MCRRC
Greenway Trail
Marathon
March 1, 2008
Damascus, MD

Runner Report

The event: The 2008 Seneca Greenway Trail (SGT) marathon and 50k on March 1st started in Damascus and ended in Poolsville, MD. The race was a point-to-point run: marathon was about 28 miles long, and the 50k was about 32 miles long. If you ran the 50k, at mile 15 you ran a 4 mile lake loop and then rejoined the point-to-point course. Mongtgomery County Road Runners Club (MCRRC) sponsored the race. It was described on the race web site in terms that led folks to believe it would be Fatass style – i.e., no frills, no fancy tea shorts, no fooling. Nothing could be farther from the truth. If you parked at the finish line, MCRRC had school buses to take you 30 miles south to the start. There were four aid stations that were chock full of liquids, snacks, and some decent trail runne r foods (mini-sandwiches, boiled potatoes and salt, Mountain Dew. To top it off, there was a sumptuous barbeque and tasty vittles at the end of the race, another testament ot the race organization quality. There were tons of happy and helpful volunteers everywhere: at the aid stations, at trail crossings, along roads, and they all offered positive energy.

The trails: The 2007 SGT race reports read like war stories: snow, ice-packed trails, slipping and sliding and falling, frozen mud, and general runner carnage. The rain that started in Columbia at 5am thankfully ended 1 mile from the finish line before the race (where I parked my car to take the bus to the start), and nary a rain drop fell the rest of the day. The trails were in excellent shape at all sections, and all sections were extremely well marked.

The weather: Start temps were about 27 degrees with winds at about 10 miles per hour. By the end of my race at 3:09 pm, the temp was at about 42 degrees and there were some wind gusts up to 25 miles per hour in the final section. Near perfect weather.

The runners: About 250 people participated in the event. I got to chat with Jesse L. and Meet Melissa S. at the start, and saw Jesse again at my mile 15 (when I started the lake loop) and Jesse’s mile 19 (as he finished the lake loop). Most of the runners were friendly, sociable, and everyone looked out for each other. One of the tails that traveled up and down the trails during the middle of the run was that one of our runners collided with a freaked out deer. News at the finish line was that she was all right overall. No word on the deer’s condition reached us, however.

My performance: I had several goals this race: finish, stay injury free, beat my previous time or come darn close, have a lot of fun and enjoy the day. I believe I achieved all of these goals, and I learned a few things too boot. I need to spend more training time doing hill work – up and downhill hillwork. My splits according to my watch at the various aide stations were:

7 miles = 1:20:00; 15 miles = 2:48:00; 19 miles = 3:45:00; 25 miles = 5:20:00; 32 miles = 7:09:00

I hope to do this race again next year. It is a great local race that is inexpensive ($20).

—Martin Gould