General Hellgate 100K Information

 PRE-RACE CHECK IN, DINNER & BRIEFING: 

Check-in will begin around 6:00 P.M. at Camp Bethel on Friday December 11.  Around 7:00 P.M. a pasta meal will be served.  The pasta dinner is free of charge to runners and about $9.00 for everyone else.  Around 8:30 P.M. we will have a course briefing.  Around 11:00 P.M. we will be driving to the start.

AWARDS CEREMONY & POST-RACE DINNER: 

Sub 18-hour finishers will receive a special award. Details aren’t final yet but they will probably be Patagonia awards similar to the awards given in the first six Hellgates. The male and female winners will probably receive Patagonia jackets. The top 2 – 10 men and the top 2 – 5 women will receive a special award. Male and female masters, male and female grand masters, and male super masters will also receive a special award. *5 time finishers will receive a special award.  Finishers will receive only one award.  

DIRECTIONS TO FINISH & CAMP BETHEL: 

To obtain directions to Camp Bethel, go to Http://www.campbethelvirginia.org

AID STATIONS: 

We plan on having nine (9) aid stations.

CREW ACCESS: 

There will be crew access at all aid stations except the 1^st aid station.  “Please” drive carefully (slowly on the gravel roads when going from aid station to aid station). ).  

TRANSPORTATION TO THE START:

The start at Hellgate parking lot is 26.8 miles from Camp Bethel.  It takes about 30-35 minutes to drive to the start.  I will be renting a 12-16 passenger van to help take runners to the start.  I do not plan on having a bus to transport runners to the start.  I hope that runners who have crews can help transport other runners to the start.

CUT-OFF TIMES: 

There will be two cutoff times.  Headforemost Mountain aid station (21.9 miles) and Bearwallow Gap aid station (42.5 miles).  Runners must reach Headforemost by 6:30 A.M., and Bearwallow by 12:30 P.M., to be allowed to continue.

POST RACE :

The awards will be presented around 6:00 P.M. We will have some food available after the race.

DROP BAGS:

We will allow runners to have drop bags for two aid stations:

1.        Headforemost Mountain (21.9 miles)

2.        Bearwallow Gap (42.5 miles)

SHOWERS:

There will be showers at the finish at Camp Bethel

COURSE MAP:

The best map to get of the course is the Trails Illustrated Map put out by National Geographic.  The map name is:  Lexington-Blue Ridge Mts.- George Washington & Jefferson National Forests & the map number is 789.  (Trail # 15 on map)

COURSE MARKINGS:

The Glenwood Horse Trail is marked with 2” by 6” paint and plastic blazes.  We also plan on marking the course with orange streamers.  We will be putting up chem. lights at tricky turns & intersections.  It will not be daylight on Saturday until 6:30 or 7:00 A.M. We will probably hang chem. lights for the 1^st 43.6 miles.  Course marking days will be on December 2nd  and December 6th if you can help. 

WEATHER:

The weather at this time of the year in Virginia is very “unpredictable”.  It could be 30-40 at night and 50-60 in the daytime or teens at night and 30-40 in the day.  We don’t usually have much snow at this time of the year, but we could.  Come prepared for EVERYTHING. .  !!  In 2005 we had a couple of inches of ice on 4- 8” of snow.

COURSE:

The course starts near Big Hellgate Creek & goes through the following places:  Petites Gap (8.0m), Camping Gap (13.6 m), Overstreet Falls (21.3 m), Floyds Field (23.2), Jennings Creek (29.0 m), Little Cove Mtn. (35.1 m), Bearwallow Gap (42.5 m), Bobblett’s Gap (49.6 m), Day Creek (56.8 m), Blackhorse Gap (59.2 m) and finish at Camp Bethel (62.5 m).

BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY CROSSINGS:

The Glenwood Horse Trail crosses the Parkway at:  Petites Gap (71.1 m), Floyd’s Field (80.5 m), Bobblet's Gap (93.2 m), & Black Horse Gap (97.6 m).