2020 Report

January 18, 2020  •  Fort Valley, VA

23 starters, 20 finishers

Signal Knob Cafe's top dog, Sophie Smith
Signal Knob Cafe’s top dog, Sophie Smith, keeping a close eye on Sarah Smith’s actions in her amazing finisher’s shelter.

This was Larry Huffman’s second year in charge of the first Massanutten Training Academy Run, and for the second year in a row, he was tossed a big weather curveball. In 2019 this led to a one-week postponement; in 2020 the event went on as scheduled. Larry’s notes on the event are detailed below:

Snow squalls on I-66 made the drive in dicey and a number turned around for home. Several others withdrew between the final roster on Friday afternoon and early Saturday morning, again mostly due to concerns about the weather. However, by the start, it had stopped snowing. Runners reported a few inches of snow on the trail and some mud but otherwise good conditions. Freezing rain and sleet hit us at Edinburg around 9 am and a cold, drenching rain fell in the afternoon at the finish line, but Sarah Smith’s cozy canopy with side panels and heating element at the Signal Knob Cafe, along with her delicious vegan chili, gave the volunteers and runners welcome shelter and sustenance.

Congrats to the runners! I hope they will all agree the northern Massanuttens shone as they do best on a cold winter’s day in challenging conditions.

Many thanks to our volunteers! Sophie Smith; Sarah Smith; Dave Woll; Tom Simonds; Guy Towler; Kevin Bligan; Carl Bligan; Elaina Stanton; Jana Fridrichova; Quatro Hubbard; Tracey Cooley; Josh Howe; Lou Brooks.

The Signal Knob Cafe for Training Academy Run 1
The Signal Knob Cafe for Training Academy Run 1 — the runners were very grateful for the warm, dry enclosure for post-run refreshments and socializing.

Results

And here is our usual admonition regarding the “results” below… Bear in mind: this is not a race. No one treated this as a race. These should not be considered “race results.” The times are provided for informational purposes only. This can help others who pull the route from the event site and run the course self-supported, so that those runners can approximate times. It can assist those considering this training run in future years to estimate their own run times. And it is helpful for volunteers to see the range of times that runners take to cover certain sections.

NameEdinburgWoodstockFinish
Trevor Baine9:1010:496:15
Christopher Flint9:3211:216:55
Keith VanGraafeiland9:1811:136:58
Kathleen Cusick9:3211:307:19
Levi Mason9:3611:377:26
Rip Cantelmi9:3611:377:27
Barret Stanton9:3611:377:27
Bernard Pesjak9:4911:398:07
Jim Harris10:0512:318:53
Christiana Fogg10:0512:269:31
Jeremy Gray10:1812:589:31
Jamie Greenawalt10:0512:369:31
Robert Kolb10:2312:589:40
Edward Leno10:0812:519:40
Jeff Pence10:1812:5810:17
Andy Peterson10:1812:5910:17
Eric Harris10:1812:5810:19
Shelly Cable10:3213:2110:38
Sherry RuffnerSlack10:3213:2110:38
Chris Pabian †9:3111:246:41
Luke Bosek9:0810:42xxx
Frank Gonzalez9:0810:42xxx
Rick Mueller10:36Droppedxxx

Run starts at the Moreland Gap Road entrance to the Caroline Furnace Lutheran Camp (not at the actual MMT 100 race start that involves leaving the camp grounds and then running down Route 678 to the Moreland Gap Road).

Intermediate split times reflect time of day; finishing times are general running times, with start at 7:12 AM due to slick travel conditions (scheduled for 6:30).

Edinburg Aid Station is 11 miles into this run.

Woodstock Tower Aid was at the trail head (hiked-in due to weather closure of the road), 19.2 miles into this run.

Finish at Signal Knob Parking Lot, southern end, after 32 miles.

† indicates runner who took a shortcut through Mudhole Gap to end his training run early (total distance covered was still around 30 miles).

Rumor has it that the runners who dropped at Woodstock Tower did so because their crew/driver was cold…

Last updated February 12, 2020