Race Report: Allegheny Mountains Loop (AML) 400

After a year delay, I finally dipped and sipped from the bucket of the Alleghenies. And it was delicious.

The AML 400 is an ACA loop route starting in Blacksburg, Va, snaking up, down and around the ruggedly ridged terrain between the border of Virgina and West Virginia. Consisting of pavement, railtrail and dirt roads, there is no singletrack. However, don't let that lack disappoint you, this route packs a killer punch. And the real climbing doesn't start until halfway through the route, with 200 not so easy miles in the legs.


Day 1

We rolled out from the War Memorial at Virginia Tech at 8am on Friday Oct. 8th for the 2nd running of the event. Chatting and cruising out of Blacksburg on a foggy morning, the pack yo-yo'd along the rolling roads through the small venues of Eggleston, Pembroke and Interior. How foretelling this would be.  Other than the two leaders, Chris Arndt and Taylor Kruse, the rest of us would leapfrog each other all along the course. Just past Waiteville, the course turns left and starts the first steep climb of the day, up and over the ridges through Gap Mills and into Caldwell, @~80 miles.  Wake up time!  Here Jason Moser, Mike Kerley, Jeff Mullen and I traded places going over the climbs and I was passed by Ruth Cunningham and Mark Snidero by taking a Gap Mills store penalty, but subsequently passed them on the next climb.  After passing under I-64, the course turns onto the Greenbrier River Trail, a long slow false flat railtrail slog up to Cass, through amazing valley scenery.  I rode for awhile with Jeff until I made a water stop and he motored on.  Also, this is where Greg Strauser passed me after starting late!  It was quite the party at Jack Horner's, with Mike, Greg, Jeff, Ruth and I all arriving and leaving at various times.  After getting to Cass about 10pm, I had to decide if I should ride over the next ~15 miles of serious climbs or bivy.  Since I didn't know the roads, I stayed at a covered shelter in Cass.




Day 2

I didn't roll out super early since the store in Cass opened at 8 and I knew today would start the serious climbs once leaving Glady.  I hadn't seen anyone since Jack Horner's Corner store in Seebert but knew that most of the other riders were going to do the push to Glady on the first day.  After passing through Durbin, cruising the West Fork and rounding through Glady, I caught up to Jason and Mark just before the Bartow Cut-Off.  They rolled into the store in Bartow and I soldiered on up the climbs towards the first biggie of the route, the 'Ridge Alternate', hoping to be down off the mountain before dark.  The profile depicted a vile uprising and I surely didn't want to have to ditch bivy in dense forest bear country.  I finally crested the top as the pitch black set in and gingerly made my way down the gravelly road into Mountain Grove.  Wow, what a killer section.  I was only too happy to be on the rolling roads heading towards Covington where I would pass under I-64 and be set for three more climbs before the finish.  At Lake Moomaw, I detoured into the marina campground for a fill up on water and found Chris Tompkins and Mike bivying at the restrooms.  I chatted with Chris for a bit but pressed on hoping to get as close to the next store as possible to be there about when they opened in the morning.  Nearing Covington, I was unsure where I could bivy with the increasing population and lack of public land.  I chose a nicely covered church porch ~10 miles out of town.




Day 3

Not knowing the status of when everyone else started their day, I didn't dilly dally with getting up and rolling in the morning.  Good thing, since Chris started earlier than I did and was already up the road past where I had stopped early in the morning.  We rolled into the store together and around the bends until Rumsey Road, where I pulled away from Chris and was subsequently passed going uphill by Greg.  Ouch.  He was making up time from a course deviation and bonk penalty and was now on fire!  It was a hell of a set of climbs and he was rocking his Rholloff belt drive standing as he pulled away from me.  Three miles up on dirt, bomb down into a valley, then three miles up on pavement.  Double Ouch.  My gps batteries also ran out on this section and after switching, it had a hard time getting any satellite signals in the high tree valley I was in.  It took about 15 minutes of stop and go in various clearings before it could get a strong signal again.  Ugh.  I caught up with Greg at the restaurant/store in Paint Bank and Chris joined us minutes later.  The joint was busy and I dilly dally'd around waiting for the food and ended up not eating enough for the time spent.  Double Ugh.  With one more huge climb to go, I knew this was going to be suffer pace race mode all the way to the finish.  Greg left first, then Chris and about 5 minutes after, I rolled out across the false flat windy valley roads back into Waiteville.  This section was pure torture.  Brutal headwinds and zero shade made me hit the spins into bonkville hard.  I could barely push on the pedals.  I pulled over for a rest stop and grubbed the entire burger I purchased in Paint Bank.  It took a few miles but by the time I hit the turn onto the Mountain Lake Cut-Off, my legs were back and I could see straight again.  It was here I caught up with Chris and he gave me the 'Go Man Go!', so I did.  I stopped once more just before the top to guzzle the last of my soda and eat the two squares of fudge, again, courtesy of the Paint Bank store.  The bomb down off Mountain Lake is incredible.  It's amazing how you can go from the high of sailing down that mountain and into the lows of wanting to stab yourself in the eyeball with a pencil over and over as you eternally curse the rollers back to Blacksburg.  Triple Ugh.  About three miles from town I could feel the bonk coming again and saw some lights coming up from behind.  Surely, I thought it was Chris catching me at the end, only to be passed by a pannier laden coed cyclist heading into town.  I had a good laugh as I ate three beef sticks and dug in hard for the remaining miles, only too happy to see the stores at the edge of town and finally roll onto campus and up to the War Memorial.  Done.  A cat's whisker under 2-1/2 days - 2:11:39 d:h:m, 410.89 miles, 30,815' of climbin' (all gps track data).  Here's the Strava link.

I flopped around on the steps for a bit and had more food before heading to my car and running into Ruth, who had finished at 12:30 in the afternoon.  Chris rolled in shortly after I did and after a debriefing we said our goodbyes and departed ways, me heading straight to Taco Bell and the Microtel.




What a great event!  Big thanks to Chris Tompkins for putting this together, all the other supporters out there who make these adventures possible and all the great competitors I meet along the way! 

Iceman base training complete.