Following a decent yet imperfect cross country season and not terribly excited for track, I began to yearn for a novel challenge. I would soon find myself embarking on a journey of ultrarunning, which saw the pursuit of speed and track PRs take the backseat in favor of challenges of endurance and grit.

November 30, 2023: Efields 1

Throughout my athletic career, I’ve tended to struggle with pushing myself to go faster. Many mediocre high school cross country results stemmed from me falling off in the latter half of the race, settling into a slower pace when the pain set in. However, I’ve always prided myself on being able to grit out feats of pure endurance, such as completing the Appalachian Trail Four State challenge twice and the several 100+ mile bike rides I logged during the pandemic.

Although I had thus far avoided marathon-distance running, the course of history would change one day in late November. As an enjoyer of efields, both for xc workouts and recovery runs, I had toyed with the idea of running as many laps as I could in a single session. However, the event which spurred me into action was learning of Day, Sam, and Jacob’s intention to run Four State. As a result, I felt inspired to complete a great endurance event of my own, and thus the efields marathon was on.

Efields was chosen to be the location of my marathon debut for several reasons.

• It massively simplified logistics, as I could drop water, food, and anything else I needed right at the field.
• The soft surface ought to reduce the impact on my body.
• It would be simpler for company to join during the later stages of the run.
• And of course, 75 laps (as it ended up being) on efields is an incredibly goofy proposition, so the run possessed considerable meme value.
• Fun fact, my decision to commit to the efields marathon indirectly saved me from getting kicked out of Looney’s (ifykyk).

The run itself was quite a fun event. I chugged through the first two hours with resolve (aided greatly by music), before the reinforcements arrived- a merry company of club runners appearing shortly after 4 pm. With top-tier vibes, I pushed on to hit 30 miles, because “I probably won’t be running this far for a while again”. If only I had known.

December 15, 2023: Efields 2

As fate would have it, I was back on efields a mere two weeks later. On my final full day at UMD for the fall semester, I elected to go out with a bang. My finals were essentially over at this point, and I figured, why not go back for round 2? Else, I probably would have spent those three and a half hours glued to my computer, losing brain cells.

I decided to run this one solo, which made it far more challenging than its predecessor. Nagged by knee pain, I nearly made the incredibly sensible decision to drop out around 13 to 16 miles. However, I ultimately elected to continue the run, and eventually chugged through 26.2 miles.

This run was notable as it established marathoning as not a one-off meme, but rather a discipline of running which had me hooked.

January 18, 2024: Canal long run (and associated winter training)

At home over winter break without many plans, I took the time to steadily build my mileage, for at this point the Miocene 6 hour challenge was on the horizon. Soon, I was holding high 60s to low 70s in weekly mileage, and dropped a few more long runs such as a New Year’s Eve 24 miler on the NCR trail. Winter training continued as planned into the new year, with a long run on the near and dear C&O Canal Towpath in the works. Around this time, Abhi and Ryken were completing their double marathon, so us East Coast jits were obligated to put up a long run of our own (if ever so slightly shorter).

Dropped off by Mrs. Waterman in the idyllic countryside that is western Montgomery County, Ben and I embarked on a 33 mile voyage that would take us from the fringes of civilization all the way into the heart of the nation’s capital.

In the wake of one of the two legitimate snowfalls of the season, we romped through the snow, and holy hell the footing was terrible. The canal was blanketed in layers of snow- which entailed catching weird edges due to the snow not being packed uniformly- and ice- just plain slip & sliding. Nothing short of pure relief washed over us when we finally reached the Capital Crescent Trail (paved and plowed) at mile 27.

Nevertheless, high quality conversations were had throughout the course of the run, such as creating a tier list of all club running social events during the fall (my favorites were the post-UVA party and playing Mario Kart Wii during poker night). In the end, buoyed by the food caches Ben had dropped off earlier in the morning while narrowly avoiding a rogue cop, we triumphed and completed what was both of our longest runs to date.

The glory days: March 9, 2024: Seneca Greenway 50k (and spring semester fun)

As we reconvened for the latter half of my freshman year, I was prepared to lock in athletically and academically. My training continued in much the same fashion as it had over winter break. I raced an incredibly mid 4:55 mile at Penn State (and given that I ran 3×1600 @ 5 flat in a workout the following week, yes, it was mid). At Penn I “cooled down” by running up Mt. Nittany, which was honestly way more fun than my race anyway. I then raced a 16:50 5k at Capital Relays, which was decent, and of course participated in the watermelon 4×4. Good fun.

Nevertheless, the center of my attention remained on the rapidly approaching ultramarathons. As the semester flew by at an unbelievable speed, I logged two more 20+ mile runs in mid and late February before getting ready to race.

Judgment day arrived on a somewhat rainy March 9th. It was time for the Seneca Greenway 50k. Most of my runs the preceding week had felt sluggish, but thankfully today the malaise faded and I knew I was ready.  I went out in 8th, averaging around 7:40/mi and running hard when I could. A few miles in, myself and another, coincidentally also named Chris, broke away from the group. Conversing about our training and appreciating the majestic views of Seneca Creek and the surrounding countryside, we ran together all the way until mile 12, at which point I opened up a gap. I was then sitting 5th overall, and wouldn’t see any other runners for the remainder of the race.

I felt extremely in touch with my surroundings, and stayed focused and motivated as the miles ticked by. If anything, the rain, which gradually intensified over the course of the run, made it feel even more like an epic adventure. Nearing the end, I was certainly fatigued and was splitting closer to 8:20 per mile, but still felt capable.

I would’ve been satisfied with 5th, but was elated to learn from the course marshalls that three of my competitors stopped at the marathon distance (one could stop at a marathon or run an extra lap around Lake Clopper to hit 50k, and of course I was going to do the latter). That boosted me to 2nd in the 50k. In those final miles, when my position was secured, I honestly began to tear up. I was so proud of myself for the effort and determination I had put forth. I crossed the line in 4 hours and 33 minutes, a slim three minutes behind the leader.

It wasn’t supposed to end this way: March 23, 2024, Miocene Epic Endurance Challenge

I took about a week off after Seneca Greenway. My original plan was to treat it as a dress rehearsal for the 6 hour race. However, I ended up running far harder and performing far better at the 50k than I anticipated. I was satisfied with how the 50k had gone, so in my mind Miocene was no longer the end-all-be-all, but rather a cherry on top.

I think that by the time of the 50k, all of the training and long runs had finally caught up to me and I was running on fumes. Upon my return to running a week before Miocene, my right leg was in shambles and I quickly realized that trying to run through it would do me no good.

Aiming for Miocene might’ve just been a bridge too far. Knowing I was in no condition to run for six hours, let alone at all, I had all but decided to skip the race. However, on the morning of, I made a last minute decision to drive down anyway, perhaps aided by some good old FOMO. I started the race thirty minutes late and hiked three loops, for a total of roughly 15 miles. The first half was pretty rough as nothing short of a deluge hammered the Calvert County coast. Although by midday the rain would lighten up and stop altogether, a nonzero portion of the course remained solidly underwater.

Watching JB romp past the competition to take the win, I was pretty bummed seeing exactly what I wasn’t capable of that day. But of course, it is what it is. He achieved something pretty sick and I lived vicariously through him.

A week later on March 29th and 30th, I was able to achieve some endurance-related redemption by successfully hiking Four State a second time with the Terrapin Trail Club, having some good old type 2 fun.

Looking ahead

I view the ultrarunning experiment as a success. I had a lot of fun exploring a new discipline of the sport and pushing myself to see just how far I could (or more accurately, was willing to) go. Some moments during these long runs just hit so much harder than track or xc ever has, such as the final mile of the C&O Canal 33 miler. Running down the National Mall, end in sight, tasting victory, and feeling the catharsis of finally finishing the adventure was simply unmatched.

In the short term, I’ll take as long as I need to build my mileage back up. I’ll probably race track once or twice more this season. But of course, ultrarunning shenanigans are only one impromptu decision away. Who knows, at some point I sure could go for another 50k. And hey, swimming and cycling aren’t bad sports either.

Until then, thanks for reading!

-Chris