A Few Words From Carl

I had the honor and privilege of supporting the 2025 edition of Massanutten’s Revenge as both a volunteer and a pacer. While the former was planned long ahead of time, the latter was a bit more spur-of-the-moment, but still supremely rewarding.

Prior to the race, I spent a fantastic couple of days in Richmond getting to meet my girlfriend Meaghan Burton’s parents for the first time (in addition to going to GWARBar for the first time since before I was old enough to drink, and to The Veil to pick up some delicious beer). I didn’t have any commitments to the race until Saturday, so we spent Friday exploring the city after I got a nice, flat run in at Pocahontas State Park. Friday night was spent somewhat restlessly as I kept tabs on the group text chain to follow along with how the race was progressing—Dan Fogg was making great time, and appeared to be well ahead of course record splits, so I told Meaghan I would be setting my alarm for 2:40 so we could get to Gap Creek before his arrival. Unfortunately, during the night, Dan retired from the race after getting lost on Three Top Mountain. On the bright side, this did give us a little more time to sleep in, but most of the night was already lost due to restless obsessing over how the race was transpiring.

We got up around 6 AM Saturday and made our way northwest from Richmond to get to Gap Creek, about a 2.5 hour drive, arriving just before 9 AM. My dad, aid station captain at Gap Creek, arrived shortly after and set up shop to wait for the arrival of the sole remaining runner, Jana Fridrichová. She came in a little before 11 AM, looking strong and determined to finish the run, despite not having any competition. After taking some brats and hashbrowns in a baggie for the road, she was off, heading up the Gap Creek trail enroute to the first of 2 climbs up Waterfall. I took the opportunity to go for my own run, albeit far less technical (I just ran along Crisman Hollow Road for 12 miles; training for Tussey is a blast). When I got back, we packed up the aid station and headed over to Picnic Area to help out at the next aid station.

Jana came through Picnic 1 later in the afternoon, still looking strong and moving well. More food for the road and she was back at it, ready to take on the reverse loop up and around Bird Knob. While she was up there, RD Mike Bur went up to Ant Road to make sure she was alright; it’s a long stretch without aid, and it was getting late. While up there, he sent a text to the group chain: “Jana top out at bird knob @7:05; ETA for picnic 9ish? Wants Carl to pace.” Seeing my cue, I got myself situated, getting running clothes from my car and hoping the beer and whiskey I’d been consuming wouldn’t bog me down too much. Sadly I only brought a running belt and 2 bottles with me for the weekend, as pacing was not originally on my to-do list. In any case, I was thrilled to help a good friend out in any way I could.

Shortly after 9 PM she made her way back to picnic area, ate some more food, and then we were off into the night. I reassured her I 100% knew where I was going, shortly before accidentally going the wrong way through the road loop in picnic area despite being in charge of marking the “south loop” at the MMT 100 for the last 3 years. To my credit, it was dark out, the only times I’d seen it recently were in the daylight, and we leave picnic area down a different trail during MMT. Eventually we made it to the correct trail and started making our way towards the 211 parking lot. Jana was still in high spirits at this point and we were making great conversation talking about future races, life, how well my relationship with Meaghan is going, that sort of thing. Once we got to Waterfall, though… oh boy, that’s when things took a turn. Waterfall is a pain to climb on fresh legs. On legs that have already done 100 miles? That’s just downright cruel, and I’m sure Bur knows that. We did eventually make it to the top (after simultaneously taking dumps on the side of the trail), crossed over Crisman Hollow again, and started the even more torturous traverse of Kern’s Mountain. Again, Kern’s on fresh legs is pretty heinous. But at the end of this race? Again, that’s just cruel. Makes me reconsider wanting to take on this thing next year.

Kern’s took us a good amount of time to traverse. We were probably doing 40 minute miles for most of it, but forward progress is still progress. Jana was clearly getting frustrated with how long it was taking, but she still kept plugging along and chomping away at the miles. I always knew that she was extremely tough, but getting to pace her through these miles really opened my eyes to just how badass she is. A normal (read: rational) person would have quit long ago after realizing they were the only one left in the race, but she trucked on with steadfast determination to get to that finish line. After finally making it to the end of Kern’s, I said to her “Guess what? Your nightmare on Kern’s is over.” We still had to get down Jawbone to get to the last aid station at Gap Creek 2, but at least Kern’s was done and dusted!

After returning to Gap for the 2nd time, we picked up Luc Claessens, first ever finisher of Massanutten’s Revenge, and began the last 6ish mile stretch to the finish line. The climb up to Peach Orchard Gap was fairly uneventful apart from us teasing Jana about the potential of going up to Duncan Knob a 2nd time (FUCK no). After cresting the top, we were met with the most heinous downhill I’ve ever experienced. Gap Creek trail is a bastard all the time, but having to go down it after an entire summer’s worth of overgrowth on 100+ mile legs is—say it with me now—FUCKING CRUEL. We made it down to the intersection with the Massanutten trail and waited for Jana who we’d left behind (at her request) to conquer the downhill solo. We then made our way together down a remarkably dry Duncan Hollow, made hilariously ironic after having to cross through the usual wade pool of muck and knee-deep water about 0.25 miles away from the intersection. Still, at least the trail wasn’t all running water like it was at MMT in 2024. The miles continued to tick by slowly, but Jana kept trucking along down the mountain. The last mile of Duncan Hollow is possibly my favorite stretch of the Massanutten trail; buttery single track when compared to the rest of the trail. Jana was less than impressed by it and was just looking forward to being off that damn mountain and laying down for a nap (justifiably; she’d been moving for over 40 hours at that point). We made it to Camp Roosevelt Road and hooked a left to run it in to the pavilion where Jana was crowned Queen of Revenge, and the only person to finish the race twice. All told, I got to spend 8 hours and 16 miles with Jana, bearing witness to an unbelievable feat of endurance, strength, and determination. It really lit a spark under me and makes me want to try my hand at this race next year.

Cheers to good times, good friends, good beer, and badass ladies.