I recently had this idea about running the Erie Canal from Buffalo to Albany over 7 days. Sounds like fun, right? I have circled the last week of June 2021 as the goal date. I’ve never run a stage-type event but I am pretty excited to try this. I’m looking for people who want to talk about running longer distances in one day or over a few days. Think of it as a conversation we’d have on a run, only we’d be conversing here.
Take good care everyone.
Hopefully it won’t be too warm then, because you won’t have much tree cover. The canal is around 350 miles, right? Will you be going for an FKT?
@Petorius Yes, that’s right 350 miles give or take. No FKT attempt. More like a DFD (Don’t Fall Down) attempt.
How far have you gone in one go? Have you ever done a stage race?
I actually had this on my radar, too (Erie Canal end to end in 2021). Is there a posted FKT anywhere? I couldn’t find one.
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@Mike_S that’s cool! I’m unsure of any FKT.
How are you training for this? I’m kinda bumbling along right now. If you are interested we could trade notes.
I’m not training yet; just doing some long runs this summer ~50-100mi range.
Nice. The longest I’ve done so far is 23 point to point along Ontario pathways trail. It’s been a long time since I’ve seriously trained long distances.
I will be doing a lot of long slow distance with elevation across Buttermilk, FLT, Treman in the next few weeks for another event I’m preparing for
What are you preparing for?
I’m having a heck of a time with left piriformis. I’m feeling it in my left knee.
I’m pacing 50 miles with 13000’ elevation for a friend in Oregon in October.
Sorry to hear it, Mike. Perhaps post a description of what you’re experiencing in the Injuries forum and maybe others who have suffered from it too can offer some suggestions.
@Mike_S that’s very cool. Are you familiar with the course? I’ve never done a true mountain run. Will you be running at night? Pacing seems like a great way to be of service. Kudos to you.
I have done several multi-day multi-state races. I did 5 half marathons in 5 days, and 5 halves and a full in 5 days. I also ran 100 miles over 5 days this past June. Not as high mileage as you’re seeking, but the key to my training was time on my feet. I also did back to back long runs. Not like 20 and 20, but my long run and then a 2 hour run the next day. Just getting your legs used to running long. I was never sore for any of the above races, even on the last day.
@heathercobb3 thank you. Right now I’m using a modified Galloway run/walk putting the long runs back to back. Does time on feet mean simply keeping sitting to a minimum during the day?
I’ve never done a stage race or anything beyond 100 miles. A bucket list goal of mine is to run the entire Finger Lakes Trail in one go, but that would be a huge project and I’m years away from even thinking about it seriously.
During normal (viz. non-COVID) times, there are plenty of rail trail and road ultras in the Finger Lakes Region. Maybe a 50M or 100k would be a good warm-up for your canal path run—the Can Lake 50, Pine Creek Challenge, Tussey Mountainback 50, Beast of Burden Winter or Summer Ultras. I don’t know which of these will still be held before next June.
If anyone here is interested, I put together an this 55-mile route on Strava. https://www.strava.com/routes/12322129
I created an all road route from Marathon, NY, to Athens, PA. I might run this sometime in the fall or winter if all the regional ultras continue to be cancelled. If there’s enough interest, maybe a bunch of us could run it as a fat-ass (a long group run, but non-competitive) while practicing social distancing. I’ve yet to drive the course to verify its runnability, so I may end up tweaking it if some of these roads are high traffic or otherwise sketchy. I also need to scout open gas stations for water/bathroom stops and places to possibly stash gallon jugs.
Why this particular route? The most common story about the origin of the marathon is that in 490 BCE a Greek messenger ran from Marathon to Athens, about 26 miles, to tell the Athenians that the Persian army was defeated at the Battle of Marathon. Then the runner dropped dead from exhaustion.
We could also run to Athens, GA, if anyone’s got time for like 900 miles.
On the web version of Strava, just select from the drop down menu: Dashboard > My Routes > Create New Route. You can also do it in the app: Profile > Routes (scroll to bottom) > + (in the upper right.)
I haven’t tried it on the app yet. Apparently it’s still in beta.
@Petorius I wasn’t able to access the route creator on the app and have been swamped with work so I haven’t been able to access the website. I appreciate the information.
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