Going into this race I was feeling very fatigued from four weeks of hard training focused on surviving the Bear 100 in 6 weeks. I approached it with absolutely no expectations other than to run how my body felt and push to the point I felt I was able. Last place or top 10 didn’t matter; I just wanted a long run on some new trail and to enjoy the day.
I drove up to Afton late Friday night and turned on the dirt road to Cottonwood Lake just after dark, pulled into a campsite with some friends who had come up earlier and was sound asleep by 10:00. I woke up to the sound of rain on the roof of the Toyota, got out pulled my running shoes inside, and checked my watch thinking it was time to get up anyway, only 12:30, nice! I don’t think I have ever slept so soundly the night before a race.
Woke up feeling fresh, drove the few minutes up to the start, and, as is my typical thing, was still at the car sorting through gear when the RD called one minute to start. I threw my drop bag in the pile, ran into the group lined up at the start just as we rolled out. I hit start on my watch and settled into an easy, comfortable pace. Right away the front guys opened a gap and 10-12 of us were in a tight group ahead of the main field as we started into the initial climbs.
I stuck with my plan to run as I felt and not get caught up in any pace or trying to race. As our group hit the first steep section, most everyone started hiking. I felt good, my legs felt light, breathing was easy so I and a few others kept up a run and soon three of us had moved pretty far out ahead of rest. I was leading our little group of three, with a guy from Pocatello behind me and Leeland Barker behind him. When we got into open sections I could see the lead group of three had a couple of minutes on us already and the rest of the initial group of 10-12 strung out a few minutes behind. I didn’t know it at the time, but course record holder Luke Nelson was way off the front of the lead pack.
Toward the top of the initial 2900 ft climb, Leeland came cruising by me, giving me a little thumbs up and a friendly smile, Pocatello guy followed and I tried to keep up settling in behind those two. This is how it would stay for the rest of the climb and pretty much the rest of the race. The most awesome part of the race was coming over the top of the first big climb, we had to drop over a high ridge and down into another valley. As we crested over the top, the whole valley was covered in fog with the peaks sticking out of the thick clouds, and a gorgeous sunrise just coming over the horizon, unbelievable!
We descended into the clouds and had a surreal 3 or 4 miles running through dense fog, pines, aspens, and wild flowers everywhere. I was running pretty close behind Leeland and company, but the fog seemed to absorb all of the noise, it was totally silent, very strange, but one of the coolest experiences I’ve had in any race or even run.
Eventually we crossed over another ridgeline and started the long descent down to the turn around. The trail was very runable, but technical enough to keep your mind occupied. We ran down forever, it seemed to just keep going, luckily it was a stunning place to run, huge green valley, through meadows filled with thousands of wild flowers, in and out of stands of trees. I knew we were getting close to the turn around when what I thought was the 25K ( runs the same course but starts two and a half hours later, running one way on the course back to the 50k start) frontrunner came by. Turns out it was the 50K leader, Luke, way off the front of our race. He looked totally fresh and was flying. Amazing.
Pocatello guy and I pulled into the turnaround together at 2:55. We left together few minutes later, both commenting on the long uphill grind back to the high point. I had to make a pit stop, so let him go, which was fine, I really didn’t feel like chasing him all the way back up.
The climb back out was indeed a long grind. Most of the first part was runnable, but soon turned into a hike. Passing many of the 25k runners on the way back up kept things interesting. I stopped at the last aid station, right before the last big climb, to get a little water, at that point the first girl and another guy from the 50k went by. I thought, "I know I wasn’t here to race, but I hate to get passed in the last miles." I turned it up a little on the big climb and got by the guy again, but couldn’t catch the girl. I thought I could get her back on the descent, and as we went over the top she had about 45 seconds on me. I rolled into the descent and went by her fast and kept the peddle down for a minute or so to get a good gap, then tired to settle into a cruise down to the finish. I glanced back and the guy was close and coming up fast. I thought, "geeze I really didn’t want to run this that hard", but took off anyway not to get caught. I held him off, but had to run hard to do it, blasting by many more 25k'ers and nearly going full superman into the dirt a couple of times. After what seemed like forever, the campground came into sight and the welome finish, 6:32 I think, overall time, a few minutes behind Pocatello guy and about 10 behind Leeland.
The finish was casual, lots of great snacks, a tasty barbeque, lots of huckleberry soda. I chatted with Jon and Cody for a minute, congratulating them on another amazing run. Hung out with some friends who had run the 25k and Tom and Kasey from Ogden, who finished the 50k together a bit behind me. Tom wanted to head back up the course to find his wife and some other friends who had not come through yet. He, Kasey and I hiked back up about 2.5 miles, it was fun to cheer for the back of the packers and hang out with those two. They are a blast and both are far more experienced than I, so it was good to get pointers for my 100 miler coming up.
This was by far the most scenic race I’ve done to date. Great course, great trail conditions, all around one to do again for sure. Very challenging though. Next to Speedgoat, my hardest 50K by far. 7th place overall, which I am totally happy about!
Ended up with 37 miles and 9800/10,000 vert or so. I never eally had a race hard attitude, except on the last descent. No nerves going in, no expectations at all, just to go at a good hard tempo pace (thanks Jun) if I had it in me. One of my better races, physically all was great, though I hit a low point (more mental) toward the end of the big climb back to the lakes. I hope I can adopt the attitude I had in this race more often going into future races, I think it will work for me as I tend to get a little wound up if I let myself. Oh, and one thing that became glaringly apparent in this race, I can run/shuffel uphill o.k., but I SUCK at hiking! I've got to work on the power hike. Especially the power hike/run/power hike transition.
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