If you have been following my adventures, in 2012 – I am on a quest to complete the Beast series in VA. The third and last of the easy ones (aka 50K) is Promise Land.

With the encouragement of my Mountain Peak Fitness Campmor Teammates, I registered for The North Face 50 Mile endurance run. It was our “home” course after all! With guidance from teammates I was able to run on the course a few times before the race, but I had really only seen the first 12-15 miles. If I had only known what was in store – R O C K S!

In 2010, I ran The North Face Endurance Challenge Bear Mountain 50K in a time of 5:34, which was good enough for fifth place that year.  Since then, I have battled a series of running related injuries that have kept me from ultrarunning for almost two years.

In past years the North Face 50 has been a goal race for me but not this year, typically I do not use races as training but since this was in my backyard I said what the heck. I showed up tired and without a taper trying to keep my eye on the bigger picture of my season.

Here are photos from the 2012 The North Face Endurance Challenge in Bear Mountain New York. 

April 22, 2012 marked the 26th running of The Leatherman’s Loop, a historic trail race around the Ward Pound Ridge Reservation in Cross River, NY.  However, this year’s race proved to be very different from previous years loops.

“The Bull Run Run is a beautiful, tough run on the Bull Run Trail in Northern Virginia.” The Bull Run Run (or BRR), sponsored by the Virginia Happy Trails Running Club, is a 50 mile trail race first held in 1993.  Due to the race’s history, popularity and long list of returning runners, race entry is decided through a lottery that opens the January before the race.

March 24, 2012  Augusta, New Jersey Ultra Festival 100 mile race. I Ran this race the previous two years that it has been held. During the 2010 race I dropped out at mile 76 with shin pain. 2011 I came in second female in 21:24. In preparation for this years race I trained on more roads than trails due to the flat nature of the course.

Another one bites the dust Terrapin Mountain 50K is my type of run, mainly ups and downs (7,560 / 7,560 ft gain / loss).  I'm happy to have completed race #2 of the Beast series. Given another crazy work schedule, and running only eight times between Holiday Lake 50K and Terrapin, just finishing the race felt good.

A few fun photos from our team meeting and photo shoot in April of 2012

The race director described this course as follows "An almost 40.0 mile run traversing one of the toughest sections of trails in the DWG area". This event is not for the faint of heart.

I registered for the NJ Trail Series Febapple race sometime in January, with the hope of running the 21-mile race. This race would also be a good opportunity to support my MPF Campmor teammates, and promote my upcoming race, Lost Brook Trail Race, which benefits the Tenafly Nature Center.  However

I had the pleasure of running with my teammate, Zsuzsanna Carlson at Harriman State Park during the summer last year. At the time, I was training for my first 50 mile race. During our 3 hour run, I pestered her with questions about fueling, hydrating, how my legs would feel, how to train, what to expect, etc.

The Febapple was held on February 25th at South Mountain Reservation. It is a race organized by NJ Trail Series. The race offered distances of 50 miles, 50k, 21 miles and 10 miles. The Febapple was not on my original schedule, I had planned to do a 10k the week before but did not make it. On Wednesday I made a last minute decision to enter the 10 miler.

It was a great day out on the trails today! The MPF Campmor Trail Running Team guided the Bergen Catholic Wrestling Team on a trail running adventure in Harriman State Park. A good portion of the run was along the Appalachian Trail (AT) which is roughly 2180 miles in length. Though we only did a few miles on it, they are some of the more technical trails you will find in the park. Good luck to the BC Crusaders with their 2012 wrestling season!

In March 2011, I came across the Alaska Mountain Ultrarunning Camp while browsing the website, iRunFar.com.  Before I even looked at the cost, I immediately decided to sign-up for two reasons. The first being, ALASKA!

Saturday morning, 5AM.  I wake up and can’t believe the day has finally arrived.  Today will be the third running of the Mountain Madness 50K.  Seems like only yesterday when I toed the line for the very first race.  Like every year I spent a lot of time on the course training, trying to remember every turn, every hill, and anything else that would give me an advantage on race day.  This 50K in my opinion is one of the toughest in the Northeast.