Hellgate: An Overview

As Hellgate 100k is less than 2 days away, I figured I would fill you in on my last big “adventure” of the year. I will be my nerdy, math self and share my personal statistics from the race year in a later post, probably with my Hellgate race report.

History of Hellgate 100k++

Here is race director (RD) David Horton’s full race report from the first year, 2003: http://www.extremeultrarunning.com/hellgate_2003/race_report.htm

I will include excerpts from his report, giving you the “highlights”

“I had seen the Glenwood Horse Trail in different places as being anywhere from 60 – 64 miles…. around 100K???  In August of (2003)… I was thinking about running the GHT in two days as a fun run."

"I thought, what the heck, why not just have a race…. and the story starts, and the work begins."

"A location had to be determined for the start/finish.  After much looking, we found Camp Bethel (located near Fincastle, VA and just over one mile from the GHT).  The camp is a multi-use facility operated by the Church of the Brethren.  They have a number of facilities that we could use and they cook meals as well.  They were and are extremely friendly, helpful, and were willing to allow us to use their facility.  Boy, did we find a GREAT place for race headquarters."

"The starting time was set at 12:01 a.m., so that runners would do the night time running when they were fresh; and 12:01 not 12:00 so that there would be no confusion on the starting date."

As the first race was in 2003, there have been 14 annual runnings of Hellgate 100k, with the course being the exact same this year as it was in 2003. Some trails have been re-dug or modified, but it follows the same progression. There are 5 people who have finished every year! And all 5 are back for another year of punishment at Hellgate.

Hellgate is the 6^th race in the Beast Series, a combination of ultramarathons in/around the Lynchburg area. Hellgate originally was the penultimate race of the “Horton Slam”, which included Holiday Lake 50k, Promise Land 50k, and Mountain Masochist 50-Miler.  In 2008, local RD Clark Zealand added two new races: Terrapin Mountain 50k and Grindstone 100-Miler. The “Horton Slam” morphed into the current Lynchburg Ultra Series (LUS): HL 50k, Terrapin 50k, PL 50k, and MMTR. The Beast Series is comprised of all six races: three 50k’s in the spring and then the three longer races in the fall in successive months. As such, participants in the Beast Series are usually physically tired and exhausted by Hellgate.

Part 2: 2017 Hellgate 100k

This is the 15^th edition of Hellgate 100k. Here are some facts about the trail:

Mileage

Horton Miles: 62.4

Actual Miles: 66.0

Elevation Gain/Loss

Gain: 11,950 feet (Knipling has ~13,500 feet)

Loss: 11,530 feet (Knipling doesn’t include elevation loss)

Point-to-Point Format

Start: Hellgate Creek Horse Trailhead (Find location!)

Start Time: 12:01 am

End: Camp Bethel in Fincastle, VA

Cutoff: 6:01 pm

Starters: 146

Finishers: ?? (Based on the historical finisher rate of 79.4% we can expect 115 runners to finish, rounding down)

Weather: ?? Long-term forecasts called for snow this coming Friday, Dec 8^th. I don’t think we will have snow, and it looks to be somewhere in the 30’s. But who knows! Historically the weather has been somewhere between 0 and 70 degrees, so as my friend Ed Lane says, “we ‘bout to find out”!

Overall, I’m not excited; more ready to finish the monstrosity that is the Beast Series and get my “d*** bear trophy!”

See y'all Saturday night!

 

More information/detailed race course description can be found at:

www.extremeultrarunning.com – Horton’s race information

http://keith-knipling.com/?p=19 – Keith Knipling’s report, filled with data

http://blog.vestigial.org/hellgate-overview/ - Aaron Schwartzbard’s report, which includes his description vs. Horton’s