It’s 6 am on Sunday morning and I am waiting at the race start.  Despite what you might think, I’m not nervous at all. Mainly because I started and finished the 50 mile race I had entered over 12 hours ago.  I now had the privilege of helping to crew a runner attempting to finish his first 100-mile race.

The Mt. Tammany 10 is 10 climbs up Mt. Tammany, each climb having 1,200 feet of gain and you have 10 hours to do so. Here is how Harry's day went.

A hearty group of runners gathered at the base of a looming giant that would later challenge our heart, will and desire in epic proportions.  I’m not saying its Mt. Denali or Everest but the terrain would challenge our ability to move forward as we chased the 10 hour cut off in Everest proportions.

It is 4:30am, Saturday, September 29th.  I wake up and realize I am pretty nervous about the activity I am going to partake in today.  It is my first trail race for the year and to make it even more nerve racking is it one of the toughest 50K’s in the Northeast.

It’s that time of year again, Mountain Madness 50k (aka MoMa)!  For the last 3 years, this race has been a staple of my race calendar, and no matter what other events I had planned or injuries I sustained throughout the year, I have always managed to make it to the starting line of this race.

In the midst of a record breaking heat wave, 100 plus participants decided to embark on a journey that made them wonder if indeed the devil had taken over their minds and bodies. I mean really their aren’t many people who participate in a race where the day time high was projected to be in the high 90’s to 100º with the northeast humidity added in of course.