Contributors

After several years of gaining experience and cultivating endurance, 2020 sprouted an exciting crop of anticipated goals and experiences…until COVID-19 scorched the earth. I had an exciting running line-up scheduled this spring culminating in my first 100 miler: Massanutten Mountain Trails 100 (MMT100). I knew it would be hard, but I had been building up for a few years and I knew I would be ready. In a matter of weeks, all of those races were taken from me. While my life doesn’t revolve around running, endurance running has definitely become one of the structural pillars. It has become a constant; a piece of who I am that has carried me through some pretty high highs and a couple very low lows. Along with MMT100, the VHTRC Chocolate Bunny (a nighttime mountain marathon) was also cancelled. This would have been my second running of the Chocolate Bunny. The first was last year on 4/20/2019, the day after my niece (Norah) died from an infection. So, as we approached the one-year anniversary of Norah’s passing, I was not ready to entirely give up either of these runs and I decided to run my own 100 mile race on the anniversary weekend. […]

Hellgate 100K++ 12/14/19 “If there is no struggle, there is no progress” –Frederick Douglas Every year of the Hellgate 100K, prior to the race, registered runners are presented with race shirts, as is common in running races as a memorial or marketing piece for the event. The Hellgate shirts are not common though. They include snazzy, almost ridiculous colors that not many people would wear in public. On the front of the shirt, to capture the challenges that a race named “Hellgate” must present, is a logo of a person running through a fiery gate at the bottom of a flaming mountain. And there is always a quote underneath that logo along the lines of facing pain and overcoming obstacles. This year’s quote was that of Mr. Frederick Douglas. The Hellgate race is extremely challenging, and although I have not yet encountered any flaming gates of hell, every year’s race has been unique in the struggles that it presented to me and the other runners. As if a race that begins at 12:01 am on the second Saturday of December is not enough cause for concern and some question about the runners’ sanity levels, we also traverse mountains with over […]

Cup Noodles is the nectar of the gods. Admittedly, my taste buds may have been affected by the 50 miles run over the previous 10 hours. However, the McDonald’s bacon smokehouse burger was afforded no such transformation. Saturday, November 17th I toed the line for the Stone Mill 50 Miler and my longest run yet. My training had been great including Catherines 50k and Big Schloss 50k with VHTRC, Iron Mountain 30, and the CATs Pounding Creek Marathon. Pounding Creek turned out to be  whose muddy trails were the perfect training for SM50. As with most races, I set three goals going in: Primary Goal: Finish – always my primary goal for a distance PR Secondary Goal: Sub 10-hour finish – should be achievable on a good day Stretch Goal: Sub 9-hour – I figured this would take perfect run/perfect conditions   Clearly, these goals did not take into consideration the our first winter storm of the season and the trails were a crazy, muddy mess. My feet were wet within the first few miles and stayed that way the whole day. The first half was just about finding a comfortable pace and knocking out the miles. Before I knew […]

Race report: Catoctin 50K Date: 07/14/2018 Finishing time: 9:05 hr Weather: Low 70s at start and low 80’s at end, low humidity   I’m writing this report to help other runners that are interested in running the Cat50K since other race reports helped me out while planning. The link to my strava data is here: https://www.strava.com/activities/1702842105/embed/c71f09ddc263c55341e52328bdd323bee219caf5 I had only run one previous 50K (Cloudland Canyon 50K) prior to running the Cat50K. My first 50K had been somewhat of a nutrition disaster so I was looking for some local events where I could seek redemption. I think there may be something wrong with my mind because I eagerly signed up after reading the numerous warning statements in the Cat50K description about the slow technical trail and being hosted on the hottest day of the year. As the race director, Kevin Sayers, states “It has been known to make grown men weep and woman to curse the day race management was born. Once the race starts sympathy is not displayed to anyone regardless of the circumstance. This is an ultra event and it will be conducted accordingly.” Surely, the description was meant to be humorous but what if it wasn’t? After all, this […]

The Leadup: I’ve never run so many miles for so many months in a row in my life. Not even close. In 2014 I ran just over 1500 miles and this year I broke that by June 10. Since my career change from being a Police Officer to eventually a self-employed Web Developer, my ability to train more days per week and at flexible times has been key. Working 12-hour shifts 2-3 days in a row with a 30-40 minute commute plus court made it hard to get more than 3-4 days of running in a week. Now, I run whatever time of the day the weather is ideal and 6-days a week. Of course, this often means I’m up until past midnight working to make up for my early afternoon 2-hour workout, but it’s well worth it and sure beats early morning or late night running in the freezing cold with a headlamp. All the miles and my fifth progression through all or part of Sage Canaday’s Advanced 50m-100k Training Plan has me feeling like I’m in by far the best shape of my life! With a slightly disappointing 3rd place at November 2016’s Stone Mill 50 (I got lost more […]

The Leadup: I had run Stone Mill 50 in November of 2016 with hopes of a win and big PR. Instead, a poorly marked course made the day one I’d like to forget. I still finished 3rd with a slight PR, but I left frustrated and felt like my training was wasted. Either way, my season was over and I was ready for the off-season. Some careless easy running for a month or so when a long training block leading up to A-race #1 (yes, I have more than ONE A-race), Bull Run Run 50. I ran Bull Run Run in 2015. It was my second trail 50 miler with my first being an underwhelming performance at Cayuga 50 that same year in June. I was still a noob, especially at 50 milers. I wanted another crack at it and Bull Run was it. Well, a new job, life stressors (the job sucked), and what seemed like going from one cold to another for weeks made my pathetic training blog barely existent. We had a cold, snowy winter and the best I could do is cram in a hilly road 50k 2 weeks before the race. I felt OK during the […]

Intro: I trained for 11 weeks and ran 702 miles for one goal: to run my first west coast race and knock it out of the park. I had a training plan. I hit it hard, I didn’t let up. I was dedicated and disciplined. I had a race plan. And even with all that… I still had a bad race. Why? Because it happens and it happens to everyone. I had a feeling I might have a bad race a few weeks out but denied it until it happened. But I survived. I finished (DEATH BEFORE DNF!) and my place was respectable. And above all it was fun and hard and painful and an adventure and above all worth it.  The Leadup: As many reading this know, Western States is a historic race that takes place in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. It is the oldest 100 Miler in the world and pretty much the Super Bowl of Ultrarunning. Oh, and it’s really hard to get into. Due to permits only 425 applicants get in and over 3500 people applied last year. Applicants have to run a qualifying race which are 100k and longer. Oh, and there are only 79 […]

This was my second time running Pretzel City Sports‘ Double Trouble. The first time (2014) was the only year that it was held in the Fall. Prior to that, it had always been a summer race, and after the experimental switch resulted in lower registration (probably due to the increased competition from other races that time of year), Pretzel City decided to move it back to July. Most Pretzel City events take place on the Mount Penn trails in Reading (very close to home for me!), but this event is in beautiful French Creek State Park, which is about 30 minutes out of town (or 50 miles northwest of Philadelphia). The course, a 15k loop, is almost entirely single track, with rolling hills and scenic views of the park’s two lakes. Runners choose to do one loop or two when they register, but they are also allowed to change their minds mid-race if they want to, and still qualify for awards for the distance they end up doing. My 2014 time was 3:27, and so my goal this year was simply to do better than that. The days leading up to the race were very hot and humid, hitting the low […]

  I’m writing this nearly 7 weeks after the race. Life got a little busy, and I just kept putting it off. For as much as I want other people to contribute to this site, it’s lazy of me! So here it is. FINALLY. I have little headlines so you can skip all the travel sections and just read about what you’re interested in.   The Leadup In 2015 I ended a pretty busy season with a solid 50 mile race at Stone Mill 50. Once that race was over, I was ready for a little break and scaled back my training. I took my now customary forced week off from running then got back into with with strict base training. For 5 weeks I just jogged. Nice and easy. Worked on my stride rate. Just got around 35 miles a week in and just maintained some fitness while recovering from a 5 Ultra year that had 234 racing miles. The base building felt great. I felt rejuvenated and ready to start getting back into the high intensity grind that is my road marathon training. After 5 weeks of jogging I gave myself a little fitness test and comfortably ran […]

NOTE: I have added to the end of this race report at the very bottom with a quick recap of my 2016 Stone Mill 50. The Leadup: My last race was Blues Cruise 50k on October 4th. After that I had planned on running the DWG 50k Fattass. I wasn’t sure how I would do there as I had been working on my speed, and neglecting my climbing. Once I felt recovered enough after Blue Cruise, I ran a couple hilly workout until I realized that my girlfriend and I had tickets to see comedian Bill Burr in Philly the night before the race.  We got the tickets months ago and I didn’t realize the date. We had talked about staying that night in the city, and even if we came home, I wouldn’t get much sleep. Then I found out that DWG 50k started at 6am!!! With a 1.5 hour drive, there was just no way. I withdrew my entry for DWG. I felt like I was on my way to being prepared for another race and I just mentally was geared up for one more before winter base building. Last year I had looked at Stone Mill 50 Mile and I can’t […]

The Backstory: I don’t have much history running marathons. I ran my first in 2013–the Delaware and Lehigh Heritage Marathon–and although I finished, it was pretty ugly. I battled some sharp knee pain during the second half, which really slowed me down, and my time was a sluggish 4:45. Last year, rather than adjust my training and try again, I decided to go bigger, and ran a 50k, with a similar result–lots of pain, and a very slow finishing time (6:14). This year, one of my goals was to get more comfortable with marathon distance. In March, I ran a trail marathon at Blue Marsh (sloooowwww: 5:31), and then in April, I ran from my former residence in Phoenixville to Philadelphia in about 4:42. In both instances, my pace dramatically fell off after 20 miles. Over the summer, after moving back to Reading, I did a lot of elevation work in order to get ready for another trail marathon–the Megatransect in Lock Haven, PA. That race was incredibly challenging, but after finishing it in reasonable shape, I hoped that a flat, road marathon would seem relatively easy. In September, I started doing some speed work, following a Hal Higdon training […]

This was my 5th road marathon. My goal was to qualify for the Boston marathon. I hired coach Chris Vargo for my training. All my previous attempts were self-trained (or from books, websites, etc.). As a 43-year-old, my qualifying time for Boston is 3:15:00. For 2016, you needed 2:30 under your qualifying time to get in. Through my 17 weeks of training, Chris and I felt I should be able to easily run a 3:10:00. I thought I could break 3:05:00 and made that my goal. My previous marathon attempts were in the 3:43:00 to 3:55:00 range. In April of 2015, I ran the Garden Spot Village marathon and attempted to break 3:30:00. That resulted in a miserable failure. I partially blamed running a 40-mile ultra just two weeks prior to that race. But I wasn’t really training for a marathon at the time, either. I decided to start the race at a 7:00 minute/mile pace. Steamtown has some really long downhills in the first eight miles. A 3:05:00 marathon is a 7:03 pace, and I figured with the benefit of the downhills, a 7:00 pace would be comfortable. And it was for a long time. I held onto that […]

Last year, I got to 69.3 miles before I tapped out due to pain in my IT band on my left leg that reduced my pace to 40 minutes per mile. The sweepers were on my tail and there was no way I could get to AS #2 on the 3rd loop before the cutoff. Painful as it was, I had to drop at AS #1. This year, I came in to the race physically fit, with no injuries handicapping me. Two weeks prior, I picked up a cold on my final days on a business trip to our offices in Reading, UK, so the only thing I was dealing with was some lingering cough from the cold. But otherwise, I was feeling fit, well-tapered and eager to spend the weekend in the beautiful mountains around Oil Creek. My plan for this year was to execute the same plan that I had prepared for 2014. One thing that changed was my nutrition. Last year I had been using UCAN. However, I learned that UCAN was not really working well with my stomach. It would invariably cause stomach upset after a while. In late 2014, I switched to Tailwind, and had significantly […]

The Leadup: I started running Ultra Marathons in the Spring of 2013 with Ironmasters Challenge. I had only been Ultra training for 5 months and although I was an instant student of the sport, I was only going to learn so much from reading other people’s advice. There is a science to this stuff… but not a perfect science. The variable is us. We are all different and without experience, there is no opportunity to make mistakes and accidentally discover what works for you as a unique individual and to learn from mistakes. Improvement is a sign of increased fitness, but it’s also proof that you’re LEARNING. And in order to learn you have to pay attention to your failures and successes. What does this have to do with the Blues Cruise 50k? Well, in my first year of running Ultras I ran Ironmasters 50k, Dirty German 50k and Blues Cruise 50k. I did fairly well and was happy with the results, but I barely knew what I was doing. The following year I ran both races and chopped 32 minutes off my Ironmaster time and almost 27 minutes off my Dirty german time. So in my head, I figured […]

On Saturday, August 1st, I ran the Tralee 100K Ultra for the second time. Last year I had to pull out all the stops to beat the cut-off time, and ended up beating it by just 8 seconds, this year I was determined to go for a slightly less dramatic finish. The best laid plans of mice and men…. I arrived at the start line on Ballyard Hill nice and early, and had time to chat to the other runners and crews, and wish them well. It was a cool, dark morning, but dry and not too cold – perfect running conditions. Soon, the countdown started, and we were off. I had made a last-minute decision to carry a backpack, as my crew weren’t joining me until later on, and the pack started to annoy me from early on – must try to train more with it to get used to it. We headed down Ballyard hill, through the outskirts of Tralee, and then headed up the slight incline of Caherslee, before heading out the long road to Ardfert. I ran this section with a group of my Born To Run teammates, and it certainly shortened the road, as there […]

The Leadup: I signed up for Laurel Highlands 70.5 for one reason and one reason only; I have a dream of running Western states and this is one of the closest non-100 miler qualifiers. I’d like to make Western States my first and only 100 miler (and maybe last). All qualifying races for WSER are now 100k+. I wanted to run well at Laurel Highlands, but a decent finish is all I could expect because 70 miles is was a new distance for me, and I can’t say I’m totally confident with the 50 mile distance yet. I got a pretty good amount of training in and I felt pretty good and strong leading up to this race. I managed to get some decent mileage and decent climbing in. Three weeks out I had close to an 85 mile week, with back-to-back 23 mile trail runs and another 22 mile run that same week. The next week I had a 30 mile run. I think I did a decent job training after recovering from Bull Run Run. But with any new distance, the first race probably isn’t going to be your best. By looking at past race results, I thought […]

Well this is an extremely late “race report” on the Zion 100 mile run I did on April 10-11, 2015 in Virgin, Utah. In fact, it won’t be much of a race report. I just jotted down some quick notes after the race, and then captured the experience in a video that I put together with GoPro footage from Gilbert Gray, my wife Telly, and myself. Then added some photos taken by the same folks, plus Maggi Gray, Aaryn Riccadonna, and Photosynthetix. The race was quite a challenge, being hot during day, with very little shade, and very cold at night. There was lots of dry red dust getting kicked up by runners and passing cars, finding its way into our lungs. I was coughing up red dirt until several days after the event. Some of the race, particularly up on the slick rock on the mesas, was on mountain biking trails. Going up the Flying Monkey mesa, there was even a rope to climb up a very steep portion, or one could traverse a diagonal path up the cliff, as long as you didn’t lose your footing and plunge down the steep cliff on the side. It was nice […]

Having run Mountain Mist the previous two years I was ecstatic to have successfully convinced two more runners to join our party- Ron Brooks and Wes Trueblood. Although we had lost Beau “Boy” Hollis due to the birth of his second child, the core of our group: Jeff “Screech” Yoder and myself remained. Going into the race Glein Hein tried to hype me on a course record but I knew that such feat could not be accomplished unless David Riddle and I were to work together like we did in 2013. With Riddle out of the race this possibility was out of the question. We were slated to leave Bloomington at 8:00AM on Friday, although in typical Screech fashion he didn’t end up picking me up till after 9AM.  Screech pulled up in a brand new KIA SUV, our rental car for the weekend. I congratulated him on choosing such a great car but all he had to say was, “The last time I drove an SUV I wrecked it.” The trip to Louisville (home of Ron Brooks) passed uneventful other than the ever interesting topography of the Knobstone Escarpment. Screech quipped, “Dude. I can’t even drive right now.  Just […]

Like most big races, this one started weeks before while watching the weather forecasts quite religiously. Over the course of the weeks and days before race day the forecast changed quite drastically and with each slight change I got either excited or dismayed. Up until a few days out when it pretty much settled on a chance of rain during the day and thunderstorms all night. At least I knew what to prepare for …. and that was being quite wet. I began the packing process with the weather forecast in mind and felt it was better to be safe than sorry. I packed every pair of road shoes I owned with the justification being that IF it stopped raining for a bit I would have fresh shoes and socks to slip into. I was planning on doing the majority of the run in my Altra Intuitions but brought my Altra Torins for a change of pace during the run if I needed it. I also had my Altra Olympus in case my feet got REALLY bad. And then to round things out, I brought my Merrell Bare Access and Saucony Kinvaras as backup “just in case shoes”. I also […]

The last time I ran over 10 miles was at Grindstone 100. The race was back in October, over 5 months ago. My 6th hundred wasn’t a normal one for me …if there is such a thing as a normal 100. Most hundreds hurt in more ways than one. But this one– it was pure mental, emotional, and physical hell for reasons I could not have foreseen… Grindstone is a brutal 100 mile race that takes place in the rugged, rock-laced mountains of Virginia. The always picturesque state is pretty on a postcard, but it’s downright ugly for a long ultrarunning experience. There’s roughly 46 thousand feet of elevation change on the out and back course. I went into race weekend completely 100% mentally and physically prepared. I was nervous about the pain to come, but who isn’t. Despite nerves, I had an unshakable confidence that I would finish the 100, and nothing could stop my efforts. But absolutely all of that changed with a single phone call…. LEVI. The race had an evening start, and I spent my day anxiously preparing everything I would need for the night of running. I was making a last minute trip to Walmart […]

Here is my race report from the Lake Martin 50 Mile Endurance Run: I spent the week prior to the race glued to weather.com in order to get an idea of what this race would have in store for us. Earlier in the week it called for thunderstorms on Friday with a clear day on Saturday but as the weekend drew closer the thunderstorms started creeping into Saturdays forecast as well. As of Friday night at the pre-race dinner, it was pretty set on thunderstorms throughout the morning until about 10 am and then clearing up the rest of the day. Well, 4 am came and it had yet to start its downpour. I got ready and finished packing and handed off all my bags to David who wanted to get them packed up in the car before the rain hit. So we get loaded up and on the road for the one hour trip from the hotel to the course. Practically as soon as we got in the car it started raining. Before we even made it out of the parking lot, the lightning started. Pretty much the entire drive to the course it was pouring. As we turned […]

Remember what it was like on your first day of school each year? You wore your best outfit, you were excited to see your friends again, and while there was a nervousness in the air, no one would ever let on that they were anxious about what this year would bring. Pulling into Frozen Head State Park had the same feeling. I’ve looked forward to this for so long and I could not actually believe that it was finally happening. In January of 2014, I moved off the “Weight List” from the #3 position and was granted a seat in Lazarus Lake’s class room. I knew a few of this year’s classmates from years of stalking them on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, and the rest of the class would not be strangers for long. Karen Jackson, fellow Barkley Weight lister, joined me in the 8 hour trek to Tennessee in hopes that the stars would align and she too would be standing at the Yellow Gate when Laz lit his cigarette this year. The drive was pretty uneventful with a quick stop for lunch in Spartanburg with Tiana Cain. When we reached the state line going into Tennessee, the snow […]