Holy cow! What a day. Race started promptly at 6am in a light rain and temps around 40. The first few miles were uphill followed by some super sweet single track thru the forest and along side the mountains. Cruising along with a small group at about a 9 minute pace was too much fun. Even though I was wet, I wasn't cold at all. Trail conditions were a little mudy in the first part but not too bad.....yet. It's when we started descending to the first aid station that the trail got really bad. Slippery mud everywhere. You couldn't avoid the stuff. It didn't help that the people in front of us had trashed the trail for those behind. Such is the life of a mid packer. After the first aid station we started climbing up toward Kinport Peak. I had been told that there was a 1 mile bushwack that was super steep. Well, the RD wasn't lying. The bushwack had us going from flag to flag. As we got higher, the wind got worse and the rain turned into a driving sleet. It didn't help that we were on an exposed ridge and the wind was reaching gale force. The sleet wwas falling heavier and heavier. Sleet hitting your face at 40mph hurts, alot. I thought I would get really cold going up thru this but amazingly didn't. I was in shorts, a long sleeve t, short sleeve t, beanie, winter gloves, and my cheap rain jacket. The only thing that really got cold on me was my hands. With the gloves soaked and the wind hitting them, pretty soon I couldn't feel my fingers and I was really worried about frostbite. As a few of us were climbing together, we came across a runner that had started back down. He was going hypothermic because he wasn't dressed t-for the conditions. He had no hat, no gloves, wearing Vibrams, shorts and a short sleeve t. Luckily, some of us other runners had some extra clothes adn we got him dresssed. I gave him a rain shell with a hood that I had in my pack, somebody else had extra gloves. Meanwhile, we kept climbing. It seemed like forever until we reached the top but it was really only about half an hour. The conditions as we neared the top were near whiteout, we couldn'tt see from course ribbon to course ribbon. Wiuth the wind driving from the left, we had a tendency to drift right. This meant that we missed the course markings as they went left. finally at the top a group us realized that wee were essentially lost. We started down a 4 x 4 road because we saw footprints in the snow. After about a 1/4 mile of that we met the group in front of us. They had lost the course markings too. One of the group was familiar with the course and eventually we were able to find the course and start back down the other side of the mountain. This part of the course was on a 4 x 4 road, so following the route was easy. As we got back down below the snow line, things warmed up some adn we were able to make some good time. I forgot to mention that while we were on top in the blizzard, we did stick together and made sure the guy that was going hypothermic made it down safely.
I had decided after that little jaunt on the mountain that I was dropping at the next aid station. I knew that we were going right back u that hill and wanted no part of that. Just way too dangerous. It was a search and rescue operation waiting to happen. As it so happened, at that point the race directors made the decision to pull the plug and halt the race. So now the race became one of making sure everyone was accounted for and safe. Meanwhile, I caught a ride back tot he start/finish and got into some dry warm clothes. As people were starting to trickle in a few of use decided that we needed to get some food going. The plan was to have chili for everyone post race, but the people in charge of that were nowhere to be found. So we got the chili going, got out the rest of the food and started feeding cold, wet hungry runners.
the RD's definitely made the right decision to halt the race. Conditions on the mountain tops were horrendous at best. We later heard that Scout Peak, the high point of the course, had 6" of fresh snow. Ultrarunners love a difficult, demanding course, we're masochistic that way, but we don't want a course where the chance of death is a real possibility.
So, kind of disapointed that I didn't get to finish, but certainly understandable. I'll be back next year, the course looks like it would be stunning in good weather.
Here's a link to a short article in the Pocatello paper about the race.
http://www.journalnet.com/sports/local/article_f3711a2a-6ba5-11df-a0b4-001cc4c03286.html | 