My next 100 miler is this weekend down in Boonesboro, MD. The race hosts three distances (100M, 50M, 50K) in Greenbrier State Park. This will be the third year or the race after Covid cancellations in 2020 and 2021. The course is set up as one single loop of 5-8 miles with 98% trails that is changed from year to year. This year the race will be 7.5 mile loops with three 1 mile loops around the lake to start things off. Elevation gain is estimated at 13,300 feet this year for the hundred.
The race offers a couple semi-unique challenges:
- Short loop format
- 2pm start time
The short loop format is awesome from a logistics standpoint as you can have a small pile of gear/food available to you every 90 minutes or so. The downside is that this small pile of stuff is usually only a couple steps away from a car that will take you away from your pain and suffering. The convenience of quitting easily outweighs having backup shoes and that special homemade rice ball available after every lap. I’ve done a couple short loop 100s before and while I think my experience will help me power through, this is definitely something that I’ll be aware of as I progress along.
The 2pm Friday start time is going to be the more interesting challenge for me. I’m used to getting up Friday, driving to the race, checking in, heading out to dinner, and then tossing and turning for 8 hours before waking up really early for the race. I’m basically cutting all of that out except steps 1-3 for Greenbrier. The late start will force me to run through the night, but I do that for almost all my hundreds anyway so that’s no big deal. Depending on my finish time, I may be running later into the afternoon of my second day than I’ve done before but probably no more than an hour or two (hopefully). Overall, I’m looking forward to the new start time and hoping it will prep me for Grindstone in September that starts 6pm Friday.
Demographics
I’m always interested in who toes the line of the races that I do so I like to collect some data on each race’s entrants. The data is pulled from Ultrasignup so while it’s generally representative, it’s not complete.
The experience level is generally in line with most of the hundreds that I’ve run. The exception being actual 100 mile finishes. In the past, the 0-1 bucket has accounted for 60-70% instead of the 79%. My fear is this will end up resulting in a pretty low finisher rate this year (50% range) as people succumb to the convenience of dropping despite the very generous 33 hour cutoff for the race.
Weather is always a huge factor in 100 mile races. I track the forecast for my races sometimes up to 2 months out (yes, I have a problem). I almost put it on my list of semi-unique challenges above, but the forecast has improved to rather benign for this time of year. Knock on wood, just about perfect running weather. We’ll see if that holds up.
I’m thinking 26-27 hours is about the right target finish time for myself. While you never know based on gross elevation gain/loss, the course appears a bit tougher than Devil Dog where I just finished in 26 hours. Mitigating this is I feel like I’m in slightly better shape and the weather should be better allowing for less time in aid stations. But you really never know. It’s not like I’m guaranteed a certain time. Or even a finish for that matter. About the only guarantee is a good challenge. And I couldn’t ask for anything more.