“HeleneBender”
Hellbender (Helene Edition)
Quatro requested a race report and other folks might be wondering about the super fast time at Hellbender this year so here it goes.
Pre Race:
In the early fall of 2024, Hurricane Helene hit in a way that no hurricane has impacted western North Carolina before. It hit land causing landslides throughout many mountain towns in the East Coast, including Old Fort, North Carolina, the host site for the Hellbender 100 miler.
When the hurricane hit, I was down at the Yeti 100 in Damascus. The race had been pushed back a day so I was waiting out the rain with my crew (Amy Stulman, Heather Dougherty, and my mom) as we watched the creek continue to rise. Thankfully, Amy has more common sense then the rest of us and realized we needed to self-evacuate from Damascus immediately. Eventually, the race was canceled, but we were just happy to be leaving in one piece after watching an entire town flooding.
After a painfully flat training block in 2024 for “the race that didn’t happen”, I set my sights on Hellbender, but after the storms there were a lot of unknowns. When the RD’s announced that Hellbender 2025 registration was going to open and the course was TBD, I decided to stick with this plan and in the worst case my race entry fee would at least support the locals.
About a month before the race, the course was announced! Instead of the usual 24,000 ft of climbing and super technical sections like Snooks Nose/Mount Mitchell, there was an estimated 20,000 ft of climbing that included a newly built trail. It was estimated that this course would run two hours faster than the traditional Hellbender course.
Race Day
With the faster estimated finish times the race started at 5:00am instead of 4:00am. It was an easy morning since we were staying in a cabin at Camp Grier (the race start).
I began in the middle of the pack, which I quickly regretted. The race started out on a road leaving Camp Grier, but it wasn’t long enough to thin out the field and as we took a right onto the trail to begin Kitsuma there was a long line of headlamps ahead of me. After a few miles of climbing, I worked with a runner from Michigan to begin passing runners. I was quickly realizing my entire race spreadsheet of splits was going to be way off. Kitsuma was a mountain bike trail consisting of many false summits and sharp switchbacks, but it was “smooth as butter” and I was already ahead on my splits.
Coming into aid station one, around mile eight, the available aid was fairly picked over. I was a little worried, but grabbed some fruit, ate a gel, and kept moving. As the sun rose, I hit a road section of the course with the first views of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the daylight. This was going to be a good day!
On the road I ran with a local female runner, Raven. We quickly became friends and this was the first of many stretches where we would share a few miles and smiles.
Coming into mile 18 aid station this was deja vu from the first aid station. Fairly picked-over already and I couldn’t be too far back in the pack of nearly 200 runners, right? Let’s hope the next aid station has more food. I grabbed a few avocado rolls and one turkey roll, chugged some ginger ale and ran over to my crew.
I was relieved they had arrived in time given the fast course! I informed my crew that my stomach was having a slow start and Amy said not to worry because my stomach will settle in on the big climbs (of course she was correct). They replaced my bottles and handed me my poles. Amy told me there were two women 15 minutes ahead of me. I thought to myself, I wonder how many women are in front of them? Amy said “now is the time to be smart”. Miles 18 to 55 would consist of the majority of the day’s climbing as well as the heat of the day.
I ran over to begin the first big climb of the day with a smile. After climbing Bernard Mountain I came into Long Gap aid station. We’d be hitting this aid station three times. Thankfully, Long Gap was not lacking in hot food and I was starving. Sorry aid station workers…I ate just about anything in sight, then grabbed my drop bag and swapped my bottles.
I chugged a Capri Sun and grabbed a grilled cheese for the trail. I am not sure any other food combo can make you feel like a kid playing in the woods? As I left the aid station the volunteer said go get that hellbender! I thought oh that’s right! This is the out and back where you have to grab a toy hellbender and carry it back as proof of completing the out and back. This had to be the most fun quest I’d ever been on. Not only do I get to climb Heartbreak Ridge, but there’s a toy amphibian waiting at the top? What a day!
As I climbed up Heartbreak, it was the first chance to see the race leaders as they came flying down the mountain, and I mean flying. It was great to see Anthony Wolosik, followed by my Coach Will Weidman, and Sam Cohen all cruising on down. Then came the female leaders, the first of whom asked “are you ok, need anything?”. I wasn’t sure if that was some mental warfare or if I looked like crap. But I was having a blast and said “I’m all good — thanks”. Wow, the first two females looked strong!
At the top of the mountain a runner had made the mistake of sitting to take a break in the exposed sun, ensuring I didn’t do the same. I quickly grabbed a toy hellbender (a green one of course), ate some fruit out of my pocket, and hammered down.
The downhill felt great! A few runners let me go around them saying they didn’t enjoy technical downhills; can’t say I do either, but compared to the Massanutten’s this was nothing. Heading back to Long Gap for round two I saw most of the field of runners, which was a blast. At Long Gap again I felt like a savage, eating everything in sight and going for grilled cheese and Capri Sun round two this time with my toy hellbender in hand. Is there really anything more nostalgic than a Capri Sun, grilled cheese, and toy-combo?
Heading out of Long Gap this time to complete a loop. The loop started out super runnable. Before taking a left to start the climb there was an adorable brown dog with a dark face. The owners said her name was Cucumber (yes, this is an important part of the race report). I waved goodbye to Cucumber and began the small scrambling section by the biggest stairs I’d ever seen up to the summit of Greybeard, which was the highest point of this course. Did someone 7 feet tall make these? Two male runners passed me on the steps as I used a trekking pole to reach the top. The large stairs and the mini rock scramble were well worth it for the gorgeous panorama views of the Blue Ridge Mountains once again.
I came back into Long Gap and said bye to the aid station workers for the final time, this time side by side with Raven. Raven filled her bottles and took off. I went to grab my drop bag for the final time and raided the aid station, this time opting for a pancake before heading out. Looking at my watch I was on pace for a sub-24 hour finish at Hellbender, well “Helenebender”. This was more than two hours ahead of my “A” goal time of 26 hours.
I came into mile 55 with the sun still shining. I thought I’d be seeing my crew in the dark. Coming into the aid station the bottoms of my feet were hurting. Amy washed and lubed my feet and worked some sort of witchcraft, because they felt fine the rest of the race. Seeing my crew for the second time and picking up a pacer was a boost. The amazing Jade Graham would be pacing the first 13 and the last 13 miles of the pacer sections. Jade previously paced me at the Old Dominion 100, so I was excited she was willing to help out again. Those initial 13 miles flew by, with one of the highlights being Jade questioning “did you just eat a chip out of your pocket”? ”Why, yes I did!” Leaving the Jerdon Mountain aid station, Jade reminded me that Jeff Best had set-up a VHTRC aid station at Camp Grier, and knowing that, we couldn’t get there fast enough!
Sure enough, Jeff had ginger soup and grilled cheese waiting for me. Jade’s husband Travis Graham had kindly gone out and bought fruit and French fries for me after the other aid stations had proven to be lackluster. The aid station volunteer let me know I was in third. I was confused. Had a female runner dropped? Had a runner gotten lost? He didn’t have answers and seemed a little annoyed with my questions (sorry!). I hoped everyone was ok, and maybe I passed a runner while she took a side trail break. My mom massaged my back as I ate. The amazing Jade passed the pacer bib to Fast Amy Stulman and we were off.
Going up Kitsuma for the second time in the dark. I made an effort to stay in a positive place and Amy encouraged me to write a poem to Kitsuma. I’ll save you from experiencing the torture of reading my poem, and instead just jump ahead a few miles. As we were climbing, we came upon the second place woman hiking up with her pacer. Amy looked at me and said “you need to be strong here, but polite.” I said “of course” and we greeted the other runners and made our pass. I then proceeded to run for five more minutes, which was certainly a mistake. Coming into the next aid station I started to get dizzy and my stomach wasn’t too happy after a pickle juice shot.
Amy and I discussed a new nutrition game plan and we were off. Coming into the final crewed aid station I told the crew they needed to dump my bottles and it was time to pivot. Jade took the pacer bib from Amy and we were off.
Poor Jade had to deal with a lot of whining from me this round. My legs were fine, but I was low on calories and scared of further stomach distress. But we kept on moving. Without Jade, a sub-24 might not have happened, but she pushed me to keep running.
Coming into the finish line at Camp Grier in the dark was an amazing feeling. Finishing with a time of 23:46. Big shout out to my fabulous crew!
This race is dedicated to my cousin, Abby, who passed away a month before Hellbender at the age of 33. While she didn’t need the ability to walk to live a joyful life, she now has run 100 miles because I carried her photo with me the entire race as inspiration and shared her story with my pacers when low points started.
Closing Thoughts:
If you’re debating on running Hellbender, I highly recommend this race. The views are amazing and I loved the fact that the whole community was involved in the race. This includes part of the swag being a sculpted hellbender made by local school kids. The course was really well marked and the gpx file was nearly flawless, this despite it being a completely new course. Staying at Camp Grier was convenient and I’d recommend this if you plan to maximize sleep the night before. Plus, my crew was able to nap in the cabin mid-race. The trails were all fairly runnable and my Salomon Genesis were almost overkill, but I never felt the need to switch shoes the entire race. Hellbender does have a decent list of required gear, so expect to run with a heavier pack than at most races, and I highly recommend doing a few long runs with all the gear ahead of time.
Happy Trails!
