Wild Goose 100 Mile Race Report

Many thanks to Kim, Joe, and their amazing group of volunteers for a great race.

Wild Goose Trail Festival is a weekend of races put on by Sassquad Trail Running in the Wawayanda State Park. In addition to the 100M race, they also have 100K, 50M, 50K, 10K, 36HR, and 13.1M plus a 1M kids run. So basically, something for the whole family. The course is made up of a Pink (7.75M), Checkered (4.75M), and Blue (6M) loop that you cycle through until you reach your registered distance/time. I thought the loops were fairly similar from a difficulty standpoint. The Checkered is probably a little easier (mostly roads/fire roads) and Pink the hardest, however they all had sections that will annoy you to one extent or another.

Looped races are definitely more challenging mentally as you continually pass your car every hour or two, however this is more than balanced by the positive aspects. Foremost, logistics are simple. Take everything you could possible need during a race, dump it into one or more boxes, and set it up under a 10×10 popup at the start/finish. Looped courses will also let you interact with runners from the front to the back of the pack as everyone is moving at different speeds. This was even more the case at Wild Goose as the Pink and Checkered loops shared about a mile at the start, while the Pink and Blue loops shared the last 2 miles. These interactions with runners sharing encouragement definitely helped boost my spirits even in the dead of night.

The Dream Race

For some reason, I’ve gotten it into my head that I want to run an even split 100 mile race (as if running a hundred miles isn’t crazy enough). This would entail starting at a pace slow enough that I could maintain from start to finish. The biggest challenge with pacing hundreds is that there aren’t any quantifiable benchmarks out there to guide you. When you ask for advice, you’ll typically get “start slow, then slow down” which is great and completely unhelpful at the same time as one person’s slow is another person’s too fast. So here’s a hard and fast number for you: 40%. Start your race 40% slower than your last long run pace on similar terrain. My last 20 miler was done at a 10:15 minute/mile pace plus 40% gives me a 14:20 starting pace, which if maintained over the race would get me to the finish line just under 24 hours (14:24 pace).

Honk If You Love To Walk

Do you know what moving 40% slower than your easy pace means? Lots and lots of walking.

My will to move slowly was sorely tested by the opening miles of the pink loop, which are exceptionally fast. I persevered though and managed to spend most of the first loop with Chris and Bryan who I’ve run with periodically over the years. It was great to catch up and swapping stories always makes the time go by faster. Pacing tip: if you’re running with ultra veterans early, then you’re pacing correctly.

I spent the early part of the race learning the course. The loops were very well marked with confidence flags every hundred feet or so, direction arrows at turns, and X signs on side trails that you should stay off. Each bib had the loop order printed on it (PCBPCBP, etc.) and a volunteer marked off a letter as soon as you crossed the finish line so there was never any mental stress about whether you were on the correct loop. I’m not going to say it’s impossible to get off course, but it’s very, very difficult.

I was able to knock out loop after loop during the daytime hours without too much difficulty. I mean, that’s kinda the whole point of starting frustratingly slow. The temperatures never got too warm (low 70s?) and it was dry so just about perfect running weather.

Fifty Miles = Go Time?

As I neared the halfway point, I started to get the impression that the race was measuring long. I was pacing for a 24 hour finish, but that was if the course measured 100 miles. If there was bonus mileage, then I was going to need to pick up the pace. My Garmin ended up with 102.3 miles and 9,829 feet of elevation gain. So more miles and less elevation than advertised. This isn’t meant to be a criticism of the race organization, but a warning that not all technologies will measure the same. You can trust the time, however all other metrics should come with an asterisk attached.

The first time I tried running an even split hundred at Viaduct this year, I reached the halfway point and immediately started slowing down. At WG100, I was able to pick up the pace. My average pace was smack dab on my 14:20 target. I started running more of the downhills and some of the flatter sections with the goal of shaving a couple seconds off my average pace each loop. More to pick up an extra minute here and there rather than hammering a bunch of 10 minute miles. This worked great for a while and I was able to slowly drop this down to an average pace of 14:13 at which point. . .

Amusing Anecdotes In Running 100 Miles (aka I’m An Idiot)

I attempt to get most of my nutrition in ultras through liquids (Coke, Perpetuem) and will supplement with whatever food looks appetizing at the aid stations. For this race, I also brought a couple bottles of whole milk and a bottle of apple juice. I had chugged one bottle of milk about mile 20, the other about mile 40, and they both really hit the spot. Sixty miles in and it was time for some juice. I got halfway through the bottle and then started struggling to finish it. A smart man would have tossed the rest in the trash and moved on down the course. I, on the other hand, didn’t want to waste good calories so went ahead and finished off the bottle. My stomach didn’t completely revolt on me, but I was fairly limited with what calories I could stomach (pun intended) for the next 15 miles and mostly limited to liquids the rest of the race. Yes, I’m an idiot.

Wawayanda State Park is home to a decent bear population and there was a lot of education on how to interact with them in the race lead up, while also providing everyone a whistle in our race packets. About 7pm, I came upon two runners standing in the middle of the trail. I asked if they were OK and they mentioned they had just seen a bear right ahead. I didn’t see anything on the trail so started walking slowly ahead making lots of noise with the two runners and a fourth right behind me. I eventually spotted the bear about forty feet off to our left at which point I stopped to look at it. One of the other runners right behind me said its cub is in that tree. That tree off to the right. As in, we are now stopped on the trail directly between a momma bear and her cub. This is literally rule #1 in how to not interact with bears. We immediately quickly walked up the trail without delay. So. . . yeah, I’m an idiot.

One of the things I’ve discovered in running hundreds is that the brighter your headlamp at night, the quicker you can run. This is partially because the dimmer your light, the harder it is to see the trail. And the harder it is to see the trail, the slower you’ll go to navigate any technical areas. Also, dimmer lights makes your more sleepy/tired, while brighter lights will do a better job keeping you awake. I decided to swap out my batteries about 1am, however was unable to open my headlamp. I’m standing at the aid station furiously trying to pull open the back, but it just wouldn’t budge. A volunteer was even nice enough to give me a spatula to try and pry it open, however not even that would work. Eventually, I handed it over to a kind volunteer who twisted the knob and it popped right open. This is a headlamp that I’ve used for over 3 years and tons of races. And for those keeping score at home, I’m an idiot.

Wait, Are We Really Racing Now?

As the night progressed, my average pace slowly increased. From 14:15 to 14:18 to 14:23 and then a quick jump to 14:28 during the headlamp fiasco mentioned above. It then slowly trickled up to 14:32 right before mile 90. Even though I was slowing down, I felt good physically and my head was in a good place.

I had been passing runners all night long. Right at mile 90 I slowly caught and passed a runner towards the beginning of the Blue loop. Instead of dropping off behind though, he managed to stick with me. After a couple minutes, we struck up a conversation and I learned that Pat was on the same loop as me. It was a little shocking because I hadn’t seen another moving my pace since sometime the prior morning. We dropped a quick mile and I realized my legs felt amazing and strong for the first time in forever. I checked the time on my watch and sure enough it read 5:10am. People talk about getting a boost when the sun comes up, however my circadian rhythm is based on my normal 5am wakeup so that’s typically when I get a pep in my step. Woo-hoo, let’s go!

Pat must have been feeling it too, because he pulled ahead of me. A couple minutes later, we caught up to and passed another runner. Who then immediately passed me back. It was obvious as he blew by me, but I had to ask and sure enough, Ben was also on his next to last loop. I already had my effort up to 11 though so didn’t think I was going to be able to match them. Somehow I was able to keep Pat in sight as we came into the start/finish for the next to last time.

I performed a quick gas and go at the aid station and didn’t see anyone ahead of me as I started my final Pink loop. I was feeling amazing so just hammered the first two miles. I hit the trail sections and was managing to run up virtually all of the hills. The technical sections barely slowed me down and I caught up to another runner about halfway through and didn’t even recognize Ben (the sun had finally risen) until he asked if I was also on the last loop. We ran together for a bit chatting about. . . I have no recollection as my brain was pretty fried by this point. My motivation dipped and I let him head on into the finish before me. Even though I was no longer racing, I somehow managed to record my fastest split in the final mile. I crossed the line with a time of 24:32 or average pace of 14:23.

Final Thoughts

I have a bad habit of choosing mostly unrealistic A goals in races. Sub 24 hours was going to be a very big stretch and running an even split hundred is just ridiculous. Despite that my average pace ended below 14:24 and my 1H/2H splits were close enough to even (14:20/14:26) that I’m going to call this a win. At some point, good enough is good enough. This may come off as nitpicking, but I’m really ecstatic about my race. Easily my best ultra performance to date and I couldn’t be happier.

Thanks again to everyone who helped put on Wild Goose and provided me an opportunity to run my Dream Race. I hope to make it back in the future for a repeat performance.