Oh. My. Gosh.

Without a doubt that was the hardest race I’ve ever run. The hills were unrelenting, the downhill chewed up your quads, and the mud was unreal. Basically, this is what a trail race was meant to be.

Packet pickup for the race was at the K1 Lodge in Killington, VT and was available most of the afternoon on Friday, and before the race on Saturday. I flew into Boston and drove up (about 3 hours) on Friday and didn’t arrive until after pickup ended, so I went straight for the hotel. I stayed at Chalet Killington, which was only about two miles down the road from K1 Lodge (also the start area).

As I usually do, I arrived early on race morning and grabbed my packet seamlessly. Much like at Copper Mountain last month, we got a nice UA drawstring bag (of which I now have many) and a nice UA Hoodie as well. The race series also lets you use any bag for gear check, so you can bring your own (I did) or use the bag given to you.

As we lined up to get going, we got a couple directions, the national anthem, and a very quick 5 second countdown before we were off and away. In stark contrast to Copper Mountain, we started out on mostly downhill, dirt (read: mud), gravel, and pavement before rolling onto some moist double track into the woods.

The first five miles of the race rolls you through some lush green forests on mostly grass double track. Some dips in the ground are tough to see, but if you’re a trail runner, or ran Cross Country in HS, this isn’t an issue. We gradually switchbacked our way down to the second Aid Station, and to what I believe was the lowest point on the course. And then we went up.

The climbing began and was unrelenting. I’ve you’ve read my reviews about the Music City Trail Ultra (and if you haven’t...go do it!) you’ll have seen me talk about the gnarly steep climbs in the Smokey Mountains. The climbing in the early stages of this race weren’t as steep, but just kept going. We would turn a corner and continue up. At some point just before Mile 8 our course merged with the 25k course, so we had a few more people to run with. We had a cherished downhill to the AS just after Mile 8, and then it was back up.

Miles 10-15 greeted us with nearly non stop climbs. We would hop on single track for a couple magical minutes before climbing back up on double track and service roads. At the point, everyone (I think) feels like death, and Mile 15 for the 50k was around halfway for the 25k.

At the AS at Mile 16, we had been treated to some nice downhill and the AS had a huge tray of bacon. Glorious. Coming out of there, we entered the mud fest. Mostly downhill, but easily the sloppiest part of the course. I was behind an ATV and watched it almost sink then tip over in the mud. I proceeded to almost do the same thing and I honestly thought I would lose a shoe in the mud.

Miles 16-18.5ish was probably the best stretch for the 50k since the opening miles. Runnable downhill mostly on grass and dirt/mud without too many rocks. We had a long downhill stretch to the AS at 18.5. This is where the 25k continued downhill to the finish, while us 50kers diverted to a different trail to get our remaining mileage.

We started this with a grueling uphill climb on an extremely rocky service road. At the peak of this hill, we descended on a fairly steep rocky downhill to the next AS, which was hit at about 21.5. From here it was a four mile loop and we would return to that same AS. Now, remember when I said the early hills weren’t as bad as the MCTU ones? Well, the hills on this four mile stretch were. We encountered the same type of mud we had earlier, but on the uphill. Easily the steepest hills of the race were back here. I mentioned to the guy I was running with that the first climb in these woods destroyed my soul. We had three more comparable climbs.

When we returned to the AS, we had to go back up the rock hill we had just run down. More steep climbing was ahead of us. Once we reached that peak (again) it was mostly downhill back to the finish. We returned to the last AS (where we were at around 18) before making our final descent. One of the volunteers said almost every 50k runner looked great coming through at 18, and looked like they had gone through Afghanistan at 29. That might give you a little insight into those miles.

The rest of the course was some of the most runnable downhill and flat since the start. The only tough part if that you need to look out for mountain bikers flying down the hills. But the race had volunteers out those crossings to watch and let runners know!

I actually liked the finish area way better than Copper Mountain. There was a nice grass hill to watch the finishers plus food drink and (of course) our free beer. The live music also wasn’t right next to the finish, so your ears weren’t blasted right away.

Like I said, this was a brutal course. I now know why Killington Peak is known as the Beast of the East. So challenging. I probably wouldn’t recommend this as a very first 50k, but I would HIGHLY recommend it as a 50k, if you’re looking for a fun event and a course that’ll really challenge you