MMTR 2007 Race Report

Jesse Leitner

Being the 25th Anniversary of this race and David Horton's last time directing it, this is certainly a special year for this great race.  What a spectacular day for it, too, with perfect weather, ranging from 32 - 64 deg F.  The Mountain Masochist 50 mile race of 2006 was a major demon for me.  The ~18 mile death march I experienced was the longest low I had experienced in any race - even compared to my 2 DNFs of the year.  It was so painful, I really couldn't remember "the loop" from mile 33-38, other than fact that it demoralized me and I was just thrilled to escape it.  While I still don't have any mountains to conveniently train on this year, I could make some adjustments and see if I could make things a bit better this time around.  These would include more back-to-back 20 milers, with more time at lower heart rates (even than my already very low training heart rate).  For about a month and a half, I would incorporate hill loops at Patapsco Park, just up and down over and over again with the biggest gain I was able to find here, between about 50 and 350 feet (nothing like in the Blue Ridge Mountains!), with the help of Melissa, who cheerfully pointed out the routes she hated most - that's how I knew they would be the right routes to prepare this time.   Won't come too close to the 9000 ft of climb and 7000 ft of descent at Masochist, but it will have to do.  No hard hill training, still at controlled heart rate, but just up and down.

 My fitness is definitely much better this year with a great 100 miler at the end of March and PRs in every distance, except for one mile (didn't do any one mile races).  This includes a PR at Baltimore Marathon a couple of weeks ago.   I would also make sure not to overtaper this time as I did last year.   My taper would consist of only doing one 20 miler last weekend and a 9 mile trail run the next day.  Usual training for most of the week, but only about a 6 mile run on the day before the race (36 miles running for the week, 50 miles of biking, and 3.5 miles of swimming).   Lastly, I decided I would carry a bottle this year because there were a couple of long segments of about an hour without aid.  I would make sure to focus on hydration and getting in some food.   

Goals - well they are probably too numerous to mention, but here are a few:  1- beat last year's time of 10:26 (the demon would have really grown had this not happened!), 2 - beat 10 hours (I did run the first 50 of Umstead 100 in 7:53, so this shouldn't be too tall of an order, although these are 50 "Horton" miles), 3 - stay feeling pretty good at least past mile 40, 4 - "beat the spread" (my seed was 59, my last year's finish time was 98), 5 - beat last year's time by an hour, and 6 - dream goal - beat 9 hours.

First 5.5 miles (Horton miles - GPS with good signal and the map both measure about 7.5):  These are all on roads, mostly downhill.  It was dark out so I had the headlamp on for this entire segment. This is one of the few segments that I remember in detail from last year.  At low heart rate, I was at about 7:30/mile feeling nice and cozy.  I knew that  except for a few of the steep downhill segments, I wouldn't see paces like this for many parts of the day.  Then we start the first single track with a pretty good climb.   It was light out, so I took the lamp off and stuffed it in my shirt pocket.  The whole time I'm thinking about how good I'm feeling, wondering at what point I'll start feeling bad and prodding myself to always be on the conservative side and cut it back if I'm overdoing it.

There was enough haunting from last year to keep things under control. This time I was really catching the scenery, much more than last year.  I was comfortable and in control.  For most of the climbs, I just went in my "wog" mode, which gives me more pace at a lower heart rate than walking and helps maintain my rhythm.  Things were non-eventful, as I had hoped, so I basically plodded along with the same approach as long as I could.   At the aid stations, I would refill my bottle with Conquest, and it was doing fine for me.  A bit on the sweet side, but it did the job.  At each aid station, I would eat some combination of potato chips, pretzels, PB&J sandwiches, chex mix, and I would drink some Coke (or imitation thereof). At later stations, I would add chicken noodle soup to the mix, which I love in ultras but hate in real life!

This time I would focus on eating a bit more than I want because there's almost always a time later when I need food but my stomach will have no part of it.  I never had an issue with food or energy, fortunately.  At somewhere between 15 and 20 miles in, I hit the next part of the course that I remembered well, which was a long steep climb that went on for at least 2 or 3 miles up a relatively smooth fire road.  I just kept the wog going, kept my heart rate below about 162, and it worked out quite well.  After hitting the top, it's followed by about 2 miles on the same type of steep down, which I just barreled down at around 5:45/mile.  The smooth downs are definitely my favorite segments and I take advantage of them when I get them.  I hit the marathon point at just over 4 hours and I hit the "halfway" point at about 4:33, which is a good predictor if you've paced well, indicating about 9:06 if all goes well.  Way ahead of most of my goals and still feeling great.   I knew one thing for sure - the loop was coming up.  I really couldn't remember what was wrong with the loop, but I just knew it was the beginning of my demise last year. What could it be?  I also know that I remember nothing after it until the finish.  I follow the trails for the next 5, 6, 7 miles or whatever, until I reach the loop.

The beginning of the loop was memorable.  Great running surface, soft and mossy, very gentle and sometimes downhill grade.  Good for a nice cozy pace between about 7:30 and 8:30 per mile.  The first mile is probably one of the most pleasurable miles on the course.  And then it starts.  The trail becomes a tight single track.  The rocks begin.  More rocks appear.  The climbs begin.  The climb doesn't look that bad, but it feels bad.  The footing is poor, with large loose rocks, tight squeezes, and plenty of leaves covering it all up.  How come the front-packers didn't blaze a better trail for the rest of us?  It becomes a combination wog, powerhike, and tip-toe. But what goes up must come down at some point, and I'll easily make up for all this time.  At some point, I do reach the peak and the downs begin.  Not good.  At best, the running surface is a bunch of large, loose, jagged rocks, but visible.  At worst, it's the same thing, but all covered with leaves.  Nothing close to Hellgate, mind you, but I'm definitely not trained to handle this well.  Eventually, I make it out alive, about 56 minutes for the ~5 mile loop.  I'm very happy with that. 

My legs are now very beaten up.   All over, top-to-bottom, not discriminating.  However, I do still feel good and my energy level is high.  I just knew it would take some time to get good leg motion again.  After the loop there's a nice downhill stretch which helped loosen things up a bit, but I've really developed some kinks.  Right at the moment that everything feels good again, the next really tough segment begins, between Horton mile 43-47.  The sign says 4.1 miles until the next aid station, but I'm not so sure about that.

This segment did not quite include the perils of the loop, but it was pretty close.  At this point, I know I was way ahead of most of my goals.  Because of the tremendous mileage uncertainty in this race, I really had no idea where I was relative to my dream goal.  So, I decided I would just keep going and just try to enjoy the rest of the race, knowing that a good race will be in the bank no matter what.  Had I dug deep inside and pushed, perhaps there were 12-15 minutes to be removed, but with two more races coming up in the next 3 weeks, I thought I would hold onto a few of my chips before cashing everything in. I even chose to walk for a minute a couple of times on easily runnable sections late in the race, just to give my legs a break.  I kicked it in a bit on the last downhill stretch to the finish and came in at 9:12 and change, about an hour and a quarter faster than last year, 40th place over all, and 500% happier.  Met all but the dream goal.  

I had a couple of cups of Coke, than gave my shot at the iron horse competition, eking out 26 reps on the bench of 135.  Given that I had just finished the race and the nearest competitor at the time had done 11, I had no motivation to go beyond.  Alas, there were three following me that beat me out!  Who would have known that a guy named Rosie would pop in at the 11th hour and whip out 35?  Next time, I'll have to wait until later to try!