After the Battle at Bristol Mountain I was a little hesitant to sign up for another race at a ski resort but as this was the only real race I … MORE
After the Battle at Bristol Mountain I was a little hesitant to sign up for another race at a ski resort but as this was the only real race I could find in a 100 mile radius of Rochester this weekend I decided to check out the website and while it was up a mountain it had a much more forgiving elevation profile so decided to sign up and I am glad I did. For the race you signed up for a certain time frame. There were 2 time options for the 4 miler and 2 for the 8 miler. I decided to sign up for the later 8 miler slot as I hadn’t decided whether I wanted to drive to the race in the morning or get a hotel (it is about a 2 hour drive to Ellicottville from Rochester). In the end I decided on a hotel which was great as I was able to spend Saturday hiking in nearby Allegany State Park and Ellicottville was a cute little town and I found a place with vegan buffalo wings. Packet pick up was on race day and you were assigned a time slot to pick up your packet based on your race time. Packet included a really nice and soft (but not tech) shirt, a neck gaiter featuring the race company’s logo and some tickets to some activities at the resort. The start was a rolling start where you could start anytime in a 15 minute time slot but most people started at the beginning and you stood on X’s 6 ft apart and a new racer started every 5 seconds. Course was tough but doable. Terrain was mostly non technical trail. There were a few loose rocks so I’m glad I had trail shoes but they weren’t completely necessary. The first 3 miles were mostly uphill with a few downhill sections. There were some steep sections but at most there was a 20% grade and most of the uphill was more gradual than that. If you had more experience with trail and mountain running you could probably run it all or at least most. I do not have much experience so I power hiked a lot of the uphill. It was a tough run but not a terribly tough hike. The good thing about a mountain race is what comes up must come down so the last mile is downhill. It’s a little steep to take complete advantage of the downhill as you have watch your footing but is completely runnable. For the 8 miler you do this twice. It was a little demoralizing as the fast 8 milers in the wave ahead of me caught up with me just before my second lap and headed to the finish when I had to do it again. However I have to say trail runners are the nicest people in the universe and all of them told me good job in a genuinely nice way as they passed me. The 4 mile loop wasn’t too awful so I didn’t mind repeating it again. There were aid stations at the 2 mile mark which you passed twice and the 4 mile mark with cups of water and Gatorade. At the end you get a bag of food and a wooden medal. There were lots of treats in the bag (clif bar, apple, banana and muffin). It was a tough race but not “you have to be crazy to run this” tough. I rated it as 5 stars in difficulty as it was definitely the second toughest terrain I have raced on but it was a cake walk compared to Bristol. I wasn’t very fast but reached my goal time of under 2 hours and technically it was a PR since this is my first 8 mile race. I really enjoyed this race and loved the challenge. I am now open to more mountainous and challenging trail races as long as there aren’t 30 to 40 degree grades like at Bristol. I’m not sure if this race will happen again or was just a covid pop up but I would do it again and will definitely run other events with this company even if it is a 2 hour drive.
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Did I just run up a mountain again?
After the Battle at Bristol Mountain I was a little hesitant to sign up for another race at a ski resort but as this was the only real race I … MORE
After the Battle at Bristol Mountain I was a little hesitant to sign up for another race at a ski resort but as this was the only real race I could find in a 100 mile radius of Rochester this weekend I decided to check out the website and while it was up a mountain it had a much more forgiving elevation profile so decided to sign up and I am glad I did. For the race you signed up for a certain time frame. There were 2 time options for the 4 miler and 2 for the 8 miler. I decided to sign up for the later 8 miler slot as I hadn’t decided whether I wanted to drive to the race in the morning or get a hotel (it is about a 2 hour drive to Ellicottville from Rochester). In the end I decided on a hotel which was great as I was able to spend Saturday hiking in nearby Allegany State Park and Ellicottville was a cute little town and I found a place with vegan buffalo wings. Packet pick up was on race day and you were assigned a time slot to pick up your packet based on your race time. Packet included a really nice and soft (but not tech) shirt, a neck gaiter featuring the race company’s logo and some tickets to some activities at the resort. The start was a rolling start where you could start anytime in a 15 minute time slot but most people started at the beginning and you stood on X’s 6 ft apart and a new racer started every 5 seconds. Course was tough but doable. Terrain was mostly non technical trail. There were a few loose rocks so I’m glad I had trail shoes but they weren’t completely necessary. The first 3 miles were mostly uphill with a few downhill sections. There were some steep sections but at most there was a 20% grade and most of the uphill was more gradual than that. If you had more experience with trail and mountain running you could probably run it all or at least most. I do not have much experience so I power hiked a lot of the uphill. It was a tough run but not a terribly tough hike. The good thing about a mountain race is what comes up must come down so the last mile is downhill. It’s a little steep to take complete advantage of the downhill as you have watch your footing but is completely runnable. For the 8 miler you do this twice. It was a little demoralizing as the fast 8 milers in the wave ahead of me caught up with me just before my second lap and headed to the finish when I had to do it again. However I have to say trail runners are the nicest people in the universe and all of them told me good job in a genuinely nice way as they passed me. The 4 mile loop wasn’t too awful so I didn’t mind repeating it again. There were aid stations at the 2 mile mark which you passed twice and the 4 mile mark with cups of water and Gatorade. At the end you get a bag of food and a wooden medal. There were lots of treats in the bag (clif bar, apple, banana and muffin). It was a tough race but not “you have to be crazy to run this” tough. I rated it as 5 stars in difficulty as it was definitely the second toughest terrain I have raced on but it was a cake walk compared to Bristol. I wasn’t very fast but reached my goal time of under 2 hours and technically it was a PR since this is my first 8 mile race. I really enjoyed this race and loved the challenge. I am now open to more mountainous and challenging trail races as long as there aren’t 30 to 40 degree grades like at Bristol. I’m not sure if this race will happen again or was just a covid pop up but I would do it again and will definitely run other events with this company even if it is a 2 hour drive.