Holiday Lake. I did this race couple years ago, in Feb 2023 (report), as part of a long President Day’s weekend fun.
This year it was a Holiday Lake three-plus- plus-plus, because the trail/course was extra long. I think it ended up like 33-34 miles for a 50k. And also, I did 3 events like last time. Triple crown.
A friend recommended me to run this race back in 2019, when I was still new to trail running.
I was out training on my favorite course at the Signal Knob one afternoon. It was the only course at the time where I knew I could get some decend hill runs.
I ran into a trail runner G (an amazing dude). I did not know who he was at the time.
As usual I started talking to people during the run. I asked what trail races he would recommend. He rolled off his tongue, Highland Sky, Promise Land and Holiday Lake. So far I only have done Holiday Lake because it have been very hard in getting in them (I don’t sign up in time).
He said, tell them his name and the RD would know him.
At the time I was scare of running in the winter. Holiday Lake takes place in February. So the race was not one I was going to run.
Then of course in 2023, I forgot about it and signed up. What exactly prompted me to sign up and run was lost in history. I thought that was a once and done thing. I admired people who done it year after year.
There are too many things going on in February for me. I have the MMT training and the BBR training every year for the last three years. It was almost every weekend full. And there is the C&O training, or the O Dominion training. I just did not want to add on a Holiday Lake too. And TWOT too, but that is for the future. All those events fighting for one precious weekend.
Originally, I chose the MMT training run over the Holiday Lake because MMT course is free to run. A lot of my mighty trail friends too prepare for their MMT race would run in it. I would not want to miss it because I love to be with them. This year though, I will be volunteering at the MMT 100 race, so missing the MMT training would not be too big a deal.
But Holiday Lake seems to be important for my other friend. I don’t have to be there but it would be nice if I go. There’s a chance to camp too the night before the race and night after the race and as well as the third night. It is a long holiday so in theory we could run on Monday as well to make it into a big weekend fun.
This year, I took a half day off so I could get to the pre race briefing early. As usual, Dr. H would be giving a talk on trail running. I did not know him in the past but he is a local legend. He set the first FTK on some of very long trails around the nation in his younger days. I wanted the free pizza dinner too offered before the talk. I kicked myself for missing the talk and pizza last time I race at the Holiday Lake.
As it turned out, due to traffic and various reasons (I did not plan for stopping for dinner or gas), we missed the opening ceremony. We should have left in the morning to avoid the afternoon rush hour traffic.
Instead of camping out, we stayed at a hotel for all three nights. Uff-dah! The weather was cold, so it was a good call. I could have still camped out if were alone, but did not want others to suffer with me. It was raining heavily as well on Saturday, so a hotel would allow us to dry our stuff.
The race itself was good. It was a hard run but was not too hard (I barely finished, with a time of 07:45).
It was good I went for a prerace training run a couple weeks ago, so the course was still fresh in my mind. I did not get lost except for a small section, maybe losing 5 minutes.
It was cold as usual for February here, being in the winter. By noon, rain came down. First was drizzling then it was a steady ‘light’ rain. It didn’t seem light to me. I was drenched head to toes. We were glad the race was not canceled, that being snow was originally in the forecast. Some might have preferred snow but here, if it snows, it would also become icy.
The first loop, I came in at 03:30, which was a bit slower than last time (I think I had 3:10-3:15 previously). The course was maybe a mile longer since a bridge was washed out. So the slower time was expected and understandable.
The second loop really hit me hard. I knew I was totally out of shape and ran too hard in the beginning. I was breathing hard. I was trudging through the muddy trail. Rain came. Some runners caught up to me.
Wilbur, the guy who ran it 23 times was running with me. His friend Marshall caught up. Marshall and I ran the Old Dominion last year and shared 35 miles of trail. I think it was closer to 50 miles. Anyway, we chatted and I listened to him chatted away with Wilbur and Alyson.
They finished maybe 5 minutes ahead of me. At one point on the power line trail (Tailor trail), someone put ribbons leading to an unknown trail. I think it is likely course vandalism to purposefully confused runners.
Marshall called out to me as I was going the wrong way but I saw other runners going down the wrong trail and I followed them. Few minutes later, they turned back around. I did too. Marshall and Wilbur were on the correct path. I lost a precious time here.
My legs were tired. Trails were muddy, slick and wet. I managed to finish. My friend brought me two hamburger and I gladly ate them and I changed into dry clothes at the same time. I was shivering for a long time.
It was the end of the day. I was glad to be back at the hotel for a good night sleep. We ate the left-overs from the day before, but I was still hungry, so we went across to a gas station, Sheetz or Wawa for ramen but we could only find the instant mac-and-cheese. I had spicy Buffalo Mac & Cheese. Not recommended. So I ate my friend’s portion too.
****
Farmville. The next day was also raining. We planned to run 10 miles on the High Bridge Trail nearby (in Farmville, VA).
I love this bridge. I did another 50k race here back in who knows when (report). The High Bridge 50k race is no long being held.
Why it is called High Bridge? I think it was Virginia highest bridge back when people still used railroad. Now it is just a rail-to-trail path. We think it is about 50k in length.
We ran 5 miles out and 5 miles back to Farmville. Some notable events were a tree fell on the path while we were running back to town. It was very windy. There was a high wind advisory. We also saw a group of Longwood’s college students running in the rain too. We initially thought we were the only ones out there.
****
MMT. The weekend could not be complete without a time on the MMT (Massanutten Mountain Trail). Initially, we planned to go to Dragon Tooth on the Appalachian Trail near Roanoke, but the drive there and back would take significant time. I didn’t think we have the time.
I’d rather want to do the MMT3 training loop, but in the end we settled for MMT 1 training run. We did a out-and back from Woodstock to Edinburg Gap. This would allow us to be back at home before nighfall.
It was still a cold day but I enjoyed being on my favorite course any time of the year.
Sunday, we made our way to Woodstock. At the time, we had not finalized our plan yet. We passed Harrisonburg, then New Market and Edinburg. We then continued to Woodstock. There we had coffee while waiting to check in to our room. It was too cold to camp out that night. Earlier, we had the best meal of the weekend at Cracker Barrel. So we did not need to eat that night. I was still drained from the run the day before.
In theory, there was still plenty of day light left to do some hiking around but wind really picked up in the afternoon and it was too cold to be outside. Hotel it was.
Woodstock Tower. The following day, we had a choice to run up on Woodstock on foot or drive up. To prepare for my race for Old Dominion, running up on the road is preferred. However, I really did not want to wake up that early to try.
We ended driving up. I kind of expect the gate to be closed. Indeed it was. So we drove back down and went the other way by going around to Strasburg and passed the Signal Knob on Fort Valley Road. I drove based on memory of having crewed someone back in 2023 for the Old Dominion race. Luckily, I found the Woodstock Tower Road from the other side and we drove on up. It took us a good chunk of the morning, so we started around 8:30 (late). The temperature was still very cold. It was good the sun was up and was sunny.
We did 14 miles that day. 7 miles out and 7 miles back. The ground was frozen, but overall it was a very nice day.
Normally during training run, we rarely wanted to leave the trail to check out the Tower. Today was the day we had time. Actually, it was too cold and I just wanted to go home, but my friend wanted to climb up. Some ruffians who came before us back in January drew some PG-13 images on the floor.
Night. We ended the final day for a nice bowl of tofu soup amd some ginger tea to close the day. I preferred rice tea.
In awe 