This event had many elements of an adventure race. It was more than just a run. It was chilly staring out, but not too cold. Pretty ideal conditions. The ground was frozen, which was a blessing, becuase the dirt was firm and not sloppy. The trade off was that you had to be careful not to twist an ankle on the bike ruts and horse tracks.
The course was very interesting. There were some old brick and stone buildings in the woods. There were stone bridges, one covered bridge. Some streams you had to jump across, others pick your way across on stones, and quite a few 2x4 "bridges". One stream crossing was a bridge made from a large tree - cut in half length-wise, with steps made from tree sections.
I felt good starting out and the field quickly seeded themselves - there was a pack ahead of me and a big pack behind. The scenery kind of blurred together over the 5.25hrs, so I can't remember much of what happened when. In addition, I had to concentrate on the 10+ ft of ground ahead of me more than the surroundings to keep from tripping or torquing an ankle. The first event of note occurred at around mile 7-8 at an underpass, which had ice in it. You had to stick to the sides to avoid slipping or getting wet socks. Well, I had one more step to go before I'm on dry ground and, WHAM! I went down hard. It took me a minute to get myself together, but I walked it off and kept on trucking. I could tell that I was going to have a nasty bruise on my right knee, but I later found out that I lost some skin on both knees and my left ankle.
The balls of my feet started hurting early on, maybe around mile 10. Not a good sign, but I'm used to it and it was manageable. What bugged my feet the worst was running through the meadows. The grass clumps were frozen, so footing was very uneven.
I forget when I walked the first hill, but it was a harbinger of things to come. My legs started getting fatigued and walking became more and more a part of the process. It was a bit addicting. I constatntly had to remind myself to HTFU and start running when I reached flat ground. Dawdling a aid stations was another guilty pleasure. After mile 20, I told myself I'd run 3 miles, then walk while I took a gel or a bite of Promax bar. It turned out to be a little uneven, but I kept setting short term goals, which was tough to do because I was afraid the course was going to long. At the second aid station, a lady there said she was at mile 14, but my Garmin read 15.25. It was funny how at every aid station people were always comparing mileage readings. I was at mile 22, and one guy had over 25 miles! there were sections where it was easy to get off course. That happened to me once, but I was lucky that I heard some racers behind and turned around to see them heading in a different direction. I returned the favor when a group missed a turn and was about to re-do a trail section.
At mile 22 I noticed a rather painful blister on my right little toe. Why didn't I even think about moleskin?! At 26.2 miles I happened to notice my time of 4:27 was 1:12 slower than my OBX marathon time! At mile 28 I realized that I was not going to break 5 hrs. I had no time goals, but didn't think it was going to take me this long. I kept motivating myself to run by saying, "The quicker I get done, the quicker I get to Coldstone" (irony alert) and just simply reminding myself to HTFU. Everything hurt, but I had to get done. I was running with several guys and was content to let them set the pace and we chatted a bit (2 of the lunatics were doing the Massanutten 100!). Before I knew it, I recognized that we were coming up on the parking lot that was the finish line! The course turned out to be short by a mile, but I didn't care - this was my longest run and my most challenging by far.

More trails, more miles, more walking in the beginning.

Hobbled around and drank my Endurox.
So, on my way home, I planned on indulging in treat from a Coldstone in Elkton, and, as mentioned earlier, I had used this as a carrot during the race to keep pushing. Well, they were closed! Sigh. Thank goodness for the DQ in Middleton. Yummy enough for plan B.


Lack of training and experience on this surface.


Hard to rate this race. It was free and you get what you pay for. Bare bones operation. The course was, at times inadequately marked, but overall well enough. Except for one, aid stations were cardboard boxes with goodies left in the woods and water jugs. IMHO, this was not a first timers course for those wishing to go ultra. Not for the faint of heart, but, then again, I have no other experience with this type of race. Definitely a cat of a different stripe.