO.  We passed through some beautiful scenery and paid way too much for pizza and beer at the end of the day in Aspen.  The next week, my friend Phil Wortmann talked me into "running" Kiener's Route on Longs Peak, a classic mountaineering route that traces up the edge of the Diamond face.

The Virgil Crest Ultra is a Monster of a race! With 10,000 feet of gain and loss, slow rocky, rooty single-track Finger Lakes Trail, this race is a punisher of a course.  Oh yeah, and you summit Greek Peak at 2,189 feet from 1,180 feet in about a mile and a half (That is running up a ski slope!).  The course record is 8:34 or so which is a smoking fast time for the course and I hope to be able to run right around that time on the slow end though my real goal is to run a super fast course record time that will stand for many years to come.  Looking at my race at the Cayuga Trails 50, I did not race to my ability with my badly twisted ankle and I still managed a 7:45 effort though wound up off course for a 8:00 on the dot finish.  That type of performance with the similar amount of vertical would place me 30 minutes above record pace.  Now all I need is to be able to run to my potential and hope for dry conditions so I can run the downhills fast and not get slowed down by the mud.  If all the stars align, I think that a 7 hour performance is in the cards.  I have been running tons of vertical both up and down and though I have been on the tired-side of running, when I taper in the next 2 weeks, I should be primed to handle the course the best I can. 

Wearing my Mammut MTR longsleeve zip on a nice cool morning--46 degrees (Best quality apparel around!!!)

Running a ridge in the Southern Sangre de Cristo mountains

Mammut introduced a new line of trail running kit this year, the Mammut MTR series.  One of my favorite activities in the summer is long runs in the mountains, so I was excited to put the new MTR kit to use.  We had a nice start to running season this spring in northern New Mexico, with lots of runs in the Jemez Mountains, including the 8th annual Jemez Mountain Trail Races on May 25th.  However, the summer season has been slow to get going because of a few fires that closed all of the forest down until just recently.

Before we get to my thoughts on the new MTR gear, I just want to shout out The Enormocast.  I sat down with Chris Kalous at The Enormocast during the summer OR show and talked about mountain running, alpine climbing, risk, and the role of community in mentorship.  Check it out here-> Episode 40: Doug Shepherd - Too smart to be stupid.

How to begin after such an incredible day yesterday.  For one, I can say that I am so sore that it is just silly.  My feet ache a little, I have a swollen ankle that limited my performance yesterday, and my legs make going up stairs and down stairs a living struggle.  I never thought I could survive and run 50 miles.  I always knew I had the ability to but even in the early miles of the race past the 50k point(31 miles approximately), I was worried a DNF was in the cards.  When I look back on my performance I am so thankful for such an incredible support group and everyone out there that helped keep me motivated all the way to the finish.

Here's a nice MTR introduction video produced by Mammut in Chile!


SPOT MAMMUT MTR CLUB from Victoria Films on Vimeo.

This morning, I headed out to Hammond Hill State Forest for the Tom B trail run in honor of Tom Bugolosi, a great local trail runner who had sadly passed at the age of 32.  Riding out to the race, I had those nerves I feel when I line-up for a big race.  I was just so excited to race again after taking all of April off from any racing.  I made it to the parking lot and had about 35-45 minutes to settle the nerves and to get out there and have a great time.  I did a little warm-up and then just was hanging around getting ready to race. I hoped I would not get lost and that was of course my number one goal. I have a tendency to follow the natural trail and to make judgements to what  I believe to be the most suitable trail while not glancing at markers which gets me lost.   The weather felt nice but I knew it was going to be a little warm.  I had all of my Mammut gear ready to go.  I had my new Ultraspire Isomeric Pocket Handheld which felt so good and two Cliff shots.

Hanging out at the Finish with the Mammut Gear and the Acidotic "School of Hard Rocks" shirt

THE RACE:

We lined up, heard the Race Director gives us some tips on how not to get lost and then off we went.  The course began with a nice 800m climb to the trail sections on what seemed to be a nice seasonal access road...