Moutain Masochist Trail Run

Prologue
In 2007 I started out the year planning to do the Lynchburg Ultra Series (LUS), made up of Holiday Lake 50k, Promise Land 50k, and Mountain Masochist Trail Run (MMTR) 50 miler. Then I got the opportunity to go to Ecuador and I got a stress fracture, so I missed the chance to run MMTR. Mical, Lorrin and Mark ended up completing the LUS in 2007 and getting really cool jackets. When 2008 rolled around, I decided I would try again for the LUS. I pitched the idea to Amanda and she took the bait, so as the year rolled by we did Holiday Lake 50k, Promise Land 50k, Capon Valley 50k, Highlands Sky 40 miler (I did half), Cheat Mountain Moonshine Madness 50 miler, and Gunpowder Falls 50k together. I also threw in Black Mountain Marathon, half of HAT 50k, and Catherine's FA for good measure. Mark, Joe, Lorrin, Paul, Mical and Megan joined in for many of these adventures, it's sure good to have friends to share all those miles with!!

MMTR finally arrives!
MMTR has always held an allure for me, it's historic, it's hard, it has the word "masochist" in the name, somehow I had to do it. Frankly it scared me, how would I ever manage to cover 9,000 feet of elevation gain and 7,000 feet of loss in under 12 hours with 16 cut-offs along the way?? Well here's the story of how I just barely made it!

The Start
The bus leaves at 5am from the back of the hotel. We come close to missing bus because all the elevators are full and the stairs say not to use, you will set off an alarm. Finally someone gets smart and pushes the up button and we get on an empty elevator and finally get to the bus! It seems to take forever, I think we got to the start about 5:50am and then spent time standing in line for bathrooms and deciding what to wear.

The race kicks off promptly at 6:30 am in total darkness, probably in the 40s, the stars are beautiful, we do a quick out and back on the Blue Ridge Parkway, past a roadkill beaver, and then start on some rolling roads until we reach mile 5.7 and start in on trails. From this point on, I think we were either climbing or descending, I can't really recall any flat stretches after this point. Up or down will be the theme for the day!

AS#2 (mile 5.7) to AS#8 (mile 22.3)
I can't say anything stands out. We were on single track and climbing at first, then all I remember is we were on jeep roads, fire roads or FS roads. As I mentioned, the cut-offs in this thing made me anxious. But Mical had drilled in my head that I needed to be comfortable being close to them. So as the miles rolled by, we fluctuated between 10 and 20 minutes ahead of them. The temps were still comfortable, it was pretty shady, we were running pretty easy, but Amanda's IT band was starting to bother her. As we came around a corner we saw Megan heading toward us, that was sure a nice surprise. She ran us into AS#8 and worked on boosting our confidence by telling us how great we looked. We came into 8, saw Bill, fueled up and headed out, we were about 14 minutes ahead of cut-off here.
















AS#8 (22.3) to AS#13 (mile 33.6 and mile 38.6)
OK, so here I remember the stories from others, from this AS we climb steadily to AS#10 which is about half-way through the race at 26.9 miles. And then we're still only half way up Buck Mountain, we still have to climb to AS#11, this is where will hear the music long before we get to the AS. I frankly don't remember a heck of a lot from 8 to 10. I know we were psychologically happy to hit AS#10, get our drop bags, and see Megan and Bill, but I also remember starting to feel pretty hot and wishing for some clouds. From 10 to 11 the only incident of note was coming across three guys in their 20s trying to rally. One guy was doing really poorly and I gave him some ginger to try to settle his stomach. Come to think of it, somewhere in here my digestive system started to bother me. I think I took two tums at 10 and it settled down for a bit. We finally hit AS#11, Buck Mountain, I admit it did get you pretty pumped to hear Rocky and other motivating tunes as you approached that AS. We were 15 minutes ahead of cut-off here.


So after Buck Mountain we headed downhill to AS #12, saw our crew, and then continued on to AS#13 and the famous loop trail. MMTR is a point-to-point race with a loop thrown in at mile 33.6, so the "loop" is from mile 33.6 to 38.6, and then you continue north toward the finish at Montebello. When we entered the loop we were 20 minutes ahead of the cut-off, when we came out we were 12 minutes ahead, but physically and mentally we were both hurting. The loop starts off beautifully, nice wide easy trail, beautiful mountain laurel, FLAT, but that does all change. And my digestive system started to rumble, I took a nature break and told Amanda to continue on and I would catch up. Shortly after I caught back up, the trail started uphill through some serious rocks and roots, wow, finally some technical trail, just when I needed it 30+ miles into a 50++ race!! NOT!! We plodded along and I remember Amanda saying when are we going to get to something that's runnable, I know she was worried about us making it out of the loop under the cut-off. She had a Garmin on so had some sense of our progress. I didn't know and didn't ask what she had for mileage, I think I mumbled something like I could only do what I could do and that would be good enough or not. We finally stopped climbing and came across a guy sitting on a rock with his head in his arms. I asked if he was ok, if he needed anything. No response. Definitely not your typical friendly trail runner! We continued past then I felt a twinge of guilt and worry, what if there was something really wrong with him and I left him. I turned to look back and he had lifted his head up and was looking at us. At this point I decided he was just feeling like crap and didn't want anything from anyone, he just wanted to wallow. We went on. The trail started to descend but it was leafy and rocky and I could tell Amanda's IT was really hurting. As soon as we hit runnable stuff, I tried to rock and roll, I almost lost sight of Amanda behind me, now I knew her knee was bad. I ran into Bill Potts and then Megan coming out to check on the runner that wasn't feeling well. At long last we exited the loop, only 12 minutes ahead but still ahead!

AS#13 (mile 38.6) to AS#15 (mile 43)
We started downhill from 13 and Amanda's IT was bad, she was trying to hold off on taking more vitamin I. I had my own worries about my digestive system. Nothing about 13 to 14 stands out except we started to really cut it close on the cut-offs. We arrived at AS#14 only 4 minutes under! And then 14 to 15 really sucked. 14 to 15 was only a measly 1.5 miles but it was all climbing, out in the open, the sun beating down on me. Amanda was better on the uphills and I was dying. I had that old internal battle going, "I hope I don't make the cut-off and get pulled" versus "no way I'm getting pulled, if I make this one, I can at least finish, even if I'm not an official finisher under 12 hours." I tapped into all the positive vibes I knew friends and family were sending me. I vowed to finish no matter what. We finally reached AS#15 with just under 5 minutes to spare.

AS#15 (mile 43) to the finish
Next section was 4.1 miles, there's a cut-off at AS#16 (mile 47.1) but I was pretty sure they wouldn't pull anyone that was close here. This section has a couple of short, steep climbs to throw out at you just when you're ready to crack. We clawed our way up, I think I let a few folks pass here. It was starting to cool off and the light was fading in the woods, we heard a Barred Owl hooting in the distance. I tried to take this as a good omen that I'd finish. It finally leveled out and we knew we needed to run, then my digestive system kicked in again. I told Amanda to take off at this point, I wanted at least one of us to be an official finisher. She took off and I rejoined the fight after a nature break. I vowed not to eat anything else, I thought I'd throw up, and I was barely drinking anymore. I spotted 3 people coming behind me which surprised me, I thought I was the last person out there, I decided I'd do my best not to get caught. I ran and ran and finally hit AS#16.

I had about 49 minutes to cover the last 2.9 miles, which everyone says is closer to 3.5 or 4, and make it under 12 hours. The course is literally all downhill from here. As I left 16 I passed a guy I'd been flip flopping with and asked him if we'd make it, he said he was sure gonna try, I ran by. I literally ran almost every step of this last section, I kept reminding myself I need to take advantage of gravity. It was a somewhat rocky, leafy wide trail/road and I ran as fast as I felt able. It felt like forever! Then I saw Megan coming up the trail toward me. She said it had taken her 31 minutes to walk to this point and that I had 25 minutes to make it to the finish, which would be no problem since it was partly downhill and since I was running. I was not entirely convinced of this logic but bought in anyway. At long last we hit the "1 mile to go" painted on the road and I had 15 minutes, wow, I might actually do this! We hit pavement, made a left turn, then another left, Megan told me exactly where the finish was and then dropped off. I ran across the finish line in 11:57:11 and I was an official MMTR finisher!! I got my finisher shirt and I was going to get my LUS jacket!!

Amanda, Mark, Megan, Bill and I all exchanged hugs. Amanda finished in 11:45:56 and Mark finished in 11:52:45. Amanda was psyched I made it and had been bummed about having to leave me. Amanda and I vowed never to run another 50 miler. We heard about Mark's struggles with calf cramping. Then we got in the car for the hour drive back to the hotel.

Post-script
Damn was that hard! I'm glad it's over. No I'm not planning to do it again. Seems that 50k's are more my distance. Somehow when I go over about 9 hours my digestive system goes bad. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong or if my system can't handle it. But my plan is to stick with 40 miles or less (Highland Sky is still in and so is Maryland Challenge as Amanda and I qualified our vow to Bill later). Oh, and I still would like to try the Applachian Crossing.

And I had one other realization. I'm not actually a masochist, I don't derive pleasure from pain or suffering. I can tell you I was not deriving any pleasure for most of that run! I'm willing to endure pain and suffering to achieve a goal. When I achieve it, that's when I'm happy!

Thank you everyone for running many miles with me, as well as for your support and positive vibes, I couldn't have done it without you.

Here's the url to some more pictures.