Bigfoot Recap

My 100 mile race felt like a long day and a half. This 200 felt like a lifetime. I had never experienced highs and lows during an ultra before. It had only ever been a downwards spiral. This was different though. My mind and body went on a roller coaster. Typically rising with the sun and feeding off of others energy. I can't believe my first ultra was last year and my first marathon less than 2 years ago. I knew I could do this and quiting never crossed my mind, but I can't comprehend what I just did.

I love the 9am start time. We got a cabin at Eagle Cliff Campground the night before (35min drive to the start). I woke up at 4:30am, but fell back asleep at 5:30am until 7am. We got there seconds before the 4 buses of people came. They were the ones who had to catch a 4:30am ride from Randle to the start. I got my bib the day before, so I just got my spot tracker attached to my pack and was good to go. I chatted with Andrew (one of my pacers) and briefly with some other runners for the start. 

And we were off. My excel pacing chat was for a 75hr finish. I planned on 15min naps each night and 5min at each aid station. That would mean 3mph moving time would keep me on pace. I knew I didn't want to go out too fast especially with the first day being the most exposed. With that said, I think to a certain degree you need to use your legs while you still have them. For a week before the race, I had what felt like some pain in my right quad, but as I never felt in during the race. My first mile was 14min on a gradual uphill, which seems fairly good. Overall I was super happy with my pacing the first day. The congo line wasn't ever too bad to start with. After a couple miles in, I ran with Joshua for a few miles. It was his first 200 as well and we both wanted to start slow. We were getting passed and that was more than fine. We both agreed that we wouldn't be upset at starting too slow and that seems almost impossible to do. I don't think many people went out too too fast, but I did see some running up hill to pass people and silly things like that. At some point I slowly passed Joshua and ran into Jay, who I would share miles with during multiple sections. There were a couple boulder fields, but I don't think anything too bad. I knew they were coming and watched videos about them, which certainly helped. I had some pain between my left hamstring and glute. It would come for 5 seconds and disappear. That happened often, but later in the race disappeared.

Getting into the first aid station (Blue Lake), there was almost nothing left, only some wraps and candy bars. Also worth noting, my watch was already over a mile off and within the firsr day got 6miles behind. That did lead to pleasent suprised of early aid stations. The 20mile and 40 mile racers had to be the main reason for the lack of food. I had chosen to only have 1 drop bag for the entire race, which was simply a gallon zip lock with some snacks at Coldwater Lake. Mica was planning to be at almost all of the aid stations, so I figured why do I need drop bags. I was definitely getting anxious the day before check in, seeing everyone have 20 large bags. Having one drop bag turned out to be completely fine, but I would still not recommend or do it again. Anyway, back to blur lake. Thankfully Matt was there because Mica wasn't at this station and I needed ~1,600 cals. I got 2 bobo bars and a snickers from him. There was also a women who DNF'd and gave me baby food and a protien puck. I want there for long and headed out.

3 miles after blue lake I knew there was the rope section down into a river bed and back up. That wasn't bad. This section I spent more time with Jay and through exposed sections. I never even felt warm this day, which was fantastic. Eventually I got to Windy Ridge, which was the only time I'd see Mica on the first day. I got resupplied and changed shoes/socks just to be safe. I would end up rotating between 3 pairs of Salomon Ultra Glide 2 and whole race. That worked every well. 

Heading towards Coldwater lake wasn't bad. I was already 3-4hrs ahead of schedule at this point. I did have signal and texted mica/pacers about options to change pacing, but we stuck with the plan. I also checked the live tracker and saw Sally McRay was well over miles ahead of me, which I thought was interesting because she said she was taking Bigfoot easy after being beat up at Tahoe. At Coldwater, I just remembered grabbing my bag of snacks and leaving. 

Coldwater to Norway Pass was 19miles with 5k gain. I knew I was getting a pacer (Matt) at Norway, which was something nice to look forward to. My plan was to take a nap at Norway, but on a long climb around midnight, I laid down for 5min on the side of the trail. I thought I was being a weenie sleeping, so early. I'm so glad I threw out my 15min sleep each night plan so quickly though. I don't think I even fell asleep, but I felt a lot better. I belive this is where I met Collin, who is probably the person I spend the most miles with on course. It was perfect timing. My 5min timer went off and it was right there. I popped up and followed. I might have even taken another 10min nap on the trail before Norway. 

At Norway, I slept for 20min in the SUV and headed out with Matt. All I really remember about this section was constantly light heartedly complaining to Matt. Saying things like I don't even like running and it sucks. It felt funny at the time. I will say, even as someone who now has done it, I don't fully understand why people run 100 or 200 miles. Shit is long and hard! 

At Norway, I would then have Andrew to pace me to the next section. I was tired, which was a bit frustrating because it was only 70 miles in and I hadn't been nearly this tired at this time/milage during my 100. I laid down for 3min, which didn't do anything. I then did 10, which helped. Then I did another 10 a while later, and was good to go. I was learning trail naps were awesome. You just need to get a few feet off trail and ideally behind a log, so runners don't wake you up. I don't remember too much of this section. When Andrew and I were a couple hundred yards away from RD 9327, he asked if I wanted to race. I knew that was a bad idea, but then before I knew it, we were racing at probably 6 min/mile pace. I won, just saying.

I wasn't taking crazy amounts of time at aid stations, but my 4-7min plan wasn't being followed. I did always eat some hot food at every station and my stomach had 0 problems along the entire way. I did hear the call of nature 17 times during the race, which is like 15 more than I would have liked and a bit weird, but whatever. From RD 9327 I have 20 miles until seeing Mica and picking up Matt. There was also an aid station in between there. If I'm not mistaken it was this sections a couple interesting things happened. One, I got lonely and landed down directly on the trail until a friend came. They didn't know they were my friend, but I would soon inform them they were. It turned out to be Ethan and his pacer Jared, who were awesome and spent many miles with. The second interesting thing was we heard gun shots, which I didn't think too much about at the time. Later right before a river crossing (they're were only 2 river crossing on the cross were I got wet, both on the same section) we came across 2 of the most stereotypical hillbillies, like the ones from deliverance. They had a rifle, drinking, and smoking pot. Ethan got a tomato from them and ate it. I would not have wanted to come across then alone. Also I think at some point in here, my left Achilles was hurting. I think nothing serious and mostly just the tendon being rubbed on from my shoe. It had some jolts of shooting pain every once in a while, but if I just kept going, would just go back to dull pain.

At Lewis River, I got Matt for the hardest section: 17miles, over 7k gain, and turned out to be a bit of bushwacking and many down trees. I took 4 dirt naps 10-20minute each and Matt even joined and feel asleep for a couple. I broke my pole tip off, only like an 1.5inch, not a huge deal. Quartz Ridge and Chain of Lakes seem like a blur. Before Klickitat was an out and back to Elk Mountain. It was STEEP. At the stop, I turned off my headlamp and stared at the night sky for a while. Coming down was the most painful part of the course for me, my quads got spent. I got Andrew for 20miles and 5k gain at Klickitat, such a long time out there. 

Twin Sisters to Owen was a slog. Hundreds and hundreds of down trees and I only had 2L of water. I was so scared I would run out and get to the next aid MESSED UP. I got .5L from a pacer and then ran into someone who did done Bigfoot last year. He told me there was no water, but thankfully he was wrong and there were some small streams. I got completely wet and loaded up. I filter water for someone without a filter as well.

Owen Creek to the finish was all road, mostly paved and virtually all downhill. I knew I could get in before night, which was a huge relief. If it had started to get dark, I knew I would be mega tired and just meander my way to the finish. My Achilles was shooting pain for the first couple miles, but then it went away. I torn this section up. The road was hot, 99°F. I could feel the heat up through the soles or my shoes. It was great to be able to move so efficiently. They had an unmanned water station 6miles from the finish. I loaded up on water, soaked myself, and put a large chuck of ice in a bandana. I realized I had extra water too, so I was spray myself down on the run. I took this opportunity to read all the messages I had gotten and jam to some music. At the finish I ran the track at 5:34 min/mile. It was so great to be able to finish so strong. 

I'm not sure where I'll go from here in my running career. Doing 200 miles again, sounds insane, but I'm sure I'll forget over time how hard it is. Maybe I could do a longer FKT, maybe I'll just do fun 50k's. Regardless, I'll be running. 

The 200 mile distance was so interesting. My legs felt the same after mile ~80 and didn't get worse. My arms hurt less from using my poles over time. My feet hurting was the biggest thing, but what can you do. I only had 2 small blisters at the end and my toe nails are all in perfect shape. Maybe I'm blessed with good feet, but idk what people are doing/not doing to their feet to make them so jacked up. I slept 4.5-5 hours over the race, which seemed like a good amount. I didn't push through sleep deprivation too much and I think that was the right call. If I was tired and could lie down and fall asleep within 30sec, I would. 

Why, why do people do this, why did I do this. I think for most and for myself the answer is less deep than one might think. I asked almost everyone I meet on course and none of their answers suprised me. My core why is because I'm strong and can keep going. I know that to be true and use experiences to enforce it. It's also something to do and I get bored, you have to have hobbies. I get to see a lot, eat a lot, and socialize. Isn't that all we really want in life? Trying new things is interesting. Oh and a huge part of it is, I'm a bit dumb and ignorant. I'm a bit annoyed that I'm going to forget the pain and sign up for something big and crazy in the future. 

There's probably more tucked away in my brain, but this is all that I want to jiggle out for now. One last thing though. I didn't get any hallucinations, I want my money back.