Nathan Schiller

This race consisted of a 0.7673934-mile trail loop up and down the Silvermine Ski Hill, in Harriman State Park, put on wonderfully by CTW Endurance. You could do the two-hour or the four-hour option; I did the latter. (There was also a 7.488766-mile trail race.) 

The course

Up one abandoned little ski slope—

The loop starts in a flat grassy area. The ascent begins immediately, climbing 50+ feet over ~150 meters to steep dirt singletrack. Over the next .2 miles, you gain 250+ feet. At first you’re exposed, then you wind through bushes and over three fallen trees. At the top, a small clearing with an American flag flagpole, you turn right and snake along singletrack, scoot down a moderate packed-rock section, hop another log, slide down a steeper rocky section, and then bear right for 30 meters . . .

Down another—

. . . to the adjacent ski slope, a giant singletrack slide through grass. 

My strategy

I was delighted this race popped up. For a decade I drove past this old ski area after running elsewhere in Harriman, intrigued yet never caring to stop. A few years ago, on a family outing, we finally checked it out. I love the contrast of this vertical route, how the terrain forces you to shift so suddenly, to utilize different running styles and muscles in one instant. This loop became a regular part of my Harriman training.

But I train in Harriman only a handful of times a year. I’d run the loop less times total than I would in the race. The first time I did two, the next time five. So a couple months before the race, I put nine in the middle of a longer day up there, and devised a strategy:

• Slow run the initial approach (heartrate skyrockets)
• Slow hike the climb (full HR recovery)
• Run at top (incentivized by immediate slight decline)
• Cautious through the rugged rock two-step (jumping risks ankle twists, nets negative energy-to-speed payoff, increases late-race cramping likelihood)
• Quick first drop (easy terrain to glide)
• Walk over log (not such a fan of steeplechase)
• Fast second drop (focus re rocks)
• Carry momentum through the bear right (the only flat “extended” runnable section)
• Sprint the slide 

In that session, laps took 9:00-9:30. That meant six per hour, banking 30-60s per lap, thus allowing for one extra in four hours. Hence my goal: 25 laps.

The race

I took the first lap very casually. Time was 8:10. I grabbed my poles and did the next in 8:00. Then 8:30, 8:10, 8:20 . . . 

Poles

I’ve hiked with them once or twice, never run. I’m rarely exercising on hills where they’d help. But when the prerace email said they were allowed, I took mine to my backyard training site (one-third the Silvermine vert). Great assistance up; easy to hold flying down. The only issue was sweaty hands, but bike gloves solved that and the potential callus consequences. You’re not supposed to do things on race day you’ve never done before, but this was all gain, no loss.

Fuel

After 45 minutes I started fueling. I haven’t been at these longer times and distances in ten years, so with each time/mileage jump across each season, I’ve had to relearn fuel. After my last race, in January, I resolved to always have fresh watermelon and excessive electrolyte drinks, and here I did.

Gels

As for gels, years ago, I settled on a Clif assortment, gutting them through the long hot days when even the thought of one could make me vomit. Eventually I weaned off all but the citrus flavor, so that’s what I returned to after my hiatus. Each time they taste a tick less tolerable, but it’s endurance running, what are you gonna do? 

A month before the race, I caught a stomach bug Sunday at noon, after a 3h30m run. For two hours I vomited gels, gummies, and breakfast, leaving nothing in my stomach but blood and acid. For two more hours I scraped up all that in a continuous state of retching, before reverting to a normal cadence for a couple more hours. I rarely fall ill; from this I needed five days to feel human. 

On the sixth day, a friend and I did a 15-miler on country roads. He offered me a Maurten gel, and I knew from the first taste of that clumpy dissolving gelatin that I would never again use Clif. The Maurten doesn’t pump you up on electrolytes, but the energy rush is real, and it doesn’t curdle the stomach. Legendary.

Back to the race

After 90 minutes in my groove, I made a gentle push on the downhills, just to see how my hamstring would respond. Nothing cataclysmic, but nothing promising. It still can’t handle repeated impact at speed, and I’m not interested in discovering where a fine line might live. With favorable weather (Sunday, May 21, 2023, in Harriman State Park was 70, dry, breezy, and generally overcast), a fun course, and the omniscience of an endurance event’s unknown, I was content to cruise. I’d lost track of laps, but I was confident I’d reach my goal. 

Results

In fact I did one better, finishing with 26 laps in 3:58:51. Most impressively, my Garmin, comically inept in many instances, clocked me at 19.87 miles, just shy of the 19.95 per the course map (the official results understandably use .8 as the distance per lap, or 20.8 for 26). 

Lessons learned

• Eh, none? This is a unique race (not too many vertical ones within driving distance of NYC); it was part of my training more than a milestone (I’d run a plodding 26.2 the week before, feeling sick the entire time); I was adequately prepared; I executed; I didn’t do anything silly.

Non-running running improvements assessment

• Strength training works (good to remember). 
• Dropping weight works (shave another few for races).
• Casual cycling on off days should work (don’t get lazy on this).

What’s next

In early October I have a 100K on semi-familiar trails on Long Island. It necessitates laddering up from 40M/6hr shape to 60/9. I look much more forward to timed runs, because to me that means mountains. But if I don’t log a runnable 50M in July and hit 50K road workouts harder in August, I won’t get what I want out of that race. Racing is for me the fifth- or sixth-best thing about endurance running, yet in its own way, it still matters.