They say it is better to finish than to start. I started the year with the Redeye Fatass 50 and finished the year with a fatass at Boyers Furnace (BFF), a 40 miler that loops around the Massanutten Mountain. It is part of the course of the Massanutten Mountain Trail 100 mile and Old Dominion 100.
It is a wicked trail. Massanutten course has monster climbs and descents and Old Dominion course has roads full of rolling hills. Lucky we did this in the winter instead of summer.
My goal was to have a good training run, basically to fill time. I need 13 hours on my feet. I like to run hard too, but today was not one of them. It was pretty obvious early on I could not mantain a high tempo run.
We started a few minutes earlier than 7:30 after taking a group photo. The sun was coming up. We made the steep climb up to Kennedy Peak. I walked up and ended up walking most of the course.
In the beginning, I was with Kevin J and he just finished Western States this year. I was able to bounced off some ideas from him. This year’s heat was not an issue. He loves the crossing at Rucky Chucky because the river was so clear and he could see the bottom.
Charles S was with him and he talked a bit about Leadsville (because he did Leadville). He said if you are a Lifetime (some exclusive level, gold level or something) member you can get in without going through the lottery. It is a reason why 1000+ people enter but only 200-ish finished. Too many were overconfident of their ability.
I was teasing him to sign up for Massanutten 100 and Old Dominion. I said when you get home, you have to sign up and I will sign up too. I checked when I got home (the next day) and indeed Charles signed up! Now I have to keep my promise too!
Soon both Charles and Kevin ran far ahead and I was behind with the slower people. I was with Kyle, Tom, and Angie. I was told ahead before the run from my friend to keep pace with Angie. I met Angie last year at the Redeye. To me she was a slower runner and I had no plan to stay with her.
My original goal was if I could stay with my Devil Dog’s (race) pacer, Wayne, however, Wayne was running too strong for me to keep up and very early on I knew keeping up with Wayne was out of reach. As being a more experience ultra runner, I learned to check my pride and run according to my ability. Today, my ability was at more a walking pace.
Angie ended up being a resilient walker and set a strong pace for me. In fact, her walk pace required me to run to keep up. The initial 20 miles, I was leading in front, maybe about 20 yards or so, sometimes more and sometimes less, but she was always on me. Initially, Angie did not talk much after the brief first re-introduction. I told her where I met her before. She remembered me at the Chocolate Bunny run (a 50k night run around easter, part of MMT training). As she did not seem talkative, I did not bother her again, though knowing she was always behind me. Later, she explained she did not get enough sleep and was having a migrant. She later after feeling better was full of words and kept me company.
Kyle too was around. We leapfrogged each other a lot early on. Kyle hasn’t done a 40 mile before other than in hiking. He hiked the whole Massanutten trail before for camping. So in theory, today run should be easier without the heavy 40 lb pack. However, he seemed to be much affected by a lot of uphills. I stopped to check on him a few times when he seemed to be out of breath after each climb, but each time he said he was okay.
Tom, Charles and Kevin kept wandered off (to pee) and they kept ending up behind us from time to time. Even Charles, I think he got lost some point for staying on Orange at Veach, so we saw Charles over again.
One constant was Angie. She was a powerful hiker. She was worried that she was in runners’ way but I told her, her pace was incredible. I believed she maintained a near 15 min pace. I told her with this pace she could finish a 100 miler. Indeed, this was the pace I set when I ran the Devil Dog 100 recently.
After Woodstock aid station, Angie and a few others, Charles included, Melisa (birthday girl, she turned 40 and decided to do her first altra by running a 40 mile), took off and passed me. Note, Charles and Melissa and a few others passed us before but they got lost and made some bonus miles and so we met again at Woodstock. This time they passed us for good. I tried to catch up but could not until I got to Edinburg Gap before I saw them again. Sam another runner we met at Woodstock stayed with me.
Woodstock was at a little after the halfway point. It was about 8 miles to Edinburg Gap. My aim was to get there before the cutoff. I wrongly believed it was at 5:00 pm, because I got my info from Angie, who said, we had to get to Veach by noon, Woodstock by 2 pm and Edinburg by 5 pm. I arrived by 4:57. It was my longest stretch. The downhill to Edinburg Gap was quite rocky. I thought I could have sped up, but I had to watch my footing the whole way.
After Edinburg Gap, the course became easier. It was all on road. The climb was less steep. Then it was mostly downhill. I ran the whole way. It felt great to be able to finally run (stretching out my legs so to speak). I finished maybe around 7:30, 12 hours since I started (11:38:00 per time keeper(.
We had a good after party. Many stayed or came out for it. We were teasing each other to come out again in two days for Redeye (on Jan 1) but many said no way. The sweeper Aaron (?) said this is the first time when he finished to see so many people still around. Usually there were only 2-3 left. This time, there were 10-20 plus people. Boyers is hard, but when treating it as a training run, it was not that bad.
There were only three aid stations, Veach, Woodstock and Edinburg, but each was very good. I saw all my good friends. It was good seeing John and Charleen at Edinburg. I had a good time with all other runners.
In awe 