yeah RD here.. little bit of a calf knot to work out, and it worked out ok. gave me some time to get on the roof and cut channels in the ice dams. dripping indoors is already diminished.

qotd: I'll get you all a nice fruit basket

Couch - I've never ran OC100 or ES100 but talked to some friends who ran the marathon at Eastern States (and who have done MMT) and heard it was way tougher than MMT. I've only read reports about OC100 but find it difficult to believe it is more mountainous than MMT. MMT has very tough rocky terrain, probably nothing worse than you've seen though. A few ridge tops are nothing more than rock scrambling, and very difficult at night. For the most part the course goes like so.. leave aid station, run up a mountain 1,000-1,500 feet. Run around or hike around on the ridge. Go back down the mountain to the next aid station.

Taper, thanks for the reassurance! OC100 does not feel mountainous at all, but officially it has something around 17,600 ft of climbing. Felt much less, and the hills are very tame with excellent footing, nothing much technical.

I have done rock-scrambling and -hopping at Rothrock, and it's part of my usual trails, too. I did some at ES100 in the night, and was ok with it, but I had my pacer with me then, and for MMT, I plan on going solo (if I get in, that is).

Your course description sounds almost like the Hyner View trail challenge! For me it's challenging to have longer, higher hills than my home hills (e.g. Hyner typically has 1,600 ft on 3 miles, wheras my longest hills are 1,100 to 1,400 ft on 1 to 3 miles), but so far, I have always just trudged it out patiently at the races, not thinking too much about it (this is where Jamie might disagree, but never mind the last 7 miles in a 100-miler 

As long as it's at low altitude, I'm good with any hills.