Race Reports

Despite lower participant numbers, it was a race for the record books. The winner of the race, Hayden Hawks, set a new course record in 5:18:40, nearly four minutes faster than Jim Walmsley’s time from 2016. And for the first time since 2017, when Emile Harrison Torrence ran the fourth fastest time ever in 6:27:43, a woman cracked the top ten as Camille Herron ran the eighth fastest time ever in 6:31:14.

I have directed over 100 ultras. This past Hellgate was the most stressful one I have ever directed. There was so much uncertainty—things kept changing just like all of life. We found out for sure that we could hold the race 32 hours before the start.

Race Director Bryant Baker worked hard at making the inaugural running of the Rim to River 100 Mile, West Virginia’s first-ever hundred-mile race, something special. At packet pick-up, he mentioned that the course visits every spot in the area he would want his best friend to see if they were out on a run together.

During a time when so many races have been canceled, The Stinger All Comers Track Race was a reminder of the benefits of persistence, camaraderie and the great outdoors. Running around a 400-meter track hour after hour is also a great way to reflect and remove ourselves from the chaos that surrounds us.

The wild weather at Whiskey Basin Trail Runs in Prescott, Arizona, added to a palpable feeling of high energy, and though I couldn’t see others’ expressions due to masks and being distanced for COVID-19 precautions, everyone seemed to be in a good mood judging by the elbow-bumps. While it was a dark and stormy morning, we all needed to run.

“Where are the women?” I yelled at my computer last December. Race lotteries had been announced, running calendars had been released and lady runners were quietly missing. It was unacceptable. I wanted to do something crazy to invite women to the Jewel. Something big. Something special.

I’ve known races in the past to be canceled or postponed, but never the entire season as a whole being more or less shut down. To add to this mix, I lost my favorite sister, Gwen, to complications of the dreaded COVID virus, so I wasn’t feeling at all good about 2020. A sense of melancholy is exactly what I was feeling when I finally decided to try and enter the Heartland 100 yet again this year.

It was a calm, crisp morning at the start of the Moab 240, as the last group of runners lined up by the arch five minutes before 7 a.m. We hollered in anticipation, as we were about to embark upon 241 miles of remote country before returning to where we started.

After months of uncertainty with canceled races and FKT attempts, I caught wind that Javelina Jundred might take place. The pancake flat, fully exposed Arizona desert is a far cry from the terrain and climate where you would expect to find this mountain-minded ultrarunning junkie, but I needed something to look forward to.

Ride the Wave 50-Miler consisted of three legs: two checkpoints at miles 10 and 31, plus the finish line. The directions and course map were unknown for each leg until we arrived at the checkpoints, where we received the directions and maps on laminated cards to assist us in getting to next leg.

The Mines of Spain 100 makes excellent use of the area’s colorful history, and the beauty and variety of habitats of the natural world there. Add to that, stellar race organization, great volunteers and exceptional runner support, and it all adds up to a cool event that is likely to become a fixture in Midwest ultrarunning.

Conquer The World (CTW) Endurance not only held their first live race of the year in September, but the first edition of the Pawling 24-Hour Trail Running Festival. The event included 24-, 12-, 6- and 1-hour events on a 1.68-mile loop of road and trail with approximately 160 feet of elevation gain, that circles a beautiful lake in Pawling, New York.

Five waves of runners dispatched from the start under cool air as the skies lightened. This year’s race took runners in the original counterclockwise direction on 82% unpaved fire roads with just over a mile of elevation gain in central Pennsylvania’s Rothrock State Forest.

In a year of so much uncertainty and speculation, Hungerford was able to provide a bit of reprieve. It was just what we needed to affirm our love of running and once again celebrate each individual journey to the finish line.

Last year, I started and finished my first ever, 100-mile race at the Wasatch Front Endurance Run, but knew that I was capable of better. So, the next day, I sat in the car and decided to sign up for the Bear 100 in 2020.

This was our first race during COVID-19. Race director John Doggett and his team made sure everyone was taken care of and it felt like we were part of the family.

The Maah Daah Hey Trail consists of 144 miles of single track that weaves through the badlands of western North Dakota. Its name comes from the Mandan language and can be translated as “an area that has been or will be around for a long time,” “long lasting,” or simply, “grandfather.” However, one should not imagine a gentle grandfather, always ready with a Werther’s candy in the pocket of his flannel jacket.

In a pandemic world, live races are possible. On August 1, we held the 12th annual Dahlgren Heritage Rail Trail 50K as a live event, on an old converted railbed in King George, Virginia. We took COVID-19 seriously and produced a quality event centered around safety, respect for others and personal responsibility.

We all continue to listen, learn, unlearn and roll with the punches, and as this pandemic continues to evolve, so do we. But one thing is for sure: the sheer joy of that finish line will never change.

The Warriors UltraRun stands as one of the most unique road races in the country and allows runners to recreate the escape route from the iconic 1979 cult film “The Warriors” by Walter Hill, wherein a street gang is framed for a murder and must race through the dangerous streets of NYC in order to reach their home turf in Coney Island.

Like most of the world, the COVID-19 pandemic hit us hard – as people, as a company and as members of the racing industry. As the shelter-in-place orders continued, we realized that waiting this out wasn’t an option. The Bryce Ultras at the end of May was our first opportunity to see if there was a way to hold races during the pandemic while also keeping our runners and staff safe.

Was I nervous? Absolutely. I had one week to prepare for a high elevation mountain race. But despite that aforementioned absurdity, my excitement to pin on an actual race bib completely trumped my fears, and I dove in head first without looking back.

Were it not for the circumstances of the pandemic, I would never have been shopping around for a race, but fate brought me together with the Strawberry Fields Forever 30 Hours in North Bonneville, Washington, near the Columbia River. It turned out to be a wonderfully well run and satisfying ultra with just 3,200 feet of elevation gain.

At last, I found a race held in the shadow of the COVID-19 lockdown, and there was no series of ominous email warnings followed by a reluctant cancellation notice. The Loco Challenge race series held in parts of the Lassen National Forest on June 6 in north central California.

It had been three days post-Quarantine Backyard Ultra when Mike Wardian and I got on the phone. I am half expecting to hear him talk about all the sleep he has gotten, but then again, it’s Wardian. He is actually walking around his neighborhood, which does not surprise me.

With virtually all races canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we “organized” a FatAss 50K for runners to celebrate on the day that Western States would have been run. Completely tongue-in-cheek, we called it the “Not Exactly Western States FatAss 50K,” (or NEWS 50K) run entirely on the Arizona Trail just north of Flagstaff, Arizona.

I ran Land Between the Lakes in Grand Rivers, Kentucky, for the first time back in 2014—it was my first trail race ever. I keep going back because LBL is more than a trail. I go back to be among friends and family who continue to believe in me, support me and encourage me.

The inaugural Sugar Badger 50/50 and Half Marathon was supposed to take place on May 30 on the Badger Trail in Wisconsin, but the universe had other plans. Not surprisingly, the race couldn’t proceed as an in-person event due to coronavirus restrictions, so Ten Junk Miles Racing converted it to a virtual version.

With virtually all springtime races canceled due to COVID-19, my wife and I ruminated about what races would look like when the restrictions were lifted. “Hey, we could do something like that! Just make everyone run solo.” With that, we hatched the concept of the MayDay! Solo 50K, to be run Fat Ass style on May 1 in Sedona, Arizona.

I have been the race director for all 26 years of the Mountain Mist Trail Run. I have seen the 10th, 20th and 25th anniversaries come and go, but none have been more emotional than this year’s 26th running.