Catherine’s 8

This year, the first day of the Martin Luther King weekend will feature a run on the trails in the Massanutten Mountains that are south of Route 211, using a course that is similar to the Catherine’s Furnace 50km. The “Catherine’s 8” course involves more trail than the summertime Catherine’s Fat Ass race, and the distance is closer to 28.5 miles.

This rougly Figure-8 shaped course will start and finish at the Route 211 East parking lot. This is the trail head location for the Massanutten South trail, and is the same start and finish location as the revised Gap to Gap run, which will be held on Martin Luther King weekend Day 2. Not to mention its use as the start and finish location for the Catherine’s Fat Ass every July.

Details

The run will start at 8 AM. Please arrive in time for parking, check-in and whatever prep is needed before a short briefing at 7:50.

All entrants will be assigned an item to bring to Cat 8 for use at the common aid stations.

There will be two aid stations on the course, both at the same location: the Catherine’s Furnace itself. Volunteers would be welcomed to man the aid station. If you are available and interested in helping out, contact Quatro.

No drop bags will be shuttled to the aid stations, so carry what you need if it is not likely to be at the aid stations.

Turn sheets are coming soon (and will be linked at this location). The map that covers this area is PATC Map H of the south half of the Massanutten Mountains. The latest version of this map was released in 2011, and should have the Brown Hollow Trail (the “pink” trail), which is part of this course. Older versions of Map H will have all the other trails that the runners will cover.

While this is not an official Massanutten Training Academy event, this run will cover some of the trails that are used in the MMT 100 and is an excellent early training run for those who sign up to run MMT. It is also a fine run for those who are not planning to run MMT.

Any other questions? Contact Quatro.