Race Report: Mark Thorne

Much thanx to Adam, his family, all the volunteers, and the WVMTR club for yet another epic march through the mountains of West Virginia. Upon arriving at the race HQ Friday around 5PM, I began feeling nervous. Slothful training and threatening weather put me ill at ease. However, after seeing many familiar faces I was able to relax a bit. Then after speaking with you and listening to your race director zero hour anxieties I figured…”Hey, at least I’m not Adam tonight,” whereupon my fears vanished. Once the go was given I eased into a trot and decided to drink in the next twelve hours. The humidity in the valley was indeed drinkable. Once I climbed the Big Cheat the coolness of vertical climate was a welcome relief. The new difficulty that emerged was fogging eyeglasses and an occasional cloud bank, both of which prevented me from seeing the ground on which was attempting to tread. Only two falls resulted from the poor visibility ( along w/numerous toe snags ). The highlight of the evening was each aid station. Memories of the Cheat Mt. Drive-In ( quite the surprise ), tiki torches lighting my way, aid station 4 sports energy drink Pale Ale (thanx Pete ), minestrone at 7 (thanx Gene), and the freshly made peanut butter on a saltine at 8 ( thanx Kadra’s mom). Another good memory from this run was the help from two new running chums Mark M. & Rhonda S. They kept me going at those times when the going gets rough. There were also many other strangers that I met briefly in the dark as they passed me and I was able run behind to learn tidbits like where they were from and sometimes short bios. It was a pleasure though I would never recognize you in the light of day. Early in this run I was telling myself that next year I would only consider returning to volunteer at an aid station. But by the time I finished I thought that if I don’t run then I will miss the experience that is the CMMM.

Mark Wm. Thorne
Reedsville,WV