|
Thanks to everyone for the support and feedback. We appreciate each of you and we totally understand we just threw a big wrench in your gears. We understand that for some of you no matter how scenic and low traffic the road is these changes just aren’t going to work for all of you. We get it, we’re trail runners too and definitely prefer trails to roads, even the most scenic roads. We exhausted as many other options as we could before landing on this one and as much as we don’t like roads we thought it would be better to move forward with these routes than cancel the race which was basically our next option as we had run out of time and feasible alternatives for this year. Please keep the emails coming, as hard as it is on us to know we have disappointed y’all we'd rather communicate with each other and hear from you than not know how you’re feeling. Especially if you’re upset. We want to do what we can to make this at least a little easier to deal with.
That said, we hope we don’t have to keep sending out these mass emails at this rate. No one likes getting their inbox blown up. But with time being short and with all the changes we do want to err on the side of over-communication (maybe an over-reaction to our under-communication prior but it is what it is). So we’ve got a few more updates and clarifications:
1: How Much Pavement???!!!
To try to be super clear… Yes, all four races routes will start with five miles of paved road running AND five miles of paved road running at the end for ten total miles of pavement. So that means the 25K has 10 miles of pavement and about 5.5 miles of trail. The 20M which is actually about 21.7 miles has 10 miles of pavement and about 11.7 miles of trail. The 50K has 10 miles of pavement and about 21 miles of trail. The 50M has 10 miles of pavement and about 40 miles of trail. Again we did not want this and it was basically only a last resort when our other less pavement options fell through. But also for a road it is low traffic and scenic. But we do understand pavement is a deal breaker for some of y’all.
2: Can We Run on the Shoulder of the Road?
Yes, but probably only some of the time would it make sense. Sometimes the shoulder is wide and smooth and runnable and sometimes the shoulder is paved right up to the guardrail or to a ditch so running off the pavement in those sections wouldn't be helpful. But there are big sections, especially along the lake where you could get off the pavement and keep running.
3: Helpful Ideas?
We really wish it hadn’t come to this but we’re just trying to figure out a way to still make this work for as many of you as we can. For those of you who do want to figure out a way to still salvage this trip/event here are some ideas:
+Upgrade to a longer distance, the longer the distance the better the trail to road ratio
+For those of you whose bodies don’t like pavement you could maybe just walk the paved parts as we do have pretty long cutoff times and we can offer early start options to give you even more time(see below for more info)
+We can suggest other trail routes in the area you could run instead, you wouldn’t obviously have the support of the race (aid stations, course marking, safety/medical, etc.) but you could still join us at the finish for the post race food/party. There are other really cool trails in the area that we can’t use for the race as there isn’t enough parking and or the land managers wouldn’t give us a permit to use them but you could still get out there on your own.
+We will be sending out info on other things for you and your crew to do while you’re in the area, please stay tuned.
3: Even More Course Info on the Race Website
Today we’ve updated the race website with a chart of all the aid stations and their mileage and cut off times and other info. We also added written turn by turn descriptions of each race route and printer-friendly course maps that label the aid station locations.
4: Early Starts and Cut Off Times
It’s our goal for as many of you as possible to finish your race. To help make that happen we’ve tried to give folks as much time as we can: 15+ hours for the 50M, 13+ hours for the 50K, 8+ hours for the 20M and 7+ hours for the 25K. What does the plus sign mean? Well that basically indicates that we don’t have a strictly enforced cutoff time at our finish lines. Instead we enforce the cutoff times strictly at the aid stations and if you make into and out of those aid stations before the cutoff times then as long as you complete the whole course you’ll get an official finish time even if you finish later than the finish cutoff time.
Plus for those of you who are worried that might not be enough time for you we also offer an early start option. The early start times for each of the races are: 4:45am on Saturday for the 50M & 50K and 6:30am on Sunday for the 20M & 25K. Again these are only intended for folks who need the extra time in order to stay ahead of the cutoff times as if someone who’s a fast or even a middle of the pack runner were to take the early start they could arrive before our volunteers and aid stations are in position and ready for you which means we might not be able to keep track of you, verify you ran the whole course and if anything went wrong it could takes us much longer to respond. If you want to do an early start we don’t need you to do anything to let us know in advance just let the check-in volunteers know when you check-in on race morning and be at the starting line 3-5 minutes before the early start time listed above for the pre-race briefing.
5: No Crew Motor Vehicle Access to the Race Course... but Bikes Are Ok!
Unfortunately one of the side effects of the course changes is now the runners will be running on the very same road as your crew would use to access the main part of the race courses. AND we also had to move many of the aid stations to locations where there is already barely enough parking for the volunteers. AND the dirt roads at Sun Mountain that access the other parts of the race courses also intersect with the race routes at times and there just isn’t much parking along those roads. So for all these reasons we can not allow motor vehicle access to the race course for anyone other than volunteers.
But if your crew would like to bike the various roads to spectate and cheer that’s totally fine! They just have to start and finish their rides from Big Twin otherwise it would defeat the purpose to not allow motor vehicles to drive to the course/aid stations if folks drove to the Sun Mountain to ride their bikes. Crews can even give you material support at any of the aid stations. Chickadee and Gobblers Aid Stations would be the easiest to do this at. Pass and Wild Turkey Aid Stations would increase the difficulty level a good bit and bike access to the Ridge Aid Station would require serious fitness to not have to walk up the 4410-100 road(1000ft of gain in 2.2 miles but it’s even steeper for most of the time until you get almost to the aid station when it levels off some).
Bikes are available to rent at various locations in the Methow Valley including Methow Valley Cycle & Sport (our preferred bike shop!), Cascade Outdoors and Sun Mountain Lodge.
6: Trekking Poles? Dogs?
Trekking poles are allowed. We just ask that folks are careful not to stab or trip themselves or others.
Well trained, well behaved dogs are welcome. They must be on leash and you must clean up after them.
7: Outlook for Next Year/Future Years?
This is not something we can say with certainty at this point. But we can say for sure we will do our best (way better than this year) to keep you informed and to try to keep the pavement to an absolute minimum… ideally none. This year we encountered a “perfect storm” where a few different issues came together to make this year’s permitting so difficult.
Starting and finishing the races at Spring Creek Ranch is still a possibility for next year though the land owner that owns the land and the trail we need to use to go to/from Spring Creek and Sun Mountain is still figuring out their process but they’ve let me know they have us on the list of folks to contact once it is settled. They did mention a possible lottery or bidding system so it’s definitely quite still up in the air if we’ll even get permission from them for next year or any year going forward.
Big Twin Lake Resort is still an option for next year and with some major changes to the US Forest Service in the near future getting permission for a route to/from Big Twin and Sun Mountain that only has two miles of pavement at the start of the routes and 2 miles at the end of the routes would be in play. Other options from Big Twin that have the same or less pavement from that option also could be in play for next year.
Starting and finishing the races on Sun Mountain Lodge property seems unlikely for multiple reasons.
Starting and finishing the races at Chickadee Trailhead like we used to in the old days and in our first race back since COVID also seems unlikely as we’d have to limit the total number of runners to a very small number or use buses to shuttle folks from a remote parking lot also is unlikely as the local school district won’t support for-profit events anymore and there are no other local bus options of sufficient size.
Moving the races to another beautiful trail system in the Methow Valley area is also possible if everything else fails to allow us to continue using the Sun Mountain Trail System.
So one way or another we think we'll be able to hold the Sun Mountain races again next year and into the future but it's too soon to say that for sure and it's way too soon to have a good idea of what the routes/logistics will be. But with so many options we should be able to figure out something worthwhile!
| 
