History:

The Boulder Beast is a new version of a old race. In 2003 Jeff Stover started a race in the Lock Haven area and named it the Megatransect.  He admits that this was not the first time a race or excursion had used the term. The first Mega had somewhere between 250-300 runners I believe. Over the next six years the race gained in popularity and after that time Jeff turned over the RD duties over to Dave Hunter. At some point in time Brian Newcomer joined in as a co-director.  I first did the Mega in 2012 and at that time it was getting difficult to get in as the race was capped at about 1000 runners and was selling out.  Always held around the last weekend in Sept. 2015's race was moved to August due to conflicts with Penn State football and hunting season.

As this was being discussed in 2014 I noted that the RDs seemed to be getting stressed out by the race and had even engaged in some back and forth with runners on FB when faced with some criticism. I started to wonder if they were tired of putting the race on.  Just before the 2015 race it was announced that would be the last Mega. At issue was the land being used for logging and other recreational pursuits. The land is mostly owned by the City of Lock Haven water authority and the PA DCNR. Apparently both of these entities were planning on doing some forestry management including timbering and thinning.  Apparently the Nature Conservancy was also involved in developing the forestry management plan.  It soon became obvious that the two RDs felt that this was their playground and  were incensed by this. When they couldn't stop it they pulled the race.  There were also some complaints from the RDs that the landowners had asked them to reroute a few sections of the trail in 2015 due to danger concerns as well as erosion.  Depending on how you measure the area that the race is run in, it is between 10-13 square miles.

The two RDs tried to place the blame squarely on Lock Haven accusing them of not caring about the race, which doesn't appear to be true.  Shortly after the 2015 race was complete an announcement was made that the race would continue, but with a different RD. Jeff Stover was jumping back into it. He had recently started another race in that area that was run in the middle of January, called the Frozen Snot.  This was set up as a brutal winter course that I'm too wimpy to even try.  Shortly after announcing that the Mega would continue it was announced that the name would be changing to the Boulder Beast.  The scuttlebutt on the trail this weekend was that the Megatransect name was copyrighted and couldn't be used. I'm not sure who had it copyrighted, if it was the previous two RDs or someone else since the name has been used several other places.  My own opinion is that if the two previous RDs copyrighted it and then wouldn't let the original RD continue to use the name that was a real a$$hole move on their part.

Sorry for being longwinded on this part, but the whole saga has kind of irritated me quite a bit, especially since the one former RD seems to not be content to just walk away and let someone else take over.  I found it interesting that the RD for Hyner, COTW and ES went on FB to distance himself from the hubbub.

Leading up to the race:

I did no specific training for it as Tussey Mountainback is my goal race. I was planning on jogging the easy parts and hiking the rest. I was there just to support the race and use it for training, nothing more.

The Friday before the race was full moon. I went up on the mountain to howl at the moon and get in a nice 17-18 miles. While being chased by Sasquatch (she was attracted by my howling)  on a nice smooth trail I rolled my ankle, moderately bad. Went home and soaked it in warm water and used crutches until Sunday morning. Went to the shore and by Wednesday was walking pretty good on it but couldn't even think of running on it. Kept soaking it in hot water every day.  The only reason I was thinking about doing the race was because of all the crap I wrote in the history section.

Saturday morning I put on my lace up brace over my ankle of many, many colors and headed off to the race.  Took along the Speedgoats and threw in the Mafates and Asic Gel Scouts just in case the brace didn't feel good in the Speedgoats.  Also decided to use my  Black Diamond trekking poles with the flip locks and metal tips. Since this was going to take so long I used my UD pack and carried a handful of Hammer Gels, granola bars and several extra tubes of Tailwind as well as a bottle for Perpetuem.

The Race:

The first thing that stood out was the greatly diminished number of runners and cars in the parking lot. This year when registration closed there were 332 registered. They continued to take some late registrants and ended up with 363 total registered, so less than half of the few previous years.

The course has always changes somewhat every year so the mileage is never the same and actual distance is often disputed. I've heard anything from 24.2 miles up to 27.6. In the end it was probably close to 26.5-27 miles.

A few announcements by the RD and off we went. I started at the back and set off at a fast walk. The first 3.5 miles is on the road with little climbing.

Almost at the back of the pack. Still dark along the trees with a bad camera.

I was looking to do this in a hour but after awhile broke into a slow shuffle. Ankle felt good so I started periods of jogging and walking. Got the first water stop at the end of the road in 39 minutes pretty good.  Heading into the woods on my way to the first boulder field I decided to just hike. It was simply too rough to test out the ankle. Without the brace it would have been very slow going and starting up the first climb I could tell that I had not trained for this.

A section of nice trail right before the first boulder field. I loved the mileage markers .

Typical trail getting to the first boulder field.  Courtesy of facebook

After about 3 miles of mostly rocky trail but some real nice stuff we got to the first boulder field. This is the iconic one that is always included in the race. The Lock Haven University Cross country team is always there cheering the runners on.  I actually like this field because the boulders are big and stable for the most part.

Bottom of 1st boulder field. Memorial plaque for a young trail runner, Jen Stec, who died after another race. From FB

Nice and stable for the most part.  From FB.

From FB

Get to the top and ring the bell. New for this year at least to me. European tradition I'm told?  From FB

After the boulders they send you out along the ridge, just a nasty trail where I smacked my ankle a couple of times on rocks @#$%&@#.  Going down the back side of the ridge is steep enough that I didn't even try to get a picture. Once on some flatter terrain we ended up on double track. I jogged a little but not too much. This was a new trail for me and brought us to the first full aid station.  I could feel a bear attack coming on and didn't know if I'd make it to the 2nd aid station, a park, where there are toilets. Never fear the new RD had us all fixed up with porta-pottys. Kudos.

I ran some of this gently. Ankle didn't hurt but was a little weak.  My pic.

On the way to the next station there was some really nice double track that I was able to jog. At this point I started flip flopping with a group of runner that included a 59 year old dad kicking his 32 year old son's butt and needling him about it the whole time.  Had one nice section where you could have slid off the side of the hill and rolled down into the one lake. I was wondering if I did that and swam to the base then resumed running i I could claim I did a duathalon.

Wishing I could run this part.  My pic

Fall off the side and it's about 200 feet to the lake. My pic

After the next aid station we hit another trail that was new to me. Barb's KMA. Short for something like "kiss my ass" or "kicks my ass" with the latter being the most appropriate. There were a lot of people dying on that hill. Thank God it wasn't 85-90 degrees out. There were a couple of volunteers at the top whooping and hollering. One runner said it sounded like a bunch of Indians.  If they would have scalped me I wouldn't have cared at that point, just meant that I didn't have to finish the race.  The top had a very nice view.

Cheering section at the top of Barbs KMA. From FB

Better View. Tis is only a small part of the boulders as many are in the trees. From FB

Have a good day suckas . From FB

Going down off the backside of this ridge I kept a couple of people from going off course. The one guy was a younger fella with a big military style pack just out strolling along looking like he only cared about beating the cutoffs. Seemed like a nice guy but not too talkative. He took home the DFL award and looked as strong at the end as at the beginning.  Going down the one long downhill I got passed by the father/son combo again and they lead the way until the next water station. "You will only find water here" they said. Hmmmm, For some reason Dominos Pizza delivered via ATV didn't look like only water to me. I was feeling good and some others were suffering so I left the pizza for them.

Water only station with Dominos. Looked like they had camped there for the night, possibly to protect the trail markings. My pic

From here on out I probably walked 2 1/2 miles by myself only catching a glimpse of a couple's back for a few brief seconds. Other than the occasional worry about the course markings being sabotaged it was really peaceful and nice. Crossed back and forth over a creek quite a few times. Really wished it had been wetter this year so there would have been more water. Unfortunately my camera needs to be retired as the pictures didn't come out so good.

Fast hiking all alone. Steeper than it looks. My pic

A little more water and a good camera and this would have been a lovely picture.  My pic

Giant Steps section. Caution slippery when wet. There have been bones broken here in the past.  From FB

The next aid station was supposed to be at 15.8 miles. As I got in there a bunch of the people I had left at the water stop eating Dominos caught up. They were showing 18 miles on their GPS units. The volunteers said that's what everyone was saying. Apparently the RD has a habit of measuring trails a little short.  Another aid station with Porta pottys. I didn't need any but the ladies that were coming in were very happy to see them. Last times I ran the Mega there were none here.

Rote overlook. My favorite view on the course. In the foreground is a Amish farm I think. Two kids from there ran the course in pants, suspenders and shirts with sneakers. Came in near the top.   My pic.

View down the valley from Rote overlook. My pic

From here on out the course was on familiar trails. Some nice, some not too bad and a few not so nice sections. It was about 4 miles to the next aid station and it took me about 2 hours and I was able to jog some of it. I got to the last aid station about 35 minutes prior to the cut off. Also got some good news. They had the Penn State game going on the radio and Michigan was winning!!!!  Sorry Penn State fans but I couldn't resist cheering.

View from near the top of last boulder field. My pic

When will these @#%$&*!!! things end????? . My pic near the top of last boulders with cramping screaming legs.

A bunch of us left there about 25 minutes before the cut off and headed towards the last climb.  This is the Raw trail. Why is it named this?  I guess because at this point your emotions are raw and you're alternately cry, bitching, whining and cussing the RD.  This trail turn up and goes straight over a nasty boulder field. It was here I started to pass a bunch of people. Most were people that I had been flip flopping with all day long. Several remarked that I could really keep going on the climbs. Yep, I thought, If only I could descend better than a three legged elephant. I took it very easy here on the downhill as I was fighting cramps. Got down to the bottom and the father/son combo passed me again, snipping and snarling at each other. Sounded like the old man runs 100s quite a bit from the conversation with another guy that had joined them.

The last 3.5 miles is on part of the same roads as the starting 3.5 miles is with the exception that about a mile of it is diverted to a grassy field one mile long. Nice, flat and soft.  I took a look at my watch and since I knew that a DFL was not possible unless I stopped and took a nap I kicked up the pace to try to finish in under 11 hours.  Final time 10:54 and change. Right behind a cheating course cutter .  More on that in another post.

This is how I would have like to look at the end!. This guy BTW is only 54 years old and at Montour 24 was running 6 minute/mile laps as part of relay team. He finished 4th here.

Aftermath:

I still can barely walk, the result of not training for this type of race. Last year before COTW I did a lot of boring hill repeats on steep terrain, not this year. But I had fun.

The winner finished in 5:01. He has been tearing up the local races for the past two years and had finished 3rd at the Escarpment in something like 9:46 minute miles. Here his official time was 12:35 per mile although if the course was actually 27 miles it would be more like 11:10 per mile.  I've never seen a race that he finished in less than 10 minute miles.  He said that it's by far the toughest course he's done.

There have been a lot of positive comments on FB about it, including some stating that those who stayed away because it wasn't the Mega really missed out on a good race.  I agree, they did.  It's true that there were some waterfalls that we didn't run by but the Mega didn't go there every year either.

As far as the logging impacting the course for this year it didn't. A aerial shot on Google earth shows some logging on the back side of the water authority property, but given the large area this is it's a very small amount of the available space.  There are some trees marked on one part of the course and I'm wondering if the DCNR will do some thinning here as they are mostly grown, but scrubby crap that will keep good stuff from growing up.  Since it's a watershed for Lock Haven they will have to be a little careful where and how much they cut. There are some other races in the area that have been impacted by both gas drilling and logging as well. It's Pennsylvania, it's a fact of life. For myself I've lost a great deal of respect for the two former RDs.  With some of the stuff I've read over the past year it's my opinion that they felt this was their personal playground and all others needed to stay out or bow to them, landowners included.  I'm glad someone else stepped up. I thought about trying to help out and get very involved but living 75 miles away it would be hard to do.

Controversy:

Apparently the RD made a decision to pull some people from the course at the one aid station that did not have a listed cut off.  A few were pretty irate about this. They were averaging more than 31-32 minutes per mile and would have had to do something like 15 minute miles to make the next cut off so he pulled them. There was a little back and forth on FB about that and apparently he refunded their money. I can see it both ways. They wouldn't have finished but they did miss seeing the Rote overlook.

Sorry for being longwinded, as I normally am, but I really wanted to also provide a little bit of the history.

Thanks for a great story - I enjoyed it all. And boy, maybe it'll make me look like a babe in the woods but I have never seen any trail like that boulder field! Can't say I'd jump at the chance to do that, but I dunno - maybe it'd be fun? Kudos on struggling through all of that with a bum and wrapped up ankle!

That place has some serious boulders.

That place has some serious boulders.

+1

Interesting race and great report.

Congrats on making it thru all those boulder fields.  If you didn't already have an ankle problem beforehand you would no doubt have had one afterwards.  Thanks for the RR and photos.

Thanks for reading everyone.

Jamie - I really didn't want to do the race, but all the drama made me decide to support it. I hate fighting over stuff like this. I don't think it will hurt my training for Tussey too much as I won't lose any long runs because of this. In 2013 I did the Mega and followed up with Blues Cruise a week later.

Blarg - The boulders are actually fun, at least I think so, and the views are very rewarding.

AT - I've seen where not logging has ruined some trails. One placed is Tall Timbers Natural area that is close to my place. In the early 80s it was a favorite picnic and hiking spot. If you wanted a picnic table on Sunday you had to either go in the middle of the afternoon or skip church to get there at 10 am. The trails were lovely and in among some really nice mature trees. When I started trail running that was the first place I went. It had been about 25 years since the last time I was there and all those mature trees are now old, rotting and falling down. They are across the trail and even a slight breeze causes branches to drop. I no longer go there, it's not safe and very few other people go either.

LB2 - Do you need a few truck loads of boulders to shore up those levees down there?

For those of you that mentioned the ankle.  It actually got better as the race went on. It seems like the more I work it, within good reason, the better it gets. Based on the amount of bruising it had until yesterday, it was among my top 4-5 sprains but it healed faster than some of my minor ones. I think two things contributed to that. Going on crutches right away for the first 24-36 hours, and using heat only. No ice and only one dose of a NSAID. Just rest, and some compression. Also did as much massage as I could stand. I'm starting to really believe that heat instead of ice is better.

On the equipment side, the Speedgoats did a really good job.  I also really like the BD trekking poles with the flip locks. That makes it very easy to quickly change the length and unlike the twist locks that I've seen there is little to no slippage.

Great report Dreamer and way to finish that thing! Love the pics but you forgot the pic of your Woolrich flannel!  I know lots of folks who worshipped the Mega which I found odd. They would talk about the race like it was Western States or something. To me it was just another race in central Pa along with a ton of others. This does look like a descent race though. Question is would you do it again?

Ummm no and wow!  The boulders!!! Umm no!  CongratulAtions on your fininsh...imagine running that especially on a tweaked ankle.  Thanks for sharing.  😀   Hmm Montana....