As the end of 2018 came, I began planning some races to take on in 2019 and focused on the long ones. The ultra community is growing quickly, meaning popular races are filling up faster, sometimes within minutes of registration opening, even 100-mile ultras. Some races, like the one I successfully got into, offer a lottery, rather than a first-come-first-served approach, to make it fair to all who apply.Massanutten Mountain Trail race (MMT) will be the next 100-mile race I take on. I don't know if I'm more excited because of all the great things I've heard about the…
This race features a 10-mile start/finish and 44 mile lollipop on the Black Forest trail. Dave Walker began taking soul donations for those crazy enough to attempt it - that meant it was time for me to sign up.…
In-Depth Look at Eastern States 100 - 2017 With Eastern States 100 being my biggest race of the year (and of my life, to date), I figured I'd give it a hard look at some of the stats and information I was able to gather about it. Because the race opted to use UltraLive to track participants throughout the race, I was able to scrape data from their site and compile it here. It should be noted that the times are recorded by someone that was sitting at the start of the aid stations and asking for a bib number…
NOTE: I have written pieces of this on and off over the past few months, but am finally publishing (despite it being nearly a year since the event). Enjoy! Whoever said that running 100 miles would be easy was either delusional or just telling a lie. This was a time where I felt truly challenged, and didn't know what the outcome would be, even when I was a mere 25 miles from the finish. It was a battle, and my body wasn't cooperating for a majority of the race, all while overcoming the challenges the course threw at me; but…
Leading into my first 100k trail race, I wanted to be well rested, healthy, and feeling confident. Unfortunately, the only thing that went according to plan at the start was a pretty day ahead of us for the race. I pushed through some pain, some GI issues, and some tired legs to make it to the finish. A story that's very common to those that have toed the line of an ultra. But this one's a little different for me, and for those that venture to the Wilds of Pennsylvania for this race; there's a reason this race should be…