TLDR: Be prepared to climb, sweat,and pack your own nutrition for this minimally supported 50k. The backcountry terrain and expansive views are breathtaking and worth coming back for. At the very least, scroll for amazing race pictures by James Holk.
Late summer sunsets in Sweden seem to go on for hours. That slowly sinking sun lights up the sky that makes staring at it all you want to do.
Whenever I sit down to write these race recaps I always ask myself essentially the same couple of questions. First I ask myself, What really happened out there? What can I learn from it? And how can it apply to anybody taking their time to read this?
I had some time to mull (or should I say mullet) over the Canyons 100K yesterday as I drove from Auburn back home to Bellingham. See, once I get driving, I don’t really like to stop. When I found myself with a 14 hour drive ahead of me, I knew I could drive 850 miles only stopping once to refuel the tank. As I hobbled to my car and pulled out of the motel parking lot, I knew I had some thinking time ahead of me.
This is not the story of an Olympic hopeful or elite athlete. This is the story of friendship and a ragtag bunch of misfits surprising themselves and urging one another along in the ungrounded goal of qualifying and competing in the U.S. Marathon Olympic Team Trials.
Use coupon code ‘Rachel’ at myspringenergy.com for a special discount!
I’d competed in one 100 miler before this summer; the Leadville 100. I wouldn’t say I ‘ran’ the thing, though. Instead, I ran a good 60 miles before hitting a wall made of hyponatremia and altitude. I never recovered and walked it in pretty darn disappointed in myself. Like anybody, I had a lot to learn about running this distance, and I wanted to figure it out as best I could, but the next year I skipped the distance and ran 75 mile efforts at Lavaredo Ultra Trail and an FKT on a section of the PCT. I figured I would edge forward the longest distances and durations I’ve run in an effort to increase confidence and ability for the distance that had wrecked me.
Inspiration
Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) has been on my radar for about 4 years since my pal Chelsea Blanchard showed me the video, “Curiosity” starring Rory Bosio, saying something along the lines of “this woman is your spirit animal.” If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend watching. I was in awe of the energy and spirit of the race, and knew I just had to experience it someday. In the summer of 2016 I ran the course (Tour du Mont Blanc, which circumnavigates Mont Blanc and passes through France, Italy and Switzerland) with two of my medical school classmates Beth and Audrey, after that (2017) I went back and ran the Mont Blanc 10km. In 2018, I ran the reverse Haute Route (Zermatt to Chamonix) with my boyfriend (now husband) Tyler and our friends Ben and Katie. All these trips in some way were spurred on by my fascination with UTMB, and this finally culminated in running CCC this year. While UTMB circumnavigates Mont Blanc, CCC goes around about half of it. It is a 101 kilometer mountain race with 20,000 feet of climbing. It starts in Courmayeur, Italy, winds through Switzerland and ends in Chamonix, France. The UTMB races draw many of the fastest athletes of the world, and has been called the “Super Bowl” of trail running.
There is a lot of hard work between having a vision for a dream race, and having runners roll up to the starting line at 6AM on a Saturday morning. I think a huge thank you to Ethan Newberry (The Ginger Runner) and Kim Teshima-Newberry is first in order. These two thought up an awesome concept and produced a world class race. I can’t thank them, the volunteers, and sponsors enough.
February in California can be a total crap shoot weather wise. Some years it’ll be sunny and warm in the foothills of the Sierra. Others well, not so much. This is my third year in a row racing near Auburn in the middle of winter. In 2017 I ran Fourmidable, 2018 Way Too Cool, and 2019 back to Fourmidable. All three races have been complete and total mud baths. So much for drought plaguing the state, I think maybe not this year! While much of my personal racing focus has moved towards longer distances I still love to do 50k races! They are hard, and I get to run fairly fast for a change which is not so much the case when I employ my pacing strategies in 100 mile races. My wish was granted as we began the first descent in a pack of about 20 guys running solidly under 6 min pace.
