Highland Sky 2016!!!!!!!!!!!

May I start by saying that it is a privilege to experience some of the most beautiful country and people in the world! To me, the area is semi secret, I treat this as an invite by local folks to share the incredible treasure that they call home! Thank You!My wife Debbie and I try to make the trip to Seneca Shadows and this area at least once a year and are always blown away by what we discover here.

This year was my second HS40 and 4th ultra overall. My first Ultra ever was the 2012 HS40. Ran that with my daughter Jessica and new friend, John Stout. John wrote a great report of the 2012 experience which is a must read. That race was a first ultra for both of us and a crazy, hey we’ve gotta do something like this! John is running the 2017 and is telling me it’s time to go again!

It all started in 2011 when my daughter Jessica ran a 50k in Ohio’s Cuyahoga Valley National Park, I could not believe that much range could be run in a day! I figured something like that could never be accomplished by me. I was turning 50 and thought, what the…. Time for something crazy. Found out that there was an ultra that circled one of my favorite places, Dolly Sods! A most challenging course in pristine WV forest, perfect! Looked like the perfect event put together by local running legend Dan Lehmann. I thought right! It is the perfect run! The 2012 was something I will never forget! But that is a different story. I must reiterate about trainer #2 that year, thanks again Matt Young for the guidance and patience on how it’s done. Will never forget that trainer run day either!

Fast forward to 2016, prepared better this time. Due to injury, I missed out on my long range training but did get all the hill repeat training in which proved to be beneficial. Nothing in Ohio prepares you for conditions in the Sods, but I must say we do have incredible trails that would surely please and did the best I could with the hills we have.

Race eve arrived, we got to Canaan late and missed the pre race meeting but did get there in time for the pasta which was delicious! The new lodge is first class and was just being built my first time out. Was a bit bummed to miss pre-race, missing out on info and chat with other runners.

That night, no surprise was tough to sleep in anticipation of the next day. Woke up the next morning at 4 raring to go. The view from the 4th floor balcony looking North was amazing with thick fog blanketing low lying areas, high peaks above it, this would be the day my fav running partner Jessica and I would complete another HS40! Was very thankful my wife Debbie would drive us to the start! Thank you!

The starting line was buzzing with energy and happiness, careful check in was being done to account for runners starting! Said hello to a local Ohio runner Jennifer Yaros who did her first HS40. Before you know it, it was go time! Mentally this year I did not worry about a race, just an all day journey through beautiful country! Mile 1and 2, just cruised at a 9 pace, heard all the similar sounds of Red Creek, cheering and neighbors dogs getting riled up by the commotion. Figured it may be some of the same dogs from years past. Amazing to see great looking horses in pasture as we whizzed by.

AS1, stopped for some water and good cheer knowing the big climb is ahead!Over 8 miles to the next aid station.

Was conditioned for the climb, it went well, thrilled to have my daughter Jessica run with me up the big ascent, the conversation melted the miles away. We were surprised by the amount Stinging Nettle on the way up! Heard some runners yelping, luckily Jessica and I never received a good Zap. Summited to the Roaring plains and incredible open highland beauty, conditions were so wet and muddy up there!Would not miss it for the world however! Much of the trail up there was submerged, flowing stream and mud bog. AS2 was very welcome! Much needed drink and food, ate my fill of P and J sandwiches! A favorite!

The next stretch of trail is a tough one! That decent is a killer, perhaps the most remote part of the race, still early on but taxing on the quads! AS3 came as a surprise, an unforgettable climb and pop out to extreme care and much needed nourishment! Always impressed how well the runners and bib numbers are accounted for by the volunteers!

The next stretch of trail is pretty fun, starts off technical then eases to flats, water, wooden bridges and openings. Most of the ascent and climbing is done! The final mile of gravel road to AS4 is fun, the people, cheering and encouragement is energizing and we are half way done!! Drop bags! The most stocked aid station! A good feeling for a runner!

Oh this next stretch, miles of gravel road, you think you can make up time but it seems up hill most of the way! Much tougher than you might think! AS5 could not come soon enough, may I say it was a fun one! Fresh watermelon!! Have never had that at an aid station and wow was that perfect!!Also tried my first salt capsules ever. The volunteers were great.

Finished that dang road to perhaps the highest point of the race! The view there!!! AS6! The final cutoff, still making good time at this point. As always, top class care, got my fill of food and drink in prep of the final half marathon! Unfortunately my training did not go this far and it was time to run on desire.

The next stretch of open hilly grassland is something from a dream, it kept my mind off the exertion. It took some time to get to AS7, a rather awesome stop! Laughs, fun, energy and beer! Jess and I had some and Damn did it taste good! Love that Mountain State brew!! Just what the doctor ordered.

On our way, made it to timberline ski resort and one last climb up a ski run, soon to come was the notorious butt slide, a ligament testing rugged drop back into Canaan. Valley. This is where Jess finally went ahead around mile 34, so thankful to run with her all those miles! She could have easily been an hour ahead at this point but stayed to run with me.Thank you!

Next, the butt slide! Steep!! Tough! Leg burner! Seemed endless then relief, gravel road and mild decent to AS8. Final drink, big encouragement and 4 more miles of road to finish.

Flat hot pavement to finish, a family and kids with a garden hose sprayed me down as I passed by their house! It was great! Welcomed the cooling! Was able to run nearly all the way to finish which I could not do in 2012. One mile to go! Feeling ok! Began to hear cheering before long! Almost done, could see the resort! People saw me coming out of the woods! “Runner coming”! People cheering for me! 100yds to go! Feeling like a rock star! I can see my wife, my daughter and her boyfriend Chris. Cameras, Dan Lehmann and Adam at the finish! The finish! Handshakes and the perfect day! After all the greetings, kind of wandered off for a minute to sit down and let all the emotions spill out without anyone seeing. One can’t explain the incredible feeling after something like this, you must experience it! Pure perfection!

Thank you for such a great event to participate in! The care, organizing and attention to detail are first class! Thank you to all the volunteers! The hospitality makes you feel like you’ve known them forever!!

Author:Jeff Suvak – Cleveland, Ohio

Growing up with the Highlands Sky 40 Mile Trail Run in my back yard, it has grown from a source of bewilderment when I first learned about it as a high school runner, to a source of home county pride and a personal aspiration. Over the last three years running the race, it has been a source of the deepest kind of learning. I regret not having written about my first two times running the race, but to sum them up in nutshells, 2014 HS40 was the most difficult day of my life and the first time I ever experienced true raw emotion. 2015 HS40 can be summed up by my exchange with Joel Wolpert, (an occasional running partner of mine) when I caught up with him around mile 14 shortly before aid station 3. Me: “I was beginning to prepare for a really long lonely day.” Joel: “Me, too.” That dialog resumed in midair several miles later when we hurdled a pack of bear dogs and their owners.
Me: “Bear dogs!” Joel: “And bear humans.”

Right now my hands are shaking and my heart is pounding, but Saturday morning I felt great as I chatted with some of the many new friends I made during the trail maintenance and trainer weekend 2 months earlier. My goal was to finish before the near-solstice sun had a chance to climb above the tree tops. I may have done it if I hadn’t been fooled by the dryness of the clear day and been tempted to speed over the sections of gravely smooth-sailing, water-filled paths of the plateaus that were the punctuating highlights between the boulder gardens, creek crossings and the no-smaller-than-I-remembered mountain climbs. After a great conversation (as usual) with Luke Fleishman on the road, I began a 39 mile solo journey. I was not afraid of running alone for that distance. Even suggesting that’s how I envisioned my next (what I thought would be) 5 hours would leave out the life- and spirit-saving role of the aid station volunteers. I even anticipated the company of the day hikers for whom I held disturbingly hostile feelings toward during the darkest miles of my first HS40 – clean boots, beige sun hats, sunglasses that fold out into tripod camp seats…

I felt conservative throughout the first half of the race with the exception of the smooth patches, wondering to myself if this felt like a record-setting kind of effort. The voice of years past that said, “This is a loooong race.” came to me only as a memory. Slightly more prominent was the voice gaging my thirst and hunger. Even as I came through the aid stations refilling my small honey bear water bottle and quickly grabbing boiled potatoes and melon, I passed up the opportunity to fill an extra cup of water. I had been on the edge of thirst basically since I woke up and this made me feel lean and alert. Even the nettles felt good. The dew that repeatedly soaked half of my body felt too good – I needed to be drinking more. I came through AS2 6 minutes ahead of last year, then 9 minutes ahead of pace, then 7 minutes ahead of last year at the lively AS4. My wife, Katherine filled my bottle with a mixture of water and electrolyte, my mom had cookies, Jeff had a towel and fresh shoes which I passed up this year, and my dad was wondering what was going on (Thanks for going on crazy hikes with me!). I ate a cookie, stuffed the other one in a pocket and put some sea salt in my mouth. I had done this on only one other run as an experiment, but today instead of tasting sweet and welcome, it tasted like salt. I was worried about cramping up after leaving the road across the sky like I did last year, and I was making compounding mistakes.

I had been planning on taking the road section slightly easier than last year with Joel. I got only an extra sip of water at AS5. It was a little after 9am and the sun was still low enough that I was running in the shade. But then all the trees disappeared and the sun began to really take its toll. By Bear Rocks, I had lost all of my lead over last year’s pace and was no longer concerned about that. I was fighting leg cramps. This was not the way I wanted to run. The aid station guys filled my honey bear with water and offered me an iced sponge as I lay there with my shaking legs in the air. I hadn’t made it 200 yards down the rocky trail when my toe caught and I flew forward. I landed completely sprawled out more likely out of exhaustion than because I know how to fall. I was only lightly banged up and scraped, but my water bottle was empty and capless in the bushes. Yet another mistake was not returning to the aid station for more water. Luckily, there were plenty of day hikers in clean boots and beige sun hats who were more than generous with their water, and I ended up getting more water in the next mile than I would have if I hadn’t lost all of mine. The damage of neglect had been done, though and my running slowed. I was extremely dry and beginning to feel extremely bad. I was still running slowly when the lower, inner parts of both my quads seized up. It was sort of flat there and I wasn’t really using them, so I kept running, mildly amused and wondering what would happen. Like any flexed muscle, the lactic acid built up and up until they were on fire for several minutes while I kept moving. I imagine they ran out of energy like the rest of me and I didn’t really have any more trouble out of them after that.

The threat of cramps started to subside but I was in some other unfamiliar trouble. I couldn’t make myself run. I was walking on smooth, packed dirt through the endless meadows. I guessed I was a mile from AS7 and I knew I needed to get there but I couldn’t move any faster and I wasn’t even breathing hard. My head bent over far to my left side and stayed there and a bull’s-eye spot developed in the center of my vision that vibrated in outwardly radiating waves with the jar of every stiff step. After 10 minutes of that, I was really ready for some watermelon at the badass Lehman aid station. I remembered the watermelon from the year before and that was the only thing that kept me moving.

I wish that had been the only thing on my mind. I had also decided that I was going to quit. It wasn’t a matter of pain and discomfort at that point – I was seriously worried about my health. I slowly climbed the long hill to AS7 where I laid down under the table and ate probably more than my share of watermelon and drank some water. I wasn’t going to get up, but Willie and the others helped me. “Let’s ease you back into hydration.” I felt so bad and the spot in my vision was still there when I left. Around the bend, I staggered against a tree and I did quit. I decided to quit not because I had quickly watched my record pace vanish, which would have been a very ego-centric thing to do, but because I was quickly becoming seriously concerned about being able to stand up. I was going to go back to the tent. But I kept walking, head oddly tilted, the hikers now just staring at me instead of a cheery greeting. It would have been a long, unhappy wait at AS7 if I’d turned back but now I was facing 8 miles of really slow walking. I set my sights on a new goal of reaching AS8 and quitting there. As if from an outside vantage point, I judged my lack of shame at this prospect to be evidence that I was in minor emergency mode. I continued like this for 30 minutes. I’d then been walking for about 45 minutes and I began to have convoluted thoughts about pace and speed and how much slower was I really going given the terrain and that everyone was baking under the same sun. Those thoughts coalesced into a clearer picture of all that was taking place during this amazing event and I decided to not give up and to make it to AS8 with the mental intention to finish.

I was glad to have that sorted out, but I still couldn’t take a single running stride. I reached the ski slope and as I climbed, I fully expected to see second place running up behind me. I was almost hoping to see it, to give me real reason to feel as low as I was feeling, to externalize what I had brought on myself with my mistakes. Just as I was entering the trees at the top of Timberline mountain, I began to feel differently. The watermelon was kicking in. I took a few test strides, and after taking the butt slide pretty gently, I was able to stride out. I had the combined feeling of having just run 36 miles and having just walked for an hour. I grabbed a cookie from my mom on my run through AS8, but by a weird twist, I didn’t need anything at that point because I’d pigged out when I was sure that my day was done. As I ran, I was ready to be finished but I was so happy to be where I was.

Thank you, Dan, and Adam and everyone else.

Lucas Warner