Seven Billion Runners

For those of you who aren't aware yet, the Race Directors of The Hungerford Trail Races are starting a new event, The Midnight Marathon.

It's totally different.

Like any race we put on, we want it to be unique.  The Midnight Marathon is a relay event, with teams consisting of anywhere from four to sixteen people.  Teams can have individual runners go as far as they want -- as little as one lap.  Teams can also have runners run as many legs as they'd like.  It's incredibly flexible, so it should offer something for just about anyone.  More info here.

Now, not only is The Midnight Marathon different than any event I'm aware of -- it's totally different than the Hungerford Trail Races.  Hungerford -- by the standards of most mortals -- is exclusively a long-distance event; the half marathon is the shortest event we offer.  Hungerford is all about getting out into nature, enjoying a beautiful area, maybe running farther than you used to think was possible, and having some quiet time on your own to enjoy the event.

The Midnight Marathon will be more community-oriented, with everyone able to see and cheer for every step of every team's race.  With the shorter options, it will be accessible for beginners looking to get started, for sprinter-types, and for classic endurance athletes looking for a great workout.

George Sheehan has a great quote: "Everyone is an athlete.  The only different is that some of us are in training, and some of us are not."  Our primary mission as Race Directors is to get people to commit to training that inner athlete in pursuit of a goal.  We have been immensely gratified by watching dedicated runners realize their goals at the Hungerford Trail Races, and we're eager to provide more runners with the same opportunity at The Midnight Marathon.

Interested in putting a team together?  

You can sign up here!

New! And Improved!

The world's most perfect little trail race.

That's our goal at The Hungerford Games.  We've got a creative vision with, we hope, broad appeal to the running and trail running communities, and we want flawlessly to craft that vision into a reality:

  

The woods.  Cool temperatures.  Beautiful colors.  

 

Challenging terrain.  

Unique awards.  

Great swag bags.  Well-stocked aid stations.  Clear directions.  Excellent communication.  

Incredible memories.

With that in mind, we're introducing a few improvements to the 2014 Hungerford Games.

First, we're updating the Ultramarathon course.  It was a real shame that our longest race didn't showcase our scenic, iconic Powerlines; we've added them.  The long out-and-back through unforested land was a drag.  We've shortened it.  A lot.  Instead of being almost six miles long, the out-and-back will be just over one mile.  That means you'll get back to your Aid Station almost immediately, and get two refueling opportunities in quick succession at those critical stages of the race.

Speaking of Aid Stations, we've added an extra one.  Instead of going almost seven miles without an Aid Station (from Station D to E), we've added one on the Horse Trails.  That means marathoners will now get seven Aid Stations during their race, and ultramarathoners will get eleven.

Speaking of Aid Stations, we're incredibly pleased to be partnering with Hammer Nutrition to keep our Aid Stations well-stocked.  We'll have an incredible, consistent supply of Hammer Gel and HEED sports drink, as well as Endurolyte tablets at all Aid Stations.

In response to a request from a participant survey, all Aid Stations will carry the same exact refueling supplies, so you'll always know what to expect.

We're continuing with RaceReady Apparel for our shirts-- but this year, we've confirmed that they'll be long-sleeved in both men's and women's cuts.

We're creating a custom-crafted Finish Line to enhance your experience as your complete your journey.

We're printing taller and more visible directional signs to help keep you confident in your turns.

We're excited.  We believe in the changes we're making, and in their ability to keep us moving closer and closer toward our goal: the world's most perfect little trail race.

Any suggestions?  Let us know!

Tales from the Games

The very first Hungerford Games are over.

If you participated in the 2013 Hungerford Games as an athlete, volunteer, or spectator, I cannot thank you enough for making our first event such a huge success.  My first experience as a Race Director was incredibly fulfilling.  Watching streams of runners cascading down the hills and toward the finish line, their goals nearly within their grasps -- it was a memory I'll keep forever, and it made all the work and all the craziness of race directing worthwhile.

And there was plenty of craziness.  Take, for instance, The Incident of the Phony Signs:

Our permit for the Games allowed us to begin marking the trails on Friday, so we began bright and early.  All day long, Rob and Brandon (two of the other RD's) were driving, walking, and jogging the course, laying out 2200 marking flags, 88 mileage markers, and over a hundred directional signs.  Along with getting our Aid Stations and Start/Finish area set up, running a Pancake Dinner, and helping Registration run smoothly, this took us until well into the night.  By 3:00 a.m. we were all headed home for an hour of two of sleep before starting again the the next morning.

While Brandon, Kendall, and Rob worked the Start, I laid the traffic cones out on the running lanes, then began running back and forth between the Aid Stations, making sure that volunteers got where they needed to be and that things were well-stocked and moving smoothly.  Thank goodness the Big Rapids Area Amateur Radio Club was able to assist us with communications: cell phone reception in Hungerford is almost non-existent.

About 10:00, however, a call somehow managed to get through to my cell phone.  It was Rob; he had decided to take the ATV out on the trail for a while to see how things were going.  He just happened to go out toward 13-Mile Road and the marathon loop, and noticed that some of the signs seemed to be a little... strange.  A little off.  He wanted me to take a look at them a minute and see if there was something wrong.

I just happened to be a few minutes away, and I raced out as quickly as I could.  If something was wrong, it needed to be fixed right away -- the fastest marathoners would be coming through in a matter of minutes.

Sure enough, some time in the early hours of Saturday morning, some knucklehead (the politest term I can use) had come out to Beech Road and moved all the flags and directional signs.  The rearranged signs were perfectly positioned to send runners off onto a little side trail, out into the middle of nowhere.

It was 10:22, fifty-two minutes into the marathon.  The race was on.  I reorganized the signs and flags at the first intersection, and then rushed ahead to the next one.  That one had been redone as well, and the next one, and the next.  It only took a few minutes at each intersection, but I could feel the marathoners getting closer.  Plus, on Beech Road I couldn't drive much faster than the lead marathoners would run, so I knew they were closing in.  My biggest fear was being passed while there were still errant signs ahead, with the possibility that someone might get lost.

Fortunately, once the marathon course returned to 12-Mile, nothing had been tampered with.  All the signs and flags were fixed just in time -- thanks to a series of fortunate events.

• Rob happened to head out to that exact portion of the course.
• He happened to have marked that part of the trail late the night before -- so he knew that something was strange.
• His cell phone happened to get reception.
• My cell phone happened to get reception.
• I happened to be close enough to get there in time.

A disaster narrowly averted, and just one of the great stories from the 2013 Hungerford Games.

If you've got an experience from the Games that you'd like to share, e-mail me at hungerfordgames@gmail.com and I'll add it to the canon.  Anita -- the winner of the Women's Ultramarathon -- told her story at Running Against the Odds.

Oh, and we already have a couple of well-armed marksmen who have offered to help make sure no one touches the signs in 2014 :-) 

Trail Preview -- Video #2 -- Miles 3 & 4

We had planned to get some course preview footage up soon, but my old and dilapidated Nissan Quest (aka The Cross Country Van) has finally crossed its last country, and we didn't have anything rugged enough to tackle the course with until recently.

However, we managed to get out there recently and get some good video, which should help you get a pretty good idea of what things look like; hopefully, it helps those of you concerned about getting lost feel a little more at ease as well.

All races will run this stretch as well.  The rest of the course preview has been shot -- Race Director Seaver is working frantically to set it to jaunty sidetracks right this minute.

Enjoy!

Course Preview

We're starting to roll out our Course Preview videos; we hope they help get you excited about getting onto the course, and helps comfort those of you who are concerned about getting lost.

(DON'T WORRY!  We'll have the course so ridiculously well-marked that you can't possibly go wrong.)

The first video takes you from the Parking Area to the Start/Finish, and then out for the first two miles of the race.

Your journey begins when you head north toward Woodward Avenue and take a left.  You'll be on pavement for the first mile of the course.  Then, Woodward turns to gravel and takes you up some fairly strong hills.

Just over two miles into your race, you'll get onto the two-tracks and.the real trail running begins.

Our video covers these first two miles and takes you right up to that entrance into the woods.  This is the exact run our team was doing when we discovered Hungerford for ourselves.  We explored down that two-track and into Hungerford, and have been exploring and enjoying the area ever since.

We hope you're eager to do the same!

The Trophy

Local chainsaw artist Jack Eppinga just sent us word that the very first Hungerford Games trophy has been finished.  Without further ado, we present it for your viewing pleasure:

A trophy to match the event: gorgeous and unique

We'll inscribe each one with the year, the event, and your place in the race.  They'll go out to the top three finishers in each gender in each race, meaning that we'll hand out eighteen of these beauties on September 28th.  That's in addition to the ultra finishers' hiking sticks and the wooden medals branded on-site!

If you'd like to pick up this handsome addition to your mantle, check out the website for more information or register today.  If you've got friends who might like to take a shot at bringing home the trophy, spread the word by letting them know about this unique event!

Good and Evil

On Monday, I was there.  I crossed the "H" on that famous finish line at 1:15 p.m.  It wasn't my best time or my best-run race, but it was the greatest running experience of my life.

The Boston Marathon is perfect.  The course is beautiful, historic, and punishing.  Runners wind their way from tiny Hopkinton into downtown Boston; the crowds grow larger and more frenzied as the finish line grows closer and the pain grows more intense.

Each town along the way comes out to support the athletes; each burg shows its own character and flavor, from rowdy Framingham to wild Wellesley.  The course itself is ideal, with enough downhills early to beat up your legs before you're sent up the challenging Hills of Newton, culminating in the (in)famous Heartbreak Hill.

The sight of twenty-seven thousand runners, each of whom has trained and striven just to earn the right to run the race, is an inspirational testament human aspiration and discipline.  The sight of a half million volunteers cheering and passing out water to the runners speaks to our unity and our camaraderie.  To the kid who gave me an orange at mile 23, when I'd hit the wall and was hobbling at a snail's pace: thank you.

Thank you to the organizers who put on the best marathon on the planet.  Thank you to the volunteers who made it possible.  Thank you to the other runners who invested their lives in running the race.  Every year, there is incredible goodness at every marathon on the planet, but the goodness at Boston is unique.

And then this year, there was unique and unthinkable evil.

In a way, that evil overshadows everything else.  I keep thinking of the day I finished my first marathon and my daughter stood near the finish line, waiting for Dad.  The family of Martin Richards lost him when he was doing that exact same thing.  In a way, nothing can compare with the grief and anguish inflicted on the victims and their families.

In a way, it seems odd, or even wrong, then, to write about the perfection of the Boston Marathon.  In another way, however, I think it's exactly right.

On the fifteenth of April, there was more good in Boston than evil.  Half a million human beings came out to celebrate the nobler aspects of our nature; two monsters attacked them.  Two madmen inflicted suffering; thousands of heroes rushed to provide rescue and aid.  

Sometimes we forget how much goodness there is in the world.  Every time a father picks up his child in his arms, every good meal with friends, every long run through the woods on a beautiful day... these moments are no less miraculous just because they are common.  

Our humanity springs from a common belief:  Good can triumph, and should triumph, and does triumph over evil.  If we believe it deeply, then let us believe it about the 117th Boston Marathon.  There was meaning -- real, valuable, profound meaning in the running of the race.  Let us neither forget nor minimize the meaning we can make from the marathon, and from the rescue that followed; instead, let us remember and celebrate that goodness, even in the face of evil.

By focusing on the good, I hope to remind myself of the most important truths we can believe: if there was more good than evil on Monday in Boston, there is more good than evil in this world.