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Promise Land finish

Bill Potts, David Horton, and Sophie Speidel at the finish of the Promise Land 50K.

David Horton’s Promise Land 50K is a rite of Spring for many ultrarunners on the East Coast. This beautiful course climbs up and over the Appalachian Mountains from the East, crosses into the Shenandoah Valley, and then returns up and over back to the start. In typical Horton fashion, nothing is easy. The run crosses the Blue Ridge at Apple Orchard Mountain (4,225 feet), the tallest mountain in central Virginia (headed South to North, this point is also the last time the Appalachian Trail rises above 4,200 feet until New England).

Typically held the last weekend in April, it is also a feast for nature lovers. While Spring has sprung in the valleys it is still Winter on the ridges, where the flora up high have yet to sprout and bloom. Runners are magically transported several weeks in time as they climb and descend. The lack of foliage also means that the panoramic views from the mountaintops are largely unobstructed.

While the race is undeniably difficult, Horton allows a generous 10-hour cutoff, meaning anyone with the will to finish can. It is this unique combination of beauty, difficulty, and accessibility that makes Promise Land a universal favorite for anyone who has done it.

Course description

GPS track and altitude profile

A perspective view of the course is shown below. See the course in Google Maps For an interactive view. To see it in 3-D, download this Google Earth file (requires Google Earth to view, a free download).

Click to enlarge

GPS track of the Promise Land 50K

Perspective view of the Promise Land 50K course looking northeast from the Shenandoah Valley. The data were recorded with a Garmin Forerunner 305 during the 2008 event.

The corresponding altitude profile of the run is shown below. The 7,300 feet of climb is what I measured in 2007 using a Polar S625X heart rate monitor; the measured altitude from the Garmin Forerunner 305 (which is derived from GPS trilateration) is not as precise as the barometric altimeters used in the Polar HRMs.

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Altitude profile of the Promise Land 50K

Altitude profile of the Promise Land 50K, recorded with a Garmin Forerunner 305. The race is 34 miles long, with 7,300 feet of climb. The locations of the eight aid stations are also indicated.

Course narrative

The race begins with a steep “in-your-face” climb of 2,300 feet during the first 4 miles. It starts on a gravel road, which gets progressively steeper toward the top. At the first aid station (AS 1, Overstreet Creek Road, mile 2.6), the course turns onto the double-track Glenwood Horse Trail which switchbacks up and over the ridge of Onion Mountain (3,600 feet) near mile 4. Down the other side, the course traverses the eastern flank of the Blue Ridge for the next 5 miles, offering expansive views to the east of the Virginia Piedmont below. The smooth running surface, and overall downhill inclination, make for some fast running between AS 1 and AS 2.

After AS 2 (Reed Creek, mile 7.1), the course leaves the Glenwood Horse Trail and climbs up to the crest of the ridge, crossing the Blue Ridge Parkway near the summit of Apple Orchard Mountain. This is the highest point of the course (4,050 feet). From there, it’s a nice runnable fire-road descent down to AS 3 (Sunset Fields, mile 13.7).

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Sunset Fields

The view to the west from AS 3 (Sunset Fields, mile 13.7) on the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is also a trailhead for day hikes down to Apple Orchard Falls.

After taking in the breathtaking view of the Shenandoah Valley to the West, runners leave Sunset Fields and begin a 4.1-mile plummet on moderately technical single-track. This is the most beautiful part of the course, particularly the descent along the cascading Cornelieus Creek.

The midpoint of the run is AS 4 (Cornelius Creek, mile 17.8). Most runners can double their split time here for an accurate projected finishing time. The aid station, situated at the trailhead to Apple Orchard Falls, is revisited 8.1 miles later before the last major climb of the day. From AS 4, the course runs down a runnable dirt road for 2 miles, and then turns off onto the single-track Whitetail Trail. From there it’s another mile to AS 5 (Colon Hollow, mile 20.8).

The next 5.1 miles follow meandering grassy fire-roads through dense forest. Most of this section is gradually uphill, finally topping out at 2,000 feet. The last mile is a runnable descent along a small creek back to AS 6 (Cornelius Creek, mile 25.9).

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Apple Orchard Falls

The main falls, as seen from the viewing platform along the trail.

The good news is that there are only 8 miles to go from Cornelius Creek to the finish, most of which are downhill. The bad news is that there is a 3-mile 2,000-foot climb first. The climb goes straight up a ravine, paralleling North Creek most of the way. Two-thirds of the way up the climb, the trail passes right under Apple Orchard Falls, a multi-tier cascade down a sharp cliff some 150 feet high. The National Forest Service has constructed wooden bridges with viewing platforms here, and have reinforced the nearby trail with several hundred wooden steps (the steps are spaced just-so that you’ll wish you had spent more time on the Stairmaster in the gym). Things level off a bit above the falls, before a final steep pitch up to the ridge at AS 7 (Sunset Fields, mile 29.0).

Leaving Sunset Fields, you are legitimately “home free.” After a short climb up to the crest of Onion Mountain, runners retrace their initial steps down the Glenwood Horse Trail and down the gravel road to the finish. It’s the fastest 5 miles I know of in ultrarunning.

The run is summarized in the table below, which lists split and cumulative mileages that I measured for the aid stations, as well as my split times. The total distance that I measured was 34.0 miles, which is somewhat longer than the 31.75 miles Horton claims in the detailed course description. Most of the discrepancy occurs between AS 1 and AS 2 (which is 1.1 miles longer than advertised) and AS 2 and AS 3 (which is 0.7 miles long).

Race report

Sean Andrish took things out hard from the get-go and was out of sight within the first quarter mile. I train 20–30 miles a week with Sean, but I’ve never seen him go like that in our weekday runs. Apparently our “speedwork” and “hillwork” days are his recovery days.

I hoped to keep contact with the rest of the lead group on the road, but slowly drifted back within a couple of miles. I was more concerned with taking this first climb relatively easy (hoping to save some for later), and I even walked several hundred meters near the top. Near the top of the road I caught up with Harland Peelle, and we came into the first aid station together (neither of us stopping).

Running from AS 1 to AS 2 had a feeling of déjà vu, as this section was also in last month’s Terrapin Mountain Marathon and, once again, I was doing it with Harland. By the time we reached AS 2 we had opened up quite a gap — at least half a mile — on the field behind us. Similarly, there was no one in sight up ahead. We seemingly had the course to ourselves.

Harland and I ran more-or-less together until AS 4 (Cornelius Creek, mile 17.8), at which point I opened up a small gap on the gravel road after the aid station. Shortly after turning onto the single-track Whitetail Trail, I ran into David Horton, who was out marking course, coming the opposite way. He indicated that I was in seventh place, with Chris Reed about 2 minutes up ahead and fading. I was very comfortable with my position, as a top-ten finish seemed quite secure at this time, and really had no interest in racing.

Harland had been out of sight for the last mile or so, but it wasn’t until AS 5 (Colon Hollow, mile 20.8) that I realized just how far back he was. I was about a minute out of the aid station when I heard the volunteers cheering and ringing cowbells heralding Harland’s arrival. With this sizable gap, and Chris “just up the road,” I decided now was the time to (quoting cycling commentator Phil Ligget) “turn the screws” on Harland and try to reel in Chris. The trail traverses in an out of several small ravines in this section, enabling runners to see up to a quarter mile ahead and behind. I never saw Harland again, and I never caught Chris. Though I didn’t realize it at the time, the present situation was remarkably similar to the finish at the Terrapin Mountain Marathon, where Chris and Harland finished, respectively, just ahead and just behind me.

There is a short 200 meter out-and-back spur to AS 6, and it was here that I first saw Chris. He was leaving the spur as I was entering it — within striking distance for sure, but still a healthy lead nonetheless. I was actually more interested in how close Harland — and anyone else — was behind me. As I turned up the trail to start the climb up Apple Orchard Falls, I saw Harland on the way into the spur. Chris was closer.

I was still “running my own race” on the climb up Apple Orchard, when I finally saw Chris in one of the switchbacks above the main falls, perhaps one mile from the top. I was running sections he was walking, and steadily gained on him over the next half mile. By the time I passed Chris, another runner, wearing orange shorts and no shirt, was visible up ahead. This was Christopher Clarke, who I caught as we entered AS 7 (Sunset Fields, mile 29.0).

A third runner, Jordan Whitlock (running his first ultra), was in the aid station when we arrived. I believe he had been running in second place, but the climb up Apple Orchard had taken its toll. Christopher Clarke and I left the aid station together, running in fourth-fifth place now. He took the point, but on the short climb up Onion Mountain I made a concerted effort to pass him. My goal was to get out of sight on the trail section, as I did not want to have to race anyone once we got to the road. While I looked back several times down the last descent, I never saw anyone again. I ended up finishing fourth, setting a PR of 5:07:32 and taking over 13 minutes off of last year’s time.

Heart rate

The graph below displays my heart rate during the race. Superimposed on this plot are my estimated heart rate training zones: zone 1 (117–131 bpm), zone 2 (132–145 bpm), zone 3 (146–160 bpm), zone 4 (161–174 bpm), and zone 5 (175+ bpm).

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Heart rate profile

Heart rate versus distance for the 2008 Promise Land 50K, recorded with a Garmin Forerunner 305. Background colors represent heart rate zones (zone 1, zone 2, zone 3, zone 4, zone 5).

The majority of the race was spent in zone 3 and zone 4, which is also evident in the histogram of the heart rate data shown below.

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Heart rate histogram

The overall mean heart rate, μ, is 160.1 bpm and the standard deviation, σ, is 6.3 bpm. Estimated percentages of maximum heart rate (MHR) are also shown for reference. The dotted curve is an ideal Gaussian distribution.

The histogram shows a normal distribution, with the most frequent heart rate near the mean (μ = 160.1 bpm) and the other data spread evenly about this central peak. That there are no significant gaps or extraneous peaks, and because the overall spread is reasonably narrow (σ = 6.3 bpm), indicates that I was able to maintain a consistent effort throughout the race. There is also a significant peak at 162 bpm (over 18% of the race was spent at this heart rate). This is well below my estimated anaeorobic threshold, and the fact that this heart rate was so resonant probably indicates that this tempo is a good “sweet spot” for me.

Final word

Somewhere up on the Blue Ridge, amidst the lush green forests and the joyful twittering and chirping of songbirds, I realized that, for me, there are certain races epitomize the seasons here in the mid-Atlantic. Nothing embodies the muggy summer days like Kevin Sayer’s Catoctin 50K. For Fall, it’d have to be David Horton’s Clark Zealand’s Mountain Masochist 50M, which traverses the mountains just north of here during their peak fall color. I’ve never run in colder weather than at Dennis Herr’s TWOT 100 in February. And when I think of spring in Virginia — green leaves, budding wildflowers, swollen streams, and a symphony of songbirds — Promise Land is the thing that comes to mind. It’s a race that really puts our beautiful mountains on display, and is certainly one of my favorites.

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Finish of the Terrapin Mountain Marathon

The scene at the finish of the Terrapin Mountain Marathon. That’s David Horton getting friendly with a female finisher. Terrapin Mountain looms in the distance.

“You’re going to like this one a lot more than the last one.” That’s what David Horton told me at Saturday morning’s check-in of the Terrapin Mountain Marathon, “the last one” referring to his Holiday Lake 50K. While this wasn’t saying much, Horton was right — I really did like this one.

This was the inaugural year of the Terrapin Mountain Marathon, and the first time in nearly a decade that the half marathon was run. Since the race is relatively unknown, I’ll first describe the course and then describe how my race went.

Course description

Terrapin Mountain is the first race in a new series directed by Clark Zealand, an accomplished ultrarunner and “Horton disciple.” The race starts and finishes at the Sedalia Center near Sedalia, VA, which is in between Bedford and Big Island on Route 122. It’s the perfect venue for this event, with a large covered pavilion for pre- and post-run festivities and a spacious field for camping with ample parking.

GPS track and altitude profile

A perspective view of the course is shown below. See the course in Google Maps For an interactive view. To see it in 3-D, download this Google Earth file (requires Google Earth to view, a free download).

Click image to enlarge

GPS track of the Terrapin Mountain Marathon

Perspective view of the Terrapin Mountain course looking north, near Bedford, VA. The data were recorded with a Garmin Forerunner 305 during the 2008 event.

The corresponding altitude profile of the run is shown below. The 7,500 feet of climb is what is reported on the Terrapin Mountain Marathon website.

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Altitude profile of the Terrapin Mountain Marathon

The “marathon” is actually 29.7 miles long, with 7,500 feet of climb. The locations of the six aid stations are also indicated.

Course narrative

After a 0.75-mile flat road warm-up, the course turns onto a gravel road that becomes progressively steeper and more technical as it ascends into the Jefferson National Forest. The long, unrelenting climb switchbacks up a deep draw that parallels Reed Creek, a beautiful stream with numerous cascades.

The climb crests the ridge at Camping Gap, mile 3.9, and the first aid station (AS 1). The course “T’s” into the Hellgate 100K course here (Camping Gap is the third aid station of that run), and follows Hellgate over the undulating grassy fireroads for 8.5 miles to Overstreet Creek Road and AS 3.

Here the course doubles back and returns along the same route back to Camping Gap. The return stretch back to Camping Gap (AS 5) is somewhat easier, as this section is mostly downhill in this direction. Along the way is an unmanned aid station (AS 2 & 4) about 1.4 miles from Camping Gap.

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Summit of Terrapin Mountain

The summit of Terrapin Mountain. Photo courtesy of Clark Zealand.

While the first 20 miles of the run are quite runnable, the race changes character dramatically after Camping Gap II. From the aid station, the course ascends a steep and technical trail to the summit of Terrapin Mountain (3,506 feet), the race namesake. At the top is a short spur to a viewpoint, where a book is left for runners to tear out a page as proof of their presence on the summit. (I tore out an extra page, trying to sell it, to no avail, on the short out-and-back to runners behind me).

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Fat Man’s Misery

David Horton working to get his fat ass through “Fat Man’s Misery.” Photo courtesy of Clark Zealand.

Shortly after the summit, there is a tight squeeze through a rock fissure called “Fat Man’s Misery,” reminiscent of the route on the summit of Old Rag Mountain in Shenandoah National Park. Then the bottom drops out, to the tune of 2,200 feet in 2.5 miles, down to the last aid station at Terrapin Mountain Lane (AS 6), mile 24.3. There is a short out-and-back spur to the aid station itself, a final opportunity to size-up the competition for the last 5 miles of the race.

For the next 3.2 miles, the course follows an undulating doubletrack traverse in and out of a dozen or more ravines along the mountain’s flank. At mile 28, runners cross knee-deep Reed Creek, and then retrace their initial steps back down the fireroad to the finish at the Sedalia Center.

The run is summarized in the table below, which lists split and cumulative mileages that I measured for the aid stations and my split times.

My run

From my head

“I just want to run easy and finish in the top 20.” That’s what I told Don Padfield, my usual “partner in crime” in going out too fast, before the start. I haven’t been running much — or particularly well — lately. Tired of suffering in these things, my goal for Terrapin was to run a controlled race and enjoy it. I was also curious to see how I would do running “easy,” rather than going redline like I usually do.

I ran the first couple of miles with the leaders who, it seemed to me, were taking it pretty easy themselves. Things shook up as the first climb got steep and I settled into the second wave of runners behind the lead pack.

I was running in 10^th place or so at Camping Gap and in good company, with Harland Peelle immediately ahead and Don Padfield right behind me. A few hundred meters separated each of us. On the runnable fireroad section, my goal was to keep Harland in sight, which I was able to do for the most part. There were, however, several other runners who caught me on this 8.5-mile stretch, and there were about a half-dozen of us running together into AS 3.

We saw the leaders at the turnaround, perhaps a half mile from the aid station. Eric Grossman had a healthy lead on Jonathan Basham and the eventual winner, Drew Ponder. My training partner, Sean Andrish, was having a bad day and was in a group of three in 4^th-5^th-6^th place. Upcoming Jeremy Ramsey, who is running really well now, was also in this trio.

Harland, Don, Jack Kurisky, and I ran the fast, grassy roads together back to Camping Gap, each of us continually switching places at the front like a cycling paceline. Somehow we left Don near the unmanned aid station (AS 4) before the gap, and Harland, Jack, and I came into Camping Gap (AS 5) together. I was the only one who stopped, grabbing a couple of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to eat on the climb up Terrapin Mountain.

For the last few miles, Harland and I had been discussing the mileages (since I had them on my watch) and things didn’t seem to be adding up. The second loop of the run had to be eight or nine miles long, and we had already exceeded 20 miles before this aid station. The volunteers at the aid station notified me that this was mile 18, but my watch said 21. Horton miles.

I caught Jack and then Harland on the steep climb up Terrapin, and Harland and I ran together from the summit and down the long descent to the last aid station. During this section we passed Chris Clarke, who was having an awful day suffering from mono. Harland and I were moving well, and I knew we would have a top ten finish.

Just before reaching the last aid station, we saw Chris Reed heading out of the aid station. “We can catch him,” I said to Harland. A few orange slices, and we were out of the aid station in pursuit.

I was a little stronger than Harland on the climb out of the aid station, and gapped him by about 100 meters going into the 3.2-mile traverse along the flank of Terrapin Mountain. Throughout this section, Chris Reed regularly popped in an out view with each traverse across the dozen or so ravines in this section (these are apparent in the GPS track above). I was never able to reel him in and, if anything, he was pulling away. My intent now was to try to stay ahead of Harland, anticipating he would catch me on the last road section since he is a much stronger road runner. I wanted to finish with him.

Finally, the gushing sound of Reed Creek was heard as I rounded the last of the ravines. I wasted no time in plowing through the knee-deep water, and turned left down the final descent. Chris was periodically visible up ahead on the straightaways and, as we descended, it became clear that I was slowly gaining on him. With one mile to go, I decided to go for it and surged to bridge up to him, hoping that such a move would discourage him and allow me to pass without much of a fight from him. I caught him with about half a mile to go, and then we ran stride-for-stride for about a quarter-mile. Chris then picked up the pace and I, having no answer, coasted in for 8^th place overall. Over the last mile, my average heart rate was 167 beats per minute (bpm) and my average pace was 6:05 minutes per mile.

From my heart

The graph below displays my heart rate during the race. Superimposed on this plot are my estimated heart rate training zones: zone 1 (117–131 bpm), zone 2 (132–145 bpm), zone 3 (146–160 bpm), zone 4 (161–174 bpm), and zone 5 (175+ bpm). The majority of the race was spent in zone 3. Note the finishing kick in the last mile, where I reached my max heart rate of the day, 171 bpm. Saving the “best for last” is much different from how I’ve done it in the past.

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Heart rate profile

Heart rate versus distance for the 2008 Terrapin Mountain Marathon, recorded with a Garmin 305 GPS/HRM. Background colors represent heart rate zones (zone 1, zone 2, zone 3, zone 4, zone 5).

It is also interesting to to view the altitude and heart rate profiles side by side.

The distribution of the heart rate data is shown in the histogram below. The dotted curve is an ideal Gaussian distribution.

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Heart rate histogram

Histogram of heart rate data from the 2008 Terrapin Mountain Marathon. Estimated percentages of maximum heart rate (MHR) are also shown for reference. The overall mean heart rate, μ, is 152.8 bpm and the standard deviation, σ, is 7.0 bpm.

The data are more-or-less normally distributed (i.e., with the data centered about the mean), indicating to me that I ran a well-controlled run. Folks with degrees in exercise physiology are welcome to chime in here. It is noteworthy, too, that the overall effort for this run was much less than how I’ve raced similar distances in the past, perhaps an indication that a slower start is the way to go.

Bottom line

Pros

Beautiful, “big mountain” course during a great time of the year when the leaves have yet to sprout and the views are abundant. It has all the signatures of a great race, directed by people who know what they are doing.

Cons

I personally didn’t care for the out-and-back between Camping Gap and Overstreet Creek Road, primarily because we do this same road in both Promise Land and Hellgate (it can get old). That said, when it’s clear the views of the Shenandoah Valley all along this section are spectacular. The half marathon course is, in my mind, the best “bang for the buck.” An interesting alternative would be to do it twice. Oh, and it could be three miles shorter.

Final word

Maybe it was the slower start. Perhaps it was because this was a relatively “short” race by ultra standards. Or it could’ve been that I ran with great company most of the day. Terrapin Mountain was great trail run in the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains of central Virginia. While I am still not in “kick ass and take names” shape (Mike Bur’s phrase), I ran a comfortable race and was pretty strong at the end (although not strong enough).

It’s a little hard to nail down, since training — especially for ultramarathons — is so variable. My most intense, long workouts come from races themselves. Other weekend long runs tend to be more social and are not very strenuous. I rarely do speed work and never hit the track (although I should).

While weekend long runs are often considered the foundation of ultramarathon training, I think it’s the mid-length runs during the week that really count. (I know several runners that are at every event every weekend, but are not particularly fast). In this article, I’ll describe two typical training runs — one on the road and one on the trail — that are the core of my training.

Road training run

I lived in Chicago, IL, for four years (2002–2006) while getting my PhD at Northwestern University, and it was here that I learned to really run by training with a bunch of roadies at Universal Sole. On the road you develop turn-over and consistency, which translates into stronger running on the trail.

I hated the roads at first — mostly because they hurt — but I eventually learned to appreciate what going out for a 10-mile run meant. And as I learned to like the roads, I learned to love the trails (primarily because they seemed easier). At least half of my daily miles today are on the road.

Plotted below is a heart rate profile for typical mid-week road run, which I consider to be the “bread and butter” of my training. These are usually 60–90 minute workouts, generally run at 150–160 beats per minute (bpm) or 79–83% of maximum heart rate (MHR) at a pace of 6:30–7:30 minutes per mile.

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Heart rate profile from a road training run

Heart rate versus distance from a recent midweek road run on the Mount Vernon Trail in Washington, DC. The 11.9-mile run took 82 minutes (6:53 pace, relatively constant), at an overall mean heart rate of 157 bpm.

Trail training run

My midweek trail runs are run at a similar intensity (150–160 bpm), but the overall pace is at least one minute per mile slower than for a road run. The graph below shows data from a trail run last week in Rock Creek Park.

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Heart rate profile from a trail training run

Heart rate versus distance from a recent midweek trail run in Rock Creek Park in Washington, DC. The 11.4-mile run took 94 minutes (8:15 pace, with a 1.25-mile interval in the middle), at an overall mean heart rate of 152 bpm.

This particular run is actually a little unusual, as I did a 1.25-mile interval on the C&O Canal towpath (which is flat and fast). This type of interval, during which I reached 180 bpm and averaged 6:10 pace, constitutes my speed work, and is about as hard and fast as I ever run (I hit 180 bpm about three times a year). I do a run like this perhaps once a week. The rest of the run was on single track trails, and is representaive of a typical trail training run.

Roads versus trails

Comparing the two profiles, the effort in the road run is generally harder and much more consistent. It is also easier to “dial-in” a heart rate, making planned workouts more precise on the road than on the trail. Running on roads is also much faster (by over a minute per mile), enabling more effective use of training time. The trail run, by virtue of hillier and more technical terrain, has natural periodicity in intensity and is thus more like a fartlek run. This can make interval training of this type easier on the trail.

Training versus racing

Comparing these data above to those from races, it is pretty clear that I generally race at a higher intensity than I train.

New to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is an integrated backup solution called Time Machine. To use Time Machine, simply plug an external hard drive into your Mac and configure it as the Time Machine back-up volume. Time Machine will now automatically perform hourly back-ups of your files.

While the periodic back-ups run more-or-less transparently in the background, one slight annoyance I’ve had is with the icon of the Time Machine Volume  appearing on the Desktop, as shown in the figure to the left. The genius of Time Machine is its “out of sight, out of mind” approach, and the persistent Desktop icon (for a drive you should not care to have access to anyway) runs counter to the original intent. Apparently I am not alone, as this complaint has also been brought up on macosxhints.com. Here I’ll discuss two solutions for removing the Time Machine Volume  from the Desktop.

Rename the drive using diskutil

In Mac OS X, as in most Unix systems, hidden files or folders have a period or dot (“.”) as the first character of the item’s name. Most of the system files, for example, are kept invisible this way. Therefore, to make the Time Machine Volume  invisible, we simply need to prepend a dot to the volume name. The problem is, Finder does not let you do this.

It can be done from the command-line, however, using the diskutil command. To show you how it works, open up a Terminal window and look for the mounted volumes on your machine by typing ls -l /Volumes/:

% ls -l /Volumes/
total 8
drwxrwxr-t@ 32 Keith  Keith  1156 Mar 19 14:40 MacProBackup
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root   admin     1 Feb 27 09:23 Macintosh HD -> /

% ls -l /Volumes/
total 8
drwxrwxr-t@ 32 Keith  Keith  1156 Mar 19 14:40 MacProBackup
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root   admin     1 Feb 27 09:23 Macintosh HD -> /

The drive MacProBackup is the one we want to rename. We will rename it .MacProBackup by typing :

Test

% diskutil rename /Volumes/MacProBackup .MacProBackup
Volume on disk5s3 renamed to .MacProBackup

Now when you look for the mounted volumes, the back-up drive is no longer visible.

% ls -l /Volumes/
total 8
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  admin  1 Feb 27 09:23 Macintosh HD -> /

To see the hidden volumes, use the ls -al command:

% ls -al /Volumes/
total 24
drwxrwxrwt@  5 root   admin   170 Mar 19 15:14 .
drwxrwxr-t  37 root   admin  1326 Feb 11 23:54 ..
-rw-rw-rw-@  1 Keith  admin  6148 Dec 20 13:04 .DS_Store
drwxrwxr-t@ 32 Keith  Keith  1156 Mar 19 14:40 .MacProBackup
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root   admin     1 Feb 27 09:23 Macintosh HD -> /

to confirm that the drive has been renamed.

Return now to the Finder. In order for the change to take effect, you may need to relaunch the Finder. Holding the Option key, click and hold the Finder icon in the Dock until the contextual menu appears and choose “Relaunch.” (There are several other ways to relaunch Finder as well). Note that the Time Machine Volume  is no longer on the Desktop, but the drive is still visible under “Devices” in the Finder sidebar:

This is a nice feature, since you can conveniently eject the drive from the sidebar if/when you really want to unmount the volume. If you don’t want the drive appearing in the sidebar, you may manually drag it off the sidebar or use the AppleScript solution below.

Using AppleScript

As suggested in the macosxhints.com article, AppleScript can also be used to make our MacProBackup back-up volume invisible. Open Script Editor and run the following script:

quit application "Finder"
tell application "System Events" to set visible of disk "MacProBackup" to false
delay 1
launch application "Finder"
delay 1
tell application "System Events" to quit

Note that with this method, the volume is now removed from both the Desktop and the Finder sidebar. When you mount this volume on another machine, however, the drive will be visible. The volume .MacProBackup that was renamed with diskutil, on the other hand, will be invisible on all machines.

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Rehydrate Electrolyte Sports Drink for Dogs

The latest in canine electrolyte replenishment.

Rehydrate Electrolyte Sports Drink for Dogs is the first rehydration supplement for dogs, designed to replenish lost electrolytes and spent energy to be given before, during, or after workouts or other vigorous activity. The tablets, once dissolved in water, provide an effervescent performance drink fortified with canine-appropriate levels of sodium, chloride, potassium, and vitamin C.

Call me a skeptic, but I think this looks suspiciously like NUUN. Don’t take my word for it, however — see for yourself.

Much has been written about this unique event (see the Hellgate website for several race reports). Aaron Schwartzbard (five-time Hellgate finisher and winner in 2007), has written an excellent course summary. His mileages, however, are based on David Horton’s published numbers, which we know are never accurate. During this year’s race, I wore a Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS, and in this report I provide what I believe to be accurate mileages for this event. I’ll also tell you how it went.

GPS track of the Hellgate course

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GPS track of the 2007 Hellgate 100K

GPS track of David Horton’s Hellgate 100K near Buchanan, VA. The data were recorded with a Garmin Forerunner 305 during the 2007 event.

Google Earth

For an interactive 3-D view of the course, download this GPS track of the Hellgate course (requires Google Earth, a free download).

Altitude profile

Hellgate’s altitude profile is shown below. The 13,500 feet of climb is an average of what I measured during the 2003 (13,845 feet) and 2004 (13,220 feet) events, using a Polar S625X heart rate monitor; the altitude from the Garmin GPS is not as precise as the barometric altimeters used in the Polar HRMs.

Click to enlarge.

Altitude profile of David Horton’s Hellgate 100K

The race is actually 66 miles long, with 13,500 feet of climb. (In 2007, the Headforemost Mountain aid station was moved because of ice on the Blue Ridge Parkway; the plot above indicates the usual location at the top of the ridge).

Aid station mileages

Measured miles

The mileages that I measured for the aid stations, and the distances between them, are shown below. (For archival purposes, this table lists the mileage of the usual location of Headforemost Mountain; in 2007, this aid station was at mile 22.5). I also list how long each section took me to run.

Horton miles

The following table shows the official event mileages, and compares them with the measured values from above. The last column indicates the discrepancy between “Horton miles” and real miles (blue indicating a section that is shorter than what Horton says and red indicating a section that is longer). Few people will be surprised that most (all but three) sections are long. The section from AS 8 (Bobblets Gap) to AS 9 (Day Creek) is really long (by 1.2 miles).

How my race went

This year’s race was my third Hellgate, having finished in 2003 and 2004. My personal record (PR) was 12:52:58, set in 2004 when I was third behind Sean Andrish and Aaron Schwartzbard. I didn’t have any particular goals for this year, although I felt pretty confident that I would break my PR. If Aaron had a bad day, I also thought I had an outside shot of winning.

The figure below shows heart rate (shown in orange), superimposed onto the altitude profile (in blue).

Click to enlarge.

Altitude and heart rate profiles

Altitude and heart rate profiles recorded during the 2007 Hellgate 100K. Altitude is in feet and heart rate is in beats per minute (bpm).

Start to AS 3 (Camping Gap, mile 14.0)

As usual, I went out hard. For the first eight miles of the race I was nearly anaerobic, which was a result of running all of the early road sections (virtually all of which are uphill). The heart rate settled down after I hit the singletrack after AS 2 (Petites Gap, mile 7.5) and continued to decline over the next seven miles. Up until this point I was in the lead, but Don Padfield and another runner passed me near the bottom of the long fire road climb up to AS 3 (Camping Gap, mile 14.0). Halfway up this climb, Aaron Schwartzbard and Serge Arbona also passed me. I had officially blown up.

I got to Camping Gap at 2:15 AM and in fifth place. The next section to Headforemost Mountain is a long 9.8 miles. In terms of elevation, this section is also the highest on the course and it is also run during the coldest part of the night (2:00–6:00 AM for most runners). It can be tough. At Camping Gap, I also learned that our drop bags would not be at Headforemost, since the Blue Ridge Parkway was closed due to ice. Things just got tougher.

The lack of drop bag access concerned me little, actually, as the temperature was quite pleasant and I had plenty of aid (Clif Bars and Clif Shot Bloks) on me. Indeed, I was more disappointed that I would not be able to shed my gloves and extra vest in my drop bag; I would have to wait until AS 5 (Jennings Creek) to to this, and also get the Ensure I had planned to have at Headforemost.

AS 3 (Camping Gap, mile 14.0) to AS 5 (Jennings Creek, mile 30.2)

While it is a long section, Camping Gap to Headformeost Mountain is mostly runnable, traversing the grassy fire roads that are also a part of the Promise Land 50K. Between that event and Hellgate, I’ve run this section of trail a half-dozen times. Nevertheless, I managed to get lost briefly by following some errant ribbons off the side of the mountain. It wasn’t much of a detour, perhaps losing four minutes, and turned out to be fortuitous. During this time, I was able to “scratch in the leaves,” relieving some gastrointestinal discomfort from eating too much at the pre-race (N.B. exercise restraint at the delicious pre-race meal — there is little time to digest it before you must run). Before getting back on course, I was passed by Mike Schuster and Sean Meissner, leaving me now in seventh place. I was running hard and not going anywhere. After getting back on course, I decided to take it down a notch, enjoy it, and let the race come to me.

I arrived at AS 4 (Headforemost), with Mike and Sean still there. We left together, but they were stronger and went ahead on the mile+ climb up to the usual location of the aid station on top of the ridge. On the trail shortly after crossing the Blue Ridge Parkway, I passed Mike and and then Sean about a mile later. This section must suit me, as this was where I made my move three years ago, passing a number of runners. At AS 5 (Jennings Creek, mile 30.2), I saw Nancy Schuster (Mike’s wife) and Jennifer Ragone who were there crewing for Mike, Aaron, and me. I dropped off my extra clothes and got some good calories in. Having passed Mike and Sean in the previous section, I was now back in the top five, and feeling good.

AS 5 (Jennings Creek, mile 30.2) to AS 8 (Bobblets Gap, mile 52.5)

About an hour after leaving Jennings Creek, around mile 36, Steven Baker blew by me moving very well up the fire road to AS 6 (Little Cove Mountain, mile 37.8). At his pace, I thought he might catch Aaron. It was now just getting daylight, and lights were no longer necessary on the fire road climb. Daylight (or darkness in a “normal” event) is a major milestone in any race, bringing a welcome change of perspective. I reached Little Cove Mountain at 6:50 AM, and ditched my lights there.

The next section to AS 7 (Bearwallow Gap, mile 46.4) is a long 8.6 miles. Leaving the aid station, there are 3.5 miles (not 2 miles, as Horton claims) of undulating grassy fire road, meandering alongside the slope of the mountain. This is a great section for stretching the legs. The road ends at an obscure trail head, which signals the beginning a relatively technical, rocky, leaf-covered, trail section all the way to Bearwallow Gap. Aaron claims it “blows dead goat,” but I like this section. Soon after reaching the single track, the sunrise’s warming glow emerged from beyond the ridges.

Horton was there at Bearwallow when I arrived at 8:30 AM. He confirmed that I was in fifth place, but could probably catch Steven and Don. I meekly responded, “How far deep do the awards go?” His response was “ten,” which he then changed to “three” in hopes of motivating me. At this point I was not really interested in racing, as Aaron was well on his way to victory. I downed an Ensure and Frappucino, thanked David, and left.

The section from AS 7 (Bearwallow Gap, mile 46.4) to AS 8 (Bobblets Gap, mile 49.5) is another long, tough section (although shorter than advertised). It is also my favorite. It begins with a fairly tough 1,000-foot climb over the course of 2.5 miles, followed by a beautiful 3.5-mile traverse with continuous views of the Shenandoah Valley to the southwest. Once on top, the traverse seems to go on forever. Be grateful and enjoy the views. The trail eventually crosses over the ridge to the east, then makes a hard right and descends down to a fire road, at the top of which is Bobblets Gap. I passed Don just before the aid station, and Steven just after it. Don would drop with a bad knee. I was now back in third place, and was told I was only 9 minutes out of second. With less than 15 miles to go, I had no chance of catching Serge. But it was reassuring to know that I was doing something right and making time on him.

AS 8 (Bobblets Gap, mile 52.5) to Finish (mile 66.0)

As in any ultra, experience and course familiarity is advantageous. This is especially true at Hellgate, since many sections are quite long. The penultimate section is particularly long.

Out of Bobblets Gap, it’s a 2.5 mile descent on dirt roads that can be tough on tired legs. The course then takes a right onto “The Forever Trail,” which is 5.3 miles of meandering leaf-strewn singletrack with three small, distinct climbs (see the profile). Accept that this section is long going in, and you won’t be disappointed.

At the gravel road is AS 9 (Day Creek, mile 60.3). From there it’s a long but walk-runnable climb up to the Blue Ridge Parkway, followed by a long runnable descent to the bottom. The last section can be done in about an hour with a little effort.

I finished in 12:26:10 (third place), taking 26 minutes off of my previous PR. A nice day in the woods.

Heart rate histogram

This graph below, which shows the distribution of heart rates during the race, is a more analytical representation of the heart rate data from above.

Heart rate histogram

Histogram of heart rate data from the 2007 Hellgate 100K. The overall mean heart rate is 142 bpm.

During Hellgate, my heart rate varied from 120 to 170 bpm, with an overall mean of 142 bpm. The curve, however, is not smooth and exhibits “resonant frequencies” at 166 bpm (corresponding to the hard effort in the first 10 miles), 150 bpm (miles 15–30), and at 134 bpm (from the entire second half of the race). Similar non-Gaussian heart rate distributions have been discussed before, and are apparently common in long races (at least how I run them).

Epilogue: The Garmin 305

This was my first real run with the Garmin 305. According to the published specifications, the rechargeable battery has a life expectancy of approximately 10 hours, limiting the device’s utility in longer ultras.

Since I was never in this race, my personal challenge during the last 20 or so miles was to “beat the Garmin,” finishing before the battery died. I was warned once during “The Forever Trail” section (approximately 11 hours in) that the battery was low, but the watch never complained again. The Garmin lasted the entire 12.5 hours, and is therefore suitable for just about any ultra, 50 miles or shorter. For longer events (e.g., 100 miles), I will continue to use my Polar S625X.

Here is a simple method more duplicating CDs or DVDs using Disk Utility in Mac OS X.

1. Insert the CD or DVD you want to copy into your Mac.
2. Launch Disk Utility (in the Applications > Utilities folder).
3. In the Finder, drag and drop the icon of the CD or DVD onto the Disc Utility icon in the Dock.
4. A window will open asking you to name the new disk image, and where to save it. Give it a name and save the image to the Desktop. In the Image Format drop-down menu, choose DVD/CD master (no encryption is necessary). Click Save, and a new disk image (with the extension “.cdr”) will be created on your Desktop.
5. Eject the original CD (the one you just copied), and insert a blank CD into your Mac.
6. In Disk Utility, look for the disk image of your CD or DVD (the “.cdr” file you just created). This is on the left-hand side of the window, at the bottom of the list of mounted drives. Select the image (the “.cdr” file) and click Burn.
7. When you are done, eject the burned disk and delete the “.cdr” file from the Desktop.

Occasionally you may want an image of an application icon in Mac OS X (perhaps you are writing a tutorial, and wish to include an image like the one to the right). Within each Mac OS X application is a package that contains an “.icns” file, which is the icon image used by the application.

Using the Finder

You may access this file through the Finder, using the following steps:

1. In the Applications folder, choose the application whose icon you wish to extract.
2. Ctrl-click (right-click) on the application icon and choose Show Package Contents.
3. A new Finder window will open. Browse to the Resources folder and look for the icon. This file usually has an “icns” extension.
4. Open Preview, and drag the “.icns” file to the Preview icon in the Dock. The image will open in Preview and from there you may save it as a “.png” or “.jpg” file. The former is the preferable format for the web; select the “Alpha” check box to preserve transparency.

Using Get Info and Preview

More on apple.

1. Select the volume, application, folder, or file whose icon you want to stamp onto another, just click the icon to select it.
2. From the File menu, choose Get Info or press Command-I to open the Info window.
3. Click the icon in the upper-left corner of the Info window to select it.
4. From the Edit menu, choose Copy or press Command-C.
5. In the Applications folder, choose the application whose icon you wish to extract.
6. Press Cmd-I to open a Get Info dialog. In the upper left of the dialog windo is a small icon. Select it and then select copy (under Edit > Copy)
7. Go to Preview and paste. Four sizes of the icon will open: 512×512, 128×128, 32×32, and 16×16 px

Using Terminal

If you prefer the command-line, see these articles on Mac OS X Hints and MacWorld about using the unix sips command to convert “.icns” files to various image file formats.