by Shir Regev, RD
If you measure the success of a run simply by the number of entrants, the inaugural Snake River Island Hop (SRIH) was a monumental failure with only 16 paid runners (and a freeloading Race Director). However, if you change your rubric to the ratio of collective wins and personal victories to the number of runners then SRIH was truly epic. Below is a list of the wins.
The first and most important win, everybody finished safely (1). One runner qualified to become a Marathon Maniac (2). Another runner completed their first ever race (3). Another runner broke five hours in the 50k for the first time (4). Another runner completed 100k in less than eleven hours (5). Another runner ran further than they ever had in their entire life (6). The avocados were perfectly ripe at the 25k aid station (7). The race director was able to find salted caramel and peanut butter GU (8). One runner won their first race since the fourth grade (9). One runner was so motivated to get a grilled cheese sandwich; he ran an extra 25k to the 75k aid station (10). Volunteers at the Lost Island aid station “MacGuyvered” the best snack ever (11, To find out what that snack was, come run with us next year). We saw deer and osprey (12).
The Island Hop is meant to be a fun and welcoming event for beginning ultra-runners. At the end of the day, I think it was a positive experience for everybody, and that is the biggest win of all. To find out more about SRIH, please see our website plateautrailadventures.com. Like us on Facebook to see some fun pictures of the day.