Mountain Masochist Trail Run 50
What a wonderful event! Let me start off by letting all of you know that the run was very well organized, the course challenging and well marked and the aid stations and volunteers just superb!
Friday evening Frank (my loving, very tolerant and patient husband) and I attended the pre-race briefing and picked up my race packet. We soon found out that there's a natural phenomenon in the area called 'Horton Miles'. These miles tend to be a tad longer that the regular old 'English Miles', thus the upcoming MMTR50 was more like the MMTR54. Well, I was there to run and have fun and 54 miles would be the longest I would have ever run in one stretch, so to me it was a new challenge through some beautiful country!
The course began at the James River Visitor Center at mile 64 of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We start off with the first 5.7 miles on asphalt, which made for easy running.
At mile 5.7 is Aid Station #2. Here we hop onto a single track. This was a nice change from the asphalt, but no sooner do we hit the trail there's a long winding up hill. This was just a small taste of what was to follow for the next 40-plus miles. The long up was followed by a long and very rocky down hill section. Here you had to pay a lot of attention to where your foot was landing. This stretch I ran with a girl from Georgia - Jenna. It was her first 50-miler and it turned out we had a lot in common. I really enjoyed the 10 or so miles we ran together.
Before the AS#5 we had a long climb. For some reason I started feeling light headed and fell back a bit. I could not figure out why this was happening...we were under 2000' and even on Pikes Peak I never felt this way. Strange.
I just focused on walking up the gravel/rocky road to the next aid station. Frank would be there with my drop bag waiting. After an Ensure, water refill and a couple of photos I was back on the road. A short down hill was followed by a ~2.5-mile uphill to AS#6. I was still feeling dizzy and had fallen quite a ways back from Jenna.
Once we reached AS#6 she waited for me to get some food. I told her to go on without me. I had to make a 'pit-stop' and with the way I was feeling I would only slow her down.
I'm glad to report Jenna finished her very first (and tough) 50-miler in 10:12 way under her predicted 11 hours. Way to go Jenna!
This long climb was followed by a long descent...hmmm notice a trend yet??
Funny, but it's only been about 20 miles and my feet are already feeling like hamburger, at least on the ascents. Those mean, nasty rocks digging into the balls of my feet, but luckily on the downhill portions the pain would disappear. I credit this to my feet being pounded into numbness.
Just when you started getting tired of running down hill you were handed a nice fresh up-hill to tackle, and visa versa. This made for some very enjoyable running/walking breaks.
The next main AS was #10. Here runners had drop bags and I had my hubby waiting. Luckily the dizzy spells had passed by now and after some Ensure, food, supplements and a vitamin 'I' infusion I was on my way up Buck Mountain. Not just any mountain, Buck had a long winding 3-mile (plus) ascent. At the top of Buck Mt. was AS#11 with the 'Rocky' theme blaring over and over. You could hear the music for a good 10-15 minutes before you even got to the station. I have to say I enjoyed this the most. I got a little teary-eyed when I reached the top...but then again I think I cried during Rocky too...or was that Rocky II?
I lingered long enough to refill my water bottle and took off on the long descent leaving Buck Mt. behind to maybe visit another day.
AS#13 we visit twice. It's located at the beginning and end of a 5-'Horton' Mile loop (equivalent to 7-'English' miles according to the song we heard at the pre-race briefing). Frank was already there waiting for me. I grabbed my long sleeve shirt and chugged an energy drink. I had a feeling I was going to need it for this section.
The loop started of as a flat and soft moss covered single track trail that made you feel like you were running on a mattress after tenderizing your feet for the last 30+ miles on the gravel roads. All this accomplished was to lull you into a false sense of security. Pretty soon we were heading up hill through boulders and cobbles, then down hill through more of the same all of which were covered in fallen leaves making it hard to see what you were actually stepping on. This loop was rather treacherous. I don't know it's 'official' name, but if I had to guess, I'm sure it has something to do with 'broken ankles'.
I was thrilled to escape the loop onto the crunch-crunch-crunch of the tenderizing gravel road for a nice long 3-mile downhill section. Everyone I talked to after this said we were on the home stretch. A couple of long ascents and then we had a downhill finish to the end.
At the bottom of the road we jump onto a single track. Not nearly as treacherous as the 'Loop' but still challenging due to the leaves littering the trail. Well, what those runners had failed to say was that one of those ascents was nearly vertical. I remember seeing it on the elevation profile but noticed it was pretty short. Yes, it was steep and thank goodness if was short! The trail funneled out onto a road that switchbacks down for ~2-miles. The last 1/2-mile before hitting the road that signifies the final stretch to the finish was noticeably steep. I say noticeable because by this point my quads were screaming bloody murder. Aaahhh...finally a transition onto a nice smooth surface with a slight downhill all the way to the finish line at the local country store.
I finished in 11:22:41 and was pretty happy overall. I felt like I could have kept on going for a while longer, I was actually a bit disappointed it was over. Would I have been able to turn around and re-trace my steps for 50 more miles? I wonder if Dr. Horton will ever consider the MMTR108 miler?