It’s been 15 years since the inaugural Traprock 50K and 17K trail races. At the time, the 50K was only the second trail ultra in the State of Connecticut. Bimbler’s Bluff preceded it. It’s crazy to think how much trail running, and in particular, ultrarunning, has grown.
Today’s Traprock was a fun event. Debbie and I weren’t at Penwood State Park for as long as we usually are because we opted to run the one lap 17K race for the first time. It worked out that our son Shepard was taking the ACT test at Loomis Chafee in Windsor. He had to be there at 8:00 A.M. so we dropped him off on the way to Penwood. The test was scheduled for 4.5 hours, which was perfect.
After a nice warmup, we did the 17K which started at 9:30 A.M. We both ran the loop in less than two hours which allowed us to spend a few minutes hanging out post-race before we drove back to Windsor to pick up Shepard. The 50K wasn’t in the cards for us which is fine because neither of us were excited about an ultra in April. At least I wasn’t.
It was fun to push for one lap without the risk of blowing up on a lap two or three. Debbie ran the first Traprock in 2010 and has run most of them since then too. She has done more than half of the 15 races.
It was nice to see many of our trail running friends. The volunteers were great. I didn’t stop at any of the aid stations on the course, but the finish line aid station was stocked with many food options.
The course was challenging as usual. There were many muddy sections and it was very slippery. The rock gardens and hills were the still in their same spots. It was cool and breezy with an overcast sky. There were breaks of sun in the first hour, but then it was pretty cloudy after that. I even felt a sprinkle or two falling from the sky.
I was very discouraged when a mile into the run, my Garmin buzzed, and flashed the dreaded -4 performance condition value on its screen. That’s about as low as I ever see, but when you get anything below zero, it messes with your head. I already struggle with Saturday races after a long work week.
I did the best I could and pushed when I could and backed off when it hurt. Debbie had a solid run and finished third. She got a really nice rock. Both of us got finishers mugs, which are beautiful. She said that she had a couple of minor falls. Miraculously, I stayed on my feet the entire time, though I had a few close calls.
There were some strong performances. Max Aronow led the way for the men. Marie Arnesson Galler was first woman. I battled with her the entire time and she smoked me in the last mile. Good for her! I glanced at the 50K results and there were also some strong performances. Kudos to all of the runners. This was the first of a dozen Blue-Blazed Trail Running Series races. I’m going to do as many as I can. Next up is the Soapstone Mountain Trail Race in five weeks. The season is under way.
The reincarnation of the Northern Nipmuck Trail Race continued today in Union, Connecticut. This is the third time Northern has been held after a 10 year hiatus. Debbie has run all three of the “comeback” races. I ran last year and again this year.
2024 was my 10th Northern start and 9th finish. I DNF’d my first one in 2002. That feels like a lifetime ago, but was only about a half a lifetime ago. Today’s race was one of the colder editions. I recall running the race with snow on the course. Today, there was no snow, but there was a fair amount of ice.
Yesterday, it rained more than three inches and then overnight, the temperature plunged into the low-20’s Fahrenheit. The thermometer read 24 at the start of the race and it was a brave decision to wear shorts. I did have calf socks. My legs remained warm, but my feet were cold. It was impossible to keep them dry and the water was frigid.
The sun was shining, but the Nipmuck Trail is shrouded in trees so it didn’t help as much as I would have liked. My best time was 15 years ago, but I’m learning to adjust my expectations. It’s about time that I let go of the notion that I’m going to run (or ride) faster than I did when I was in my 30’s and 40’s.
The 50+ phase I’m in is different in many ways. I’ve noticed my body change despite the fact that I remain very active. I have increased my focus on strength training because one of those changes I’ve noticed is the loss of muscle mass.
Today wasn’t a great day and I faded worse than planned, but it was great to be in the woods. My feet were uncomfortable, but so were everyone else’s. I ran about four minutes slower than last year. Debbie finished about 10 minutes behind me. I waited for her at the finish before walking back to the parking area in Bigelow Hollow State Park. In those 10 minutes, I turned into an icicle. That made for a painful and slow half mile walk back to the car.
Thank you to race director (and friend) Tony Bonanno and all of the Shenipsit Striders volunteers who have made this low key event a reality again. My current plan is for mid-distance trail running to be a bigger component 2024 so you will see me at many of the Blue-Blazed Trail Running Series races around Connecticut.
When we got home, the post-race shower was epic. This phase of my athletic career may have fewer epic race and more epic showers, and I’m good with that!
The Old Bailey Trail is a new path on Bolton, Connecticut public land. This tract was acquired by the town from the Stangeland Family in 2017. It is adjacent to Bolton High School and borders the Hop River State Park Trail.
Our son, Shepard (Scouts BSA Troop 25) constructed the trail for his Eagle Scout Service Project. He first developed the idea to build a trail in 2022, and started planning the project in early 2023. This involved getting approvals from Scouts BSA and the Town of Bolton. Construction began in May and took multiple weekends during the spring, summer, and fall.
The initial trail clearing and construction was performed in May and June. Then, in September, the bridge reconstruction was performed. Final cleanup was done in November just prior to the formal unveiling.
The abandoned Old Bailey Rd. is one of the town’s most historic roads. The road was used by French General Rochambeau and his troops during the Revolutionary War. The Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route is now a National Historic Trail.
Access to Old Bailey Rd. and the Old Bailey Trail is from the north side of Bolton High School at 72 Brandy St. Weekday access may be limited during school hours. There is visitor parking in front of the building. On weekends there is ample parking on the north side of the lot. Start by the short pine trees and then walk between the tree line and the baseball field until you reach the woods. Continue on the abandoned Old Bailey Rd. Follow the white blazes.
The loop trail starts at 0.45 mile . You can go counterclockwise or clockwise and then return to the junction. From there you can complete the “lollipop” shaped route by returning to the parking lot.
The trail was unveiled in November 2023 at the annual Bolton Land Trust Walk of Thanksgiving. Land trust members were the first organized group to walk the trail and learn about its history. The Bolton Land Trust (BLT) maintains a series of properties throughout town. Many of them have their own trail systems.
Though the property borders the Hop River State Park Trail, Old Bailey Rd. crosses private property before it connects with the rail trail. Therefore there is no official access with the rail trail.
Between the BLT properties and town properties there are many options for walking in Bolton. The Old Bailey Trail is one more option for people to enjoy the beauty of our town.
Both of them are past the halfway point. If we lived closer, they would be farther along, but there is no rush. We cherish the occasional trip from Connecticut.
We drove to Lincoln on Friday afternoon and spent the night at a local hotel. It’s been an unseasonably warm start to winter. In Connecticut, we have had weeks of dreary rain and clouds.
In New Hampshire, there was no snow cover until we reached an elevation of 2,500 feet. On Saturday morning in Lincoln, it was raining lightly, but as we drove north into the notch, it changed to snow and was accumulating at the higher elevation. We parked at Lafayette Place Campground in Franconia Notch and we started hiking at 8:15 A.M. Throughout the day, it continued to snow lightly. The temperature was in the low 20’s Fahrenheit, which was very manageable. It was breezy up high where there were shorter trees and it was noticeably cooler, but still pleasant for late December.
Our route was an out and back. We took the Lonesome Lake Trail to Fishin’ Jimmy Trail to Kinsman Ridge Trail. We went over North Kinsman (4,293 feet) and then turned around at the summit of South Kinsman (4,358 feet). We returned on the same route with a quick detour to see the Kinsman Pond Shelter. It is a really neat structure. I want to return and camp there in the future. We met one hiker who was spending the night there. I’m sure it was a peaceful spot to camp.
Both of the kids were strong despite not having hiked with a pack since summer. Debbie was her usual steady force. She plays an an important role on these trips as the empathetic leader. Dahlia has a knack for finding water, which is OK in the summer, but a much bigger problem int he winter. We may have to rename the Fishin’ Jimmy Trail. It should now be called the Fishin’ Dahlia Trail since she hooked her micro-spikes on a shoelace and went head first into a stream. Thankfully this was on the descent back to Lonesome Lake Hut. She was soaked and quite unhappy, but we got her to the hut, where we spent the night. We got her dried out.
In the winter, the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) keeps three of the eight White Mountain Huts open. These are Carter Notch Hut, Zealand Falls Hut, and Lonesome Lake Hut. Each is staffed by a caretaker, who is on duty from 4:00 P.M. until after breakfast the following day. Guests have access to the kitchen to prepare their own food. At Lonesome, the bunkhouses are separate from the main hut, so they can be chillier. In the main hut, there is a small wood stove. The stove was lit at 4:00 P.M. and kept going until about 10:00 P.M.
We hung Dahlia’s wet clothes and boots near the stove to facilitate their drying. By Sunday morning, they weren’t perfectly dry, but they were acceptably dry. We are longtime AMC members and volunteers and have frequented the huts for more than 20 years. Debbie and the kids visited Lonesome for New Year’s 2017 and it was -20 degrees Fahrenheit. Even with the wood stove and the kitchen oven, the inside temperature was below freezing. It was much colder in the bunk rooms.
This time, the stay was far more pleasant. With a large group of guests, the hut was quite warm. I still wore a winter hat, but I was able to remove several layers while I was inside. The four of us had our own bunk room with two bunk beds. We prepared dinner around 5:30 P.M. We had rice and curry. For dessert, we baked some cookies with a pre-made mix that we brought with us.
The only disappointment was that some of the other guests were rowdy. They didn’t respect the fact that some people go to the mountains to relax and chill out. They were partying pretty hard (alcohol fueled) and were loud and obnoxious. They stayed up well past the 10:00 P.M. start of quiet hours and it was annoying. We were tired and went to bed around 8:00 P.M., but I had to get up around 10:30 P.M. and knock on the doors of our two adjacent bunk rooms to alert the occupants to our displeasure with their loud shenanigans.
We eventually fell asleep and since we went to bed early, we were up early the next morning. It was much colder than the day before and there was a layer of undercast with light snow falling. We made instant oatmeal for breakfast and then packed up our stuff. We were back on the trail by 8:45 A.M. The plan was to start up towards Cannon Mountain (4,100 feet) and then decide if Debbie and Dahlia were going to join Shepard and me for the trip to the top. After 1/2 mile or so, we had a discussion and agreed to split up. The girls took their time descending back to Lafayette Place while Shepard and I pushed to the top of Cannon.
He has gotten really strong, so we were able to go really fast despite the steepness of the terrain. It snowed lightly and there was about six inches of snow covering the icy trail. We took the Lonesome Lake Trail back up to the Kinsman Ridge Trail. Then we went north to the summit of Cannon. We turned around and headed back south taking the Hi-Cannon Trail down to the Lonesome Lake Trail and then back to the notch where we met up with the rest of the family. We made it to the truck before noon, changed up, and then started the drive home.
It was a successful adventure to close out the year. Shepard has done 34 of the 48 with 14 to go. Dahlia stands at 27 with 21 to go. It was their first winter ascents, though they have done Monadnock and some shorter peaks in the snow.
On the drive back, we passed through Brownsville (Vermont) and then stopped for a late lunch in Putney. We were home by 5:30 P.M. with enough time to unpack and relax on the last night of the year.
Cross Country season isn’t over for the Livingston Family. The past two weekends have been filled with Junior Olympics racing. These have been fun races and bring back fond memories from 1989 when I did the Junior Olympics. Back then, we had a state meet, but I can’t recall the location, followed by the Region 1 meet in Augusta, Maine. After that event, the conglomerate team I was on representing the Willimantic Athletic Club, went to Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana for the national championships.
Last weekend, Shepard and Dahlia raced as unattached runners at the USATF CT meet at White Memorial Foundation in Litchfield. White Memorial is a special place for Debbie and me. We hadn’t been back in a long time. In 2001 we were married there. Our ceremony was under a large pine tree in the same field where the race started and finished. Only a stump remains where the tree once stood, but our marriage has remained strong.
It was great to be back in the park, which is beautiful. The course was challenging, though the 5K version was a little short. That was still good for the morale of the runners as they had fast times. The weather conditions were good. It was cold, but sunny and breezy. Dahlia was in the 13-14 year old category and did the 4K version of the course. She was 5th, finishing strongly, and qualified for the Northeast Region race.
Shepard had a real battle in the boys 15-18 year old category. He was in the lead group for most of the race. Ryan Boulanger pulled away in the last mile and held off Lorenzo Lopes and Shepard, who sprinted it out. Shepard’s third place finish also qualified him for the regional championships.
The USATF Region 1 Championships were held this past Sunday in Queensbury, New York hosted by USATF Adirondack. the Queensbury schools course was fantastic. According the kids (our experts) it was just what you want in a course. It was all off-road, but it had a good hard surface for most of the course and the trails were wide to accommodate passing and pack running. It was a mix of grass and dirt, with the dirt sections being cross-country skiing trails. There were two short but steep hills. It had rained earlier in the week and there were some puddles on the trails, but the rest of the course was dry.
We drove up on Saturday afternoon. Our first stop was in Troy for a campus tour at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. RPI was our first ever official campus tour, with more to come. After the tour we proceeded to Saratoga Springs where we spent the night. It’s a neat town with a lot of history. Debbie’s brother Tom joined us on the trip, so the five of us had dinner downtown on Saturday evening.
On Sunday morning, Debbie and I did a run at Saratoga Spa State Park, which was less than a mile from our hotel. We had a great run on some lovely trails. We hadn’t been there in nearly 20 years. We last ran in the park during a snowshoe race. It was neat to explore all of the old buildings. After the run, we packed up at the hotel and headed north again to Queensbury.
The Queensbury Invitational appears to be a large state level race held on the same course. You could tell that the course and the program was a proven one. It was our first experience with USATF Junior Olympics, so we didn’t know what to expect, but it was good. Our only experience with cross country (at least for our children) was through the Connecticut middle school and high school system. Traveling to a race out of state was fun.
Shepard’s original goal was to qualify for the New England high school championships, but when he came up short, and wanted to do some “post-season” running, we landed on the USATF option. The new goal became this Northeast regional meet. He knew that the absolute best competition would have done the New England meet and he knew that Massachusetts was holding its state championship meets this past weekend too, but there would still be some fast runners. Some of those fast runners were the same boys he raced against last week in Litchfield. It turned out that the top three including Ryan, Lorenzo, and Shepard all finished in the top 10 of the regional meet.
Dahlia raced first on the 4 kilometer course at 1:00 P.M. She had a fast race improving her best per/mile pace on an XC course, but came up three spots short of the national championships qualifier, finishing 33rd. She was disappointed but this season has been an awesome start to her high school cross country career. She has shown wonderful improvement and is having fun. It is noted that the girls 13-14 field was one of the strongest of the day. There were more than 100 girls in her race and most were fast!
Shepard’s race was the last of the day at 2:30 P.M. As noted the 5 kilometer course was fast and challenging. Since it was one big loop, it was hard for spectators to see their runners in more than one spot. For this reason, Debbie and Dahlia went to the far side of the course to cheer. Tommy went about mid-way. I stayed with Shepard at the start to grab his warm-up clothes, and then ran out mid-way so that I could then run back to see him finish.
He was very focused on doing well and went through his normal pre-race routine which is pretty regimented. There were 60 boys in his race and many were talented. He went out with the first group, but then one runner, Sam Laverdiere, separated himself from the pack. He ended up running alone and finishing 27 seconds ahead of second place in 15:57. Second place became a battle between six runners including Shepard and Lorenzo. Wind was a factor in this race and Shepard and I discussed strategies prior. In the woods, there was no impact, but in the open field that made up the first 500 meters and crucially the lasts 500 meters, there was a strong side wind and then a head wind going to the finish. We talked about using the draft if he was in a small group and staying on the left shoulder of the runners ahead of him so that they blocked the wind. We also discussed when to kick because when they made the right turn to the finish, it was more than 200 meters into the headwind.
Shepard came out of the woods about a second behind the other five guys. He looked to be hurting, but it turned out he was in control. Lorenzo started to stretch things out pulling away, but Shepard started a surge that saw him move up on the left side passing one runner at a time until he was two spots behind Lorenzo. Note that Lorenzo and Shepard have been battling for two seasons now. Lorenzo is a sophomore from Immaculate in Danbury. He won the Connecticut S division championships this year two spots in front of Shepard. He also had a strong State Open race, only missing New England qualifying by six spots. His 31st place was fantastic for an underclassman. He was 12 spots in front of Shepard. You can read about my summary of the CIAC season in this blog post.
In the final high hand corner, I saw that the runner behind Lorenzo hit the deck. Apparently he took it too tight and hooked his leg on a course post that was holding up the rope chute. Shepard dodged the fallen runner and then it was an all out sprint for the line. Tyler Mogavero of the New England Elite Track Club took the lead and held off the rest. Shepard was less than a second behind Tyler, scoring third place, and then Lorenzo was a second behind Shepard. It was a great finish. Even thought the 15-18 year olds were running together it should be noted that Shepard is in the 17-18 group and Lorenzo is in 15-16. The two of them have developed a nice rapport as rivals and friends, but I know Shepard was happy to finally have out kicked Lorenzo for the first time since last season. This year, Lorenzo has had the stronger finishes. I think both had personal bests. Shepard’s time of 16:25 was excellent for an XC course, even if it was a quicker version of one. I don’t know how this would translate to Wickham Park, but for now, he is celebrating the progress. What is awesome to witness is how these athletes have pushed each other to be better. Both Shepard and Dahlia have thrived with the competition and the knowledge that their own hard work and commitment has paid off with some results they can be proud of.
This qualified him for the National Junior Olympic XC Championships in Louisville, so we have to hold a family meeting and plan that trip. He is very interested in going. Seeing as how it is the same weekend as the USA Cycling National Cyclocross Championships, also in Louisville, then it presents a unique opportunity. I might be able to do a bike race on the same trip. It’s an odd coincidence that the two races are in different parks about 13 miles apart. Regardless of what happens with our Louisville plans, this has been a wonderful cross country season for both of our children and their respective teams. Debbie and I have had a lot of fun, cheering like crazy spectators, and supporting them as they reach their goals.
Today, I rode my 16th Mansfield Hollow Cyclocross. It was one of my 7th ever CX race back in 1995. That year the race was in December. It is the longest continuously running cross race in New England.
It’s pretty much my hometown race. Bolton is less than 25 minutes by car to Mansfield Hollow. In addition to riding out that way, we do a lot of trail running in that area. The Nipmuck Trail cuts right through the park, which is lovely.
The cross course got a nice makeover thanks to the work of teammates Keith Enderle and Dave Geissert. They lent a hand to race director Ron Manizza. Ron always pulls in good volunteers and proceeds from the race support the Friends of Mansfield Hollow.
We had fine October weather. It was cool in the morning and there was a stiff breeze. By the time I started the singlespeed race at 12:30 P.M., it had warmed up a bit so I wore shorts. It was comfortable. The SSCX crew was a bit smaller this year. I think the entire New England series has shrunk a bit. I did three of the four CCAP Rocky Hill Cyclocross Training races back in September, but this was my first official cross race of the season. I plan to do a handful more. I’m not sure if I’ll stick with singlespeed or if I’ll mix in some age group racing. I’m taking it week to week.
I felt pretty good today. The course was fast, technical, and hard. Thankfully the weather was good and there was no rain. I didn’t want to make a mess of my bikes and gear. I rode most of the race with Shane Black-Macken. We traded spots several times. On the last lap, I pulled ahead by five seconds or so, and secured third place, which earned me a pint glass and some Dragon’s Blood Elixir hot sauce. We are aficionados of that brand so this prize was appreciated.
I saw tons of friends at the race. Team HORST Sports and the CCAP Team HORST Junior Squad had some really good results.
It’s hard to believe that I’ve been racing cross on the New England scene for 28 years. I’m going to ponder that for a bit.
And that’s how the conversation went on the drive back to East Hartford from the Lime Rock Park Epic. This was the second edition of the fall race by Domestique Events and it was a lot of fun, despite the leg and back pain that comes after 68 miles of gravel riding in the Litchfield Hills.
The northwest corner of Connecticut is amazing. It is dotted with picturesque towns, and has the biggest “mountains” in our small state. These foothills of the Berkshires are part of the Taconic Range and are mere bumps compared with other mountains in the Appalachians, but they give this area its character.
The roads (paved and unpaved) are always worth exploring, and especially in October when the fall colors are emerging. The loop took us in a counter-clockwise direction from the famous motorsports venue, Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, north to Salisbury near the Massachusetts border. Then the route went south to Kent via Macedonia Brook State Park, before returning to Lakeville via West Cornwall and its lovely covered bridge. The course included 14 sectors of gravel (dirt roads).
Teammates Arlen Zane Wenzel, Anthony Eisley, Debbie and I made the trip together. Two weeks ago, we did all did the Vermont 50 and for some of us, there was unfinished business. I planned to kick off the cyclocross season this past Saturday night with The Night Weasels Cometh, but the race was canceled for 2023 because of the excessive rain that we have had. Instead, I opted to do Lime Rock on Sunday, which was heavily promoted. It helped that the course was designed with input from our other teammate, Paul Nyberg. These are Paul’s home roads, and he knows them well. I knew that he would create a gem of a loop.
Once I registed, Arlen and Anthony were soon to follow suit. When I mentioned it to Debbie, she was also up to the challenge and excited to try something new. She recovers fast, but I was still beat up after last week’s NipMuck Trail Marathon. We agreed that this would be for fun. For Debbie and me, it was our first ever official “gravel” race even thought we have been riding bikes on dirt for 35+ years. We hadn’t done a Gran Fondo style ride in a very long time. What made this one a race was that it had four timed segments. The beauty of chip timing is that you can set a start and finish to a segment anywhere on the course. The goal was to ride steady in between and then hammer the segments. Those segments were at (approximately) 5 miles, 23 miles, 40 miles, and 60 miles.
As noted, this was all just for fun, but when you have a a friendly competition within a ride like this, it spices up the proceedings. Earlier in the week, I repaired a leak in one of Debbie’s bike tires but on race day, she was ready to go. She rode her Seven Evergreen XX with 650B wheels and 42c tires. it was a perfect set up. I rode my Trek Checkpoint SL with 700c wheels and 42c tires.
I hadn’t been in a mass start road bike race in a long time. It was a cool feeling to ride in a peloton. After a four mile neutral start, things split up fast. Anthony and I hung with the front group until about the 20 mile mark. Arlen got popped off before us and Debbie went her own pace from the gun. Anthony and I ended up riding our own pace, periodically riding with other small groups, and we stuck together for the duration of the ride. We helped each other during the four segments and just had fun. We especially enjoyed the section through Macedonia Brook State Park.
We skipped the first aid station, but spent about 10 minutes at the second one. The volunteers were great and it was stocked with food. I had three homemade mint/raspberry rice cakes. They were fantastic. It was fitting that the aid station was located at a Grange hall. This ride had an awesome community feel. With all of the advertising, it deserved to have a larger field of riders, but sadly, there was a lot of competition around the region. The Minuteman Cyclocross was in Massachusetts. There were gravel rides in Massachusetts, Vermont, and Pennsylvania. It was a packed calendar of events.
It pays to read the race “bible.” We missed the requirement that to place, you had to finish the ride by 3:00 P.M. Debbie rolled in about five minutes late, so despite having the third fastest segments (in her age group), she was shuffled to the back of the results. Oh well. She was still stoked with her ride and I was proud of her too. Yesterday’s weather was perfect for fall riding. It was chilly at the start with a stiff breeze, but by early afternoon the sun had warmed things up a bit.
That previously mentioned “death climb” was a highlight. It was the third segment, on a rugged jeep road that eventually transitioned to asphalt, and it went on forever….well almost forever.
The post race festivities included some good food and beverages, which is standard fare at many of these gravel adventures. I would definitely do this event again. Anytime you get to ride your bike in October, in the Litchfield Hills, its a treat. The volunteers, course markings, marshals, and organizers made this event even better.
The muck was back at NipMuck today! The persistent rain including another four inches over the last two days made the 40th anniversary NipMuck Trail Marathon a wet and muddy affair. Truthfully, it could have been much worse. The trail was dry in many spots, wet in many spots, but overall better than expected given how damp it has been.
Yesterday was a total wash out, but overnight the low pressure system mercifully moved on. At dawn, it was warmer than it had been at any point yesterday, though it was still very humid. The leaves haven’t started falling yet, but the recent storms had brought down many branches and debris. The ground was wet for the first few hours of the race, but some spots started to dry out after noon when the sun finally warmed things up. The Nipmuck Trail is mostly singletrack and in a thick canopy of trees, so it remains wet for much the year. Today’s temperature peaked around 73 degrees Fahrenheit, which was a big improvement over yesterday’s 50 degrees and rain.
There are a lot of bog bridges on the Nipmuck Trail, so you had to run gingerly when crossing them. To quote “NipMuck Dave” Raczkowski, the legendary founder of this legendary race, “They are as slick as snot.” That makes me think about the roots at last week’s Vermont 50 Mile Ride & Run. They were also very slippery. Dave got a head start today, starting around the same time as the 40 mile runners. The normal distance is 26.4 miles, but for the anniversary, the Shenipsit Striders offered an ultra distance. The normal NipMuck course starts with an out and back on the southern section of the trail (about 12 miles), and then after returning to the start/finish, you do another out and back on the northern section (about 14.5 miles). The 40 mile course started with an extra northern section, and then continued with the normal course after that.
NipMuck Dave started the race in 1984 and had 12 finishers, including Dave. The first race was won by another legend, Rich Fargo. He won many more races and ruled New England trail running for many years. Debbie did her first in 2000 and I made my debut in 2004. I’ve now done the race nine times including twice in the relay division. Debbie has probably done more than 15. The results are all posted on the Ultrasignup page.
The course has changed over the years and today had a unique reroute. In the past, beaver dams on the southern section near the six mile turnaround have caused flooding. With the record rain, apparently it was impassible. Therefore, we had a diversion on to the Talmadge Spur Trail. The aid station was relocated to the intersection of the Nipmuck Trail and Mason Rd. (dirt). We arced back to the station by running Talmadge to Mason to the aid station and then arcing back. So, we saw that aid station three times. It was a busy spot and was staffed, like in past years, by the Eastern Connecticut State University women’s XC team.
I did the relay in 2022 and 2019, but hadn’t raced the full distance since 2011. I’m surprised it had been that long. This was my slowest time on the course, but if I’m looking for a bright spot, it was my fastest as a 50 year-old! My best race was the 2009 edition. That was the last year that the race was held in June. When NipMuck Dave retired and the Shenipsit Striders took over, we moved the race to October. This was a pretty big change for many, but it worked out for the best and the race has been a key part of the New England Grand Tree Trail Running Series for a long time. Clinton Morse succeeded NipMuck Dave as race director and was at the helm for several years before David Merkt took over. This younger Dave announced his own “retirement” at the start of this years’s event after 11 years running the show. He has gotten a lot of help from Shenipsit Striders volunteers and a three-person committee will take over race direction for 2024.
NipMuck is one of the oldest trail running races in New England and is the longest continuously running event in the region. Second place goes to the Soapstone Mountain Trail Race which is one year younger. Debbie was the race director of Soapstone for 15 years and it is also an iconic New England race. Years ago, the Striders created a new race called Nipmuck South Trail Race (14.5 miles) that uses a different part of the Nipmuck Trail. Also, in recent years, the club resurrected the Northern Nipmuck Trail Race (15 miles) which uses the northern section of the trail that is past the turnaround point of the marathon. All of these races are part of the Connecticut Blue-Blazed Trail Running Series. Not to confuse you more with all of these various series, for the first time in 2023, the Shenipsit Striders honored the runners who completed the “Trilogy” of the club’s races on the Nipmuck Trail. This was a goal for me, so by finishing today, I achieved it.
In the pre-race briefing, Dave (Merkt) shared some intersting stats and facts about the race and its history. The race has raised a lot of funds for the Connecticut Forest & Park Association, Joshua’s Trust, and other organizations. He recognized the past winners winners who were present. There were three. Debbie won the race five times (her first victory was in 2003), Sheryl Wheeler won it at least once (in 2002), and Godfrey Berger won it once (back in 1999) when he was 18.
Debbie who didn’t seem to be slowed by the fact that she did the Dragon’s Back Race in September, won her sixth today; Sheryl (who is 60+ now!!!) was second female, and Godfrey finished third overall, so they are still going strong! If I spend a few minutes with the historical results, I will be able to compile some more accurate stats. For her prize, Debbie chose the apple sauce option instead of a pie. In the old days, NipMuck Dave’s mom baked the pies. Now they come from Lyman Orchards.
In the long running intra-family rivalry between us, I got the best of her, finishing a little more than five minutes ahead. I got to see her several times when we passed each other going the opposite direction and I knew that if I faltered, she would hunt me down. Somehow, I managed to not cramp (like last week at the VT50) and eked out the “victory.” I’m pretty sure that if she decided to catch me, she would have. Also, it would have been no contest if we did the 40 miler. She would have crushed me. I was good for a marathon and not a mile more.
With all of this race history and our involvement, you shouldn’t be surprised that Debbie and I like the Nipmuck Trail. There is a good chance that we will continue to run and race on it for years to come.
A Vermont 50 Mile Ride & Run race report will never be routine for me. Though I’ve done 14 prior blog posts dating back to 2008, and covered much of the same history, each edition of the race and each report is special in its own way. Yesterday’s 30th anniversary edition of the race was fantastic. The rain held off (though the roots were deceptively and devastatingly slippery) and nearly 600 mountain bikers and 250 runners had a blast on the Upper Valley trails.
It’s the landowners and trails that make this event special. The hard work of organizers and volunteers come together one day a year so that we can link together some of the most amazing dirt roads, Class IV roads, and singletrack trails into one continuous loop. Simply put, the course is iconic.
To quote my buddy Arlen Zane Wenzel, “Those that know, know.”
Like many longstanding events and traditions, it is the community that is the heart of the matter. Since Debbie and I started attending this race in 1999 (we have only missed once and the pandemic canceled the 2020 event), we have continually refreshed our “community.” From the early days when it was just Randall Dutton, Arlen, and me crashing on the floor of Randall’s cabin in Chester while Debbie was sleeping with other dirtbag ultrarunners on the floor of the old lodge; to the Airbnb home we rented with a larger group the last few years, it has always been about the people we were with.
This weekend was no different. We stayed at the same home as we have for several years with fellow VT50 revelers and athletes. We even had some new members of the community participating in the first VT50. Just like we did the first year, we met up with Race Director Mike Silverman who also celebrated his 24th anniversary in the role. His RD role also started in 1999. Debbie and I got our 1,000 mile pint glasses for completing more than 20 races. Arlen got his 1,250 mile glass. He started his 25th. Sadly his rear derailleur blew up shortly after the start, ruining his chances of another coveted finish. He will be back.
He wasn’t at the first race in 1993. Very few people were. The VT50 committee has been sharing vintage photos on its website, newsletters, and social media channels. I rummaged around in my attic space and couldn’t find my pre-2006 photos. I’ll have to find them before the 35th anniversary. The race has generated good memories and vibes for thousands of people. Much has been said about the generosity of athletes and organizers and how successful the event and its sister events (including the Vermont 100 Mile Endurance Run) have been as fundraisers for Vermont Adaptive Ski & Sports and other organizations.
The race production has been getting bigger and better. There was a period over the last three years, including the 2020 COVID-19 induced cancellation where the scale of the event shrunk a little, but 2023 was a roaring success with more vendors at the expo, better food, a live band, and even more excitement.
Given the incredibly challenging and wet weather that Vermont has faced in 2023, the course itself has been under stress. Leading up to the race, there were concerns that the course would look very different as some landowners were concerned about the impact of the race on their property and the beloved trails. In the end, volunteers and landowners rallied, but we can never take their concerns for granted. There was some mud in spots, but it was manageable and I didn’t see any terrible erosion.
Most of these trails are NOT open for public use, so it is vital that athletes not ride/run/train on these trails on any other day of the year. Many are for horses and only open to us on race day. In the end, the course didn’t look too different. The reroutes were strategic. There was some new singletrack, which was difficult, and as mentioned, the rocks and roots were treacherous. It didn’t rain on Sunday, but it did on Saturday night and the ground was already damp from a summer of record moisture.
The roots were very slick and with all of the off-camber sections, the trails with lots of roots were tough to navigate, especially for the riders. You needed to be alert because your wheels could slide out in a nanosecond and you would find yourself on the ground. I had a few close calls, but never had a big wipeout. I was extra-cautious knowing that I needed to be back at work on Monday. One of the more dangerous sections was a long dirt road descent with freshly built water bars. These are great for erosion control, but they can buck you off your bike like a wild Bronco. I hit the first one with too much speed and nearly went flying. After that, I approached them more gingerly.
The weekend of events kicked off on Saturday with race registration, packet pick up, the expo, hay pile treasure hunt, and the Kids Fun Races. Once again, Debbie was the Kids Fun Races Director. With the help of Shepard, Dahlia, and other volunteers; she organized a 1/2 mile run, 1 mile run, 2 mile run, 1 mile mountain bike, and 2 mile mountain bike. The bike races were run concurrently and then followed by the running races which were run concurrently. The kids, many of them from the local community, were having so much fun despite the hilly course. There aren’t any flat options at Ascutney. This has to be one of my favorite parts of the VT50 weekend. I was the course marshal for the junction between Wind Up and Last Mile, two of the iconic tracks maintained by the resurgent Ascutney Trails Association. I got to send kids up the mountain and then direct them towards the finish.
The best moment came when I was directing a girl towards the finish. I yelled, “Great job! Right turn to the finish.”
As she rode by me, she said, “I’m really proud of myself.”
The Vermont 50 has impacted folks of all ages. Go figure, I finished 81st and was only 28th in my age group. I’m not 25. I’m 50! There were two 50 year-olds in the top 10. A 16 year old girl beat me! I rode with her for a while and then she just took off! Good for her.
It does seem as if there are more masters athletes in their 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s. Part of that could be the cost. The entry price is steep ($175.00 + about $13.00 in registration fees), though the race is nonprofit, the event production is fantastic, and the proceeds benefit a noteworthy charity. Cost could be keeping some younger athletes away. Traveling to southern Vermont from around New England isn’t a huge challenge and camping is offered in exchange for a $40 donation. The broader reason for the predominance of “elderly” athletes could simply be that endurance sports are aging. That is exacerbated by the fact that the race is hard to get in to. Every year when registration opens online in mid-May, it sells out in a matter of minutes. Even if you are at your computer at the specified time, it is still a crapshoot.
The race organizers give priority VIP/Loyalty Registration in advance to many returning athletes. I think this starts with 10 year returning veterans but I’m not 100% sure. This rule alone would skew the average race age older. The organizers celebrate this loyalty. 135 athletes have done the race 10 or more times! Check out the list. The cycling, running, and triathlon scenes are dominated by masters athletes still “chasing the dream.” The good news is that us masters athletes benefit from all of the outdoor activity. Also note that the list skews male. I think only one woman has done more than Debbie, and if she hadn’t skipped the two years that she gave birth in August and September, she would have a few more. Of course, other women may have had similar reasons for missing in the past!
I had a good race by my standards. It was the first time in nearly a dozen years that I rode a bike with gears and suspension. Last year I ran the 50K. The year before and for about 10 years in a row, I rode my rigid singlespeed Seven Sola SL. It is an awesome bike, but riding that thing beats me up. It’s not necessarily the lack of a derailleur that is hard for me, its the lack of suspension, which I could solve by changing my rigid carbon fiber fork for a shock absorbing suspension fork, but I’m stubborn about keeping that bike pure. This year, I rode my Trek Supercaliber which I got a few years ago. It was fantastic and I can now function on a post-race Monday without back and neck pain. It also saved me from having to walk as many of the steep and slippery climbs.
When I got off my bike this time, it was because my legs were cramping. I struggled a bit starting at the 34 mile mark. The course ran a bit long this year. With a few reroutes and the added singletrack, total distance ranged from 50 to 53 miles depending on your GPS. With so much serpentine singletrack it is hard to get an accurate reading.
I wouldn’t say I cracked, but with 15 miles to go, my legs started to seize up and I had to manage the situation by backing off the throttle. I started out steady and was really picking up the pace on the long dirt road climbs, but either my hydration (electrolyte) strategy, a few underlying sore muscles, or a combination of factors triggered some debilitating cramps. The inner quadricep and adductor muscles on my right leg were the worst. The spasms forced me to stop pedaling and sometimes, I had to hop off and walk just to stretch it out and stop the cramping. It only worked some of the time. This is the same leg that has been bothering me for the last six weeks. I have an underlying strain that keeps getting inflamed, especially when I overwork it. These were the kind of cramps that made you call out in pain. It was bad. My left hamstring was also cramping and it really bad when both legs cramped simultaneously. This cramp on/cramp off cycle lasted for more than two hours. It was exhausting.
I persevered but more than 20 people caught me in the last third of the race. I was close to the top 50 for a while, but faded to 81st. Even still, I’m happy to have finished and I felt good about the result. I was really bummed for Arlen, who had the fortitude to come out to the last aid station at Johnson’s and cheer for us despite having a rough day. Seeing him gave me a lift and I was grateful to still be out there, moving forward on a functional bike. I figured he was behind me, but didn’t realize he had to stop after his catastrophic mechanical failure. So when I started up the Johnson’s driveway and heard him yelling it startled me. I was glad to discover that physically, he was fine and that it was just a bad bike day. He cheered me as I started that last horrible climb up Upper Mile-Long Field.
When I was picking up the pace around the 30 mile mark, I closed in on teammate Anthony Eisley. I got tantalizingly close. He was less than 50 meters in front at one point, but that is when the cramps started and he gapped me. I heard that even he had some struggles. His wife Carly must have had fewer issues because she absolutely crushed the 50K in a personal best time, finishing 2nd female.
The temperature was cool, about 55 degrees Fahrenheit, but the humidity was high. I rode for a while with Chris Brits, another Connecticut cyclist. He and I traded spots for more than half of the race. At one point, he had a wicked crash, wiping out on a slippery root where a tree trunk and branch was overhanging the trail. It was very narrow and you had to swerve to avoid it. I yelled out, “Tree,” but it still took him down. Thankfully he got up and recovered to catch me and finish strongly. He was just one of many friends and acquaintances who I saw out on the trails. After the finish, I got really cold. I felt depleted, which is a sign that I gave it everything I had. Thankfully the rental house was less than 1/2 mile from the finish so I was able to ride back, take a long hot shower, wash off the grime, eat some food, and make it back to the finish line to resume cheering.
Debbie did the mountain bike relay with Laura Becker. Having Laura, her husband Steve, and their nine month old son Liam join us for the weekend was a highlight. Liam was the life of the house as he was soaking in his first ever trip to Vermont. Laura started the race at 6:20 A.M. which was 10 minutes after my wave (first wave) and rode the first 32 miles or so. She met up with Debbie at the Greenall’s Aid Station on Silver Hill Rd. This is the same location as the Vermont 100 start/finish. Debbie rode over from the start, which was only about five miles. She got there in time to cheer for me. When Laura arrived, they swapped the number plate to Debbie’s bike and then she rode the 20 miles or so to the finish. I had 19 psi in Debbie’s tires, which was way too much, so wisely, she let some air out and was able to navigate the tougher singletrack with a bit more ease.
It’s worth noting that Debbie amazes me. Two weeks ago, she finished the Dragon’s Back Race in Wales. You would think her legs would be tired, but like the Energizer Bunny, she just keeps going. Next year, I think she wants to go back to running the event. After all, that’s what she did back in 1999 when the VT50 was her first ultra. I’m not sure which bike I will do the race on. I’ve ruled running out. Arlen wants to do it on a tandem. Our friend and teammate Arthur Roti did it many times on a tandem with Mark Hixson. Doing the race with Arlen would be nuts. If we get a bike, we better bring extra derailleurs!
Shepard and Dahlia are focused on cross country running season, so they did their own thing. That included volunteering, doing their prescribed XC workouts, reading/doing homework, and riding around. Vermont gravel brings a huge smile to Shepard’s face, so he rode to Greenall’s to meet up with Debbie. He put in 20 miles on his CX bike, covering many of the roads used in The Overland, which he rode in 2022. He has done the VT50 a few times, but his XC coach wouldn’t be happy if he took the risk right now. In addition to helping at the Kids Fun Races, Dahlia worked the finish line, handing out medals to the early finishers of the mountain bike race. Kudos to all of the runners and cyclists who did their best and finished. There were many amazing performances.
Just like every year, we saw tons of friends. Debbie even ran into an old friend who worked at Jimmy LeSage’s New Life Hiking Spa at Killington with her back in the 1997 to 1999 timeframe. Kip was manning the merchandise table. New Life was her post-Springfield College assistantship. She worked at the hiking spa as a trip leader, guide, and yoga instructor in the summer/fall, and was a snowboard instructor at Killington Mountain Resort in the winter. She was doing these gigs in 1999 when I met her in the parking lot at Ascutney. Both jobs were coming to an end as she had recently moved back to Connecticut to enroll at UConn in the fitness management master’s degree program. Circumstances worked out that the VT50 entered our lives at the right time.
I’ll be writing a separate story about our Saturday morning visit to the American Precision Museum (APM) in Windsor, but I wanted to briefly mention it here. On the drive to Brownsville, Debbie dropped Shepard and me off at the museum. She left us with our bikes. He went to the Windsor School to do a track workout on his own before meeting me back at the museum. I was joined at the museum by three friends from the manufacturing community in Connecticut. We spent two hours exploring the museum and the wonderful history of Precision Valley. HORST Engineering is a APM supporter and crazily, it was my first time there. I’ve been outside, but had never been inside to see the exhibits. I will return very soon. There is more to see and it is highly recommended.
Shepard and I lingered a bit too long and we had to hammer on the six mile ride to Brownsville to make the 2:00 P.M. start of the Kids Fun Races. As mentioned,I was a course marshal. He was the “rabbit” for the 1/2 mile runners, leading them on the course.
After the race yesterday, we hung out a bit, but then we cleaned up and packed up. On the drive, I got a right hand cramp. I had to pull on my thumb to get the spasm to stop. Something must be up with my “electrical system.” We swung by the Putney Co-Op for some groceries and snacks, and were back in Bolton by 6:30 P.M. I had to wash the bikes, put away our stuff, load the washer, and get ready for the week ahead. When it was bedtime, I was ready.
It’s hard to believe that this is the first time I’ve done a race of any type outside of Connecticut since last year’s VT50. I’ve done fewer races overall and more local events. It was also my first mountain bike race since the 2021 VT50. Next year I vow to practice more before the event! This coming weekend there will be another iconic event with a long history. The 40th anniversary NipMuck Trail Marathon is Sunday. Debbie and I are both registered. I’m a little worried. I’ve got no doubt that she can do it, but my legs are cramping just thinking it.
Earlier this month as I followed Debbie’s race in Wales, I was filled with a mix of crazy emotions. It was rare for me to be so far away while she was tackling one of her big adventures. She was on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, more than 3,100 miles away in the United Kingdom. She ran the mountainous spine of Wales from Conwy on the north coast, to Cardiff on the south coast, as part of the Dragon’s Back Race.
Photo courtesy of the Dragon’s Back Race
She had never done a race this far away without our support. I faced the extra stress of thinking about her race while juggling my normal worries at work and my role as the sole parent to a couple of teenagers during their first week of the school year. If you are new to this blog, then you should know that in our household, she does the running and I do the writing.
For those reasons, we agreed that I would write her race report, but that it would take a few weeks. There were different ways that I could write about this, but the best for me was to interview her, take notes, and then retell the story. Since I wasn’t at the race, I needed to hear the details. We decided to build an outline and then cover each day in chronological order. I wanted to capture her feelings and emotions, so I’ve interspersed the story with some of those thoughts. I have also shared a bit about what was going on at home, and what we were thinking while tracking her. Note that she provided most of the photos. All are credited to her unless noted otherwise.
At breaks and lunch, I would check her progress with the live tracker on either my laptop browser or app. When I got up in the morning around 5:15 A.M., she was already three or four hours into each stage. It worked out that she was finishing each day between noon and 3:00 P.M. eastern time. On four of the days, including the final day, I was able to monitor her progress, estimate her finish time, and then view the live stream. There was no sound, but it was wonderful to see her cross the line. It was a huge relief and then I could go about the rest of my day. Typically in the hour or so after her finish, I would get a text message with a brief update. Seeing the race organizers’ daily news updates, photo galleries, video summaries, and other online content was a great way to stay connected to the race. It wasn’t just Debbie I was rooting for. I was cheering for all of the runners and interested in their progress.
While Shepard, Dahlia, and I were following her progress, I was posting about it on social media which generated lots of comments, support, and excitement. Over the course of the week, I only got a few text messages from Debbie. Her days were very full. On Day 5 of the race, she mistakenly “butt dialed” me. I yelled into the phone and was able to get her attention. We exchanged a brief word, but that was the only time I spoke with her during the race. While she was away, I stayed in touch with other family members and friends, including my parents and Debbie’s parents.
After one of the stages, I phoned Mrs. Schieffer, or Momma S. as I affectionately call her, to find out what she thought of this gnarly race. I asked her if she worried about Debbie and if she knew what made her tick.
I asked, “Where does her drive come from and why does she push herself so hard?”
I’ve asked Mrs. Schieffer the “worry question” before. She said that she does worry, but that she doesn’t dwell on the risks. Otherwise, it might worry her more. She knows that Debbie is fiercely independent and truly capable of doing amazing things. I’ve known Debbie’s mother for 24 years and she is also a tough cookie. She has spectated and crewed several times, so she has seen Debbie in rough shape.
She isn’t a runner herself, so it is difficult for her to comprehend how hard these races are. Unless you have run or hiked 50, 100, 200, or more miles across mountains in wicked conditions, you can only guess what it feels like. Other than Debbie’s parents, I probably know her best. I also have the perspective of someone who has done many adventures with her.
I still wanted her mom to explain it to me. I wanted to know if there was something in Debbie’s DNA or some experience in her childhood that sparked this desire and ability to dig so deep. Mrs. Schieffer said of Debbie, “She was a determined girl. She has the mindset that it takes. She pushes through pain like Paul (her father).”
She went on to say, “He has always done very physical work. Around the house, Debbie did too. She was always outside. Her superpower is her toughness. Also, she was spunky. She has two brothers (Paul and Tommy) and that probably played a role.”
When I sat down with Debbie last week after she returned home, I asked, “Why did you want to do the Dragon’s Back Race?”
She said that she always wanted to do a multi-day stage race. Doing research a few years ago, she learned about this one. When we were at Mt. Tammany 10 in 2022, race director Alex Papadopoulos mentioned it, and it intrigued her. She had been talking about running a stage race for a long time. She thought it would be fun to challenge herself in an event like this in a different country.
She told me, “I like to do hard things and go to places I’ve never been. This race checked all those boxes.” She said the multi-day desert races like Marathon des Sables were an option, but ultimately, she chose this one because the terrain looked interesting.
“Being in Wales intrigued me. It was not extreme regarding heat or elevation. Wales is on the same latitude and tends to have weather like New England. It wasn’t that hard to get there. It was a place I was somewhat familiar with,” she said.
First run in 1992, Dragon’s Back had a 20-year hiatus before returning in 2012. It started out small but has become quite a production, especially in the last few years. It has been held six times since 2012 including last year, this year, and it is planned again for 2024. I’ve never seen a race hyped more than this one. The race organizers understand marketing and they leverage that strength with excellent video, photo, and digital promotion.
The six-day 232-mile (380km) course with 57,087 feet (17,400m) of vertical gain features the crazy rugged terrain between Conwy and Cardiff. These are the distances and amount of climbing assuming you make no wrong turns and follow the recommended route. The organizers make it a point to say that “this is not a trail race.” They refer to it as a “mountain race.” There are very few defined trails. You must navigate on your own as there are no markings. The recommended route, which on the map is highlighted in yellow. Each runner used a combination of GPS watch/device, the Avenza map on a smartphone, and regular old paper maps.
There are sections called mandatory routes and they are highlighted in orange. These are required because of private property requirements or safety reasons. Through the course of the day, you must hit checkpoints in the order that they are numbered. The recommended route is typically the most sensible way to go. To register at a checkpoint, you had to get within a foot of the orienteering flag that housed a transponder which would connect with the GPS device fastened to your pack.
Debbie did a lot of research before registering. She said the information about the race was very thorough. Several times, she contacted the organizers directly via live chat. They responded promptly. She didn’t sign up until after doing a Zoom call with Alex to learn more about his experience when he finished the race in 2021. She contemplated it all winter and finally signed up in March. She said that she held off for a while because she was worried about what I would think. It wasn’t an ideal time of year to be away from the family and from work. She is the Bolton Center Middle School Cross Country coach, and our kids are students at Bolton High School. Everything was kicking off the last week of August and first week of September, right when she had to travel to Wales, but she believed it would work just fine.
Her build-up to Dragon’s Back Race didn’t go as planned, but it in the end it worked out. The original plan included training for and then doing the Massanutten Mountain Trails 100. She expected to recover from Massanutten and then carry that fitness through the summer with a couple of longer back-to-back training runs.
What she didn’t anticipate was an ankle injury suffered in late April that persisted through May. Massanutten was May 20th. She had to quit at 38 miles because she couldn’t put any weight on her leg. I remember her hobbling into an aid station and realizing there was no way she could continue. She didn’t run for two weeks but she rode her bike, walked, and got some therapeutic massage on the troublesome ankle. She also used a muscle stimulator, stretched, and did self-massage. She kept a positive attitude, but I was worried and wanted her to pull out of Dragon’s Back. I encouraged her to ask about a deferral, but she was confident that this wasn’t a chronic injury and was something she could overcome.
She said, “I was able to get enough miles in during the summer and I did several FKT’s on Ascutney, which helped me gain confidence.”
Some of those miles came in the form of cross training. She made a few White Mountain hiking and trail running trips. She did one trip with Shepard and one trip with Dahlia; they climbed several 4,000 footers during those adventures. She commuted to work by bicycle at least once a week. She also did nine of the 10 Winding Trails Summer Tri Series events. Winding Trails is an off-road sprint triathlon that combines swimming, mountain biking, and trail running. This gave her some good intensity training.
Mt. Ascutney in Windsor, Vermont has become her favorite training grounds. The 3,144-foot mountain is technical and rocky. It has steep climbs like those that she faced in Wales. In early August, I joined her on the second of her big training runs. She went back a few weeks later and did an even tougher workout, setting the Ascutney All 5 Trails Up & Down Fastest Known Time (FKT). This took her 10.5 hours, which was about the time she would be on her feet for each of the six stages at the Dragon’s Back Race.
Debbie said, “The last training run two and half weeks out was 13,000 feet of elevation gain in 30 miles on rough terrain and in foul weather. The ankle felt fine and the effort gave me a high sense of confidence.”
In the end, she said that she relied on her long, strong, and deep base from 24 years of ultrarunning. Of Dragon’s Back, she said, “This type of race has to do a lot more with mental strength and body care.”
She considered the logistics and getting all the right gear was as big a challenge as the training. “It was worrisome because there were things I didn’t understand,” she said. For example, they required a “tick removing kit.”
She said, “We live in the state where Lyme Disease was invented and we don’t own a tick removing kit. We have one now.”
Other required items included a special blister kit, and specific waterproof bags. She was worried about an ULTRA TRAIL Mt. FUJI type situation where she could get disqualified for missing a key piece of gear. When she did that race, the organizers were brutally strict and forced many of the top runners to stop when they failed gear checks mid-race. She was also worried about traveling to Conwy, failing pre-race inspection, and having to go out and find what she needed. She wanted to make sure she had everything so there wasn’t this feeling of anxiety the day. Some of the item names were confusing because they are called something different in the United States. She went through the list multiple times, placed orders at REI, visited CVS, and arranged Amazon deliveries. Alex was also helpful while she was preparing for the trip. She checked in with him several times.
She said, “I was emotional at departure. I was going to be away from everyone and that was hard, but it is good to go and do things that you want to achieve and do them on your own. It was hard to leave the comfort of the daily routine of being a mom and being a spouse.”
Traveling to the race venue was another part of the adventure. After I dropped her off at Bradley International Airport, she flew Aer Lingus direct do Dublin. From there she took a taxi to the port where she boarded a ferry. The boat ride took 4.5 hours as she crossed the Irish Sea to Holy Head in Wales. She took a shuttle bus from the ferry to the train station. She took a train to a town near Conwy. The final leg of the trip was a short taxi ride to the Airbnb that she rented for the two nights before the race start. She arrived early afternoon on the Saturday prior to the race, which started on Monday.
She said there were about 330 starters including about 65 women. Only 87 of them, including 18 women, finished the full course. The runners were housed in about 40 tents with eight people per tent. Women could choose to be in a co-ed tent and or an all female tent. Debbie’s tent was #9. Every runner was required to have identical dry bags/duffels sourced through the organizers. The 59-liter big bag had a 33-pound weight limit, and the smaller drop bag had a 5.5 pound weight limit. There were no straps, only a handle, so these were a pain to carry.
Each day, you would check in your bags before the start. The big bag would be waiting for you in your tent. The small bag would be taken to one of the two Support Stations on the course, and then after you accessed it, it would be transported to the finish line. The small bag would have your food for the day, extra socks, spare shoes, and any other gear that you might want while on the course. Debbie said that each night, when you collected your bag, a staff member would walk you to your tent like a concierge.
The runners were predominantly from the United Kingdom. There were some foreigners, including 15 Americans. Alyssa Clark and Debbie were the only two Americans to finish the full course. Alyssa had a fantastic race, finishing second female and seventh overall.
For the first time in its history, the race organizers created a shorter event called the Hatchling. Everyone started the full course, but rather than being forced to drop out with a DNF, anyone who missed an intermediate time cut, or the end-of-day time cut, would automatically be given the option to start the next day and do a shortened version of the race. Hatchling runners weren’t in the standings for a “Dragon.” Hatchling runners were given the option to do the first half or the second half of each stage. They could either run to the Support Station and then get shuttled to the finish, or get shuttled to the Support Station and run to the finish.
Debbie got a lot of questions from the locals. “You came over just for this?” they would ask. She would reply, “Have you seen the marketing? How could you not hear about it?”
She thinks there is a huge disadvantage if you don’t live in Wales or spend time on the course. Most of the runners she met had been on the course before. They did “recces” or reconnaissance runs. She noted that there are many shortcuts you can make and are allowed to take, but she didn’t know any of these. She soon realized that without the insider knowledge and with the strong competition, just finishing all the days would be her focus. Her biggest worry was navigation. The course is not flagged, but it ended up being just fine. I think one of her strengths is being able to show up at a race without specific course preparation and still find a way to get it done. When she finished Hardrock Endurance Run in 2017, she had never set foot on the course, but she wasn’t intimidated.
It turned out that we had better information at home. Her days were full and there was little time for her to track her own progress. Her 100% focus was on her running and recovery. She said, “You have no idea what is going on around you especially because everyone starts at separate times.” All runners started between 6:00 A.M and 9:00 A.M. but the later you start, the less time you had on the course. For those of us at home, we had access to the wonderful Dragon’s Back Race website and social media channels.
“Each day you come in to the finish, your focus is to get washed up and changed up,” said Debbie. Most evenings that would involve going to a water source like a brook, stream, or river. Each day the campsite had one of these. They had trough sinks to wash your dishes and fill your bottles, but you were not supposed to wash your bodies in them. She said she would wash her face and hands but went to the stream to rinse her full body.
Before 6:00 P.M. they served “chips” or French Fries as we call them in the USA. Once back at her tent following each day’s finish, she would set up her bedding (she brought a sleeping pad and a sleeping bag) wash up, and change into her evening clothes. Then she would get some dinner. While eating, she would collect her Dragon Mail. The organizers printed out comments and messages that were posted on each runner’s discussion board. These comments were visible to the public and Debbie found them to be motivational. She looked forward to getting her Dragon Mail at the end of the day.
Once dinner was finished, you had to wash your own dishes and utensils, which you provided. The race had strong sustainable principles that it adhered too and is a member of 1% for the Planet. Note: our family business, HORST Engineering, is also a member. Then you needed to get your pack ready for next day. This involved filling your hydration vest with water, food, and making sure your required gear was still packed. Debbie also had to charge her GPS watch and iPhone, which were both mandatory items. The organizers provided charging stations to help with this task, but she also brought a couple of Anker battery packs.
Most evenings, she would try to be a little social, but she found it hard. She would have liked to have gotten to know more people, but by the time you completed all your evening tasks, it was time for bed. Lots of people knew each other already. She did make a few friends, including one volunteer by the name of Collette. She said that the volunteers were awesome. Many of them were helping out in exchange for access and discounts towards a future edition of the race. Volunteers have a two-year window to register. Helping was another way of scouting/preparing for the event. Volunteers played different roles including cook staff, tent assemblers, equipment break down, Support Station helpers, and information table aids.
Photo courtesy of the Dragon’s Back Race
Debbie said that during the day there was only a small number of people that she ran with because they had the same pace. She recounted a guy named Will because he was easy to identify with his red dragon mohawk haircut. She mainly socialized with the people in her tent, but even that not much because they all went to sleep as soon as they could, which was by 9:00 P.M. on most nights.
In addition to her UltrAspire Zygos 4.0 hydration vest, she brought several other key pieces of gear. She used two pairs of running shoes. One pair of Altra Olympus 4.0 shoes and one pair of Olympus 5.0 shoes. She used Black Diamond Distance Z Trekking Poles. Having sunglasses and a hat was important because the Welsh mountains have no trees. Runners were exposed to the record heat and humidity.
She brought six different kits for each day. It was extremely important to have a fresh sports bra, shorts, shirt, and socks, which she also changed a few times at Support Stations.
It was 90 degrees Fahrenheit in the valleys and the late summer sun was baking hot. She said there was only a slight breeze on a few occasions and it was fantastic. It never rained, but one night there were some sprinkles. She said it was so warm that it didn’t even get you wet. For this reason, the organizers extended a special rule starting on Day 2 where runners were allowed to stop, rest, and cool off without the time (maximum 30 minutes) affecting their results. If you review the results, you will see a “bonus” adjustment. This is the actual time that the runner paused at the Support Station. This meant that the end of day cutoff was shifted to 10:30 P.M. (from 10:00 P.M) on Days 2, 3, and 4. On Day’s 5 and 6, they allowed two of these 30 minute pauses and the cutoff was pushed to 11:00 P.M.
Debbie didn’t want us to be fixated on her times and placings. She said not to worry. She was 100% focused on finishing and it didn’t matter to her if she was 9th or 10th woman or 2nd or 3rd in her age group. So many people had to drop out that she didn’t want to risk not finishing over going for a better result.
She repeated, “Finishing is what counts.”
One adventure compares with Dragon’s Back more than others. In 2020, Debbie and I did the entire New England Trail (NET) end-to-end with a bonus section from Monadnock. Debbie says this was different from what she just did in Wales. She considered the NET to be harder because of the sleep deprivation and the fact that we were carrying a lot more weight. We had to take care of ourselves, whereas at Dragon’s Back, she had a lot of support from the race organizes and volunteers.
She said it was nice to be catered to. All you had to do was worry about the running and getting from one point to the next. When recounting the race, she kept referring back to the trails. She said they were “hardly trails” and that the Welsh don’t maintain their tracks like we do in the USA. She said most were sheep paths. Many sections were overgrown with ferns, dotted with tufts of grass, and there were many rocks. She said the stone walls in Wales were stunning and a real nice part of the landscape.
She said that the food served at night was very good. They had amazing vegan and vegetarian meals (no meat was served at all). In addition to the chips, options included pasta with lentil sauce, salad, cole slaw, rice and korma, and soup. A different dessert was served each night.
Breakfast was baked beans, hash browns, tofu scramble, a waffle or roll, oatmeal, and fruit. There was a tent specifically for tea and it was available in the morning and in the evening.
Each runner had to bring food that they consumed during the day. She did shopping in advance and brought everything with her on the trip. This included Go Macro Bars, Pro Bars, Brami Beans, soy jerky, UnTapped maple syrup, and fruit gummies. On a few occasions when passing through a town, she bought potato chips and lemonade. She wishes that she brought more savory foods. Because of her travel logistics and the limit on what she could carry, she had fewer options to prepare her day food compared with the local runners.
She was well under the max weight. Every morning, they had a gear check and asked you to produce three things from your pack, such as waterproof pants, gloves, and a headlight. Only after you passed gear check would you be able hand in your drop bag and evening bag.
Day One | Monday 04 September 2023 | Conwy Castle to Nant Gwynant | 30.5 miles (49km) | 12,467 feet (3,800m)
“After the first day, I realized, I’m not racing this race,” said Debbie.
A mass start at the Conwy Castle was at 6:00 A.M. You had to run through the gift shop on your way out of the castle. Then the runners ran along the castle walls that circle the town. They did a neutral loop around the perimeter, then ran on to a town road, and then headed out into the mountains. The runners’ official time didn’t start until after they completed the castle walls loop.
There were lots of hills and fields. It went up a lot. There were amazing stone walls and she saw her first of many sheep on the course. She cut her finger on some barbed wire. There was a lot of fencing. Any time the runners passed through agricultural fields, there were many gates and stiles. The gates had to be opened and closed. The stiles were ladders that helped you cross different types of fences. She said there were hundreds of these over the course of the race.
There was only one Support Point and that was where her drop bag was located. The rest of the days had two Support Points, typically halfway and three quarters of the way. Your drop bag would be at one of the two points. The organizers decided which one.
She felt good and made it to the Support Point at her target time. After that, the race started getting really strung out. She made the first of her many wrong turns. This was a big part of the race. The section she tackled in the afternoon required a lot of hand over hand climbing. She said there was a “knife edge” like Katahdin, but ten times longer. She was surprised that it was that dangerous. It was very slow going because you had to pick your way. There were sheer drop offs on both sides. One side was worse than the other, but the drop off was hundreds of feet.
Photo courtesy of the Dragon’s Back Race
The runners hit a massive boulder field that was hard to navigate. They climbed Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales. Like Mt. Washington, a cog railway goes to the top. She went into the restaurant at the top and bought a soda. At first, she almost bought a beer by mistake. It was labeled Snowdonia Ale. Thankfully she inquired what it tasted like before buying it.
That afternoon, she was all alone for a couple of hours. The descent to the finish was steep and painful on the quads. She bumped into another runner who was very helpful. There was no path and he helped her find the finish. She arrived just before 6:00 P.M., washed up in the river, had a nice dinner, and was in bed by 9:00 P.M.
Finish time: 11 hours, 55 minutes
Day Two | Tuesday 05 September 2023 | Nant Gwynant to Dolgellau | 36.5 miles (59km) | 11,155 feet 3,400m)
It got even hotter on day two. She stopped at a lot of stream and river crossings. She would soak her bandana in the water and put it on her neck. The terrain had more grassy hills than day one, but it was so steep that in some areas, it made more sense to sit on your butt and slide down. That took a lot of pressure off the quads. It was very windy and the runners were getting blown around.
She said she fell in a hole. The ground gave way. The guy behind me was like, “Whoa!” It was up to her knees. Thankfully she didn’t get hurt. She remembers going by a lot of old stone farmhouses. There were a lot of bogs. She fell in one up to her waist and had to climb out. Despite it being hot and dry weather, she said her shoes were wet most of the week. The grassy and boggy areas, especially in the first few days, were unavoidable.
The runners also went through a forest that was beautiful, lush, mossy and green. There were some beautiful mountain lakes. The running was very challenging. The fields were lumpy and full of tufted grass. She didn’t take as many photos that day. She said her stomach was a bit off. Thankfully, this is the only day with gastrointestinal issues.
Finish time: 12 hours, 59 minutes
Day Three | Wednesday 06 September 2023 | Dolgellau to Ceredigion | 43.5 miles (70km) | 11,155 feet (3,400m)
She had a good night of sleep. There were a lot of dirt roads, especially towards the end. It was really hot. She dunked in water whenever the opportunity presented itself. She also picked and ate a lot of wild blackberries.
She was all alone toward the end of the day. She made a bad error after getting a bad GPS reading. With less than two miles to go, she went down a steep slope, which turned out to be the wrong way. This was frustrating because she was ready to be done. She had to climb back up.
After she finished, she went to the river and dunked completely. Others said it was the coldest one on the entire course. She knew I would be really proud of her because she can’t stand cold water and rarely goes in above her ankles.
Finish time: 13 hours, 13 minutes
Day Four | Thursday 07 September 2023 | Through the Elan Valley | 43 miles (69km) | 7,546 feet (2,300m)
Relative to the distance, there was a bit less climbing on this day. There was a big climb to start, but then they ran through a pine forest. The hillsides were covered in windmills and the footing was very poor. It was very boggy. There were also several sections of long paved roads.
She felt OK, but it was tiring. It was hot again, but she was getting used to it and it wasn’t overwhelming. Like most days, she was around people for the first half of the day. In the afternoon, things got strung out. Thankfully she connected with an another runner who helped her navigate the last portion of the course. He had previously dropped down to the Hatchling.
In terms of other challenges faced, unfortunately, her menstrual cycle hit at the wrong time. This challenge is hardly a new experience for her given how much running and racing she has done, but it is never good when you have an “A race” and get your period at the same time. This week, it started on Day 1, so she was pre-menstrual during her travel. I’m sure this added to the pre-race emotions. By Day 4, her cycle had run its course. In the days leading up to the start, she worked to keep her immune system boosted because history said that her system was vulnerable at this low point.
On the good news front, her only stomach issues were on Day 2; her feet held up very well, and only started to hurt during Stage 4. Her only blisters developed on this day and they weren’t debilitating. She said she saw other runners getting treatment for major foot problems.
Throughout the week, Debbie maintained her health. By the end of this stage, her pee was very dark. She was a little worried about her hydration. Despite these challenges, she focused on her drinking more and was able to finish strongly.
Finish time: 11 hours, 46 minutes
Day Five | Friday 08 September 2023 | Into the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park | 43.5 miles (70km) | 10,499 feet (3,200m)
This was the first day that Debbie finished in the dark. The distanced ended up being more like 45 miles with more than 11,000 feet of vertical gain. This was the penultimate stage and it was a hard one. It took her more than 13 hours.
There was only a little road and it was all front loaded. The runners went through a town and then once they got on the other side, it was mostly off-road and remote. It was lots of grassy hill climbs and steep descents. There was a lot less water on the course, so when you crossed a stream, you stopped to soak. The views were majestic. Given that blisters had developed the day before, she worked extra hard to keep her feet dry during this long stage. She also used Compeed to cover the wounds.
She stopped to buy a Coca-Cola from a random woman who set up a table on the course. Debbie first thought that she was giving it for free, but it turned out she was selling them to the runners.
Towards the tail end of the stage, she summited Pen y Fan, the highest point in the national park. It was 2,907 feet at the top with amazing views. Debbie learned that this is where a lot of Welsh folks take their Tinder photos. It is notorious for bad weather, but on this day it was very good. It was getting towards evening and she had an amazing sunset.
This was a well-maintained path because it gets a lot of volunteer support. After the summit, the runners had a lot of ridge running over shorter peaks before descending to the final camp. She said she felt great and passed a bunch of people. This is the only time she needed her headlamp at night. There were 16 checkpoints and it wasn’t until the last one that she needed her light. The final section was on a sloppy wet trail along a river and then a little bit of road to the finish.
It may have been the latest finish, but it was the only day that she felt energized at the finish. She skipped washing in the river and just wiped down before having some dinner and going to bed for the final time.
Finish time: 13hours, 32 minutes
Day Six | Saturday 09 September 2023 |To Cardiff Castle | 39 miles (63km) | 4,265 feet (1,300m)
Debbie started this day a bit fatigued because she ran so hard at the end of the 5th stage. She wanted to relish the last day, so she went out conservatively. The route was a lot of farm paths. She saw a lot of sheep and horses and there was a lot less climbing. The terrain was grassy.
They ran through an old mining town on a bike path where the navigation was tricky. She stopped at a co-op which was very popular. I remembered seeing a video of the runners with shopping baskets in their hands.
She bought an iced tea and a bag of chips. It was on the steep climb following her shopping spree that she “butt dialed” me around 6:00 A.M. eastern time. I recall that she was in good spirits as it was the last day. I had been exchanging text messages with our friend Laura Becker who was also up very early with her baby, Liam. She had previously sent Debbie a motivational video of Liam ringing a cowbell. Liam’s Dad, who works second shift, was awakened buy the ruckus and said, “What the hell are you doing?!”
The final Support Point was at a pub on the outskirts of Cardiff. They ran by a castle (not the finish castle) where there was a wedding. The last section of the course leading to Cardiff Castle was through the city on a series of roads and paths. It was tricky to navigate, but she was with other runners and they helped each other out.
Photo courtesy of the Dragon’s Back Race
She pushed hard to the finish. She was mixing running and walking, but thought she would have to walk the final few miles.
She said, “I knew my kids were running a 5K today (their first XC race of the season) and I told myself that if they can run three miles, then I can run one more mile. So, I turned off the pain receptors and decided to run it in.”
You couldn’t see the finish and there were no signs, so she asked people that she passed. She thought to herself, “Oh my goodness, this is actually going to happen. It has been so hard.”
She said, “For the last half of the day, I was getting those feelings. This was something special.”
Photo courtesy of the Dragon’s Back Race
She said, “The emotions really started to bubble up in the last mile. I was getting there and I was finishing strong. When I saw the castle, I started tearing up. The overwhelmingness of the whole event and knowing that everyone was cheering for me back home (note that she started crying as she was telling me this!) got me choked up.”
She said, “Then you turn into the castle and run along cobblestones to the finish. There were many people lining the finish shoot. She slapped a whole bunch of kids’ hands.”
I was watching this on the live stream (no audio) from my office at work on Saturday morning. I grabbed my iPhone and recorded the moment by aiming the phone at my computer screen. Pearl Jam Radio was playing in the background. I gasped when she crossed the line. It was emotional for me too. You can’t hear the audio in the video because I had to strip it off. YouTube rejected my upload because of copyright infringement. So, all you see is the beautiful moment when she crosses the line. Use your imagine to hear the crowd applause, Pearl Jam, and my gasp.
Finish time: 10 hours, 00 minutes
She waived to the camera and then was gone, but shortly thereafter, she phoned me and we did a FaceTime video call. She was with Alex who was waiting to cheer her on and give her a hug. She carried his American Flag the final day. It was pinned to the back of her hydration vest. Alyssa was also there and I got to talk to Alex and meet Alyssa.
Cumulative finish time: 73 hours, 28 minutes
Post-Race
She hung out for about three hours. She got some chips and then dinner was served around 6:00 P.M. She didn’t bother changing up. Alex offered for her to stay at his Airbnb. The awards were at 7:30 P.M. and each runner got called up. She shook hands with the Race Director, Shane Ohly, and got her finishers trophy.
She saw a runner friend who was there with his mother. On Day 2, Debbie found a pair of sunglasses on the trail. She ran with them until she found the owner, checking with many runners along the way. Finally, a runner named James said they were his. He was ecstatic that she found them and so thankful because the sun was brutal. At the closing ceremony, James’ mom said, “So you’re the sunglasses lady. I heard you are here alone. I’ll be your Momma,” and she gave her a big hug.
Travel Back
Early on Sunday, she took a 5:45 A.M. Uber to Heathrow and picked the wrong terminal. She had to run a long way with her bags on her shoulder (straps would have been nice) and take a train to get to the right terminal and gate. She first flew to Dublin and then took a flight to Hartford. After a delay, I picked her up around 5:30 P.M. eastern time at Bradley International Airport. Dahlia joined me. We had already picked up vegan ice cream sandwiches and chocolate at Divine Treasures (stashing them in a cooler), and dinner from Simply Thai. She was famished. Her bags were stuffed with some very stinky running gear but the laundry could wait. We reunited with Shepard and had a family dinner at home. Despite the jet lag, she was energized.
Before she left Wales, people were astonished that she was going to head home right after the race. Most people take a few days to hang out and recuperate. She told them “I want to get back to my family.”
While Debbie is in Wales for the Dragon’s Back Race, the kids (Shepard and Dahlia) and I made a short excursion to the White Mountains of New Hampshire. We were fortunate to be hosted at Camp Dannis in Dalton by friends Sandy and Jim.
The hiking highlight of the trip was the Flume/Liberty Loop that the three of us did on Sunday. We were joined by Larisa, Heather, and Dylan. The Flume Slide Trail was a highlight. It is as steep as it gets in the White Mountains. This one is not for the faint of heart and it is a lot easier to ascend than descend. Dylan is an amazing dog who has many New Hampshire 4,000 footers on his palmares. Flume and Liberty are two more for the list.
Shepard and Dahlia are also working on their list. It’s not as easy when you live in Connecticut, but I think they are at 31 and 25 summits respectively. There are 48 in New Hampshire. They have also done a few in Vermont (5 total) and Maine (14 total). There are 67 mountains on the official New England 4,000 footer list. Debbie and I completed our list many years ago after many years of travels to northern New England.
The cycling highlight of the weekend came in two parts. The first was the Saturday evening dirt road ride with Shepard and Jim. The second was the Monday morning Connecticut River Valley road ride with Shepard and Jim. We had a blast!
The eating highlight of the weekend was Sandy’s vegan chocolate cake which I chose to have for breakfast…three days in a row.
We will be busy with XC season for the next few months, but maybe we can get back to the mountains at some point this fall.
UTMB Mont-Blanc is happening this week. The 2023 edition marks 20 years since the race’s founding. In August 2007, Debbie attempted this event as her first 100+ mile trail race. UTMB was a daunting choice in an unforgiving environment at a wild time in our lives. What time in our lives hasn’t been wild?
That particular time felt wilder than normal, at least by mid-2000’s standards. We had a one-year old baby (Shepard is now 17 and faster than both of us) and Debbie was making a comeback to racing after a year of pregnancy. We went on to have a second child in 2009 (Dahlia) but in 2007, we had our hands full with our first. In 2007 she had many trail races on her palmares including ultras at the 50K and 50 mile distances, but she was a 100-miler rookie. We made the August trip to Chamonix so that she could give that distance a go.
Debbie’s attempt was 16 years ago, and it was the early days for a race that was already the biggest ultra in the world. Since then, it has only gotten bigger. Now with its investment by and partnership with IRONMAN, the production is gigantic. Not many Americans had run the event prior to 2007, and she was part of a loose contingent of runners form the USA who were trying it for the first time.
My original blog post was brief and didn’t cover all of the details. Over the years, this story has been one that Debbie would rather forget. It’s been mentioned here and there, but largely ignored. My photography wasn’t great, and I literally had my hands full with Shepard, so after all of these years, I chose to revisit the story and fill in some of the gaps by piecing together other correspondence related to the race. I started this post in 2021 on the 14th anniversary of our trip, but didn’t finish it until today.
A past episode of the CULTRA Trail Running Podcast featured our friend and fellow New England trail runner Ben Nephew. He was speaking about how some of his runner friends had pushed (physically and mentally) themselves past the point of reason, thereby risking their health, and his example was Debbie’s race at the 2007 UTMB. When I heard the interview, that got me thinking about the race again. I knew that I had some physical files with the original documents and items from our trip, but I had to locate them.
The file was simply labeled “Italy Matter.”
Ben mentioned some of the more interesting parts of the story, and was spot-on with his facts. Podcast host Art Byram indicated that he hadn’t heard the story, or at least was unaware of the details. Ben told Art that he should talk to me for the full story. I’ve talked to Art many times and I guess UTMB never came up. So, I figured it was time to explain in more detail and share more of the story with the ultra community, which has exploded in growth since 2007.
Debbie wasn’t the only runner to DNF on the fabled loop that circumnavigates Mont Blanc in a counter-clockwise direction. I recall that Scott Jurek, Karl Meltzer, Hal Koerner and several other American runners were also DNF’s in the 2007 attempt. One notable finisher with a standout performance was Nikki Kimball, who won the race, which was during an era of dominance for her. She wasn’t the first American standout at UTMB. Krissy Moehl won the inaugural edition in 2003 and was one of the pioneering American trail runners to break through on the international scene. Krissy also achieved a triple crown of sorts by running and finishing the Western States Endurance Run, the Hardrock Endurance Run, and UTMB all in one summer. This year, Courtney Dauwalter has an opportunity to equal that feat and take it to the next level by winning, and possibly setting course records, in each event. There is a story about Courtney and UTMB in yesterday’s edition of the New York Times.
In 2007, after several years of European supremacy, Nikki took back the title for the USA, and finished 19th overall. She was an absolute machine, and it was fun to be part of her victory. I had my hands full in more ways than one, but I was able to offer some indirect support to Nikki, and her aunt, who was crewing for her.
Nikki and Debbie traveled together to the 1999 Vermont 50 Mile Ride & Run, which was the first ultra for both of them. That’s also when I met Debbie for the first time. They lived near each other in Vermont, trained together, and got into ultrarunning at the same time. After that edition of the VT50, Debbie’s legs were so shot, that she couldn’t push the clutch on her Honda Civic. Nikki had to drive her home. They did a lot of running together in those early years. It’s cool to look back on our UTMB trip and recall the excitement and fun that we had.
At the 2007 UTMB, the top American male was Topher Gaylord, who finished 24th. Jurek, Meltzer, and Koerner all started faster, but all three quit at one point or another. Meltzer made it the farthest, to La Fouly at 70 miles, but as I recall, he eventually succumbed in frustration. All three were demoralized by the excessive course cutting that the European runners had mastered. Unlike the ethic of trail running in the USA, where the sport is strongly aligned with conservation values, the European runners often descended straight down the hillside, off trail, and cutting the switchbacks. Other rules flaunted by the them included the one that required you to only accept aid in the designated aid stations. Much to the consternation of the Americans, many of the European runners broke that rule repeatedly. After the race, there was a fair amount of discussion about the differing ethics between European and American trail running.
Topher Gaylord was followed by Ryan Cooper in 27th, and Dean Karnazes in 47th. Glenn Mackie was 84th, Peter Bakwin was 86th, Lori Cooper was 189th, and Diane Van Deren was 367th. Other American finishers included David Goldberg, Allen Hadley, Richard Szekeresh, Randall Gaylord, Michelle Schwartz, George Ruiz, and Jack Jewell. That is not a big list. That’s 15 names including Nikki’s. I haven’t tracked down a start list, but there may have been an equal number of American DNF’s including those that I already mentioned. These American runners were pioneers on French soil.
In 2019, Trail Runner Magazine, published “UTMB: By the Numbers.” Here are some great stats from that story. The tagline is “Factoids about what many tout as the Super Bowl of Trail Racing, which attracts 10,000 runners to Chamonix, France.”
6:00 p.m start
171 kilometers (106 miles)
10,000 meters of climbing (32,808 feet)
2,300 runners
46h 30m time cutoff time
The 2007 race included UTMB and CCC, the “half-distance” version that starts in Courmeyer and finishes in Chamonix. There may have been a third race, but I don’t recall. Regardless, there are now races of at least 10 different distances during UTMB week. It’s a massive festival of trail running and more specifically mountain ultrarunning. The 2007 UTMB had 1,437 finishers, so it was already the largest ultrarunning race in the world. Contrast that with the approximate 150 slots at Hardrock Endurance Run or 369 slots at the Western States Endurance Run, and you can see the difference. These races have an entirely different vibe compared with UTMB.
In 2019, 263 American runners were registered for the race. This year it may be more. That’s nearly 10 times the number in 2007, which back then was a bold undertaking. There were many great stories to come out of the 2007 event, including Nikki’s win, but the lesser known dramatic story that I’m most familiar with, is Debbie’s. She has yet to return to avenge her UTMB DNF, and the race has changed a lot in the ensuing years, but after reading, you will understand why she doesn’t love this race.
Until this point in her ultra career, which started in 1999, I had only crewed her at half a dozen races between the 50 kilometer and 55 mile distance. There is a big difference between running 55 miles and running 100+ miles, especially when it comes to UTMB. I don’t think either of us really knew what we were getting into when she registered in December 2006. We were new parents, she was coming back after a year of being pregnant when she didn’t run any ultra distance races. We were in a foreign country – actually three foreign countries (France, Italy, and Switzerland), we were at elevation, and she was tackling a distance that she had not yet attempted. The start/finish in Chamonix is at 3,396 feet and the course reaches an elevation of more than 11,000 feet.
Nowadays, it’s pretty common to hear about athletic women coming back after a childbirth experience and inspiring others to do the same. Stories about courageous mothers breastfeeding their babies at aid stations makes news. 16 years ago, it wasn’t unheard of, but it was less common.
She researched the event in 2006 and prior. Several members of the Montrail Patagonia Team made the trip including Peter Bakwin (who was a founder of Fastest Known Time) and his spouse Stephanie Ehret. Past emails show that we got tremendous support from Kim Gaylord, who lived in France with her husband Topher. He was one of the Americans that had completed the race prior, and they shared a lot of great info that helped us plan our trip. Kim circulated lots of information to the aspiring American contingent.
Kim’s pre-race emails were so positive. The race sounded incredible and it was exactly the kind of adventure we were looking for.
—–Original Message—– From: Kim Gaylord Sent: Monday, December 04, 2006 6:37 AM To: Deborah Livingston Subject: RE: Ultra Tour Du Mount Blanc
Hi Deborah,
Got your note and excited to hear some other Americans are coming to do the UTMB. It is an incredible event. Also, a big event….2000 runners. I am not sure when the registration opens but keep your eye on the web site because it does fill quickly. You can sign up on line with a credit card.
I can send more details later but here are some rough pointers.
Fly to Geneva if you can – only 1 hour from Chamonix. You can take a bus from the airport to Chamonix or rent a car. But once you are in Chamonix you really do not need a car….it is all right there. It is a great town with lots of fun things to do and hang out before the race.
If you take the bus from Geneva you can look at the option for your husband to rent a car for the day of the race or 2 days in Chamonix from the train station.
Arrive a minimum of 5 days before if you can to adjust to time difference and culture.
Support – by car only at aid stations. This is where I have seen Topher:
Les Contamines
Courmayeur – drop bad option
La Fouly
Champex Lac – drop bag option
Trient
Vallorcine
Argientiere
You have to carry a backpack and mandatory items. Check the web site.
Topher uses poles and so do 80 percent of the runners. You might want to try them to help on the hills….up and down. Personal thing for sure.
The start is at night (7 p,m.) so prepare a good light system for the night. Topher uses a head lamp and attaches another light to his pack with this new petzl system. Good light is key for the down hills. If you don’t use poles go with a headlamp and a handheld.
If you know Tim Twietmeyer ask him about the run he has done it twice.
This should be a start. If you have specific questions send them over. And this spring and summer go up and down every hill you can find for training….that is what this race is….up and down. The scenery is amazing and so are the people, and crowds are like nothing you have ever seen. It is the Tour de France of running. Cow bells ring and people chanting and cheering. Live music, fireworks, incredible energy.
And the hills are so long that you don’t run them…it is more of a big power hike up them…So no problems.
You will love it!
Kim
Finishing sounds like a sure bet, right? Well, things didn’t quite go as planned. This was before the days of mobile phone use, online maps, trail apps, GPS tracking, and other modern tools.
Another message from Kim shed more light on the adventure that lay ahead:
—–Original Message—– From: Kim Gaylord Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2007 5:07 PM To: Ryan Cooper; Scott Jurek; Karl Meltzer Jr; Deborah Livingston; Diane Van Deren; Jacob Uhland; RandyG; Nikki Kimball; Keith Burn; Dean Karnazes; MMeza; Garett Graubins Cc: Topher Gaylord Subject: UTMB questions and answers
Ryan,
I will answer your questions as best as I can. I will reply to all since they can be helpful to others and please forward to your friends.
1. How good is the course marking? Is it necessary to carry and consult the road book?
The course is marked VERY well and no problems during the day and night. At night there is reflective tape.
No need for the road book. But it might be nice to carry a small shrunk down version of the profile.
2. Comments / description of the trail surface. Is is smooth? Technical? What?
The trail is good. It follows the Tour du Mt Blanc trail. You could always get a book that describes the trail to just read about it. It is a famous hiking trail that most people do in 7, 8 or 9 days. I think 5,000 people a year hike it. So it is well traveled.
The hills are long. For example the hill from km 34 to km 44 is long. I think it takes the front runners 2 hours. It is a power hike pace. You do not run it. In fact all of the hills are pretty much a fast power hike up. They are just a bit too steep and long to run for a 100 miler. But the downhills are good…all runnable.
3. Weather: What is the coldest conditions they have encountered? What is it typically like? What % of the time is it likely to rain? Any comments there would be helpful.
It is the mountains. It can be hot, it can rain, it can snow, and there can be wind. So bring clothes to be prepared for anything. So the start is at 6:30 pm so it is typically good weather then you go into the night and it gets colder. Typically the nights are can go as low as 20’s F coldest to low 50’s F. James Bonnet had to stop last year thru the night due to hypothermia. Topher has ran in knicker tights that last 2 year thru the night. Most runners are in tights or knickers. Very few wear shorts at night. Shorts are possible but it would be cold on the knees and legs. Topher wears gloves at night and brings a beanie hat for the top of the passes and going down. The early morning is always a cold surprise. From 5am til 7am is still cold and from Courmayeur you are in a valley and it is still cold. So be prepared.
Rain – Yes, it can rain. % I do not know the answer. Ask the higher power. Usually 2 days before the race we will have a better idea.
Snow – it snowed the first year. But no snow on the passes it is all melted out.
Heat – generally not real hot but the hottest part if it does get warm is from La Fouly to Champex Lac. But the end of August is normally not too hot. (70’s max)
4. What is your thought on poles? Garrett indicated that Topher used poles in the Tour, but not in races in the states. Coming from Boulder, we will be able to train on some steep and rocky trails, and we never use poles. Also, I did Wasatch, which had almost as much elevation gain/loss, and don’t feel that they would have helped me. I can’t see carrying them the whole race (which is required), so will likely not take them, but thought I would ask.
The poles are a very personal thing. If you don’t like them don’t use them. If you don’t train with them don’t use them. They change all your systems. No lights in your hands, no water bottles in your hands….so you need to adapt. Of the top 10 finishers I would say 8 used poles and 90% of the total runners use them.
This run from what we have heard is sort of a mix of Wasatch and the Hardrock but with longer hills. Not sure if that helps….what a combo huh? Wasatch/Hardrock. It really is a mtn runners race.
5. Knife and rope? Is this a monk thing (reference Marathon Monks of Mt.Hiei)?
No rope or knife needed unless you need to hang yourself out there. (you laugh now)
Topher always says make it to Courmayeur and thru the night and still have money in the bank. He always thinks this is the first part of the run. Get to Courmayeur and still have good legs.
Hardest hill – Bovine (after Champex Lake) Not long but the most technical and just the timing of when it comes.
Easiest hill – is there such a thing?
Hardest downhill – probably into Courmayeur. It is long and just starts to burn the quads.
Best downhill – from the top of Col Ferret – 98km to 107km – if you are feeling good this is where you can make up some time. Then from km 107 to km 115 is a great running section.
Spectators – Incredible! They are lined up like the Tour de France with cow bells and all! You come into a town and it is so packed they have to move out of the way just like a big mtn climb in bike racing. At some of the aid stations there are live bands and even fireworks at night. It is a real party! You will not be bored. And in Switzerland you get the big swiss horns.
Drop Bags –
You can have a drop bag in Courmayeur and Champex Lac.
Aid Stations-
Water (be careful they drink a lot of sparkling water so make sure to get natural water if that is what you want)
Food – Cheese, meat, Bread, chocolate, soup, pasta, bananas – I will have to find out more details but these are things that I remember for sure
Largest Aid stations with major food buffet – Courmayeur and Champex
Food – bring the gels and bars you like form the US – for example, no GU or Cliff bars in Europe.
Lights – make sure to have a good light system. Everyone runs all night and the cold can drain the batteries faster then you think. So be prepared.
No pacers allowed
Crew – only at the aid stations but most do it solo.
The Euros go out hard and some blow up and some have a good day and it works out. So run within your self.
Not sure when all of you get to Chamonix but maybe on Wednesday we could meet to have a meeting to go over any last minute details. (if you want)
The website has a great LIVE feed to follow the race so once you know your bib number you can pass it on to your family and friends and they can check your progress.
With all of this good info you guys all have to come over here to kick some euro butt and finish! (oh and most importantly have fun!)
When I think of any other helpful tidbits I will pass them along.
However, none of these events would prepare her for the altitude and elevation gain of UTMB. Here is a snapshot of our trip itinerary. Note that I called it a “vacation.”
Chamonix-Mont Blanc Vacation
Day
Date
Location
Lodging
Lodging Cost
Events
Confirm/phone #
Notes
Tuesday
21-Aug
Leave for France
5:55pm departure
Wednesday
22-Aug
Arrive in Geneva
Geneva
7:45am arrival in Geneva
Thursday
23-Aug
Travel to Chamonix
Chamonix
Friday
24-Aug
Race start
Chamonix
Tour Du Mont Blanc
Saturday
25-Aug
Tour Du Mont Blanc
Chamonix
Tour Du Mont Blanc
Sunday
26-Aug
Finish race
Chamonix
Tour Du Mont Blanc
Monday
27-Aug
Chamonix
Tuesday
28-Aug
Chamonix
Wednesday
29-Aug
Chamonix
Thursday
30-Aug
Travel to Geneva
Geneva
Friday
31-Aug
Return to NJ/CT
9:15am departure/12:00pm arrival in Newark
Here is the email I sent some of our close family, friends, and coworkers after our arrival in Chamonix. Our ultrarunning community was much smaller in those days. This was before social media changed how we network with friends who share our passions. Nowadays, people all over the world hear about your travel plans and the minute you set foot at your destination and log a Strava activity, even more people find out. Back then, race registration lists weren’t published, GPS trackers were in their infancy, and most races were done with more stealth.
From: Scott Livingston Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2007 5:46 PM To: ‘Stacie Simko; Barbara Schieffer; Tom Schieffer; Paul David Schieffer; Arthur Roti; Bill Ghormley; Jim Bowtruczyk; Lynn Livingston; Stan Livingston; Steven Livingston Cc: Deborah Livingston Subject: In Chamonix
Hi All,
We are safely in Chamonix. We had a good trip to Newark, flight to Geneava, and bus ride to Chamonix today. We enjoyed walking around Geneva yesterday afternoon after some rest. We will be back there next week. For now, we are focused on the race. It begins tomorrow evening. Race prep is well underway. We have connected with Buddy Teaster and his family. They are pumped to help us.
We saw Nikki Kimball today. She is doing great and should be heavily favored to win the women’s race. She is in another league from Deb, but Deb should do fine.
Just wanted to let you know that we are all well, including Shep.
Regards, Scott
I sent another email to a slightly bigger audience of hidden recipients. Again, this was before social media.
From: Scott Livingston Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 8:31 PM Cc: Deborah Livingston; Scott M. Livingston Subject: Livingston UTMB Info & Updates
Hello Race Fans!
As many of you know, Deb is primed to run the 5th Annual Ultra-Trail Tour de Mont Blanc on Friday. Many of you have asked for more information. That is a dangerous question to ask a guy like me, but I’ll keep it brief.
She has been preparing for the race all year. It is 163km (~100miles) and circumnavigates Mont Blanc, passing counter-clockwise through France, Italy, and Switzerland. The start/finish is in Chamonix, France, where we will be based. We estimate that it will take her 25 to 30 hours, depending on conditions. She will run/hike non-stop with short breaks.
You will be able to check the website for results and info. We will do our best to update as well, probably via the blog: www.scottlivingston.wordpress.com. It all depends on my access to internet connections.
The race is using an SMS system to help track the runners. I have to learn more about this. I don’t know if live updates will be available on the website. We have to find out. However, for a fee, you can get instant messages on your phone. I’ll have a global phone, but I’m worried about getting inundated with messages at $1/each. However, it may be the only way for Shep and me to track Deb (without guessing) as she makes her way from aid station to aid station on the course. We are also going to attempt to use the shuttle system to get around. They are hoping that the crews use the shuttles to cut down on the auto use and subsequent traffic congestion and environmental impact.
Deb is also getting support from our friend Buddy Teaster, who is a fellow ultra runner. He has experience with these long ones and will be at the stations to provide support to Deb. Buddy’s family is spending a year abroad in Spain. You can read about the Teaster’s adventures at Buddy’s blog: http://buddyteaster.blogspot.com/
There will also be a large contingent of US runners, including several of the top men and women. There are 2500 total entrants.
I will attempt to follow up with additional updates once we get to Chamonix.
Regards, Scott
UTMB Email #2 to friends and family:
From: Scott Livingston To: ‘Stacie Simko; Barbara Schieffer; Tom Schieffer; Paul David Schieffer; Arthur Roti; Bill Ghormley; Jim Bowtruczyk; Lynn Livingston; Stan Livingston; Steven Livingston Cc: Deborah Livingston Subject: UTMB Update
Well, the results are in! Thank you all for following Deb’s exploits in the French Alps. Finding a free internet connection has been impossible. The strong Euro and steep rates have kept me from logging on much. Plus, I’ve been busy!
You will have to view the blog for a bigger update and some photos:
-Deb did not finish the race. She stopped at 89km (just past half way–that is still 55 miles and 16,000+ feet of elevation gain) at the Refuge Bonatti.
-We are not quite sure what was bothering her, but the symptoms were headache, vomiting, and extreme lethargy. It was likely a combination of things: lack of acclimatization, altitude, jet lag, a stomach bug, a tough race, etc.
-The Teaster Clan were amazing. Without them, well, I’m not sure what to say. We would have had bigger issues to deal with.
-Since Bonatti was at 2020 meters (over 6000 feet), she was flown off the mountain by a rescue helicopter.
-The problem is that they took her to a hospital in Aoste, Italy, and just left her there with no way of getting in touch with us or getting back to France. Aoste is a long ways away. I will publish a list of “lessons learned” that all future racers can benefit from.
-A long adventure ensued for the crew (Buddy, Shep, and me) as we drove all over Courmayeur, Italy, looking for the hospital. She was able to make a call, but didn’t really know where she was and only one nurse spoke English. At one point, out of frustration, she considered walking back to the aid station in Courmayeur. Thankfully she didn’t because it was like 40 kilometers (25 miles) away! We didn’t know there wasn’t a hospital in Courmayeur.
-Just hours earlier, we were on the other side of the course, in La Fouly, Switzerland…waiting for Deb. We spent a lot of time in the van. Thank goodness for the van! And wow, what switchbacks. Buddy could qualify to drive the Pikes Peak Hill Climb now.
-Before we went to Switzerland, Shep was in bed (staying with Becca, Taylor, and Laura Macie Teaster at the apartment) and Buddy and I were in Courmayeur. We were up all night waiting for her to arrive. She was hurting when she did arrive, but I got her pumped up, fueled up, and in shape to continue….to Bonatti. Thanks Scott. Too bad she didn’t return to Courmayeur both of the times that she turned around. Some force was pulling her towards the finish despite all of that nausea!
-So, I went through the Tunnel Mont Blanc four times in one day. It was ugly, and expensive. The last time, we waited nearly 2 hours with Deb in the back, trying to keep Shep from doing a total meltdown. He was actually, really good throughout the whole race. What a sport! He told us that he likes mountains too.
-Deb recovered a bit and is feeling fine. We hiked 10 kilometers today with 4000 feet of elevation gain. We took a cog railway back down from a glacier. They have big hills here. I carried Shep. Thankfully he is only 20 pounds. However, I also had to carry all of Shep’s gear and food, and multiple cameras….that is like a total of 45 pounds!
-We have come up with a potential solution for making everything right. Deb, Buddy, AND me, are tentatively planning (if we can get in the race) to come back next August and do it together. We would do it at a trekking/hiking pace and just go for the finish. None of this “go fast” stuff. After seeing this beast of a course and seeing Deb suffer (along with 2000 other competitors), we have to conquer this thing. It is karma.
-To all of you who worry about us (especially Mom, Dad, Momma S., and Mr. S), no worries. We haven’t found our limits yet!
I will work on a longer story about this adventure for future publishing.
SL
Debbie recovered from UTMB. She went on to do Vermont 50 and Mountain Masochist in the fall of 2007. Then in 2008, she had a banner year finishing the Six Foot Track Marathon, North Face Bear Mountain 50, Pittsfield Peaks, Jay Mountain Marathon, Pisgah 50K, Vermont 50K, Bimbler’s Bluff, and the Javelina Jundred. At Javelina, she finally got that first 100 under her belt. It was a totally different race from UTMB, on a flattish loop course in the Arizona desert, but it was a smart choice.
The UTMB experience was quite an unhappy one. I wrote this letter to organizers:
September 2007
Dear UTMB Race Organizers,
I wanted to contact you with some feedback regarding the 2007 race. My wife, Deborah, and I returned home to the US last week after a wonderful trip to Chamonix. The focus of our trip was Deborah running the race. Our 1 year old son, Shepard, joined us on the trip, and we had crewing assistance from Buddy Teaster and his family (wife Becca and daughter’s Taylor and Macie).
Deborah did not finish the race and I wanted to relay our experience to the organizers. We learned some valuable lessons and wanted to share them. In our story, there are probably some lessons to be learned to make the race safer and friendlier in future years. Before I recount our experience, I want to thank all of the volunteers. The UTMB was amazing. Both Deborah and I have extensive experience as race directors (trail running and cyclo-cross), so we know what it takes to put on an event. The UTMB is much bigger than any event we have promoted, but keeping athletes safe is a key goal. Topher and Kim Gaylord were very helpful in getting us prepared for the trip.
Deborah stopped at Refuge Bonatti. She was vomiting and very tired. It seems as if she was suffering from a combination of altitude sickness and a stomach virus. She is an experienced ultra-runner, was well trained, and has not had to quit a race of this magnitude before. The UTMB would have been her most significant race finished to date. It is evident that the course (elevation and altitude, plus the night running) were significant challenges. She was suffering when I saw her in Courmayeur at 08:00 She stopped at 13:54 after having only made it to Bonatti. She said that the volunteers at the refuge insisted that she be evacuated rather than continuing on or backtracking. This is reasonable, but she was flown by helicopter with a few other runners to Courmayeur, where the other two runners got out, then she was flown to a regional hospital in Aoste. After seeing her in Courmayeur in the morning, I had returned to Chamonix via the tunnel with Buddy Teaster (we were using his rental van) where we re-connected with his family and my son. Then, we all drove together to La Fouly in Switzerland to meet Deb. Obviously, she never arrived.
Both Buddy Teaster and I subscribed to the SMS service. It was not as reliable as we had hoped, and we supplemented that information with information gained by checking in at the aid stations. We got the SMS saying that she stopped just after we arrived in La Fouly. We checked in with the aid station and they confirmed that she had stopped (they referred to the website database). They told us that she would be taken from Bonatti by ATV to Courmayeur, then by bus to Chamonix. No further information was provided. This is when the worrying began.
The volunteer who spoke the best English (our French is limited) explained that it made more sense for us to return to Chamonix rather than to try to find her in Courmayeur. So, we drove back to Chamonix. I went to the Start/Finish to see if they had more information. They did not and they said that the bus would drop off competitors who abandoned the race, at the Sports Center. I walked over to see if she was waiting for us. It was almost 16:00. Just after I reached the Sports Center, Deborah called me on my global rental mobile phone. It was good to hear from her, though I was surprised to hear that she had been flown by helicopter from Bonatti to the hospital. She said the hospital was in Courmayeur. I was surprised that this information had not been relayed to me or noted on the website, or relayed to the aid stations or Start/Finish information station. She said they had tried to reach me, but couldn’t. The race organization had my US mobile number (my calls were being forwarded), but not my international number. It is still a mystery why they couldn’t track me down. I asked Deb to call me back after I conferred with Buddy Teaster. Since we were using his vehicle, I wanted to confirm that he would drive me back to Italy. She did not call back again until 16:42 after she had received initial treatment.
She said she was OK. She said she was thinking about walking back to the Dolonne Sports Center/Courmayeur Aid Station. I convinced her to wait for us to pick her up. Deborah was calling from the hospital emergency department waiting room. She said she would not be able to call again because it was a big ordeal for her to get the one English speaking nurse to help her place calls. She thought she was in Courmayeur. Buddy drove Shepard and me to Courmayeur. We proceeded to look for the hospital. We stopped at two pharmacies and the trauma center. We were told by several people that there “is no hospital in Courmayeur.” We were told that the nearest hospital was nearly 40 kilometers away in Aoste. Obviously, it was difficult for us to make sense of all this information given our poor French and Italian. We decided the best thing to do was to return to Dolonne and see if they had information. I found the medical technicians and a race volunteer. Her name was Paola. She was extremely helpful and understood my frustration at not having good information about Deborah’s location. Initially, they insisted that she would be returning to Chamonix via bus. I told them that I had spoken with Deborah and that she was in a hospital. They had documentation (handwritten notes) showing that Dossard 2838 had been brought to the hospital in Aoste. I suspected that someone had reversed the digits and that they were referring to Deborah. We confirmed this by checking the website. The athlete wearing dossard 2838 was still on the course. Deb was 2383.
Eventually, one of the Italian medical technicians was able to contact the hospital in Aoste and confirm that Deborah had been admitted there. He arranged a connection to her room and I was able to speak with her again from his mobile phone. I told her that she was in Aoste, not Courmayeur, and that she should wait for us. We would pick her up. Paola gave us her mobile phone number, some good directions, and we drove to Aoste. We picked her up around 19:30. She was discharged and told there were no fees for her the helicopter flight or her treatment. It was “free.” We returned to Chamonix at 22:00.
At times, this whole experience was very disturbing. I was disappointed that no one with the race organization had good information about Deborah’s location. It seems odd that she would be brought to Aoste with no way of returning to Courmayeur or Chamonix. She doesn’t speak Italian or French. What would have happened if I couldn’t find her or she couldn’t call? We are happy that the medical technicians were cautious and provided the transport and testing, but the lack of communication about her whereabouts caused a lot of confusion and unnecessary worrying for us. I was very fortunate that Buddy Teaster had a vehicle. My original plan was to only use the shuttle bus system to get around the course. How would she have returned to Chamonix if I had not picked her up? She was told that she was in Courmayeur, but was in Aoste.
Suggestions
1) Make sure that at registration, emergency contact information is current and accurate.
2) We had good maps, but they could have been better, especially for getting to Aoste. Make sure that competitors and their crews have good maps.
3) There needs to be an improved system for tracking runners who abandon, especially at the more remote aid stations.
4) Despite signing waivers, the race organization should follow up on every runner that receives medical treatment, especially at a hospital.
I am happy to discuss more. I can only give the highlights in this email. This whole experience was very challenging.
We are all recovered and back at home, looking forward to the next ultra marathon, at the Vermont 50 Mile Ride & Run later this month.
We would like to return to the UTMB in August 2008. Buddy, Deborah, and I have committed to running the event together. We plan a slower pace and hope to finish. That way, we prove that all our troubles this year were out of the ordinary.
I would appreciate acknowledgement that this matter has been reviewed and discussed.
Best regards,
Scott Livingston
We never got a response from the UTMB organizers. However, we did get multiple letters and invoices from Azienda USL Valle d’Aosta totaling more than $2,500 based on the exchange rate at the time. This soured our taste for UTMB and Italy. We haven’t paid the bills yet…
I wrote this story for the classic Western Massachusetts Athletic Club (WMAC) Newsletter, which you could only get in print at New England Grand Tree Trail Running Series Races:
An Ultra Year
Sherpa Dad runs a little and crews a lot.
2007 was the year of the “Little Tree.” I only raced the minimum six races and Debbie finished seven. Our Grand Tree volume was down as reflected by the Stonehead standings, but that doesn’t mean we weren’t running (and biking). It was Debbie’s comeback year after giving birth to Shepard, our first child. Last year, she ran throughout her pregnancy and was back on the trails at the Breakneck Trail Race, six weeks after the birth. This year, her plan was to get an early start on the season by racing out West, then get fit with some early Grand Tree races, then launch a campaign of ultra-marathons.
We were fortunate to run some of our favorite Grand Tree races (Northern Nipmuck, Soapstone, 7 Sisters, NipMuck, Greylock, People’s, and Monroe), but missed some really good ones (Northfield, Toby, Savoy, Pisgah, Breakneck, and Hairy Gorilla). We would have liked to run more, but we were lucky to have child care help at six GT races. My mother-in-law, Barbara, was a “super nanny.”
This year marked some firsts for Debbie. Ever since she started trail running, she has mixed in a few ultras annually. This year, she planned to run more, knowing that if we have a second child in the future, it will be even more difficult to travel to races. She ran seven ultras: Way Too Cool (50km), Pittsfield Peaks Ultra Challenge (55mi.), Finger Lakes (50km), Jay Challenge (33mi), Ultra Trail Tour du Mont Blanc (163km), Vermont 50 (50mi.), and Mountain Masochist (50mi.). Shep and I were at all of her races. I also ran at Jay, and Shep was still there, tagging along with friends. At the others, I was “Sherpa Dad,” with Shep on my back or in the jog stroller, camera gear hanging from my neck, and drop bags slung over my shoulders.
Debbie had some really good runs and some OK runs. She had her ups and downs, but in the end, was pleased with the year, considering that most of her training consists of pushing Shep in the jog stroller or pulling him in the bike trailer. I had some adventures of my own, none greater than at the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc. The UTMB was supposed to be Debbie’s first 100 mile length race. She wasn’t able to finish, but the experience will surely help her when she decides to try something of that magnitude again. In the end, we learned some valuable lessons about pre-race trans-continental travel, racing at altitude, crewing at night, traversing three countries, speaking Italian and French, and running a long way over big hills.
I wrote various accounts of our European adventures in my blog, and I even submitted a photo essay to a National Geographic contest. 20 years from now, I’m certain that I will look back at the words that I wrote and photos that I took, and chuckle about the race.
A Wild Crewing Experience
The line of vehicles waiting to enter the Tunnel Mont Blanc snaked down the switchbacks all the way back into Courmayeur, Italy. Twenty six hours in my life had gone by in an instant, and now it seemed like we weren’t moving at all. I was in the back seat of the van, next to our one year old, Shepard, who was dozing in his car seat after a very long day. I was staring out the window as the sun and moon traded places behind the majestic Alps, when cars started to pass us on the left. I thought, what the heck, these Italians have no patience. Then it dawned on me, my crew-mate and driver was asleep. “Buddy, Buddy,” I said. “Wake up! We are losing our spot in line.”
Buddy Teaster pushed down the emergency brake, punched the clutch, and got us moving again, but not until six cars had jumped us, making the hour long wait just a bit more painful. The commotion in the front seat also woke up Debbie. She was wearing the same clothes that she started the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc in, on Friday, more than twenty four hours earlier. However, her legs weren’t as fresh, and her slumped posture showed the stress of attempting to run her first 100 mile race, at altitude, in a foreign country, while still breast feeding our son. An hour later, Buddy, equally exhausted, dropped us off at our rented apartment in Chamonix, France. I carried the baby and Debbie’s gear while she limped her way upstairs towards the shower. I remarked, “This race is tough on the whole family.”
Altitude sickness, nausea, and vomiting conspired to force Debbie to stop at the Refuge Bonatti, after 55 miles of running on punishing terrain. An unplanned helicopter ride and visit to the hospital in Aoste, Italy, triggered a chase that was frantic at times. Debbie was a seasoned ultra runner, but the UTMB had done some damage. Buddy, his wife Becca, daughters Taylor and Laura-Macie, Shepard, and I were in La Fouly, Switzerland, early Saturday afternoon, waiting for Debbie, when we got word that she had dropped out. She was long overdue at the checkpoint. Runners that she had been ahead of hours earlier had passed us by. The long wait had proved our worst fears. The SMS came through on my international phone, “On apprend que le dossard 2383 (Deborah Livingston) s’est arret.” She had abandoned.
I knew that I was more disappointed than she was. I had seen her in Courmayeur, early in the morning, and the look on her face was different from the one I had seen in the past. She was tired and complained of fatigue. Buddy and I had met up at the Dolonne Sports Center in the middle of the night. He was nauseous from the bus ride that he had taken from Saint Gervais, where we split up so that I could return to Chamonix with Becca and the kids. I was stiff from resting on the hard gymnasium floor. After we left Deb in Courmayeur, she considered dropping, but she had continued on. We returned via the tunnel to Chamonix to meet up with Shepard and the girls, and to shop for more food. Our plan was to meet up with Debbie again in La Fouly, and get her fueled before her second night on her feet.
She never made it to Switzerland and she never made it back to France. We had to find her in Italy. The one race/three countries allure of the UTMB wore thin on us as we tried in vain to learn more about her condition and whereabouts. With nearly two thousand runners still scattered across the course, and the normal late August Alpine traffic causing snarls, we suffered through a long afternoon and evening. Under the assumption that Debbie would be taken back to Chamonix by bus, we returned there in search of her. We had no idea that she had been hospitalized. Finally, back in Chamonix, I received a call from her. She said she was still in Italy at a hospital, but was sketchy about the details. Only one nurse spoke English and they were doing tests. I instructed her to sit tight while I figured out what to do. She thought she was in Courmayeur.
The last piece of news she gave me was that she had been admitted and that if we picked her up, they would release her. Buddy, Shepard, and I took the tunnel back to Italy and looked all over Courmayeur for the hospital. Through a series of comical encounters with pharmacists, clerks, and complete strangers, we were able to determine that there was no hospital in Courmayeur. I was freaking out, not having heard from Debbie in hours, but we pulled ourselves together and traced our way back to the aid station at the sports center. In retrospect, we were driving roads in the middle of some amazing scenery, but we weren’t seeing any of it. We were focused on finding Debbie and making sure that she was alright. The year-old was a trooper. He was calmer than Buddy and me. We just kept handing food back to him and we were thankful that we were driving a rental.
Finally, we found a good English speaker at the aid station. The last runner had long since passed through, and the volunteers were packing up. After ten minutes of discussion and several phone calls, they located Debbie at the hospital in Aoste. They gave us directions and we were off again. Thirty minutes later, we found her sitting on the curb outside of the emergency room. I finally relaxed when I hugged her and knew that she was alright. The whole situation was frightening at times, but in the end, everyone was OK. Truthfully, we live for this kind of adventure. It is who we are, but three trips through the Tunnel Mont Blanc in one day were enough for me.
As Debbie showered and washed off the trail grime, many other runners were still making their way by headlight over the mountains of Italy, Switzerland, and France in their quest to circumnavigate the highest peak in Western Europe. At 163 kilometers (100 miles) long, with 8900 meters of elevation gain, the UTMB is one of the most challenging foot races in the world. Those that start it are brave souls and those that finish it are both brave and tough. The race has wonderful volunteers and supporters in three countries line the roads of the towns that the race passes through to cheer the runners on.
Some day, we will tell Shepard about his mother’s attempt to run the 2007 Ultra Trail Tour du Mont Blanc. He will hear how she didn’t finish the race, but ran 55 miles through the night, threw-up uncontrollably, walked up mountains, rode in a helicopter for the first time, spent the afternoon in a foreign hospital hooked up to an IV, and still had a great time. He will hear how his father worried about his wife, drove under Mont Blanc three times, and woke up his friend Buddy when he fell asleep while waiting for the toll. Lastly, Shepard will have his first pair of shoes, which were purchased in Chamonix. Those shoes will have helped him learn to walk and eventually, to run, so that some day, he might be able to return to the Alps and complete the trip around Mont Blanc on his own.
Epilogue
The DNF list for the UTMB included a who’s who of US trail runners. Debbie wasn’t alone. She ran “some other distance” (SOD) along with Scott Jurek, Hal Koerner, Karl Meltzer, Stephanie Ehret, and several others. One runner who finished, and ended up on the top step of the podium, was former Grand Tree winner, Nikki Kimball. Nikki continues to win races at all distances, and has dominated the top trail ultra-marathons in multiple countries.
Scott Livingston—November 2007
As noted, Debbie, Buddy, and I never made it back to UTMB. I guess it’s still on the list. Maybe as predicted, Shepard will run it some day and that will make things right. Debbie has gone on to start 14 other races at the 100 miles (or more) distance and has finished 12 of them including other high elevation mountain races like the Hardrock Endurance Run. She has completed more than 110 ultras, but the 2007 UTMB remains a bad memory. Included in that “Italy Matter” file are the test reports from her day in the hospital. They even gave her a pregnancy test! 16 years later, we can laugh. There is never a guarantee that you will finish a race that you start. The good news is there were many lessons learned at UTMB and they helped her in future races. Those lessons also help her as she coaches other runners prepare for their own big goals. Good luck to everyone running UTMB tonight.
This past weekend, we dropped our son off at Camp Kirkham in Lempster, NH. In recent years, we have combined an adventure with this activity. Camp Kirkham is a gem and he gets to spend time with the other Scouts from Troop 25. The theme for the first week is canoeing. They have an adventure on the Connecticut River. Last month, he spent two weeks at Philmont Scout Ranch, so he is getting a lot of camp time this summer.
Our daughter spent the weekend with my parents so Debbie and I were able to execute one of our “mini-adventures.” We talked about doing something in the White Mountains or Green Mountains, but that would have meant more driving and it was only a one night trip, so we stayed in Vermont’s upper valley, which is our favorite place anyway.
We dropped Shepard off at noon and had lunch with him before leaving him behind. We drove to Mount Ascutney State Park in Windsor, VT and they had two campsites remaining, so we grabbed one and set up our tent. Debbie had planned a big Sunday adventure but she wanted to check out a few tricky trail intersections, so she did some hiking and logistics planning. I brought my bike, so I did a short but intense ride. I took 44 west to Brownsville and did a loop that included Bible Hill Rd., Sheddsville Rd., and Brownsville-Hartland Rd. Then I returned to the state park and climbed the infamous Mount Ascutney toll road. It is 3.7 miles and more than 2,200 feet of vertical gain for an average gradient of more than 12%.
This is about as steep and long as it gets in New England. Of course, the Mount Washington Auto Road is double this distance and gain, but it stands alone for its severity. For a little hill, Ascutney (elevation 3,144) packs a punch! My route ended up being 20 miles. I did it a few years ago with Shepard and I look forward to returning with him again. He is probably much stronger now. Coincidentally, the official bicycle race up the road was held on Saturday morning. I’ve never done the race (though I’ve done Mount Washington six times). We drove to Woodstock for some dinner and then returned to the campsite. It was a lovely evening. We were ready for the main event.
On Sunday morning, we got up and prepared for a long “training day” on Ascutney. Debbie was up here last month. She attempted the Mount Ascutney All Five Trails up & down FKT but stopped one trail short of the total. It was a hot day and she wasn’t feeling great. She still did nearly 30 miles and learned a lot more about the mountain. Yesterday, we opted to do the Mount Ascutney Triple Loop. That involved ascending the mountain three times and descending three times. Our route was up the Future’s Trail, down the Bicentennial Trail, up the Weathersfield Trail, down the Windsor Trail, up the Brownsville Trail, and then down the toll road to the finish.
This clover leaf route had us circumnavigate the mountain. There was a two mile long dirt road/paved road run between Bicentennial and Weathersfield trailheads and then a mile long road run (on 44) between the Windsor and Brownsville trailheads. It was a neat route and now I’m also more knowledgable about the mountain. A few years ago, I did a trip with Troop 25 where we went up Brownsville and down Windsor. That gave me a taste of how technical and rugged the trails are. They are also super-steep. Ascutney’s geology is more like the White Mountains than the Green Mountains. They quarried granite for decades. It’s a rocky mountain.
I wasn’t on my best day yesterday. The weather was perfect (warm and humid with a light breeze higher up on the mountain), but I’ve been nursing a right quadricep/knee thing. It’s tight and that made the descents painful. Debbie was strong so she went ahead on the downhills and my goal was to catch up on the ascents. The plan mostly worked, though we got separated on the last climb up the Brownsville Trail. I didn’t catch her until the top. She actually waited five minutes for me before the traverse to the summit parking lot. We ended up with 24.3 miles and over 8,300 feet of vertical gain. The hard part for me was the 8,300 feet of descent. That pounded me and no more so than the last 3.7 miles down the paved toll road. I did my best to run off the edge of the road in the grass/dirt but sometimes I had no choice but to run on the asphalt which was unforgiving. Mercifully, we finished shortly after 2:00 P.M. and it was over. We squeaked under seven hours of elapsed time but the last 30 minutes were ugly.
We saw a lot of people enjoying the Ascutney trails, which was fantastic. After a short stop for early diner in Hadley, MA, we were home by 5:00 P.M. Debbie and I cherish these adventures. We have a unique appreciation for mutual suffering. I think it bonds us. This should sustain me until we do another. I don’t know when that will be, but it probably won’t be long.
Today was the Nipmuck South Trail Race, the second of three Shenipsit Strider races on the Nipmuck Trail in eastern Connecticut. This trail is one of my favorite Blue-Blazed Hiking Trails, and along with Northern Nipmuck and the NipMuck Trail Marathon, this race makes a trilogy. I hadn’t been on this section of the Nipmuck in several years. Debbie and I did an FKT on the entire 35mile trail back in 2020 at the start of the pandemic. That was a long day.
I wanted a bigger adventure so I rode to and from the race. I used two of Connecticut’s awesome rail trails. I rode the Hop River Trail from home to Willimantic where I picked up the Air Line Trail. From there I worked my way over to Mansfield Hollow State Park via Bassett’s Bridge Rd. I reversed course on the way back. Most of this 21 mile (each way) route is gravel. These are awesome trails.
Photo Credit: Bruce Christensen
I had a really good seven mile trail race which is great, but one issue with my run is that the total distance was about 15.5 miles. So, I was good for almost half of it, and then it got painfully slow on the way back on this out and back route. Regardless, I had fun.
The ride to Mansfield Hollow took about 90 minutes, and even though the route is mostly flat rail trail, my legs were still heavy, especially when I got to the trail race turnaround at Old Turnpike Rd. I was good up until that point, but knew that I would have a hard time holding that pace. I was chasing Aaron Flamino and Laurel Manville for the first half of the race but they gapped me just before the turnaround and from there I faded and gave up a lot of ground. Aaron had a great run. He ended up putting 16 minutes into me in eight miles. Ouch. He was legitimately worried about me when it took forever for me to get to the finish, which is sweet of him!
It sucked to get passed by so many people but it was a gorgeous day and I was just happy to be in the woods. Oh, andI didn’t fall once. I caught my toes a few times on the way back as my legs were dead, but I never hit the deck. One nice thing about an out and back course is that you get to see all the runners at one point or another.
As always, our Shenipsit Striders club mates were awesome volunteers. They were at most of the road crossings and of course, at the well-stock finish line. The only thing I wanted at the finish was an ice cold bottle of water, which is what I got. Half of the bottle went down my throat and the other half went on my head and (salty) neck.
It would have been nice if Debbie could have run, but she is still taking it easy after the Massanutten Mountain Trails 100 was cut short by an ankle injury. She has to work at this so that she can return to technical trail running in the coming months.
While I changed back to my cycling shoes, I got double leg cramps, which hurt like heck. Several people offered to drive me home, but I was committed to the ride. I was able to calm them down enough to get rolling. It was a bit slower on the way back, but I enjoyed the ride and the spin will probably help my recovery. At this point, I’ll have to consider running the marathon in October because it is the race’s 40th anniversary and doing it would complete my 2023 trilogy. I ran the Northern Nipmuck Trail Race back in April. I’ve got time to consider whether or not I ride to the start. At this point, I’m done typing and I’m going to have some (vegan) ice cream.
The Massanutten Mountain Trails 100 Mile Run (MMT 100) has been on Debbie’s running wish list for 20 years. Despite attempting the run for the first time, it will remain on her list of things to complete because she “retired” (at mile 38) before reaching the finish line of this past weekend’s race.
She noted the Virginia Happy Trails Running Club (VHTRC) used the word “retire” and not the usual DNF to describe her predicament. That feels better, but it still doesn’t take the sting out of falling short of a goal. Last week, we were talking about this with our 16-year-old son who is still learning to cope with the negative feelings one can have when falling short of a goal. Debbie told him it isn’t realistic to reach every goal you set. His personal best for the 1600 meter run has been stuck at 4:47 despite trying four or five times to lower it over the last month. Saturday, he had another track meet…and he ran 4:47 again. This is fast, but he wants to go faster. He will learn that you can’t just decide to reach a goal. There is a lot more to it. I’m confident that he will gain the wisdom necessary reach many goals in the future.
In her case, she wasn’t trying to run a fast mile, but rather to run 100 miles for the first time since coming up short at the Hardrock Endurance Run last July. It’s a bummer that she didn’t finish Hardrock or Massanutten. At least in the case of Hardrock, she previously finished it (in 2017). If she intends to finish Massanutten, she will have to try again. This situation is more like her 2014 Tahoe Rim Trail Endurance Run finish when she returned to complete the race which she failed to finish in 2013. 10 years later, maybe the same pattern will repeat and she will return to Massanutten to earn a coveted belt buckle. Debbie has been incredibly resilient and she has always managed her injuries well. This time, the circumstances were different.
Just getting to the start of the MMT 100 has been a journey. The main reason why this was her first attempt after years of desire is because most years, the race conflicts with the Soapstone Mountain Trail Races. This year, it conflicted again, but for the first time since 1999, she chose to miss Soapstone, a race that is as close to her as any other. It was her first ever trail running race, and she went on to be the Race Director for more than 17 years, so there was no option to do MMT 100. Missing a race that you are so closely associated with is a big deal, especially when you had a 23 year streak of being at the start as either a runner, a volunteer, or an RD. The good news is Soapstone is in good hands with our friends from the Shenipsit Striders, and it’s healthy to break these streaks.
The last time a big Livingston Family streak was broken was in 2015 when we missed the Vermont 50 to go to Japan for ULTRA-TRAIL Mt. FUJI. Like Soapstone, we had been there every year since 1999. In the case of the VT50, we missed, but then in 2016, we started a new streak. If Debbie opts to return to the MMT 100, then Soapstone will likely have to wait until 2025.
The irony is that it was physically possible to maintain our Soapstone streak because we drove back to Connecticut in time. However, that required nearly 500 miles of overnight driving in nasty weather. Since we had already made the decision to skip and because we should have still been out on the Virginia trails, it didn’t make sense to force the issue. Instead, we rested and recovered from a 44 hour adventure that included 1,000+ miles of driving, a night in a tent, and a lot of heavy rain.
The reason for Debbie’s “retirement” is a bum ankle. She went into MMT 100 with an injury, which is never a good thing. She has been battling ankle soreness since early April and hasn’t been able to resolve the issue. She said it was feeling better as MMT week approached, but 33 miles into the race at the Elizabeth Furnace Aid Station, it was hurting badly. She sat in a chair and I rubbed her sore calf and ankle, which was swollen. She was frustrated. I had last seen her at Edinburg Gap (mile 12) and she was in good spirits. At Edinburg, she was running strongly and having fun on a beautiful Saturday morning in the Shenandoah Mountains. She said she could feel the ankle, but it was holding up. Of course, 12 miles into a 100 mile run isn’t the time to be overconfident about anything.
Nearly five hours passed between when I saw her at Edinburg Gap and when she arrived at Elizabeth Furnace. I had time to explore the area around Elizabeth Furnace. I had my bicycle, so I rode towards Shawl Gap before heading over to the local airport. Then I rode back in time to rendezvous with her.
Apparently, the first 1/3rd of MMT 100 is the most technical and demanding. It gets slightly easier after that, but then the cumulative effects of every step start to take their toll. After I saw her at Edinburg Gap, she had to traverse a tough section of trail that required a lot of “side-hilling.” This is where the strain on her ankle got worse. By the time she arrived at Elizabeth Furnace, the pain was intense and the feeling in her ankle was like after her last long training run two weeks ago. She had rested the ankle since then, but “rest” in our household still means cycling, hiking, and a little running. She probably did too much running but that is what she does. She runs.
At the aid station, she opted to change socks, tape the ankle, change clothes, fuel up, and attempt a “reset.” Despite her mental fortitude, she struggled to make it five more miles to Shawl Gap Aid Station, and was visibly defeated when she arrived. I walked 1/4 mile up the trail to wait for her and I had to wait a lot longer than planned. Several arriving runners told me that she was going slowly when they passed her. When she arrived, she was limping badly, and favoring her other leg (which took a subsequent beating).
She said she couldn’t run the downhills or the flats, which was not good with 63 miles to go. She had been passed by dozens of other runners which is demoralizing. Other than this ankle problem, she was strong, but she couldn’t demonstrate that. Her stride was off, she had fallen once, and she risked further injury. The obvious decision was to hand over her number and transponder. We talked about the situation for a minute. Then she sat down in a chair, removed the four safety pins holding her number to her shorts, and handed it to me. I carried the items over to the aid station captain, which formally ended her MMT 100 attempt.
We put some ice on her ankle and she chilled in a chair for a few minutes while I gathered her gear. It started to rain a bit as we packed the car for the drive back to the start/finish where our tent was pitched in a field. As soon as we got on the road, it started to pour. The rain came down with serious intensity. It had been in the forecast, but the volume caught us by surprise. For a moment, it felt better to be inside the car rather than out on the trail. Of course, several hundred runners were still out there and they were going to have to battle the elements. There were many strong performances and we cheered for everyone we saw on the trails. This races draws a hearty crowd and they proved their mettle!
Throughout the afternoon, the rain came steadily and increased to downpours at regular intervals. We made the drive back to the Caroline Furnace Lutheran Camp & Retreat Center. I packed up our remaining items, broke down the tent, and got everything to fit in the back of our Subaru Outback, including my bicycle. We found the bath house and rinsed off in the showers before starting the drive home around 4:00 P.M.
We stopped for dinner, and then kept going. We tried to find a hotel on route so that we could spend the night and finish the drive in the morning, but there were no vacancies. We even tried one hotel in person because the website said there were rooms available, but when I inquired in the lobby (it was after 11:00 P.M.), there was nothing to be had. We hit the road again. We pulled over at a rest stop and I closed my eyes for a few hours. When I awoke, we continued and pulled into our driveway around 4:50 A.M. It was an adventure for sure.
The VHTRC is fantastic. Though we didn’t get the full MMT 100 experience, we could tell that it is a beloved even with awesome volunteers. The aid stations that I saw were stocked full of great food options and staffed by smiling people. The race appeared to be organized in top notch fashion, yet it had a nice low key vibe. The people involved in a race (volunteers, runners, crews, families) make a race and that is why MMT 100 is a good one.
Debbie has some healing (and work to do) before running long again. She has several big goals remaining for 2023, so it’s important that she figures out this ankle thing. I know it will make her smile if our son goes and runs a 4:46 mile tomorrow, but she will also support him if he falls short of his own goal.
It’s too bad we didn’t get to experience more of the Massanutten Mountain Trails 100. Next time we have to spend more time in Virginia!
Life Adventures 
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