Mount Ascutney Vertical Backyard

Night Run

Evening Run

Major

A very special experience that spanned 90 hours, 200 miles, and a cumulative elevation gain of 108,000 feet. 

I went into the race hoping to use it to assess my chances of one day completing the 100-mile Barkley Marathons course in 60 hours. The Mount Ascutney race has similar vert. per 12 hours as the Barkley Marathons, but the Barkley Marathons course is harder (e.g., off trail, steeper descents, map and compass navigation). Given that, I reasoned that if I couldn’t complete 60 hours on Mount Ascutney, I wouldn’t have much chance of completing the Barkley Marathons. I wanted to see, however, if I could pass this easier test. Therefore, my goal for the race was to go 60 hours, and I planned to drop at 60 hours, if the race went that long. 

A couple of times on Monday, the possibility of the race going into Tuesday came up. I told Amber that if it did, I wouldn’t be there. Later, however, my wife, Melanie, heard me say something similar. She responded that, no, I would have to continue. She felt it wouldn’t be fair to the other competitors or to the people supporting me to just call it quits at an arbitrary time limit when I could go farther. 

And so, on it went. On and on and on. For 30 hours beyond my goal. 

The race ended on the 90th yard. On the first descent of the short course, I didn’t recognize where I was in the fog. I looked at the map on my watch, but it was the first time I had done so. I hadn’t downloaded the course onto the watch (I couldn’t imagine ever needing that), so I couldn’t tell if I was on course. I was certain I had taken a wrong turn. Instead of continuing a minute or two longer to confirm that I was off course, I turned around and retraced my steps, hoping to return to where I had made the wrong turn. 

Nothing looked familiar as I hiked back up. When I made it back to the top of the rope tow, I still didn’t recognize anything. After a minute or two, I finally realized where I was and what I had done. By that time, I had lost about 16 minutes, too much time to make up. Rather than give up though, I thought I might have a chance of completing the long loop in time, so I started up the long course.  

I saw Conor on his way down and told him what had happened and asked him to let everyone know that I was attempting to do the long course. Then, a little while later, I reached a point that I knew was 10 minutes from the top at about 42 minutes into the loop. At that point, I knew I had no hope of completing the loop within the time limit, so I turned around and started down.

Unfortunately, this all led to me approaching the finish line just prior to time limit. Everyone at the finish line thought I was within striking distance of completing the loop on time, so they yelled at me to sprint, which I did. I arrived just before the end of the hour but then had to inform everyone that I had not completed the loop.

As usual, I had challenges with my watch. The battery died Sunday evening, and I lost all the data from the beginning of the race until Sunday evening. The battery needed another recharge Tuesday evening. This track is from 7:51 PM Tuesday evening. It shows the end of the race, which is the most interesting.

In the end the race was much more than I ever imagined it would be. Many thanks go to all those who helped make it what it became:

To Eli and Justin for conceiving and organizing the race and for their indefatigable enthusiasm throughout.

To Holly, Noah, Will, and Cal for sharing the first 20-26 hours with me.

To Joffrey for coming out to share some laps.

To Lance and Tori for helping me prepare mentally to get to 60 hours.

To Seth and Amber for sharing difficult miles with me and inspiring me to continue (despite me being unable to remember their names for much of the race).

To all those who turned out physically and virtually to cheer me on.

To Cal, Will, and Noah for coming back after their races to support me and Melanie.

To Cal’s dad, Dave, for coming twice to help, and to my son, Michael, for giving up a night’s sleep to be there at the end. 

To Connor, who made it possible for me to show what a 63-year-old can do.

And especially, to Melanie, for her nearly 40 years of unbounded love and support.


Top Sports

Bill Tidd

Mount Ascutney Vertical Backyard

15 Photos

7 Comments

Splits

Sign up to view more activities from Bill Tidd

Mount Ascutney Vertical Backyard

Night Run

Night Run

Evening Run

Major

Want to see more?

The #1 app for runners and cyclists

Sign Up for Free. Track your progress and reach goals. Join 100 million active people on Strava.

See More from Bill