Report

2025 was the 29th anniversary of the Virginia Happy Trails Running Club’s annual 100 mile race in the Massanutten Mountains. This year the race was held over the weekend of May 17-18, and for the 14th year it was hosted out of the Caroline Furnace Camp at the southern end of the Fort Valley.

And this year saw one of the best iterations of the MMT 100. Now in his third year, race director Dan Aghdam put on a first class event. He personally greeted every one of the 94 finishers from the group of 157 and 1/2 starters, ranging from overall winner Nicholas Wirz, who arrived back at Caroline Furnace after spending a little over 20 hours on the course (officially 20:11:23), to the dramatic final finisher right at the 36 hour race cutoff, Randy Dietz (his official time was 35:59:56; more about Randy shortly).

While this was officially one of the hotter years for the race, overall the weather was not bad during the 36 hours of the race itself in 2025. There was a LOT of rain in the Massanuttens during the days leading up to the race. The threat of a thunderstorm kicked up around the time of the pre-race briefing and dinner late on Friday afternoon, but other than some mighty gusts of wind (as particularly evidenced in the overturning and ultimately the trashing of the drop bag tent), the storm held off until after midnight. The storm began to abate as MMT participants began to stir in preparation for the 5 AM race start, and prior to the start the remaining rain and drizzle ended all together. This led to a chilly and somewhat foggy early morning for the runners as they made their way over Short Mountain to the first full aid station of the day at Edinburg Gap). By the time the field had completed much of their journey up the western ridge of the Massanutten Mountain (through Woodstock Tower and then Powells Fort Camp), the sun emerged and the temps started to climb. While it eventually reached the low 80s, the notorious mid-Atlantic humidity stayed away. By the time the surviving runners made their way over the final third of the course on Sunday, more overcast conditions prevailed, and the temps stayed noticeably cooler.

There were no Saturday finishers in 2025. The first finisher, Nicholas Wirz of Leonardtown, MD, arrived back at the Caroline Furnace Camp shortly after 1 AM on Sunday. The second runner in was also the first VHTRC finisher, Simon Arendt, also from Maryland. Simon’s time was a little over 21 hours. Hard on his heels was area running legend Jim Blandford from Pennsylvania, who came in about 15 minutes after Simon; Jim was the first Senior division finisher this year. A total of 9 men came in under 24 hours, including Clinton Hepler, also from Pennsylvania, who came in first in the Masters division (and fifth overall, in 22:46); and the first of several international finishers, Tomo Ihara of Japan, seventh overall in 23:16. Nick Slack of Manassas was the first Virginian to finish and the final runner under 24 hours. Nick was ninth overall in 23:56.

The men’s race was tight in the early going, with New York’s David Hutcheson holding a fairly narrow lead over Nicholas and a handful of others over the first quarter of the race. By the time the runners crossed the northern end of the Fort Valley and arrived on the eastern slope of the Massanutten Mt. at Elizabeth Furnace, a little over 50k into the race, Nicholas had taken a lead that would only grow as the race progressed. David held on to finish sixth with a time of 23:09.

The women’s race unfolded a bit differently. By the time the first runner checkpoint occurred at the base of Short Mountain, DC’s Keavy Baylor was running comfortably ahead, with a 15 minute lead on her closest pursuer, Amanda Presgraves from Harrisonburg, VA. By the time she reached Powells Fort (just over a quarter of the way into the race), Keavy’s lead had grown to over a half hour. She fairly steadily maintained that lead over the next quarter of the race, and by the halfway point at the Indian Grave aid station, Keavy was nearly an hour to the good, and by Camp Roosevelt, the 100k mark, it was over an hour. Sadly for her, shortly thereafter, her stomach let her down, and Keavy’s pace slowed dramatically, allowing the chase pack to close with her. By the 75 mile mark at the Visitor Center aid station, Amanda caught Keavy.

But lurking further back, and now finishing very strongly, was Kristen Kelman from Maryland. Kristen spent the early portions of the race in fourth position, behind not only Keavy and Amanda, but former MMT 100 winner Rhoda Smoker of Pennsylvania. By Powells Fort Camp, Kristen had moved into third. But as late as the Habron Gap aid station about 54 miles into the race, Kristen was nearly 90 minutes back of the lead. But in those next 20+ miles to the Visitor Center, she had closed to just over 10 minutes behind the two leaders. Kristen then dropped the hammer, opening up over a half hour lead on Amanda by the penultimate aid station, the Picnic Area (mile 87). Kristen blitzed to the finish in a time of 24:47, with Amanda finishing second in 26:43. Sheila Martin took third in 27:23 (first Master’s finisher) and Keavy hung on for fourth.

The “Golden Hour” is a term for those runners who make their way to the finish in the final hour that the race course is open. 13 of the 94 finishers came in over the course of that 35th hour, all with their own compelling stories of grit and determination, and ultimately of triumph. For the third year out of the last five, these qualities were particularly exemplified in the DFL runners. The MMT 100 is coming to be marked as a race with a bad case of The Bends. In 2022, the final finisher, Bob Gaylord, was leaning so badly that two pacers holding a pole between them helped him straighten himself enough to finish in the final moments. Karen Wille was that DFL leaning runner in 2023, though she lacked the same sense of dramatic flourish as Bob, coming in nearly 15 minutes to spare on the final cut-off. 2024 was lean-free at the finish, but in 2025 that void was filled by the final TWO runners. Laura Turbe of Maryland came through the finisher’s chute leaning hard to starboard, with a time of 35:52. This was dramatic enough, but there remained one more runner on the course …

No one epitomized the Gold in that final Golden Hour like Randy Dietz.

Randy Dietz had spent a dramatic day and a half navigating his way around the infamously challenging trails, and occasional roads, that make up the current MMT 100 course. There is a famous line uttered by more than one DFL runner after their finish; to paraphrase: “I paid for a 36 hour race, and I wanted to get my full money’s worth!” There is a good chance that literally no one has ever gotten more value from his entry fee than Randy Dietz did in 2025. Virtually all of the 15 aid stations along the route have cut-offs; and Randy was flirting with those cut-offs from beginning to end. More than flirting — Randy had those cut-offs so dialed in that he appeared he was using them as his pace chart for the full 100 miles. And he approached the finish line chute as this year’s DFL runner, a few minutes after Laura Turbe’s arrival and with a counterbalancing lean to the port side on his part. His raucous reception as he came to the end of his race came with a more tangible payoff: Randy was the only 9-time finisher entered in this year’s race, by completing his 10th he walked away with the highly prized gold MMT belt buckle. The awarding of that gold buckle was the perfect capper on the Golden Hour and on the 2025 edition of the Massanutten Mountain Trails 100 miler.

Speaking of those belt buckles, for this year’s race, RD Dan added a new finish line feature. All finishers receive the obligatory 100 mile belt buckle. Most are pewter; overall and age-group winners receive silver buckles, as do any sub-24 hour finishers; and of course 10-time finishes come with the gold. In years past, each finisher would then receive in the mail a few weeks after the race a small engraved plate with their name, the race date, and their finishing time. This metal plate was meant to be adhered to the back of their buckle. But with the 2025 race, Dan decided to save on some postage and instead had an engraver on site. So, everyone walked away with a personalized belt buckle, in addition to their entrant’s shirt and finisher’s car seat cover.

The 30th edition of the MMT 100 Miler is scheduled for the third weekend in May, 2026 (May 16-17), with entry opening as per Dan’s tradition of Halloween day, October 31. No doubt there will be some fun and creative changes and enhancements to the race weekend to mark the occasion, so mark your calendars and plan to join us, either as a runner or a volunteer. Happy Trails!

Race Weekend Photographs

Finish Line Photos