From Saturday evening to Sunday early afternoon, I paced a runner, Miles Welze of San Leandro, CA, at the MMT 100. Miles had run one other 100-Miler, the Western States 100, which he had finished in less than 24 hours. Miles had his fiancé, Maureen crewing for him. His plan with the MMT was to cover as much ground as he could during the daylight hours and “fast hike” the trails at night and then run what he could after sunrise on Sunday morning. Miles also was hoping to finish the run in 27 hours, which would mean that by Sunday morning, he would have 2 ½ hours of daylight to cover the last several miles. Given his sub 24 hour time for the previous year’s Western States, a 27 hour goal seemed reasonable, but the MMT is probably the hardest 100 miler east of the Rockies. It has over 18,000 feet in climbing and the trails have lots of rocks, many of them hidden under leaves, weeds or grass.
I had some apprehension about being too slow to pace someone who was planning to run the MMT in 27 hours because I expected he might be moving faster than I was capable of going, but some MMT veterans told me that would be unlikely. Also, Miles’ plan to fast hike at night also reduced my fears in this regard.
I had several motivations in wanting to pace at MMT. I wanted to get to know the MMT Course, so I would have some experience on it in case I decide to do (or attempt to do?) this course sometime in the future. I wanted to help my runner make it through the difficult course and hopefully meet his time goal. I wanted to see up close what the 100 mile experience was like. And I wanted to help if anyone was in trouble on the trail.
In preparation for the run, I bought 2 LED lights: a headlamp and a small, handheld flashlight and a Camelbak Lobo waterpak, which holds over a half gallon of fluid and has some storage capacity for my trail mix, Succeed Electrolyte capsules, spare socks and shirt, emergency batteries and a cell phone. The LED lights came highly recommended and would prove to provide sufficient light for navigating the course through the night without burning through the batteries. I helped mark the trail from Edinburg Gap to Woodstock Tower on Friday, in order to gain some familiarity with a part of the course I would likely be covering the following evening.
On Saturday morning, Helen and I awoke at 4 a.m. and drove the 5 or 6 miles from our motel to the starting line of the race to see the runners start. We saw Miles and wished him and the other runners good luck. At 5 a.m. they were off. After the start, we went back to the motel for some needed sleep before heading up to where Helen and I would help work in the run, the Visitors Center Aid Station at mile 48.2. We checked in on the runners at Camp Roosevelt, 34.2 miles into the run, where we met Maureen. She told us Miles was doing well, meeting his planned times for arriving at the Aid Stations through the first 25 miles. We were able to see Miles come into Camp Roosevelt in good shape, after 11:30 a.m. 34 miles done, 68 miles left. Did I mention the MMT is actually 101.8 miles, not a mere 100.
Helen and I made it to the Visitors’ Center at noon. The first runners came through shortly after 1:30 p.m. Peter Bakwin was the front runner, followed a minute later by Serge England-Arbona, then eventual winner, Sean Andrish. Sean would cover the course in 20:49, 38 minutes ahead of runner-up Bakwin. The 4th and 5th place runners came into the Aid Station shortly after the front runners left. After that it would be 40 minutes before the next group of runners would arrive. Miles came into the Aid Station at 3:15 p.m. He had covered the first 48 miles of the MMT in just over 10 hours and was around 20th place at that point. After he came through I laid down on my sleeping bag for a short rest before my more serious activities of this day would begin. I met Maureen and we decided she would pick me up after meeting Miles at Aid Station 10, 211 East, 58.1 miles into the run. Miles got though 211 East just after 5:30 P.M., so he was on schedule for me to meet up with him at the next aid station, Gap Creek/Jawbone II, 64.9 miles into the run. Maureen came back and I got ready for my pacing duties, kissing Helen goodbye, covering the “rub” areas of my body with band aids and applying Body Glide to my thighs and feet. I put on my shoes, running shorts and a short sleeve shirt. Maureen drove me to the aid station. It was a mild day and with the temperatures starting to cool, I decided to put on running tights, rather than waiting to change into them later in the evening. That turned out to be a good decision as I was comfortable most of the evening and I did not feel overheated by them later the next day.
I filled my Camelbak with water, drank some Gatorade, took a Succeed Capsule, ate some snacks, and commiserated with the Aid Station crew, which included Michele Harmon and several other Ultra veterans, waiting for Miles to arrive. Miles came in right on schedule, shortly after 7 p.m. He filled his water bottles, ate some food and soon we left the aid station for the first part of a long journey towards the finish. We were soon going up a path towards the top of Jawbone, which would prove to be the “gentlest” climb of the evening. We walked most of way up Jawbone at a good pace. Miles had climbed this mountain earlier in the day so he was already familiar with it. A couple of times Miles stopped to catch his breath. I was fresh, so the climb seemed easy to me. In a few minutes we were at the top of Jawbone and we took a right turn and headed down. Miles was running some of the downhill and flat sections of the trail that weren’t covered with rocks. Before long, we arrived at the Moreland Gap Aid Station. Miles and I had a cup of coffee. I noticed a volunteer eating a hot dog and asked if I could have one. He obliged and covered it with mustard and ketchup. I asked half-jokingly if they had chili and he said they did, so I had the best chilidog on the run one could want. Kudos to Aid Station 12! Miles refilled his water bottles, got his lightbelt and headlamp, had a sandwich and off to Short Mountain we went.
Short Mountain would prove not to be so short. By the end of the night I decided they should call it “Sh*t” Mountain. Many MMT participants have seen their MMT crash and burn on Short Mountain. Miles was leading the way (as pacers were instructed to follow not lead) and we began to climb. Miles figured it would take 3 hours to cover Short Mountain. At first the path was reasonable, but soon we were hitting the rocks. As the sun set and daylight began to fade, Miles lit up his light belt and headlamp. I later asked Miles where he got the lightbelt. He told me he made it himself by stringing 2 headlamps together. Miles really lit up the night with his light belt and his headlamp, 17 LED bulbs in all, including 11 on the belt. He also has flashlight with 19 LED bulbs. I took out my flashlight, deciding to save the headlamp until later. With these lights we had no trouble seeing where we were going. An hour later I took out my headlamp and turned it on. We climbed and climbed and climbed and eventually we reached the top of the mountain. Once at the top we were hiking through rocks and more rocks. Big boulders and smaller rocks were strewn throughout the path. The trail descended along the ridge top and then it rose again. Then it descended some and went up again. It is unreasonable to expect normal human beings to be able to run this section. Every so often I looked down into the Valley and could see the town of Luray. It was a clear night. Occasionally we saw a yellow ribbon or a yellow glow stick marking the trail. It was intuitive to follow the ridgeline, so for the most part it was easy to stay on course. Around 2 hours into Short Mountain, we heard voices. Soon Prasad Gerard breezed by us, pacing a runner who was moving much faster than we were. They were actually running on occasion through the nasty rock fields. Obviously not normal human beings…… We walked at moderate pace as much as we could while side stepping rock formations. “Ouch!”, I yelled after twisting my ankle on one the many treacherous spots. But I recovered almost instantly, having twisted that right ankle hundreds of times before. After what seemed to be hours, we began the descent. We walked down the mountain and eventually saw a woman coming up the trail. We asked her “how much further to the Aid Station.” She said “about 30 minutes.” I told Miles I thought it would be a bit less since she was walking up and we were walking downhill.
After what seemed to be 15 minutes we came to a road. We began to run some on the road and eventually 2 or 3 other runners caught up and passed us as we came into the Edinburg Gap Aid Station, Mile 75.9. It was around 11:20 and it had taken us 3:10 to cover the 8.2 miles of Short Mountain. One more mountain covered with 3 big climbs and 26 miles to go. Miles had some more coffee, sat for a while, ate some food, took some Tylenol and tried to get some recovery before we begin on the “more gentle” section between Edinburg Gap and Woodstock Tower. Maureen told me not to make Miles run any more. I refilled my Camelbak, had a cup of chicken noodle soup, a couple of handfuls of snacks, a Succeed Capsule and a little bit of coffee before we were ready to move on. Before we left, Maureen told me not to make Miles run any more. As we were crossing the road I half-joked to Miles that I couldn’t make him run even if I wanted to, but I was determined to make sure he got to the end without dropping. I later told him it was o.k. if he needed to take a nap break at the some point.
I was somewhat familiar with the coming section. It was the section where I helped mark trail on some 36 hours earlier. The climb up was not as brutal as the climb up Short Mountain, but it was still a nasty climb, and by this time Miles had already done 8 long climbs and countless smaller climbs where the trails go up and down along the ridgelines. He was moving more slowly, but he kept moving. He planned to be at Woodstock Tower before 3 a.m., which seemed achievable. As we reached the top of the mountain Miles was feeling an irritation in his crotch and said to make sure he got Vaseline at the next Aid Station. I noticed that he was wearing Race Ready running shorts and mentioned to him that I had previously had problems with chafing with Race Ready shorts. These days, I always wear some less irritating underwear under them. We walked along the ridgeline line. It wasn’t as nasty as Short Mountain but still had many places where you had to watch your footing on and around the rocks. By this time I had twisted my right ankle 3 or times. I twisted it 4 or 5 more times as we progressed through the course. I also twisted my left ankle a couple of times. I must be one of those people who is double-jointed in my ankles, because the ankle will hurt for a minute or 2, but I am usually able to walk off the problem and keep on going. This night proved to be no different though a couple of twists really stung. Slowly, but steadily, we moved towards Woodstock Tower.
We came to a place where the Blue Trail crossed the Orange Trail which we were following. At this junction we took a right turn and began our descent to Woodstock Tower. I noticed the yellow ribbon we hung from the sign the previous day was not hanging, so I fixed it. Since our crew was unable to complete the trail marking to Woodstock, I didn’t know how far it was from the turn to the Aid Station. The previous day, trail markers Vicki Kendall and Margie Hughes disagreed on how far it was to Woodstock. Vicki said it was 2 more miles to Woodstock and Margie said it was 4 miles. Late this night, I was hoping Vicki was right, but my sense was Margie had a better sense of it. And the winner of the map reading contest was Margie! She’s the one I would trust to navigate for me if I was dire straights.
We had come over 4 miles since Edinburg Gap and had 4 more miles to go. The trail seemed to go on endlessly. By this time I was leading the way. Every mile or so, I would have to stop to pee, so Miles would pass by me and lead for a ways. Miles wanted this section to end so he could get his chafing wounds tended to. I asked him if he had a change of trunks. He said he didn’t and it wouldn’t do him any good if he did, the damage was already done. At some point I caught a glimpse of a waning orange moon rising in the east on the horizon. Slowly but steadily we made it down the mountain. Soon we came to a sign that said “Aid 1 mile ahead.” 10 minutes further down the road, a sign read “Aid ½ mile ahead.” Shortly after 3 a.m., we arrived at the Woodstock Tower Aid Station. The last section had taken us almost 4 hours. This was the unofficially half-way point for me, having covered 19 miles, with 18 miles to go. Miles needed more time at this stop and spent a few minutes sitting in a chair as Maureen tended to him. Miles’ friend and the other MMT runner from California, Bill Walz, had arrived an hour ahead of us. He was shivering and feeling sick. Bill was unable to continue to the finish and dropped out at this point. Miles was determined not to let this happen to him. He said he and Bill had made a pact to finish so he wasn’t going to drop. Miles needed more coffee as Maureen tended to him. I asked Miles if he needed to nap at this Aid Station. He said no, he wanted to get to the next station before taking a rest. He put Vaseline on his thighs, hoping to alleviate his pain and continue on. He also cut the webbing out of his painful running shorts. Better to hang loose than to bleed! Shortly after we arrived at Woodstock Tower, 2 familiar faces showed up. Mike Broderick and his pacer, Linda Wack stopped for a brief respite before they would streak off into the night. I also saw my favorite Reston Runners President and one-time MMT finisher, Anna Bradford. Anna was crewing (and later pacing) for our own Reston Runner, Steve Burton a 2002 MMT finisher. I asked Anna where Steve was. Anna said he was between Edinburg and Woodstock, probably an hour away. We stayed at the aid station for almost 30 minutes before Miles was ready to continue on to Powell’s Fort. I was feeling a chill, so I decided to change into my long-sleeved shirt, the nice one VHTRC gave me for helping with the trail marking and the Aid Station.
We spent a half hour at the aid station before taking off and covering the relatively short and easy 5.2 mile stretch between Woodstock Tower and Powell’s Fort. We figured it would take us 2 hours to cover this section. The trail took us up a short ways before descending for a period, then flattening out as it followed the ridgeline before dropping down to Powell’s Fort. Miles was cussing the Rocks and the course. By this time the moon was more visible, but never to the point where it provided any significant illumination. Miles was really hurting due to the chafing caused by those nasty Race Ready shorts. He was suffering and not at all enjoying his Virginia 100 mile experience. Still he continued on, planning at this point to walk it in all the way in to the end. He said he didn’t want to have to repeat this course to earn his buckle. Soon, the sky started getting lighter. It was 5 a.m. and Miles had been out there for 24 hours. Miles had gone 87 miles with 15 more to go. Around 5:30, a smiling, mischievous runner caught up with us, Mr. Knob Creek, aka Gary Knipling. I told Gary he was looking good. Gary said that Jaret Seiberg and his pacer, John Dodds were right behind him. I asked Gary how far it was to Powell’s Fort. He said he would get there before 6 a.m., so we figured 1 to 1½ iles. In the early morning light Gary was running without a light. Miles thought he was crazy, but I was ready to turn my light off, too. Miles kept his most of the way into the aid station. But the long night was over and the morning light was increasing.
Eventually we came upon the road into the Aid Station. Maureen was there and said she some bad news, the rental car she was driving was stuck in a ditch. She asked if we needed anything out our bags and said she had to go back and meet the tow truck driver. It was 6:10 a.m. Jaret and Dodds passed us as we came into the Aid Station, soon followed by the always smiling, “keep on trucking girl”, Kerry Owens. It seemed like every Aid Station had these signs for Kerry with her picture on it saying something like “Chair = Evil”. Kerry must have quite a reputation for taking too long at the Aid Station. But not this time, she was a mission to finish this run. She was running in 2nd place among the women. She held her 2nd place, no small feat.
Miles had his chafed thighs attended to and taped. He sat a while in a chair, covered with a blanket. Soon he decided to lie down on a folding lounger. He told me to give him an hour then wake him. I was too keyed up to rest, so I talked with James Moore and his wife Rebecca, who were working the Aid Station. They had a nice breakfast going, bacon, eggs and sausage. I made a small sandwich with some eggs and 2 slices of bacon. This did not top the chili dog I had at Moreland Gap, but it was a close second. One thing I have learned from the Bill Van Animal is that you need to eat some normal food, not just carbs, when doing an ultra. I then went off into the woods to take care of some nature business. Shortly after 7, Maureen reappeared, the car pulled out the ditch and all taken care of, $75 later. I told Maureen that Miles wanted to sleep for another half hour so she left him alone.
In a few more minutes Miles sat up and somewhat revived was ready to go again. Just as Miles was rallying, Steve Burton came running in, along with Anna Bradford, who would pace him over the next mountain and beyond. Steve and several other people left the aid station right after us. The trail leading out of Powell’s Fort looked familiar and I soon realized it was the road I had run from the other direction one recent moonlit February evening on the way to Mudhole Gap as part of the VHTRC Moonlight Run. Steve and Anna took off running. A couple of others followed. Soon we would pass a runner who was walking at a somewhat slower pace than we were going. Miles seemed to have a little more energy and was walking a bit faster on this section. From time to time, there would be big puddles covering the entire road. After a mile the road crossed a stream. I knew it was likely that we would get wet feet or at least muddy shoes in this section. Soon the trail took a left off the road and we were ascending around a nice lake. There were places where we couldn’t avoid getting our shoes good and muddy. A short time later, the blue trail split off from the orange trail and the ribbons told us to follow the blue trail, as the trail does not go up Signal Knob. The trail took us back across the dirt and gravel road and headed up the mountain on the blue trail. After we crossed the road we crossed another little creek. I decide to give my shoes a good washing so I walked through the water rather than attempting to step on stones. On the way up the mountain we passed a group of 3 runners, who were walking up. They were walking, talking and seeming to be having a good time for a group that had covered 90 miles on foot in 26 hours. This climb was another long one, but to me it didn’t seem quite as bad as the previous 2 climbs. After what seemed to be a half hour of climbing we reached the top of the ridge and began going down again. This would last for 4 miles or so as we descended the 1,200 feet to Elizabeth’s Furnace.
On the long hike down the mountain we came across a couple of Boy Scouts who were hiking the other direction with a man who asked me what we doing. I told him my runner was completing the Massanutten Mountain Trails 100 Miler. I mentioned that he had been out on the trail since 5 a.m. yesterday morning and had less than 10 miles to go. I think the man was somewhat in awe. We passed a couple of other hikers and walkers on the trail. We kept on moving and eventually crossed the road and followed a path along a stream before crossing the bridge and coming into the last aid station at Elizabeth’s Furnace. We had covered this section in just over 2½ hours, an improvement over our pace on the previous 3 sections. 96.8 miles down 5 miles and 1 big climb to go. They had ice cream sandwiches here. Miles and I each had one and Maureen attended to Miles as we refilled our water containers for one last climb before we complete our mission. Speaking of missions, a minute or 2 after we arrived, a contingent of 4 running U.S. Marines came into the aid station. They had arrived together, took care of their business and were soon off to conquer the last mountain of the MMT. The foursome would finish together in just over 31 hours. I yelled some words of encouragement to them. As we were getting ready to leave, Marty Lindeman arrived with her gentleman pacer escort, Tom Corris. This time they were running, not riding a Harley. Marty looked surprisingly good for someone who had already endured 96.8 miles of the MMT.
We soon left the aid station and began walking along the creek until the trail curved and began its wind up to the top of Shawl Mountain. We were both saying this last climb was just to add insult to injury and more insult. Miles said he just wanted to get his buckle and get out of here and never come back. Occasionally, I would hear the “F” coming from Miles. This climb wasn’t the biggest one on the course, but it did go up quite a ways and it took us 1½ hours to hike the 2 miles up to the summit. Miles was keeping up a steady walk, not as fast as my fresher legs were carrying me, so I would stop periodically and let him catch up. After we got to the top we both were ready for it to be done, but we still had to come down the mountain. The trail turned into a dirt road type of trail going straight down the mountain for what seemed to be a half a mile. Another runner passed us. He complained about the trail down, saying it would hurt our quads. He was running though obviously pained by it. He was one who had been this way before.
At one point the trail was completely muddied over so we got more of the muddy shoe syndrome. Near the bottom of this section Marty, Tom and another pacer of team Marty passed us on the run. They soon took a left as the trail turned off the road and into the woods. They seemed to stop for a minute, but I later realized they were just crossing another creek. We soon crossed the creek, too, and the water felt so good. Even Miles thought the water was nice. The trail would wind its way back a cross the creek a couple of more times before the trail ended at a dirt road which later became a paved road. We followed the yellow ribbons to another road, took a left and then headed up another road, taking a right turn and then another right turn, before we headed into another path which would eventually lead us back to Skyline Resort Ranch and the finish line. I asked Miles if he had any run left in him and he indicated he didn’t. But he was glad to be finished and he made it all the way, 101.8 miles in 31:36 hours, finishing in the top 50 in a field of 136 starters, 88 finishers. Maureen was there to congratulate Miles. He was able to earn his buckle despite much pain, because he endured. The mountain wouldn’t let him reach his 27 hour time goal, but Miles wouldn’t let the mountain defeat him. Miles, you deserve a long rest now. Even though you said you will never do this one again, we would love for you to come back and beat the mountain sometime in the future.
Some of the lessons I learned from the experience:
It it takes patience and determination to finish a 100 miler, especially one as difficult as the MMT.
You will suffer. Some will suffer more than others, but you will suffer. Miles suffered afflictions common to most of us who have run long, chafing and blisters.
As long as you are comfortably ahead of the cut-off, walking will get you there. Miles was never in any danger of missing the cut-off as he had a 5 hour cushion by the time he got to mile 64.9, which would actually increase to an over 7 hour cushion by Edinburg Gap. Even with all the walking and long stops at some the aid stations, Miles was able to finish almost 4½ hours ahead of the 36 hour cut-off.
MMT is a course that really kicks your butt. 37 miles was only a sample of the actual course, but it was enough to tell me that there is a price to be paid if one wants to earn his/her buckle.
The pacing experience didn’t turn out the way I expected, but the slow moving allowed me to drink up the last 37 miles of the course. And I learned patience.
I will have to think hard about whether I want to pay the price, whatever it may be, to complete an MMT 100. I learned that I can keep moving through the night, but I didn’t have the first 65 miles of abuse when I started pacing. The allure to do the MMT at least once is there, but I’m not convinced I’ll ever run it. Still, I now know what to expect on the last 37 miles of MMT. This is an advantage to anyone entertaining the idea of doing MMT.
Even if I never run it, I’ll be back to pace and/or sweep the course in the future.
Congratulations to you, Miles and all of the other MMT finishers and participants. And thanks to all the volunteers who made it possible. See you next year!