This Sunday I crossed an item off my “bucket list” — that ever-growing and changing list of accomplishments I want to do.
The funny thing is until three weeks ago it wasn’t on my bucket list.
Quite the opposite. It was on my ANTI-bucket list. The list of things I NEVER want to accomplish. EVER.
It was on the list somewhere below bungee-jumping and sky-diving.
What is this activity that was the recipient of my disregard? Why, running the Tussey mOUnTaiNBACK.
What exactly is the Tussey mOUnTaiNBACK, you ask? A 50-mile ultra-marathon run out and back (see what they did there with the capitalization?!) on the roads behind the Tussey Mountain Ski and Family Fun Center where the race starts and finishes. Anyone who knows Happy Valley topography knows that as you drive through the gap behind the Center the roads go one way – up. Then of course they go down. Right before they go up again. Lather, rinse, repeat ad nauseam.
Therein lays the reason for my disdain in this activity. Not only is the distance beyond the limits of my comprehension – I really, really, really appreciate a nice 5K (3.1 miles for my non-metric readers) — the course has too many hills. In fact, hills are all it has.
To demonstrate, here’s a description of the course: You start at the Center and run three miles uphill and climb 800 feet. Then you run ten miles downhill and descend 1,100 feet. Then you run five miles uphill and climb 500 feet. Then you run three miles downhill and descend 500 feet. Then you run four miles uphill and climb 1,300 feet. Then you run seven miles downhill and descend 1,100 feet. Then you run four miles uphill and climb 800 feet. Then you run five miles downhill and descend 700 feet. Then you run four miles uphill and climb 700 feet. Then you run five miles downhill and descend 700 feet.
See what I’m saying? Hills. Nothing but hills. Big, big hills. Boy, do I hate big hills.
To provide some context that many of you may have experience with — the distance up Mt. Nittany from the trailhead to the top of the Mountain is 700 feet. Over the course of this race you essentially climb up and down Mt. Nittany six times.
Now, I was fully aware that the majority of people who run the mOUnTaiNBACK don’t run the entire course themselves. They create or join a relay team – composed of between two and eight runners on a team – and split the running duties more-or-less evenly. This year, 457 of the 553 people who ran the race ran on relay teams. But as you can see from the course description above, there isn’t any way to avoid the hills.
So it was that I never planned to run any portion of this feat of endurance.
Until three weeks ago, when Mike Casper, the gallant organizer of the mOUnTaiNBACK, drove past me as I was jogging. He immediately pulled over, rolled down his window, mentioned I was not signed up for the race, that he had a team which was short a runner due to a dropout, and that he thought I should run it. Being caught off-guard and not thinking clearly, I was unable to articulate the depth of my desire to not participate. Next thing I knew I was agreeing to offer my services (however slow they might be!).
Several emails later — one of which detailed my lack of running qualifications in a veiled attempt to get myself out of it — I was welcomed with open arms onto a team.
Our team was aptly named “Training Started Yesterday” which, although not completely accurate was very close in spirit at least for me. There were six people on the team to split the running duties — an average of over eight miles per person. Four locals (team leader Greg Garthe, and Whitney Chirdon, Mikey Jiang, and Becca Stewart) and one Pittsburghean (Joe Kalinyak).
So it was that on Sunday I found myself doing that which I had planned never to do. And am I glad I did.
Distance runners being preternaturally positive people, Greg, Whitney, Mikey, Becca, and Joe were perfect companions on this 50-mile test of stamina. First, they are all either good or excellent runners. Second, they were extremely supportive of my efforts despite my clear shortcomings. In addition, that positivity comes in handy when you have to spend eight hours in close quarters where a certain amount of perspiration from athletic exertion might be prominent. Joe, being a previous participant, came prepared with miniature cowbells so we could spread our positivity to any runner we passed while driving to new transition zones.
In the end we spent a beautiful fall day traversing 50 miles through Rothrock State Forest during the height of the foliage season, breathing fresh air, gazing at gorgeous scenery, and getting a healthy dose of exercise. I met five great people and rode through the aforementioned forest with these wonderful new acquaintances. Plus helped a local charity.
Oh, and I crossed something off my bucket list. All in all a good day in Happy Valley!
