2022 Dahlgren Heritage Rail Trail 50km

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Not only am I running slowly, but I’m also posting slowly.

The Dahlgren Heritage Rail Trail 50km was held on Saturday, August 6, 2022. I have good and bad results from this run. I used the race as a gauge of fitness, and help me decide to register for this November’s JFK 50 Mile.

 

I decided before the race that if I did not break 8 hours, there would be no way to run 50 miles in 13 hours. At JFK, my pacing after leaving the AT in Weverton is to keep my miles under 15 minutes. The good, I finished in less than 8 hours. The bad, my last 14 miles were slower than 15 minutes per mile. And the ugly, most of those 14 miles were over 17 minutes per mile.

I was the founding Race Director of the Dahlgren Heritage Rail Trail 50 km in 2009. Being an ultrarunner, I wanted to give back to the ultra community.

In late 2008, owners opened the Dahlgren Railroad Heritage Trail to the public. The trail is 15.7 miles long. Initially, the eastern portion of the trail was rough, with some sections not passable.

We used Caledon State Park as the start/finish venue for the first four years and could only go to milepost 14.5 on the trail. By 2013, volunteers cleared the section between milepost 14.5 and the eastern trail terminus. Starting that year, we started in the Route 605 parking lot and trailhead. The course went from milepost 0.0 to just past milepost 15.5 and back.

In 2014, we were fortunate enough to have two great runners setting the male course record of 3:10:26 and the female record of 3:39:26. These were the fastest 50 km times in the United States on a trail-only course in 2014.

The 2020 edition was the last race I managed before retirement. We were in a COVID-restricted environment. But, we were able to execute a safe in-person race.

Now that I’m retired, I ran the 50km last year and registered for the 2022 race.

Arsenal Events took over race management in 2021. This year, they decided to start the race on the trail’s eastern end. We parked at Wal-Mart and walked about a tenth mile to the staging area. They had to cut a spur from the course to the staging area, and we started further east than previous years’ turnaround. This change added .6 miles to the eastern end, with Arsenal removing .6 from the west.

I wanted to stay under 8 hours. My pace plan was to walk for 2 minutes at each 1/2 milepost and run the rest. The first milepost we reached was 15.5.

The weather on race morning was 71 degrees with a dew point of 71, partly cloudy skies, and a slight wind. These were challenging conditions.

I wore my Nike Pegasus 37 trail shoes, shorts over compression shorts, a white FARC singlet, and a single bottle belt. I took a bottle of UCAN, drinking 1/4 bottle every mile. Our first mile ended at about milepost 15.0.

I picked up a fresh bottle at Mile 7.8, 15.5, and 23.2 and topped my bottle with water at every other aid station.

I decided to attach deer flypaper to my hat. In past races, most wearers of deer flypaper finished without catching anything.

When the gun went off, my legs felt OK. It may have been the trail shoes or running on dirt.

I started walking at milepost 15.5, and packs of runners went past me.

After milepost 15.0, I lost sight of other runners, and occasionally, I would get passed or see a runner ahead.

My walking cadence is between 120 and 130 steps per minute. I counted 120 right footsteps per walk break. I know doing math while running is on the negative side of the brain.

I was expecting 55 minutes between every aid station with my pacing plan. They are about 4 miles apart, give or take a 1/2 mile. Fifty-five minutes gets a 7:20 finish, and 50 minutes nets to a 6:40 finish.

My outbound 4-mile intervals were 52:39, 52:47, 55:45, and 44:22. Much better than expected for the first half of 3:24:33.

My inbound intervals were 51:00, 67:54, 70:05, and 70:31. I had difficulty picking up my feet over the roots and tripping hazards on the trail. I started extending my walk sections to 5 minutes.

With 7 miles to go, I walked the entire mile. My pace was faster than my running pace. So, I continued to walk rather than run.

I had no digestive issues. But, I did stop twice ala Paul Sherwin, “for a natural break”.

I walked until I turned the last corner to the finish straight. When you start a race running, you are required to finish the race running. And, it does look better in the finish pictures.

My finish time of 7:44:03 for a second half in 4:19:40. I placed 81st overall, 59th Male, and fifth male of five between 60 and 69. The temperature at 2:30 pm was 86 degrees.

I caught nine deer flies on my paper and had a couple buzzing around me. While running this trail solo, I have many deer flies near me. Perhaps all of the runners on the trail spread out the fly population. I made a mistake wearing a light blue bandana headband. Deer flies are attracted to the color blue. Oops.

Post-race, there were burgers, chips, cookies, soda, and beer. I didn’t eat much but appreciated the soda and burger.

Thanks to Arsenal Events for managing this race and the Friends of the Dahlgren Trail for staffing the aid stations and road crossing.

As for fellow JFK participants, this race is an excellent training run on similar trail conditions to the C&O canal path. It’s a great time to test your training.

So, I don’t know what to do. Registering for JFK is on pause. I’ll wait and see how my long training runs progress, especially the last one on the AT at the end of October.