Hell Hole Hundred

by Cliff Cox

Some element of the unknown has to be there to entice me off the recliner, sweat some inconvenient workouts, eliminate the cheeseburgers, and cut back on Mom's homemade biscuits (can't possibly eliminate those). But winning or placing is not my motivation because it's simply not feasible so I need something else and I like the idea of something that's a little beyond my limits ...

The Hell Hole Hundred, "the most unfortunate race on the East Coast" and "a devil of a good time" seemed like a good choice.

June 6, 2015, put on by Eagle Endurance and race director extraordinaire, Chad Haffa. There were several distance processions; 140.6 miles dubbed the "El Diablo, "100 miles, 100k, and 60k all tediously engineered by Race Director Chad for maximum pain and mental anguish ensuring partakers a "devil of a good time" deep down in the bowels of the great and mighty Hell Hole Swamp. 100k had been my hankering since that day and night of riding volunteer on my mountain bike last year in June at the inaugural event. I was hooked on the idea ... and, the challenge. Somehow, it seemed cool to run all day and night. But could I pull it off with one year of trail training and not being a good or experienced runner of any sorts?

I trained as much and as specific as I could during the year and made the best race plan I could but in the end, I knew very well that completing 100k was a long shot ... VERY long. Walking, crawling, and a little light jogging, I was barely able to finish the Last Chance 50k back in December. Training afterwards had continued very well until May 2nd when I went up against 50k on the Hulk during X-terra weekend. Directly, I had my fanny handed to me and was brazenly sent home. Everything was going well until the 4th lap when my left foot went south and I figured my Hell Hole Hundred delusions, only 5 weeks away, was out the window. After 2 weeks of total rest, the injury relapsed on a light treadmill workout. I held off on HHH

registration. 2 more weeks of rest and I was able to make an easy run with no pain but for sure, it would be the shortcoming of my HHH attempt. At the last minute, I showed up for on-site registration and started running the plan...

I had 3 loops of roughly 18 miles plus a short out & back to make my 62. After the first loop, it was clear the next 2 loops were going to be nearly impossible. But as I checked in, I was given some news; news straight from Hell Hole!

The night before, the El Diablo nuts ran a couple loops (to complete their 140.6 along with the main event on Saturday) and they reported a particular part of the trail to be waist deep in standing water. Race Director Chad, always on the ball, decided to modify the course for the Saturday events.

I was only supposed to do 3 loops and now I gotta get my head around doing 3 MORE. Initially, I could see 2 and could faintly imagine 3 loops, but 4 loops was out of my realm. My brain was already cluster bungled after the first loop but I could still throw down some rudimentary math; 4 loops of 16.25 is 65 miles. Nobody said nothing about 65 miles! I DID NOT sign up for 65. 62? Ok. But 65? No!

Arriving back to the finish line, it was clear I could never do 2 more loops. I was cooked and my feet and ankles were so sensitive I could hardly stand upright without teeth gritting. At that point, I downgraded to the 60k and after a short breather, I went out towards Hell Hole Road again for the final 4.7 miles to complete the 37.2 miles.

So, another case of 'biting off more than I could chew' but I WAS able to slightly bump up my resume to include 60k. I like trail running and will continue doing some tough events at or beyond my ability until next year when, once again, I'll be flirting with 100k at the one and only ...... The Hell Hole Hundred