so when the 2003 plain 100 was cancelled with less than 1 week before
race weekend some people thought i was crazy to
try to organize an alternate run for the same weekend. but if you've ever looked
at plain's finisher ratio you would already know i'm nuts since only a person
with "issues" would attempt to finish such a race. but sanity is something most
of us runners are a little short on anyhow. and to top it all off i made my
alternate course even harder than plain.
the cure for plain course was created by combining the best parts of two weekend
fast-pack training runs i did earlier this summer as i began to train for plain.
any long run in washington's alpine lakes wilderness is going to have plenty of
the following: elevation, elevation gain, steep trails(up and down), rock, dense
vegetation, remoteness, poorly marked trails and junctions. the total
mileage and elevation for the two weekends was 114 miles and 35,000 ft which
took me
over 40 hrs not including sleeping or the 5 days i rested in between runs. since
i wanted runners to be off the course by dark sunday giving them less than 40
hours from our 5am start saturday i had to shorten the route. so i shorted it to
a much more reasonable 77 miles with 21,000 ft of gain. but it still
included the most rugged terrain, the steepest descent, most of the steepest
climbs and tons of places for scenic but unintentional detours.
choosing the right combination of trails was, however, the easiest task of the
week. getting in touch with the other 24 plain runners, checking weather,
road and fire conditions, coordination of volunteers, making maps and course
descriptions, and arranging the pre run meeting with the other runners wasn't
too hard either. having half of my volunteers bail on me thursday, getting the
wrong topo map program from the library thursday nite, having the official cure
for plain lodging (and pre run meeting place) taken away at the last minute and
having 2 runner's cars towed and
another booted with fines totaling over $400 at the pre run dinner wasn't the
end of the world either. what was hard was running.
a little after 5am saturday i followed my 4 co-crazies up from snow lakes
trailhead towards the enchantment lakes. boy did it feel good to no longer have
to worry about details and just run, or rather walk. the cure for plain is
not a run it's a walk with a little running thrown in to trash your already
spent legs and knees. after about 2 miles as the sun was rising mitch rossman,
ray gruenwald, and jim benike stoped to remove layers-- mike burke and i
continued on and we
didn't see them again until after the sun went back down again.
the enchantment lakes are by far the highlight of the course and having them at
the begining of the course is the only way to guarantee everyone will get to
experience them. the first time i ran thru there i declared the next time
i climbed into that enchanted valley i must stay for a long time. instead mike
and i barely hesitated. we made good time to the first "aid"(the aid station was
basically just a check point
and place to quit if you wanted to manned by my wonderful friend lobstrilla and
his banjo)coming in at just over 7 hours despite my needing to really nurse my
left knee for the majority of the last 4 miles. the climb down from aasgard pass
to colchuck lake is a blood lusted knee killer. add 6400 ft of gain and
some rocks and roots to that down hill and you've got a tough slow start to a
tough slow trip.
out of aid one i bonked. i should've know better because i bonked in same exact
place last time. the problem mostly is because there's a couple mile stretch of
almost flat trail that i always try to run. but it must not be as flat as it
looks since it kicks my butt. but i recovered enough to push the pace when the
route steepened again. it was downhill from windy pass for 12 miles to "aid" 2
the halfway point. the gradual downhill allowed us to pick up the pace for
the first time all day and actually come close to what some might consider
running-- although if we had been on a track the old ladies in their sweatpants
and ear muffs would have probably passed us. at aid 2 we had chicken noodle soup
and stand-up comedy provided by my other really wonderful friend john pearch.
also here we found out the other guys made it into aid one only 2 1/2 hours
behind us. not bad considering the holding power of the enchantments and that
they had to
find their own way thru a maze of lakes and rocks.
as the sun was setting me and mike continued towards the finish. right out of
aid 2 is the steepest climb of the entire run 4500ft in 6 miles. after 2
and a half hours of stumbling and mumbling in the dark we sat down to rest(for
the 4th time). this is when we turned around after deciding continuing would be
only torture. we were almost to icicle ridge and only about a mile from
the top of the last big climb of the course. but we had had enough.
however, the running wasn't over yet. we had to make it back down to aid 2 before all the other runners came and left because then john would leave and then we would have run 15 road miles to the car or hitchike after midnite on a forest service rd. niether option sounded good at all. so we hobbled down that hill as fast as we could. on our way down we spoted the lights of headlamps making their way down the mountain across the valley. it could only be the others. no one else would be on that trail so late we hoped.
back down at aid 2 john was sleeping when we arrived. it took him a
little while to understand what we were doing. he thought we looked so strong
when we were there just a few hours ago. but that is what is so insidious about
this course-- you're fresh from a few down hill miles every time you come to an
aid station so you don't even think twice about dropping. it's later you that
you regret going on.
half an hour later ray shows up. he looks good and wants to continue but
he's concerned about jim and mitch. he expected them to be ahead of him.
ray had left aid 1 before the the other 2 but at the first trail junction turned
around to get water from a creek he had just passed. this is when mitch and jim
passed ray. but they immediately missed the junction and continued on to
eightmile lake where they played around in the woods for a few hours. ray
got his water and continued on thinking they were ahead. the trail on this
section later becomes hard to stay on especially in the dark. all three reported
having problems in this area especially with the junction at trout lake.
just after midnight jim and mitch show up just as ray is about to continue his
trek. ray paused to see if he would have company for the next section. jim and
mitch were happy and looked like they could run more but they were content with
stoping. so off ray went with intense determination and the rest of us slurped
soup and headed for bed.
after sleeping at the trailhead three miles from aid 3 john left for a run with
the seattle crew at denny creek and i hiked up to meet lob. after everyone came
thru aid one yesterday afternoon lob stopped at aid 2 to let john know everyone
came thru and that they were on their way to him. then he drove out to and
backpacked up to aid 3. there he waited patiently and passed the time with his
banjo. as i approached sunday morning he was still playing and he
continued
to play while i ate and we waited for ray.
the unofficial cutoff time was noon for aid 3, so when it was almost 1pm and
there was no sign of ray i became a little worried. i became more worried
when i noticed an error in the directions i wrote for the course. at the second
junction after aid 2 i instructed runners to go left when right was the correct
way. the trail to the left led down from icicle ridge but away from the course
and away from any roads for a long, long time. i was afraid if ray took that
incorrect turn and continued following the directions he'd be way off course and
extremely hard to locate. if ray had took that wrong turn but eventually
realized and turn around but when he reached the course again went in reverse
back down to aid 2 where he could hitch for a ride to his car we would be
waiting in vain at aid 3. all kinds of scenarios came to mind and lob and i felt
very unprepared to deal with the situation. it was decided we would leave a note
for ray at aid three instructing him to meet us at the trailhead and we would go
down to the car and drive to ray's car to see if he was there or had been there.
if he wasn't there we would go back to the trailhead. if ray wasn't there one of
us would go back
up to aid 3 and the other would go seek help from the forest rangers. but we
didn't get that far. i had a feeling i should head down the trail a ways towards
ray just to see if he was coming. after going just 100 yards i shouted out to
ray and thankfully he called back from across the creek drainage.
it turns out at the first junction ray had trouble finding the right way to go
and then staying on the trail taking hours to cover a mile or two. and then at
the second junction totally saw past my mistake and made the right turn(whcih
was a right turn). considering the situation his time to aid 3 actually wasn't
that long and if i had realized how difficult
that section was in the dark i wouldn't have been worried.
ray, lob and i made our way down to the car and then in to town for real food.
but while all of the worrying had been going on. mitch and jim were back out
running on the course. after a beer and 4 hours of sleep they drove to the
finish and ran up icicle ridge and then down 4th of july trail. i'm glad they
went up and did that section(which has some great views over to the enchantment
mtns we had ran the day before) because john had backpacked 2 gallons of water
up there covering 4800 ft in just over 5 miles to hydrate the only long stretch
without creeks to drink from.
so... the box score is as follows
ray gruenwald, seattle, wa 62 miles 34:15 hours
jim benike, minnesota, 53 miles 27 hours
mitch rossman, mendaota heights,mn 53 miles 27 hours
mike "bushwhacker" burke beaverton, or 48 miles 18hr
james varner olympia/leavenworth, wa 48 miles 18hr
and the winner is all of you who stayed away from this
course that beat us all into submission.
thanks to everyone! you know who you are but just in
case you forgot who you are let me fill you in: lob,
john pearch, magdalena gutowska, markus dennis, the
evergreen state college marine lab, kinkos, debbie
burke, chris ralph, tom ripley, steve at 1000 trails,
all of the trail maintenance crews, the incredible and
amazing 2003 cure for pain runners and last but not
least you for reading this way too long run report!
james varner -- run misdirector
