It’s only been 4 weeks since ES100, so obviously it’s time to run another race.
When I started looking at ultras back in 2013/2014, Virgil Crest was one of the first hundreds that I read about. It had a certain cachet about it due to the elevation gain/loss and overall toughness. This was not an entry level hundred miler. And then right when I was experienced enough to think about signing up . . away it disappeared in 2016. After a six year hiatus though, the race returned after COVID.
This is a relatively small event with only 41 runners signed up across the three race distances (50K, 50M, 100M). I’m expecting an old school vibe, which I love. There will be a couple other runners and volunteers out there supporting us, but it will mostly be me and the trails.
One of the quirks of Virgil Crest is that the course changes a little bit each year. I’m not exactly sure what I’m in store for, but I think it’s somewhere in the range of 22-23,000 ft of elevation gain/loss. This would be more than any other hundred that I’ve raced. Not orders of magnitude more, but more nonetheless. My legs held up fairly well at Eastern States so I’m not too concerned, however the last month has been relatively low mileage so I’m not likely to post a super fast time. Well, I wouldn’t post a super fast time even if I just finished a great block of training.
I’ve gotten halfway decent over the years at predicting finishing times so let’s see how I do here. I’m setting my over/under at 32 hours or about what I just finished ES100. If the race is exactly 100 miles, this would be 3 miles shorter. The weather will also be milder. And my guess is the trails will be a less technical. That all feels like it’s worth an additional 2,000 feet of elevation gain/loss to me. Regardless of how things go, I’m excited to go attempt a new hundred mile race.