I picked this event to do a November marathon for two reasons:
1. It was an inaugural marathon in Pennsylvania and I have a minor goal of trying to do as many PA marathons as I can because it's a lot cheaper than traveling all over the country to be a 50 stater.
2. Registration for the event was only $26.20! They promised a low-key affair and that's what it was. Shirts, if we had wanted them, were $12 extra. No awards and only a dog-tag on a little chain for a finisher medal.
Actually, another reason to go was the appeal of the area. The race started and ended in the Village of Black Lick, which is situated a few miles north of Blairsville and about a dozen south of Indiana, Pa. The races went along the Ghost Town Trail, above the Black Lick Creek. OK, do these names get your attention? A little background is in order.
This entire area, roughly 50 miles east of Pittsburgh, is former coal mining country. The Black Lick Creek is so named because there were seams of coal exposed that the water would brush against. Over a hundred years ago, the area was being mined for that coal. A railroad was built and towns and mills sprung up to process the ore. It's all petered out now. But the railroad bed was turned into a crushed limestone trail and that's where the marathon (and half-marathon, which Carolyn did), were being held.
The topic of the effect of coal on the region seemed to dominate the weekend. Driving to the area on Saturday, we passed signs about 15 miles out for Nanty Glo. Wondering how a town got that name, I checked it out later on my iPad and discovered it was another name for the same creek, a Welsh term which means "the ravine (or brook) of coal".
After we checked into our motel, we drove out to find Saylor Park where the race would start. Then we drove a couple more miles up the highway to Whitey's Peetza in Coral, Pa., where we picked up our numbers. The backdrop to this little town is the Homer City Power Plant. We were headed into the area right about 3:30 when a lot of people had just gotten off the day shift and they were in a big hurry to get out of there.
Later I looked up the Homer City plant and discovered that it has the reputation as the dirtiest coal-fired plant in the country. GE is being paid 3/4 of a billion dollars to clean it up!
At Whitey's we had a conversation with the President of the Indiana Road Runners. He'll be going on his fourth term as other members seem to have little interest in running the club. I told him about Pike Creek Valley R.C. and that we had a president who could relate to his dilemma.
For a marathon, 9:00 A.M. seemed to be a late start. But then we were dealing with a day which was going to be warm and the odds are that in any given year it could be a much cooler, blustery day. We got to the park the next morning at 8:00 A.M. and after walking over to check in - through quite cool air in the valley where the park is located, we hurried back to sit in our car for a while and to warm up. We felt better once the frost on the picnic table in front of us had melted as the sun rose over the hills.
The prediction was for temperatures to reach the low 70s. I had decided to go with a singlet, shorts and the cheap pair of gloves in our goody bag. We watched as many of the runners were walking around way overdressed. They were dressed for the way it felt before the event, not how it would feel at the end of it. Oh well, live and learn.
The course description for this former railroad bed trail along the Black Lick Creek, was "fairly flat". Well, of course, railroad beds can not go up at a steep angle because it would be difficult to control the trains. But the problem was that the out and back course climbed for almost the entire 13 miles out. Initially, I figured that running uphill for the first half would save my quads and they wouldn't be beat up when I turned around and went downhill. INCORRECT! In fact the continuous uphill running beat me up. It probably didn't help that I ran the first five miles in about the same time as I ran the first five of the Hartford Marathon, which only rolled a bit by comparison. So by 12 miles I was already feeling like I had had it. My quads hurt, a left glute muscle was tight, a right adductor was screaming at me not to run. I hit halfway in over 2:12 and I knew I was cooked. It was going to be a slow time getting back.
Oh, did I mention my shoes? At six p.m. on Saturday, I discovered that I had not packed the lighter shoes I intended to use for the race. All I had were the shoes I had on - much heavier trail shoes that I had actually retired from running and used as everyday shoes. Well, I had no choice. The heavier weight might have had a small effect on my running, but the bigger issues were the 13 miles of uphill and the warmth of the day. Several miles in, the temperature had gone up 20 degrees and in many areas I was exposed to the direct sun. That was one slight aspect of the return that helped - then I was getting a mild breeze to help keep cool.
This trek felt like I had hit a wall at 12 miles, which is as early as I've ever felt that way in a marathon. Consequently, by mile 15 or 16, I was already doing a lot of walking. It just hurt too much to try to stretch my legs out into a normal running stride. I was feeling overheated at times and my breathing sounded like I was finishing at 800 sprint. I knew I was having a bad day and decided discretion was the better part of valor.
I used my walking times to get a better look at the scenery. The Black Lick Creek below was mostly a rocky, rush of green-colored water, dropping at a greater rate than we are used to in Delaware streams. [After posting, I have learned that the greenish color is most likely the result of dissolved limestone] But again the former presence of old King Coal had left it's evidence. Rocks on the edge of the stream were tinted orange from the chemical processes used in treating the ore. Sections above the trail were composed of what appeared to be black refuse from the treatment process. A few sections near the trail had dirt with nothing growing on it, unable to support life with the chemical stew present in the soil.
I don't want to paint a distorted picture. The towns were gone with only plaques to commemorate where they had been. One person told me the area looked much worse several decades ago. There were hills on both sides of the stream. Springs sent little rivulets of water down the layers of rock on the side of the trail. One of the coolest sights I saw was while I was running where a small hill had been blasted for the railroad passage to go right through it. The steep little valley that was created was suddenly many degrees cooler and both steep sides had been taken over almost entirely by mountain laurel which found the conditions perfect. In other areas along the trail, the roots of trees, which only seemed to be half in the ground, were wrapped along layers of rock, providing more stability to keep them from toppling.
At the 19.5 mile aid station, I asked a young guy if I could use his cell phone. I knew I was going to be way over my target time and wanted Carolyn not to worry. I was a bit discombobulated and called our home phone number twice before realizing I needed to dial Carolyn's cell phone number. Finally, I left my message and ambled on. I spoke to a younger runner who was also obviously hurting at that point and then moved forward.
A mile or so later, the guy went by me in one of my walking periods. He had latched on to a couple of other runners. In this section, my mile splits were all over the place: 18 minutes when I had to get a pebble out of my shoe, then 13, then 16. Somewhere around 23 miles I felt slightly better and "picked it up" to a sub-13 minute mile. I caught up to the younger guy at mile 24 and asked if I could join him. It was obvious he was hurting more than I at that point. I saw no reason to push myself, What did it matter if I was a few minutes slower?
The guy's name was Eric and he was doing his first marathon. His brother was a dedicated 50 state runner, having done 30+ already. I got the impression that Eric had been inspired by attending a few of his brother's races. Occasionally we threw in some jogging, but Eric was hurting. At one point one of his calves cramped up. I told him to flex his foot upward to counteract the cramping. It seemed to work. Eventually we made our way to the finish in 5:22:02. Carolyn was there waiting, having finished her half-marathon in 2:59:15.
So was it me or was it the course? Probably a bit of both, plus heavy shoes. But here's the bottom line: The course had been certified as a Boston Qualifier, but I checked the results of the 93 finishers. Only the male and female winners, plus two other males qualified out of the entire field. That's pretty clear evidence that this sort of course on that warm a day (for November) made it too tough.
Later that day, after cleaning up, we headed up to Indiana, PA, which is somewhat of a college town, and found a place to get some food and brews while watching the start of the Eagles game. At least I enjoyed the first half. Getting back to our room, Carolyn crashed quickly and got about ten hours sleep. I never sleep well the first night after a marathon.
The next morning while getting breakfast at the hotel, the theme of the weekend came up again. Other than ourselves, the dining area had a half dozen guys in it. They was working class type people. Apparently they were part of the crew who had been brought in to clean up the Homer City Coal Plant. We overheard one guy talking about how he didn't have permanent work back home and he didn't know whether he should move or not. Some work - cleaning up a coal plant!
Recommendation: I imagine that if one is used to doing long runs which involve long stretches of moderate uphill running and downhill running, this course would be a lot easier to tackle. It's certainly pretty. I would imagine that in the future they will have to raise the price. Don't run it for a PR, but for a scenic trek.
Addenda: The Blacklick Watershed Assn. notes that the water is subject to pollution from 300 former mines and 170 coal refuse dumps. As of 1990 Indiana County had had over 6,000 gas wells drilled. Now in the fracking era, there is more controversy about fracking liquids getting into the streams.
