Plain 100 mile race (Entiat Mountains of Washington State)

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joerunner
Posts: 799
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm

Plain 100 mile race (Entiat Mountains of Washington State)

Post by joerunner » September 15th, 2011, 8:51 am

Some of you might have been a little curious in the past as to why I do these really long trail runs. Mayhem pm'd me and was curious about how my race went this last weekend so I thought what the heck, post it to let you guys see what I like to do. Sorry its a bit long and there are no pictures.

Plain 100 2011

Preamble

Will not exactly 100 miles maybe closer to 110. Who knows for sure? It is probably about 107 according to some reports. 107 miles with the added stress of carrying your own food, finding your own way and locating your own water. There is one place to get aid where aid won’t get you disqualified and that is back at the start/midpoint aid/finish which is Deep Creek camp.

The course is made up like a double lolly pop with the 6 miles of trail between Deep Creek and Alder Creek being the only part that is repeated to get out to loop 2 and back to the finish. The course is about 95% single track varying from forest road to steep rocky scrambles through thick vegetation. There is about 21,000’ of climbing. This year was a bit more challenging with some fairly extreme hot temps and a long section that has not been maintained and has grown over somewhat.

The adventure started Thursday night when my wife, Susi was to return from a trip to visit relatives in Germany. She didn’t make her connecting flight in D.C. but was lucky enough to catch another flight that brought her in to PDX way later then originally planned. We finally got her home sometime after 1 a.m. then promptly got up at 7a.m. for our long drive to the race start headquarters at Plain Washington where the mandatory 4p.m. briefing would be held. Along the way we were held up by an active forest fire and later on my travel trailer had a tire blow out. I put on my spare and made it to a tire shop only to find that all the tires were ready to blow up so had them change them all out. We arrived at our campground about 3:15 set up and made it to the meeting right on time. A little stressed but on time.

After the meeting I took my dogs for a walk behind the campground and my Golden Retriever, Rudy the troublemaker found a yellow jackets nest and pissed them off real good. Within seconds Rudy came running then Pablo followed by Sprocket with a whole bunch of bees in chase. I got right in line with the dogs and we ran back to the campground as fast as we could where I was able to start swatting bees off the dogs. Ok, so I like a challenge. This is why I always sign up for and run Plain.

With the day over pretty much over and Susi conked out with jet lag, I packed all my gear and went to bed fairly early and through some miracle was able to get a very good night sleep.

We were close to race headquarters so the next morning I grabbed my pack and walked over for pre-race breakfast. I wasn’t able to sit down with my wife and discuss a race crew plan for her at Deep Creek so I wrote a bunch of instructions out on paper and left them behind. She has been with me through enough of these things that she pretty much knows what needs to happen.

For some reason I wasn’t having my normal jitters leading up to this race. I wasn’t too worried because I got a lot of good long training runs in during the summer and knew I had the fitness so I just kind of relaxed and went with the flow. My goal was to finish, that’s it just finish. After my Keys dnf(drop) quitting without a solid reason was not going to be an option. So, my number one goal was to finish and any thoughts of placement or time would be a distant second consideration. I kind of thought I could run under 30 or even 28 on a really good day but I’d have no worries about at 34 hour finish or coming in last place. The forecast for intense heat in the area concerned me the most.

I found these 370 calorie energy bars at Costco that were kind of greasy and went down easy so my strategy was to eat one energy bar every 2 hours with 2 gels during the alternating hours. I would use s-caps for salt replacement at 1 per hour. I also had some jerky and one Ensure drink for some extra protein. I carried enough food for about 16 hours of running of loop 1. I kept most of the food for each in the accessible front waist pockets of my running backpack. I tried something new this year with an extra zippered pouch that I used for trash storage which is always an issue. The SAR(search and rescue) folks were instructed to accept trash from the runners.

My late night plan including using some caffeine after fatigue became too unbearable. I also had some ibuprofen to take the edge off occasionally. I recently read somewhere that in order for caffeine to be effective you don't want to use it on the day of the race until you really need it. In the past I've always purchased whatever gel's were on sale and later discovered that many of these gels had caffeine in them. This year I purchased gels that did not have caffeine.

Loop 1
I caught a ride from the race headquarters down the road to Deep Creek. Me and 24 other runners were let go on time and headed down to the old race start location where we had to touch the steps of the lodge then turn around and head back to Deep Creek. This was done to make up for the missed miles due to the new start location. I ran slow and way back in the pack for a while but as we headed up towards Maverick Saddle I started to warm up and my pace gradually picked up. From Deep Creek to Maverick is a long uphill climb on forest road. I slow jogged most of this uphill part. As with most of the race I was running alone.

During this time I practiced my “just stay in the moment” mental state. I’ve found that during very long runs I tend to let my mind wander to places and times ahead in the race. I find that the more I can think about the present moment the easier and faster my running is. I trained a lot with an mp3 this summer but opted not to use it during the race for fear it would make me lose concentration. I’ve noticed that I just run easier when I’m 100% involved with whatever is going on here and now. But, staying 100% mentally engaged for over 24 hours is a lot more difficult and consuming task then it might sound. It takes practice.

I made it up to Maverick Saddle in pretty good time, checked in with the SAR and moved on to the first trail section. For water I was using a 70 ounce bladder which I would fill to whatever amount I thought I might need to get me to the next water source. For the 9ish miles of running from Deep Creek to Maverick I carried about 50 ounces. After a mile of running along the Mad River trail I pulled over to the river’s edge to grab another 50 ounces or so. While there, Eric also came in for some water and we were passed by Miles, Christi and Bogie (I’m doing the best I can on the names and remembrances). Just a bit up the trail I followed Eric up the Hi Yu trail which can be tricky to find if this was your first Plain because there is no trail name on the sign. On the way up Hi Yu I passed Eric, Bogie, Miles and Christi. I also came by Ian who said hello and mentioned that he was waiting for his wife to catch up so they could run together. I was kind of wondering how many were in front of me but quickly reminded myself that this was a “just to finish” race and I needed to just stay in the moment and not worry about place. Placing is something that happens at the end of the race not the in the first 12 miles.

From Maverick up to Klone peak was uneventful. I continued to run alone. The trail was dry and dusty and the alpine meadows were as beautiful as ever. The Sun had risen sometime earlier and the day was warming up quickly. I reminded myself to drink more water. I was doing what I need to do by running all the dips and flats and slow jogging or walking the ups. There are a 2-3 trail junctions through here but with my previous course knowledge I was able to move along without referencing my map. Experience at Plain is definitely an advantage but not a sure thing in keeping you from getting lost as I found out in 2009.
Just before Klone I reminded myself to get water for a dry section coming up. The approach to Klone Peak is a short out and back off of the North Tommy Trail. On the way up I passed Alex, Tim then Betsy on their way down. This would put them 10-15 minutes ahead or so. I figured they would pull much further ahead with the long downhill to the Entiat River coming up. My downhill seems to be a little slow this year. And the thermometer continued to rise.
At Klone I was surprised to see Tom and Chris the RD’s. I needed nothing from my pack so I touched the rock wall and took in the expansive beautiful mountain views for a minute or so while Tom took some pictures of me. Then I left. I wasn’t really in chase but seeing those runners coming down as I was heading up did put a little more urgency in my step. Dam that competitive fire. This was about 20 miles into the race.
After Klone I followed a ridge that would eventually drop down about 3500 feet or more. Before the drop I saw a runner coming from the opposite direction. The runner was Ryan. He told me his hip was injured so he was dropping. I mentioned that it would be easier to drop down the ridge to the next SAR location about 6 miles ahead but he wanted to head back to Klone. Ryan had been running in 1st or 2nd place. I offered him some water which he refused and moved on. I was a little confused as to why he wanted to go back to Klone because I knew that Tom and Chris had to have run or hiked at least 8 or 9 miles to get to that location. Dropping at Plain never easy an easy task.
The run down to the Entiat was nice. I keep up a conservative downhill pace and ran out of water just before the next water source. The day was definitely warming up. I finally made it to the road section that lasts for about 3 miles. This is actually paved road out in the middle of nowhere. I figured that this road must have been the result of some previous generation’s economic incentive plan. This section usually sucks for me. The pavement tends to exaggerate all the pains that have accumulated over the previous 26 miles. I considered it a very good sign that everything was feeling great so I picked up the pace and covered the pavement in good time. Before long I was off the paved road section and back on the Middle Tommy trail heading towards the bottom of the Entiat river canyon. And the temperature was getting very hot indeed. Canyons tend to heat things up a bit.

Just before the Tommy Creek waterfall/bridge crossing I caught up with another runner. The runner’s name was Betsy. She appeared to be about my age which really impressed me that she was this far up in the pack and moving well. I went to my usual spot which was a shady spot under the bridge next to Tommy Creek. This spot is shaded and cool plus there is a pretty water fall providing mist for added cooling. Betsy had already crossed the bridge so I waved her back to my spot. She told me the heat hit her bad and she suffered a slow down as a result. This spot was a perfect place to cool down, refuel, hydrate and rearrange your pack which we did. While there I took in about 500 calories from an Ensure and an energy bar. I also drank 20 ounces of water. After that I filled up all my water containers which amounted to 130 ounces of water. There is nothing like instantly gaining 15 lbs in the middle of a race. What I was doing here was preparing myself for one of the most epic and feared climbs in the ultra world (at least feared by me)….Signal Peak!! Signal Peak climb on a good day is brutal with around 4600’ climbing in around 6 miles. It is a relentless climb and much of it is exposed. Having to make this climb after having already run 35 miles is just cruel. To make matters worse the Signal Peak ascent on this day would be with temperatures that were approaching the upper nineties. I was a bit intimidated to be sure. After hitting the high point of this climb there would be another 8 or 9 miles without a good water source which is why I carried so much water.

When I left Tommy Creek, Betsy was still there taking care of business. I was really impressed with her calm business like approach to this whole thing considering she had never even been on the course before, that I knew of. I took on the climb at a very conservative pace and tried to meter my water intake to 20 ounces every 30 minutes. I knew that the effort would be high so I stuck to gels for fuel during the climb. I told myself that the work would reward me with cooler temps as I increased elevation. I was really happy when I finally reached the Tyee Ridge in less then 2.5 hours but was surprised to turn around and see Betsy had caught up with me. I let her move ahead because she was moving better then me. I continued on and let the cooler temps, easier effort and some fuel do it’s thing on my body and to allow me to recover to a happier place. Within 30 minutes or so I was about 80% recovered from the climb so I bumped up the pace a bit. At 6800 feet with full sun exposure it was still hot but bearable.

A few miles along the Ridge I caught up with Betsy at a meadow where there was a muddy source of water. She was filling a bottle and treating with iodine. I checked my water supply and it seemed good but as a backup measure I put some muddy water in one of my handhelds and stored it away in my pack. We continued along the Tyee Ridge to the Billy Creek Trail which would drop us way down to the Mad River below Maverick Saddle. The trail was very fast on this section of down and I moved ahead of Betsy here then lost contact. I came up to a gravel road and a SAR checkpoint. I remembered this check point as the location where I’d dropped several years back due to knee pain. Today I was feeling good.
From the SAR checkpoint on down to the Mad River and beyond, the trail was not maintained and many parts were overgrown with difficult vegetation and lots of trees blown down. This section had a lot of steep parts with loose rock and treacherous drop offs along the trail. This was a good place to stay alert or slow down or both.
I made it to Cougar Creek feeling good. I still had water left but decided to empty my bladder and refill with cool water. I used my handheld to refill about 70 ounces of water into my bladder. My plan was for this to be my last refill for the 12 or 13 miles back to Deep Creek. As I was leaving Cougar it came to mind that I used the same bottle to fill my pack that I retrieved the muddy water with up on the ridge. Thoughts of getting sick immediately came to mind so I went back to the water to drain and refill my bladder with clean water. As I was refilling I looked up the trail a short ways and saw Betsy coming down fast. I wondered who was this girl. Later I found out that she has been an elite level trail runner with many Hardrock 100 wins along with top placements in other tough mountain races.

The next 5 miles was along the Mad River below Maverick Saddle. I really dislike this section because it is a deep narrow dark canyon that is hard to run due to the trail condition and it is usually cold. This section always brings me down a bit so I just manage it the best I can. There were trail work tools scattered over about a mile of this trail and some obviously need repairs being done but I saw no people. It was getting late in the day so I’m sure all the trail workers had gone home.
The Mad River crossing had been filled to just below the surface with gravel to make for a very nice stream crossing. I still got wet feet but the crossing was easy. I was anxious to get out of that hole and up to the Saddle where I’d see the sun.
With that 50 mile loop completed I was back at Maverick Saddle checking in with the SAR people there for the second time that day. Just beyond the Saddle and back on forest road I was rewarded with a beautiful orange sunset. This made me glad that I hadn’t slowed down which would have made me miss the sunset. I’m sure the many forest fires in the area were the reason for this amazing dusk time spectacle. It came to mind that this was about the same time that I arrived to this point in 2007 which was the last time I actually completed this race.

The run downhill on Forest road from Maverick to Deep Creek, which was a repeat of what I had climbed earlier, was a bit monotonous so I just put my head down and concentrated on the moment. Still, after 65 miles and 14 hours of running I was anxious to get to Deep Creek where my wife would be waiting to help make me feel better and get me prepared for loop 2. I had no thoughts of dropping at this point which is good thing because dnf(dropping) thoughts are a cancer that can be malignant or a fast growing mental tumor. Its best not to even let the thought of a dnf enter your mind. It helped that I was still feeling pretty good with no blisters or specific pains. There was a lot of general discomfort but that is what Ultra runners live for right?
I pulled into Deep Creek about 8 p.m. and got a big hug from my wife and dog Pablo. Everything I was wearing was damp and added to my discomfort so I decided to change my shorts, shirt, socks and shoes and a reapply some body glide to the areas in danger of chaffing. I was not going to rush myself out of Deep Creek until I was sure that I was ready to go. I heard that Alex and Tim were in Deep creek when I arrived with Adam probably a few hours up the trail already so I was in 4th. Betsy came into Deep Creek about 10 minutes after me. Sitting in a chair by my truck, my wife helped get my loop 2 pack ready while my friends Jim and Jane catered to my feet and food needs. Tom the RD was also there fetching me soup and a delicious toasted cheese sandwich that Michelle and Karen made at their impromptu Deep Creek aid station.
I noticed that my second pair of shoes had a big hole in the side so Jim wrapped my foot with some strong duct tape to keep the dirt and trail debris from entering the shoe through the hole. This worked out great. That must have been some tough tape.

Loop 2
I had pre-packed a second running back pack so there were just a few items that had to be transferred over from one pack to the other. Some of this stuff I considered critical and Susi did an awesome job of making sure everything was in place before I left. With dry cloths, fresh shoes and food in my stomach I was feeling pretty good and ready to go. So, after 25 minutes or so I left Deep creek in the dark using a headlamp and a handheld flashlight for light.
This section of about 6 miles between Deep Creek and Alder ridge on the Lower Chiwawa Trail would be repeated on the return from loop 2 where we would eventually finish(hopefully) at Deep creek. I could see fresh foot prints in the dry bellowing dust left by the previous runners that were 10-15 minutes ahead. Betsy was still back at Deep Creek. The trail here has a lot of short ups and downs and was littered with dips caused from the motorcycle guys. It is very hard to establish a rhythm through this section. This is also a section where care must be taken to stay on the correct trail because many have had ruined races due to navigation problems here.
As I moved along the trail I started to get very tired. I was not moving well and I was tripping a lot. I actually started to fall asleep on my feet which is something I’ve never had happen. At one point I sat down and tried to take a short nap but this kind of goes against my grain so I continued to stumble forward. What was going on? My body still felt good so why was I stumbling and moving slow. Then it dawned on me that I had not used any caffeine today and my brain was fatiguing bad. Without a functioning brain the body turns to rag doll status. My original plan was to get to the Chickamin Tie Sar crossing, which was about 4 hours up the trail, before using caffeine. I knew I had to do something sooner so I decide to get past the Alder junction and take in some Starbucks instant coffee. It took me a long 2 hours to cover those 6 miles from Deep Creek to Alder but I made it. I was surprised that Betsy hadn’t caught up with me.
At Alder I filled up one water bottle with one package of instant coffee. Soon the caffeine had the desired effect and I was moving well and even running some of the ups. The effect of the caffeine also raised my spirits considerably which I needed because it was getting a little lonely out there.

I moved along, filling one handheld bottle periodically from the streams that were plentiful along this section. I could hear many noises in the forest and saw many eyes lit up by my headlamp beam. I tried to use the darkness to my advantage by focusing all of my mental energy on each step.
I continued to move well on up the Chikamin Tie climb where I passed Alex. Alex asked me how far to the SAR checkpoint and I guessed about 20 minutes. I was guessing that he was considering a drop at that point which he did.

So now I was in 3rd place but fully expected Betsy to overtake me at any point. I didn’t care, my plan from this moment out was to just go with how I felt and not over exert myself because my goal was just to finish…right? However, 3rd place would be kind of cool and of course…just how far ahead was Tim??? Ok, so I kept up a little extra competitive pep in my step and it really didn’t seem to hurt to bad. In 2007 when I finished loop 1 in the same time I completely fill apart on loop 2 with an injury. So how much faster would I improve this year if I was able to continue moving forward well? Had to squelch those thoughts because the most important mental time frame was the moment I was in and I needed to concentrate on that.

I crossed the road where the SAR plus the RD’s Tom and Chris were located. Tom and Chris really get around. I intentionally did not question how far back I was from the next runner. I did not want to turn this into a chase game. If my effort was good enough to make me overtake Tim then it would happen. His footprints looked awfully fresh in the dust though. I climbed Chickamin fast and hard. 2 years ago I made it to this location 1.5 hours faster but I was completely falling apart on the Chikamin Tie climb. I figured I’d be at the ridge in a comparable time. The problem 2 years ago was that I couldn’t find the next Pond Tie junction and eventually dropped. This year I had my gps with me and was determined not to miss this turn. I soon located the Pond Tie (1409.2) junction without any problem and the gps verified that I was in the right location. This was the only part of the race where I actually used the gps. It was getting closer to 4 a.m. and I was hoping to get to Alder Ridge before the sun came up. I crossed the rocky technical section of Chickamin Ridge and dropped back down to the meadows in the darkness.
The intense drowsiness had returned so I decided to try another instant coffee. I think I took some ibuprofen at this point thinking that it might be nice to have some usable legs on the long drop down the Alder ridge trail. Just as I was getting to the Alder ridge trail the sun started to peak above the trees. I looked back through the meadows thinking I might see Betsy or Alex coming up behind but I saw no one. I was starting to have some minor hallucinations by this time and they would accompany me to the finish. Plain is the only race where I’ve had this happen. I also was urinating frequently but without any accompanying bloating I just attributed it to over hydrating.
I did a little math work in my head to estimate the time to the Chiwawa trail and to the finish. I figured with a good effort I might make 28 hours. One thing is for sure, never trust math work in your head when you’ve been up running for 25 hours. I ran as hard as I could down the ridge and grew increasingly disappointed that I wasn’t getting to the bottom fast enough. When I made it to the 2 mile road section I slowed a bit and decided I better pull myself back into the moment so that I could effectively work to finish this thing. By now I really wanted it to be over.

After a couple hours of running downhill I finally made it to the Chiwawa trail and the last SAR checkpoint. I stopped for water and got some gels out of my pack. The SAR guys looked a little concerned when they saw me and asked if I was ok. At the pre-race meeting the SAR leader instructed us to answer this question with the response “happy”. I think my response to the SAR guy was “hoppy, I’m going to finish this thing”. Hoppy? Wtf? I was lucky that I wasn’t pulled from the race with 6 miles to go. I mumbled something else to the SAR and got the heck out of there.
The next section was the same section that I ran the evening before when it took me 2 hours to cover the distance due to extreme fatigue. I knew I could run this part faster in the daylight but I was seriously beat so I wasn’t sure. So I moved on slowly running all parts that I could and walking the ups. I could tell I was making better time then the night before so I figure 1.5 hours to if cover this section was a good bet. I think it did take me 1.5 hours but it felt more like 5 hours.
At 10:30 a.m. 29.5 hours after leaving Deep Creek the first time, I rounded a corner came upon the finish. A Plain finish can be rather anti climatic if your expecting a ticker tape parade but nothing could have made me happier then seeing my wife standing there with a huge smile and open arms. I have no idea how she knew what time to be there but she made it. I think there were 2 SAR’s there along with Tim who had finished about 1.5 hours before me I think. I talked with Tim for a bit. He said he kept expecting me to come up from behind and he ended up running his best loop 2 ever. With Tim that would be a fast loop 2 considering he has won this event several times. Tim also mentioned that a Seattle runner named Adam had won the race in something like 25 or 26 hours.

Epilogue
Once we made it back to the campground I didn’t even make it to our travel trailer from my truck. I collapsed in a lawn chair in the hot sun. My wife covered me with a blanket and I slept for an hour. When it got too hot in the sun I made it to the door of the trailer where I collapsed just inside the door on the floor with the dogs. Another hour goes by and my wife moves me to the bed but not before letting me eat some buttery salted noodles which was just about the best thing I’ve ever tasted. Another 2 hours in a coma she got me up to shower and we went back to Deep creek to pick up something I left. While there I got to see Betsy and Mauricio finish the race. It was an exciting moment especially since Betsy was the only other finisher that I had contact with on the course after the first few miles. We heard that more runners were on the way but I was too tired to stay so we went and pick up my rock (finisher’s award, a rock from the course that has Plain 100 painted on it) then went back to camp for more food and sleep. I ended up sleeping 15 hours before the next morning came.
I wish I could have seen it but I missed runners Van, Eric, Deb and Patrick finishing together which would have been so cool to see. Miles and Christi also finished while I was sleeping. Huge congratulations to all you finishers and to those that tried but fell short it took a lot guts just to toe the line, nice job.
Attachments
plain profile.JPG
plain rocks.JPG
Plain finish and non finish rocks.
plain loop 2 compressed.jpg
Loop 2
plain loop 1 compressed.jpg
Loop 1
Last edited by joerunner on September 15th, 2011, 9:35 am, edited 2 times in total.

joerunner
Posts: 799
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:03 pm

Re: Plain 100 mile race (Entiat Mountains)

Post by joerunner » September 15th, 2011, 8:57 am

Sorry about the structure. Tried using editor to fix it up but apparently the editor doesn't deal with documents this long very well.

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geographics
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Re: Plain 100 mile race (Entiat Mountains of Washington Stat

Post by geographics » September 15th, 2011, 10:20 am

.
Last edited by geographics on February 23rd, 2012, 10:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

joerunner
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Re: Plain 100 mile race (Entiat Mountains of Washington Stat

Post by joerunner » September 15th, 2011, 10:55 am

Thanks Geographics! Plain is a tough one.

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cascadehiker
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Re: Plain 100 mile race (Entiat Mountains of Washington Stat

Post by cascadehiker » September 15th, 2011, 1:37 pm

18k EG. I was just telling Mayhem during our DWTHB that he still has the 1 day elevation mark for the year. Not anymore. Good work man. ;)
"Man who catch fly with chopstick accomplish anything" - Mr Miyagi

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Crusak
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Re: Plain 100 mile race (Entiat Mountains of Washington Stat

Post by Crusak » September 15th, 2011, 4:49 pm

wow, very impressive, well done!

I have an uncle who is in his late 60's that runs ultra marathons, 50-100 mile affairs. I've always wondered how you all do it! Crazy what the human body can be trained to endure.

The 'Plain 100' race you just did looks particularly difficult, with all that elevation gain.

Great narrative.
Jim's Hikes

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Guy
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Re: Plain 100 mile race (Entiat Mountains of Washington Stat

Post by Guy » September 15th, 2011, 5:57 pm

That was a great read Joe, well done & thanks for posting...

Amazing!
hiking log & photos.
Ad monte summa aut mors

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Charley
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Re: Plain 100 mile race (Entiat Mountains of Washington Stat

Post by Charley » September 15th, 2011, 6:06 pm

Congrats! And a very interesting write up too.
Believe it or not, I barely ever ride a mountain bike.

joerunner
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Re: Plain 100 mile race (Entiat Mountains of Washington Stat

Post by joerunner » September 15th, 2011, 7:06 pm

Thanks you guys!

Crusak, the elevation gain was one difficult aspect but not too far off from many other mountain 100 mile races out west. What sets Plain apart in difficulty is the self supportive nature and self navigation. Most 100 mile trail races are fully supported on a marked course. It makes a big difference.

Cascadehiker, that profile cutoff about 3000' feet of climbing. The race actually has 21,000+. I think I got most of that in on the first day. The last 5 hours was all downhill or rollers.

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Don Nelsen
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Re: Plain 100 mile race (Entiat Mountains of Washington Stat

Post by Don Nelsen » September 15th, 2011, 7:20 pm

Joe, that was amazing! Thank you and congrats for the great read and fantastic trek/run/event... all I can say is WOW! I don't know how you do it, I get tired after only fifty miles or so.... ;)

Don
"Everything works in the planning stage" - Kelly

"If you don't do it this year, you will be one year older when you do" - Warren Miller

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