On Friday June 14th I started the Bighorn
100 mile trail run in Dayton, Wyoming.
This was a great experience for many reasons:
- There was a big group of Vancouver runners
- I hadn’t ever run in this part of the US
- This was my first Hardrock qualifier, so I knew it was going to push my limits
I left North Vancouver on Tuesday morning, spent the night
in Missoula, Montana then arrived in Sheridan, Wyoming on Wednesday afternoon
with plenty of time to pack my drop bags and relax before the big mountain
adventure.
My sister-in-law Heather was crewing me and she arrived on
Thursday in time for registration and the mandatory race briefing. We heard that conditions on the course were
going to be extremely tough with mud, snow and expected thunderstorms, so the
race team gave the runners an extra hour to complete the race. Little did I realize at that time how
important this was going to be on Saturday.
I tried to go to bed early but had to watch the
Toronto Raptors win their first NBA championship. I got a decent amount of sleep and woke up
before my alarm on Friday morning full of energy and excitement. After 6 months of training and preparation I
just wanted to finally start the race.
We drove to the finish line in Dayton, then took the shuttle to the
start and waited for over an hour under the hot sun. My 12-day heat training sauna experiment
worked well and made me much more comfortable in the heat.
At 9am the race started and half of the Vancouver crew (me,
Andy, Claire, James and Alain) anchored the back of the pack, while the others
(Wing, Craig, Shawn and Dan) seemed to run on course record pace. After just over a mile on a gravel road we entered tight single track and the pace slowed significantly. We climbed consistently for a couple hours so
it was okay to be going slow, but I would have preferred to run a bit faster, there
were just too many big groups of runners on a narrow rocky trail. I ran mainly with Andy and James during this
first section.
After 13 miles with 3,200 feet of climbing we arrived at Dry
Fork, the first major aid station and crew access point. I met Heather, refilled water bottles,
grabbed food and got back on the trail relatively quickly. The next 13 miles rolled up and down and were
quite enjoyable. Thunderstorms moved in
and out and it rained intermittently.
After the 13 mile rollers we started a 4 mile long 3,200 foot descent down to
Sally’s Footbridge, the next major aid station.
This section was rainy and muddy with multiple river crossings. I was feeling good and ran most of this
section by myself and caught up to Claire at Sally’s Footbridge. After 30 miles of running it was time to take
care of myself, change socks, eat, drink, and regroup before heading out on
the next 18 miles to Jaws aid station (the turnaround).
Claire and I left Sally’s Footbridge together. The next 18 miles would include 4,200 feet of
climbing, rain, snow, postholing (through snow into icy water), river
crossings, and more MUD than I could have ever imagined possible. This section defined the race and made it
obvious why this event is a Hardrock qualifier.
My sea level lungs seared every time we went above 6,000 feet elevation. I felt like I could only take half a breath
at a time, not completely debilitating, but enough of an issue that I had to
slow down to get Oxygen into my blood. Claire
was moving at a good pace and I stuck with her.
She was pushing me harder than I would have gone on my own and we were
making good progress. The sun had set
across the canyon and we were running well at night…. until we left Elk Camp for the final push to Jaws aid station.
Up to this point the mud was manageable, but after leaving
Elk Camp the final 4.5 miles to Jaws was horrendous. Wing and Craig both came down during our
ascent swearing about how bad this section was to run. Knee deep mud, soft snow with icy water
underneath, 30 degree muddy inclines and side angles made for constant slipping
and falling. It was cold and raining the
entire time and when we got to Jaws at mile 48 both Claire and I were in rough
shape. Heather got us in the tent for
warmth, food, dry clothes and head to foot rain gear before contemplating the
muddy descent. Admittedly we spent a
long time at this aid station, but we were in such bad shape that we needed to
physically and mentally regroup before tackling the second half. I stood up out of the chair and fell over,
luckily Heather was able to grab me and prevent me from hitting the
ground. The second half of Bighorn was
going to test my limits, I was going to find out how far and hard I was able to
push myself. This was what I signed up
for.
We left Jaws and Claire and I immediately got separated in
the dark. I joined a couple
from Seattle for the dark muddy descent back to Elk camp. It was good to have company during this
stretch but we were moving much slower than I wanted. I had on all my rain gear, plus ski gloves
and hand warmers so despite having wet feet I was pretty warm. When I got to Elk camp I knew I needed to
speed up, but it was still dark and I didn’t want to go out alone. The course was well marked but I was nervous
about missing a turn at night. I ran
with Elaine from Detroit and we pushed each other pretty good for the next 5
miles through the mud and rain.
At mile 56 I ran the numbers in my head and realized that I
needed to push harder. It felt like we
were moving well but with over 40 miles remaining it was important to maintain
a consistent pace and minimize time at aid stations. The sun was rising and I felt a euphoric
burst of energy from the daylight, I had survived the night. This renewed energy
combined with my realization that I needed to speed up gave me the push to run
for 10 miles to Sally’s Footbridge aid station.
I caught up to Claire about 3 miles before Sally’s and convinced her
that we needed to push harder to make the time cutoff. I came into Sally’s at a good time but was again
in rough shape. The burst of energy
pushed me through those 10 miles, but I was now exhausted and needed to refuel and
recharge.
Claire and I left Sally’s Footbridge together and pushed on
for 16 miles to Dry Fork aid station.
This was mentally the hardest part of the race. We had been running for over 24 hours but
still weren’t close to the finish. Plus
the mud had gotten much worse since the day before due to the rain and hundreds
of runners mucking up the trails. We ran
the first 10 miles of this section with a guy from California and his pacer and
it was nice for awhile to have someone else pace and not to have to think. With 6 miles to go before Dry Fork I ate 2 caffeinated
gels and finally turned on music. The caffeine
burst combined with heavy metal provided a needed jolt of energy and got me
moving fast enough that I pulled away from everyone else in the small
group. I ran most of the climb to Dry
Fork and Claire and Alain came into the aid station just after me.
Dry Fork was the final major aid station with 18 miles left
in the race. I was tempted to get out of
there as fast as possible, but knew it would be better to take my time and get
sorted. With Heather’s help I changed
socks, ate, drank coffee and taped my blisters.
Alain and I set off together with Claire closely following. There were 2 final climbs, then a really long
5 mile rocky descent. We had been
running for over 30 hours and the descent was more painful than I expected, but
as long as we kept moving we would be good for time. Finally we reached the start line of the race
and had a final 5 mile stretch to run on a gravel road to the finish. Alain was feeling great and he pushed ahead
and dropped us on the descent. Claire
and I stuck together on the gravel road and alternated between a slow shuffle
jog and walking. The race cutoff was 35
hours. We enjoyed freezies delivered by
local boys on bikes and walked into the park to see our friends that had
already finished. Claire and I crossed
the finish line in 34:47:32, and Andy finished 2 minutes later.
Unlike my other 100 mile finish at Tunnel Hill in 2017 I trained
properly for Bighorn. 6 months of
running, strength workouts, stretching, occasional speed work, specific uphill
and downhill days and an overnight run prepared my legs and mind to finish Bighorn 100. After a beer and a burger
in the park with friends followed by a good night sleep I drove 17 hours back to North
Vancouver, just enough time in the car for my legs to fully seize. But also enough time to dream about future
mountain adventures and races. I no
longer fear mountain hundreds and will probably apply for Cascade Crest 100 in
the next couple years.
