[641] Iron Mountain

An annual event.  This was an annual event for me for the last few years.  I had set my goal to run this race since 2018/2019 when I first hear of it.

After some setbacks, I finally attempted in 2021. 2022/2023 did not fare any better. 

This brings us to this year.  Because of my 100 miler schedule, I did not sign up to run in it.  I still wish to be there.

I was tapped to serve at the first aid station’s captain (mile 5), Straight Branch on the Virginia Creeper Trail.  I pulled my mom into coming with me. She was an amazing helper. As captain with two strong helpers, I could relax and talked with runners.

We were expecting bad weather, wind, rain, and thunderstorm. Luckily, storm came the night before and the second one came during lasy half hour of the race after most had finished.

The trail was wet and slick.  Several runners, maybe as many as a dozen or so runners out of 300 fell on the relatively flat terrain, before reachingy station a mile 5. 

Oh Boy, I was expecting a long day.

We served sport drinks and water at our station and helped runners along their way.  After our station, they would enter the first major climb and many other steep ups and downs before reaching their next station at mile 9.

I was prepared to face with 300 runners coming through.  They were spreaded out over four events, so it was not too much a shock.  Each event was about half an hour apart. They came in waves. 

By 9:30 we were done (actually by 9:15).  Couple runners trickled through right after the cutoff. We let them through. Shh, hope they reached the finish.  They did. They seemed be strong enough to continue and we did not have to drive runners back. The sweep arrived and we could close our station.

During my watch, I saw familiar faces.  Many runners from previous years were running again.  Some stopped to chat with me, including Lance (C&O race director), whose wife was running in the 30 mile event and won it. I spoke with famous Horton. I spoke with the Cato, whom we saw again the following day when we hiked the Grayson’s Highlands. I met the Cato this year at the Waterfall 50k.

Next, we moved to work at a later aid station (SkullS Gap, mile, 27 and 37).  Note, Skulls Gap had two locations and it shift during the day.  We moved to the later station, mile 37 down the road. The front runner was supposed to show up around 11:03, which he did.  We were ready around 10 am readying for him.

We joined with couple others volunteers in setting up the aid station at Skulls Gap.  The first runner of the 40 mile event came, with only couple minutes behind the predicted pace, 11:05. 

The second and third runner were about 9 mins apart. 

The early hours at the second Skulls Gap Aid Station, were relaxing.  There were very little to do.  

I spent time with some families/friends of runners while they waited.  It was a good thing they talked to me because they found out they were waiting at the wrong Skulls Gap station.  They were waiting for their runners who were doing the 30 mile event, which was one up the road.  The 30-milers do not come through our second station (but a different Skulls Gap station). I sent them along their way.

Later, more volunteers and runners came.  A runner was dropped off along with some dropbags. I helped unloading them and spreaded them out.

We then drove back to the start/finish area. Reason was a runner had dropped and we were providing him a ride back.  Also I wanted to show my mom the way back since ahe would have to do it later in the day while I was sweeping the course.

We arrived at the finish when the 30 milers were coming in.  We were able to part take in the excitement. We stayed a little bit before heading back to Skulls Gap.

I signed up to do sweeping duty. It was what I look foward to do. The radio team did a good jump in communicating who had dropped and once we had that clear that no more runners were expected to arrive at Skulls Gap, I could start my sweep.

The last runner had came through my station at least 15 minutes prior. I was hoping they wouldn’t run too fast so I could catch up to some of them.

I caught a runner near the final station and walked with him.  He arrived as the station closed. It worked out he wanted to drop.

I continued my sweeping duty from FS90 and I tried to run fast to catch more runners. I caught up to Javon at the final two miles.  I encouraged him to run so as to make the final cutoff. 

It was thrilling.  In my own race several times, I could not make the cutoff.  Javon is youngnand had the potential to sprint. Indeed, once we were off the mountain, Javon took off.  Unfortunately, he did not have enough time and was over by couple minutes.

I was a few minutes behind. I was happy to finish the sweep so early. The race director was happy too and we could close the race and clean up.

The following day, we drove up to Grayson’s Highlands and did a short run. Then it was a long drive home.

This year, my friend Caroline joined us.