Tussey Teaser

June 24, 2012

The view from Tussey Mountain

Clearly, Gran Fondo-ing on the ridiculous hills of Garrett County wasn't enough, so Priscilla and I had signed up for a Tussey Teaser trail run the following day. After finishing our fondo's and cheering at the Z tents for the longer riders, we hit the road for State College, Pennsylvania.

The Bear Meadows Made In The Shade Tussey Teaser would be a challenging run over some of the same trails the Tussey mOUnTaINback 50 Miler covers. I really wanted to see the mountain and get some experience on the trails....and P Diddy is always game for a good road trip, so we spent the night at the race hotel, the Ramada Inn, woke up the next morning and drove to the mountain. 

The race was so small and low key that we initially drove right past the start line-- which, by the way, consisted of some flour sprinkled across the road. 

Let's get this party started

There were about a dozen runners and most looked like serious bidness!  While PDid and I were all geared up with our water belts, race number belts, Gatorade, and nutrition, most of the other runners had none of these extras-- just their running clothes and shoes with their bibs safety pinned on the old fashioned way.

Priscilla even wore a bright 'caution orange' running top so search and rescue crews could spot her should she get lost in the wilds of Tussey Mountain! 

 Race Director Mike gathered us up at the start line and gave us a quick run down of the course. We had two options:  10 miles or 7 miles. I had planned on the 10 miler, but was secretly telling myself that it would be okay to do 7. P was doing the 7 and I was sure to be the slowest 10 miler, so I was giving myself permission to go short. The decision point would be 4.8 miles in.

Mike told us he had stashed some bottled water and cups at several points along the trail. The "major intersections " were marked with flour arrows pointing the way. For the rest of it we would rely on our cue sheets.

We ran about half a mile then turned left onto our first trail, a gradual uphill for 2 miles.

Look how shady it is!

The trail was actually a "fire road," so it was pretty wide and in decent shape. After the uphill we turned left for a nice, long downhill.  Then came decision time:

Do I want to run 7 or 10? Decision time!

I wanted to turn left and just do the 7....but I had come here to do the 10. What to do, what to do? I was feeling okay after the long downhill, but knew there was a big bad hill toward the end of the 10 miler. So, I could justify cutting it short to 7....I mean, I had just suffered through that gran fondo madness the day before. But I said I was going to do 10, so I turned right and settled in for the climb to come.  

Ha ha

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next few miles dragged by. It took me over 1.5 hours just to run 6 miles! By the time I made it to the big bad hill at the 9 mile mark, I was sure Mike, the race director, had to be wondering what the hell had happened to me. And I also suspected that everyone else was long done with this race.                                                                                                                                              I texted Priscilla with my status and told her to tell Mike he didn't have to stick around. I still had a mile to go with 900 feet of altitude gain...and then another .6 to the finish line for a total of 10.6 miles.                                                                                                                                                          I tried to run walk, but my legs were dead and I was out of energy. It took me forever to get up that hill! How many hills like this would we have during the actual race?                                                                       

Meanwhile...back at the finish line, everyone had indeed finished the race, eaten Subway sandwiches, rehydrated, participated in a raffle drawing, hung out, and then left --and I was still probably 45 minutes from being done. P said they even came to pick up the single Port-O-John the race director had had delivered for the race! Oh the insult! I didn't even finish before they picked up the Port-O-John! Forget about keeping the finish line up--- the portable toilet was long gone by the time I finished! 

Needless to say, the race director was quizzing P about our experience level. You know, wondering if we had ever done "this kind of thing" before; asking coy questions about our running prowess.  Of course, P filled him in....making clear that we're not "civilians", that we had actually toed quite a few lines before our Tussey Teaser adventures. 

It took me 3 hours to finish 10.6 miles -- pathetic, I know. I could blame the gran fondo, but the bottomline is I need to do more hilly trail running. Still, we had a blast...and I was glad I got to see Tussey Mountain and get a taste of what's in store for the Tussey 50 miler. 

Let the hill repeats commence!