Massanutten Mountain Trails 100 Mile Run – Gratitude

I wanted to take a moment and try to convey my overwhelming gratitude to all the volunteers, crews, other runners, and members of the Virginia Happy Trails Running Club VHTRC out at the Massanutten Mountain Trails 100 Mile Run (MMT100) last weekend (May 19-20 2018).  The MMT100 was my first attempt at a 100 miler and despite the extremely rough terrain (I have never seen so many rocks!!) I am happy that this was my first 100 mile race.  Along the way I chatted with many runners, most of them having run the MMT100 before and all of them said the same thing… How awesome the aid stations and volunteers where.  Here are my thoughts about the whole experience…

Leading up to the race I posted a question on the VHTRC Facebook group about the weather and what to expect with all the rain…. Of course there were the typical humorous responses like “you’re going to need  bigger boat” and “might want to trade in your running vest for a life vest” and had its fair share of funny gifs which is all great but, to my point, the amount of information shared about the course conditions was phenomenal.  Information about where to expect water, which aid stations would be better for a replacement pair of shoes and the such.

During the race, I was blown away by the support of the volunteers and other crewmembers at each aid station.  The moments that stick out in my mind were:

• At A.S. #5 (Elizabeth Furnace) Nikki, a wife of another runner over heard my talking to my crew about placing a band aid on spot that was rubbing on the back on my heel and she quickly jumped in and placed a very sticky patch in lieu of a Band-Aid and gold bond spray. I think she said the patch used to be a band aid you could buy at the store but is not used anymore or something like that… seems like ages ago).  That spot never did become an issue for the rest of the race.
• At A.S. #8 (Indian Grave) A guy took my travel bottles that I have prefilled with Generation Ucan and filled both my hydration flasks for me while I was being urged to eat a lot of food now to prepare for the climb after Habron gap. (it’s the small things that count)
• At A.S. #9 (Habron Gap) I was getting concerned about the swelling in my fingers and was talking to my crew about how to reverse what was going on. Insert Nikki again with some solid advice that we heeded and sure enough course corrected, no more chubby nubbies, err.. fingers!!
• At A.S. #11 (Gap Creek I) While I was getting ready to leave the A.S. a guy with an official looking clipboard came over and gave me turn-by-turn directions of the next section without me even asking. The great thing about these directions was that it was not just any turn-by-turn, it had this Lou Houltz halftime speech quality to it and as I left I felt reinvigorated…. Thank you Lou Holtz clipboard guy!!
• Finally at A.S. #14, as I was sitting down eating some excellent chicken noodle soup a taller man (he told me his name but I have since forgotten it) walked over asked how I was doing and proceeded to describe the next section in great detail (but almost comically blunt). His words as I remember it went something like this…. “You’ll start off with a short downhill then onto some double track with a runnable uphill”…. (My thought at the time was that there is no such thing as a runnable uphill)… “From there you going to hit a really nasty section where you will be climbing up a rocky creek bed… (Again, my thoughts were, yea been there already today multiple time…. Realized later that I was utterly incorrect) then as an added bonus he helped me put my pack back on told me that my pack was about 10lbs too heavy and I need to do something about that…  (My thoughts were, shoot I only have 2-17oz flasks and a bladder full of water on the back… what does this person usually run with?)

I am sure there were other moments of pure benevolence from other runner, crew, and volunteers that have since been swept from my memory banks due to the sensory overload my brain has had from the weekend. However, these are the ones I can remember and felt the need to share.

Thank you to all of the runners, volunteers, crew, and VHTRC members!!! With the MMT 100 as my first 100 mile race I will use this experience to rank all other 100 milers off of, which may be a tall order.