In the Spring of 2014 during our weekly night run (Boulder Trail Runners, Wed 8:30pm) Jason was quizzing me on what I thought were the best ‘first time’ 100mile races out there. I’ve run and/or paced at 12 different 100mile races, and at the top of my list as being recommended for first timers are Bighorn 100 and the Bear 100. Both are phenomenal courses, though challenging, with a mix of hike-able terrain and smoother single track, great aid stations and support and a generous final cutoff time. The seed had been planted, and Jason was intrigued, but being a working family man with two young girls he wasn’t sure if he could commit the time necessary to train for something as big as 100miles. I promised him ‘If you sign up for the Bear, I’ll come pace you’…….

June came and went, July rolled around and it was Hardrock time, after that I settled into my typical summer pattern of some maintenance runs during the week and big adventure runs in the Colorado Rockies on the weekends. On one of these adventures, the Ten Mile Traverse near Breckenridge, Jason let me know that he was feeling good about training and thus was going to sign up for the Bear 100. He was calling me out on my promise to pace him, and I couldn’t say no to being a part of such a wonderful and challenging journey.

Scott and Jason cruising across the mellow part of the Ten Mile Range

September finally rolled around and it was go time, after a quick meeting with Jason and his wife Meggan the plan was set, Meggan and Karen (Jason’s sister) would do much of the crewing and I’d pace the final 49miles of the course. All Jason had to do was keep moving, easier said than done when you’re talking about 28-36hours and 100miles with 22000ft of elevation gain.

Erin Gibbs and I bailed out of Denver on Thursday afternoon and booked it for the Utah border, we wouldn’t see our runners until mm30 as we were planning to sleep in a bit. Friday morning (race day) was beautifully clear and quite hot, which made us hopeful that the 60% chance of precip forecast for Saturday would not materialize, but by the time we left the condo to head on course, the weather report read 80%…..rain was coming.

Jason making his way into Cowley at mm30.

Gibbs, Chris and I packed up and headed onto the course to cheer on our runners as we waited our respective turns to start pacing. All three of our runners Misti (Chris), Jason (me) and Mark (Gibbs) looked good coming into the aid stations at miles 30, 37 and 45. Jason had gone out at a very comfortable pace and was moving strong, just what I wanted to see him do the first 50miles. Karen joined him from mm37-mm45 while Meggan joined him from mm45-mm51. This gave me a chance to get my $%&* together for the long night ahead, a 49mile jaunt from sunset through sunrise all the way to the finish.

Meggan, Jason and Karen jogging into Temple Fork. Meggan about to start pacing, Karen finishing up pacing.

The course this year was absolutely stunning, the aspens were a vibrant mixture of green, yellow, orange and red, the maples looked like they’d exploded in flames and so far only a few drops of rain had fallen….little did we know what was coming. Karen and I waited at Tony Grove for Meggan and Jason as darkness began to envelope the mountains. We watch Misti and Chris come through, then friends Kristel and Rob…finally we heard Jason’s voice, it was go time. We loaded up and headed off up the hill into the darkness. Our cruise up and over into Franklin Basin was fairly uneventful, just a few sprinkles and some distant flashes of lightning, but that all changed as we headed up and over the hill to the Logan River AS.

First rain storm of the night around midnight, all geared up and having fun.

Then we realized that rain meant mud, sticky, slippery mud….mm56.

Around 1am a steady rain began to fall, and we watched from the safety of the aid station, trying to decide if this was here to stay. Jason and I both devoured some of the most delicious grilled cheese sandwiches and soup we’d tasted before setting off on the now wet trail. As we hiked up the hill toward Beaver Mountain the rain subsided, but our formerly dusty trail had been turned into several inches of slick and clumpy mud, it was going to be a long night.

We made good time downhill, but Jason’s shin (tibialis anterior tendonitis) was really starting to bother him when we ran. Finally the lights of the ski lodge came into view and we jogged the final bit to the lodge door, greeted by the musty smell of dirty sweaty runners. The scene in the ski lodge is always somewhat depressing, people passed out in every corner, exhausted runners with their heads between their knees, and way too much negative energy. Meggan set to work on Jason’s shin, Karen refilled his pack/gear and I went into a frenzy finding Jason and myself some food to eat. I didn’t want him to hang around here longer than absolutely necessary. We finally got all our stuff in order and set off back into the early morning hours, it would be ten miles before the crew again, and it would turn out to be a LONG ten miles.

We briskly power hiked up the jeep road, and admittedly I began to get a little sleepy (having been awake for almost 20hours), but was rudely awakened by the light rain that began to fall. The rain picked up and it was at this point that it became very apparent Jason had left his waterproof jacket with the crew and was only sporting a wind breaker. As the rain picked up I realized we needed to get to the Gibson Basin AS in a hurry. We pushed the last 1/2mile into the meager aid station where 6-8 runners were already huddled under the small tarps as the wind and rain pounded the surroundings, many were soaked, several were contemplating dropping, and I knew if I couldn’t keep Jason semi-dry and warm-ish until we reached crew he might be in danger of this as well.

Jason and other runner hunkered down under our small tarp at Gibson Basin as the rain pounds us. No one was dry, but the Aid Station workers were still awesome.

Jason threw on my rain pants, stripped off his soaking wet wind breaker in exchange for his insulated layer (not waterproof) and threw on a garbage bag I’d rustled up from the aid station. I told him to eat some soup and to drink some water, because once we started moving we weren’t going to break until we reached the next aid station. Another runner Jeff hooked on with us and we shuffled off into the rainy night. The dirt road was flooded, everything not under water was covered in slippery mud and the wind blew the rain sideways. We finally hit the small climb that marked the last mile into the Beaver Campground, and the driving rain became a light drizzle. We felt much better about our situation, as we’d survived the cold damp night in ok shape.

Cruising through the changing fall colors between Beaver Campground and Ranger Dip, its a muddy mess.

We jogged down the slick as snot mud into the AS, apparently Meggan and Karen didn’t recognize us, so I made a beeline for the car, slamming my face into the passenger’s side door, they both let out a loud shriek of terror, success, they knew we had arrived 🙂 The drama was over, so we changed into some dry clothing, restocked our food and water and quickly headed back out on the trail.

Jason’s original goal was a sub-30h finish, and we were gonna have to push it to make the time (15miles in 4.25h). Jason’s shin had gotten worse and it was causing him pretty severe pain on the flats and downhills. I told him that if he hung with me I’d get us to that finish line as quick as possible, but it was gonna hurt, and the only way to make the hurt stop was to finish. We pushed on to Ranger Dip, made a very quick and efficient pit stop and were soon headed up the final 800ft climb. As we started the big descent into Fish Haven Jason’s shin began to scream in pain with every step. I pushed him onward, not sure how best to distract him from the obvious misery.

Meggan, Jason and I jogging into the finish of the Bear 100. Photo by Karen Oliver.

The rain descended back onto us, turning a normally steep dusty downhill into a flowing river of greasy mud, some of the toughest and nastiest conditions I’ve ever encountered on a trail. My semi-fresh legs were struggling to slip and slide down the hill, Jason’s tired and aching legs were obviously not fairing as well. I did my best to urge Jason on through the slippery mud and the painful shin injury. Near the bottom we caught up to Chris and finally hit the dirt road that led into town. A huge wave of relief came over us all, we had 45min to do less than 2miles, and boy did we relish being back on that smooth dirt road. We finally crossed the highway, picked up Meggan and Karen for our final jog across the line. At 29h36min Jason finished his first 100miler; tired, muddy, a little water logged but very excited to have completed our journey, especially considering all the adversity the course had provided. Our condo went 4 for 4 on that day; with Misti, Kendrick, Jason and Mark all finishing. I was also excited to see many other friends tough it out to the finish; congrats to Ted, Jon, Nate, Bryon, Gavin, Jorge, Wendy, Ellen and all the finishers of the 2014 Bear 100, you truly earned this one.

Runners and pacers relishing in a hard earned finish. Just awaiting Mark (who finished). Photo by Karen Oliver.