2023 Report

The Final Results for the 2023 running of The Ring are now posted!

Below this report you will find a catalog of selected photographs from the run. Below that catalog are links to reports and photos submitted by other runners. Next up as you scroll down is the Results table for the 18 finishers. Keep scrolling and you will find the splits for each aid station along the way for each of our 42 starters. And if you just cannot get enough scrolling into your life, then you are in luck! A final turn of that flywheel on your mouse will take you to the table that lists all 40 volunteers at this year’s run.

Those volunteers are rather prominently featured in the photo catalog. This is quite purposeful this year. We often joke about the runners in The Ring providing those of us in support with a great excuse to come out and socialize in the woods on a nice Labor Day weekend. But the reality is that these folks all make a major time commitment to journey out to the Massanuttens and set up these oases along the orange trail. From the first hike-in aid spot at Milford Gap to the finish line and its Signal Knob Café, the amount of time, thought and effort put into providing the runners with every opportunity to finish this extremely challenging event is evident, and is greatly appreciated.

Thanks all for another great year running around the Fort Valley on our very favorite orange trail! For Bur and me, it was a nice way to bow out of our tenure as directors. We are excited to support the new Lords of The Ring, Daisy Weill and Lauren Gabler, as they take the baton and run with this classic run into 2024 (and hopefully well beyond)!

So, a little recap of the action on run weekend, 2023:

The summer of 2023 was quite odd, weather-wise. June was beyond delightful in the mid-Atlantic. July was a hellscape (worldwide it was the hottest month in recorded history, to date - stay tuned, of course). August was generally fairly mild. We got a little bit of those extremes for The Ring. The temps at the 7 AM start were all but chilly: low 50’s and not humid. We had the honor of one of the original six finishers of the first official Ring event in attendance; said his name was Gary Knipling. That man was shivering shortly after the start, even though he was bedecked in his UTMB finishers vest.

So, a promising weather start to The Ring!

That would change. The temps quickly rose on this sunny day, topping out on certain car dashboards at 91 degrees. Good news: not humid. Bad news: it was still sunny and still felt hot, particularly to runners experiencing this 40 degree temp swing. It would then swing back overnight for those who made it to the west ridge and the closing miles. But those drops back into the 50’s came with an additional cost: the return of Virginia’s beloved summer humidity.

As per custom, a great group of volunteers hiked up a ton of water and Gatorade that had been supplied by the runners to Milford Gap, a point midway through the marathon distance start to the run on the east ridge of the Massanuttens. By this point in the run, Nathan Wick had assumed the lead, and thus the challenging role of being the Spiderman. He continued to enjoy face-full after face-full of webbing through to his arrival at Camp Roosevelt shortly after noon. Following hot on his heels was Anthony Wolosik, and then hot on their heels were James Fogg and Jana Fridrichová. Hot on their heels was, surprisingly, no one. A solid 40 minutes would go by until the arrival of the next two runners, Johnny Lyons and Bradley Hawley.

This established some patterns that would continue throughout the weekend. A lead group of three male runners (Jana had other fish to fry in September in the Barkley Fall Classic and the Massanutten Revenge 100, so her plan had always been to drop after a high quality 25+ mile training run to Roos). And longer waits than expected for runners to emerge at aid stations. Clearly it was turning into a tough day at The Ring office for everyone.

By midway through the run, Bradley Hawley, fresh off a strong win at the Martha Moats Baker 60k three weeks earlier, had moved up to join Anthony and James in the lead group, while Nathan began to fall back. The three never arrived together at any point, but also were within shouting distance of the others at each stop along the second half of the run. The order was generally Anthony, then James and then Bradley. Despite spending roughly two hours in total to recover, recharge and refuel at the aid stations, Anthony kept that lead through to the finish to win The Ring in a time of 17:58. Paul Jacobs continues to hold the event record, set in 2019. By the last section of the run Bradley made a push and overtook James, taking second overall 9 minutes later. James took the third spot 14 after that, in 18:21. About two hours later, Nathan and Johnny finished fourth and fifth overall.

The women’s run had a lot more tumult to it. Jana’s ceded her large early lead by withdrawing at Camp Roosevelt. The leaders after that first full aid station were event record holder Kathleen Cusick, and Becca Weast. They remained in that order through Edinburgh Gap, when Becca retired. Kathleen then ended her run at Woodstock Tower. The lead then fell to Dani Sevel, and she retained it to her finish in 23:51, good for 9th overall. The women’s podium was then filled out by Tonnie Warfield and Gaynor Bourgeois, who finished within 6 minutes of each other in just over 26 hours.

Additional little factoids that caught my interest from the 2023 run weekend include the following:

There were NO ties. Without checking to confirm, this almost surely is unique for The Ring. In the early years, the oddity was a runner trotting down Signal Knob into the finish on her or his own; ties were very much the norm.

There were 18 finishers out of the 42 who ultimately came out and toed the line for the 7 am start. Last year there were 15 finishers out of 45 starters, so the Massanutten Trail appears to be getting softer?

13 of the 18 finishers are new members of The Fellowship of The Ring. This includes the first 9 finishers! The new kids definitely ruled in 2023.

Congratulations to all of the finishers on their accomplishments, but we particularly want to welcome these new members. The best way to celebrate them is to help them unwind in late February with the Reverse Ring. We are penciling all 13 of you in, so make sure you block off the weekend of February 24-25, 2024!

For those interested in joining The Fellowship, the next running is on a very early Labor Day weekend in 2024: August 31 - September 1.

Photos

Other reports

• A Report on Ring Redemption, by John Calabrese
• Report from the Robot Knee, by Nick Neakrase

Results

See below Results table for the splits for all 42 runners; and then below that table for the list of the 40 volunteers who put on the 2023 event.

Splits

Aid station distances:
Milford Gap (water stop): 13.3 miles
Camp Roosevelt: 24.9 miles
Crisman Hollow Rd: 34.4 miles
Moreland Gap: 40.7 miles
Edinburg Gap: 48.7 miles
Woodstock Tower: 56.9 miles
Powell’s Fort Camp: 62.4 miles
Signal Knob (Finish): 71 miles

Volunteers

The volunteers for the 2023 running of The Ring, including a couple of resolute Canine-Americans at Powell’s and at the Signal Knob Café.