Massanutten Mountain Trails 100 - RunUltra Marathon

OMG. It’s a 100 mile run people!! People were SPRINTING off the field and up the road! I though I was at the front of a 10k race and was about to get trampled! Ok, so the first ~2.5 miles are on road, but come on... it’s 100 miles!! Anyways, tried to take it easy and not get caught up with everyone else going waaaaaaay too fast. Off the road (finally!), through the first AS and up the first climb. People were still speeding along. I was still trying to take it easy, but was probably pushing harder than I should have. The course pretty much consists one big climb between each aid station. You’d climb onto a ridge, run along it for a while, then down to the next AS.

At AS#2 I took time to stock up on water, knowing I would need to hydrate early and often with the weather forecast. Then grabbed a pancake and a sausage link to go. Mmmmm.... breakfast on the trail!! Then... UP!! Back up onto a ridge and running along technical, rocky trails. Then down technical rocky trails to AS#3. Are we noticing a pattern yet here? So far, so good. I wasn’t feeling very strong on the climbs, but I was still making good time and was passing people on the downhills. By about 3 hours into the race I noticed my clothes were entirely soaked in sweat. The high humidity mean NO evaporative cooling. Then by 4 hours I could wring the sweat out of my shorts and by 5 hours I had rivers of sweat running down my legs. Then... the chafing began.

Between AS#3 and 4 I decided to do a “superman” and eat the trail. Mmmm... dirt for brunch! Thankfully it was dirt and not rocks!! But somehow in the process of tripping and falling my right calf seized up. Oh no! After a few minutes of walking followed by easy jogging I was all better again. Then it was down to AS#4. I had planned to rely on aid stations for nearly all of my food. Previous races I had gone to would have pretty standard fare, most of which was easy to stuff into a ziploc bag and take with you on the trail. But I was beginning to find that MMT was different. As the race went on, there was less and less of the candy and cookies and more real food. Don’t get me wrong... it was very nice to get hot food, but if I had realized this, I would have packed much more food.

After AS#5 was when things started to go downhill. Well, except for the course. I was getting slower on the climbs and starting to feel nauseous. It probably didn’t help that this next section was 9.5 miles. It may have been one of the easier parts of the course, but the time/distance between aid with the weather we had was not good. There were a lot of other runners out there with just 2 hand-held bottles. I’m sure many of them must have run out of water as I went through my entire 2L camelbak with more than a half mile to AS#6. Boy, was that AS a welcome sight!

Then it was off to go over another mountain to get to Gap Creek where I had my first drop bag waiting for me at mile 40. my feet were starting to get sore from the trail racing shoes I was wearing (not enough cushion over all the rocks) so I decided I’d change them on the first trip through Gap Creek rather than the second time through as I had planned. This took longer than I though as various body parts wanted to cramp up when I’d bend over to tie my shoes. Probably should’ve been a warning sign to eat a LOT more salt, but apparently I wasn’t paying enough attention. I’d been downing ~3 endurolytes per hour, plus some potatoes dipped in salt at aid stations. Before leaving Gap Creek I snagged some super-tasty seasoned potatoes and a quesedilla. Mmmm... good food!!

The climb up Jawbone to Kern mountain was steep! I swear it got steeper than it had been 6 weeks before when I had run the 25 mile “Gap to Gap” loop. My climbing speed was definitely slow and I got passed on this section. But at least it wasn’t too long of a climb (maybe 35-40 minutes?). The weather had been gradually warming up through the day and felt like it was getting into the high 70s by this point. Blech. But as soon as I crested Kern Mtn I caught a nice breeze. Less than a minute later the first storm rolled in. Rain and thunder! It was really quite nice. The rain was refreshing and the thunder/lightning made it interesting. Unfortunately wet rocks are not an ideal running surface and I slowed my pace to avoid taking a nasty fall. A tactic that I would use for the rest of my time out there. Running down a section of road to the visitor center (AS#8) I hooked up with a guy I had passed crossing Kern Mtn. It was definitely nice to have some company out there for a while. He’d run the race 10 years ago and had finally come back to run it again. At the visitor center I made a quick stop and gave the guy I met some of my blister care stuff, grabbed a cookie for the trail and took off to climb up Bird Knob.

This climb also seemed longer and steeper than before. But I guess that’s what happens when you’ve got 50 miles on your legs. I was really starting to feel the nausea on this segment and the endless climbing seemed to make it worse. When I got to the top where there were runnable sections I had a tough time mentally and physically running due to the nausea and lack of energy. Despite this, I managed to catch and pass another woman just before the aid station. I decided to take my time there. I’d begun to seriously contemplate DNFing coming up the climb, but decided to keep pushing. A few cups of ginger ale, potatoes and salt, chips and a hot dog to go. I should’ve stuck around and had a second hot dog.... that was soooo good in the middle of the race!! I was still having trouble running even on flat sections so the guy I had run with for a bit earlier (Chris) caught and passed me.

Coming down off the Bird Knob was very slow. Some sections were quite steep, rocky, technical and slippery. Once we were down it was a short jog into the picnic area AS (#10). I think it was getting close to 6:30p by now. I was hoping to make it to the next station in <2 hours before it got really dark. But I also knew the next section had quite a bit of climbing and was long (8.5 miles). More ginger ale to try and settle my stomach and some gummy bears to go. Just a few minutes out of the AS the storm came back. This time with 15 minutes of POURING rain. And of course thunder and lightning was well. But after 2 minutes of this rain the trails had turned into streams as much as 6” deep! At least it made following the trail easier!! And no more worries about getting too hot! Heck, it gave a whole new meaning to the term “river runner”... HAHA!! Splish splash splish splash all the way to the Hwy 211 crossing. Then the climbing began!

About a half mile up Chris caught up to me again (I must have passed him at the picnic area). I was feeling a bit better and picked up the pace to power hike the hills together. Very nice to have company after running most of the race alone. After a couple miles of uphill there were some rolling sections and I left Chris behind. He seemed content to walk the flats, so I ran past telling him “it’s flat! get your butt moving”. He gave a feeble laugh and let me by. I managed to catch and pass 3 women before getting back to Gap Creek (AS#11) before 9pm. I was still on track for a sub-28 hour finish at this point.

I took my time getting all my lights from my drop bag, arm warmers and more quesedilla and potatoes. Then up Jawbone again! Ugh! Going up the switchbacks I could see the lights of at least one runner behind me. About halfway down to Moreland Gap I got passed by Sheryl and her pacer, both were flying down the rocky and wet trail that I was stumbling along. After what seemed like waaaay too long for less than 3 miles I finally arrived. Still not feeling great. And being informed that the infamous Short Mountain was the next section did not lift my spirits. I was hoping to cover the ~8 mile section in under 3 hours. Agonizingly slow pace, but given the climbing and amount of @#*!* rocks and the rain, it seemed perfectly reasonable. Another hot dog here and I grabbed a twinkie for the trip before heading out.

I was feeling a little uneasy having been told that bears live at the bottom of Short Mountain and runners frequently hear them. Although I knew there were runners ahead of and behind me, I could not see any lights. On the plus side, I was not feeling nearly as paranoid as I had expected and my new flashlight was awesome! More like a torch! Though I swear that as I was getting to the climb I heard some grumbling and heaving breathing off in the bushes, which definitely made me go a bit faster. Yikes! Oh man, Short Mountain was bad. Bad bad bad!! Up and up, over rocks. Then the trail was rolling along over very technical terrain which I was unable to run. It was still raining lightly just to make sure that the rocks stayed nice and slippery. Every time I would even think about running I would slip on a rock or stumble. I was also beginning to have issues with balance and walking in a straight line. No way I could have passed a sobriety test! I was also stopping to pee about every half hour going across this (another bad sign). With the rain and how often I had to pee, I started to work on my peeing while running (or shuffling) technique. Note, you should NOT try this if you have severe chafing on your thighs as it really really stings!! (Think hydrogren peroxide on a cut) More than halfway across my right knee started feeling a bit stiff and not really wanting to straighten out all the way. I chalked it up to a bit of swelling and ignored it... continuing to stumble onward wanting to get off that evil mountain and into the next AS. Finally... after about 2:50 on Short Mountain I made it to Edinburgh Gap!

I had my second drop bag here, stocked with Red Bull and poptarts. Unfortunately my stomach was feeling so lousy that I didn’t dare consume either. I sat around for more than 5 minutes sipping ginger ale and trying to feel better. I eventually decided that it would take a while to come back around and I might as well get moving on up the trail. So I took off around 1am. Ugh. It was like I had hit a big fricking steel wall. I had no energy left. I was walking everything on tender feet. I’d shuffle maybe 20 paces up the gradual incline then stop to huff and puff. This was a significant decline in my pace – I felt like Short Mountain had sucked the life out of me... and I was still peeing all the time despite having cut back a lot on drinking. Twice I stopped on the trail, debated DNFing for a minute, then decided to keep on trying. Finally the third time I turned and started heading back to Edinburg Gap slowly... and crying. I really had wanted to finish, had trained hard for it, knew I was physically capable, but was just having an absolutely lousy day. It had long since stopped being fun and I knew my slow pace would translate into getting very cold. Around 2am I got back to Edinburg and told them I was dropping.

Eat more, lots more salt. Pack more of my own food in drop bags for this race (not necessarily all others). More shoes and socks when wet weather is predicted.

I got a blanket and sat in a chair for an hour watching a several more runners come through the aid station. Finally around 3am a volunteer took me (and another guy who had dropped before me) back. About halfway back I asked for him to stop the car despite the lack of shoulders on the road. He seemed to be taking his time to find a good spot so I announced “sooner rather than later”.... as in, stop the damn car or I’ll puke IN it! Before he’d even come to a stop I had flung open the door and was leaving a trail of hot dog, twinkie and ginger ale on the roadway. Blech. And no water with me to rinse my mouth out.

Back at the club house I slumped into a chair and chatted a bit with others that had DNF’d. Eventually I took an excruciatingly painful shower – huge amounts of chafing on the inner thighs (like 6” circles!) and on my back from the waistband of the shorts. Ow ow ow!! Then I went upstairs to lay on a sofa.... well, ok, the hardwood floor looks fine since all the sofas are taken. It took more than 12 hours from when I DNF’d until I started feeling better. Lying around, my HR was 100-120... much too high for being a couch potato... and felt irregular. Really not a good feeling and definitely had me thinking about possible hyponatremia. There was no Gatorade at the finish area and the chicken noodle soup was not helping enough. Miserable. I couldn’t be vertical for more than 5 or 10 minutes or I feel like puking. And for some reason the restrooms were downstairs while the sofas were upstairs. I went up and down those stairs at least 8 times!! Still had a few lingering problems when I left... hopefully they’ll get sorted out without a Dr visit.

On the plus side, I am already feeling better... and debating going back next year to get my name off the visitor list and get my belt buckle.


Not enough food? Too high water to electrolyte ratio? Wet, slippery rocks?


Tough course. Not necessarily "too hard", but definitely very challenging, especially with the conditions we had this year. On the other hand, fabulous atmosphere, wonderful volunteers, great "real food" at the aid stations. A really great race... minus the puking part.