2025 Report

The fourth annual running of the Martha Moats Baker 60k, and the concurrent 16th running of the MMB 50k, were held on an amazingly temperate day for the mountains of central Virginia in mid-August. Draft results are now posted below, as are the starters photos and others that have been submitted to this point. The runners and the volunteers are all very much thanked for coming out to play at the 2025 MMB, and for making it such a fabulous event! But you still have work to do before we put this to bed.

1. check the results below and text/email Q when you find his inevitable typos
2. share your accounts and photos to link or otherwise add to the upcoming full report
3. put MMB on your 2026 trail event calendar! We will reconvene on the usual second Saturday of the month, so in 2026 that will be August 8th. Entry will open on the equally traditional July date that is one month in advance of the event, so July 8th, 2026.

44 of the 60 entrants made it to the start line, and 41 of those starters got back to the finish under their own power in 2025. There were 25 who completed the “Party Route” that is the 50k. The other 16 got to the final aid station at the base of the notorious Grooms Ridge trail and then made a questionable life choice: faced with the knowledge that they could just trot less than a mile down the gravel Tilghman Road to finish their 50k and join the Party in the Parking Lot, they instead opted to head up Grooms to complete their 60k race. Huge respect for making such a character-defining decision! And as always, when you did make it back down from Little Bald to the finish, we enjoyed hearing your tall tales about how overgrown the trail was and how challenging the climb had been …

The 60k race was won in a romp by Dan Fogg, with a sparkling time of 6:59. Dan is most definitely back; he finished just three minutes off the course record. His sub-7 hour time is that much more impressive considering how overgrown portions of the course were this year, no doubt due to the unusual “Monsoon Season” that the mid-Atlantic endured during so much of June and July.

Second overall and the first woman to come in to the 60k finish line was Lexi DeLisle. Despite the above mentioned trail issues, and wearing the cuts and abrasions of what had to have been a particularly spectacular fall on the long downhill section on Wolf Ridge, Lexi crushed the previous course record. Her time of 7:26 chopped 10 minutes off of Keavy Baylor’s stout time at this event in 2024 - well done!

The 50k was won by Joseph Saunders in 6:13, which was just seven minutes off the current course record, set by Dan Fogg in 2024. Jamie Austin was the first woman to the 50k finish in 7:21 (Kathleen Cusick’s 6:58 in 2023 remains the course record here).

In the past three years that the MMB 60k course has been in place, the ominous climb up Grooms Ridge has rejected at least one runner. “Rejected” in the sense that the runner has retraced his steps back down to the trailhead, and then took the Party Route back to a 50k finish with a lot of bonus miles (and elevation gain). In 2023 it was Caleb Fowler, who opted to take the fastest route back to the finish and his vehicle after receiving a message that his wife had gone into labor. Last year, Joseph Saunders returned after running out of water in the initial climb to Grooms Ridge overlook (which is less than 2 mile up the trail); continuing on would have been dangerous on a hot August day. This year it was two runners: Kevin Caran and Scott Cole. Kevin was experiencing severe nausea issues, so after getting to the overlook he and his running partner Scott decided that pushing on for 6+ very challenging miles made a lot less sense than turning around and taking the much easier 3 mile route back to a 50k+++ finish.

For the second consecutive year there was ample reason to get back to the finish line in a timely fashion, as Chef Jeff Best had his Best Cafe up and running to serve all the runners and volunteers. As in 2024, the Best Cafe featured a taco bar, with choices between shrimp, pork tenderloin and chicken. Soooo goood!! Thankfully there was no reprise of Jeff’s journey home post-race. In 2024 his Tacoma truck caught fire and was totaled. In 2025 Jeff and sous chef Joe Schramka made it home safe and sound without incident.

Huge thanks in particular to Brennan Henning, who for the second year in a row came out in advance of the race to mark the key second and third sections of the trail for the runners. So many runners commented on how good the markings were! Since I marked the lower Little Bald and Grooms Ridge sections, and I know how sparingly I marked them, there is no doubt that the runners were largely commenting on Brennan’s handiwork! Two years of Brennan Marking and two years with no lost runners - no doubt a coincidence?!

Below the photo gallery you will find the results grid; below that grid are the splits; and finally you will encounter the list of all of the volunteers who helped out this year. Thanks so much to each and every one for their efforts, and for making the time to journey out to the mountains west of Harrisonburg along the West Virginia border in order to help out their fellow trail runners. This is truly a great community! Thanks, as always, to the Virginia Happy Trails Running Club for its support of this event, and for its sponsorship of literally dozens of other trail events and races each year!

Photos

Results

Splits

Aid Station 1: Reddish Knob (13.4 Miles)
Aid Station 2: Wolf Ridge (22.7 Miles)
Aid Station 3: Grooms Ridge (30.2 Miles)

Volunteers