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.

Virginia Happy Trails Running Club Women’s Half Trail Marathon, 9/13/2008

This is Megan's report posted under Michelle's Straggling Irregulars account.

First, the good news:
1) The shirt is pretty nice. It’s a women’s short-sleeve v-neck Race Ready technical shirt in a shade of light greenish-grey. Neither one of us is wearing the shirt in this pre-race photo, but hey, don't we look tough?

2) Despite my best effort to remain unprepared for this race, I somehow finished. You might expect such a dramatic sentence in a race report for a 50-miler or a 100-miler but since I’ve already bronzed my ultra shoes and sworn off the longer distances, I’ve only got the half marathon distance now to show-off my Drama Queen side so get used to it.

3) There was so much ice left over after the Park’s Half race on Sunday, I took some of it home and got a free ice bath out of it.

4) It was great to see so many familiar faces at the race. Among the most notable: Mark McKennett, Volunteer Extraordinaire both Saturday and again on Sunday at the Parks Half. Mark introduced us to his friend Brooke---who must be pumped for more information the next time I see her. Jim Cavanaugh sure knows how to work an aid station. Running the race: Kimberly (2nd in her age group, 14th overall), Susie Kinnecome (1st in her age group, 8th place overall), Michele McLeod, Erica Yuan, Monika Bachmann (2nd in her age group, 9th place overall), Pam Gowen (3rd in her age group).

5) I now know that I can survive a pretty stupid race blunder (or at least I did one time, “past performance is no guarantee of future gains” as they say in the investment world.) Here’s the deal. During the first part of the course, approximately 8 miles including the area called the Do Loop, I convinced myself that I would stop running at the aid station located at the start/finish area. Some people call that quitting. It was really hot and humid, and I wasn’t well trained for even a half marathon. Sure, I kept telling myself “Well at least it’s not as difficult as hiking for 5 and a half hours in Shenandoah with 30 pounds on my back when I was only expecting to hike for about 2 hours max.” You can see I was channeling Mical and Lorrin at that point. So when I got to the aid station, I sat down and was prepared to stop. Again, some people call that quitting. I waited a minute or two for this woman to come in to the aid station. We’d been talking a bit for the last mile or so. She was the mother of a mother-daughter team. She was experiencing some low moments out there, too. Anyway, when she got there, I asked her if she was going to go on and she said yes. So I debated with myself for a few more seconds and agreed to the following: a) If I didn’t finish, I couldn’t wear the shirt. And it is a nice shirt. b) If I did finish, I wouldn’t ever have to run another half for the rest of my life. THAT was a big motivator. And c) I could crawl 5+ miles in 2 hours---the time left before the cut-off.

So, I gathered my wits and took off like a flash. A very slow, sweaty flash. Unfortunately, I failed to refill my water bottle before taking off. I had about 2 inches or so left in the bottle when I left the aid station. Even more unfortunate is the last aid station ran out of water before I got there, so for the last 1 hour 25 minutes, I only had about 4 ounces of water. That was pretty tough, and a good lesson that did not come at too high a price.

Now, the not-so-good news:
Michelle twisted her left ankle (the one that was fractured back in JFK 2 years ago) so she decided to cut her losses after about 8+ miles and start healing in the hope of running at least some part of the Gunpowder Falls 50K on the 20th.

Here's a picture at the finish line. In light of everything, I'm pretty happy simply to have finished.

Shenandoah backpacking trip

I'm sneaking this post in here because I think our 'epic' weekend of hiking with heavy packs needs to be documented, if for no other reason than to keep us from trying this again!

Michelle and Joe had completed 50 miles the previous weekend, I was 28 weeks pregnant, [edit: Lorrin was also pregnant but no one knew it at the time!], and Megan really wanted to make sure she didn't train too much for the Women's Half, so an easy, relaxing backpacking trip was discussed. I found some trails that appeared to lend themselves to a basecamping adventure- that is, hike in a few miles with the heavy packs, set up camp, and go for day hikes for a few days, then hike out.

We started on Thompson Hollow Road and quickly connected to the Overall Run Falls trail. There were a few good camping spots near water within the first hour or so. I believe it was a unanimous decision that it was too early to stop to camp at this point. So we hiked on. And on, and on, and mostly uphill. With the heavy packs (well, not me, Paul was carrying most of my stuff. I was carrying all my weight on the front...). Did I mention it was hot and humid? Anyway, when we all had enough, there wasn't anywhere to camp that was flat enough, didn't have bear poop all over, wasn't bug infested, and had water. So we hiked on some more. Eventually we did find a great spot and set up camp for the night, along Jeremy's Run. There wasn't too much complaining, considering we had hiked 6+ hours, nearly 8 miles, mostly uphill. Dinner tasted great, the guys had some wine and whiskey and we were probably all sleeping by 8pm. No bears visited us. A big one did cross our path about an hour before we had stopped to camp though!

The next morning we considered our options. We were now about 7 miles from the car, via a different route that appeared mostly flat or downhill. We could stay here, do a short day hike, and hike out on Monday, or we could pack up, head towards the car and hope to find a nice spot to camp before we were too tired to go on. We packed up.

So we hiked up to the AT and stopped to stuff our faces at Elkwallow Wayside. That was a nice rest! We continued on toward Overall Run Falls, where we hoped to camp. Of course, there were no good sites to be found. The major-looking stream on the map was bone-dry. We hiked on (sound familiar?). After another 5+ hour day, we found a nice spot by some nice water. It was close quarters for 3 tents but who's complaining at this point? We ate, rested, and finally rolled ourselves into the tents. No bears visited us.

The next morning, we were pretty delighted to find we were only about a mile from the cars! We hiked out, in good spirits because we knew a greasy Apple House breakfast was waiting for us.

Much like ultras, I think it took a few days for everyone to agree that it was a fun (though strenuous) trip. Thanks for coming everyone! Here are my pics and Michelle's pics.