Race Report:Harpers Ferry Half Marathon

It is always a challenge being a director of a race. You are always faced with things you did not anticipate.  Twelve hours before the event here in West Virginia, we were hit with a thunderstorm of massive proportions.  Most of the course markings of the run which was 40% trail were gone.  Water from storms the week prior brought the river level right up to the race route (see photo below). Luckily we had sturdy signage as back-up and we knew the runners would need to navigate from these.

Even more concerning though was the unstable cloud and forecast of thunderstorms continuing through the next morning.  I honestly had not anticipated lightning before.

Races are usually held in the morning here and it is really rare for 8 am thunderstorms. My friend and co-director Todd McKinney and I researched what to do for safety and sent the runners an email that we would delay the races –if needed and cancel if we had too if there was lightning within 6 miles.  This is a precedent by most outdoor sporting events and the NCAA.  Lightning can strike in a 6-mile radius and 30 seconds thunder to lightning is the threshold for this distance.

Morning arrived and we were greeted by clouds, light drizzle, serious humidity….but no lightning!  The show would go on.  Since we have an awesome team of organizers that man the start/finish, it is fun to jump into this race and see it as a participant and troubleshoot any course issue from the perspective of a runner on the course.  Plus it is fun to see friends, volunteers, and fellow runners out there and thank them for the support.  I always observe the feet and shoes and the proportion of flat and minimal shoes in this race is large, thanks to the influence and teaching of Two Rivers Treads.

I was glad to see my friend Tony Clement at the start.  Tony and I ran most of this race together in our inaugural year 2011. Tony had recently graduated from University of Oklahoma where he ran 4:01 for the mile and 13:40’s for 5k.  He was strong as a horse but had been plagued by injury, especially in the Achilles.  After some quick assessments it was clear that Tony had incredible power and strength, but lacked range of motion in his Achilles and Plantar Fascia region especially. He was a forefoot runner but due to this restriction his heel never even got to the ground.  We got Tony into a pair of Newton Distance shoes to transition to and the combination of his power, lack of motion,  and ball of foot/toe strike destroyed the front of the shoes in about 3 runs.  These shoes normally last well over 1000 miles …this was something I had never seen.

Tony went on for a full analysis with my friend Jay Dicharry who was then at the University of Virginia Gait lab. Jay is now is Bend, Oregon.  Jay identified several issues which Tony worked in the following year.  Tony is running amazingly well now and it was beautiful to watch him pop of the ground with a crisp efficient stride and pull away from the group with relaxed ease.  Tony won the half=marathon in 1:16.  A rapid time considering wet trail and over a 1000 feet of elevation gain on the route.

Tony’s quote of the day was when he first saw me and said with a smile “Hey Mark, I got my pronation back”.  Tony has full range of motion now and lands with a nice forefoot lading and now can get the heel down to flatten the foot and spring.

I ran together for most of the run with the 2012 winner Paul Borg.  He finished in 1:22 and I was 1:23.  This felt like a nice training effort 3 weeks after the Boston Marathon and another 3 weeks till Comrades Ultra in South Africa.

I ran in my new Newton Olympic Racer prototypes which gave a nice amount of protection and feeling of recoil, especially on the steep road downhills. These will be the go-to shoe for the 54 miles on roads at Comrades.

After the race we all enjoyed the post=race music and beer with local musician Chelsea McBee followed by my friend and Wellness Guru Dr. Phil Maffetone and Dr. Coralee Thompson.  Read a bit about them in our preview post.  We had a fun kids run too through the River Riders adventure park.

A huge shout out goes to the race volunteers who made this a fun and safe event despite the weather threats. With their help too we had the course and finish area all broken down by the time then next deluge hit at 3pm.  Come visit for our fall event Freedom’s Run (www.freedomsrun.org) .