West Virginia Mountain Trail Runners

So Gregg Holst and I headed over to West Virginia for this inaugural 50 mile race.  He ran it, and I volunteered.  I guess I’ll let Gregg give his opinion on the course as a whole.  But I thought the race was very nice.  It started at 9 PM and went overnight, with a 13 hour limit (10 AM).  The course started with a big uphill as you run up the mountain, then was rolling for the middle 30 or so, then went back downhill to return to the start.  The beginning and end were the same,but there were a couple loops in the middle.  It was mostly single-track forest road, with a little asphalt in the first/last mile and some substantial trail sections in the first two thirds. Continue Reading »

June of 2006 was the last time I actually ran anything past 50 miles (Laurel Highlands). I had been dealing with an unidentifiable injury in the lower left quarter of my back. It would be aggravated by running thus the respite from running longer distances. A combination of a fairly successful 50K last October and the doctor’s “okay” prompted me to begin seeking out a longer distance to race (not to mention I was beginning to feel like a huge slug). In the early spring I saw a new race was being run in Beverly, West Virginia: The  Cheat Mountain Moonshine Madness 50 Mile. Being a huge fan of  West Virginia and her lovely, rugged mountains, the race piqued my interest; as well as did the start time of the race – 9 PM on Friday, August 22nd. The invitation -to come and run through the night- and the distance of 50 miles didn’t seem so threatening in early spring. In fact, thoughts of: This will be a “fun” adventure and I have plenty of time to train, and it will be decent not to have to run through the heat of the day etc. filled my mind. These thoughts were replaced gradually as August 22nd came closer and were completely overtaken on the trip down to the wild and wonderful state in the afternoon of the twenty-second of August. Thoughts of – I don’t think I trained enough, Run through the night? (Sleep?) When should I eat my last meal? What am I doing? What was I thinking? etc. etc. Continue Reading »

I was checking out Katie’s handy-work at RT and saw this article about a runner who had to have her legs amputated after an infection started from blisters.

LinK: http://sports.in.msn.com/stories/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1662263

Here’s my feet after following Mongold around on the ALT for 2.5 days.  I’m glad they didn’t need amputated.

OK, so Adam and Bradley are finished with their grand adventure and we didn’t have to suffer through another unbearably long labor day weekend without some sort of multi-day long-point-to-point-with-aid-station-volunteers-run a la Appalachian Crossing to keep our minds and internet connections occupied while we lazed around, grilling and mowing the grass as summer “officially” (whatever that means, it isn’t September 21st yet on my calendar) came to an end.

(how’s that for a run-on sentence?)

But NOW its on to bigger and better things … things like the Helvetia 10K and the kick off of the fall portion of the Mountain State Trail Series races. So let’s see a show of hands: who is going to be there next weekend (race is on September 14th)? Who is staying over Saturday night? Who is bringing the trampoline to set up in Lehmann’s garden? Who wants to run there from Morgantown, run the race and run home (with web coverage, of course)? Who is going to bake the double chocolate wafer cookies and creme cookies for the post race snacks? And who is just gonna bring their ATV down and drag race through town instead of run the silly race?

9:00AM – 10K RUN & 2M WALK START
8:45AM – KIDS RUN
Helvetia, West Virginia

Sponsored by the Helvetia Fair Association and the WV Mountain Trail Runners

Welcome to the 11th running of the Helvetia 10k Mountain Run. The race is held in conjunction with the 94th Annual Helvetia Fair. More information on Fair activities below.

In 1998 Jody and Dan Lehmann with the help of friends and neighbors organized this event in their small mountain community of Helvetia. It was their first attempt at race directing. The run and walk has never outgrown the village but continues to bring about 70 runners to enjoy the simple beauty of this spot in southern Randolph County. All proceeds go to benefit the Helvetia Community Fair Association. Continue Reading »