Harmonie Half Report

by Craig Lubeke

With a trail half marathon coming to New Harmony and the State Park that I worked at during college summers, I pretty much had to sign up, even if I had been in low mileage mode dating back to the LBL 50. Many of the BOR have made the trek over to Harmonie for some trail running, but if you haven’t, I think it is the most runner friendly trail in the area. Not too rugged, but certainly challenging, and some nice wooded views of the ravines in the park. With this in mind, I was pleasantly surprised to see over well 100 runners in attendance, including several BOR faces.

Race morning was warm, but not sweltering like the last time a few of us did a race over there and gun time temps were approaching 100 degrees. The race team promised four water stops and I contemplated running without my handheld bottle. Considering that temps would likely continue to rise, I decided to go ahead and carry. This proved to be a smart call, as the first two water stops were MIA when we reached them. No race provided water until mile 6 had me very thankful that I was self- supported and feeling bad for those that were dependent on the race provided hydration. The race group 40lb Sledgehammer has done a nice job of bringing some diverse events to the area, but I think they are still honing in the details of putting on a clean race. Hopefully they will continue to dial that sort of stuff in.

To their credit, Sledgehammer wisely chose to do wave starts to keep the trail congestion to a minimum. I think this worked well for everyone. I was in wave one, and as we left the line for the first quarter mile or so on the main park road before dipping onto the gravel service lane, I reminded myself that I wasn’t really in any racing form and to settle in at a comfort level if I wanted to enjoy the full distance. The wave included 30 or so runners, with everyone easing into their pace without much separation at this point. Easy chatter filled the trail and everyone seemed to be enjoying the morning.

 Before mile 1, we split off of the service road onto the park hiking trail and headed up a fairly steep, but short, climb away from the Wabash River bottoms and up into the hills of the park. This climb was the only point where there was a bit of the trail accordion effect, as people hadn’t sorted their trail pace out yet. I wouldn’t consider this course super hilly, but there is enough elevation to make it a factor for sure. This first couple of miles on the older park hiking trails is also the section with the most roots to keep your eye on. I was reminded of this somewhere shortly after mile 1 when I gave my right ankle a pretty good tweak. After an only partially muffled dammit, and an uncomfortable quarter mile, it seemed to settle down for the rest of the day.

After passing the first missing water stop at the park road around mile 2, I was looking ahead to getting off of the wide, but root gnarled walking/hiking trail and onto the newer mountain bike trails for the remainder of the course starting at around mile 3. The group had strung itself out by this time. With the race leaders well ahead, I was running in a loose group of 6-7 guys and was just fine pacing along at a moderate speed without pushing anything yet.  I knew that smoother trail, as well as some climbs that would tax, were ahead. The start of the mountain bike trail loop was also supposed to be water stop 2. I was disappointed to see it missing as well when our small group of guys passed.

Heading onto the narrower single track, three of the guys running just in front of me must not have been comfortable, as they immediately hit the brakes hard as soon as we transitioned from the three wide hiking trail. Passing them, I kept my eye on a local runner up ahead that had pulled away as we moved to the narrower section.  Running comfortably hard, I made my goal to keep in contact with him without really getting into the red zone. The next several miles of the trail passed with no contact from behind and just intermittent glances of color from my rabbit ahead in the woods. Coming back to the shared water stop2/3 location, I was pleased to see that water had finally arrived, and none too soon. With the heat rising, I was in need of a refill for sure. My rabbit hadn’t stopped long, so I made a quick transition out and continued chasing him as we headed into the ravine area of the course which tracks back and forth for the next several mile alternating sections of climb and descent.

Nothing crazy, but it does add up. Similarly here, I was just following my lead runner and after a few miles of chase, I was able to make the pass as I wondered whether it would hold. This section is the prettiest of the course in addition to the most challenging. The elevation change offers some nice views of the surrounding woods and the low number of runners in the race meant you were mostly running solo, though the serpentine nature of the trail does allow you to catch periodic glimpses of others they may be a few hundred yards ahead or behind. Overall, a neat thing to experience if you are used to groups on the road. Bird calls are far better than horns blaring.

Mile 9 brought a welcome site with a water stop manned my none other than Jeff Williams and Cheryl Peerman Gray. Cheryl quickly filled my bottle while Jeff filled gave me a heads up that the next two runners were 2 minutes or so ahead. Dumping an ice cold cup on my head, I nearly went into cardiac arrest, which would have been poor strategy. Surviving, and considering my 2 minute deficit, I assumed my only race consideration was keeping my former rabbit behind me. As he rolled into the station, I quickly headed out to finish the race.

Much to my surprise, around mile 10 I passed another runner who must have been too aggressive with his pacing earlier. He was doing a fair bit of walking, so I passed on the left with an encouraging word and kept moving, mindful that I had a guy right on my tail.

Closing out the trail section to mile 11, I had a bit of calf cramping in the final few hill climbs. I think the escalating heat and limited early water were probably partially to blame for those. I was expecting a bit more distance on the road to round out 13.1, but surprisingly a half mile of pavement brought me to the finish line and the faces of David Eckardt and Kevin Gerteisen who ran their traditional strong races. A second overall for David and a Masters win for Kevin. As I visited with other runners at the finish, many of the women of BOR came across the line all smiles and putting up good showings as well.

While there were a few first time race challenges, I think the quality of the trail at Harmonie offsets those minor setbacks. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of my run. Smart pacing to start does seem to help!

Thanks for reading my review of the inaugural Harmonie Half. There was some chatter of incorporating other distances next year, so stay tuned for that. Regardless, I intend to return and I hope we have a large BOR group again. See you on the road