Mountain Masochist – Lynchburg Ultra Series Finale

After using Holiday Lake for a training run for Bull Run, and running Promise Land because Michelle was finally back on her feet, I felt I might as well sign up for the ultra series and run Masochist. Having read so much about it as the “premier ultra of the east” and hearing Mical & Angelo’s stories from last year certainly intimidated me. Masochist has over 9,000 ft of climbing and 7,000 of descent – and those 4 extra miles. Additionally, Horton tightened the cut-off times this year so there was no grace period. But I was resolved to do my best.

The XMP training program had helped many of my friends get faster, so I used that as a base and ran the Baker 50 and Gunpowder Falls 50k as training runs. I wanted to do another 50k, but each weekend got booked and all the sudden I was in taper mode. It seemed to happen so fast – I had all these plans to run more miles, do situps/pushups, cut out beer, eat whole grains, etc. but it just didn’t happen. I did some long runs along the Schuylkill River in Philly the last couple weeks leading up to the race and my right hamstring felt tight. But I read somewhere if you couldn’t be well trained, might as well be well rested. So I rested.

Briefing
Mical, Mark Mckennett, and I drove down Friday afternoon to miss rush hour and actually get there in time to eat food. We sat between our WVMTR and VHTRC friends and caught up. The race briefing was interminable, and I was ready to pass out I was so tired. On the drive back to the hotel, we witnessed some guy, showing off, lose control of his car and crash into a small tree in the median. We paused on the side of the road, debating what we should do, until we saw him get out of the car – he was monstrously huge and did not seem injured so I decided he must be jacked up on meth so we left the scene, considering the only damage was to the poor tree. Back at the hotel, we set out our gear, and proceeded to not sleep.

Race: 6:30 am
We somehow picked the bus with Bill Potts, Jim Cavanaugh, and Mark Radan (aka Gym Mark) so we chatted with them. Wargo was also on our bus, and I saw that he was wearing his distinctive flames singlet. “I’ll get you, Wargo” I muttered under my breath. At the start, waiting in line for the porta-pottie, I was in line behind this girl who was dancing around and acting really wacky – yep, she turned out to be “Space” Sara Johnston.

Time to go – we started in the dark on the parkway, but there was plenty of light from the moon and other people’s lights, and no obstacles on the road. We hit the first aid station at exactly the 12-hr pace, not a good sign to me! But I was running with Mical and Jim, so I felt there was no need to panic, just get in the groove of running and relax. If I could just stay with them as long as possible, I would finish. Now, a lot of the course is a blur to me – I might recall it better over time. There was very little singletrack, it was mostly wide dirt roads – that went up. I remember a covered bridge. I blew through an aid station because I had enough water, and I think Mical stopped to fill her bladder. Next was a long downhill where I was running with a guy that looked familiar – he said he was from WV and had done Highland Sky, and MMTR 6 times. Then he said, “My legs are like rubber, I think I have the flu” and started walking. I kept running. I thought, I better take advantage of my downhills, Mical & Jim will catch me. I chatted with a lady who got into this from doing ride & tie. She was a physical trainer and blew past me going uphill. Mostly I just ran and ran, trying to cover as much ground as possible while I felt good. My aid station cut-off gaps at one point were even up to an hour, but I had to keep pushing. Somewhere around 30 miles, I started to feel nauseous, so I had to keep trying to eat and taking Tums and ginger.

Buck Mountain & the Loop
I had read how challenging Buck Mountain was because you hear the music long before you get to the top. But it was here that I spotted a “flames” singlet as I hiked to the top. I resisted pushing Wargo down a ravine, and instead mentioned amiably how blustery it was. I needed to pee, but I couldn’t stop with Wargo so close, so I blazed through the aid station, then made my way down the mountain. I was way ahead of schedule for the loop, so I wasn’t that surprised that Joe & Paul were not yet there. This was the longest I stopped at an aid station, to down some chicken noodle soup. Even though I was still nauseous, but knew I had to keep eating. The loop was probably my favorite part, because it was mostly runnable singletrack with some climbs, but a nice break from the roads. Here I caught up to Farouk. I thought ‘this can’t be’ and at the end of the loop I saw Paul & Joe – yay! I gave Joe my waistbelt which was starting to bother me and he ran down the road with me about a mile. I was glad to hear Mical was only about 15 minutes behind. Then it was more running.

At some point, the guys doing the MMTR double, JB and Andrew, passed me. JB said he felt sick and I offered him some of my Tums. The next aid station had apples, which tasted great. Then back into the woods, for the last singletrack and two significant climbs. The second was so steep I had to lean against a tree and catch my breath. But after the climb, running on the singletrack I passed VHTRCer Ed ‘Cappacino’ – this can’t be! The ‘Iron Horse’ sponsor named Rosie passed me, but I think he stopped at the aid station for a burger because he never caught back up after I blew through.

Downhill to the end
Boy, this took forever. I thought the downhill was on more of those forest roads, but it was more like a rugged jeep track, lots of rocks covered by leaves, so harder to run swiftly down. I kept thinking Wargo was going to come out from nowhere and pass me, so I kept focused on running as fast as I could maintain at that point. Then I saw Joe and Paul! They had hiked up from the finish. Joe ran down with me while Paul waited for Mical. I just hammered as much as I could muster, looking back occasionally to make sure no-one was close enough to pass me on the line. Next thing I knew, I was hugging Horton and said “No Wargoes here” then I staggered over to lean against a fence because I thought I was going to yak. But there were kids playing in the grass and I didn’t want to destroy their innocence.

I changed into something warm and saw Mical, then Mark, then Jim come in. Whohoo! Mical went over to take a shot at the Iron Horse and did 21 reps. We drove back to the hotel & showered. I could have just passed out, but we had to claim our victorious LUS jackets!

Lorrin Harvey: 11:23:22
Mical Honigfort: 11:37:49
Mark Mckennett: 11:42:12

Mical's Pictures (including some from the boys' bike ride)

Awards Ceremony:
Yep, Mical got the Iron Horse award, because she rocks the bench. Our West Virginia friends did quite well, Adam Casseday tied for 4th. See the results on Horton's site.

What I learned:
- Having an imaginary enemy helps inspire you to run faster
- Don't stop at the aid station: grab & GO!
- A solid base from the spring really helped overcome limited fall training
- It's crazy, but I prefer courses like Highland Sky with singletrack and lots of rocks!