ROCKSYLVANIA DISPATCH

In August 2024, Tropical Storm Debby turned Eastern States 100 into a battle against rising water, flooded roads, changing forecasts and one impossible decision: cancel the race. In this week’s Rockslyvania Dispatch, I look back at the 16-hour fight to save Eastern States, what ultimately forced us to concede, and what happened afterward. And somewhere on a dam beneath a sky full of Perseid meteors, I realized that sometimes the most important thing is not what you lost, but

The Eastern States 100 is having a moment. After Kaylee Frederick's record-setting overall victory, more people are discovering what we've known for years: this is no ordinary 100-miler. It's 103.5 miles of rugged Pennsylvania Wilds, 21,000 feet of climbing, August heat, a roughly 50% finish rate, and a whole lot of grassroots grit. Here's what makes Eastern States different—and why the race is about far more than finishing times.

Let's look at the forces that shaped the Pine Creek Valley, a little-known Declaration of Independence that happened here on the very same day as Philadelphia's, and how lumber transformed one of Pennsylvania's wildest landscapes.

The finish line is not just another piece of race equipment. It is the place where months, and sometimes years, of work, hope, suffering, compromise, and determination finally come to a head. It deserves character. It deserves a finish line that reflects the same spirit we try to bring to every event we put on.