mid-afternoon. Then, a strong cold front pushed through, bringing with it hardcore thunderstorms that lasted through much of the night. All of this on top of a course that's considered by many as one of the hardest on the east coast.I'll let Stephen spin his own tale on the race, and I'll instead just provide some notes below that hopefully still paint a picture. Hopefully Stephen will find time in his busy schedule to get a race report up soon. It'll no doubt be an epic tale.
- Only 58% ended up finishing the race. No doubt the weather played a factor in quite a few of the DNFs.
- Stephen is a supreme bad-ass.
- I joined Stephen's father and two brothers for crewing until it was time for me to pace. They were awesome and a LOT of fun to hang out with. Also got to hang out with my friend Devon quite a bit, which is always great (she was pacing Glen Redpath).
- Stephen's parents were gracious hosts for the entire stay, making sure we ate well. Quite well.
- Twittering during the race was fun, but my cell phone stinks and I just used Stephen's iPhone to post directly to Facebook most of the time since his phone had better coverage.
- I began pacing Stephen roughly around 7:45pm, and would run the next 36.9 miles in roughly around 12 hours with him.
- The rain was supposed to end sometime between 11pm and 1am. It didn't. We got a little break after 1am, but it started again and didn't stop for good until 4am.
- Moeben sleeves do really well in cold rain, providing impressive warmth.
- Stephen is a supreme bad-ass.
- The whippoorwills weren't as noisy as last year when I paced James. However, Stephen and I got a REALLY good look at one sitting right on the trail. We got so close we could almost pet it, and almost did.
- After the Woodstock Tower aid station (mile 84.1), Stephen kicked in the turbo for the duration and picked off a plethora of runners. I couldn't believe how well he was moving! It was truly superhuman.
- I ate boiled potatoes a lot at the aid stations. I never crave those things, but for some reason I did this time and they worked well.
- The buckle for this race is awesome.
- I can't wait to give this course a try next year! Was supposed to this year, but too close to Western States for my liking.
- Stephen is a supreme bad-ass.
And some running stats for my log purposes:
Friday:
Ran 2.0 miles @ 7:44/mile pace.
AHR/MHR - N/A
Paved roads.
Slightly hilly.
Upper 70s, humid.
Shorts, short sleeved shirt.
Saturday/Sunday:
Ran 36.9 miles @ ???/mile pace.
AHR/MHR - N/A
Rugged trails.
Insanely hilly.
Mid 60s to lower 50s, rain, cloudy.
Shorts, short sleeved shirt, Moeben sleeves (off and on).
1 comment:
Thanks for the report Jamie! You have had the privilege of running the last 36 miles of Massanutten twice. I hope you get to run the first 64 next year! See you at Pineland on Sunday.
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