1032. PA Triple Crown + Black List Reflections  

Ahh the black list 

“a prestigious list of those crazy enough to complete the PA Triple Crown* + the Black Forest Ultra in one season. It is a grueling season and you need to really want it if you’re going to make it to the end. We commend anyone who finishes this task!!”

Do you have what it takes? 

*The PA triple crown is

• Hyner 50k 
• Worlds end 100k 
• Eastern states 100 mile

Thoughts 

Reflecting back, I didn’t understand the quote above before this experience…. 

A grueling season? Yeah right. 

HA, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. 

This series was hard AF. What made these races extremely difficult was the amount of technicality in every one of these races.  Think of the 3 R’s: roots, rocks, and rolled ankles. 

I was beaten down after every race. 

Karl Meltzer, the freakin speed goat, dropped out of eastern states 100 this year (2023)…. 

There really is nowhere else in the world like these races, add to the fact that these are ultra’s, and despite their beauty, it can make for a pretty difficult time. 

I also never ran on a trail with a headlamp on, this was truly learning on the fly. And a little naivete(: 

AAR

What I thought was good about the blacklist series. 

• Challenging 
• Experience, beautiful PA 
• Quality time with family, we made each race into a camping trip
• Ultra community – the people really are so special 
• Carrying more than enough water (2.5L) 
• Night time setup: headlamp and two flashlights with extra batteries. Battery-operated headlamp too and I switched these out maybe every 3 hours or so. Nothing is worst than a dim ass headlamp. 

What wasn’t so good 

• Some of the trail markings 
• Traveling could be a con too, each race was about a 4-hour drive away from Philadelphia. 
• Trail Running at night is totally different than trail running during the day. 

I ran the Ironstone 100k just before the Eastern States 100, IS starts at 2 p.m. and you go through the night. That was my first experience with night running on trails and I got beat down. The worst part for me was when the sun was going down and the trail wasn’t crazy dark yet but shadowing. 

Eastern States was only my second time running on trails at night. A Lot better than where I came from, but still not entirely good at this whole night running with a headlamp in the woods thing. I came into the aid station as the sun was beginning to fall, by the time I left it was completely dark. I skipped the whole day turning to night transition and that’s been the hardest part for me. I ended up doing all of the Eastern States course night sections by myself, moving slowly and steadily.

What would I do differently? 

• Instead of racing to the finish, make sure I am on course. And when in doubt, take a knee and figure it out. I went 6 miles total off the world’s end course (3 miles out and had to turn around) and this could have been avoided if I didn’t pound it so hard to the finish. I was at mile 60 out of 64 and threw all logic out the window and hit a 1,000-foot descent as hard as I could only to have to climb back up it with my heart shattered in what felt like a million pieces. It added over an hour and a half to my time. This taught me a valuable lesson: SLOW DOWN TO SPEED UP 
• Not race so much, ONLY DO THE BLACK LIST SERIES + maybe Ironstone since it’s the same company that puts these other races on. (I ran a 76 mile fat ass run, and another 100 mile run in this same year. It’s been a lot financially ($1,000+ and time-wise, but the experiences have been amazing. Regardless, I want to only do two races next year) 
• Do a handful of night training runs with a headlamp on in the woods, really when the day transitions to night, it doesn’t have to be running through the whole night – just from dusk to darkness. Mainly get used to pulling out my headlamp, putting it on, and running with it. 
• It’d be cool if the RD’s knew at the end of the black forest race who was a blacklist finisher or not (maybe by having a different colored bib or something)

Reflecting – Would I do it again? 

Looking back, I had some highs and lows during this series. Injuries, getting lost, learning lessons, yet still finishing each race. It really was a beautiful experience, and I feel like I am a better person because of these intentionally hard experiences I’ve put myself through. It could come really from any ultra race, but in these series races, there’s a community that’s hard to beat, the courses are brutally difficult, crazy epic, and it makes the finish that much sweeter. 

Doing this series was really awesome and I’m glad I did it. I don’t think I’ll do all of these again in one year because there are so many other cool races out there. Who knows. PA is a beautiful state and Hyner View Park has one of the best views ever.

I’m happy I finished this series (and my misogi for the year)