2019 Entrants Information

Entry verification and information on the day of fun will be communicated via the MDLD Google Email List.

General Advice and Information: The MDLD 100K challenge is a Trail Dawg invitational non-event. It's a chance for Middle Atlantic trail running friends to celebrate the longest day of the year (well, longest Saturday anyhow) by throwing a picnic while the dumbest, sorry, hardiest among us try to complete 60+ very tough miles on the scenic Mason-Dixon hiking trail.

The MDLD 100K challenge is a formidable undertaking for most anyone considering the distance, terrain, typically hot humid weather and limited support along the trail. It was first conceived of by Trail Dawgs Hunt-Dawg Bartine and Pawl Melzer as a challenging way to complete in a day one of their favorite local parts of the long Mason-Dixon Trail. It is very hard. It is also a bit cruel; the terrain is the most difficult on the last 10 miles of trail. Many have started, few have finished.

Though we live in a free country and the M-D is a public trail, to be invited to join us and be recognized as a MDLD Challenge Participant, you should be able to document recent completion of a 50 mile or longer trail event. We also suggest you have abundant experience in running in difficult terrain with poor footing.

For even a seasoned trail runner, completion in daylight is tough! The record fastest time for The Challenge is 10:30, done by Jimmy Weaver in 2019.  However, many strong runners take 18 hours or more to complete this 60+ mile stretch of trail. More have found that they need to drop out early.

We honor one commandment on this day of celebration: Respect the trail. And, in two senses. Runners better have respect for the difficulty of the trail of they hope to finish. And, trail users should respect the fact that access to the Mason-Dixon Trail is a privilege thanks to the efforts of the Mason-Dixon Trail System organization/volunteers (link here) and the cooperation of property owner who allow access.

One hard cutoff: For safety reasons, runners must be out of the Otter Creek picnic party by 5:00 pm. Any later and you would be doing some seriously gnarly terrain in the dark, and we don't want to picnic until midnight waiting for you!

* MDSN = Mason Dixon Shortest Night 50K -- the hardest half of the 100K course, all in the dark on the shortest night of the year -- not even sanctioned by the picnic directors of our unsanctioned MDLD non-event