2022 Black Mountain Monster

As punishment for DNF'ing the Hellbender 100, held just three weeks prior, I registered for the 2022 edition of the Black Mountain Monster. At first I'd thought maybe I'd just go pace Lee some but then he said something about why don't I just register. Well, I guess his persuasive abilities are underrated because later that same day, I was on Ultrasignup, doing just that. When I registered, I had only one goal. Finish. It sounds like sandbagging and everyone has a mileage goal in these timed events. Well, while I thought getting to 100 would be great, I've had several DNFs/"quit earlies" in longer events in recent years (including this same race in 2021) and I wanted to break the cycle. That said, I was not obligating myself to running the entire 24 hours. If I finished a lap and did not have time to do another, I would stop there. I saw it extremely unlikely that I'd approach my 24-hour PR, especially given the warm temperatures and the fact that this is not a near-flat, paved trail, like Freedom Park was.

I knew only a few people who had registered and one of those had to pull out at the last minute. Lee was joining me and we set up our own joint aid station in the same spot as we had in 2021.

The course is a 3.125 (down from 3.25 due to a fallen tree) mile route that mathmatically worked out nicely to where 8 laps is 25 miles, 16 is 50, and 32 is 100. I think anyone wanting a 50K or 100K would be getting 10 or 20 laps. I imagine they will keep this route going forward for this very reason. Only those wanting to run a marathon distance will have to get a little extra--28.125 miles--by doing 9 loops. The following map and legend show the various sections of the course.

1. Start/Finish Area. Gravel parking lot.
2. Gravel road hill just past our tent that led into the woods.
3. Somewhat washed out gravel road downhill that wound through the woods.
4. Grassy road for a bit, then running in grassy field. Good downhill section at end.
5. Starts with a good climb (blue) then parallels the R/R tracks for a bit. Goes down through a washout gulley and ends with some really bad mud sections that were impossible to avoid.
6. Nice grassy out-and-back. Fairly flat. Then runs along the creek for a bit.
7. A couple more mud sections, then a short hill that led to a rooty section.
8. A relatively level stretch with one small rise. Goes up and shares the trail with #4 until you cross a bridge, then it turns and comes down through a grassy field.
9. Biggest hill on the course. It's a gravel road that comes up level to the start/fiinsh area (pretty close to our tent) and then continues up to the high point of the course, emerging from the woods only while its near the stadium complex.
10. A technical downhill, followed by a short stretch of level road then back to single track and the worst mud pits on the course.
11. Starts with a short, steep climb, then some level running through pines. Emerges beside the track and we ran along the outside of the fence line back to the start/finish.

Home base

It was one of those weird starts where no one wanted to be up front. I got maybe twenty feet back from what I thought was the front and then everyone ahead of me backed up behind me. So, I backed up again. There were 6 & 12 hour runners that were certainly going to go out faster than many of the 24-hour runners. Regional races of this distance tend to be interesting at the start. You do not have the speedsters taking off at the gun and laying down six minute miles. It's just a steady jog and even at that, some of us are going out too fast. 

As I mentioned in the 2021 post I won't do a mile-by-mile or even lap-by-lap report because it would be dreadfully dull. I'll just summarize the flow of the race.

All three races started together so a couple hundred people were lined up in the narrow starting area. But after that, the course widens for a while and in general there are only a few areas of singletrack where passing is a little difficult--especially since some of that singletrack is lined with poison ivy. We were advised that with the heavy rains a few days earlier, there were muddy areas on the course. That advice was definitely correct.

Early into the first loop, it seemed like there were at least ten people ahead of me with two of them together in the front and two other small groups of runners clustered together. I had no idea what race anyone was in but really tried to focus on running and not worry about what others were doing. If someone passed me, it really didn't bother me. After all, we still had 23:58 to go...

The course offers a little bit of everything except unbridged creek crossings. There are grassy areas, double-track, single-track, rooty sections, and at least one short climb that most people ended up walking after their first or second lap. Oh, and the aforementioned muddy sections would progressively get worse over the course of the race. The muddy stretch on the left was near the end of the loop and is actually worse than it appears. I saw one guy lose his shoe to this section of mud.

The race timer was someone new and while they were using the same Race Result software that Wilson Timing had used, they didn't have the live tracking enabled and they did not upload our lap splits afterwards. I always found that to be interesting because you could see how much you slowed over the course of the race and with a little spreadsheet work, you can see where others were catching up to you or vice versa.

The 10:00 a.m. start meant it was pretty warm right off the bat. I had on the same yellow shirt that I finished Western States and when I DNF'd Hellbender a few weeks prior to this race. So, I wasn't really sure if it was lucky or not. I also had on a hat to keep the sun out of my eyes and I was wearing those arch support bands in hopes of keeping my plantar fascitis in check.

Since you can see the clock as you complete each lap, I wanted to see how long it would be before my average lap moved above thirty minutes. The first lap was about twenty-eight minutes and I didn't walk any of the hills. With no lap splits to look back on, I can't trust my memory, but it seems like maybe it was six or eight laps before my pace crossed the thirty minute/lap threshold. I rarely used the start/finish aid station, so refilling my bottle/pouring the tailwind powder, etc... usually was much slower. Also, after a lap or two, Mike hooked the sprayer up near our tent and I started cooling down in it as I finished each lap. There were no speed records being broken on this day.

At first, I tried dodging the mud puddles, which sometimes meant walking 15-30' along a slick bank, but after it warmed up and my shoes were already muddy, I just plowed through them. It worked out fairly well as the water wasn't warm and it cooled the lower part of my body off a little. It also seemed to spray away from my feet if I hit it hard enough, so I didn't feel like I was getting mud and grit down in my shoes. I continued this practice essentially until sundown.

After about six laps or so, I glanced at the screen at the finish mat and it looked like it said I was in first place for the 24-hour event. I didn't remember passing anyone who started out ahead of me so I wasn't totally sure I was reading it correctly. I was honestly more concerned with not DNFing, but I will admit that having seen a preview of the awards for the top three finishers, I definitely was hoping I could place. To do that, though, I'd have to make sure I was running/walking until the end. The funny thing was, while I read it to say I was in first, I had no idea who was second, third, etc... All I could really do was assume if someone passed me at a good clip, if they were in the 24-hour event, they were probably on the same lap as me.

While it wasn't as hot as 2021, it was definitely warm, especially in the sunny areas. Probably over 80% of the course was in the shade, but that other 20%, with no clouds, was rough. I did remember to wear sunscreen and even reapplied some later in the day, figuring I'd probably sweat it off, or washed it off when using the sprayer after a lap.

After a couple hours, I saw Anne Lundblad and Adam Hill show up to crew for someone. Also Craig Lancaster. I don't know as many of the people at these races as I used to. Besides Lee and Josh, I'm not sure I knew anyone else registered. There was one person registered that I'd met before but I couldn't pick her out of the crowd.

It later occurred to me that my previous two 24-hour run finishes (both New Year's Eve) were done close to the shortest day of the year (December 21st) while this one would be a little closer to the longest day of the year. On this day, we had 14:19 of daytime (not including pre-dawn light and twilight) whereas I only had 9:46 of daytime at the New Year's Eve races. While darkness probably didn't slow me significantly on a paved track, that would have made a difference on a trail.

During the heat of the day (like 3-5:00 p.m.) I was pouring water onto a towel in our tent and just trying to cool myself down. I was getting a bit dehydrated, but not terribly bad yet. I did make an effort to drink a lot. We had a 2.5 gallon jug of Deer Park water in our tent and ended up using pretty much all of it. I had a separate jug of water for cooling off with.

This was the first race in a while where I didn't really feel the mile 30-40 "blahs" that I often encounter. I can't really explain why I was able to dodge them on this day, but I certainly wasn't going to complain about it.

Later in the day, I caught up and briefly ran with a guy named Alan. He seemed to be moving along pretty well and said his goal was 106 miles. I didn't ask why it was such a specific number. Maybe he'd gotten to 103 miles previously and wanted to improve upon it.

... I accidentally left this document in draft form and neglected to finish it for almost two years so resuming in February 2024, I'll try to sum it up as best as I can remember.

When night did fall, the temperatures cooled somewhat, which was a welcome relief. Somewhere around lap 25 (around mile 75) I caught up to and walked with Lee. It was a good mental and physical break. Plus, he walks pretty quickly so it wasn't like I really slowed down that much from a run pace.

In looking at my splits, it's rewarding to see that my miles were mostly staying between 11 and 13 minutes throughout the night. The few longer miles were likely when I stopped at our table at the start/finish area.

I kept pushing but really didn't know my mileage and if/when I'd hit 100 miles. I didn't come in with that as a goal, but it would be pretty cool to achieve. The crowd, of course, began to diminish as the night wore on. Some had finished their 6 or 12 hours, some reached their distance goal before the 24 hours was up, and some just pulled out.

I was surprised to feel pretty good the entire time and was at least jogging significant parts of each lap. Just like all of these events, there were spots I knew I'd walk and as the hours wore on, sometimes new, additional walking spots would be chosen. Still, there was a lot I was able to at least jog far longer into the race than I expected. 

On one of my last laps, I caught up to a guy (Michael) and his girlfriend and stayed with them a bit, not really thinking that he might be right ahead of me in the race, and I needed to pass him. We finished the lap together and I headed on as he went to his tent. After the next lap, the RD told me something like the guy behind me took a lap off and that I was in the lead by a lap. That somewhat surprised and definitely relieved me. I still wanted to do well and pressed on, but maintained my walk here, run there plan.

When I completed a lap at the 23:14 point, I didn't feel like I could complete another one (and no partial laps would be counted) so I called it a day at 106.25 miles. It turned out that Michael was the guy behind me and he finished with 103 miles. Alan, the guy with the 106 mile goal, reached 100 miles. I was given a 100-mile belt buckle (which was unexpected) and a carved wooden bear, which now sits on our fireplace hearth.

I actually felt like I ran a better race than either of my 120+ mile New Year's Eve 24-hour events because in both of those, I was down to walking full laps towards the end whereas here, even with it being trail, mud, and rolling hills, I was still running at the end--some.

Strava Data (Mileage total is a tad off.)

Ultrasignup Results 

Taming the unseen beast — The Valley Echo