Tussey Mountainback is a fifty mile loop through several state parks outside State College, PA. Several years ago they added a 50K option and this was the second year for the 100 mile event. The race starts at 6:30 pm with four overnight 12.7 mile loops before doing the big 50 mile loop with everyone else on Sunday. The course itself is on gravel and paved roads throughout a number of parks in peak fall foliage season. My watch measured total elevation gain at 10,900 feet so the event lives up to it’s “Just for the hill of it” motto.
Night Moves
I was able to start the race without my headlamp turned on, but that only lasted about a mile. The small entrant field of 10 runners spread out fairly quickly though I would see a runner here or there throughout the night especially on the 0.75 mile out-and-back section from the start/finish to the small loop. I guessed my finish time would be +/- 24 hours so started out at a 12 minute pace (i.e. 20 hour finish). This is a little more aggressive than I normally “race” a hundred miler, but I’m a round numbers guy and didn’t feel like a 12:34/mile pace was going to be my jam.
There’s always a feeling out process in looped courses. What should I run, where should I walk, how far to the aid station, am I still on the course? The unmanned water aid station was a runnable uphill 3 mile drag. This was followed by another runnable 3.5 mile uphill section to the manned aid station. I’m struggling a little to keep my pace from dipping below 12 minutes so this was a good sign. I was then really struggling to keep this pace on all the downhills back into the start/finish walking more of these sections than I necessarily wanted to. I finished up loop 1 three minutes under target, which is about as perfect as I can get.
Knowing the course now, I was more conservative with on the uphill segments and quasi-bombed the downhills. I got back to the start/finish for the second time with the same 3 minutes ahead of target (score!). I left for loop 3 about 11:30pm. As I was heading out, I passed a runner heading in who looked like he was moving good and wondered if I was about to get lapped. And sure enough he came flying by me three miles into the loop on utter cruise control. Ahh to be young and in amazing shape. I had my sections to run/walk down, but it was starting to get harder to maintain a 12 minute average pace. I really had to push on the downhills heading back to get back close to my target pace.
The fourth and final short loop was where I gave up entirely on maintaining a 12 minute pace. My nutrition tailed off a little bit from the 50 calories/mile that I had been consuming. I’m always a little challenged to maintain this from 2-5am so didn’t get too bothered as I knew I’d get back on track once the sun comes up. I’ve gotten fairly consistent with my splits in hundred mile races and knew that if I finished this loop before 10.5 hours I had a decent chance at my sub-24 hour run. And sure enough, I left the start/finish for the last time right before 5am. Let’s go!
The Big Loop
The 50 mile course was run in the opposite direction as the overnight loop so I passed the other runners ahead of me as I finished up the last night loop then those behind me (except the kid in first place who was long gone). It was nice to give and receive encouragement with them. They all seemed in much better spirits than me so it was no surprise when I saw the 80% finisher rate.
The first couple aid stations had supplies available, however were unmanned. It was cool enough that I didn’t need much fluids and I only had to grab a couple snacks every now and again. I had a two hour head start on the shorter races and wondered when I would start getting passed. Turns out it was about 8:30am when the first car passed me with their runner not too far behind. The traffic never got too bad and it was nice to receive encouragement from the other runners throughout the rest of the race.
The biggest climb started at mile 72 (133 feet up after 68 feet descending) which was followed by miles 73 (+407ft gain), 74 (+459ft), and 75 (+282ft) none of which offered a single foot of descent for reprieve. Now these aren’t crazy steep climbs, but they’re just relentless. And after 15 hours, it basically ended my fast miles. I was able to run one more 12 minute mile (80) with the benefit of 450 feet of descent, but everything else was a struggle. I was really working to run what I had been running. My motivation was waning and I started doing finishing time math. Never a good thing, which wasn’t helped by the mile markers along the course which never let you forget exactly how much farther you have left.
Eventually, I got to the last climb at mile 95/96, which wasn’t as bad as I remembered from when I ran the 50 miler a couple years ago. This was balanced by the last three downhill miles that were not as easy as I thought they’d be after climbing it four times the prior night. Sigh. Then the final bit into the finish line for a time of 22:37 or about 80 minutes better than I was expecting.
Thanks to the RDs and volunteers for putting on a great event. I loved the course and the scenery. The night start makes for an interesting challenge. I believe I was faster overnight than I would normally be with a morning start, however didn’t get my normal morning bump in energy levels. Overall, I think this is a faster course than the elevation change would suggest so don’t let this keep you from signing up. Hopefully, I can make it back again at some point.
