John’s Report, PB&J 50k

It’s no secret I hate Prince William Forest, pushing the pace in ultras, and going for PRs on the trail. This is why I stepped back from road running—I think it’s toxic. I love the vibe at ultras: being relaxed, hanging with friends, and eating food!

I’ve got a weird relationship with PWFP and all the races there. I love the people but just don’t like the trail or vibe. I didn’t realize it until just now, but I’ve done the PB&J 50k four times and the 25k once. I had to look this up—I honestly thought I hadn’t done this event that many times! I’ve always used it as an opportunity to prep for the Devil Dog 100 miler. I do not like running trails fast. I feel like one of the benefits of this race is that you get a lot of road runners and people who like to turn and burn, which helps me want to run faster than I normally would and push outside my comfort zone (begrudgingly). On paper, PWFP is a good place to run, but I just have never liked it. It’s too flat, has rolling hills, and I can never get a groove down. I like doing stuff like Massanutten, Wild Oak, Big Schloss, and so on—where there are runnable spots, but also good climbs to walk and recover on.

With all that said, all the races held at the park are awesome, and I go just because I like the people that put them on: PB&J, Redeye, OSS, Devil Dog—hell, even Marine Corps 17.75. I’m usually at all of them, even though I have a complicated relationship with this park.

Morning of PB&J
One of my favorite parts of this race is the 8 a.m. start time—it’s very close to where I live, and Lauren (the race director) is really cool. My girlfriend Kitty was kind enough to volunteer for this one. Which is interesting because this was her first time at a VHTRC event!

We got there around 7 a.m.—there was plenty of parking. I bumped into a lot of friends and we clowned around. I was initially apprehensive because I hadn’t seen some of them in a while, but all in all it was a very pleasant experience. I gave my loaf of bread for my aid assignment, got my gear together, said bye to Kitty, and listened to the race brief. Showtime!

Gooooooo!
Remember that part about me being apprehensive about seeing some people there? Running fastish on trails and all that? We weren’t going crazy fast, but I was pushing faster than I normally would have. Partially it was a good thing because Kitty and I had to be at a dinner that evening, and I did need to get some faster miles logged for Devil Dog. I ran with some people for a while until about mile 6.

John Goes Down!
So I took a real hard fall. My wrist, arm, and leg broke the fall. I didn’t hit my face, which was good—again, I had to look pretty for a dinner (others were not so lucky; we will discuss this later). Even though I got beat up on this fall, I got up pretty quickly. The guy behind me (I cannot remember his name) was extremely concerned. He was like, “Dude, that was ugly.” And that’s just why I don’t like this park—I didn’t even see a root or anything. I’m not sure what took me down. There was no time for a pity party; I just kept moving.

Aid Station 1
Kitty was here, but I was too scared to stop moving. I felt like a jerk—I should have stopped—but my fear was that if I stopped moving, I might not be able to keep going. I just went right through the aid station. This was regrettable, but I yelled a “Hi, love you, byeeee!” Volunteer Charlene Howard yelled a lot at me for not stopping, and it was deserved!

Onward
I kept moving forward for a while with my buddy—whose name I don’t know—who saw me fall. This guy was a saint for hanging with me because, let’s be honest, in many cases if you take a hard fall at mile 6, it’s easy and probably in your best interest to quit. This guy took my mind off it long enough for me to start feeling better. Early on I was scared I might have been really hurt.

Alone
My buddy went on around mile 11. Honestly, I wasn’t upset at all—I was ready to slow down. I had enough time banked that even if I went slower from here on out, I’d be good to get to the dinner with Kitty on time. To take my mind off things, I thought about going to Goodwill with Kitty on the way to dinner and getting a huge cup of coffee. That sounded amazing. The remaining miles went quick, and before I knew it, I was back at the start.

Loop 2
Going into the aid station I saw Sarah Curtis! I hadn’t seen her in forever! [Editor’s note: Recently married, the former PB&J RD Sarah Curtis is now Sarah Perley] I ate some food, got some water, and bailed as fast as I could. I was alone for the first 7 miles or so until the aid station—I didn’t really see many people at all. I slowed down my pace some and relaxed; I was still good on time. My plan was to try to get done under 7 hours—that would give us plenty of time to make those fun stops I was dreaming of earlier and get to the dinner.

Aid Station / Enter Jennifer’s Brother / Lost People
So this was kind of a bizarre aid station encounter, but entertaining. When I got there, a man came in behind me, and a friend of mine, Jennifer, who was volunteering at the aid station, said, “This is my brother.” I was like, cool. I was moving slow but on the timeline I wanted to finish now, so I thought he would just pass me when we left.

I then got into a discussion with a guy volunteering about people getting lost today. This boggled my mind because the course was marked—and marked well! Like, if I can follow the markings, anyone should be able to! Maybe they were looking down, trying not to trip like I did, and missed something—I don’t know—but kudos to the race for being so well marked.

My Shadow
Jennifer’s brother stayed behind me the first few miles, and I thought, he’ll probably pass me soon—but he stayed behind me. I wasn’t moving crazy slow, but not fast either at this point, and my body was in a weird place from the fall, so I didn’t push it. I walked all the hills and went as fast as I could without pushing too hard. At one point, I think the only conversation I had with my shadow was about GPS and miles. I told him I don’t assume anything—just hope the course is shorter than what I think it is. That’s kind of always been my thought process on GPS and how many miles are left during a race.

Jennifer!
About a mile out, Jennifer was there to run her brother in, and I told them to pass me—but they didn’t, so I just stayed moving ahead of them. We were all talking—it was nice, because a good portion of the day I was alone or just ahead of her brother, so it was nice to talk.

Finish!
As I came in, I had to sit down and rest—I was beat up. I didn’t want food, though; my stomach wasn’t upset, but I just wanted to get a coffee. I was joking around with some of the other guys at the end when suddenly one of the lost boys emerged from the woods!

Matty looked like he fought Michael Myers in the woods—he definitely took a few falls and had blood on his face even. He was okay, though, and he finished!

Sticker
I have to say, the new sticker for PB&J is amazing—if you do the 25k you get a Half Sammie sticker, and if you do the 50k you get the Full Sammie!

Kitty and I bailed out quickly and ended up doing what I dreamed up on the trail—and got to the dinner on time. I ate so much food—it was amazing.

Thank You!
To all the volunteers, to Lauren, to everyone out there—this was so much fun. Even though my body took a beating, it was all worth it. As much as I don’t like running fast on trails, PB&J is a unifier of road runners, speedsters, party pacers and so on. It’s a good blending of the running community. I dreaded it being toxic, but it was nice.

Photos