Juliana Moves

Another great race weekend in the books! Patrick and I headed out to Harrisonburg on Friday afternoon to gear up for Hone Quarry 40 Miler on Saturday. I did this race last year as a tune up for MMT, so I thought it would work perfectly for the same purpose as I enter my last few weeks of training for Falling Water 100k. I ended up blowing my own mind and running the race better than I ever imagined!

Per usual, I can only organize my thoughts in a day by day breakdown so let’s get into it.

Friday

On Friday afternoon, we loaded up the car with our gear + Alaska to begin the drive to Harrisonburg. It was gray and rainy and depressing. I think the weird atmospheric pressure gave me brain fog because I was in a serious funk. I felt bad and was a little worried it would follow me into Saturday.

We went to Bella Luna Wood-Fired Pizza (again, lol, we went last year) for an early dinner and carbs. It was delicious and even had leftovers to enjoy post-race on Saturday. When we got back to our Airbnb, we prepped our drop bags, drank Sleepytime tea, and went to bed early.

Alaska slept in the bed with us, which was smaller than we’re used to, so I ended up waking up a ton. Oddly, I felt pretty refreshed each time I woke up. Each time I checked the time it was earlier than I expected, so I must’ve felt good about knowing I had more time to sleep. Regardless, my sleep quality ended up being pretty high despite the disruptions!

Saturday

The race starts at 7 am, so we were up early (4:30, ouch) to drink coffee and have breakfast. Race check-in is in a church by the start, which is amazing. Bathrooms! Heat (or last year, AC!)! Chairs! You can’t complain. VHTRC had a strong showing too. Familiar faces are always a joy!

Last year was a weirdly warm day. I think lots of folks struggled with hydration. In 2025, I finished in 11:46:16. Since I was prepping for MMT last year, the plan was to be conservative, but I still struggled and the dehydration didn’t help.

This year we had the most beautiful, perfect day. Chilly at the start but sunny with a high of 48. Ugh, amazing. Patrick also ran this year! It was fun being out there knowing he was experiencing the course for the first time. It is beautiful but brutal in some spots. I had told him that I expected to run faster than my 2025 time, but wasn’t sure how much faster I’d go. The course was about a mile shorter this year since the RD removed a sketchy section of road. I also knew that I felt fitter this year, but had no clue what that would translate to.

My running volume hasn’t been as high as previous years and I haven’t done a ton of elevation compared to last year. Despite Cabin Fever 50k and lots of data suggesting that my fitness was increasing anyway, I was nervous. I needed the race to be a confidence boost for me!

Anyway, since Patrick accidentally missed my speedy finish at Cabin Fever, he wanted to make sure not to miss me this time! I was guessing for an 11 hour finish. Hehehehehe….

I remember the race in chunks: the sections between drop bags. LOL. I thought about my drop bags so much that I almost forgot there were other aid stations in between! The sections between drop bags also included the three majors climbs on the course. They were as follows:

• Start to Union Springs (mile 12.8) – a long, relatively gradual climb from the first aid station all the way up the mountain.
• Union Springs to HQ (mile 20) – this chunk includes the Mile 16 Wall, a very steep climb that comes after you’ve already grinded through a climb coming out of Union Springs.
• HQ to Big Hollow (mile 28) – Red Diamond. If you know, you know. Long, mean, why would someone build a trail here???
• Big Hollow to the finish – Downhill downhill downhill. But joke’s on you, this is steep descent!

The first section to Union Springs starts on the road and includes a cute little lollipop on a nice section of trail. After the first aid station, you climb all the way to the top of the mountain before beginning another lollipop that takes you by the Union Springs aid station (drop bag #1). In my memory, the climb was tough but not terrible and only a mile or so long. My memory had deceived me! It was far more technical than I remembered and was closer to three miles long. I was so over it!

I’m not sure why I remembered the climb being shorter. It’s never too steep, though it is just technical enough to be obnoxious at times. At the top, you have to get up one final steep pitch before beginning a long downhill section to the Union Springs aid station. This was enjoyable and it felt amazing to let my legs stretch out.

After Union Springs, you have to climb back up to the peak (after enjoying a long, steady descent), before tackling the Mile 16 Wall. I absolutely played myself on this section. I knew the climb was coming, so when I hit a steep-ish section I thought “that wasn’t as bad as I remembered!” Well, that wasn’t the Wall. Not even a half mile later or so, I reached it. It is the steepest climb on the course and is just long enough to hurt. I focused on taking small steps and making my way up slowly and steadily. Since it wasn’t 70 degrees this year, it wasn’t so bad!

On the other side of the Wall, there’s some pretty pleasant running before a long chunk of descent down to forest road before you venture to the HQ aid station (drop bag #2).

I reached HQ, which is roughly the halfway point, just shy of 5 hours. I figured there was no way I’d be able to maintain my pace, but I felt pretty good! I had also been waiting until this point to turn on my headphones, so I was pumped to finally listen to my podcasts and music.

At this aid station, I ate bacon and part of a grilled cheese sandwich. It was delicious. Leaving HQ, I knew I had the biggest challenge ahead of me yet: the Red Diamond climb.

Before you reach Red Diamond, you have another quick out and back to this waterfall. It was pretty!

Anyway, back to Red Diamond! It’s two miles long with almost 2,000 feet of elevation gain and an average grade of 18.3%. I am proud to say that it was the only time I used my poles! I let myself settle in and slowly make my way up. Eventually, I caught a group of guys and just stayed behind them and went their pace. A part of me wanted to pass them, but I knew I’d feel the urge to drop them and didn’t want to strain myself that much. 😉

There’s an aid station at the top of the climb, so I refilled my bottles, ate part of an orange and some chips, and took off to finish strong. I even ate a very cold slice of quesadilla – a miraculous feat.

Earlier in the race I had retied my shoes and made my left shoelace a little too tight. I ended up bruising the top of my ankle and it began to hurt pretty badly. As I made my way to Big Hollow (drop bag #3), I actually worried that I would need to DNF to ensure I didn’t hurt my foot too much before Falling Water 100k. At Big Hollow, I briefly sat down to take off my shoe and check it out. It was definitely bruising, but touching the area with my cold hands actually seemed to help.

It hurt the most going downhill. The final chunk of the course is pretty sharp, aggressive downhill running, which was why I worried. I got over it and carried on (and my foot is fine!).

My nutrition fell apart a bit over the last 12 miles. I was sick of eating what I had brought. I forced myself to keep drinking and managed to take a few gels. I was banking on how much I had eaten earlier in the race and the fact that I was going to finish quicker than expected. Is this a great strategy? Not really, but it was good to figure out before my 100k.

Although the last chunk of trail is downhill, there are three punchy climbs you have to conquer too. Between the beautiful day and my music, it wasn’t half bad. As I approached the final aid station at mile 36, I was pleasantly surprised to find some friendly faces volunteering there! It was the final boost I needed to finish the last four miles on the road and through farmland.

Y’all, my leg turnover has improved a lot between speed work and cycling, so I was amazed by how snappy and quick my legs felt in those final few miles. All the miles were sub 11:00. That seemed so quick and crazy to me!

I ran through the finish in 10:11:55, a whole hour and 34 minutes faster than last year! Yes, the course was slightly shorter, but even if I factored another mile of road in, it was still over an hour faster! Nuts! I was genuinely in shock lol.

As I reached the finish line, I looked around for Patrick and didn’t see him anywhere. He had missed my finish again! LOL. There was no service out there, so I couldn’t update him at any point on the course. I honestly thought I’d finish in 11 hours, so neither of us were prepared for how early I finished. Make no mistake, I was not upset! But missing two finishes in a row? That’s insane and funny.

Although the road section at the end wore me out, I finished feeling way better than 2025 too. I can’t wait to see what Falling Water brings. 🙂

Sunday

We went to breakfast at Broad Porch Coffee & Cafe before packing up and heading home. It was another beautiful day. We ended up going on a walk and eating ice cream and generally hanging out while tackling a few easy chores.

A few weeks ago I bought some swimsuits from ThredUp, so I may finally put those to use this week and go swim some recovery laps! I really credit cross-training and lower running volume to my success. It’s hard to feel confident in this because it always seems like more mileage is better in ultrarunning, but my body seems to respond and recover better to this type of training.

How exciting! What a great race.

Love,

JN