Race Report: Mississippi Trail 50, 100 Mile

This race entails running seven loops of 12.6 miles, then two loops 6.1 miles each for a total official distance of 100.4 miles. It has a modest elevation gain of just over 5,800 ft, and the cutoff is a generous 30 hours. I completed the 50-mile race here last year and my wife and I had such a good time visiting Laurel we decided I should try for a sub-24 hour finish in the 100-miler this year. My wife, who is also the best crew possible, likes this venue because the crew area is at the start/finish line. She doesn’t have to drive all over the place in the middle of the night trying to find the next crewing point. The race starts at noon Friday, with the other race lengths, 50m, 50k, and 20k starting at 6am Saturday. This means not starting the race in the wee hours of the morning. I had a good night’s sleep, time for a leisurely breakfast, and a last minute gear check.

The morning started wet. It rained over three inches starting sometime late Thursday night and continuing three or four hours into the race Friday afternoon. The drive to the start was muddy and slippery in our rented camper van, which was to serve as crew headquarters. We made it to the start around 10AM, found a good crew location and I checked in and picked up my race number. The rain let up a bit but as the start time crept closer it began raining harder again. We started on time at Noon in a downpour and temps in the mid 50s.

In the pre-race briefing the race director said we would have several creek crossings in the first five miles which should be ‘interesting’. He was not wrong. There were indeed four or five crossings in the first five miles. There were many others the rest of the loop as well but they were all less than knee deep. The first four were NOT less than knee deep. On lap one the deepest was up to my chest, the others were all waist high and rising.

By the time the group I was running with got to the worst crossing at mile 5 on the second loop the water was over my head at the deepest section and we had to swim across a 10-foot section in the middle of a 30 foot wide crossing. The water was cold and moving very rapidly. Thankfully there were a lot of small trees to hang onto and everyone managed to cross without too much difficulty. 

Each loop was taking me around 3 hours and during the second loop the rain had stopped so we were hopeful the water levels would drop quickly. Indeed by the time I crossed the worst stream the third time, around 30 miles into the race, the water was back to chest deep and it continued to drop the rest of the race. By the seventh and last long loop the water was mid-thigh to me, but still cold.

What didn’t get better with each lap was the mud. There were 30-some runners circulating the course all night so the trail was getting softened up more each lap. Some sections got very slick and others were shoe-sucking quagmires. This made for slow going during the nighttime loops. These, as expected, were my slowest but also when I started to drop other runners as I continued to plow ahead despite the horrible conditions. 

I ran loops 5, 6, and 7 mostly by myself. The field had sorted itself out by then. No one was making a late charge and if they were dropping out ahead of me, or slowing down, I didn’t know. I simply tried to run as much as possible, walking where the trail was too slippery or rutted to run without risking an injury.

Around 50 miles I changed my socks to get the mud out of my shoes. I also put on a dry shirt and jacket, which felt awesome and helped me stay warm throughout the night. Because of the clouds the overnight temperatures remained mild, only dipping down to the upper 40s. Not warm when your feet are constantly wet, but it could have been worse. Speaking of feet. The dry socks lasted about a mile, and that took some careful running. There was no avoiding the water at the first stream crossing so I was back to getting my feet cold and filling up the shoes, then running until they were nearly warm again before hitting the next wet section. This was the story for the entirety of the race.

There were two loops in which I lost a LOT of time. I’m not entirely sure why but one of them was spent with a group of three or four on and off. We were walk/running mostly and I think the walk breaks were too frequent for me. I wasn’t complaining because it was dark, I was cold, and it was good to have company to help the miles and hours pass. At midnight I had a large dose of vitamin D and started having some caffeine, which I had given up for a month before the race. This really lit a fire in me and I regained some of the time I had lost on earlier laps.

At the end of the long loops I was still within striking distance of my sub-24 hour goal, I just had to maintain a strong pace through the last two short, 6.1 mile, loops. Easier said than done after 88 miles of running but I put the pedal down and started strong on the first short lap. I held a 14 minute or better pace about half way around when I completely hit the wall. Somewhere around 90 or 91 miles I was reduced to just walking. I wasn’t even able to shuffle along like I had been doing earlier. The climbs were also crushing me. They weren’t big but any hill seemed like a mountain at that stage.

When I finished the first short loop I grabbed a refill of my water bottle and immediately started the last loop at as fast a walk as I could manage. It was going to be a LOOOooonnng loop but I was determined to get it done as quickly as possible. About half way around again I calculated that a sub-25 hour finish was still in play and I started pushing. My achilles were on fire, my left ankle was swollen and every cell in my body was telling me to slow down. My mind, however, was stoking the fire and I started to tell my legs to get moving (yes, I did this out loud and often – glad that there were no other runners around). That motivated me and I was able to shuffle run the last mile to finish in 24h 53m 21s officially, putting me in 8th place overall. I couldn’t have been happier crossing that finish line to the cheers of my crew, who were crucial to my finishing at all. They gave me everything I needed to succeed and never doubted I would have a good race. I’m mildly disappointed in not reaching sub-24 but I gave this race everything I had and am not at all disappointed with my performance. Very proud to be 11 years older than the next oldest runner in the top 10.

So, some lessons learned from the event. 1) Don’t fall behind on your electrolytes. I got behind on my electrolyte intake and had sausage fingers for the last half of the race. I’m certain this was partly to blame for my slowest laps. 2) If you’re running with a group, keep track of how your own race is going. Don’t get pulled into some else’s race strategy. This can be bad if they’re faster or slower. You’re always running against the clock and yourself.  3) You can always push harder and go faster no matter how much your body thinks you can’t. During that last 6-mile lap I found the ability to run again and it made the sub-25 hour mark possible. Without that last push, which I wasn’t sure I had, I would have been out there another 10 or 20 minutes. Faster to the finish is faster to the chair. 4) Listen to your crew in the wee hours of the morning. You’re mentally shot from the mental focus needed to continue to move forward and navigate the trail. Just do what they tell you. This would have saved me the sausage fingers and possibly kept my pace up.

Every race is a chance to explore your limits and push through them. I LOVE finding out about myself during these events and growing.

Race Stats

• 39 runners started the race
• 23 completed all 9 laps