Susquehanna State Park was the site of the 19th Annual HAT Trail 50K this past Saturday in northern Maryland. My friends Doreen and Holly and I had signed up some months ago. Doreen wanted to do her first ultra to celebrate her 50th year and she had convinced Holly to join the fun. Doreen had to do little persuading to get me to do a trail run.   The weather was cool and drizzly on Saturday morning as we drove 80 miles north of DC to the park. The predicted high was supposed to be 48 with 40% chance of precipitation……ideal running conditions as far as I was concerned. The drizzle stopped right before the race. In the small world category, I recognized and spoke to John Prohira from New York a veteran of both Bandera and Rocky Raccoon trail races. I also spotted the familiar Sara Lee logo on a Bandera 25K shirt of a woman who was lining up with us at the back of the pack at the start. She apparently likes to travel to do races for her birthday and this year it was the Bandera 25K.   The race started promptly at 9 a.m. and after a short stretch through an open field, we ran the first mile on the paved park road. This route circled around and brought us back to the start/finish line where the course then opened up into a wide rolling meadow. After a quarter mile of this, the course plunged into the first of several heavily wooded sections. This was a long downhill stretch, but we seemed to be moving at a crawl. I soon discovered why. The trails were completely muddy and soaked. Northern Maryland had gotten a fair amount of snow and ice 10 days ago. Indeed someone said that only a week ago the starting area was still under snow. With the snow melt and the rain on Friday night, the trails were complete muck. Runners were tiptoeing through the mud as we went down. I resisted the urge to just take off and get ahead. This was single track in the true meaning of the term and there was nowhere to go that didn’t risk a slide down several hundred feet toward a swollen stream. After a mile or so we came to the first of several stream crossings. The water was moving fast and was just short of knee-deep. While others (including Holly) looked for a way to hop across the rocks and stay dry, I stepped right into it. The cold water felt good and cleaned the muck off my shoes. This would be an oft-recurring process throughout the day. Holly made it across relatively dry with the help of a fellow runner with trekking poles and Doreen also found her own way across the stream. We stayed in sight of each other, but I (not surprisingly for those who know me) had grown weary of hanging back on perfectly good trail and started moving forward faster. The trail stayed tight single track switchbacks meandering up and down the hills. I pushed it a bit through the mud and finally got to a park road crossing. I waited across the road for my pals. Doreen arrived first and I sent her on telling her that I would wait for Holly. We were moving so slow that I was already concerned about the 3 hr 50 min cut-off for the first 16 miles. This was supposed to be Doreen’s race so I didn’t want her to risk waiting. Holly arrived a bit later and we ran together.   This next section was a wide open meadow. The trail snaked along the park road and then twisted away to the open spaces. We crossed a wide expanse and then the trail hugged a tree line. The grass felt soft and was a nice change from the shoe-sucking mud in the trees. The trail plunged downward and we began to stretch our legs a bit. Holly stayed right with me on the downhill and even edged ahead as we re-entered the trees. It got muddy again in the forest, but not as bad as the first section. But now the trail began to climb and climb. Up we hiked through the forest of still-leafless trees. Lots of climbing practice here. We finally went down and came to a camping area. The course here circled on the paved park road around the campsites. It then stayed on the paved road for a LONG downhill section that paralleld Deer Creek stream. This was a wide, fast-moving stream that serves as a water source for Baltimore. While this road was not concrete and was fairly “soft” pavement, it was more road than I anticipated or liked. Holly was struggling at this point and was having a hard time maintaining a good pace on this downhill. But at least it wasn’t muddy! The route soon brought us to the main aid station out on the course. We had stopped briefly at a water and Gatorade only station 4.8 miles in. This main station was in a park picnic area and was fully stocked. I grabbed a PB&J and a Coke and walked out. We were slipping farther and farther behind the cut-off pace. The course began another climb up into the trees. I hiked with Holly for a bit, but she had decided that with all the mud and with her longest training run being only 2 ? hours that she was only going to do one loop. We said our goodbyes and then I took off in search of Doreen.   My first goal was to try and catch “Forrest Gump”, a friendly fellow named Mark that had befriended Holly in the early part of the race and had run the race a couple of times. This back-of-the-packer knew the pace to beat the cut-off. He had left us on the long paved downhill section before the aid station. To my good fortune the hilly trail flattened a bit as I got a panoramic view of the Susquehanna River from the bluff we ran upon. I enjoyed the view only briefly as I was now on a mission. I did not want to miss the cut-off and I wanted to catch Doreen to be sure that she was on track. After 10 minutes of some steady downhill and flat running,  I caught “Forrest”. It was only a couple of more minutes before I spotted Doreen in her bright garish red DOT hat. We hooked up for a bit as the trail began to climb again. The mud had likewise taken its toll on Doreen. We visited for a bit, but she determined that one loop was all that was in the cards for her that day. She shooed me off and I began to run.   I was pretty sure that I could now beat the cut-off, but if I did what kind of time could I have?  I began to run hard and at this pace, I began to pass lots of runners. A few mistook me for one of the leaders finishing the second loop. I did get a chuckle out of that. I reassured them that was not the case at all. But I was on a mission now and didn’t waste much time on conversation. The course again went through the woods and muddy muck before two more stream crossings and a couple of meadows. The meadows now were more inviting and even though some went uphill, it felt good to be able to run without fear of leaving your shoes behind you. I was close to a dead run now trying to build up some time cushion. The last section of the loop went through a nice down hill through the meadow and then back to a short segment of paved park road. Despite innumerable climbs and mud bogs, I had managed to run the last 10K at a 10 minute pace. With conditions like they were, I was very pleased with that. I had made up about 15 minutes on the cut-off. Many runners were bagging it after one loop. I hesitated before going out since both my companions were going to be waiting around for a couple of hours for me if I went out again. But knowing these two, they would have been MAD if I HADN’T gone out. After a quick transition at the start/finish to drop my Marmot jacket, grab a vest, bandana and some shot blocks, I was out of there.     I was again determined to make up time and pushed the pace early. Relying on the venerable “Energy Vampire” mind game, I reeled in one runner after another on the second loop. The first part of the second loop was a hoot. Without the Largest Human Conga Line as on the first loop, the initial downhill on the first section was a blast to hammer. Sure, my foot would hit the mud and slide occasionally, but it wasn’t much different from the “ice run” I had done with Doreen a month ago…..and a much softer landing if I fell. The stream was welcome to my mud-crusted calves. I splashed around a bit and then kept pushing. The temperature even seemed to drop a bit as I zipped up my vest and put on gloves in the latter part of the loop. When I got back to the long downhill paved section along Deer Creek, I ran as hard as my tired legs would allow. I had to take one short break because Montrail Vitesse aren’t made for pavement and I had to let my feet have a short break. Unfortunately, I discovered, as I began to feel a twinge in my calves, that I had forgotten to get E-Caps at the start/finish. The cramps were starting as I came in to the Picnic Aid Station. I grabbed a banana and stuffed some potatoes and French fries encrusted with salt into my face and walked out with a big cup of Coke, hoping that this would do the trick. My pace began to slow as the climbs were beginning to take their toll. I had started with a tight IT Band which was now having a serious conversation with the rest of my body. I was losing the argument as my hips and glutes took up the placards and threatened to picket as well. I gobbled shot blocks and beat the protesters back enough to keep moving. I was still passing runners and no one was catching me from behind…..and no one did. By mile 28 I had a near insurrection on my hands. Hips, calves and hamstrings were now in full voice while the meek voice in my brain said: “you have to beat 7 hours”. And so the debate raged for the next 35 minutes as I struggled up the seemingly endless muddy switchbacks. When the trail took a blessed down hill turn, I ran as best I could, but then I hit the mud. My right foot slid precariously to the right and BOTH calves grabbed megaphones and SCREAMED their displeasure. I hobbled up the next climb. Where was that last meadow? I was only met with more hills. I felt a bit of drizzle. “Uh-oh, I ditched the hat and jacket at the turn.” The sky didn’t look too bad, but I wasn’t taking any chances. “Just a little more” I urged my rabble. Very grudgingly they yielded and there was the last meadow. I couldn’t really run more than a shuffling gait without my recalcitrant calves shouting their displeasure. I hobbled to the park road and power-walked to the last hill. The crowd cheered for me to run. I spotted Doreen and Holly and managed to coax one last trot to finish in 6:57.   I figured that I covered the last 21-22 miles in about 4:25. A total of 3:17 for the second loop and NO ONE passed me.  Not exactly speedy, but considering the conditions, I was pleased. My first negative split race EVER J                  HAT 50K is in a pretty park. The volunteers were helpful and the runners were friendly. There was more park road than I would have liked, but it was a welcome relief from the mud. The course is quite hilly with only a few truly “flat” sections. It would be fun to do this race again when it wasn’t so wet. I can also envision that this would be a gorgeous place to run in the spring or fall when the trees have their leaves. It would be a cool, shade-filled run. As it was, I got a lot of practice climbing and managed to navigate through the mud without losing a shoe. That might come in handy at Bighorn.