Sunday, May 1, 2011

1st Annual Salt Flats 100 is "in the bag"!


The first ever Salt Flats 100 has successfully completed, and as the organizer and Race Director, I've learned a LOT! With a ton of help from great friends and a patient family, in a short two months the event was concieved and organized in two months. Friday at 7AM, 8 of us lined up at the "Bonneville Dike" that runs from a point about 18 miles from Wendover on I-80 out to Floating Island. The weather forecast was for snow and high winds, but at 7AM it was slightly overcast and a stiff breeze kept us extra-chilled as we prepared to run. We posed for a quick photo, and then I blew the starting horn and we headed up the dike road.

Jay Aldous and Davy Crockett shot out in front, followed by Andre Cojocaru and Emmanuelle Dudon, then Heidi Bennett and myself, and Ben Benjamin. Shortly after the start, the sun came out briefly and Heidi pulled ahead of me as I held to my planned 11 minute/mile pace. The wind never dropped below a 15-20 mph breeze, and often approached 40 mph. Floating Island is about 13 miles up the dike road, and it never seemed to get any closer as I ran. Ultimately, Aid station 1 (self serve water and goodies brought by all the runners) came into view at 9.75 miles. As I finished up fueling, Ben arrived, we exchanged a few words, and I headed out again. The running around Floating Island was great, as the winds died down and the sun came out again.

The crossing from Floating Island to Silver Island is long and straight, again deceptive in its appearance, but after about 5 miles having still not arrived at the junction with Silver Island road, I was reminded of the scale of this area. The scenery is amazing, with the salt desert off to the side, and the steep cliffs of the Silver Island mountains ahead. I stayed with my pace even as the weather started to close in and the winds picked up significantly... and finally hit the Silver Island road, and Aid 2 at 20.5 miles. Aid 2 is again a self serve station, and here Ben caught up with me much sooner than at Aid 1.

As I left Aid 1, I sensed Ben gaining on me, and right before the historical sign-post indicating our intersection with the Hastings Crossing trail, Ben passed me up. I was now officially in both the worst position (last) and best position (8th) that I've ever been in in an Ultra :) It was also at this point that the first of several storms hit with a vengence. The snow was being driven by 40-50 mph winds, and all I could do was hunker down and run harder into the wind. This lasted for about 45 minutes, and by the time it ended, I could see in the distance the saddle between Silver Island and Crater Island, where Aid 3 was located. I was actually ahead of my pace at this point, and feeling pretty good. One thing was nagging me pretty hard though, and that was the fact that after hitting the Silver Island road, I hadn't seen ANY of the course flagging I'd put up the weekend prior.

I came into Aid 3 (30 miles) at 6:01, which was an hour ahead of my pace, and I was feeling really solid... however, my wife told me that on her drive in on the other side of Silver Island Road, she had not seen any flagging either, and it was painfully evident that someone had pulled all of our flagging. I was now faced with a significant dilemma. As lean as we were with volunteers, nobody could go reflag the course, and with the additional issue that I was really the only person who knew the entire course, I made the decision to drop out of the run, jump in the car, and start reflagging the course.

I started just ahead of Jay and completed the Cobb Peak loop keeping just ahead of Jay as he maintained his incredible pace, and getting all the other issues handled. After completing the re-flagging the loop, I got a flat tire on the Trooper, and after securing a jack (yep, my jack was missing a piece), I got it changed and went out and after 6 more hours had the whole course re-flagged. Lesson learned here... I need to have a race director "second", who knows as much about the course, preparations, and scheduling as I do, so that as I run in the event, they can handle any unforseen issues while I get to continue the run.

After reflagging the course, I ended up manning an aid station due to a cancellation by a volunteer group. The weather was basically back-to-back storms until about 10PM, when it started back off, and by 4AM even the winds calmed down.

The results of the event are as follows:

Jay: 15:36:04 for 97.72 miles / 100 mile of 15:57:24 (penalty of 1.0228)
Davy: 21:36:10 for 98 miles / 100 mile of 22:22:05 (penalty of 1.02)
Heidi: 25:16:46 for 97.72 miles / 100 mile of 25:51:20 (penalty of 1.0228)
Andre and Emmanuelle: 26:53:33 for 97.72 miles / 100 mile of 27:50:21
(penalty of 1.0228)
Ben: 28:29:46 for 95.22 miles / 100 mile of 30:08:36 (penalty of 1.0578)

All told, it was a very successful event with all the runners commenting on the amazing terrain and views, and the challenging conditions. It's definitely a "keeper"! Please take a look at Jay Aldous's blog as well, for his perspective on the run as well http://mrc-ultra.blogspot.com/. Thanks to EVERYONE who helped out, and to the runners for putting up with the first year challenges!