Gorge Gambler & 2017 Wrap-up

As 2017 is coming to a close, it would appear that my blogging has suffered. For the 1st half of the year, I managed 8 posts and this will make only my 4th in the past 6 months. And in fact, only my second in the past 4. In looking at those numbers and timing, I see life events having a substantial impact on how I see myself and feel motivation-ally. As someone who values stability, the company I work for having been acquired in July really has set off a chain of uncertainty in usually very grounded area of my life. And while I have some other personal matters that fall into the same category, it all has gotten to be a bit much to handle at times. To hear Peg comment that I didn't seem like I was enjoying running should tell you enough.

Still, many times, I managed to win the hard battle to get out of bed in the morning in order to go into the office or even out the door for miles. And when I say battle, I mean it. You've heard me talk of anxiety and stress in my postings before so it really should not come as a surprise. Let me say, mental health really makes a big deal in our lives as well as the events during our developmental years that shape the environment of that mental health.

While all of that is important, that is not my intended focus on this 'year-closing' entry, so allow me to change gears....

Going into 2017, one of my goals was to hit a sub 8 hour 100K. For a number of years, I have managed to hit at least one PR a year. Last year was an incredible 50 mile PR at Brazos Bend. So it seemed fair to target the 100K distance for 2018. Early in the year, I tried to go for it at Iron Horse in Florida where I DNF'd due to knee issues. I opted to hit the roads in CT at Lake Waramaug (only to have a series of events derail even getting to the race). (Twisted Branch happened but that was never a part of the 100K PR chase. Not on that course.) Next came plans for Bear Chase in Colorado in late September that due to financial circumstances, I opted to not do. This lead to a narrowing number of options really, one of which was flying to Houston on what would be this upcoming weekend to do 31 laps on a 2 mile paved course. In a cost analysis, I decided to not do the Houston race. So, in leiu of options, I decided to create my own race where the 100K was an available distance.

From this in mid-October, the Gorge Gambler was born.


The Gorge Gamble was to be an old-school event. No fancy shirts. No medals. No big red timing clock. You would get a start/finish time and a course. You'd record your own times. Since, my goal of the event was to be able to run a 100K myself, I wanted a time limit that would enable people to possibly run a 100K themselves. So I decided on 12 hours. But knowing my intention was about goals, I wanted to give people options to get 50K and 50M goals. This led to the format of the race being that everyone starts off running the 50K and once they reach the 50K distance, they can either stop or continue. At the point, 50M is reached, they are no longer in the 50K results. Same goes for up to 100K.

Because travel cost was a motivating factor of me creating the event, I decided to hold it in the Wissahickon Valley Park. Basically, this is my training ground. Now the park is a gorge. It has a gravel fire road (at one point in time an actual road of the times) called Forbidden Drive that cuts through along the length of the park with other trails in the upper reaches of the gorge. For a quicker course, I opted to create a 10K loop (ended up being 6.3 mile) utilizing much of the drive. However, I added a loop on the far end to mix up course allowing participants up onto one of the less technical (but still technical comparatively speaking) upper trails.

Once all this was set, including the date of December 9th, I opened registration where interested parties had to request invites for sign up. This was done to simple prevent a mass rush of entrants as I capped the field size to 40 people. My reason for the cap was to keep the event low-key and minimize our impact on the park's upper trails. In the end, 20 people signed up over the course of registration. With some withdrawls and no-shows, we ended up with 15 starters.

In the weeks leading up to the event, I still had my own training and racing. Between my last entry on October 11th and the Gorge Gambler, I had 5 runs, 4 of which were of the 5K distance. The other was the Bucks County Marathon, notable for mention here for winning it for the 4th straight year and in my second fastest time on that course. (Which is still 7 minutes slower than my CR.) Also, I had my yearly trek to Maine. Didn't get the usual dose of mountains but I expanding my routes and got to enjoy lots of sites. So DESPITE all the instability I was feeling on the whole, my sense of ability for my 100K was going well.

For the last week of lead-up, I spent it sending emails to registrants and getting together what I felt we should have as a basis for our single aid station. Namely, a folding table and digital clock for time recording. There was a little nervousness about the table as it arrived late but thankfully the bulk of the work was already set. Aside from race day, the biggest thing I needed to do was mark the loop section that used the technical trail. Since, we could be out after dark, I had some reflective strips as part of the markings. I kept the markings limited. Now, when I marked the section is the interesting part. My goal was to do it Friday morning on the 8th after 6am. Well, I ended up doing it at 3:30 am. Our TV decided to meet its death at 1am with a sparkling pop that tripped our main breaker. It made me unsettled to where I wasn't sleeping. So, I said might as well go marking. And I have to say, the moonlight was so strong, I didn't even need my headlamp. It was a gorgeous stroll in the woods at a time I really should not have been there.

Anyways, come race morning, I woke up briefly 4 hours early worried about the snow forecast. I hadn't considered an alternate course for safety. I decided worse case, I could take care of it last minute as pure out and backs on Forbidden Drive. Thankfully, at 6am, the snow had not started. Whew. I arrived at our starting location, 30 minutes before our 7am start. My timing here was not the greatest and it resulted in a delayed start by 15 minutes. Out of everything, I'd say this was the only error of the day as the RD.  Eventually, at 7:15, I gave the official commands, started the official digital kitchen timer and off people went, myself included.

For the first loop, I ended up running with Josh Finger. Having him present really was good for me to run a balanced first 50K to possibly be under 4 hours but not insanely under to blow up. I'm not going to go into the details of every loop but I will say my biggest concern on the first loop was making sure the markings were still present. They were! Loop two was hoping nobody got off course. Seems like a win here as well!  After 4 laps, I was on target for a sub 6 hour 50 mile! Yet, on lap 3, the snow started to fall. It was not an issue so much for my first 50K but my 6th lap began to slow enough to take me off of that sub 6. Still, lap 7 became the point where I was on par with a close to 8 hour 100K split. It was doable. Physically and mentally I was having up and downs. All to be expected. What I really did not expect was the slowness of the pace while maintaining consistent effort. My miles thanks to the snow where 45 seconds to 1 minute slower. I knew I would have to have a quick 8th lap knowing I would need to finish 50 miles in around 6:24 to be at 8 hour pace. Turns out I was off that mark at the end of lap 7, I just hadn't done the math well. It was just a little too slow of a split. With the continued snow slowing, I split 50 miles (50.4 actually) in 6:37:10 and called it a day.

The day was taking it's toll on others as well. Five people called it a day before 50K. And by the time I finished, only 3 other runners were still out there. One of them finished there day in the 50K only 7 minutes behind me. This left two people out there. One was Trishul Cherns and the other Jameson Kloeckner. Trishul was working on his 50K. Jameson decided he was having a blast and opted to do 50 miles. He would be the only other person to finish a distance greater than 50K at the Gorge Gambler.

At this point, the park was rather quite and empty. Rather magical because it is so beautiful in the snow. To stay away from the cold, changed out of my running clothes and spent some time in the truck. I was now getting to enjoy RD duties. I had to shoo some teens away from the results/aid table when one of them picked up the timer. (Which was adhered to the table by a magnet. While the table was not metal, I tapped a metal scraper to the table to the timer had something to stick to.)

Now, this is where I should say, I knew about half of the people participating in the Gorge Gambler. So, I believe that allows me to say this, it is only fitting that the two final people out there were those two whose spirits just radiate positivity.

Eventually, it all came to an end as Trishul finished his 50K and Jameson closed out the event with his 50 mile finish. For one of these two fine people, it was their first time in the Wissahickon. For the other, it is like home (maybe not the section of the park we used but still some familiarity.) To me this is part of what this event was about, sharing a place I love to those who may not have experienced it before and for those who have, provide something new.

Sure from a personal standpoint, not hitting 100K was a bit of a disappointment but I was either going to be near the time goal or not. Once I wasn't there was no need to go beyond 50 Mile. But in reality, the biggest victory, I personally had from the Gorge Gambler was the success of hosting an event.


Results have been posted to Ultrasignup.

However, let me take a moment to congratulate the male and female 50K champs: Nathan Spencer and Kristen Rosser.

Now, will the Gorge Gambler happen again in the future? Right now, yes. It is possible, I change the date but it will be back. Aside from the possible date change, everything else will stay the same. Well, maybe next time, I'll start it on time. Hopefully, a few more people will be able to come out.


With this, we seem to have reached the end of my year. My personal goals are taking a few weeks off. It's been some time since I have taken a large swath of time to recover. And the remaining time to the end of 2017 will be the largest non-injury rest in some time. Goal wise, I didn't hit any PR's but had some notable achievements. I managed to set an FKT. I ran 3000 miles in the year. Won the Bucks County Marathon for the 4th year in a row. Persevered through a horrible day at Twisted Branch. Went back to World's End. Won TGNY 100. I'll take it.

2018, I've already some plans to expand my horizons. Right now, racing in Scotland is going to be huge. And there is a certain ax I need to add to my collection. (No, it is not Eastern States. It's World's End 100K.) I'll aim for similar mileage. Tackle another 100M. The rest of it will fall in place.


I'd like to close this year out by thanking some really important people who made a dent one way or another.

Peg - For putting up with everything! Running, work, well....everything.

Pat McCloskey - You may not realize it but you're encouragement for me to run some races gives me that occasional push I need.

David Walker - You're just a no-name (he's in on the joke) who puts on bad-ass races. You also stepped up to offer emotional support. For that I will forever be grateful.

Rob Goyen - Honestly, you are one of the most inspiring people in my life. It may be silly but when I set up the Gorge Gambler, I thought about you encouraging people to achieve their goals.

Kat Bermudez - Just thank you. Everyone should have a friend like you.


And everyone else that has been a part of my life, I thank you all as well. Onwards and upwards.

(Shameless self-promotion: if anyone knows of any companies that you think would make a good sponsor fit, let me know. I might even be using their products already but never thought of approaching them.)