Good evening from a very snowy Arlington! I am freshly showered and lounging in bed, very much intending on falling asleep early tonight. We’re closing out a very fun, whirlwind week of travel and big running, and I am pooped. In a good way!
Yesterday was the Cabin Fever 50k in New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia. Erica and I did this the first year it started (2022) on a slightly different course. We all went back last year to give it another whirl and it rained the ENTIRE time. Erica and I still had a lot of fun, though. This year, it was just me, Patrick, and Alaska trekking down to Fayetteville, but the weather looked promising and I was excited to see what I could do.
Here’s how the weekend went…
Friday
As much as I love this race, it’s a bit of a hike to get to. Patrick graciously drove the entire way so that I could work during the drive. It helped time go by for sure! We stopped at Bucc-ee’s for the first time (in VA, not ever) and enjoyed an afternoon coffee at Roadmap Coffee in Lexington.
We dropped Alaska off at the Airbnb before heading to packet pickup. Packet pickup for this race is nothing to write home about, so we were in and out of there pretty fast. We headed to Lost Appalachia Trading Co., one of my favorite stores in WV, to shop around. We ran into some other runners and chatted about the race. Shout out to Alicia who ended up getting second place! Casual.
We spent the evening getting our gear together and watching YouTube. I felt really weirdly tired and had been kind of nervous for this race, so I wanted to go to bed early. I ended up getting a lot of sleep that night, but I kept waking up thinking I had missed the alarm!
Saturday – race day!
Cabin Fever is a point to point race, so you park at the finish and then get shuttled to the start. They make it super easy to do this and the race doesn’t even start until 9 am, so there’s no early morning rushing around! Love that.
We enjoyed a leisurely morning before heading to the finish line to jump on a shuttle. The finish is at Hawks Nest State Park and has pretty awesome views of the gorge.
The start line is in downtown Fayetteville. It wasn’t rainy or too cold this year, so it was actually pleasant to hang out at the start! We had some coffee and meandered in the outdoor gear shop before the race started.
The first mile or so of this race is on road through town until you get to the trailhead. I love this because it helps you settle in and hopefully avoid too much of a conga line once you hit singletrack. Pretty immediately, I felt bad. My heart rate felt really high and my hips and knees were aching only a few miles in. I could not figure out what was going on. Physically, I felt good! My running felt strong and my muscles didn’t hurt. My energy levels felt entirely depleted. Honestly, I was probably running more hills than I should’ve been. I think I hadn’t eaten enough last week and was dehydrated going into the race. I just felt sluggish and exhausted, as if I was at mile 29 of the race instead of mile 5.
I kept waiting to warm up and for this stale, icky feeling to fade away. But it didn’t! I genuinely started considering my exit plan.
“Maybe I can just DNF at the second aid station… 15 miles would be a good run, right?”
“Okay, I could probably get to mile 22, but that’s definitely the most I could do.”
“I could maybe finish this if I hike the whole thing, but I’ll be out here for forever.”
“Should I defer my Hone Quarry registration? If I feel this poorly now, there’s no way I can do that race in a few weeks.”
It was not pretty. I wondered if I was sick and just hadn’t realized it. Rough all around!
I had decided not to use headphones until after the first aid station at around mile 8. As I approached that point, I decided to use this as an opportunity to practice taking good care of myself. An important skill in ultrarunning! I wouldn’t worry about my performance at this race, I’d just focus on slowing down, eating a lot, and getting hydrated. I’ve been working on eating every 20 minutes, instead of on the half hour, so I decided to focus on that. At the first aid station, I took a big handful of potato chips and wandered back onto the trail. I turned on Getting Chicked (great running podcast!) and decided to just enjoy the glorious weather.
From miles 8-15, where the second aid station was, I focused on eating, drinking, and moving consistently. I had packed some extra bottles with nutrition and water and stopped to refill my flasks at one point. Something about this brief pause and squatting down to fill my bottles made all the difference. When I got moving again, I felt way better. By the time I approached mile 15, I felt like a new woman. I didn’t feel like I was on the struggle bus anymore. I just felt like I was going to have to really work for it! I enjoyed pierogies and grabbed a Huma gel and a rice krispy treat before taking off towards aid station three at mile 22.
I remembered this section from last year as being pretty runnable and downhill. It was super enjoyable! I kept eating (so much eating), drinking (eh, less than I should’ve!), and switched to music. Shout out to Bad Bunny for getting me through! If you’re wondering, my favorite songs are Eoo, Baile Inolvidable, Titi Me Pregunto, and NuevaYol. I really started passing people during this section. I was like a runaway train gaining speed. You couldn’t outrun me 😉
At mile 19ish, two guys were side by side on the trail blocking the path. I was coming up on them fast and one of the guys turned back and saw me, but didn’t move at all. Y’all, there was no question that I was going to catch them. I felt like a predator. As I approached, I began to say “could I pass on your left?” but they started to split in the middle to let me through. I stumbled over my words and ended up saying “could I pass somehow?” which probably made me sound like a biotch. My bad! I dropped them and didn’t see them again. Hehe.
At aid station three, I ate more pierogies, grabbed another Huma gel and rice krispy treat, used the bathroom, and headed out again. I just have to say, I am so pleased with how well my stomach tolerated food. Gut training really works! Normally I can eat pierogies and other aid station goodies, but I have to choke them down and I hate the way they feel in my mouth. At this race, I was genuinely enjoying all the hot food and treats I ate.
Out of mile 22, there’s a long, switchbacking road climb. This take its toll on people and lots of folks start walking. Last year my hamstring cramped on this climb and Erica and I had to walk a lot of it. I decided to run 45 seconds and then walk 45 seconds the whole way up. It worked like a charm. I felt good, caught a lot of people, and didn’t waste a lot of time. I’m really proud of how strong I’ve gotten running uphills this year.
Miles 23-28 are along the gorge, with a bit of up and down, but nothing major. It’s pretty smooth running and it was warm and lovely out. I felt myself moving better and better. I started to do some mental math and thought “could I PR my 50k?!”
At around mile 28, you hit the last major chunk of this race until the big climb to the finish. It’s basically just an out and back, but it’s uphill on the way out. I decided to employ my 45 seconds on/off strategy again! All the while, Bad Bunny is basically on repeat in my ears.
Once I hit the turnaround, I was ready for the race to be over lol. Keeping it real! I was feeling strong and confident, but was also pushing pretty hard and ready to sit down. I focused on reeling people in and passing as many people as I could!
The very end of this race is a very steep climb out of the gorge and back into the state park. Once you hit the top, it’s about .2 miles, if that, to the finish line. However, the climb is a 25% grade and mostly relies on mud steps and rocks in the cliff face. Because of the winter weather we’ve had, I haven’t been doing much trail running or vert in the last few weeks, so I was pretty nervous about this. I crushed it. I focused on breathing and moving well and trusting my strength and my training. It worked! Yay!
I ran strong to the finish and smiled the whole way! As I crossed the finish line, one woman told me “you look so happy!” and I said, “I AM happy!” Not only had I turned that race around, but I had PRd!
My sweet, lovely Patrick was in the park gift shop (so classic) and missed my finish. LOL. In his defense, my phone had been on airplane mode because it was draining battery weirdly fast, and the last he had heard from me was when I texted “this is the worst I’ve ever felt in a race” hours earlier. Shouldn’t have doubted me, hater! 😉 He had finished literally hours before me and went back to the Airbnb to walk Alaska.
I can’t get over how crazy it is that I went from feeling so bad that I wanted to quit to PRing my 50k. I set my previous PR in November on a pretty easy course while doing a silly run in DC during marathon training. Yesterday I broke that by 14 minutes. Absolutely nuts. I love running.
After the race, we ordered way too much food at Pies & Pints and then lounged around before going to bed.
Sunday
I didn’t sleep very well Saturday night due to a headache and generally being very sore. There was snow in the forecast, so we’d decided to wake up early to scope out the situation. If snow was sticking on the ground, we were going to pack up and leave ASAP to try to outrun it. If it wasn’t, we were going to go to Tudor’s Biscuit World for breakfast before heading out. Fortunately for us, the snow was melting as soon as it landed!
We went to Tudor’s Biscuit World last year after the race and knew it had to become an annual thing. Could I eat this regularly? Absolutely not. In fact, my stomach hurts today from the pizza and biscuit sandwich. Worth it!
We also stopped at Rangefinder Coffee before heading back to the Airbnb to head home. The drive felt like a slog and my legs were achy being in the car for so long, but such is life. We drove through quite a bit of sleet but managed to avoid any serious snow. Success!
I love this race and this little town. I can’t wait to be back in April for the 100k! Here’s to some productive training until then.
Love,
JN
Juliana Moves 
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