The Sleeping Giant Trail Runs 50K, put on by Steep Endurance, took place on March 30th, at Sleeping Giant State Park in Hamden, Connecticut approximately 50 minutes from my apartment in Stamford. I had this race circled on my calendar for a while, and it was my first Ultra of the season after spending the winter in base building mode after NYC Trail Mix 50K in November. Sleeping Giant Trail Runs 50K was intended to be a stepping stone to my “A” race of the year, which is the Vermont 100 Mile in July in West Windsor! Unfortunately, my body had other plans, picking up the flu a week out from the race and rendering me less than 100% healthy at the starting line. It wasn’t until I sat and wrote this report, two weeks post-race, that I can really appreciate how limited my lungs were for this one, as the race was on Sunday, and I did not start turning a corner until Thursday of race week. Still, I had signed up for this race with a number of friends, including Skyler Silsdorf, Alex Hauer, and Ed Bonessi running the 50K, and then my good friend Mike Magarian running the 25K. Illness or not, there was nothing going to stand in my way of the start line.
On race morning, I arrived at Sleeping Giant State Park at approximately 6:15 AM, lingering in my car for a few minutes as the low 40s temperature with wind gusts, while not exceptionally cold, still cut through my layers of clothing. After gathering myself, I headed up to check-in to pick up my bib and to spot my drop bag. As the race was a two-lap course, I prepared all of my gear ready for the interloop period to refuel. Shortly after, I met up with my three friends and we huddled around the starting area before gathering shortly after 7:00 AM for pre-race announcements. After a few announcements, we were off and running!
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| Start Line! |
Immediately, the race started off fast, as we had only a quarter mile section of asphalt that would allow the race to thin out before entering the single-track trail. I had aspirations of staying close to a local regular of Sleeping Giant State Park, Lee Davis, who knew the course exceptionally well, but he took off like a rocket, and it quickly became apparent I was going to have to run with a more conservative approach and keep my head down. Sleeping Giant State Park is known for its hellacious trails, long scrambles, sheer descents and extremely rocky, and technical terrain. Not to mention the nearly 7,500 feet of elevation gain that we would tackle over the 50K race. Settling in to the first mile, my heart rate felt sky-high, already pushing the 160s as I tried to get a feel for the competitors and avoid putting myself in no-mans land early. I quickly settled into fourth place, with Tobias Tello and another runner just ahead, and with Justin Kousky, one of the best ultrarunners in the Northeast, and probably the best ultrarunner in Connecticut, stalking behind us in fifth. I had figured that he and Lee Davis would be my main competitors for the day, so I was a bit surprised to find myself pretty much in fifth place early. The first five miles of the loop are mostly runnable rolling singletrack except for a few technical small rock scrambles, and I found myself running in a fairly tight pack with Tobias, Justin, and the other runner, with Lee already pushing a minute or two ahead of us. Normally, it takes me a couple miles to settle into a rhythm but today, as we approached the first aid station, it was not happening as quickly. I had tried to make a move around Tobias and the other runner at Mile 4 as we approached the first aid station, going around briefly, but I was then fended off. For a fairly technical trail we were moving though the first five miles as we passed the first aid station at about an 8:30 average pace, but we were about to hit the Headwall Climb, which was a lung busting rock scramble of 500 feet in just 0.3 miles. And what a rock scramble it was.
Headwall Climb – 1 – Mile 5.0, 5th Place, 43:02
Total Time
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| On to the Singletrack! |
I consider myself to be a fairly experienced technical
runner and I handle elevation gain well, but I feel like I still have some work
to do the way that Tobias, Justin, and the other runner pulled away from me
over the next two miles as we got through the meat of climbs. Even with Hoka
Speedgoats on, I was still slipping and sliding on the ascents, and, more
dangerously, the descents, already having taken and shaken off a hard fall.
Where I really lost traction though was on the sheer descents, where one wrong
step means you fall fifteen feet and land on your head. There is a certain
combination of technical expertise and also fearlessness that it takes to
really excel on this type of terrain.
A few more technical ups and downs awaited us before we turned
towards the southern end of the park, briefly bisecting the Tower Trail, which
we would finish the loop steamrolling down. We moved to the east now on the
Yellow Trail, with slightly less technical terrain and some rolling singletrack
trails, which allowed me to open up and close the gap on the three runners ahead
putting them back in eyeshot, before we arrived at Chestnut Trailhead, the
location of the eight-mile aid station. I quickly grabbed refuels on both my
Tailwind and my water, and inquired about positioning, with Tobias about thirty
seconds ahead, and Justin and the other runner approximately a minute ahead.
Chestnut Trailhead (Yellow Trail) – 1 – Mile 7.8, 5th
Place, 1:25:55
At Mile 9, we approached our next big climb, with the forest opening up, allowing me to see the three ahead of me marching up the second longest ascent on the course. I was closing on Tobias, but not by much, as Justin and the other runner were pulling away slightly. Overall, I was feeling quite weak on both the hard climbs and the super technical descents, feeling my strongest on the slightly more flowy singletracks, when he had it. Overall, not a super great way to be feeling on a course like this, which was way more on the technical side, especially the middle portion of the Yellow Trail, between Mile 8-11, which was the slowest and most technical section of the race. Shockingly, I actually caught Tobias during this section at Mile 11 right as we began to approach the White Trail, which was a mile or so of faster terrain before hitting the same aid station at the Chestnut Trailhead at Mile 12 for the second time.
Chestnut Trailhead (Blue Trail) – 1 – Mile 11.6, 4th
Place, 2:10:10
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| Top of the Headwall Climb! |
Pavilion – 1 – Mile 15.4, 3rd Place, 2:47:21
I began the second loop feeling remarkably average, not able
to take advantage of the more runnable terrain that was presented here, which
actually had become quite muddy as over 200 runners from the 25K, which started
30 minutes after the 50K, had stampeded through the trail. I have generally hit
a rough spot between Mile 16-19 in 50Ks, and this was no different. There is
something about starting that second loop and leaving the Pavilion that just
makes you feel so far away from the finish. My legs felt like cement as I
approached the Headwall Climb at Mile 20 for the second time, with Tobias now
gaining ground on me only thirty to forty-five seconds back as I could feel him
continue to stalk.
Headwall Climb – 2 – Mile 20.5, 3rd Place, 3:47:19
Rounding out the top of the Headwall Climb, my legs felt
shot and my navigating of the sheer descents continued to deteriorate, as I
took a very hard fall on my thigh at Mile 22 and had to limp it off. After that
point, my descending took a giant hit, as Tobias finally caught and passed me
hard on the next climb, which I had zero response for. He probably put a minute
on me over a tenth of a mile rock descent as he was a much, much better
technical descender. Within a span of two minutes, I had practically watched
him disappear from eyesight. Moving into the Chestnut Trailhead aid station at
Mile 24 I was feeling pretty deflated sitting in fourth place as Tobias had
moved 2-3 minutes ahead of me and Lee and Justin continued to pour on a 20+
minute gap at this point.
Chestnut Trailhead (Yellow Trail) – 2 – Mile 23.4, 4th
Place, 4:26:21
Leaving the aid station, I knew I just needed to see myself
through the challenging portion of the Yellow Trail and get to marathon mark
and mentally regroup. These were certainly slow miles, my slowest of the day,
and undoubtedly where I lost the most time. However, I was fueling well, and
when I had the less technical singletrack I was really rolling. Approaching
Mile 27 at the White Trail as the terrain eased up, I was beginning to get something of a second
wind, running hard to the Chestnut Trailhead Aid Station at Mile 28 for the
last time. It was there I actually saw a family member, Brian Stiewing, who I
knew would be volunteering here, which was a big mental boost! As he refueled
my water and my Tailwind, he told me that Tobias had about a five-minute gap on
me.
Chestnut Trailhead (Blue Trail) – 2 – Mile 27.3, 4th
Place, 5:20:53
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| Finish! |
I set off from the aid station feeling renewed and determined to see how much of the gap I could close. At this point, I was beginning to pass up slower runners from the 25K, who were an incredible tracking tool for me as I pushed, and were proof that I was closing down, albeit slowly. First it was five minutes, then it was four minutes, then two minutes. I was working super hard, enacting a delicate balance of trying to close ground while also leaving something for what I felt like had the probability of turning into a fast finish down the Tower Trail. My legs were screaming on the final rock scramble up to the Observation Tower and I got my last beat on Tobias right at this point as I neared the Tower Trail, which was that he was about a minute ahead. In fact, I hit the Tower Trail down by approximately a minute and ten seconds, but quickly poured on the speed, running at an upper five-minute pace as I was rounding each corner hoping to see him in my sights. I was about a half mile in, with little more than a mile in the race with no Tobias in site, starting to get deflated when I rounded the next corner and saw him approximately 30 seconds ahead. My adrenaline surge kicked in as I closed the next half mile at 2:35 (and fastest quarter mile in 1:16) as I was screaming down the Tower Trail. I finally caught up to Tobias with about a half mile to go before we hit the open field up towards the Pavilion and I was worried I had spent myself, as he put in a surge as soon as I caught up, which I was barely able to cover. However, when you go hard like this, you have to go for broke, and I sped up forming a small gap as I did not want to make this a sprint finish uphill across the open field. Finally, I hit the end of the Tower Trail with the finish line less than a quarter mile to the finish with only the uphill across the grass field ahead. I was completely spent but refused to look back as I powered for home, basically falling across the finish line to finish third place overall in 5:55:13, with Tobias only 27 seconds back. I had covered my last mile in 5:23, which was a new record mile for me in an ultra, and it only came at Mile 31!
Pavilion – 2 – Mile 30.9, 3rd Place, 5:55:13
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| Podium with Justin and Lee |
I gathered myself, congratulating Tobias on an absolutely
fantastic race and battle all day for third place. Based on my research and
talking to him, Tobias is a beast of a runner, completing some of the most
technical 100 Miler’s on the East Coast, one’s I am still dreaming of. Despite
being in his early 20’s, he has an insane number of ultra finishes, dating back
to his first one at only 14 years old. I wish I had gotten the opportunity to
talk to him a bit longer! While I was very happy to have pulled off third
place, especially coming off the flu, I had wished that the gap to Justin, who
ended up winning in 5:12:47, and Lee, who came in second in 5:27:04 had been
closer. Still, as I sit here typing this two weeks later, it has taken me that
addition two weeks for my lungs to feel back to 100%, so I am pretty proud of
the fight I put up in a less-than-ideal situation.
I hung around at the Pavilion for the next couple hours
watching runners come in, including my friends Ed Bonessi at 7:37:29 and Skyler
and Alex Hauer coming through in 8:49:46. Overall, this was a great new
addition from Steep Endurance to its racing series and I can’t wait to be back
here attacking the Sleeping Giants trails again in the future. Next up is the
Canyons 50K by UTMB out in California on April 26th, followed by the
Cayuga Trails 50 Mile in Ithica, New York on May 31st!
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| With Skyler and Hauer Pre-Race |
