Brief Report: Leadville 100 Run Camp 2024

The Leadville Trail 100 is an event that needs to introduction, but the run camp may just be one of the best-kept secrets in the finisher's toolkit. For me, registering for camp was two-fold: registration for camp can get you an entry into the iconic 100 miler in August, so you don't have to take your chances with the lottery, and the camp would also give me an opportunity to see what happened to my body at altitude. I think it is safe to say that this event was life-changing for me. 

Think of it as a church camp for ultrarunners. Instead of the sleep deprivation, hunger and physical exhaustion inflicted on us teenagers to drive us to the alter under the influence of the Holy Spirit, those same drivers buy you into the gospel of Leadville. Ken and Merilee Chlouber are our ministers in this new religion, and their inspirational speeches sure could rivel many of those given by seminary graduates. We left indoctrinated. 

I'm keeping this report on the short side as much of the content will be covered in the upcoming Leadville Trail 100 post. 

Race website: https://www.leadvilleraceseries.com/run/100-run-camp

Location:  ★★★★★

Leadville, Colorado is the place of legends. Learning some of the history of the town during our dinner meetings was fascinating. For a town that was 100% dependent financially on mining to survive and even thrive after the closure of the mine is a testament to the power of sports and belief. The highest city in the US at 10,119 feet elevation, Leadville will leave you breathless (sorry, I had to make at least one terrible pun). Leadville is a small town with a single grocery store, a handful of gas stations, a college and a quaint main street hosting a mix of small restaurants, souvenir shops and outdoor equipment. Despite the small town nature, we had surprisingly good cell service and access to the necessities. 

Organization: ★★★★★

The Lifetime Race Series team is truly professional. They have pre-event communication and intra-event briefing absolutely dialed. There were some changes to the event that felt a little last-minute, but with the wildfires and variable snowpack, that's not something to hold against the organizers. I always felt like I had just enough information without being overwhelmed.

Course:★★★★★

We got to see most of course, the exception being Twin Lakes to Winfield up and over Hope Pass. Unfortunately due to snowpack at this time of year, and wildfires in the area, this was off limits. The team did an amazing job making an alternate route for day 3 with comparable climbing. I'll give the full course rundown in the upcoming Leadville Trail 100 blog.

Day 1, a night run, was the final 12.6 miles from Mayqueen to the finish. It was cold, dark and drizzling rain. A true experience. 

Day 2 was the 27 miles from Mayqueen to Twin Lakes, without going through the cow field of Outward Bound. 

Day 3, instead of Hope Pass, was a climbing adventure of 24 miles (and 3400 ft of vert) on the other side of Leadville, partially on the Silver Rush 50 course. A wonderful end to the training camp!

Food: ★★★★★

We were fed so well throughout the weekend. Breakfast was catered in with a variety of substantial foods like quiche/frittatas and breakfast meats, along with bagels, yogurt parfaits and fruits for those like me who were suffering with the altitude. Aid stations were fully stocked with ultra snacks and plenty of Skratch. Lunches were a huge spread, with a Mediterranean buffet on day 2 and curry on day 3, right at the end of the runs. Dinners were an organized sit-down affair that were far fancier than anything I would have even thought to go out for after a long day on the trails. 

I really resent giving 5 stars across the board, but LT100 Run Camp 2024 earned it. 

To summarize: If you ever want to run the Leadville Trail 100, I cannot recommend camp highly enough! What an inspiring and educational experience!

Race Report: Speedgoat 50K, July 20, 2024

The Speedgoat 50K, although a relatively young race (16 this year!) is one of those legendary ultramarathons. Most ultrarunners have heard of it, and for good reason -- The original Speedgoat himself, Karl Meltzer, is an icon in the ultramarathon world. With nearly 100 finishes at the 100 mile distance, and 38 wins, he is, as his website claims, "the winningest 100 mile runner on earth". The race was sold to UTMB in 2021, but Meltzer has remained the race director. 

This is a mountain race, and is further classified as a skyrunning race. If you don't know what that means, here's the Wikipedia definition: "Skyrunning is a sport of mountain running above 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) where the minimum average incline is 6% over the total distance and at least 5% has an incline of 30% or more. The climbing difficulty does not exceed II grade UIAA." Sound wild? It is. 

The Speedgoat takes place at the Snowbird Ski Resort in the Little Cottonwood Canyon of the Wasatch Mountain Range, just outside Salt Lake City, Utah. The course utilizes some of the gorgeous singletrack, quite a bit of the rugged cat tracks/twotracks, and some off-trail mayhem. Ready for the breakdown?

Race website: https://speedgoat.utmb.world/races/50k

Location: ★★★★★

Snowbird Ski Resort is a renowed downhill ski destination, but it's also incredible in the summer. Because it is such a destination resort, it has the capacity to support a large race seemlessly. Parking is available in several large main lots. There is plenty of lodging onsite, and airBnBs/hotels are abundant at the base of the mountain (a much more cost-effective option). The Trams/ski lefts did help with getting spectators and crews to the big aid stations. Also, the infrastructure of a ski resort area supported excellent cell service, despite the remote feel.

Organization: ★★★★☆

I was intially a little undecided on participating in a UTMB event in the wake of the 2023 controversies involving race acquisition and squeezing of grassroots organizations. This resulted in boycotts by some of the big names in ultrarunnin. Ultimately, every consumer is responsible for what events they choose to support. I decided to go ahead and register, and would be happy to discuss my thought process behind this. With a big corporation like UTMB behind an event, you're going to get predictable pre-race updates and communication. This is huge when traveling out-of-state for a race as having timely information reduces some of the stress inherent with travel. 

The volunteers at the aid stations were everything I had heard of at these bigger events. They were all so eager to help and basically just descended on you the minute you rolled in. Sponges, ice, filling bottles, helping me mix my nutrition, and even helping me get my pack on and off. It's scary racing without a crew, but the volunteers were so attentive that it kept my focus and spirits high during the quick pitstops. 

The expo was pretty cool too -- I stopped by a few of the booths on Friday. My favorite was the Native Women Running (https://www.nativewomenrunning.com/). It was great to see some POC/women inclusion, representation and advocacy. Dylan Bowman/Freetrail helped host a panel with Nico Mermoud, Karl Meltzer & Jared Smith discussing the development of the Hoka Speedgoat. After that was a short, direct runner briefing. Finally, there was a "Tip Talk" hosted by Vibram Elite Runner Robyn Lesh. I didn't stay for it because I was really tired and hungry by that point, but I heard good things about it!

Course: ★★★★☆

The couse is what makes this race. It's ridiculously hard, with 11,400 ft of climbing over 32.4 miles. There are some incredible single track trails up at Snowbird and winding through the Wasatch Mountains. However, much of the race utilized the wider cat tracks/two tracks (which did make passing easier), and some of it went straight up off trail or through some wild boulder fields. I'd heard this was an ankle buster, and descending 4 miles down a dry creek bed sure solidified that. In some areas it felt like we were off-trail to intentionally just make things harder. In my ideal world, there would have been more singletrack and none of that off-trail nonsense ;).  But, it was exactly as advertised!

The course is incredibly scenic. Every breathless climb rewarded you with a gorgeous view of the basins. I kept looking down the ski cutes imagining how it would feel to be up here in the winter. Summer wildflowers were in full bloom along the ridges. My favorite climb was that going up through a cottonwood stand. It truly felt like we were seeing the best of Utah. 

The aid stations were pretty far apart. 9 miles is a LONG time when you gain and lose almost 4,000 ft in that time frame. This was discussed in the athlete guide and briefing, so it wasn't a suprise. 

Course marking was on-point. Plenty of confidence markers, and every critical turn was overmarked. You would have had to try to get lost.

Course specifics will be down below in my race report, but here's a nice little course profile from the runner's guide.

Food: ★★★☆☆

Standard ultra-fare, maybe a little less than the typical offerings. Finish line food was suprisingly limited -- some greasy salty pizza, cookies, and fruit. I guess I've been pretty spoiled at the last few events with finish line feast. Still, I can't complain about free food and I was happy to have it. 

To summarize: To claim Speegoat as the hardest 50K in the US is no empty aggrandizement, but if you survive it, you;'ll never forget it.

My race: 

This was a crewless race for me, which forced me t think critically about what I might want for the day and how to pack it. Drop bags are not allowed, so without crew, I would depend on aid stations and whatever I packed. There were two pieces of mandatory gear: A light jacket, and 1 liter water carrying capacity. Along with this (I actually had 1.4 liters capacity), I made sure to bring my entire race worth of nutrition, and my sun gear (sun sleeves, hat, glasses, and ice bandana). It was a tight fit in my pack, but I crammed it all in!

Race day was an early morning at 6:30 am, but racing on Mountain Time made 6:30 feel like less of a struggle. Because parking was very simple, I was relaxed and comfortable rolling up to the start line on the deck at Snowbird Ski Resort. Ultramarathon start lines are a strange place. Most of the elites are calm and quiet, or bubbly and cheerful as they greet each other. I slotted myself behind the elites, about 3 rows back, at the start line. Karl Meltzer, the Speedgoat himself, gave us a countdown and we blasted off the start line for about a half mile of downhill two-track before the first climb. After that, there was a bit of undulating but overall we climbed up to the first aid station, a water-only stop, at about 4.4 miles in and before the first big bruiser of a climb. That's when the real grinding started. The course climbed and climbed up to Hidden Peak, just under 11,000 ft. The climbing was relentless, but not overly technical, with a grade that still permitted some semblance of a power hike for much of it. As a bonus, it was relatively cool and we were in mostly shaded by the mountain. There were two snowy patches but it really wasn't that technically hard, just slippery. Just before mile 10, we reached the Hidden Peak aid station. This is where the sun started to really come into play, so I got on those arm coolers and my sunglasses. I've found that sunglasses really make a difference for me, even if I have a hat -- I guess having such indirect sun due to clouds in the midwest, I really don't tolerate the bright mountain sun well. 

I was really worried at Hidden Peak that I would be feeling the pinch of not having a crew. The volunteers were incredible, though. Two were immediately helping me with my pack, my water, and even mixing up my infinite. They even reminded me to give them my trash/wrappers (a vital part of a crew member's job!). 

Descending out of Hidden Peak was a nice downhill cat track (yay! fun!) followed by FOUR MILES of running down a dry creek bed. This was a rough go for everyone, but my inability to read the line of a scree field was really showing. I felt like every couple of steps I'd end up on the blade of my foot or side of my ankle, with hard rocks smacking into the top of my feet. I caugh a toe under one of the bigger rocks and chucked forward, smacking my chin solidly on a rock. Luckily, nothing was hurt and I rolled right up. I was grateful to see the descent end when I then realized the entire distance down was now to be covered again as we climbed to the highest point on the course! 

The next four miles of climbing were a grind, just trying to get one foot in front of the other. I met a woman from Bozeman on this section and we chatted about life and training for about a half hour. She was in her very first ultra race and was absolutely crushing. Chatting with her really helped the time go by. However, with about 2 miles to the water only station, I was absolutely out of fluids and feeling the dehydration heavily. Those two miles seemed to take two years. The volunteers at Water Pipe were literal angels. Not only did they fill my bottles, but they were ready to wet down my cooling sleeves and hat as well. Having fresh cold water, I made the newbie mistake of chugging it down. I knew we still had to climb to Mineral Basin in 1.6 miles, but I forgot there was a little descent in there. The sloshy water belly didn't feel great descending. 

Mineral Basin came fairly quick, but little did I realize the worst climbing was yet to come. I felt refreshed after two aid stations in quick succession, but we were very exposed to the harsh sun and the day was heating up. Now we were to climb 2,000 ft in less than 2 miles to the top of Mt Baldy. Worse yet was that we were trekking right up moon dust. Any wrong shift of your weight and you'd be sliding backwards. Here I fell into chatting with a local guy, and together we kept our mindsets positive. I'm still sad I didn't get to find him at the finish. After a breathless summit up to the highest point of the course, we took a pretty non-technical descent down to the tunnel and Tunnel Aid station. These nontechnical descents are my jam. My quads are strong from crossfit and weightlifting, and I can send these descents without paying too much of a price. I started making up some places in the womens field sending it down this descent. Then it was back up yet again, the hardest, most technical climb of the day, back up to Hidden Peak. Somewhere along this ridge a group of guys were cheering for their buddy, who I was running with at the time. They offered him a beer and I asked for a swig. I've never had beer during a running race, but I was so sick of the taste of grape infinite at that point. A warm sip of Modelo felt like heaven. It wasn't much but just having the taste of something, anything different, made me feel alive again. The ridge was rocky and required focus, and the climbing had some big moves for short girlies. I continued to slowly work my way up in the womens field on this last big climb, and I felt good knowing that after Hidden Peak we only had a few smaller climbs and a whole lotta descents. 

Hidden Peak was where I knew I needed to move. I got my poles up in my quiver, refilled my bottles with water only (no calories!) and started cruising. Directly down from Hidden Peak was the snow. I slipped and decided that instead of standing back up, I'd just glissade. The cold snow felt great on my hamstrings and hands as I shoved myself down the snowpack. The next mile of descending was really rocky but I was able to read the trail and stay relaxed. Then, BAM, another climb. I tried to pull my poles out but they were cinched too tighly in my quiver and I couldn't get them out without taking off the entire pack. I put my hands on my knees and got to work. A one point, I was actually crawling, using my hands to pull my up and over some of the bigger steps. Then we were going back down. The scree was loose, but I could see the next girl ahead of me about two minutes up. I also knew that 3 girls I had passed right around Hidden Peak were on my tail. I knew none of us were top ten, but I'm a competitor. Slowly, surely, I started to gain on the woman ahead of me. As I watched her descend, I knew I had the advantage on this terrain. I pushed a little harder. There was another climb and she held me off. Then were were going back down. I surged just a bit. I was within 20 ft of her and was starting to look for a passing line. That's when I made a mistake. I was looking too far down the trail and strayed onto some loose scree. I didn't even realize I was falling until I was on the ground and everything was so bright. I heard one of the guys who had been behind me asking if I was ok. I couldn't speak, I just lay on the ground in the fetal position. He repeated himself as he came up closer. I squeaked out an affirmative. After another 30 seconds and a quick self assessment, I rolled back onto my feet. I knew I wasn't catching the girl ahead of me, but with 3 miles to go, I could still do this. I stood up with blood streaming from both knees and hands, feeling sharp pain under the right kneecap where a rock had jutted itself. Conservatively, I started trotting back down the descent. One more climb, short but still painful, followed by 2 more miles of descending stood between me and the finish. My breath was ragged at this point and I felt like I just couldn't get on top of it. Still, I kept moving. And soon, I could hear the cheers of the finish line. 

I finished my day in 8:08, which was a touch slower than I was targeting but a result I'm still proud of. I was 17th in the women's field, utterly honored and humbled to have run in the company of such strong mountain runners. As I watched them climb, I realized how much I have to learn about this terrain and I'm so grateful I got to experience this. 

There was a finish line party with live music and I really wanted to stay and talk to the people who I met during the race. Unfortunately, I began to feel so sick I had to get back into a horizontal position as quickly as possible. To those who I didn't fist bump at the finish line: I love you. Thank you for teaching me. Thank you for being a part of my life for that snippet of it. 

And to those of you still reading, thank you! 

Nutrition: 

I stuck with my trusty Infinit Women's Go-Far (grape flavor) continues to keep my gut happy; however, this was a race where I really found myself experiencing palate fatigue. A warm swig of Modelo at the top of a climb actually was the best tasting thing all day and give me the little mental boost I needed. I had a little bit of ginger ale at aid stations but really had no desire for solid food. 

Gear: 

I ran with front-loading double 20oz Nathan (pinnacle) pack. A new piece of equipment for me was the Salamon pole Quiver. It's not actually compatible with the Nathan pack, but with some safety pins and finagling I was able to achieve a secure attachment. This was SO much easier than trying to stash the poles in my pack itself, but on some of the flatter running it banged into my left elbow and created a sizable bruise. I think some pin adjustments on the lower aspect of the pack can solve this.

Trekking poles: I used my Leki Micro Vario Carbon Pole -- Women's. These are super  lightweight collapsible poles with ergonomically pleasing cork grips. My one complaint with these was that the stock basket is a bit bulkier than what I would need for this terrain (it's more of a mud or light snow basket) and it kept getting stuck in between rocks. It hasn't really been a problem before since I don't make a habit of running in boulder fields, but I'll probably order a smaller basket set to have on hand for future. 

Obviously, I utilized my Hoka Speedgoats for footwear. What else could you possibly run in for this event?! 

Lake Sonoma 50 Race Report: April 13, 2024

Lake Sonoma 50 popped onto my radar in 2022 when we stayed in Geyserville for a wedding and saw some posters in the Healdsburg Running Company store (because who can resist checking out the local running store?). My husband and I drove out to Lake Sonoma to hike and I knew I just had to come back some time to race the 50! Fast forward to this spring, where I was on a plane to San Francisco to experience everything the trail had to offer. 

 

Race website:  https://lakesonoma50.com

Registration: RunSignup

Location:  ★★★★☆

Lake Sonoma is scenic location settled in wine country. It's about 10-15 minutes outside the tiny town of Geyserville and 20-25 minutes from the small but "real" town of Healdsburg. The Santa Rosa airport is around 45 minutes away, and the much larger San Francisco airport is only 90 minutes from the race site. Cell reception at Lake Sonoma is patchy at best, with 1-2 bars at the visitor center where the start/finish line sits, but nothing as you wind around the small mountain that we skimmed for the majority of the course. Lake Sonoma itself is beautiful. It's a reservoir from the Warm Springs Dam, and the lake levels vary wildly. In April the levels are fairly high and the lake is a glassy blue-green that looks like a painting when you look down from the hills. 

Organization: ★★★☆☆

The course was well marked.With this being an out-and-back course it would have been pretty tough to get lost. There were very few road crossings or intersections and all had signage and frequent confidence marker tapes. There were arrows painted on the pavement during the few stretched with pavement. Confidence markers were well spaced, not so close that you zone them out but close enough that you never had to worry about whether or not you had gone off course.

Pre-race communication was adequate without being overwhelming. There weren't any obvious discussion groups on social media.   

Course:★★★☆☆

This was an out-and-back course shared partially with the marathoners, who had a loop course with about 2/3 of their course being shared with the 50 mile. This was fairly frustrating as the marathoners were coming out as the front of the pack 50 milers were running back. This lead to a lot of passing, and while the 4 miles leading up to the turnaround were wide enough for this to be a non-issue, the next 10 miles were a bit hairy as the single track was narrow and there was poison oak, squishy slippery mud that was liable to rip a shoe off, and wet slick foliage off to the sides. Many of the marathoners were willing to hop off to the side, but about 30% were not and held their ground in the middle of the trail. Something to be aware of if you are competitive and feel you would be frustrated by that. 

While we are talking about poison oak, I have never seen such tall and copious poison oak in my life. It was reaching over the trail to the level of my elbows! There was no way to avoid it, even staying dead in the center of the single track. I spent the next 2.5 weeks battling the worst poison oak of my life. So, if you're highly allergic to poison oak, beware.

The trail is not technical but it is absolutely relentless, as advertised. I mean, it's not easy packing in 11,000 ft of elevation gain in 52 miles! Running in the midwest, I am accustomed to short steep climbs and descents. I would estimate that we ran on "flat" ground for 2 of the 52 miles.  The hills were long and grindy, with very few short, steep efforts.

The trail was quite varied but generally the soil type was clay. Over the exposed ridges, this was a sloppy, slippery soup that was not runnable but was more of a slip-and-slide while praying your feet slid in an anatomically appropriate direction. In the woods, it wasn't so bad. There were somewhere around 10 water crossings, two of which had bridges but the rest where you could expect to get wet. It adds to the challenge but having soaking wet socks all day can be a bit of a drawback if you're really blister-prone.

There was minimal non-race traffic on the trail. There were all of about 3 hikers. Granted, it was cold and rainy so I don't think many folks in their right minds would elect to go for a hike at that time. 

Food: ★★★☆☆

Typical ultra fare at the aid stations, nothing overly noteworthy. The finish area had pizza, which you were given a voucher for along with your bib, and donuts, which ran out shortly after my finish. I feel bad for those who missed out on the donuts! 

The unique food aspect was the finisher's wine, courtesy of Wilson Winery. They had a red, white and sparkling (NA) option at the finish line. Five stars for the wine!

My race experience:

I loved and hated this race all at the same time. The day started with a 2.6 mile paved climb and I was cruising with the lead pack (minus the two men that split from the gun). When we turned onto the trail I stuck with them for another 2 miles but everyone was running the uphills and there were a few grades I wanted to walk bits of. I felt like I was breathing ok but the HR was on the higher side so I let them go and just tried to focus on keeping my heartrate under control. I realized early on why my coach programmed so much hill sprinting and squatting this winter! I was feeling the heaviness in my legs at mile 14 when I saw my sister and swapped out packs. I was a little worried because normally I’m still fresh and happy at mile 14, but it reminded me to just keep it conservative. After that when we cut around the cat track ridge lines it went from being wet and muddy with some deep creek crossings, to so slippery that I was really just hoping and praying my feet would slide in the right directions. Coming up to mile 18-22 was were I slid from 7th to 5th. I was descending quite a bit faster than 4th but she was out climbing me and she didn’t fade as much as I did in the second half. She had maybe a 3 minute lead on me at the halfway point (top 3 had a 15-18 min lead) and she extended that pretty heartily over the second half. I felt just so drained after mile 30 and the slippery climbs were really getting to me. I changed my socks at mile 30 which felt really nice for about 10 minutes, then they were soaked too. 

I was walking a lot more through the second half, as is to be expected. With the rain and wind, plus more walking and a lower heart rate, I got really really cold. My arms turned bright red and my hands were so swollen I didn’t have knuckle wrinkles! It was annoying, but nothing that I couldn’t compartmentalize, I told myself I’d worry about it at the finish. I had been hoping to be under 9 hours and could see that wasn’t going to happen so just kept reflecting on “humility and patience”. I stole my race mantra from this race itself: "relentless." Over and over and over.

Mechanically I felt like my descents were still actually pretty darn reasonable even towards the end, although I definitely wasn’t sending it like I had hoped just because my quads were feeling pretty wrecked. With about 4 to go I peeked back down a few switchbacks and noticed that 6th place had gained some time on me. That lit a fire under my butt to jog some of the climbs I wanted to walk. I was not about to lose 5th place in the last half hour! 

It was so much fun to watch some really strong runners execute their races (new course record but Francecso Puppi!) despite less-than-optimal conditions. I was proud of the steady gains I have made as an ultrarunner despite low-volume training and my current focus on work + school, so was incredibly happy that I ended the day as 5th place woman and 16th overall in the 50, with a finish time of 09:34:29!                                                                 

Nutrition: 

Nutrition was 100% Infinite go-far. There was Gu roctane hydration provided at the aid stations, which has worked for me in the past, but I really didn't feel that I needed more than my go-far given the cool temperatures. 

Gear: 

I was extremely underdressed for the day. Looking at the forecast for weekend, I expected a warm-ish, dry day and had my typical tech tee (Giordana) and loose lined Nike run shorts (Dri-FIT Tempo Luxe). I ended up using a cheap pair of knit gloves for the start, which I should have kept for the entire race. I utilized the Hoka Speedgoats for footwear and my smartwool tall run socks . I only brought one sock change and although ultimately it didn't make a difference, I think mentally I would have appreciated a second sock change. I absolutely would have loved a shoe change but my spare shoes were road shoes, which were absolutely inappropriate for the conditions. For hydration/nutrition, I alternated between my front-loading double 20oz Nathan (pinnacle) pack and a 2L back loaded Nathan (Vapor) hydration pack. I also had a 12oz handheld for my infinite.   

Recognition:

The biggest shoutout goes to my sister Summer, who leaned into her role as crew and cheerleader and took the best care of me on race weekend!

I am a proud member of Team Athletic Mentors. I don't have nutrition or gear sponsors and am not getting any kickbacks if you like my gear/nutrition, I'm just sharing what works for me!

Javelina Jundred 100K Race Report: October 28, 2023

 

Javelina Jundred. A true icon in the ultrarunning community. They call it the Burning Man of trail racing, the Halloween (Jalloween) Party, the Rave in the Desert, and a Western States Golden Ticket opportunity. Does the first and last part of that sentence sound counterintuitive? I thought so, but I was wrong.  

The Javelina Jundred is different from the majority of trail races because of its party atmosphere. Part of why I love trail racing is the low-key nature of most of it. Javelina was a hoot! (or should I say, joot?) How many costume changes did race director Jubilee Page have over the course of the weekend? At least 7 that I counted but I’m sure I missed a few. What other race has space astronaut cowboy DJ’s spinning at 7 am? Fire jugglers at the start line? Why not? The atmosphere is what makes this race exceptional. Oh, and the fact that some of the fastest ultrarunners in the country show up to compete for those Western States Golden Tickets.

 

Photo by Howie Stern

Race website:  https://aravaiparunning.com/network/javelinajundred/

Registration: UltraSignup

Location:  ★★★★☆

The race takes place at McDowell Mountain Regional Park, which is about 10 miles outside Fountain Hills, Arizona. This area is quite remote. We were lucky enough to have a full moon on race night. The night before the race, we were woken by the howling of coyotes in the desert. What an incredible experience! A 60-minute drive from the phoenix airport, this is a convenient location for non-locals to travel and navigate. The location is remote enough that there aren’t really bathroom facilities (there is a small building but it was already closed for the season). However, there were two showers available.

Most of the hotels around are about a half hour drive away. Aravaipa sets up a large expo area and there is quite a bit of on-site camping. Camping is quiet the night before the race. However, race day, there is music late into the night as 100 milers continue to finish. This should be carefully considered if you are running the 100K.

There is no shade available so sitting in the tents after 10 am is absolutely unbearable. Friday before the race, I ended up driving down to Fountain Hills to sit in a coffee shop just to stay cool.

There is not much parking available. Folks have to park up to 1.5 miles down the park road and depend on a shuttle to get to the start/finish. I paid for VIP parking to stay in a lot nearby. Even so, I had to walk almost a half mile to the campsite. When toting gear, this really adds up.

Sunrise over tent city

Organization: ★★★★☆

You know what you’re getting with an Aravaipa event. This organization knows what they are doing. Communication leading up to the race is a dialed-in affair with good emails and an electronic copy of the athlete’s guide provided 1 week in advance. That being said, the cell service in McDowell is poor and there weren’t enough boosters to help out. The live results and livestream were consequently glitchy and unreliable. Drop bags were delayed by about 1.5 hours and this wasn’t communicated unless you sought out organizers. They were very nice about the delay and agreed to mail drop bags to athletes at the athlete’s expense. However, pro-active communication does so much more to alleviate stress as compared to retroactive apologetics.

The course was well marked. All intersections had signs with arrows and “wrong way” indicators on the off trails. There were only a few intersections so it was easy to stay on course.

Morning sun in the desert

Course:★★★★☆

This was a loop course: 3 loops for the 100K and 5 for the 100 mile. The first loop had an extra little hump to make for a 22.3 mile loop 1. The remaining loops were 19.45 miles each. Loop courses are great when you’re by yourself as it is much easier to self-crew when you know you’re going back to through the same aid stations. Loop courses can pose a huge mental challenge. If you go through the start/finish in a low mental state, it can be very easy to drop out.

The trail is not technical. That doesn’t mean it’s easy – I have never run on a trail where I could run the entire time. I quickly found myself missing the built-in walk breaks provided by technical terrain.

Desert running is very different from that in the Midwest – there is no shade. The sun starts cooking around 9 am and burns hot until 4 pm. The only shade provided came from tents set up at the aid stations. Re-application of sunscreen is a must.

The course is relatively flat: just over 1500 feet of elevation gain per loop. There is a small climb to aid station 1, then the trail is a steady uphill grade from miles 4-10. The beauty of that is that after the Jackass Junction aid station, it’s a steady downhill grade to a few rollers to the finish. There are a few washout sections to turn your ankle in if you aren’t careful. Most of the risk comes from passing and going outside the designated footpath. Desert vegetation is unfriendly. Either it’s dry and pokey, or just plain sharp. Off the footpath, rocks are a bit looser and more likely to cause slippage.

I found the major challenge in this course to be just how flat and steady it was. There was very little variation in gait and speed. This almost felt more akin to a road race than a trail race.

There was minimal non-race traffic on the trail. There were a few mountain bikers but all were courteous to the race participants.

 

Photo by Howie Stern

Food: ★★★☆☆

Typical ultra fare at the aid stations, although I do have to say there qas quite a bit to choose from! I appreciate that a list was sent out in advance to update folks on what was and wasn’t vegan or vegetarian to save time sifting through options on the table. Real food included soups, sandwiches and handhelds. Snacks consisted of fruits, chips, cookies, pretzels, candies, chews, pickles, and potatoes. The finish area had plenty of food trucks that accepted both cash and card. Pizza, coffee, fair food, and a vegetarian food truck were the ones that stood out to me. I may have frequented all of them at least once.

Photo by Howie Stern

My race experience:

I was having some mild panic leading up to the race. Monday before leaving, I was riding my mountain bike and slid out on a wet wooden bridge. I had a deep, gnarly bruise on my right hip and knee. I was having some compensatory hip adductor tightness and with my pelvic stress fracture history, I always get nervous when the adductors are off. To top things off, Javelina was my first ultra that my crew champion husband didn’t travel to with me. It was weird traveling alone and toting all my own gear, setting up my own camp, and just generally feeling like if I had issues I was on my own. I’m a princess, I know. I kept reminding myself that other people do it all the time! Being on my feet and putting in 23,000 steps in the heat the day before the race wasn’t ideal preparation, though.

Race morning, I really wasn't nervous anymore. It was going to happen one way or the other so my “buckle down and get to business” persona took over! I chatted with a few ladies at the start line, a few first-timers like me as well as some veterans. The 100K was 50% women. I'm used to races being comprised predominantly of men. This was a fun new experience!

Race morning start line

I went out more aggressive on the pace knowing that I had very limited time where it would be nice and cool out. It was fairly congested coming out of the first aid station as 100K runners started to catch 100 mile runners. Passing was generally easy in the desert compared to the tighter trails I usually run. I got to run with two different Lyndsey's and a guy named Chris for the first 16 miles, then a girl named Christy for the last 6 miles of loop one. I ran through the first aid station, then just briefly stopped to refill handhelds at aid stations 2 and 3. Coming through the start/finish, I stopped and switched from trail shoes to road shoes. I had some gear changes: wiggling into my arm coolers, adding an ice bandana and swapping hydration packs. I did not have a smooth transition here – I couldn't find my drop back for a minute! That was psychologically hard. I was a bit demoralized about not having a crew as I watched my new friends split back out to loop 2 while I was still struggling with my drop bag. I shook it off and just reminded myself to be grateful that I was having this experience of being alone, so that I would not take my A-team crew for granted in the future!

 

I was solo on loop 2 but doing a lot of passing, so at least I never felt completely alone. Passing on the camber was starting to tighten my left IT band and peroneal tendon but the body otherwise felt great! I stopped at each aid station to fill my ice bandana and air coolers with ice, refill bottles and mix up more infinite. I will, in future, come up with a different way to carry the powder because trying to get it out of ziplocks and into a handheld was absolutely atrocious. Around mile 7 of the second loop, I saw Christy and Lyndsey again! Christy was down and Lyndsey had her phone out. Christy had fallen and her wrist was clearly broken. She seemed shocky, pale but assuring people that she was ok. Lyndsey was calling medical assistance but not getting through. We stuck together until one of the Aravaipa livestream guys came by on a mountain bike. I flagged him down and he was able to contact someone in the media tent. He promised to stay with her so I headed back out and Lyndsey followed soon after. She was moving a bit faster than me so soon she split off again.

 

Photo by Scott Rokis

Ice was my best friend through the day. The volunteers at the aid stations would just shovel that stuff into my arm coolers and refill my bandana. Soon I was obsessing about my next ice refill. 

Mentally the second half of loop two and first half of loop 3 were the hardest. It had heated up into the mid 80’s, and there is absolutely no shade in the desert. It was a new experience being on such a runnable course. Most of the races I gravitate towards have technical sections or steep climbs that allow you to walk and break up the monotony. I watched the 2nd and 3rd place women heading out on loop 3 with their pacers as I rolled into the start/finish. I sat down and changed my socks, refilled my ice again, and chugged some infinite jet fuel. That caffeine boost was key! I was still running strong through loop 3. My aid station stops were a bit longer because my left IT and peroneal were so tight that if I stopped to walk or stand, it was hard to start running again. It would take several wonky strides for the knee to loosen up enough to bend. Fortunately, it started to cool off around 3:30 pm. I started feeling good again leaving the last aid station when I knew I was going to finish under 10:15.

Rolling into the finish line felt like rolling into a tailgate. There was music, costumes, and random shirtless, mustached cowboys walking around with tallboys of beer. There were two showers and I only had to wait in line about 10 minutes before getting in. After that, I wandered around to food trucks, ate most of a pizza, and hung out in the Hoka lounge (kind of a fake beach set up with nice lounger chairs) to watch the start/finish. At dark, the fire jugglers came back out to do another show as the Jackass race started and the pros were finishing. Then it was rave time! The finisher’s chute was filled with dancing and finishers rolled right into the party.

 

Photo by Scott Rokis

Unfortunately, the music was pretty loud if you were camping at Javelina Jeadquarters. More unfortunately, I was camping at Javelina Jeadquarters. I decided to walk the ½ mile to my car and sleep there. It was a painful, restless night and I was only about to snatch a couple hours of sleep. Sleeping with your knees bent, as one does when sleeping in a compact vehicle, is excruciating after an ultra. By morning, I was ready to chug a coffee or four to make it through the day.

 

Drop bags were complicated. I needed to catch an afternoon flight and drop bags were slated to arrive by 10 am. My plan was to collect the drop bag and leave. I had already packed up camp and was lingering by the start/finish cheering on 100 mile finishers while waiting on that bag. At 10:40, we learned that drop bags would be delayed at least 1-1.5 hours. The timeline was getting tight and I really just wanted to leave at that point. Like the economical flyer I am, my drop bag was my carry-on. This posed the challenge of trying to transport all of my gear home should I leave my drop bag for dead in the wilderness. The drop bags did arrive back at the start a bit after 12, so I made it to the airport with plenty of time. Even more time than I needed, it turns out, as my flight was delayed by several hours.

Despite the tears of exhaustion and frustration shed in the Phoenix-Mesa airport, Javelina Jundred is a core memory. The volunteers were incredible. The race ethos was exceptional. This is the end-of-year you should not miss! I was stoked to pull off 4th place woman and 7th overall in the 100K, with a finish time of 10:08:59!

 

Nutrition: 

The majority of my nutrition was infinite go-far. I carried an extra pre-portioned baggie and quickly mixed up a fresh handheld at each of the aid stations. I also used the Gatorade and Gu roctane hydration provided at the aid stations. I had a couple of potato chips, pickles and pickle juice at the aid stations. There were plenty of options: there was “real food” (soups, sandwiches) as well as plenty of fruits, chips, cookies, candies and chews. I get overwhelmed looking at the options so typically beeline for the thing I know will work best for me.

 

Gear: 

The best piece of gear for the day was the ice bandana by Rabbit. Having that thing filled at every aid station on loops two and three gave me something to look forward to. Having the ice in the bandana instead of stuffed in the sports bra reduced some of the sloshing and chaffing effect while keeping the ice on the core. For hydration/nutrition, I alternated between my front-loading double 20oz Nathan (pinnacle) pack and a 2L back loaded Nathan (Vapor) hydration pack. I also had a 12oz handheld for my infinite. I ran the first loop in the Hoka Speedgoats. I made the last-minute call to switch out to the Hoka Cliftons for the next two loops. There were a few areas where the rocks were a bit loose, but overall the course was very road-shoe friendly.

                                                                    

 

Full moon on race day!

Recognition:

The biggest shoutout goes to my coach Erin Young, who talked me off the ledge when I started panicking about being out in the desert alone the day before the race. The volunteers were top-notch, remembering where I was from and cheering on the “Michigan girl” whenever I rolled through the aid station.

 

I am a proud member of Team Athletic Mentors, and Ambassador for the Iceman Cometh Challenge. I don't have nutrition or gear sponsors and am not getting any kickbacks if you like my gear/nutrition, I'm just sharing what works for me!