Ultrarunning 150 Years After the Battle of Antietam

Yesterday (Monday 17 Sep) was the 150th anniversary of the battle of Antietam in the American Civil War.

1. First, a quick historical recap: The battle is considered the single bloodiest day in American history, in which some 23,000 Union and Confederate soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing. The battle is regarded as a tactical draw in that both sides remained on the field, but as a strategic Confederate loss since General Lee then abandoned his first invasion of the North and withdrew his army back to Virginia...and the war dragged on for another two and a half years (good battle summary here).

During the battle, the outnumbered Confederates were on the brink of disaster at various points during the day. The final Union attack came when Union General Ambrose Burnside finally was able to put his corps across the bridge that bears his name, and threatened to collapse the Confederate right flank. Just in the nick of time, Confederate reinforcements in the form of General A. P. Hill's Light Division completed their 17 mile forced march from Harper's Ferry (where they had received the surrender of the Union garrison) and fell upon the exposed left flank of Burnside's advance, crushing it and saving the day (again) for the Confederates.

2.  Second, the Ultrarunning part: I've twice on foot retraced the route of A. P. Hill's division from Harper's Ferry to Antietam, complete with fording the Potomac River at historic Boteler's (or Pack Horse) Ford. I blogged about my 2010 run here.  Last year (2011) the river was too high to attempt the crossing.

3.  So....that brings us to my 2012 iteration of the memorial run.  I've not been training well over the summer, so I knew that a 28 miler would be too much of a stretch.  So I ran a route that only included the fording of the Potomac River piece of General Hill's route.  I parked along the C + O Canal just downstream of the Rt 34 Bridge between Sharpsburg, MD and Shepherdstown, WV; ran back upstream and crossed the river on the highway bridge; ran thru the streets of Shepherdstown (a charming little college town!); German Street becomes River Road after leaving town; River Road to reach the WV side of Boteler's Ford; forded the river; headed back upstream on the C + O Canal to my car.

This route was some 5 miles or so.  The bank of the WV side at  the actual ford is on private property, so as I described here I entered the river a bit upstream and waded down to the actual ford.  The river was quite low--at the ford, where Hill's troops crossed, the water depth was literally not over knee deep.

Here are a few shots of the run:

C + O Canal Lock 38 from Rt 34 bridge

 

 

Limestone mounting step along German street in Shepherdstown

 

 

Historic marker on WV side of ford

 

 

Midriver, looking back to WV side

 

 

Midriver, looking ahead to MD side

 

 

Typical water depth in the ford

 

 

I'll post a couple natural history type shots tomorrow.

 

 

Creek Fording...and Ultrarunning

For some time now, I have been in the habit of fording the Conococheague Creek just west of Marion, PA, when I'm doing what I call my 10 mile Frederick Mill loop.

Even though there's a perfectly good bridge right there:

[The ford in a shot I took a couple of winters ago]

Basically my motivation is to get my feet used to running while they are soaked.  Summer or winter, doesn't matter: in the summer, it's a refreshing cool-down.  In the winter, it's toughening process to run with cold, wet feet...which, by the way, quickly drain and warm back up within a couple miles.

See, in a race or a backcountry training run, you need to be prepared for an array of conditions which you may face, to include stream crossings. Doing crossings deliberately in training gets you used to do it and running afterwards with wet feet. And it crosses another variable off of unfamiliar things that could help derail you--mentally or physically--in a race.

I have found for me that running with wet feet is no more likely to produce blisters tha running in perfectly dry foot gear.

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FOOTNOTE. The route, for you anal-retentive types (like me):

For my place here are the details: I usually head down Angle Road, right on the Clay Hill-Kauffman Road, across U.S. Rt 11 on Kauffman Road West, right onto Guitner Road, right on Coontown Road, right on Gomer Road, right on Miller Road, ford the Conococheague here, right on Frederick's Mill Road, across U.S. Rt 11 to old Rt 11 (Main Street in Marion), left onto Colorado Street, right onto Angle Road, which I then follow south back to the house.