A few weeks ago, Scott won the Barkley Fall Classic 50k in Tennessee and was awarded a highly coveted slot into the Barkley Marathons next spring.  Scott reached out to me to get some bushwhacking experience...

The trail and atmospheric conditions this year at Manitou's Revenge were challenging to say the least, with hot, humid air, and slick rocks giving us runners an even greater challenge than usual. Instead of a race report this time, I decided to try a gear report. I figure if those conditions were not tough enough to test some gear, I don’t know what would be.

The plan from the start was to run most/all of it with Philip Vondra, and we had a very loose plan to shoot for 24 hours, or at least to beat sunset on Saturday. Neither of those goals were met but here's the gist of what happened.

There are 35 high peaks in the Catskill Mountains that are above 3,500ft elevation. People that summit all 35, plus 4 of them in winter, can become “Catskill 35ers“. For most people that is enough. I am not one of those people.

Manitou’s Revenge is the best race in the world for me. Tough terrain, tons of climbing (+/- 16,000 ft) and a long enough distance (54 miles) to be able to go slow and steady. In other words, very little running. After last years time of 13:14, I was excited to see what I could do with very dry trails and the forecasted low humidity.