Well first you have to find a sadistic French Canadian race director who thinks a half marathon should be 20 miles instead of the traditional 13.1 miles. I think he got his standard/metric conversion wrong and didn't want to admit it.  Then you start the race with a 7 mile uphill run (in places so steep that you need a rope to climb up the bank) to the base of Jay Mountain.  Along the way you switch back and forth between shoe sucking mud and creek running.  After 7 miles you inform runners it's only 2.4 miles to the top, they don't even mention the 2200 feet of elevation gain, but hey there's no mud or creeks to navigate.  From the top you throw in a quad burning downhill to the newly added bushwhack, which was more shoe sucking mud to the 13 mile marker.  From 13 miles to 19.5 you continue down through more mud and another creek run.

For our race, it went like this:  Angie and I started with 200 mostly first timers half marathoners at 10:00 a.m, two hours behind the marathoners.  Since no one knew what to expect, I think Dan, the race director, got a kick out of watching everyone race up the first hill.  It didn't take us long before we were huffing and puffing, not to mention walking.  After about 30 minutes of uphill walking and running we came to the first rope section.   It was hand over hand up the side of a bank, to a down hill, which of course lasted about 5 minutes and then we hit another rope section.  We were again awarded with a minor downhill section; this was when we hit the first mud bog.  We both managed to get through without any problems; I mistakenly thought to myself if this is mud we've been worrying about this is going to be easy.   WRONG! After a few more bogs we made it to the first aid station.  It took us an hour to make 4.5 miles.  After a quick drink we were back into the woods and more mud, this time the mug was deeper and thicker.  Only a mile or so after the aid station the course entered the creek.  Angie dove right in and got her feet wet right away.  Me? I was being prissy thinking I could make it going rock to rock and stay dry. WRONG, again!  I lasted about 10 minutes and in I went.  It did make it a lot easier, not to mention cleaned the 2 pounds of mud off our shoes.  We stayed in the water almost all the way to aid station 2, the base of Jay Mountain ski slope.  

The top of Jay Mountain stood a mere 2.4 miles and 2200 feet above us.  The tough part was the aid station was right below our hotel room. However, we elected to go up.  For the next hour we walked up, up and up.  The view from the top was amazing, although short lived, because we were only half way through the course.  Even though it took half the time to get down, I'm not sure which was harder.  Close to the base, we hit the woods again glad to be on semi flat to down hill trails.  Of course this new section was even muddier then the beginning.  As bad as the mud was, this was the only time we passed people.   Angie and I actually enjoyed the technical aspects of the course; I enjoyed the water a bit more then Angie.  At aid station 4 we learned we were only at mile marker 13 and it was 4-5 miles to the next and last aid station, which we thought was at the 17 mile marker.  So off we go on the only dirt road section of the course. An hour later we were still on open trails and were making OK time, but the aid station never appeared, and just when we thought we should be there, another creek.  We figured it was going to be a short section, nope, 30 minutes later we were still wet, but starting to see people along the course.   At one point I asked someone if we there yet?  They said "not far."  We were thinking great, but we still have a couple more miles after that.   A few minutes later a guy on abridge tells us we're 200 yards away, I said great, but away from what?  He said the finish.  Those words had an uplifting effect.  Angie started running so fast on the water her feet weren't getting wet.   

We finished happy (except for the one time when Angie cried for your mommy while in the creek), healthy and together just like we started.  We even managed to finish ahead of a few people.  At the finish line we waited on fellow Reston Runner Keith Whited and 2 other friends to finish one heck of a mountain marathon.

I'm calling out Ed C. and Anna B for next year's marathon.

Mark Sells
mark.sells@dhs.gov