Last Saturday, the 23rd of March, was the seventh
running of the McKay Hollow Madness (MHM) Trail Run which began in 2007. The
event was the brainchild of Tom Possert, a renowned ultramarathoner and
adventure racer who lives locally in the Huntsville area. Tom designed the
McKay Hollow Madness as a trail half marathon race that incorporated some of
the most difficult trails in the Monte Sano State Park trail system; including a
brutal last uphill on the infamous “Death Trail” (northern leg of the McKay
Hollow Trail).
For the first two years, Tom race directed MHM and the
course was significantly different than today’s longer ~25km route. For starters the course started and finished
by the ranger station pavilion. The first two miles were screaming fast as
runners ran out the park and gravel road to O’Shaughnessy point. At O’Shaughnessy
point the route dropped down the first part of Mountain Mist and continued on
the relatively new Goat Trail extension over to Warpath Ridge then up the
familiar climb to the first aid station back at O’Shaughnessy point. From there
the course was largely the same, down Shelter Hill (southern leg of the McKay
Hollow Trail), Slush Mile (middle section of McKay Hollow Trail), around
Arrowhead Trail, climb up Natural Well trail. However at this time the newer
section of Arrowhead trail that runs to the Trough Springs trailhead was not
yet in existence so runners had to run a long out and back leg on Natural Well
trail to an aid station near Monte Sano Blvd and back before dropping down
Arrowhead trail. Back then, believe it or not, Neo Son-of-a-Bitch Ditch (the
huge washout that we run around now, also the original S.O.B. ditch is a
feature on the Barkley Marathons course) was hardly the chaotic mess it is now!
The remaining route of the original MHM course was almost the same as it is now
except that once runners topped out above the waterfall on Death Trail they
were not done yet but had to run counter-clockwise around on the North and
South Plateau Trail and cabin road to finish back at the ranger station pavilion.
My first experience with the MHM was in 2008, the second
edition where I was fortunate enough to win the half marathon trail race in a “course
record” time of 1:45:57. After that
year, Tom wasn’t going to be able to put on the race the following year because
he was going to be out of the country for several weeks. In stepped Blake
Thompson, my wife Kathy and myself to fill the void. So starting in 2009 I
spent the next several years not running MHM but instead helping co-race direct
(silently and behind the scenes with Kathy) and volunteer heavily for MHM, from
logo design, course design, course marking, working the finish line, post race
clean up etc… It’s a big job and big stress putting an event on like this and
Blake should be well thanked for all his work the past five years!
So our first year, 2009, was very exciting. This was the first time any
of us had put on an event and we had a lot of growing pains; lot’s of mistakes
made but we learned quite a deal! We
also had a lot of fun thinking of ways to make the event our own; to put our
signature on the already established event. So I masterminded a partial course
redesign to make it more difficult. Gone was the fast flat start; replaced with
the drop down North Sinks Trail and the technical climb up through Super Cuts
and Logan Ridge then down Stone Cut Trail, up South Sinks and a rocky, steady
ascent up Mountain Mist Trail. I also
eliminated the long out and back on the Natural Well trail; instead runners
ascend Natural Well like they do now but then took the left, downhill, onto
Arrowhead. So since we eliminated the Monte Sano Blvd. aid station we instead
lugged 20 gallons of water down to the four way Arrowhead-Natural Well crossing
in McKay Hollow. This intersection seemed like a great place to cache some aid
since runners come and go through this trail crossing twice. Another change we
made was to finish the race right at the top of Death Trail. I thought it would be awesome (in good
weather) for spectators and finishers a like to be able to hang out right at
the finish and watch runners ascend one last steep section of trail and cross
one last slippery stream.
Building off our success in 2009, the 2010 course was largely
left unchanged except that, after the horror of lugging 20 gallons of water
down into McKay Hollow, we decided to bring back the out and back section on
Natural Well trail and set up the aid station on the far side of the now much
larger Neo S.O.B. Ditch. We forced runners to have to cross the wicked ditch
twice! However as the entire “road” out
to the Ditch was very sketchy we decided that we really needed to have the aid
station at the Trough Springs Trailhead. By 2011 the Arrowhead extension trail
had been completed and so we had a way to loop the course to and from the trail
head without an out and back. This new
edition would make the course significantly longer as we were loath to change
the course anywhere else to shorten it. Therefore we re-branded the MHM as a “~25km”
trail run and no longer a ½ marathon. In
my mind it will always be the McKay Hollow Madness Trail Run with no distance
label attached as the primary goal has always been to come up with a fun route
that flowed well without worrying about the exact distance or exact route. But
since the new GPSd route seemed close to 25km we decided to at least advertise
what we thought the distance was (not that this was a PR 25km trail course by
any means and not that it was certified at all). Unfortunately, as everybody
knows, 2011 Mother Nature won as the event had to be canceled due to extremely
heavy lightning storms in the area. But a lot of runners still took advantage
of the marked route and got out there and at least ran some of the course on
their own. So the first official running of the “new” course came the following
year in 2012.
Now to the present. 2013. Through some twist of fate and much
to my delight I had the opportunity to run the MHM this year. In years past I
was not only too busy helping with the event but I’d also been regularly
participating in the Barkley Marathons which fell too close to the MHM date.
Unfortunately for me I had a stomach bug over the weekend prior to the race
that really knocked me out for almost five days! What made matters worse was
that my first couple of runs back were not at all encouraging as my legs
threatened to cramp on the steep downhills because of an apparent electrolyte
imbalance. But over the remaining day or two before the race I really pounded various
electrolyte compounds and started to feel more like myself. Still, it was
anybody’s guess how I’d be able to race at MHM that Saturday.
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| Calm in the morning storm: Me, Jimm Giles and my wife Kathy. |
Race morning it was extremely grey and misty as a cold, light
rain continued to fall. Walking over from the house with my wife Kathy we noted
most of the racers will still jammed inside the tarped up pavilion trying to
eke out some last minute warmth from two roaring fire places. Finally the herd
made its miserable way out to the main park road to the starting line.
Thankfully the start line briefing was short and we were on our way.
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| And we're off! |
I started out very conservative not exactly knowing what to
expect once we hit the trail after the first easy road mile to thin out the
race field. At the first pool of standing water at the end of the cabin road I
saw runners ahead of me trying to tip toe around it. Not me, I charged straight
on through like I do everywhere else on the course. Definitely a pet peeve of
mine; just stay in the center of the trail people! Skirting the edge of the mud
or puddles widens and damages the trail even more! It makes absolutely no sense
to try and avoid the slop and it actually wastes a considerable amount of time
as well. Just get stick to the center of the trail, get your feet wet and roll
with it; this is trail running! Ok, off my soap box. The road mile ended pretty
abruptly and I dropped down the North Sinks Trail. As expected it was a slick
mess made worse by a blowdown that had blocked a steep switch back thus forcing
runners to plummet straight down a slippery fall line to the trail below. I
actually kept traction pretty well on this slippery slide but heard that many
others were not so lucky! Off the
downhill I felt pretty good, no leg twitches or threats of cramping thus far.
Special thanks to Tony Alexander who’s massage a couple days before the race really
helped a great deal to work out my cramping legs!
By Logan Point trail I’d settled into a comfortable pace.
Not race fast but not lollygagging either; sort of a trail tempo pace that I
hoped to sustain throughout the event.
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| Splashing through Logan Point Trail. |
On the climb through the Super Cuts I passed at least a couple runners
who made a wrong turn (easy to do) and by the time I topped out on Logan Point
on the ridge I was by myself; in a void that I’d be for almost the entire rest
of the race. As I descended Stone Cut Trail I thought I spotted a runner in all
black some distance ahead so figured I was somewhere in the top five perhaps?
No idea. But I wasn’t concerned at all about place only trying to keep my pace
nice and steady and avoiding redlining.
Felt pretty good climbing out of the Sinks and making the
sharp turn onto the Mountain Mist trail; noticed that the turn was not well
marked. The red flagging was very difficult to see in the dark mist and the
connector trails were not marked off. Thankfully I knew the route well for
obvious reasons but I fear the black clothed runner must have missed this turn
because I never saw him yet finished ahead of him! Sorry guy! The long grade up Mountain Mist Trail was
uneventful; I felt more like I was in a solo training run than a race as I was
all by myself and the cold mist made things very quiet. All I could hear was my
own footsteps and my steady breathing.
The short drop down Goat Trail was a lot fun as I did my characteristic “alley-oop”
turns at each switch-back (at the switch back I spin my body the opposite way of
the switch back as I make the turn) even though there was nobody around to
witness my clowning around. The climb up
Warpath was a muddy grind but I just focused on finding the line with the
shallowest steps; the least wasteful line.
At the top I ran right through the aid station at O’Shaughnessy Point
and kept on going to the turn off down Shelter Hill.
This was the descent I was most worried about after my leg
cramping episode a few days prior.
Thankfully the electrolyte regime and deep tissue massage had worked
their magic and I had no issues; just floated down the rocky mountain side.
Slush mile was just that; a muddy quagmire than had to be endured. I was saddened
to see so many new splinter trails off either side of the main trail from folks
trying to avoid the muddy mess. Shameful in my opinion. Ok, off the soap box
again, sorry, just bugs me! Near the end of slush mile I passed by several
early starters and then, unbelievably I spotted Brandon Madder ahead of me! Big
shock as Madder was heavily favored to win based on his last year’s winning
performance and experience as a national class XTerra trail racer and all
around leg speed. However I knew he’d been overcoming an injury and hadn’t even
been running on trails for months. When
I caught up to him on Arrowhead Trail we ran together and talked all the way up
the very steep and technical Natural Well Trail. As the trail leveled out near
the towering rock bluff I sped back up as I made my way to the second aid
station at just over 10 miles. Again I didn’t even stop at the aid station as
my water bottle with 1st Endurance E.F.S. was still half full; plenty
to get me to the finish in these cold and wet conditions. I did take a gel
right before the aid station but other than that I had no other nutrition during
the race. I really felt the honey on toast I had before the race would suffice
and it did.
I knew the next couple of miles were the best try and run
fast as they were mostly level to steeply downhill on the Natural Well and
Arrowhead Trails so I made the best of it. I had just learned from Mader that I
was now in second place and aimed to maintain that! However, I also knew I had
no chance of catching Eric Charette, the race leader, when John Nevels, who I
saw checking the course markings after
S.O.B. ditch, told me I was 3-4 minutes behind! Oh well! I felt pretty darn
good and wanted to keep feeling that way so I just cruised along and enjoyed
the sounds of my feet splashing through the endless ankle deep puddles and
squishing through the equally thick mud. I felt like I was just floating down
the upper part of Arrowhead Trail; that downhill is mesmerizing and fun!
However, all good things come to an end; the trail bottomed out before climbing
through the ancient cistern and the quick down and up loop around the Big Cat
extension trail (I seriously hope nobody cheated and cut this loop off as it’s
easy to do!). The remaining mile on the
Neo-Slush Mile (Arrowhead trail from top of Big Cat to Natural Well Trail
intersection) was a boggy, muddy hell; impossible to maintain a steady running
pace. But finally I’d passed the three
large blow downs and the hand hewn cedar bridge and arrived at the last
significant downhill on the course.
Down Natural Well trail I didn’t push with reckless abandon
like I love to do on occasion; instead deciding to take it easy and risk injury
and save my energy in case I had to thwart any last minute threat to my second
place position. Crossing the icy cold McKay Creek at the bottom I had my
closest call to actually falling all day; thankfully I only put one hand down
and as per Saturday Football rules that couldn’t be ruled an actual fall. (We like to play this game where we go by
Football rules to decide if what you did was considered a true “fall” or not.
On Saturdays we go by NCAA rules so if you have a knee or elbow down on the
ground; it’s a fall. However, on Sundays we go by NFL rules so no matter how
you end on the ground or what touches it’s only a “fall” if you’re down by
contact or touched by another runner while you’re down. Suffice to say when you
run on Sundays alone you can never fall!)
I didn’t cry much going up Cry Baby Hill but I did glance
behind me from time to time to make sure the Old Man (a.k.a. Dink Taylor) wasn’t
trying to sneak up on me. I didn’t realize at the time that he’d taken a nasty
fall earlier that broke a rib and possibly fractured his hand! Yikes! But the
fear of being caught this late into the game was still very real so I kept
climbing smartly but certainly not trying to red line. I topped out on Cry Baby
Hill and passed some runners still coming out bound on the only section of MHM
where the course double backs on itself for perhaps a little more than a tenth
of a mile. More power to these folks having to endure the cold and wet for so
long! Kudos to you guys and gals!
Finally began the final ascent of the course, up the dreaded
Death Trail. But this day at least I didn’t dread it but instead really enjoyed
my fast hike up and out of McKay Hollow; I wasn’t being pushed and there was no
way I was going to catch Eric so why rush?
Somehow, despite the thick fog, a crowd above the waterfall at the top of
the climb spotted me and began to yell and cheer. I decided I needed to run
again and so managed to run the rest of the way up and out of the gorge and
jogged the final couple hundred meters to the race finish back at the large
picnic area pavilion.
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| Top of Death Trail and eying the finish! |
My final time was 2:11:38; good enough for second place overall. Not a bad performance considering my pitiful and shameful Ultra Signup ranking had me pegged for a 2 hour and 30 minute finish and not even a top ten finish!
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| DONE! |
While the McKay Hollow Madness Trail Run was certainly not a goal race for me, I had neither the specificity training nor the fitness; it was wonderful to feel healthy after being so sick! I really enjoyed getting out there and running in the slop and loved experiencing what all the hype was about! This is definitely, mile for mile one of the toughest trail races in the Southeast that will beat you up if you’re not careful. However, at the same time the low key, small, grass roots nature of the event make it a true gem unlike any other. I probably won’t be able to run the MHM for a while, at least not next year as I’m planning on returning to the Barkley Marathons, but I can promise that I'll be there helping to put the race on and cheering for each and every banged up, bruised and muddy finisher!
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| Stylish working the finish line. |
Special thanks to Greg Gelmis of We Run Huntsville and James Hurley for the shared photographs.
