The purpose of this blog is to have a consolidation of comments and questions regarding endurance running and the Iron Horse 100 mile, 100 klm and 50 mile in particular. Please let me know your thoughts and questions just try to keep it reasonably clean. Chris
Iron Horse Endurance Runs 
My husband is running the 50 miler and his sister and I were planning on each running between 5 and 10 miles with him on the second loop to help him along. Any suggestions on where would be the best points for each of us to join him. Thanks!
I will cover this at the race briefing but best would be aid station 3 and you will run 7.5 miles with him. If you want to do more than join him at the entrance to the forest and do 17+ miles with him
I haven’t bugged you guys for awhile with my trail videos or anything. But I did ride the trails on the mountain bike a week or so ago and they were in great shape. Still sandy out past the first camp but that part will never change. Didn’t see any signs of horse traffic on the trails. I think I’m going to volunteer with the Putnam Blueways & Trails group at one of the aide stations. If so i’ll see you guys out there.. Good luck!!
Will there be any gels at the food stations?
Bring your own gel of choice. We will have some hammer gel but I don’t know how much yet
Should be a great showdown between Lopez and Morton. A mild temp race run over much less demanding terrain and minus the thermal element. Look for a much closer duel than Badwater. Great race for a moderate environment work physiology study. If the good folks at Montana State labs would be here and for a rare time acutally observe and sample some real athletes. Just a thought. I will run my 100 on my Landice, same day, hoping for an under 18 hour finish.
Chris–thanks to you and your crew for putting on a great run!
Chris it was a very nice coarse I’m happy I did it!
Chris and Ironhorse crew,
Thanks for the 100 mi experience of a lifetime! This was a great race in every way, and I look forward to next year! And I sure could use some of that shrimp gumbo right now 🙂
Bernadette DuBois
I’m happy you finished Bernadette awesome I was wondering how you did and hoping that you’d finish!!!
Thanks Chris great course – thank all the volunteers:)
Thanks Chris I completed my first 50 miler loved the atmosphere and all the fellow runners were so encouraging. This was Of a lifetime . I think some of my friends were jealous and think they want to do it next year!! Thanks again to all the volunteers!!!
Runners: thank you all for coming and I hope it was a rewarding experience for you. All of us certainly enjoyed all of you. Hope you will consider coming back next year. Check with the website or blog as to date. Good luck with your running. Chris
Super job Chris, I really like the new course route. I have been a crew person the last 2 years and now looking forward to my first ultra next year. Please provide me with the same weather and conditions next year that we had this time.
Great. we will do our best on the weather
Hi Chris, is there a way to purchase 100 mile sticker? My husband finished and I’ve convinced him this would be a neat thing to have : )
Thanks so much! And I agree about the weather, it was perfect.
Thank you Chris and Crew. I really appreciate the slogan: Who Dares, Wins. Maybe next year “Invisus, Inauditus, Impavidus”.
Special thanks to the cres at the checkpoints and aid stations. They were uplifting and pulled old guys lke me through.
Finally, it was a good course with the varied running surfaces. I learned a lot for future use, and really enjoyed the experience.
Runners. Glad you all had a good experience. That is what it is all about. Yes you can but stickers and T shirts. Email me a tell me what you want . The stickers are $3 or 2 for $5. The tshirts are cotton $5 and the runners shirts $10. MOST IMPORTANTLY: SOME OF YOU LEFT SOME SERIOUS EQUIPMENT IN SOME DROP BAGS i.e SHOES, GARMINS HEAD LIGHTS. E maIL me and describe the bags so I can send it to you. Chris
Hey Chris do we know when the pictures will be up from 013.
A very belated thanks to Chris and the multitude of volunteers who made this such a great event! I was planning on running 50 miles at age 50 one time and then “going back to more reasonable things”, but the friendly, supportive volunteers/staff/spectators made this so special that I am definitely coming back for more. It was so nice I almost want to keep it a secret so it doesn’t get TOO popular (almost). I can’t tell you how much I am looking forward to running it again!
Thanks Darren. Look forward to seeing you next year. Either the 2nd or 3ed weekend in Feb. Watch the website. Chris
Iron Horse has over 130 runners as of today. Looks to be another banner year on the Rail Trail and in the forest. Course has been tweaked a little but basically remains the same. Good news is that Aid Station 2 will not be at Green Camp but at the intersection of the Rail Trail and East V and West V roads.
The construction on the Palatka Lake Butler trail is all done. The trails in Etoniah are in really nice shape as of right now. Over the summer and fall they have worked on both East V road & West V roads & the road out to the Green Camp.
OK. Iron Horse is closed out and we are set for another great race. By early next week will have the roster on the website.
Awesome! Can’t wait to do this one again! Only 100k though, this year. Looking forward to some of that shrimp gumbo 🙂 thanks, Chris!
Actually he is changing the menu. No gumbo but some dynamite chicken soup. I think I will miss the gumbo but Dave comes up with some pretty good stuff.
That’ll work! See you there!
OK Everyone. Iron Horse is set for this year. 150 runners. The roster should be on the website in a day or so. If there are errors e mail me or call me please
Iron Horse Runners: Remember that the pre race briefing is in Florahome on Sat starting at 6pm. Registration will start from 5 pm on until complete. You must attend the briefing and register. All you Fla. runners who are driving up on Sat morning we will register you at the start line starting at 5:30 and brief you at 6am
Isn’t pre-race meeting Friday night?!
Jess, You are correct. Sorry have not had enough coffee yet. The race briefing and registration is Fri night at 6pm in Florahome with a followup briefing on Sat morning for late arrivals.
3:24 am so excited about IRONHORSE I can’t sleep, Chris puts on such a great race and the volunteers and stations are awesome. Best of luck to all runners, see you on the trail.
One more thing, who has the best pizza in the area? Got to have it for pre-race meal
In Palatka I personally don’t like Pizza Boyz pizza, too greasy. For good homemade pizza try Niko’s. Probably the best chain store pizza in town is Papa John’s.
Jay’s comment is good.
A couple of quick questions…there looks to be several out and back sections. Is this where the aid stations will be? What is the mileage in between stations in other words? Also, I see that there are crew points, do we have crew drop bags if we have no crew?
You can drop bag at all 3 aid stations. On East V after leaving Aid 2 the loop is 6 miles and then back to aid 2. On West V it is 3.5 miles to aid 3 and 3.5 miles back to aid 2. Then 4 miles to the start/ finish. v
Hey Chris, two quick questions/confirmations:
1. I won’t make the Friday night pre-brief .. just want to confirm that there is another one before the race.
2. Last year I believe you said it was okay if one felt up to it to push on for one of the longer distances. I don’t want to be too optimistic, but if I’m feeling good at the 50 is it okay to push on for the 100k?
Yes on both counts. Chris
Gang, Great Race!!! The weather wreaked havoc not only with the finishers but also with the participants. We lost about 20 runners to the travel issues. We will have the results on the website this week. Am taking my time so we don’t have the problems we had last year.
Chris we (Putnam Blueways & Trails) had an awesome time volunteering at aide station 3. We all had a great time meeting, talking with and helping all of the incredible athletes throughout the night. It was quite the experience, thanks for having us.
Jay, Please pass on to everyone what a great job they did. You all went the extra mile in supporting the runners with your cheerful station. Thanks again and I will come down for the next meeting if Gaye wants me and brief everyone. I will buy the pizzas. Chris
We seem to have pizza at every meeting so Gaye just might take you up on that Chris. Quite a few people have already said that if the race is on next year you can count us “IN”..
Can’t express my appreciation enough for the support of the volunteers at the aid stations. Within seconds of entering any of them I was asked what I needed. Loved the soup in the later evening. Great event for one back of the pack runner/walker.
All, The results will be up this weekend. My webmaster is out of town. I just found out. Pleadse be patient.
Results are up. Only one error so far. Let me know your thoughts. NEXT YEAR: BLOCK OFF FEB. 7-8. IRON HORSE 10th ANNIVERSARY.
Chris – you always put on a top notch race and I’m proud to be a volunteer for you! See you next year AGAIN…….
The 2014 photos posted to the website don’t seem to be coming up. Am I the only one having this problem? Thanks
Michael, They should come up via facebook. If you keep having a problem let me know. Chris