Jan 23, 2009- Twin Mountain Trudge

January 17, 2009 I completed my fourth Twin Mountain Trudge, lovingly nicknamed the Winter Death March. This year to that point, we had a very mild winter with little snow. This promised easier conditions compared to most year, particularly the epic known as Trudge 2008. The day of the race was marvelous. The sun was out, there was a tiny bit of wind (most of it was a tailwind), and the race was a balmy mid-to-high 30's. Because of the improved race conditions, the race had doubled it's previous most participants with 32 racers. We even had a pair of pretty elite runners, including Phil Kochik, who has won many trail ultras and came in top-5 at the very competitive Western States 100mile race. After the usual pre-race briefing, threats and warnings, Alec let us lose with a surprising, "Is everybody ready? Ok. Go."

Right off the bat, it was a huge improvement over last year. Blair Rd, which was a snowy hell-hole of narrow truck tracks and ice last year, was almost entirely clear this go around. We all quickly ascended Blair Rd and worked our way to the start of the trails, the former location of the buck rail fence (how the fuck does the forest service lose an entire fence? I mean seriously?!? Okay, off topic...). Another big improvement over last year was the trails at the beginning. Rather than sinking crotch deep into snow, most of the trails on top were pretty runnable.

Once we got off the trails briefly and back onto the forest roads, we encountered a minor problem of some ATVers and bubba-truckers taking the course markings. Fortunately, only two people got lost, but they quickly got turned back around and back onto the course. Unfortunately, the ATVer didn't limit themselves to the roads. They then proceeded to follow the actual course (through the middle of the woods no less) and strip markings. They wrecked a pretty nice and almost untouched trail, and went over single track trails, where they damaged foliage on either side of the trail. Fortunately, we were all able to stay on the trail and no one got lost in the woods, which obviously could have ended badly if someone did get off in there.

The Unmanned Aid Station (ironically manned by Brandon and Ted) was approximately the half way point. Up until there, the course was relatively easy compared to the previous years. However, the back half of the course would get more difficult. We started on everybody's favorite location, the Fenceline Climb. Interestingly enough, the fenceline climb seems to get easier every year. It was nowhere near as miserable as usual. We trudged along for a while in shin deep snow, until we hit the decent into Devil's Playground.

There, the snow went up to about your knee, but it was steep enough that the decent was like skiing without skis! That was definitely a favorite part of mine; just kinda gliding down the side of the mountain, weaving between trees and dodging rocks. From there, we went along a little further with some shin-deep patches and other completely clear patches. Devil's Playground loop was pretty clear compared to normal years, especially when we got to play in the rocks :-D

Skeleton Trail, holding true to its name

After the climb out of Devil's Playground (which actually gets tougher every year it seems), we moved on to the Skeleton Trail. Skeleton, which ironically had a fresh deer kill skeleton right on the course, was tough with consistently shin deep sections. Skeleton is always tough for me because so many places look the exact same. So, if I don't remember , "Ok, we go down two steep hills" or ,"The trail 'S'es three times" then I always think I am near the end, and am always disappointed to find that it isn't ending.

Skeleton Trail was a fight, but the home stretch from the fence on was a snow free straight shot. I flew along the trails with a great deal of excitement, if for no other reason than to be off that damned mountain! I came across the finish line in 3:40, which was 10 minutes off of my target time, but still 2 hours faster than 2008. Considering that I only had 2 weeks of training under my belt at that time, I couldn’t be too upset though. Ragan Driver won the 11 mile classic Trudge in 1:51 with Brian Martisius hot on his tail in 1:54. After Nick Clark and Phil Kochik decided that the conditions were too nasty to race each other, they co-won the 22 mile marathon trudge in 3:43. It is also worth noting that their first loop time was 23 seconds off the 11 mile speed record time! Holy crap!

Finally coming to a stop

Every year, the Trudge is turning into an annual test that I look forward to. It isn’t about getting across the finish line in a certain time, it’s about crossing the finish line. It’s about putting yourself through hell, seeing what you can take, and hopefully coming out on the other side. Some years are more trying than others (*cough*2008*cough*), but they are all their own test of perseverance all the same. I am proud to be a 4 time finisher, and I look forward to continuing to finish the Trudge for however many more years I am in this part of the world. It is a great race that is ran and put on by great people, and while it can fail to be fun at times, it is definitely a valuable running experience.

Below is the new face of the Trudge, Brian. This picture represents the everything the Trudge stands for, and in particular, the seeming mental instability of the returning racers. Brian is also a 4-year survivor.

Brian Martisius, displaying all the sanity one would expect from a several-time finisher of the Trudge.