22^nd Mountain Masochist 50 Mile Trail Run

October 16, 2004

David Horton

“The Fastest Year”

            The 2004 MMTR 50 Miler promised to be a fast year … and it lived up to its promise.  The Montrail Ultra Cup (MUC) is a series of ultras with $12,000 of prize money given to the overall winners.  The MMTR was the championship race in the MUC and runners were to receive 50% more points in the MMTR than the other races in the MUC.  This guaranteed that many of the best runners in the nation would be in Lynchburg, VA on October 16, 2004.  The MMTR was also the last race in the Lynchburg Ultra Series (LUS).

            The 300-runner limit was reached by mid September.  With the 2005 MMTR once again being chosen to be the Championship race in the 2005 MUC, there’s no doubt we will reach the 300 limit long before race day.  Please, don’t wait too long to enter next year’s MMTR and take the chance of not being allowed to participate, as many were this year.

            Our pre-race pasta banquet at Heritage High School is a great time for fellowship and reunion with friends.  We ordered 100 pizzas, cooked 30 large pans of lasagna, 16 lbs. of spaghetti (all with choices of meat & meatless), salads, drinks, and 4 extra large sheet cakes depicting the MMTR mountains trails.

            We had two special singing performances on Masochist weekend.  On Friday night, Danny McDonnell sang the Masochist theme song.  He had written the song and sang it last year as well.  It was excellent, and for those of you who have run the MMTR, the words were very appropriate.  Then on Saturday morning before the start of the race, Annette Bednosky sang the national anthem.  It was outstanding!!  I had chills when she sang!!  She may be our designated national anthem singer for our races in the future…if she will honor us by doing so.

            The weather forecasters predicted cool, partly cloudy, and no rain for race day.  We had cool, sunny, rain, sunny, snow, sunny, sleet, sunny, hail, and then cloudy day.  Overall it was very good for the runners, but a little cold and wet for crews, spectators, and the race director.

            With such a fast and talented field, there was no surprise in seeing a large pack run together at the start.  At aid station 3 (8.4 miles), Dave Mackey (Boulder, CO), Eric Grossman (Louisville, KY), Sean Andrish (Leesburg, VA), and Paul DeWitt (Colorado Springs, CO) checked in at 7:36.  By aid station 6 (17.5 miles), Mackey and Grossman checked in together at 8:46 with Andrish 3 minutes back and DeWitt 5 minutes back.  This was 3 minutes ahead of Mackey’s 2003 course record pace of 6:48.  The runners stayed this way (Mackey and Grossman basically together) to the halfway point (Long Mountain Wayside – aid station 10 – 26.9 miles) with Mackey checking in at 9:57 and Grossman one minute later and Andrish 2 minutes behind Mackey.

            Runners can double their time at Long Mountain Wayside and get a very close estimate of their finishing time.  Mackey had checked into this aid station. at the exact same time in 2003.

            The second half of the race is much more difficult with the real start of the race beginning on the climb up Buck Mountain and the waiting “Rocky” music at aid station 11 (29.5 miles).  Grossman’s legs started locking up on this climb and he dropped 12 minutes behind Mackey at aid station 11.  Andrish checked in 6 minutes behind Mackey.

            Grossman gave up his valiant chase of Mackey and dropped out at aid station 12, leaving it up to Andrish to chase Mackey down.  By the start of the infamous loop (33.6 miles), Andrish had closed the gap on Mackey trailing by only 2 minutes.  Mackey blitzed the loop in 43 minutes!!  I ran the loop, starting about 5 minutes ahead of Mackey, checking and adding a few streamers.  Halfway through the loop Mackey flew by me, running every step, even on the steep climbs.  Mackey’s time out of the loop was exactly the same as in 2003.  He slowed from 2003’s pace to finish in 1^st place with a time of 6:52:18, the third fastest time ever, and just 7 seconds slower than Clark Zealand’s 2001 time.  Mackey has truly shown that he is the King of the Masochist.  Andrish finished in 6:56:09, a personal record (PR) by over 2 minutes on the MMTR course.

            Todd Walker (Amherst, MA) had stayed near the front of the pack all day.  Between aid station 15 and 16, Walker passed DeWitt to take over 3rd place and finished in a final time of 7:23:47.  Matt McDonald (Hagerstown, MD) had run with Walker all day and finished in 4^th place with a time of 7:26:14, with DeWitt taking 5^th place in 7:29:59.  Walker and McDonald are two runners to watch out for in the future.  Before the MMTR, they had run only 5 and 4 ultras respectively.  Six more runners finished under 8 hours for a total of 11-sub 8-hour performances, the most in Masochist history.

            The women’s field was the most talented field that we have ever had at the MMTR.  Nikki Kimball (Elizabethtown, NY) was clearly the most talented runner in the field and (as expected) jumped to the front of the pack at the start.  Prior to the MMTR, Nikki had run 8 ultras in the U.S. in 2004 and won them all!

            At the halfway point (aid station 10 – Long Mountain Wayside – 26.9 miles), Kimball checked in at 10:35 (an 8:10 overall pace) with Luanne Park (Redding, CA) coming in at 10:44, Annette Bednosky (Boone, NC) at 10:46, Darcy Piceu-Africa (Boulder, CO) at 10:48, and Anthea Schmid (Crested Butte, CO) at 10:51.  Bethany Hunter’s course record of 8:14:47 set in 2003 looked to be in jeopardy.  Hunter had checked in to this point at 10:33, 2 minutes faster than Kimball’s time.

            From there on, Kimball ran away with the race (3:50 for the second half) finishing in 1^st place (10^th overall) in an incredible time of 7:55:57.  This bested Hunter’s course record by almost 19 minutes!!  Hunter’s time in 2003 had broken the previous course record by over 12 minutes.  In the last two years, the women course record has decreased by over 31 minutes!!  Look out men!!  Truly, this is the most outstanding performance, on the Masochist course.

            As late as aid station 11 (29.5 miles) Schmid was in 5^th place.  By running the loop in 53 minutes, Schmid passed Bednosky to take over 2^nd place and remained there to finish in 2^nd place with a time of 8:27:30.  Bednosky finished the 2003 MMTR in 9:39.  Her goal for 2004 was to break 8:40.  Bednosky finished strong, achieving her goal in 8:35:58 to take 3^rd place.  What will her goal be for 2005?  Piceu-Africa finished in 8:42:12 for 4^th place.

            Krissy Sybrowsky (previous MMTR winner) was in 8^th place entering the loop, but moved through the field to take 5th place in 8:43:21, a PR for her on the MMTR course.  Three more women (Park, Helen Cospolich (Breckenridge, CO), and Ragan Petrie (Decatur, GA) broke 9 hours as well.  Eight women finishing under 9 hours is the most ever at the MMTR.  Of the ten top fastest all-time performers ever at the MMTR, four of them were set this year:  Kimball (1^st), Schmid (5^th), Bednosky (8^th), and Piceu-Africa (10^th). 

            Bob Dion (Readsboro, VT) took the Masters crown finishing in a tie for 14^th overall in 8:15:01.  No one this age or older has ever run the MMTR this fast.  The Masters crown in the female division went to local Lynchburg legend Rebekah Trittipoe, finishing in 9:51:13.  The male Grand Masters went to David Jones (Eagleville, TN) finishing in a time of 8:29:08.  Tanya Cady (Sagamore Hills, OH) took the female Grand Masters title in 10:18:57.  The Super Masters title went to Zeke Zucker (Jeffersonville, VA) in a time of 9:56:10.

            Top  local finishers, Rebekah Trittipoe and Chris Palladino were the recipients of the Mountain Woman and Mountain Man award respectively.

            The “Best Blood” award went to Anthea Schmid.  Anthea had fallen somewhere on the course and had a nasty cut and bruise on her knee with blood running down her shin and caked all the way to her ankle.  Mackey fell about 30 feet from the finish, but could not get as much blood as Anthea.  The “Fastest Fat Boy” award went to Neal (Rosie-Ho) Bryant, edging out all the other fatties.  The Brian McNeil “Horses Rear End” award (last finisher under 12 hours) went to Delbert Ruckle (Columbus, OH) with a finishing time of 11:58:45.

            Dave Mackey and Nikki Kimball were the overall winners of the MMTR 50 Miler.  They were also the overall winners of the Montrail Ultra Cup, which awarded them $3,000 each.

            There were 31 males and 5 females who finished the LUS (Holiday Lake 50K, Promise Land 50K, and the MMTR 50 Mile).  The overall male winner of the LUS was Alex Kahl (Somerset, NJ).  The female winner was Annette Bednosky and David Drach (Leesburg, NC) was the Masters winner.  The three winners received a pair of Montrail shoes and a Patagonia Auxwool top, as well as the embroidered Patagonia Radiant jacket that all finishers of the LUS received.

            All sub-12 hour finishers received a silk-weight Patagonia top.  The top ten men and women, as well as the age group winners also received an embroidered Patagonia R.5 Crew Top.  Mackey and Kimball also received the 13 lb. Heisman like trophy for winning the race.

            One of the highlights for me is to present the embroidered 10 year jackets to 10- time MMTR finishers.  Receiving jackets this year were:  Tony Smith (Durham, NC), Wesley Fenton (New Madison, OH), and Neal (Rosie) Bryant (Appomattox, VA.)  There have now been 31 men and one woman who have 10-year jackets.  John Price (Virginia Beach, VA) finished the MMTR for the 19^th time this year.  When he completes the MMTR next year, he will receive an embroidered Patagonia Gore-Tex jacket.  Tom Green (Columbia, MD) has started and finished all 22 of the MMTR’s, the only person to have accomplished this feat.  How long can he keep doing this?  He can’t quit till I quit!

Last year, someone had taken the streamers down and marked the course down a road … the incorrect way!  Several runners went the wrong way before it was re-marked by Tom Green.  This year, as we were cleaning up the course following race weekend, there were two places were someone had taken down streamers and re-marked the course going in the wrong way once again.  Thankfully, this was done AFTER race day and didn’t affect the race.   Who’s doing it?  I don’t know … just another one of those uncontrollable things.  But, I think this is why it is so important to check course markings (as much as possible) on race day. 

            There are a number of people who make this race happen.  Without their help, we could not have the quality race that I think that we have.  Our sponsors:  Danny McDonnell and his wife Patti (Fallston, MD), Frank Villa (Lynchburg, VA), Montrail, Cliff Bar, Conquest, Patagonia, and Smartwool. Also, the help of Charlie (Whine-Ho) Hesse, Reid (Muffy) Lanham and over 100 other volunteers cannot be underestimated or thanked enough!  The Lynchburg Amateur Radio Club, headed by Geep Howell and Hal DeVuyst, was indispensable.  It takes a lot of help from many people to make such a successful event.  A BIG thanks to everyone … you are very much appreciated!

            Two people that I want to especially point out are my wife, Nancy, and my secretary, Ashley Partridge.  You can’t imagine how much work they do behind the scenes.  They both put up with me and keep me in line (which is not an easy task, especially prior to a race).  Without their help, I would be in big trouble.  Thank you Nancy and Ashley.

            It was, once again, a great year and tremendously rewarding to direct the MMTR. The people that help year after year … they are awesome!   It’s exciting to see the competition and feel the rush!  It’s especially rewarding to see so many first-timers do so well and get “hooked” on ultras.   Not everything always goes as planned, but you can’t let that bog you down.  Ask any race director (and I direct four), it can be very stressful and a lot of hard work.  Why do I keep doing it?  If somebody can answer that … would you let my wife know?!?!?!? 

Hope to see you at the Hellgate 100K (December 11, 2004), the Holiday Lake 50K (February 12, 2005), the Promise Land 50K (April 23, 2005), and the Mountain Masochist 50 Mile Trail Run (October 15, 2005).