Yesterday morning was the 6th annual Twin Mountain Trudge. After the early, snowy winter we endured, there was some concerns about course conditions for this year's Trudge. However, the snow tapered off and was sporadic at best in the months leading up to the race. The lack of new snow, though, didn't make too much of a difference as early reports from the field indicated that the old snow hadn't gone anywhere.
The morning of the race arrived, and the racers met at the new start/ finish on the opposite end of the course from the usual due to the inability to reach the normal base camp. The race had attracted a record number of runners, including several pretty elite guys from around the region. Right before the start of the race, the race director, Alec, handed out jackets to the two newest Twin Mountain Trudge Official Masochists, myself and Brian. The official Masochist jacket is given out to those who are brave enough (or retarded enough) to not just do the Trudge once or twice, but five freaking times. It was a great day for the run, with minimal wind and the sun just starting to peak out from behind the clouds. At 9am, Alec finished the pre-race breifing and released us into the wild. We quickly learned why Alec chose that location as the new starting line- specifically, he needed to find a good-sized uphill to start us on to make sure we weren't feeling too good before the snow.
We got off the half mile of road, and immediately found ourselves in snow that was rarely more shallow than ankle deep, but frequently much deeper. One of the most challenging aspects of this year's race was the fact that the snow was unrelenting. On a normal year, you can usually count on at least half of the race being relatively nice and runnable. This year, it was almost non-stop trudging and post-holing. Alec even removed the several miles of road, which can always be counted on to be clear gravel, and replaced it with new sections of Trudging. I believe my most common utterance/ yell was, "God dammit, come on!!!" It was a very slow, very tiring adventure. And so.... we Trudged on. I reached the Fenceline climb, and it seemed to be worse than it normally was, probably because of the increased snow. The climb was several miles earlier in the race than it was on the old course, so the fact that it was more tiring and trying than usual was not a good sign.
Reached the top and continued to Trudge onward to the Devil's Playground loop. One of the few snowy, but runnable places as always, was the descent into the playground. The snow was just powdery enough and the hill just steep enough that I found myself able to "ski" down the hill in good time. However, when we reached the bottom and it was back to the slow grinding. At this point however, I was finding my first wind and was beginning to trudge more quickly than I had up until that point, enabling me to overtake a runner in front of me who had initally put some good distance between us. The playground itself was very snowy, which made the climbing over and through the rocks somewhat slick and treacherous. On the way out of the loop was the race bib hole-punch to prove that you actually braved the loop. Normally, the hole punch is a good way to work out your frustrations and punch your bib 5 or 10 or 50 times. However, this puncher kept getting caught on my bib and I could only punch the bib three times before leaving more frustrated than how I arrived. Stupid puncher.
After the long climb out of the Playground, we came on the Skeleton Trail, which shockingly was probably the easiest part of the course. It was still very snowy and post-holey, but unlike every other year, it was actually more shallow than the rest of the course. I continued to gain pace and (not sure how this works) get stronger as the race went on, which allowed me to catch Mark, another Trudge regular, on the Skeleton. And we kept Trudging. The course exited the Skeleton trail and started approaching what is normally the finish line. In an act that proved that I had destroyed all my remaining brain-cells, I started really picking up pace in preperation for my traditional kick into the finish line. As I approached the finish line, the course hung a right at what I know as "Flip A Bird" or Wanker Rock. It was that point where it reoccured to me... "We have a new finish line. I've been kicking 4 miles out. DAMMIT!!!"
This was the start of the new course section meant to replace the roads and connect one end of the course to the other. I hit the "Unmanned Aid Station" and rested 5-10 minutes with Ted and Brandon. When I saw Mark coming out through the trees, I figured it was time to get back up and proceed into the woods. The next several miles returned to an unrunnable state with deep snow and, as I found out afterwards, no actual trail- just trees with flags on them. I slogged on, jumped a barbwire fence, slogged on some more, and then finally hit the road we started on, which meant .4 miles to finally resting. I crossed the finish line in 3hrs, 50min, and 15sec completely exhausted. 2010's Trudge was nowhere near as bad as 2008 was, but at the same time it was far more difficult than any of the other Trudges. But that's one of the fun things about the Trudge- it can be on the same course year-in and year-out, but it will almost never be the same race. I know some people were disappointed by the loss of the roads because of the loss of some of the only places that are guarenteed running areas, but I felt the course restructure was perfect and played perfectly into one of the Trudge's strengths: being not only a physical challenge, but a mental one. I have never been in a race that short where I come out so mentally exhausted afterwards, and I've never been in a run that became that mentally trying that quickly. The removal of the roads and the addition of the trail-free trudges helps increase that challenge. I'm sure that as long as the Trudge is going on, you'll be able to find me at that starting line.
So... thanks Alec for putting on a great, awful run as always. Thanks Kathy, Ted, Brandon, Jeff, and any other volunteer who I forgot/ don't know for helping put this event on. Congrats to all of this year's survivors and congrats to Brian for getting his 5 year jacket as well (why do we do this to ourselves?!?)
"Twin Mountain Trudge's new motto... 'The Trudge really isn't good training for anything, except for maybe an escape from a Siberian labor camp.'."- Alec Muthig, Race Director
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