About four years ago I started trail racing, at which point in time I saw pictures of a bunch of runners walking up a very steep incline of just rocks. Someone told me the name of this race, and the details, and I always knew in the back my head I wanted to run it. Fast forward to this past February when my friend Chris posted a link for the 7 sisters trail race. I looked up pictures, and realized this was the race that I had seen years ago.          

The seven sisters is not a reference to 7 mountains in the Holyoke Range, it is rather a reference to a loose grouping of seven historically-women’s colleges in Western Mass, New York, and Pennsylvania. The colleges are: Barnard College, Bryn Mawr College, Mount Holyoke College, Radcliffe College, Smith College, Vassar College, and Wellesley College.

The day unfortunately had to start out with a two-hour drive out to Amherst, but the roads were clear, and I enjoyed the drive while listening to Howard Stern Show replays.

I started the race in wave number four. I believe there were six waves. We got going a little bit after nine, but not running. The first hill was a killer, and we were definitely just hiking up it, in some parts I’d be putting my hand on the spot where the previous persons foot had just been–it was that steep. Inevitably you would come upon someone who was a bit slower than you, but since no one really wanted to stop on the first climb, you had to make your own path around the slower people.  Sometimes this meant taking a path between two trees and cutting past them.

Eventually though we made it to the top, and just as we hit the peak I could already see the second peak. It was equally as steep as we had to go downhill first. I started counting the steep inclines in my head. When we hit incline number four I felt as if I my muscle reserves had fallen below comfortable. I didn’t know it at the time, but by the end of the race I will have counted 42 inclines like this.

There were two water stations on the course, as well as the aid station at the turnaround point. Each water station was about 2 miles apart, with the aid station at the 6 mile mark. Getting to that first water station seemed to take forever, but the next 2 miles to the next water station didn’t seem as bad. I didn’t bother stopping at either the first or second water stops, I could feel the water load in my Camelbak and knew I was still good.

Between all of the water stops, and getting to the turnaround the course was either up or down, there were very, very few flat sections. You might find a flat section, but only about 50 feet worth. I walked most of the inclines, there was just no point in wasting energy in trying to go up these hills running. The first 6 miles I intended on pushing myself. There was a 2 1/2 hour time limit in getting to the turnaround point. If we didn’t reach the turnaround by 11:30, we would be disqualified.

After the second water stop we reached the summit house. This is one section where we have to walk across the deck. They were adamant in telling us that we have to walk, and if we ran across the deck we would be disqualified. I was not loving this idea, but when we got to the summit house I absolutely welcomed the walking portion. Also the views were incredible, it was a nice break in the race. By the time our group of runners have hit the summit house, we were already coming in contact with the lead runners that were coming back.

In the next mile or so between the summit house and the turnaround point I saw my friend Chris heading back. I cheered him on as I kept going through the forest. It was also after this point that we started smelling cow patties in the farms below. The look of the forest changed a bit in this area, in my opinion it was much more beautiful. I believe we’re going through a Hemlock forest, though I don’t know for sure since I was not able to pick up my head and look up at all. I didn’t want to trip over anything so I just kept looking down and focused on where I was going.

As we approached the top of the last hill I could hear a drum beating. There were two guys at the top of the hill–one with a drum and the other singing out loud. I loved hearing these two guys, they were so happy to be there, and exuded so much energy and love! The drum also provided a point of reference, giving one a sense of distance when you didn’t want to look down at your phone or GPS watch. I think all races with serious inclines should have a drummer at the top.

I went down the last downhill before the turnaround. I quickly looked at my watch when I stopped at the turnaround, 10:51 AM! I’ve beat the cut off time by 40 minutes! I didn’t stick around too long at the turnaround, had some Gatorade, filled up on water, and grabbed two packets of Shot Bloks, just in case. Then it was back to walking up the hill. I knew this one was going to be tough, and boy was it!

Starting on the second half I knew I had some time until the final cut off of 3 PM. I decided I didn’t need to be breaking any records, and slowed my pace down. On the way back I passed over the summit house, taking in the views again, and then headed back into the very rocky parts of the trail towards the first water stop. I went past this stop again, as I really just wanted to keep going while I had energy.

Between miles eight and 10 I again walked all of the uphills, but I also started stopping a third, or halfway up to take a breather. I noticed some of the other runners doing this move, and decided to give it a try. While I don’t like to stop like that on an uphill climb, taking a breather and letting my lungs catch up really helped me to keep climbing.

When I reached the water stop at mile 10, I definitely stop in refilled the Camelbak. I had a feeling I was going to be fairly low, and I was. I also took this opportunity to take off my T-shirt, as the temperatures had climbed past 70.

During one of the climbs in the last 2 miles I had to stop because the adductor on my right leg cramped a bit. I stopped to massage it out, and drink tons of water at that point. I didn’t want to have a repeat of Moosalamoo here on this mountain. As I continued I made sure that I didn’t flail out my right leg too much, basically so that my quads and hamstrings would do the work of moving me forward rather than the adductors.

When I reached the top of what I thought was the last hill, I saw one more in front of us. I was not happy, but knew we were almost there–I just had to keep pushing.

In the final half-mile or so I ran up behind a woman who is about my pace. At some point she said that she was out of water, and I offered her some of mine. She said she was fine, because she knew we were near the end and would be getting water soon, but I offered again because I know from experience that that strategy doesn’t always work. As we continued down this last hill I knew at some point I could have passed her, but chose not to. I didn’t want to leave her knowing she was out of water. I wasn’t there to break any records, and a few minutes faster for me didn’t really matter. At one point she tripped a little and almost fell on her side, but I put my arm out and helped her maintain her balance. She made it all the way down and I came in right behind her.

3h 42m, that breaks down to about 1:31 for the first half, and 2:11 for the second.

In terms of exhaustion during the race, this was harder than my last three ultras put together. It was also the most technical course I’ve ever been on. However in terms of after the race I was definitely much more tired after both ghost train and Pinelands.