Starting at crack of dawn, Tim and I ran the Westmoreland Heritage Trail from Delmont to Saltsburg and back this Saturday morning in early September. What a lovely trail! We saw only one other likely round-trip runner, maybe half a dozen bicyclists, a couple of dog walkers, and a small group of Scouts hiking. The trail crosses a road only four or five times, mostly country lanes. The crushed stone surface was in excellent condition the whole way, although there were one or two spots where erosion from water runoff could use some attention. Being tired on the way back, we certainly noticed the trail is mostly uphill from Saltsburg to Delmont, and were then grateful for the shade provided by the almost complete canopy.
Running
Tough run Sat morn
Dahlgren Trail Half-Marathon
Sunday morning at 8am I was in wave 7 for the start of the Dahlgren Trail Half-Marathon. The tracks only continue a couple of hundred yards, and for the rest of the 6½ miles this was very pleasant running indeed. The landscape is entirely rural, mostly through woods, with only two or three places intersected by country lanes. Most of the sleepers (ties) must have been removed, although in some sections of the trail they were simply rotting away by themselves. The grade was not quite as level as I’d expected, although I might have been imagining it to be mostly a gentle uphill climb on the way out and continuing gently uphill on the way back. I ran a 9:18 pace and finished at 2:02:08, taking home my first ever road race prize as I was 2nd out of 4 (!) men over 60. (I was also 24th of 48 men over 40.)
Here’s the website of the trail preservation group: http://www.friendsdrht.org/DRHT_TrailInfo.htm
Prognostication for November
(I added race results notes on 11/29/2012 to the bottom of this article.)
Borrowed from campaign documents:
No, not that race. This is the 103rd annual Run for the Diamonds nine mile race in Berwick, Pennsylvania, to be held on Thanksgiving morning. In 2008 I ran 1:25:53 (pace 9:32/mile) and in 2010 I ran 1:18:17 (pace 8:42/mile). Like Lynchburg, this race includes some seriously hilly terrain, but unlike Lynchburg, it’s all downhill after the half-way point. Hoping my third attempt might continue my trend. See 2010 writeup.
Update posted 11/29/2012: I finished 21st of 41 men aged 60-64, time 1:24:21, pace 9:25. This was 6 minutes slower than in 2010, but 1 minute faster than in 2008. The 475′ total climb of the Run for the Diamonds nine-miler at Berwick is 64% greater than the 304′ climb of the Virginia Ten-Miler in Lynchburg! QED: yes, it is a tougher race.
Update posted 11/29/2012, being my race report submitted to Dead Runners Society and to Runners Gazette:
The 103rd Run for the Diamonds nine-miler occupied 1,614 finishers on Thanksgiving morning at Berwick, Pennsylvania. The weather was perfect, with bright sunshine, temperatures in the mid-40s, and even atop the ridge not a hint of a breeze. The arrowhead-shaped course starts and finishes downtown, mostly uphill out into the country and mostly downhill on the way back. Mapmyrun.com says the course climbs 476 feet. The most strenuous part of that climb is packed into the unrelenting third mile up the ravine from Foundryville to Summerhill. During the 2010 race, the steep camber and icy road here had me worried I could slip and slide left into the ditch. I was glad for the guard rail on the right, where it could otherwise be a long slide down into the creek below. But this year the entire course was dry pavement. Before the four-mile mark near the top, three ladies were kept very busy handing out tissues — despite the sunshine, evidently there were a good many runny noses at this point. This race has great community support. In the town, the course was almost entirely lined by cheering residents, but even out in the country there were dozens of community gatherings of spectators. I was five hours drive from home, but somebody with a roster at mile six cheered for me by my name and hometown. I heard my name called as I crossed the finish line too. Winners included Derek Nakluski from Kitchener, Ontario, 45:51, pace 5:06, and Karaleigh Millhouse from State College, PA, 52:58, pace 5:54. As a solid middle-of-the-packer in my age group, and with a two-hour drive to Thanksgiving dinner, I did not stay to witness the awards presentation, but 22 diamond rings and pendants were due to be awarded as well as many other prizes. The two $500 prizes for new course records would have gone unclaimed this year. Those records remain with Peter Pfitzinger, 1980, 43:20.9, and Heidi Peoples, 2009, 50:35.
Addendum provided to Runners Gazette:
The finishers were 41% men and 59% women. Their individual paces averaged 8:37 and 9:51 respectively.
The first man with an 8:37 pace took 547th place of 949. The first woman with a 9:51 pace took 381st place of 665.
About 24% of finishers listed Berwick or Bloomsburg as their hometown, and 90% listed Pennsylvania as home state. 10% of the finishers were out-of-staters, travelling from as far away as Alaska, California, and Florida, with larger contingents from New York (34), New Jersey and Ontario (13 each), North Carolina (12), and Virginia (11). The Canadians could have had a five-hour drive to Berwick — but they were rewarded by hearing Edwin Livsey’s annual clarinet performance of both the Canadian and American national anthems at the starting line.
Historic Half-Marathon May 15th
At Fredericksburg, Virginia: pictures by Elspeth
High expectations: Tim met his, with a 7:35 pace, finishing 1:39:10. I started well enough but slowed down too much in mid-race, ending up with an 8:42 pace to finish at 1:53:58. Tim was 56th out of 422 in his age group, Mike was 15th in his (and also under two hours), and I was 9th out of 88 in mine.
Boxing Day 2010
Tim and Edwin: a brisk four-mile run at Prince William Forest Park.
101st Run for the Diamonds, 9 miles
See Times Leader photo by Fred Adams, article on Berwick race 11/25/2010
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This Thanksgiving morning race is about 100 miles north of Harrisburg, reached for me by interstate highways then a final 15-mile country road over a mountain. |
There were almost 2,000 finishers last year, so perhaps the weather accounts for there being only 1,566 finishers this day. From hours before the start at 10:30am, snow fell steadily until my final mile, with the temperature probably about 34 and no wind. The road surface was either wet (with puddles on the road in the town) or slushy and a bit slippery out in the country. The road camber seemed quite severe in places, where I thought I had to choose between a possible slide into the ditch on one side or under a guard rail and down the hill on the other.
The third mile was clearly to be the steepest part of the 4 1/2 mile climb in the first half of the race (300 feet in that one mile!), but other than concern about slipping, it was not has hard as I had remembered from my first time here two years ago. I knew I was in better shape this time, and good enough shape to hope to break a 9-minute pace. All my miles were between 8:18 and 8:36 except for the slow miles 3 and 4 and an 8-minute mile 6. Clearly I should have pushed a bit harder through the latter half of the race. I had dressed warmly, fearing hypothermia on the potentially wind-swept and drenching open farmland at the peak, but I never felt overheated. My heels were soaked by the first milepost, but neither toes nor calves were drenched until the final two miles.
The winners were Jon Phillips, Brooklyn NY, 45:25, pace 5:04, and Heidi People, Scranton Pa, 53:52, pace 6:00. Rick Platt, tireless race organizer of many years in Williamsburg Va, was the first man over 60, 1:01:21, pace 6:49. First woman over 60 was Barbara Zeske, Hanover Twp, Pa, 1:17:20, pace 8:36
The results show me as 12th of the 40 men aged 60-64, a time of 1:18:17, and a pace of 8:42 per mile.
Noted in the days before the race:Looking forward to my second attempt on this famous Thanksgiving morning race at Berwick, a small town on the banks of the Susquehanna River in northeastern Pennsylvania. Prizes for the winners are real diamonds, but I won’t get anywhere close to any of those. The course runs north out of town towards the ridge, quite steeply at times, climbing for about four miles. On a chilly day, I’m sure the winds could be fierce on the exposed hills but they were mild on Thanksgiving morning 2008. There can be interesting views across farmland to mountains in every direction, but none I recall of the Susquehanna. It’s quite a competitive race. Last year there were 1,987 finishers, and the first man over 60 ran a pace of just under 7 minutes per mile. I’ll be hoping to do it in just under 9 minutes per mile.
Click to enlarge a picture; hover over middle edges for < and > arrows.
Virginia Ten-Miler
Met Sharon and Walt Friday night for supper at the Depot Grille, supposedly in the old railroad station at Lynchburg, Virginia.
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Attended the Q&A with Andre Agassi in the nearby new Riverside Park. He hopes to start “hundreds” of inner-city charter schools, building on his success at Las Vegas. See Virginia Tech’s old photo of Lynchburg passenger station: the roof line does not match that of the Depot Grille. |
| I ran the 37th Virginia Ten-Miler (my 17th) next morning, finishing in 93½ minutes for 8th place out of 25 men aged 60-64. Sharon got a picture of me near the finish, but it’s still in her camera. Honored our 10-year tradition of post-race lunch at the Waffle House. See map of the course. Or click any pic for a better look. |  |
Running archive from an older blog
The running archive in my old WordPress.Com blog