I have been training comfortably hard since my lower recovery miles in July and was able to build back up to over 200 miles for the month of August. I decided to cap my month off with one of my favorite ultra single day runs in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the Pemigewasset Wilderness (Pemi).
The Pemi loop spans approximately 30 miles and earns nearly 10,000 feet of elevation gain over its eight 4,000 foot peaks. The terrain found along this route very diverse, ranging from wet, dark, slippery forest all the way up to rocky, alpine, above tree line exposure. It is a technical and challenging day that requires planning for long periods of self-sustaining running and power hiking (at least power hiking for me. I am sure the fastest known time people are running up these climbs).
The original plan was for my running friend, Brent, and me to complete the traverse on Saturday, August 29th, but Brent smartly pushed against that plan due to weather and we switched to Sunday the 30th to avoid heavy rains. I initially thought we should go rain or shine, how else can you prepare for rain during races if you don’t train in it? As I was drinking my coffee on Saturday morning, and watching it downpour, I had no regrets about the switch.
Our primary goal was to complete the trek in 10-11 hours, my personal best is just under 9 hours and Brent had never done the loop before. On Saturday, I spent part of the day packing my running vest with a 1L bladder of lime water, and around 2,000 calories of food consisting of kashi and cliff bars, honey waffles, my protein/mct/coffee mix, and a wrap. I tested out a spinach wrap of quinoa, roasted onion/green pepper/almonds, seitan, and mustard. I wanted to see how it tasted and traveled in the pack for my upcoming 100 miler. I didn’t take more then 1 liter of water, as I knew it was going to be a cooler day and my intake would be down and there would be a refill at around 16 miles.
Beyond water and calories, my vest contained my small first aid kit, spare contact lens, local map, wind breaker jacket, and my sawyer mini filter system. The sawyer mini is a replacement for my life straw. I like it because I can put it right on my bladder straw and not lose time filtering water. My cloths for the day would be my hat, my running shorts with built in compression, long sleeve shirt with hood, darn tough socks, and my Carson running shoes. I had everything ready to roll to go pick Brent up at his apartment on the 3 hour drive over to the Lincoln Woods parking lot to start our day. I set the alarm for 3 AM and tried to hit the hay at 8 PM.
Unfortunately, my plan of sleeping 7 hours did not come to fruition. I tossed and turned until 10 PM (my normal bed time) and woke up at 11:30, 12:45, and 1:45. I finally said screw it and got out by at 2:30 AM, made my coffee, cooked up a couple of impromptu egg sandwiches for us to eat on the ride over, grabbed my gear and headed out the door.
On the drive over Brent deferred to me on which direction we would go in. You can go the traditional clockwise which gives you most of your climbing in the first 15 miles or you can go counter-clockwise and do your climbing at the end. It really boils down to if you want 5-6 miles of relatively flat easy running in the beginning or the end. I am always intrigued to go counter-clockwise so that you are training more vertical on 15 mile legs, but I ultimately decided to stick to the traditional clockwise. Brent ended up liking this direction and made mention that he wouldn’t want to go the other way.
Brent and I arrived at the Lincoln woods parking lot at just after 6 and were ready to hit the trail by 6:30. A good start time to not have to worry about head lamps at the start or finish.
We started out with an easy 9-10 min per mile pace to cover just over a mile to the turn off onto Osseo trail to start our first climb up Mount Flume. This trail starts off gradual but is much more technical than Lincoln Woods. It weaves through the forest and gains steepness on up and down rolling terrain. The Osseo trail is notorious for its switchbacks and ladder sections which slowed us down a bit, but we reached the summit of Mount Flume within an hour and half. We had covered the first 6 miles in that time and gained some good elevation still carrying an overall 15 min/mile average. This made us happy to have some bank time for our 20 min/mile average we were aiming to maintain.
I can’t say we were happy to hit summit of Flume and start along the Franconia Ridge trail. Normally this ridge line is a mountain runners dream with well compacted sections, large granite slabs, and spanning views to keep your interest during some not terrible climbs of Mount Liberty, Lincoln, and Lafayette. Unfortunately, this day in the alpine zone was not as predicted with partly cloudy skies and light 20 mph wind gusts. Today was cloudy, foggy, with 60 mph wind gusts. The kind that can easily knock you off your feet and suck the air out of your lungs.
We made the turn from Flume and did out best to run the short mile or so to Mount Liberty. The view didn’t get any better and we knew it was just going to be a slug fest with the wind. We made a quick pit stop on Liberty to put on our wind breakers, and ate a quick snack, before we continued to take our beating.
We didn’t stop or talk much during our 4 mile ridge traverse and just did out best to push forward toward Lafayette where we would finally descend into the treeline again and hopefully get a break from the constant balancing act of keeping the right amount of downward force to keep you planted during the gusts, while also not causing you to fall over when the gust ceased.
Despite the technical descent from Lafayette, we were quite happy to be getting out of the wind and on to a relatively tame section of trail that was wet, and contains several ups and downs that goes on for many miles before you begin the large boulder riddled ascent of Garfield. We were also able to remove our wind breakers in this section and wouldn’t need them again until later.
The climb up Garfield was slower going then we would have liked, but our legs needed the much needed recovery from Franconia Ridge and we were able to chat again so the time went by quickly.
After Garfield it is just a series of steep downward technical sections and lumpy hills, with a few runnable sections between. We were mostly reduced to a steady power hiking pace as we started to climb again up towards Galehead Hut. This is when I started to grow concerned about hitting our 10 hour goal. Between Mount Flume to descending Garfield we went from 15 mins in the bank to 30 mins in the hole. Hitting our 15 mile maker at 5 1/2 hours. I also knew that we had put the hardest sections behind us and could gain sometime back if we did a quick fill and lunch at the hut and didn’t sit around a lot.
We hit the Galehead hut at 16 miles and around 5 hours 45 mins in. I ate my wrap that I was testing. It tasted good, went down easy, not too dry, wrap wasn’t soggy, and seemed to have survived bouncing around in my pack. We filled up our water at the hut supply, no filtering required, and within 10 mins was on our way back on the trail to begin the suck-fest that would be the South Twin climb.
And that is exactly what the climb was. The steep, rocky, and wet less then a mile ascent of South Twin seemed to be a never ending section of suffering. It felt like I had gotten punched in the gut, and I don’t think I spoke more then a few words over the 25-30 mins it took us to climb this bitch. For me this was the hardest section of the day, and I think Brent would agree, as he also seemed to just be grunting his way up. Once we hit the summit, I didn’t even stop long enough to take a picture. We hit the AT trail section and started the 2 mile trek over to the bond cliff trail.
It wasn’t until about 1/4 mile in along the AT section where I said to Brent, “I know we should start running again, but I don’t feel like it” and he responded “I don’t care anymore, I am just following your lead”. Within another 1/4 we were coming out of a energy funk from South Twin and started a jog. For the first time in 11 miles we would crack our 20 min/mile barrier and lay down some 18 minute miles.
We would stay in the 18-20 min mile range throughout the AT section and we made a brief stop to toss back on our wind breakers as we approached the bond cliff trail and re-entered the alpine zone a.k.a. strength training against wind. The wind did not let us down and continued its assault on our bodies. Luckily the exposed areas are brief in this area and it wasn’t long before we were protected from the wind, back in some tree coverage, and starting our ascent of Mount Bond.
I was expecting this to be another suffer-fest as I was still a little cranky from South Twin, but the climb was more gradual and steady and we were able to maintain a solid pace. The sun also began to poke through the clouds and at the summit of Bond we were finally awarded with our first real view of the day.
After 20 plus miles, and a clear view we could see our final climb that would be Bond cliff. Our breeze friend was still with us, but we didn’t care and pushed the pace running the short descent and back up to the cliffs. The trail was rocky but runnable, and there were definitely moments where the wind still sucked your breath out and knocked you off kilter, but the joy of a final climb with a view would not be subdued.
With the final climb behind us, we started our final 4 mile decent down Bondcliff trail which is a gradual slope of mostly soft trail with some rocks tossed in. Each mile we descended was better then the last in terms of speed and we were gaining some lost time back.
It wasn’t long before we were finally back at the Lincoln Wood trail that we had turned off from at the start hours ago. Now we just had the remaining 5ish miles to run on an old rail road bed that is relatively flat, wide, and compacted easy trails to the end. We found that we could pick up the pace more and for the first time since 6:30 this morning we were actually doing what is probably considered running and ticking off 9 mins per mile.
Soon along this section we started seeing the normal sights of casual hikers/walkers, bikers, and tourists that stream to this trail. I knew this meant we were close, and we rounded the final curves and soon saw the bridge we had started our day on. We cruised across the bridge to the opposite side to end our day where it began, in 9 hours 32 mins. We did it!
Overall, I am really happy with our performance. Whereas I did not set a personal best for the day, we beat the goal for the day. Not bad for my first major mountain effort since my Achilles/calf issues not so long ago and for Brent’s first ultra distance. I also feel my hydration and food intake went well keeping me energized and helping me build back confidence in my system for my upcoming 100 mile wilderness adventure. I am also happy to report that during and after my calves and feet haven’t felt this good all summer. That really solidifies for me the decision to switch away from my thinner Xero’s to the more cushioned Carson’s.
I don’t think there was anything Brent or I could have done differently on this day to improve our performance. The wind really had the greatest impact on our time and I believe had it been the partly cloudy with light wind gusts then I would’ve set a new personal best. All in all it was an amazing day in the mountains and I’m happy I got to challenge myself on this loop again. Looking forward to another running next summer!
Running with Love 