901PT

ID on Friday. There we met the rules to the best of his/ three other friends from the her abilities. The race director area: Manny Geno, Andy concluded the meeting with Jones-Wilkins and Tracy King. the statement that the race Almost every running event would be on the hottest day in the United States has been of the year, and that the cuts canceled this year so we were would be extended by 15 all excited to be there. The minutes, because there was prerace meeting was Covid-19 more snow on the course than style but nobody cared about any previous year. the extra hoops we had to jump through to get to run. The race The alarm went off at directors took your temperature 2:15 a.m. We had to be on a before they even allowed you Five runners from the Mid-South who ran the bus at 3:15 a.m. to be shuttled into the park. From there, Beaverhead 100K: Sean Hilsdon, Brian Williams, to the start for a 5 a.m. start you had to wear a mask and Graham Benson, Manny Geno and Stephen time. When we got off the social distance. When the race Whatley. bus, everyone took care of director started speaking, the business and got prepared first thing he did was read the approved Covid-19 race to run. It was still dark, so everyone put on their plan. We would be asked to wear a mask until the race headlamps and spread out for some social distancing. spread out over the trail, wear one as we came into an After the race director played the national anthem we aid station, use antibacterial gel on our hands before were off. That lasted for 100 yards, at which point we entered the aid station, use only single-serving when everyone logjammed trying to cross a very food choices, grab what we needed and move away large Montana-style cattle grate before the trail. Once from the table. Finally, crews were asked to help their across the grate we ran for a half mile or so before we runners outside the area considered normal aid station turned right onto the CDT. It was dark for the first 30 space. Everyone I saw was willing to and did follow minutes of running and we got to watch the sun come up over the range and mountains. The rough plan for the day for the Midsouth contingent was to try to stay together as long as possible until the race naturally pulled us apart. Over the next few hours we ran and spread out naturally until all of a sudden I found myself alone on the trail.

For the first 27 miles, the race was mostly single-track trail with some ranger jeep road mixed in at the connecting pieces of the CDT. There

A shot of the trail about 47 miles in. The trail goes between the tree line and the drop of about 9,500 feet of elevation. At this point, it is about four miles before runners get to the scree field. Scree is a collection of broken rock fragments at the base of crags, mountain cliffs, volcanoes or valley shoulders that has accumulated through periodic rockfall from adjacent cliff faces.

A shot of the first 27 miles of the Beaverhead 100K course. Runners can see at that point why Montana is known by many to be in “Big Sky Country.”

were miles and miles of open areas filled with grass and wild flowers. On the horizon: the Beaverhead Mountain range. As we ran, we slowly climbed in elevation to where we would spend most of the day between 8,500 and the high point of 10,200 feet. Everyone had been warned that this first marathon would be the easiest running of the day. We all tried not to go out too fast but it was so hard not to live in the moment and enjoy the epic scenery.

At mile 27, I got to Lemhi Pass aid station. It was the only point on the course where anyone was allowed a drop bag. At that point I did not need anything in the bag, but I grabbed my comfort food and some tape. I was way ahead of where I thought I should be, so I took time to tape my toes on my right foot. The last few races I have had blister problems and I was hoping an “ouch” of prevention was worth a pound of “suffering”. The race course was about to change. From mile 27 to the finish line was going to be hard running. It was supposed to be nothing but single-track trail, rocks, climbing, ridge lines, and a monster 4-mile descent off the mountains. I stepped out of the aid station and had an immediate climb.

The mountains at this point seemed to be like running on a turned-over soup bowls covered in lose rocks. You would run up and over, and back down the other side. The trail cut right through the middle of the mountain and you had trees on both sides of you. Down the middle of the trail, every quarter mile or so, there was a metal spike driven into the earth with what looked like a metal mushroom cap on top. The cap had a line down the middle and one side had an M and an I on the other to indicate the Montana/Idaho state line. Each mountain you ran over had a different feel to it. Some were scorched earth from previous fires, some were beautiful pine forest, and a few had a combination of woods with scarred trees where the fires had not been so bad. In one of the healthier mountaintops, I was running along and startled an elk. He was about 20 yards away from me when I first noticed him. He had a huge rack on his head and went across the trail in front of me. I was all alone at that moment and it was very surreal. The massive elk was close enough and big enough that I could feel the concussions of his hooves hitting the ground. I actually stopped for a second to take in what just happened.

The race cuts were something I was worried about before the race. I always am and stay worried. I am constantly doing math in my head until I am officially past the last one. Beaverhead had what I think are aggressive cuts at 3 different aid stations. I call them aggressive because they were tighter than the Walking Tall 50K and the elevation was higher in general and it

had more overall elevation change. You had to maintain That 3-mile section of trail averaged a 30-minute mile a 16:34 pace until mile 38, then it dropped to 16:57 to and I was moving to the best of my ability the entire mile 46, and then it dropped to a 17:13 pace until mile time. I climbed the first peak on the scree field and 51. From there you were free to get to the finish line yelled “Top of the World” then I looked to the right without worrying about time unless you wanted a ticket and I could see another peak farther along and higher into Western States 100 which had a 19-hour limit. up. At the top of peak number 2, I was ready to be

The reason the cuts were tight was because of the the edge. It was not to be. I could look right again and scree field. The see another peak and race director wanted you to “ ... but it might small people working their way up to the have the ability highest point on the to be off the scree field before it got or might not have course. At the tippy top, I was so ready dark. There is no way to describe it unless you ground under it ...” to be away from the edge, and off the rocks. I did not were out there. even look around. The scree field was a 3 mile-section that was 100% I just moved on and tried to find my way down the rock climbing and straight up and down. To add insult mountain. to injury, it was the highest point on the course and finished with the rocks and wanted to get away from ran just feet away from a 1000-foot drop. There was The first 2 miles down the mountain were nothing some snow on the edge of the scree field that the race more than a goat path. It was a fresh-cut narrow trail director warned us not to run on. He said “The snow that had switchbacks, loose rock, big drops and yet easy is faster running but it might or might not have ground to follow. There was very little running fast here. It was under it so it is better to stay away.” One guy next to more of a controlled fall using trees and the side of the me must not have been at the prerace meeting because mountain to slow your descent. There was also some he was on a big section of snow and passing me. He snow closer to the top that was difficult to navigate hollered at me, “Come down here, it is much easier.” and more than once I found myself sitting down and I hollered back “yes, but is it safe?” He looked around sliding to the next section of dirt. After that, we had a and said “Oh, shit” and scrambled back on the rocks. few miles of a more controlled downhill. If you could manage the rocks, you could make some time. I got my legs back and started picking up steam for the next 2 miles. I was starting to check my watch again, realizing that not only was I going to make it to the finish in the daylight but also had a chance of coming in under 16 hours.

As the elevation got lower and the finish line got closer, I started really moving again. I was back to running like the beginning of the race. There is something magical that can happen at different points in an ultra. Once your brain believes you can do it, your body starts to act like it agrees. I was cruising around the giant scrub bushes. You could not see more than a few feet of trail around you. Plus, you had no idea which way was the next turn would be, but it did not matter. I was running. I could hear the finish a half mile