"Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second. Give your dreams all you've got and you'll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you." -- William James

Early Saturday morning, Sarah (my Fiancée) and I drove 30-40 minutes through the blue ridge mountains and arrived at a packed packing lot filled with some 300 freezing, yet eager runners. This year's race started at 5:30 and minutes before assembling at the starting line, I heard one of the race officials announce that the moon had just set and that the temperature on the trail was now 20 degrees. Many of you know than I'm neither a fan of mornings nor of cold weather, but for some reason, the excitement of another trail race seemed to warm me up just enough. Minutes later, race director Dave Horton led the singing of the national anthem and then started the race.

The first 6-8 miles of the race went by so quickly that I forgot to drop off my headlight, which was needed for running the first hour or so of the race in the dark. At the fourth aid station (~mile 11.2) I dropped off my headlight, grabbed some water, and was relieved to finally be off the hardtop road and onto trails. When I ran the race in 2001, I didn't have any support crew and this year Sarah made all the difference as she supported me at several aid stations!

After passing this aid station, the field started to thin out as the front runners were well on their way. My goal this year was to simply finish within the 12hr cutoff time. It doesn't sound that tough when you say it, but when you add mountain trails and 9,000ft of net altitude gain, it becomes just a bit more challenging. Even seasoned ultrarunners sometimes DNF (did not finish) because of injuries on the trail or just by having a bad day. I was also starting to wonder if I would regret not running more than 20 miles in any training run. Most ultrarunners suggest completing at least 2-5 training runs of 30 miles or more when training for a 50 miler, but time, logistics and stubbornness on my part prevented me from doing anything over 20 miles. I therefore decided to run the first 30 miles of the race easy and then see what I had left in my tank. This wasn't always easy, especially when one or two speedsters would fly by me on the trail. Thankfully I was reminded by another runner that the race really doesn't start until around mile 40, and that we'd be seeing those speedsters again in a few dozen miles or so. And yes, it did feel good when I finally did pass a few of these speedsters much later in the day.

For the next 10-15 miles, everything was going well. I was feeling good and occasionally looked up to see the incredible scenery while trying to avoid the ice covered mud puddles and wet leaf covered rocks. I don't think that I've been on a more scenic or better supported race than the Masochist, but I soon was reminded of why its called the Mountain Masochist. Aid station 8 (~22.3 miles), sits at the beginning of a 2500 ft climb that seems to last forever. The only saving grace was Aid station 11 at the top, which blasted songs from the Rocky movies and could be heard for a mile or so before reaching the aid station. Somewhere around this point I hit 'the wall' and thoughts of 'why would anyone want to do this race', and 'why am I doing this race' began to become more prominent. Thank goodness again for Sarah's encouragement and the support of the other incredible volunteers.

After arriving at Aid station 11, I knew that I'd get a break from the uphills for a while before reaching a section of the race called 'the loop'. The loop starts and ends at aid station 13 (miles 33.6 and 38.6) but has quite a bit of elevation change in between. Before entering the loop, I quickly grabbed a cup of soup and hoped that it would help revive me enough to complete this grueling section of the course. The loop can be both a fun and difficult portion of the course. The first mile or two has a gentle downward grade that allows you to build your strength and confidence before starting another ~1200ft ascent that's covered in slightly under 2 miles. This ascent is rough not only because of the grade, but because of the loose rocks and wet leaves that made every step a potential ankle twister. I had already turned my ankle twice today and didn't want any additional discomfort. There's also a sense of partial seclusion and remoteness in this mountain laurel, single track section of the course. This was the first time during this year's race which I spent more than 20 minutes or so without seeing anyone in front of or behind me.

I was still moving fairly well in the loop, and I was starting to think of the end. Up until then, I had only focused on getting to the next aid station, but now visions of completing the Masochist reappeared again as an attainable goal. This being said, I also realized that I would have to ignore mileage markers stated at each of the remaining aid stations. In 2001 I learned the hard way that the aid stations were marked with 'Horton Miles' which don't actually match normal miles. Aid station 14 for example, states that its at mile 41.5 and the next aid station is 3 miles. Well the next aid station seems like much more than 3 miles away and when you arrive at aid station 15, it says mile 43! Now that's a long 1.5 Horton mile. Dave Horton himself admits that this 50 mile race is actually around 54+ miles, but he says that he doesn't want to cheat anyone out of their entry fee, so he makes sure that there's enough trails to be run.

Anyways, the remainder of the race went fairly well and I was even able to make a short 50yard sprint across the finish line, where Sarah, her friend Raena and Glen were cheering me on to complete my 2nd Masochist Mountain Trail Race! Thanks to all that helped me train and all that encouraged helped me finish!

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." ~T.S. Eliot