Long Island 6 Hour Run
Sunken Meadow State Park
Kings Park, New York
Sunday, October 14, 2007


The Long Island 6 hour run was my last race in the 2007 New York Ultra Grand Prix Series because I can?t run the final one, the Knickerbocker 60K in November. This year, for some reason, the NYRRC scheduled it on the same day as the JFK 50 Miler. So this race was probably the last time I?d see friends from the Broadway Ultra Society this year. And yet one more conflict weighed on me that day because my neighborhood 5K race was that afternoon. Logistically impossible for me to get home in time for the late afternoon start - I couldn?t run it, nor could I pace my daughter, Katie, as she ran it. But, as for the race, it would be revisiting the six-hour format I tried last month. Instead of the pavement we ran on in Staten Island, this course was predominately trails.

I?ll digress for a minute. Saturday night my wife, Pat, participated in the ?Light the Night? walk to raise funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in Nyack Memorial Park, Nyack, NY, in honor of my father-in-law, who died of Leukema in July. Katie, my sister-in-law, niece and nephew all participated. The only ground rule my wife gave me before I could participate was ?absolutely NO running.? Like I would really run the 2 miles of a fund-raising walk? The thought did, briefly, cross my mind, I must admit - but I walked like everyone else! She raised over $700 and the event itself raised close to $50,000. Afterwards, they staged the most incredible fireworks display for the walkers. We didn?t get home especially late, but that was essentially my pre-race preparation for the 6 hour run.

The next morning my friend Emmy and I drove down to Sunken Meadow Park together. Our friend Rob met us at the park. Nick, Byron, and Phil were all there as well. As the day unfolded we met up with even more familiar faces. I hoped to meet Ira who posted on the Coolrunning ultra forum that he?d be there as well. At the start we observed a moment of silence for Sri Chimnoy, who had just passed away. That moment was meaningful to me since I had met him for the first time at the Sri Chimnoy Marathon in August. Not only did he start the race by blessing the runners, but he also was out on the course in his wheelchair encouraging the runners. And, last spring, I manned the scoreboard on the last day of the Sri Chimnoy 6 and 10 day races in Queens to fulfill my volunteer service requirement for the Vermont 100. In addition to the moment of silence, the race organizers recognized each of the runners celebrating 60th birthdays (or older).

After all that, it was somewhat of a relief to get started. My only objective was to equal or surpass the mileage I logged at the Staten Island 6-hour run last month. Plan B was to cover at least 50K. I hadn?t run this course before, but all the feedback I got was along the line of ?it?s hilly and tough.? I wore my trail shoes, but after a couple of loops (each one 2.076 miles) I realized road shoes would have been fine. I went out pretty aggressively for the first 5 loops, with a string of 18:18, 17:23, 17:44, 18:12, and 18:41 for a 10.76 mile split of 1:30:16. That was well under the 20 minute per loop I had planned for those first 20 miles. I stopped at the aid station at the start of the sixth loop and had a couple pb & j quarters and a handful of Tortilla chips.

The next 5 loops, which included a few more stops at the aid station as I began a new loop, were 20:32, 20:59, 21:58, 23:14, and 24:24 for a 21.52 mile split of 3:21:21. Despite the slow-down, I still had averaged 20 minute a loop. But now I was getting tired and not only was I lingering at the aid station longer, but I found myself walking a minute or two during each loop. My final five loops were 28:21 (which included a stop of about 4 minutes at the aid station), 26:27, 24:42, 25:34 and 26:06 for a 50K split of 5:32:28. I had gotten so disappointed at the time I had wasted lingering at the aid station that I hadn?t stopped there at all in the last 3 loops (except to grab some water as I pushed on).

At the end of the 15th loop, my friend Rich was at the transition point and asked me if I wanted to go out on another full loop with 28 minutes left. Since I was right at the edge I switched over to the small (0.37 mile) loop for my remaining time. No reason to risk not completing another full loop (and not getting credit for the partial mileage of the full loop). The small loop had one decent size climb (which I walked) followed by a great descent (which I ran back to the mat). I managed to complete seven small loops in 26:43 and half of an 8th loop (for which partial mileage was given). My total mileage for the day reached 33.67 - and just squeaked past my mileage from Staten Island of 33.19 (by less than half a mile)!

Except for part of loops 10 and 11, when Emmy caught up to me and we ran together for a while, I ran by myself the entire day. I caught sight of Rob a few times as we passed each other on the trails, and saw him again when we moved over to the smaller loop. I also caught sight of Nick running some bonus miles as he took off up the bigger hills to work in MORE elevation gain and used the day as a combination race and training run. The main competition was a tough 3-way battle between Byron, Phil and Glen. It became a two way battle when a bee flew into Glen?s mouth and stung him (truth is definitely stranger than fiction). But in a reversal of the Staten Island finish, Phil came in first with 46.02 miles and Byron second, with 45.51. Glen, despite the bee sting, was a close third with 44.79 miles. Emmy, with 35.06 miles, finished as second woman overall!

Afterwards, there was plenty to eat (hero sandwiches and birthday cake) and drink (beyond the beer, there was even wine and some champagne). Emmy had run into Ira out on the course and introduced us. Turned out that he had run the Grand Tetons 100M last month! Once out of our race clothes, we all headed over to the post-race festivities, and continued to socialized. Between rehashing the race and comparing notes on upcoming races, and the awards ceremony, time flew by. Next up, Rob, Emmy and I will run the NYC Marathon next month.

Best news of the day, when I got home Katie told me she place 2nd in her age group (F11-14), with a 29 minute! What a great end to the day!