Matchbox 20k

Typical 90s band album cover

The first, and last, Matchbox 20k took place this past Saturday. A hearty group of 15 gathered for what was essentially a hard long run at Patapsco. The trails were generally less covered in snow and ice than I thought they might be, but MTB tracks had frozen to form ankle-breaking ruts and left all of us feeling pretty beat up by the end.

In the car ride down, we listened to a MB20 mix-tape, and when the girls rolled up, Meg McNew had an autographed, framed head shot of Rob Thomas. At the moment they arrived, "Smooth" came on (although technically not an MB20 song).

We jogged over to the start at Gun Road and after a few words we got going. Halfway down the first trail, a couple of people took off while the rest of us formed into little groups. The first challenge came just after a mile in when we had to climb Bull Run. Graham was carrying little speakers with him and had tried to force MB20 to play on a Pandora station by "thumbs-upping" similar songs. As we finally got to Vineyard Springs, 2 miles in, once again we heard "Smooth."

THERE ARE OTHER MATCHBOX 20 SONGS!

We headed across the river and up into the Orange trail, popping back out at the swinging bridge before entering the Dragon's Spine (note: this is not my name but it sounds cool, apparently it's the name of a Strava segment according to Zero). We came back down via the waterfall and then re-entered the Orange trail.

Finally, it was time for Gun Road. I was pretty cooked at this point and managed a 7:44, which, all things considered, wasn't too bad. Far from my best this year but not a bad run. In the end, we'd all been torched by Jeff Rumbaugh, who took the lead early and never relented. Then it was Nick Gehlsen and Graham Peck. The ladies took a little detour so they did a slightly different route and were next through.

Shout to all who came out and ran this fun little race: Brian Benda, Mike Mashner, Will Thompson, Terry Decker, Matt Franco, PJ Anderer, Jon Miller, Suzanne Andrews, Meg McNew, Bryn Burkholder, and Thom Ripley. Special shout to Nick Klastava who was our on-course cheer section slash photog. Breakfast at the Taneytown Deli afterwards hit the spot, and guess what? We heard "Smooth" again.

Here's some links to my photo album on Flickr and the YouTube Playlist.