Morgan M's Staging Area

2021 was the first year this race was held and after a year with limited races due to the pandemic, it was an item circled on my calendar. The race takes place in scenic Damascus, VA (less than 3 hours away from Charlotte, NC) where NC, VA, and TN and meet. The race also is a no DNF event meaning that no matter what distance you attempt you will be counted as a finisher. This makes it a great opportunity to strive for a new distance PR or a time PR without worry of being counted as a DNF if something happens to go wrong. Additionally, on Saturday the races touts its awesome features of an all day food truck and live music at night following the race. Sounds amazing right?!

This race was everything I signed up for and more. I cannot thank Jason Green (the RD) enough for putting together this event or bringing together such awesome people to help volunteer the race or run the race. Every member of the Yeti Army had encouraging words from the start of the weekend until the end. Morgan Wade performed and man that girl can sing! After a year of so much loss, loneliness, and pain attending this race was truly truly special and hopefully a sign of things to come. I cannot recommend this race enough to any runner of any speed of any distance. Cannot miss!!!

Javelina Jundred was one of the most fun races I’ve ever run. The production of Javelina Jeadquarters (HQ) where you start and finish your loops was so much fun and featured great support. The aid stations were all some of the best I’ve ever encountered serving up a wide variety of food choices including pizza late in the race, pumpkin pie, and a plethora of vegetarian options. The volunteers at all of the aid stations were also amazing, knowing exactly what I wanted before I even said it, and were super encouraging and fun. I highly recommend this race to anyone whether you’re a seasoned 100 mile vet or looking for your first one.

The Lawrence Trail Hawks put on some of the best races in the Kansas City area, and are really second to none in the area. This race, like most of the other Trail Hawk races, is run smoothly like all of the other major ultra races in the area but really nails the intimate local feeling. You feel like every person there knows you and is cheering you on. The aid stations at this race were well stocked with all the trail running essentials (quesadillas, PBJ, potato chips) and had wonderful, eager volunteers. Even more, Mile90 Photography was out on the course documenting the race in a way only they can. If you haven’t checked out their work, you really should!

This year’s course was different than years previous as we’ve experienced a lot of rain fall in Kansas City. The blue trails that this race normal uses were all under water and unrunnable. So, this year featured a little bit of road running for the first 1.7 miles, and also for the last 2ish miles. We also got to brave a waist deep river crossing.

Last year I DNF’d this race about 5 or 6 miles in with an injury. I was happy to finish this year, and even happier to finish 5th. Highly recommend this race and other Trail Hawk races!!

This is one of my favorite races to run every year! The half marathon in 2016 was the first race I ever ran, so of course this race has a very special place in my heart just for that reason alone. This year was the 3rd year I have participated in the marathon, and 3rd straight year I’ve participated in the iChallenge. The iChallenge can be done as either a half or whole challenge, and it consists of running the 5k on Friday night, and the marathon or half on Saturday.

This race has a ton of great production value, a ton of great swag (including awesome unique medals each year, a finisher’s blanket, a heat shield, tech fit shirt, really nice drawstring shoe bag and tons of great local discounts). As an alum of Illinois, let me say that Champaign Urbana has some of the absolute greatest people I have ever met. It feels like everyone in the local neighborhoods comes out to support the race, with people setting up chairs on their lawns or driveways to cheer the runners. A lot of people even set up tables with water bottles, bananas, and orange slices for the runners (even beer!)

For my performance, I went out strong and was able to hold it and run sub-3. This course is very fast and flat, with a few small climbs on the back-end of the race. Highly recommend this race!!!

This was one of the hardest races I’ve ever run. Run LOViT 100 2019 was my first attempt at 100 miles, and it took just about everything I had to finish the race. The course was equal parts challenging and beautiful. Mother nature had some plans this year as it rained for about the first 16+ hours of the race, which starts at 5pm. As a result, there was a lot of high river crossings throughout the course. Might as well make it difficult for the story, amiright?

This race was one of the best races I’ve ever run – time wise and overall experience wise. The production of the race was fantastic. The course itself was challenging, but a fantastic tour of New York for someone who had never visited New York prior. The crowds were electric the whole way on the whole course. I highly recommend this race to any marathon lover. Can’t beat a World Major!