Mogollon Monster 100 -- My Third 100 Miler
It has been four years since I toed the line at a 100 mile race. Every year since I’ve considered doing another, but one thing or another prevented it. Two years ago, I was going to run the Gila 100, but a month before the race I paced my friend Michael from miles 80-100 at the Stagecoach 100 in Flagstaff. He suffered so tremendously that I was scared straight — I ran the Gila 50 instead. But, last year, I noticed that the Mogollon Monster 100 was added to the list of Western States qualifiers. Since I try to get a qualifier every year, and I constantly bitch about New Mexico’s lack of access to qualifying races and Mogollon is only around 5.5 hours away, I felt obligated to sign up, so I did. Statistically, the race is perplexing. Everybody claims it’s a brutally hard race, but somehow it has only around 17,000’ of climbing. Analyzing some data from other runners, I found that people were finishing around 10-20% slower at the Mogollon Monster than at Western States or Ange...