Reverse Ring = THUD

We tried, we really did. RDs Quatro Hubbard and Mike Bur (along w/ their awesome VHTRC volunteers) did their best to make the Reverse Ring happen today. Unfortunately, the trail itself had other ideas. While the weather was beautiful, the course was 90% un-runnable with all the snow. I knew it was a bad sign when half the cars couldn't drive into the parking lot without getting stuck in the snow before the race...and it's never good when the pre-race briefing is delivered by an RD (Mike) wearing cross-country skis, but we all gave it our best effort anyway.

 Pre-race shot of the gang...hoping for solid trail conditions...

...but getting lots of this...

The first few miles in the morning weren't so bad as the top layer of snow/ice was strong enough to support some weight, but once things warmed up to the 40s, it became a post-hole nightmare. Some made it a little further than others, but since we didn't have 3 days to complete this trail-breaking march, the 2010 Reverse Ring simply wasn't meant to be.

So happy to have found dirt/mud instead of snow for this little section. Note my star-spangled gaiters in honor of the Winter Olympics!

I ended up trudging through 22.4 miles (that took me 6 hours, and I was one of the "fast" ones!) before calling it a day. The last 6 or 7 miles were like walking uphill through a foot of sand, and quite honestly, I wasn't having any fun at all. I was pretty pumped to run today, but whatever it was that I was doing up there, the term "running" couldn't even be loosely applied.

In dry clothes at Edinburg Gap i.e. The Point of Surrender.

A good shot of what the footing was like once it warmed up during the day...somehow Tom Corris is still smiling!

There's a good chance I'll be able to run a Race next weekend to make up for this suddenly missing link in my training schedule...and even though the terrain was less-than-fun today, it was a beautiful sunny day up there in the Massanuttens, so I guess there's a silver lining to the adventure after all!