Tag: waterfall 50k

This is the second half of the last post when I got too tired to finish.

Waterfall 50k (WTF50k) was like a walk down the memory lane when I attempted the first (virtual) waterfall run in 2020). I don’t remember why I even wanted to look for trail to run in the middle of a cold winter back then. I might be training for something. On a cold Christmas Day in 2020, I decided Waterfall was the hike for me, and I downloaded the trail notes and drove out by myself. At the time I had not met my trail family. I did everything by myself back then. I wanted to get into this run many times but I was not able to because I always missed the opening signup date, so I did many things by myself. The way of how the club work was not known to me at the time. This was back in 2020.

Ever since, I had kept my eyes on the Waterfall 50K run each year to run it in person. It was usually occurred on the coldest and nastiest day in our winter. Finally this year, I got to run both the MMT training run 1 and the Waterfall all in one weekend. That was a lot going on and as in my last post, mentally I was toasted, more on this. But now I have my trail family, and it is quite fun to see the same people over on both days.

Two 50k back to back is kind of crazy, but hey, as an ultramarathon runner, we kind of get used to it. Still the course was not an easy one.

This year WTF50 fell on another coldest day in the winter. The whole day was below 24 F (probably was between 18-24), and we knew it would be cold the whole day. Waterfall course would be mostly the last part of MMT, with Kerns Mountain, Duncan Hollows, and then Bird Knob. Duncan Knob is the extra and also going up Waterfall is not part of the MMT100 but it was worth it.

My memory of WTF was the nasty river crossing on Orange and I thought that was the Waterfall mountain. Nope, that was just the Orange trail, was it it at Gap Creek or Duncan Hollow. It was just nasty mud stepping on a creek up the mountain.

I never really found out what so bad about the real waterfall mountain climb until this year when I actually ran on the course. It is on Orange as well, but there is just one steep climb up to Chisman Hollow Road. Now I finally got my geography straight in that part of the trail from the parking at rt211 to here.

I arrived early as I usually do for all races. We were scheduled to start at 8, I made sure I was there before 7, I think I arrived around 6:30. I was not the first car but there were three or four others already arrived. Some had stayed from the night before. I could tell from the way they parked. Some were still sleeping inside their cars.

Again the day was so cold. I got out my car to stretch but quickly jumped back inside. Soon many other cars started arriving. We filled the lot. I checked myself in with the RD (Q and Burr). We had a group pic and some pre race briefing and we were off. They said we would have a clear day (no rain or snow in the forecast) but apparently they (weatherman) were wrong.

I was with my friend Amanda. I met her during my first MMT, wow it had been so long ago, since 2022. It was like a reunion since. It brought back memories. Amanda is well familar with the Orange trail since she had done the ring (twice I think) and this year she is preparing to do the reverse ring. The Ring is to run the whole Massanutten trail (70 miles) and the reverse Ring is to do it in the winter from another direction. I haven’t done the Ring myself, so I don’t know if it true that the Reverse Ring is way harder, but that what everyone said.

I followed Amanda and pretty soon we were climbing up on the Waterfall Mountain. The course was dry. But the climb was unforgetable. It was so steep. We hiked up. They had doughnuts for us at the top.

We reached Chrisman Hollow and we continued up to Kerns. I was more familar with Kerns having ran on it so many times for the MMT100. You can say I memorized every rock there. Kerns was my downfall during my first MMT, so it is always in my mind as being hard.

Today though it was not that hard. Yes it was rocky. And the leaves made it hard to run on. It started snowing when we reached about halfway. I was fine with it, but our group speed slowed down. There was another runner in front of us, but unfortunately, I did not get her name. We hiked the whole Kerns together until Jawbone.

I was still with Amanda. Amanda was being nice of not passing the the lady in front until the lady stopped to use the restroom break before descending on Jawbone. We passed her. Amanda told me turn on Jawbone and we left Orange.

Amanda and I ran down. It was quite exciting. Now I could recognize the trails and their names, it brought back memories of how hard it was to climb up on Jawbone during my MMT. Now going down on it was a cinch. It probably only took us 15 minutes to descend.

We arrived at the first aid station. We were pretty much the last one to arrived. There Amanda went on to climb Duncan Knob, but for me, I decided to walk out with another woman, Angie whom we met at the there. Angie does not believe she had enough time to finish the loop, so call it a day. Though we still were responsible to get our butts back to the parking lot on our own power. Angie was hoping to get a ride at the net aid station. However, she did not know the way to get there without doing the full loop as laid out in our turnsheet. I don’t either, but I was guessing Chrisman Hollow should take us out. People at the aid station (Kevin and Carl) said the same. We also had the option to go down on the Waterfall at Orange. Since it was snowing, going down by that route was not a good choice. I was not sure on the distance, but our aid captain believe we could do it. I think the time was still early, around 10:30 or 11 ish. Angie agreed to take the road. Together we decided to hike out.

I did want to go up to Duncan but it was snowing a bit hard at the time, hiking out seemed to be a correct decision.

Angie is from NC. However she and her husband had done many of the runs with the club. She is not new to trail runner. She would be fine walking out herself. However, since she was on my training ground, I decided to accompany her. We talked about many things. They (her husband) will be doing Iron Stone 100k this summer, a race I was considering.

The walk out was uncomplicated. We just stayed on Crisman until we got to the Visitor Center. There was an aid station at the visitor. We had to be there before 2:30. Since we were taking the road, it was not an issue for us. Also we already dropped from the run. Soon other runners who finished the Duncan Knob loop popped out from ascending the Waterfall Mountain the second time join us on the road to the Visitor Center. We had some fun cheering them.

There was a runner, a very fast runner, one of the top 10. He did not know the way or had the trail note or map on him. He ran by following another runner. The person he followed was an unwilling party and the guy did not wait for him. He was chasing the dude from station to station.

So he asked Q and those at the aid station for direction. So they told him a quick version. Stay on White, turn on Orange, then turn on White. Orange, Purple, Pink, and back on Orange. It was a bunch of colors. We knew there was no way he could memorize all that. They simplified for him to turn whenever he sees a new color. It was a joke and we all laugh. We knew the guy would not get lost because he was fast and he was aiming to catch up to the dude who just left the aid station.

We too went out from the Aid Station heading toward the 211 Parking. We would not ascend to Bird Knob as others do but to keep on white to the picnic area and then turn on orange. There were only two or three miles to the parking. While on the last part, the first place runner (Barett) passed us. We initially though no way he would be one of us because he was so fresh. I did not recognize who he was at the time. He had his hood on.

We arrived just a little after Barrett finished. For us we ran 17 miles. He did 31 miles, almost twice our distance. The dude was not even breathing hard. It was like a light jog in the woods.

I initially wanted to go back out to do the Bird Knob loop since I still had time, but it was so cold out there. They lit the fire and offerred me soup at the finish, and I was too comfortable to go back out. I ended up just staying at the fire for the next 6 hours or so watching everyone finishing their run. That was my day.

I have not successfully finished Waterfall yet. The time requirement was quite tough. We had about 9 hours. But meeting the 2 pm cut at mile 21 is quite hard to do. I know I will try it again next year.