Mason Dixon Longest Day 100k Challenge 2023

 Mason Dixon Longest Day 100k Challenge

It has been said that every story begins with a story. In this instance, that is definitely the case. In 2015 my employer assigned me to a new project team. It just so happened that some of my coworkers that I worked closely with were trail runners. Up to this point in my life I had been a fairly casual runner, sticking primarily to roads. I had enjoyed spending time in the woods and hiking trails, but the thought of blending the two had not really crossed my mind. And besides, I was a busy dad with young kids, so who had time to drive any distance before getting to spend any time on the trails. I didn’t think it was feasible for me and the roads are where I found myself. That is until one fateful day when my coworkers talked me into skipping a team meeting in exchange for a group trail run. I am not sure if it was because we were running in the woods, running with friends or both, but I was instantly hooked. From that point forward, even though my runs were still primarily on the road, my mind was on the trails, and I began to look for ways to get back on them. I should probably take a quick time out before you start to think that my colleagues and I were your irresponsible employees. It just so happened that our director, Brett Pfleiger, was an avid runner with a long history of trail adventures. So when we were taking work breaks to discuss our weekend running plans, we would soon find him out of his office and pouring over the trail maps with us. It was most likely during one of these work break, storytelling sessions that I first heard about the Mason Dixon Longest Day 100k Challenge, a 100k fatass event organized by the Trail Dawgs from Delaware. Brett had completed the challenge twice and in the process became one of the first runners to meet the challenge of beginning at sunrise and completing the distance before sunset. Since the Mason-Dixon Trail was my favorite local trail to train on, I quickly became enamored with the idea of tackling this challenge. But, 60 miles along the mighty Susquehanna was a bit more than I was ready to tackle at the time. It wouldn’t be until 2021 when my first attempt ended at 45 miles, leaving me with the bitter taste of defeat. Now, 2 years later, I was ready to give it another shot. This is that story.

The day started early by meeting Andy Forester at the finish line where I left my truck. He had agreed to give myself and a couple other runners a ride to the start. After making a few stops to drop supplies along the trail, we made it to the start line with plenty of time to greet other runners and get ourselves set for the long day. The weather forecast was calling for high humidity and thunderstorms but it felt comfortable and cool at the start line. We all assembled for the traditional photo and words of wisdom from Rob Bartholomew and then we were off at 5:38 with the goal of beating the setting sun 15 hours later. Within the first quarter mile we hit a  stream crossing and initial climb. I allowed the majority of the pack to move ahead of me, taking my time to cross the stream on rocks, keeping my feet dry. Two years prior it was blisters on my feet that took me out of the game and I was determined to not repeat that experience!  By the time we reached Stafford Rd and the detour leading out of Susquehanna State Park, the runners were strung out nicely and we were able to settle into a comfortable road pace. I had made a decision to run comfortably whenever I could, not pushing the pace but also not trying to be too conservative with my energy. These road miles made it easy to bank some time that I could rely on later. At just over 6 miles we crossed Route 1 where I picked up my hydration pack and we were finally on trail again. I yo-yoed back-and-forth with a couple of the runners, but by the time I reached Glen Cove, mile 9, we had all settled into our places.  The next 30 miles were spent running solo with the exception of seeing Roxanna Strine on her way to completing 31 miles from the midnight start. 

While I hadn’t set a specific goal time for the day, I thought a 14 hour finish was reasonable and perhaps, if everything went really well, 13 was not entirely out of reach. I entertained myself by observing my overall average pace, keeping in mind what Brett Pfleiger‘s fastest finishing pace was. I knew that was out of reach for me on this day but I had decided I would see how many miles I could go keeping my average pace below his 12:22 pace. Not long after crossing the Maryland line into Pennsylvania. I was surprised by my friends, Jack and Julie Grove, who had been observing my progress on my spot tracker app, and came down to find me. After some quick hellos and a cheesy smile for a picture I was back on my way, happy for the energy boost. At some point the rain had picked up in earnest and as I rolled into the first picnic at Cold Cabin Park (mile 23ish), I found the volunteers huddled beneath their pop-up tents in an attempt to stay dry. I had been carrying enough calories to not rely on aid stations but some bacon, watermelon, and a pierogi hit the spot as a change up for my taste buds. Not staying long, I headed out for more trails and by the time I reached the Muddy Creek Bridge the rain had stopped but still had decent cloud cover. I was grateful for this as I remembered how two years prior the sun was out in full force at this road section causing me to spend valuable minutes soaking in the stream to cool off before hitting the open road. Although the humidity was high, I was managing my temps by dipping my headband in every stream crossing so there was no need to stop for a soak today. I felt reasonably strong through the road sections, motivated to keep moving so that it ended more quickly and still keeping an eye on my average pace. This 5 mile road section is by far the most boring of the entire run. After finally reaching the PA Fish Commission Boat Launch my excitement to be back on trails quickly diminished as I tried to navigate through Peavine Island. Although I have been on this trail before, it was particularly overgrown, and I was starting to feel the fatigue in my feet as I scrambled over the technical trails. It was in this little section that my average pace crept over the 12:22 mark. I smiled to myself thinking 35 miles wasn’t too bad. I hit the second picnic at lock 12 feeling good and ready to be on trails that I was much more familiar with. A quick refill of my bottles and a handful of Swedish fish... I was on my way. Although I was still feeling good, the solo miles were starting to get to me, and I began to count down the miles to Posey Road where I knew my friend Tim Crowe would be meeting me to pace me to the finish.

I occupied my mind, recalling memories of the first time I covered some of these trails. It had been during one of those work breaks that I complained about how challenging it was to find an ultra race that fit my schedule. Brett challenged me to plan my own race, so that is what I did. I mapped out a 50k route on the MDT to run in January 2017 with the help of those same coworkers. But back to the present moment, Tim was waiting for me at Posey Rd as promised.  I was beginning to feel a few blisters forming on my feet so I changed socks, not wanting to have a repeat of two years earlier. We moved well all the way to the Otter Creek picnic where I scored some more bacon, pierogies and a cup of Coke before heading on our way. Not too far from Urey overlook we caught up with another runner, Willie Wrede, from the midnight start group. It really impressed me knowing that he had been out on the trail 5 1/2 hours longer than I had been and was still grinding it out! 

We made it to Apollo parking lot where I had stashed my trekking poles and my waist pack to exchange with my backpack. It was nice to get the weight off my shoulders, and have the added assistance. Zach Geiple caught up with us here and left a couple minutes before us making a comment that we had 3 1/2 hours to finish. My goal has been to arrive at Apollo with three hours to spare so I was feeling pretty confident that I could beat the sun. 3.5 hours to go 9 miles… You may wonder “How hard can that be?” If you have never hiked or run this section of trail, I highly recommend it. It is rugged with multiple climbs earning it some interesting names… not all of them G rated.I will use one of the family friendly names and refer to it as “The Death March”. At some point in this section my watch battery died, leaving me without the visual reminder of time and distance. I wasn’t too concerned given the amount of time I had remaining.  I was vaguely aware that I had stopped taking in calories at the frequency that I should have.  I’m not sure if it was the lack of calories, fatigue in the legs, or being mentally weary but my pace slowed considerably. It was probably a combination of all three. At one point, part way up a steep climb, I sat down on a rock to take a breather. I was sick of eating the food I had, so Tim offered me a smashed and considerably melted granola bar. Boy did that hit the spot! This was amusing to us as I had been telling Tim how granola bars weren’t really much healthier than candy bars… and now I thought it was the best thing in the world! It was at this point that I asked him what time it was, and how many miles we had to go. The answer was it was 7:30 and we had 4 miles to go.! That was not good! Somehow I had wasted all my extra time, and now I needed to move considerably faster than what we had been moving! That lit a fire under me! There was no time for talking and stories now if I was going to beat the sun. Even though I had been on this trail dozens of times before, I was having a hard time picturing where I was and how many climbs I had to go! I just focused on the steps in front of me and kept moving as fast as possible. It wasn’t until we were scrambling down off of the dinosaur's back and I caught a glimpse of the shed just off the trail that I felt confident again that I would make the cut off. Once on the road, we stretched out our legs into a solid run, reaching the steps of Shank's Mare outfitters with 19 minutes to spare. 

I think the moral to this story is: Be careful who you hang out with or you might start doing the crazy things that they do.