The North Face Endurance Challenge- Bear Mountain
It's Extreme- Weather, Elevation, and Experience.Three thousand and two hundred runners took part in the two-day The North Face Endurance Challenge Series- New York at Bear Mountain State Park on Mother’s Day weekend. And it was a weekend of extremes.
Saturday Saturday a 50-mile race, a 50-k race, a marathon, and a marathon relay wound through Bear Mountain. The day was damp and cold. The air was wet, the rain was wet, the ground was wet. It rained 1.1 inches throughout the first 24 hours. |
10k Photos |
Chris Gallo, from Kingston, NY, ran his first 50-miler and his North Face Challenge Race on this damp day and had a great time.
“It was excellent! It was cold and wet all day, but I really liked the course. I'd love to do it on a dry day. I could go much faster. I'm looking forward to doing another 50,” Gallo said. Headlamps were mandatory for the 5 am start.
“I'm also required to bring a backbone,” Gallo joked. “But not any common sense".
Gallo, an experienced trail runner, ran in the Spartan Ultra-Beast a few years back and reported it as the hardest thing he’d ever done. The course covered 26 miles with 60 obstacles, mud, water, and mountains. Bear Mountain was a different experience.
“I'd say the low point happened before the race even started. My wife woke me up and told me it was after 4 and the alarm didn't go off (race started at 5). Fortunately, we slept at my mom's in Cornwall on Hudson and were only 20 minutes from Bear Mountain. I got my bib and texted Mike about 3 minutes before the start. It was a relatively stressful way to start my first 50. As for a high point, I'd say seeing Mike and Amy at mile 29 was it. I'd been in good spirits all day and adding friendly faces just furthered that. I knew conditions were going to be awful that day. I just mentally decided to enjoy the experience and not be bothered too much by Mother-Nature".
Gallo is locally known for telling entire movies to his running partners on long runs.
“We were talking about "Unbreakable" the documentary about the Western States 100 for the last half,” Gallo said.
The damp spring this year and the steady rain of Saturday left the trails a quagmire.
“Forty percent felt like a swamp,” Gallo said. “I'm sure I'm exaggerating, but it was extremely wet out there. I spoke with someone who ran the following day, and he said the trails were ridiculously bad the following day. On the day I ran, they just got worse and worse as the day and rain progressed”.
Sunday-Mother Nature Loves Mother's Day
Mother’s Day the clouds burned off and runners of the half-marathon, 10k, and 5k got bluebird skies and temps in the mid-60s.
Meral Sanchez, Jr., of the Bronx, ran in the 10k on Sunday. His first race. Period. He was a gymnast in high school, he never ran track, but he ran 6.1 miles on Mother’s Day.
The story goes he and his friends had had a few one night, and all signed up for the race on a dare. No one trained.
I warned them ‘the trails are going to be muddy, really muddy. The sucking mud will make the rocks look good, but it’s a trap. The rocks will be slippery, and you’ll fall’.
I was so intrigued by running untrained, no less than untrained, first-time runner trail race; I asked Sanchez to give me his email so I could hear about the race after.
This is what he said:
“I began as part of the 4th wave of the 10k at 9:03 AM and finished at 10:13 AM resulting in a time of 1:10:03,” Sanchez said. “I finished 129th of 391 total runners, 88th of 190 male runners, and 17th of 36 male runners between the ages of 25-29. I'd say it went pretty well for my first race ever”.
He went on.
“That isn't the important part though, let me tell you about the experience. Just a few minutes into the race, I realized that I did not have the proper equipment for the race. The crowd of runners got to the muddy section at the beginning of the trail and everyone, including me, began to try to navigate through the section without getting dirty. I quickly realized that there was no way I was going to finish this race clean and so I just threw caution to the wind and ran right through the crowd and continued to run through mud puddles, water streams, loose rocks, and everything else imaginable that was on that trail”.
“All of this was unexpected, which to me, is what made it so cool. There was only one stop for water, my friend told me there would be three, and I fell about half way through the race while running with my phone in hand. It survived and so did I. Towards the end of the race, I noticed a school bus on the road and sprinted toward the finish line where I proceeded to jump and clap my heels together. Needless to say that my lower half was a complete mess, but I was so happy to finish!”
As for how he’s feeling a few days afterward.
“It's so weird when I finished the race, I felt no soreness and had no signs of injury. It was Mother's Day, so I washed up and went on to run a couple of last minute errands. The next day, however, my right foot was on fire, and still is! I did a lot of research, and I've come to the conclusion that I am suffering from Peritoneal Tendonitis. I've been icing, and I just ordered an ankle brace recommended online by a foot doctor. Everything I've read says it'll take 2-6 weeks for the tendon to heal. I'm aiming for two since athletes heal faster and I just proved I'm an athlete by finishing in the upper third of all runners at a trail race.
Here’s what Sanchez thinks about trail running after his first run.
“I think that with the proper equipment, trail running is awesome. However, I also think you should do your research before entering any of these races; having knowledge of the different obstacles you might come across while on the trail would be helpful. Throughout the entire race, I was conscious of all the potential injuries that could happen while running the trail. It was an excellent experience and my roommate, who wasn't able to complete the half marathon, is planning to return next year to complete the race. I guess that means I'll be back next year to beat my time also”.
“It was excellent! It was cold and wet all day, but I really liked the course. I'd love to do it on a dry day. I could go much faster. I'm looking forward to doing another 50,” Gallo said. Headlamps were mandatory for the 5 am start.
“I'm also required to bring a backbone,” Gallo joked. “But not any common sense".
Gallo, an experienced trail runner, ran in the Spartan Ultra-Beast a few years back and reported it as the hardest thing he’d ever done. The course covered 26 miles with 60 obstacles, mud, water, and mountains. Bear Mountain was a different experience.
“I'd say the low point happened before the race even started. My wife woke me up and told me it was after 4 and the alarm didn't go off (race started at 5). Fortunately, we slept at my mom's in Cornwall on Hudson and were only 20 minutes from Bear Mountain. I got my bib and texted Mike about 3 minutes before the start. It was a relatively stressful way to start my first 50. As for a high point, I'd say seeing Mike and Amy at mile 29 was it. I'd been in good spirits all day and adding friendly faces just furthered that. I knew conditions were going to be awful that day. I just mentally decided to enjoy the experience and not be bothered too much by Mother-Nature".
Gallo is locally known for telling entire movies to his running partners on long runs.
“We were talking about "Unbreakable" the documentary about the Western States 100 for the last half,” Gallo said.
The damp spring this year and the steady rain of Saturday left the trails a quagmire.
“Forty percent felt like a swamp,” Gallo said. “I'm sure I'm exaggerating, but it was extremely wet out there. I spoke with someone who ran the following day, and he said the trails were ridiculously bad the following day. On the day I ran, they just got worse and worse as the day and rain progressed”.
Sunday-Mother Nature Loves Mother's Day
Mother’s Day the clouds burned off and runners of the half-marathon, 10k, and 5k got bluebird skies and temps in the mid-60s.
Meral Sanchez, Jr., of the Bronx, ran in the 10k on Sunday. His first race. Period. He was a gymnast in high school, he never ran track, but he ran 6.1 miles on Mother’s Day.
The story goes he and his friends had had a few one night, and all signed up for the race on a dare. No one trained.
I warned them ‘the trails are going to be muddy, really muddy. The sucking mud will make the rocks look good, but it’s a trap. The rocks will be slippery, and you’ll fall’.
I was so intrigued by running untrained, no less than untrained, first-time runner trail race; I asked Sanchez to give me his email so I could hear about the race after.
This is what he said:
“I began as part of the 4th wave of the 10k at 9:03 AM and finished at 10:13 AM resulting in a time of 1:10:03,” Sanchez said. “I finished 129th of 391 total runners, 88th of 190 male runners, and 17th of 36 male runners between the ages of 25-29. I'd say it went pretty well for my first race ever”.
He went on.
“That isn't the important part though, let me tell you about the experience. Just a few minutes into the race, I realized that I did not have the proper equipment for the race. The crowd of runners got to the muddy section at the beginning of the trail and everyone, including me, began to try to navigate through the section without getting dirty. I quickly realized that there was no way I was going to finish this race clean and so I just threw caution to the wind and ran right through the crowd and continued to run through mud puddles, water streams, loose rocks, and everything else imaginable that was on that trail”.
“All of this was unexpected, which to me, is what made it so cool. There was only one stop for water, my friend told me there would be three, and I fell about half way through the race while running with my phone in hand. It survived and so did I. Towards the end of the race, I noticed a school bus on the road and sprinted toward the finish line where I proceeded to jump and clap my heels together. Needless to say that my lower half was a complete mess, but I was so happy to finish!”
As for how he’s feeling a few days afterward.
“It's so weird when I finished the race, I felt no soreness and had no signs of injury. It was Mother's Day, so I washed up and went on to run a couple of last minute errands. The next day, however, my right foot was on fire, and still is! I did a lot of research, and I've come to the conclusion that I am suffering from Peritoneal Tendonitis. I've been icing, and I just ordered an ankle brace recommended online by a foot doctor. Everything I've read says it'll take 2-6 weeks for the tendon to heal. I'm aiming for two since athletes heal faster and I just proved I'm an athlete by finishing in the upper third of all runners at a trail race.
Here’s what Sanchez thinks about trail running after his first run.
“I think that with the proper equipment, trail running is awesome. However, I also think you should do your research before entering any of these races; having knowledge of the different obstacles you might come across while on the trail would be helpful. Throughout the entire race, I was conscious of all the potential injuries that could happen while running the trail. It was an excellent experience and my roommate, who wasn't able to complete the half marathon, is planning to return next year to complete the race. I guess that means I'll be back next year to beat my time also”.
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The TNF ECS- NY is in its eleventh year at Bear Mountain. The series is hugely popular with locals as well as elite athletes from all over the US and Canada. The top male and female finishers in the Gore-Tex 50-mile race, MATHIEU BLANCHARD, 07:32:35 and MICHAUX MICHAUX 08:51:37, both traveled from Canada to compete in the Hudson Highlands, the race description mistakenly calls the mountains "the craggy foothills of the Catskill Mountains". The series is equally attractive for first-time and casual trail runners. |
Other thoughtsEvents like The North Face Endurance Challenge Series can be really rough on trails, especially on wet days. It's a no-win in muddy conditions. Running through the mud further degrades the trail-base, going off trail damages the area around the trail. While Leave No Trace principles recommend "Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces", like rocks, wet rocks are dangerous. Check out this story about Muddy Trails. What responsibilities do race promoters have to come back and mitigate the damage to the environment? We asked for runners thoughts about the trails on social media. Here are some of the responses we got. "I admit I was selfish to run and finish the half marathon at NFEC:NY today. The trails were in horrible condition after the rain and won't recover for a long time. Shout out to Nathan Briggs who decided the environment was more important than his race". "It was for sure affected. Soapy mud all over specially second half 50 miler. But I wouldn't say it was severely damaged". "Yes, you're right. I was there Sunday for the half marathon and the trails showed all the tracks from the previous runners. This made it hard stepping in the same deep footprints". "I was there today, two weeks later, on the second half of the course (AW to BM) which got the most runners and you would not even know a race had been held two weeks before. It was muddy in spots, but it always is, particularly after the hard rain we got on Thursday". "I used to go there the week after in previous years and certain wet spots were always chewed up, like by Silvermine Lake. Other areas showed nothing. Some years the flagging was left up for months". "It was rough yesterday!!! My thoughts were also on the condition of the trail and how that would pan out for today's race., more on the environmental impact. Being in the back of the pack Paula and I could see the damage. Conditions were awful and I am hoping a few good rains will cover most of the damage.... There sure are enough rocks!!" "The mud and runoff were so bad today. It's going to dry horrible". "What was really awful was all the Gu packets on the course. People just tossed them. I think Paula picked up about 20. People just shouldn't do that. How hard is it to shove them in your pocket and throw them out at the aid station? Sigh". |
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