2025 Report

Twenty-five of 30 runners finished the first of the four scheduled Massanutten Training Academy runs on Saturday, February 8th, 2025. After being postponed from the traditional Saturday of MLK weekend due to snow and ice, runners and volunteers found themselves three weeks later contending with … snow and freezing rain. But to this RD’s delight (and relief), all involved seemed happy, whether sliding among the rocks of Short Mountain, struggling to erect a tent canopy at Edinburg, or sampling the delicious offerings of Chef Jeff Best around the fire at the Signal Knob parking lot finish line.

While most of the runners were repeat offenders, well familiar with the rocky orange trail, there were several first timers to the Fort Valley, and all seemed to enjoy the challenging terrain and even the weather. And the run served its true purpose of acquainting entrants in the MMT 100 with the first third of the course: nine runners are signed up for May’s tour of the Massanuttens, and five will be running MMT as their first 100 miler. I can’t think of a better choice!

I’d like to thank the following generous volunteers for shuttling runners to the start and/or serving up aid at the two aid stations and finish line:

Quatro Hubbard
Bob Gaylord
Ram Oruganti
Larry Tumblin
Zac Seidel
Tracy Cooley
Jeremy Krug
Kevin Bligan
Charlene Howard
John Hord
Jeff Best

The runners also deserve my thanks for arriving on time at the Signal Knob parking lot meeting point so very early on a Saturday morning and cooperating with the chaos of organizing everyone into vehicles in the cold and dark for a somewhat orderly journey through the Fort Valley to the start at Caroline Furnace. Scroll down to see the details on how their runs went.

Good luck to those running the MMT 100 Miler in May and to all with their ongoing training!

Larry Huffman, RD and report author

Results

Time of day entered into splits
Total running time noted in “Time” column
Aid was provided at the following locations:
Aid 1, Edinburg Gap - 12 miles
Aid 2, Woodstock Tower - 19 miles
Finish, Signal Knob - 32 miles

And here is our usual admonition regarding the “results” below… Bear in mind: this is not a competitive event. No one treated this as a competitive event. These should not be considered “competitive event 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.