2015 SRT Run/Hike
32 mile division runner at Sam's Point
Jason Berry of Bushkill, PA set the new Fastest Known Time (FKT) for the 74 mile course of the Shawangunk Ridge Trail (SRT), Saturday, September 19, with a time of 22 hours and 2 minutes.
The SRT traverses a ridge line from High Point, NJ where its unique geology and biology begin, and continues for 74 miles to Rosendale, NY where the ridge ends.
2015 is the second year of the SRT Run. In the SRT, race directors of Shawangunk Adventures (SA), Ken Posner and Todd Jennings, have set out to create a challenge for runners that not only emulates the self-reliance of our forebears, whether settlers or native, who could travel long distances through the wilderness without the conveniences that are part of trail running today. And also to celebrate the preservation of the Shawangunks.
This year’s run was composed of a 74, a 50, a 32, and a 20 mile division. The 74 miler started in NJ on Friday night, the 50 miler began in Wurtsboro Saturday morning and ascended the ridge to the Wurtsboro Ridge State Forest, then followed along to the Roosa Gap State Forest, and the Shawangunk Ridge State Forest, before entering Sam’s Point via the steep, but beautiful, South Gully Trail.
The 32 miler started at Sam’s Point, a section of the ridge newly added to Minnewaska Lake State Park.
The 20 mile race headed off from Peter’s Kill, also part of Minnewaska. The last 20 miles of all four course over lapped. All traveled through the Mohonk Preserve and ended with a spectacular view of the Rondout Creek from the Wallkill Valley Land Trust’s trestle bridge in Rosendale.
“This trail deserves a really fast and hotly contested record,” Posner, holder of the previous FKT on the SRT, said.
“There is the important trail in our back yard and can be an economic asset to our community. There are lots of places to put housing developments, but only one ridge line,” Posner said explaining the need to preserve the ridge.
The SRT traverses a ridge line from High Point, NJ where its unique geology and biology begin, and continues for 74 miles to Rosendale, NY where the ridge ends.
2015 is the second year of the SRT Run. In the SRT, race directors of Shawangunk Adventures (SA), Ken Posner and Todd Jennings, have set out to create a challenge for runners that not only emulates the self-reliance of our forebears, whether settlers or native, who could travel long distances through the wilderness without the conveniences that are part of trail running today. And also to celebrate the preservation of the Shawangunks.
This year’s run was composed of a 74, a 50, a 32, and a 20 mile division. The 74 miler started in NJ on Friday night, the 50 miler began in Wurtsboro Saturday morning and ascended the ridge to the Wurtsboro Ridge State Forest, then followed along to the Roosa Gap State Forest, and the Shawangunk Ridge State Forest, before entering Sam’s Point via the steep, but beautiful, South Gully Trail.
The 32 miler started at Sam’s Point, a section of the ridge newly added to Minnewaska Lake State Park.
The 20 mile race headed off from Peter’s Kill, also part of Minnewaska. The last 20 miles of all four course over lapped. All traveled through the Mohonk Preserve and ended with a spectacular view of the Rondout Creek from the Wallkill Valley Land Trust’s trestle bridge in Rosendale.
“This trail deserves a really fast and hotly contested record,” Posner, holder of the previous FKT on the SRT, said.
“There is the important trail in our back yard and can be an economic asset to our community. There are lots of places to put housing developments, but only one ridge line,” Posner said explaining the need to preserve the ridge.
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Support vehicles, caches of food or water, and pacers are all against the rules of the SRT which is self-supported and without supplemental trail marking. Runners must carry as much food as they will need to keep themselves moving for up to 32 hours, the time the longest 74 miler took. They must also carry water filters to ensure the water they get from streams is good for drinking.
The usual trail race is well marked and has aid stations, this has neither. “You have to be mindful and prepared. ‘Do I refill water here? Or do I wait?’ You might be on or off course,” Posner explained. In fact there were several runners who did get lost but, the ability to read maps and get yourself back on course is one of the requirements for entry into the SRT. Minnewaska Park seems to have been the most popular spot for this. |
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A runner getting lost certainly affected the 50 mile race. Aaron Stredny, was in first place until the check in near Peter’s Kill about 30 miles into the race. He was told there that he was in second even though he hadn’t been passed.
“Dan probably had to turn back around to go to a check point” Aaron Stredny speculated.
Daniel Lewis of Hornell had a finish time of 12:10:00 well behind Stredny’s 10:38:00.
Stredny figures Lewis made a wrong turn near Awosting and turned around and went back, but that’s part of the package on the SRT.
“The people who step up to this race are accepting more of a challenge than your normal trail race,” Posner said.
Self-reliance, mindfulness, and preparation are key in this race. The race directors are trying to get people to experience nature more directly, to take the responsibility of moving themselves through nature safely.
Stedny’s Story
“We left Wurtsboro 6:10 am. Two guys showed up a little bit late”.
“It was dark and I didn’t count on that. I didn’t do a head lamp. The first mile and half was on the road. It was about 6:25 by the time I got on the SRT by then I could see the rocks on the trail. I blasted up the trial I was so excited for the day to be there after training so hard,” Stedny said.
Stedny had met Ken Posner on the trail a few weeks earlier on a training run for the first 15 miles. Posner told him about the Phone app. From the training run he knew the splits he wanted to run.
“I got off trail in one early section. I had to bushwhack for about10 feet. Some people had camped out they were screaming and yelling when I came through. I got on top of that ridge and a sea of clouds lay on the valley. It was cool and breezy, I was running with a smile on my face. It was pretty uneventfully and I just enjoyed myself and try to save up for the later part of the race,” Stedny recalled.
The first water stop Stedny made was at the creek on South Gully trail. The hill up from there is a walker.
“At the creek, that guy Dan, he runs past me. I had no clue somebody was that close to me. Part of the fun of a long run like that is that you have no clue where anyone else is. He missed the trail by Verkeerderkill Falls. He was looking really good. This was where I really started running. It’s my favorite section of the whole race, from Sam’s Point to Lake Awosting,” Stendy said.
The section from Awosting to Jenny Lane is carriage way for a few miles.
“Jenny Lane was totally new to me. I was supper happy I was doing really well. Then everything went south. Before I crossed 44/55 at the check-in they told me. ‘Oh you’re in second, you’re only 20 minutes behind the other guy’.
Lewis probably made a wrong turn and cut out part of the course.
“At Castle Point I was the first 50 miler through. Then he tells me I’m in second and nobody passed me. That’s all I could think about for the next 8 miles to Split Rock. I did a fair bit of walking-jogging. Then I got to Split Rock and Heidi [wife] was there and I was so psyched to see her and it totally changed my mood. I had a really good next section to Spring Farm,” Stedny said.
The Spring Farm section is also carriage way for a while until the SRT heads up the Northeast Trail. Then a new section of the course goes down Clearwater Mine Rd and through a swamp to meet up with the Larson Loop for about five miles. It then dumps runners out on the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail to finish up by running over the trestle bridge in Rosendale.
“I hooked up with a guy running the 32 miler, Max a teacher in Harlem. We were yo-yoing back and forth, having comradery on the trail was positive and much needed. He’d point to his elbow and be like ‘This doesn’t hurt’. I’d point to the tip of my nose and say ‘This doesn’t hurt’. It was so great to run across the trestle at the end of 50 miles,” Stedny said.
“Dan probably had to turn back around to go to a check point” Aaron Stredny speculated.
Daniel Lewis of Hornell had a finish time of 12:10:00 well behind Stredny’s 10:38:00.
Stredny figures Lewis made a wrong turn near Awosting and turned around and went back, but that’s part of the package on the SRT.
“The people who step up to this race are accepting more of a challenge than your normal trail race,” Posner said.
Self-reliance, mindfulness, and preparation are key in this race. The race directors are trying to get people to experience nature more directly, to take the responsibility of moving themselves through nature safely.
Stedny’s Story
“We left Wurtsboro 6:10 am. Two guys showed up a little bit late”.
“It was dark and I didn’t count on that. I didn’t do a head lamp. The first mile and half was on the road. It was about 6:25 by the time I got on the SRT by then I could see the rocks on the trail. I blasted up the trial I was so excited for the day to be there after training so hard,” Stedny said.
Stedny had met Ken Posner on the trail a few weeks earlier on a training run for the first 15 miles. Posner told him about the Phone app. From the training run he knew the splits he wanted to run.
“I got off trail in one early section. I had to bushwhack for about10 feet. Some people had camped out they were screaming and yelling when I came through. I got on top of that ridge and a sea of clouds lay on the valley. It was cool and breezy, I was running with a smile on my face. It was pretty uneventfully and I just enjoyed myself and try to save up for the later part of the race,” Stedny recalled.
The first water stop Stedny made was at the creek on South Gully trail. The hill up from there is a walker.
“At the creek, that guy Dan, he runs past me. I had no clue somebody was that close to me. Part of the fun of a long run like that is that you have no clue where anyone else is. He missed the trail by Verkeerderkill Falls. He was looking really good. This was where I really started running. It’s my favorite section of the whole race, from Sam’s Point to Lake Awosting,” Stendy said.
The section from Awosting to Jenny Lane is carriage way for a few miles.
“Jenny Lane was totally new to me. I was supper happy I was doing really well. Then everything went south. Before I crossed 44/55 at the check-in they told me. ‘Oh you’re in second, you’re only 20 minutes behind the other guy’.
Lewis probably made a wrong turn and cut out part of the course.
“At Castle Point I was the first 50 miler through. Then he tells me I’m in second and nobody passed me. That’s all I could think about for the next 8 miles to Split Rock. I did a fair bit of walking-jogging. Then I got to Split Rock and Heidi [wife] was there and I was so psyched to see her and it totally changed my mood. I had a really good next section to Spring Farm,” Stedny said.
The Spring Farm section is also carriage way for a while until the SRT heads up the Northeast Trail. Then a new section of the course goes down Clearwater Mine Rd and through a swamp to meet up with the Larson Loop for about five miles. It then dumps runners out on the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail to finish up by running over the trestle bridge in Rosendale.
“I hooked up with a guy running the 32 miler, Max a teacher in Harlem. We were yo-yoing back and forth, having comradery on the trail was positive and much needed. He’d point to his elbow and be like ‘This doesn’t hurt’. I’d point to the tip of my nose and say ‘This doesn’t hurt’. It was so great to run across the trestle at the end of 50 miles,” Stedny said.
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Fost’s Story
Paul Fost, of Westchester, did the whole 74 miles of the SRT this year. He tried it last year but wasn’t ready yet. Fost has twice run Rock the Ridge, the 50 mile endurance challenge to raise money for the Mohonk Preserve. “I thought ‘I did the 50 I can do 74. It’s half again the effort’. But effort increases more after that kind of mileage,” Fost said. Rock the Ridge is different in other ways, it’s a big race there are lots of people both on and off the course. At SRT there were 5 others starting the 74 miler the first year, Fost recalled. “I was in the woods by myself”. In the 2014 SRT all but one of the 74 milers dropped out around the 40 mile point. |
This year Fost hired coach Lisa Smith Batchen. At Rock the Ridge he ran with someone who had also signed up for SRT.
“It gave me hope for the SRT,” Fost said. He beat his 2014 Rock the Ridge time by two and a half hours.
He was the only returning 74 miler in the SRT from the inaugural year.
In each long distance run Fost has come across a running partner.
“The guy I ran with in the SRT, Raymond Russel, had done the 32 last year so he knew the last half and I knew the first half from the year before,” Fost said. “I thought we wouldn’t get lost but we v-d off from the trail. I thought ‘we can either back-track or we used the app; it can be used without GPS’. So we start to bushwack. We saw some lights getting closer and it turned out to be other runners who had gotten more lost than we did”.
Time is strange in running, especially distance running.
“Half miles go by very slowly but the 10 miles go by quickly. We ran through the section where the fire was this spring at night. In the burn the white rocks stood out and everything else was black,” Fost recalled.
He had Russel ran most of the 74 miles together.
“We’d been yo-yoing with another guy for the whole race. In the final 8 to 12 miles we hooked up and we all went through finish together,” Fost said.
All three runners clocked the same finish time- 27:58:00
Fost had a great race. Posner proclaimed him most improved.
“It was made more sweet by that fact that I failed last year,” Fost said about his 74 miles.
The SRT is an unsupported race in terms of water and aid but runners found their own support. Stendny's wife meet him on the course in several key places. It was a great boost to his moral. Others like Fost, found people to run with and support each other through the race.
The 2015 SRT had 10 finishers in 74 mile division, 11 in the 50, 13 in the 32, and 39 in the 20 mile division. Quite a jump in numbers from last year.
Posner was pleased with the success of the day. Jacob Frank and Andy Garrison of the NY-NJ trail Conference helped with the maintenance of the trail. The New Jersey Search and Rescue and Sam’s Point Search and Rescue where both on-hand, but thankfully unneeded. Jennings and Posner are already working out ways to improve the 2016 SRT run/hike.
“It gave me hope for the SRT,” Fost said. He beat his 2014 Rock the Ridge time by two and a half hours.
He was the only returning 74 miler in the SRT from the inaugural year.
In each long distance run Fost has come across a running partner.
“The guy I ran with in the SRT, Raymond Russel, had done the 32 last year so he knew the last half and I knew the first half from the year before,” Fost said. “I thought we wouldn’t get lost but we v-d off from the trail. I thought ‘we can either back-track or we used the app; it can be used without GPS’. So we start to bushwack. We saw some lights getting closer and it turned out to be other runners who had gotten more lost than we did”.
Time is strange in running, especially distance running.
“Half miles go by very slowly but the 10 miles go by quickly. We ran through the section where the fire was this spring at night. In the burn the white rocks stood out and everything else was black,” Fost recalled.
He had Russel ran most of the 74 miles together.
“We’d been yo-yoing with another guy for the whole race. In the final 8 to 12 miles we hooked up and we all went through finish together,” Fost said.
All three runners clocked the same finish time- 27:58:00
Fost had a great race. Posner proclaimed him most improved.
“It was made more sweet by that fact that I failed last year,” Fost said about his 74 miles.
The SRT is an unsupported race in terms of water and aid but runners found their own support. Stendny's wife meet him on the course in several key places. It was a great boost to his moral. Others like Fost, found people to run with and support each other through the race.
The 2015 SRT had 10 finishers in 74 mile division, 11 in the 50, 13 in the 32, and 39 in the 20 mile division. Quite a jump in numbers from last year.
Posner was pleased with the success of the day. Jacob Frank and Andy Garrison of the NY-NJ trail Conference helped with the maintenance of the trail. The New Jersey Search and Rescue and Sam’s Point Search and Rescue where both on-hand, but thankfully unneeded. Jennings and Posner are already working out ways to improve the 2016 SRT run/hike.
