MASSANUTTEN MOUNTAIN TRAILS 100, MAY 13, 1995
FRONT ROYAL, VA
80% trails, 16% dirt roads, 4% pavement
(Results at the end)

Since my only other hundreds were Hardrock and Wasatch, I
was looking forward to running my first "easy" hundred at
MMT.  How wrong I was - MMT was anything but easy!  I
thought this was the course I could probably break 24 hours
on, but ended up with 28:17, and felt like I'd had a pretty
good race. It's probably slightly slower than Wasatch, based
on the times of myself and the leaders.  Wasatch is worse
from the standpoint of climbs and altitude, but MMT is on
hellaciously rocky trails, cleverly concealed with leaves.

MMT was the best marked course I've run, by far.  I
especially liked the conventions of hanging double yellow
tape (or double glowsticks) when a turn was coming, and
hanging orange tape across the route NOT to take.  The
weather was good - not too hot, humid, nor buggy.  I did
have to run the final two hours in a downpour, but that was
refreshing after I just accepted that I was going to get wet
and muddy, and stopped feeling sorry for myself.  The course
was beautiful!  All sorts of unfamiliar plants and flowers.
I'd never seen a whippoorwill before, but there was no
mistaking it's call.  Those things never go to bed!

This was the first ultra of any sort I've run back east, so
it was fun to finally meet many of the ultra listers in
person whom I've only corresponded with via email.  I ran
with Joel Zucker (and got to tease him at the briefing with
my Hardrock photos from last year) and Chris Scott for a
while early in the run, met Joe Jurczyk, Blake Norwood, and
Anstr at the briefing, and at least saw several others
during the run or at the awards (Kim, I apologize if I woke
you up when Dad and I came by singing drinking songs during
your snooze at 3am!)  I even ran into and spent a while
talking to fellow New Mexican (although he lives in VA now)
Dante Ciolfi, of TransAm fame, while he was waiting for Dave
Horton to show up at a restaurant.  I ended up running most
of the race with or very near Max Bliss and Dek Stump, and
enjoyed the company of John DeWalt, who has my great respect
for spending TWO nights out at Hardrock (he was the last
finisher there), and who reminded me, for some reason, of
Popeye, even before I learned he really was a sailor.

I liked the touch at the end of giving awards (large,
labeled rocks) to those who made it at least half-way before
dropping out.  I counted at least 13 rocks presented at the
awards ceremony, in addition to the 31 finishers (out of 58
starters).

The leaders were really burning up the trails for the first
half of the race.  At the 32 mile checkpoint, I was on a 21
hour pace, and was STILL in 19th place with the leaders 1:18
ahead of me!  I got updates from my folks at each aid
station - they especially mentioned Kim Goosen: "That woman
with the warpaint really looks strong!  She just ran in,
grabbed some water, and dashed out again!"

Mom and Dad drove out from California to crew and pace me,
and were more help than I can express properly.  When I
didn't care for the food at the aid stations, they drove
down to New Market to get me some soup, tuna, and vienna
sausages (which caused one aid station worker to heap good
natured abuse upon me - he couldn't believe I was eating
those gross things).  I asked Dad to jump in at Edinburg Gap
(75 miles, about 11:30pm), when I was getting very sleepy
eyed.  Dad paced me over the the remaining 25 miles,
encouraged me not to lay down to sleep, recited Robert W.
Service poetry to keep me awake, and pointed me in the right
direction when I would start staggering off the trail.  Mom
spent the wee hours of Mother's Day driving around on the
back roads. I don't know if she got any sleep, but she was
wide awake and waiting for us at each aid station.

The race directors did a fantastic job both in choosing the
course, and planning and administering the race.  If you
want to try out a really hard course without driving out
west, this is the one.


 1 Geesler,John,36,NY        23:08:22
 2 Clapper,Joe,36,VA         23:39:30 First Regional
 3 Lanham,Reid,25,VA         24:08:29
 4 Beaman,Tim,44,VT          24:59:43
 5 Fiorito,Mike,28,NC        25:48:27 First VHTRC
   Torrence,Ian,22,MD        25:48:27
 7 Lovell,Larry,51,VA        26:13:28 First Senior
 8 Frenyea,Bryon,48,VA       27:40:01
 9 Stump,Dek,52,NY           28:02:40
10 Wood,Blake,36,NM          28:17:00
11 Bliss,Max,27,SC           28:22:14
12 Scott,Chris,46,VA         28:31:33
13 Shear,Rich,46,NY          29:20:50
14 Goosen,Kimberly,22F,AR    29:50:50 First Woman
15 O'Grady,Kevin,36,OH       30:12:06
16 Mills,Mark,40,RI          30:38:11
17 Sprouse,Tom,53,VA         30:38:31
18 Smith,Sean,30,NM          30:48:03
19 Meyer,Bert,49,CT          31:06:50
20 Moore,Art,57,OH           31:29:05
21 Burrows,Steve,43,ONT      32:00:38
22 Wright,Phil,51,CA         32:12:03
23 Newnam,Tom,50,NC          33:05:20
   Norwood,Blake,48,NC       33:05:20
   Dudeck,Jerry,45,NC        33:05:20
26 Washburn,Jeff,45,MA       33:21:20
27 DeWalt,John,58,PA         33:58:40
28 Hughes,David,49,IN        34:18:20
   Flynn,George,41,VA        34:18:20
30 Duobinis,Stanley,44, MD   34:53:36
   Schlundt,Margaret,42F, MD 34:53:36

58 Starters, 31 Finishers