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Many (most?) ultras have a unique feature or challenge. The Laurel Valley is unusual in that the access points to the course are at the start and the finish only. This has a number of consequences:
Navigation is not difficult, but you have to pay attention. The trail is well blazed, but there are a few junctions where things can be a little confusing. I took a Garmin GPS with me and recorded the trail, so you should able use this to give you confidence. (Never trust a GPS unit as the primary navigation technique, at LV or anywhere else.)
The GPS record of the run is available from [http://connect.garmin.com/activity/10759362 http://connect.garmin.com/activity/10759362] and you can compare it to a picture of the Polar record at [http[File://jfsavage.smugmug.com/photos/615100542_QAGsL-O.jpg http://jfsavage.smugmug.com/photos/615100542_QAGsL-O.jpg]]
LV is run in August in the Carolinas, so heat is obviously an issue. At the start, it was hot enough to reduce performance, making everything tougher and slower. By about 11am, the temperature was high enough to forcibly limit performance on the uphill sections. The uphil pace I could maintain was limited by the rise in my core temperature; I could feel my face begin to burn, and was forced to slow up. (If you ignore the warning signs, you can raise your core temperature too high, which can be life threatening. ) The Under Armor Heat Gear top really made a difference - more on that (and perhaps heat stroke) in a separate blog entry.
I had a good day at LV and I was able to push the pace hard, finishing second place in 6:38. The race requires you to be self reliant, and this builds self confidence. Having run this race inspires me to run other self supported distances in the future. The only downside has been a recurrence of the blisters I got at Massanutten. The nature of my skin is that damage creates permanent scars that are more easily damaged. My right ankle now has a large (2x1 inch) blister. I hope to be able to continue running with some cut down shoes. I will need to find different shoes (again) to see if I can find something that will not cause these problems. I am considering moving from a robust shoe (Montrail/Solomon) to something lightweight like the Nike Free Trail or the Inov8.