2024 Plain 100 Race Report
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Leading up to the race, I did not set myself up for success. I was very nonchalant even though I knew this race had all the challenges I mentioned above. After Crazy Mountain 100 in July, I felt very tired, lacked motivation and need to recover from my six ankle rolls. August came around and I was maintaining some base miles with strength work, PT and heat training. I then ran the Telluride Mountain Run 40 Miler and managed a 4th place finish to kick start a short three week training block. It was not ideal and I don't recommend doing what I did. I have a strong base from four previous 100 milers and several shorter ultras this year. Plain would be my fifth 100 of the year, so I wanted to make sure my physical and mental well-being were solid going into this race.
I flew out to Seattle on Friday morning before the race picked up my rental car, saw my friend Jimmy for a quick breakfast, and then started my 2.5 hour drive out to Plain, Washington. Plain is a small, unincorporated community 14 miles north of Leavenworth along the Wenatchee River. While in town killing time before the mandatory pre-race meeting, I picked up some last minute snacks and two gallons of water for the race.
At 4pm, I headed to Lake Wenatchee Recreation Center and checked in, grabbed my bib, a plain white bandana with the map of the race course, a plain emergency whistle and a rock that just says 'Plain'. The rock we got here is the DNF rock. If we finish the race, then we would exchange the rock for the finisher rock that says 'Plain 100'.
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| Plain "DNF" rock, bandana and whistle |
Before the pre-race meeting began, I got to reconnect with some of my PNW friends, Stephen Schieberl, Eric Yan and Derek Wright as well as my friend from Japan, Tomokazu Ihara. Tomo was so nice to bring me gifts from his company, Tomo's Pit. He gave me some his special salt tabs, called Tengu Salt, a couple bottles of anti-chafe called Tengu Balm and a hat that I think most people would agree with that says, "Running 100 miles Sound Like "Shit!."
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| Pre-race photo by Takao Suzuki |
I got my pre-race photo done as well from race photographer, Takao and then the race briefing started.
Race Director, Tim Stroh kicked things off asking 'how many people here have run Plain?' A few people raised their hands. I knew that two of my friends, Stephen Schieberl had 4 finishes and Scott Martin, who hadn't arrived yet have had 7 finishes. Tim then said for everyone who was new here, to learn and follow them jokingly. We went through the nitty gritty details of the course and where there was potential water sources along the way. I took notes feverishly on the map I had printed out along with the course directions. Not having any aid stations or course markings would be an additional challenge on top of running 100+ miles. Before the meeting ended, Tim gave us the secret password that we'd have to say when we got to each Checkpoint on the course where the Search and Rescue team would be to checking us in. The password this year was, "I'm tired, my feet hurt and the finish line is calling."
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| Attentively listening at the race briefing. PC: Takao |
After the one hour race briefing, we were provided with a wonderful homemade dinner of meat and veggie lasagna, pulled pork, salad as well as some of the finest desserts to fill our stomachs and stock up for the long adventure ahead of us in the morning. I connected with folks doing the 100k and chatted some more with PNW friends, Eric, Stephen, Scott, Derek before winding down and driving over to the Start/Finish at Deep Creek Campground.
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| Dinner! YUM! 😋😋 |
After a 15 minute drive down the road to Deep Creek, I pulled the rental car into a small spot beside my PNW friends and set up my barebones car camping set up. Everyone had their tents, but I just was sleeping in the back seat of the Toyota Camry in fetal position with a sleeping pad, sleeping bag and my jacket as a lifted pillow. Plain and simple, just like the race. I then wrapped up my drop bag for loop 2 and put the final touches on my gear from loop 1 before passing out around 9:30PM to the sound of light rain tapping on the roof of the car.
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| Car camping set up. 😎 |
I woke up before my alarm to the sound of a car or generator turning on. It was 4AM and I had one hour before the start of crazy race. I still felt relatively calm, and kept telling myself "it's only running in the woods. You've done 24 100-mile races."
I change into my race gear and pin my bib on. The nerves now felt real. I head over to the start/finish which is also the aid station for drop bags for the 100 milers and put my bag down with the 40 other runners. I do my final check in with Race Headquarters and then we start to line up on the gravel road with a line drawn across it. Tim does a few last minute announcements and plays the National Anthem. A few minutes behind schedule, both the 100M and 100K race goes off at 5:03AM.
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| Map of the race course. Loop 1 in Purple and Loop 2 in Yellow. |
Start to Mile 20: I started the race feeling calm and collected. The early miles were relatively smooth, with an easy 1.5 miles out-n-back on the forest road to Thousand Trails Lodge which used to be the old Start/Finish. In the dark, I let a group of five people go ahead of me and settled in. My original plan was to run with the PNW crew of Scott Martin, Eric Yan, Stephen Schieberl, Derek Wright and Tomokazu, but the pace was a little slower than I wanted so I just decided to run my own pace. I got to the lodge and touched the stairs before turning around and heading back to Deep Creek as the other runners were coming towards me. I was then with the lead group and we started introducing ourselves to one another by the time we got back to Deep Creek and started on the official loop 1 section. Joel Gartenberg who was running the 100K, Steve Slaby (a three time finihser), Chris Watson from Boulder and I started to chat as we made our way to the the first checkpoint Maverick Saddle. I checked the map for our first junction of the day as we turned on to the Mad River Trail. Gradually the trail started to climb and we turned onto the hidden Hi Yu Trail which brought us up to the ridge and a beautiful views opened up to us where Takao, the race photographer was. I was cruising and felt very good as one should about 10 miles into the race, but I knew this would be a long journey, so I made a point to conserve energy and keep a consistent, steady pace. Steve and I started to separate ourselves from Chris and Joel a few miles down the trail and then we ran parallel to two stunning alpine lakes which were so blue and beautiful it stopped me in my track. I was running low on water so I decided to fill up before our first big climb of the day up to Klone Peak.
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| Climbing up the Hi Yu Trail. PC: Takao Suzuki |
Mile 20 to Mile 31: The climb up to Klone Peak started to get steeper, and the race really began to show its teeth. Steve and I were leap frogging each other as the elevation increased. No marked trails meant constantly checking the map and relying on my navigation skills to ensure I stayed on course. Physically, I was still feeling good for the lack of training I put into this race, but the fatigue was slowly creeping in, and it was becoming harder to stay focused. Hydration and fueling were crucial in this section, and I made sure to eat regularly to avoid the dreaded bonk. The trail comes to a fork and I look at the map. I'm supposed to go to the summit before coming back and turning to go straight down the mountain to the next check point at Tommy Trailhead. We summited Klone Peak and took in the view. Steve wanted to eat something before he headed back down the trail to the junction so I slowly jogged back down to the the turn on the map knowing he'd catch up to me. As I was descending, Chris, Joel and another guy were coming up to the summit. I gave them some encouragement as I passed and told them they were close to the summit. I make my lefthand turn once back at the junction and head towards Tommy Trailhead. The trail ebbed and flowed down the other side of the valley with a few punchy climbs, but overall was super gorgeous. Steve caught up to me as I came out of the trail onto the forest service road and we checked in with the volunteers and gave the password before we left in a hurry. We still had a ~3 mile road section before we got back onto the trail and got to the next water spot according to Steve. Staying with Steve, who is a veteran of the race was super helpful as he has done the race three times and was a previous winner back in 2016. We shared some stories which made the section go by much faster and before I knew it we arrived at the very nice flowing Tommy Creek. I had just about ran out of water and was thankful we arrived in the nick of time before going dry.
Miles 31 to Mile 45: Steve and I both sat on a log for about five minutes to prepare for the next ~14 mile section. As I sat there, I drank one liter of water and filled up 1.5L of water with Tailwind and electrolytes. Steve left a bit ahead of me since he was going to eat some real food on the climb and said I would catch up with him since I was moving well on uphills. I grabbed some Precision chews and trail mix from my pack and headed for the ~5000 foot climb up Signal Peak. 6 miles up, a couple miles of cruising and then ~6 miles down to Tyee Campground, the third check point and very close to the next flowing water source. There would be no water on the the ridge or climb. It was a much cooler day but it was around mid-afternoon and starting to get a little warmer. I thought I could manage doing this section with a lighter amount of water as I didn't want to have a heavy pack. This was a very poor decision on my part and would bite me in the butt a bit later. I passed Steve on the uphill and was climbing really well and trotting some of the ups when it flattened out a bit. I gapped Steve and was a few switchback ahead of him. After a couple false summits, I was thankful to finally hit the downhill section. While descending, I got passed by a motorcyclist who came zooming past me and then heard a camera clicking. Takao was again taking photos in the middle of nowhere so I knew we were somewhat close to the campground. Thank goodness I thought to myself as I had started rationing water. The exposed section of the climb took a lot more out of me than expected and it would've been nice to have the extra liter of water then not having it. Steve caught back up to me as he was definitely moving better on the technical descents and I was definitely being tentative as I did not want to roll my ankles. We both made it to the next check point, gave the password and I officially ran out of water. Steve then said that we still had but we still had a couple more miles and switchbacks before we hit the Mad River for water. I tried to keep up but Steve clearly had more pace than me and being out of water, I was about to cramp if I pushed too much. So I backed off and eventually made it to the river. I took my time to cool off and drank a liter and took a few salt tabs since I was borderline dehydrated and starting to cramp. I then refilled my bottles for the last ~12 miles of loop 1.
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| Coming down off of Signal Peak. PC: Takao Suzuki |
Mile 45 to Miles 62: After rehydrating and cooling off, I felt refreshed and ready to close loop 1. I caught back up to Steve and we worked our way back up to Maverick Saddle on the flowy Mad River Trail. We were definitely surprised nobody had caught us yet. We spoke too soon and then as we made our climb up to the saddle, another runner came up on us. He was moving really well and clearly paced himself way better. He introduced himself as Jeremy Douglas. Steve and I stayed with Jeremy until we got back to the Maverick Saddle Campground and last check point of loop 1. We all gave the password and then Jeremy then took off downhill for the final 10k back to Deep Creek on forest road 6100. The descent was gradual but my feet definitely felt beat up from all the moon dust and granite rocks on the trail. As Jeremy took off like a mad man, I put it in cruise control a bit and Steve slowed a bit as was hurting a bit. The only eventful thing that happened on the forest road was an aggressive driver that came up on me and couldn't pass since the road was so narrow. I didn't want to stop my downhill momentum to let him pass but he then honked at me so I stopped and then he revved his engine and sped down the road as he picked up a bunch of dust which was super frustrating. I finally made it back to the start/finish around 6:15pm and was stoked to see Jeremy hadn't left yet, but he looked really good. I grabbed my drop bag and immediately cleaned out my shoes, changed my socks and got a nice hamburger made for me by some nice volunteers. Steve came rolling in a few minutes later and then went to his car with his wife to get fixed up. I refilled my pack with a lighter amount of calories for loop 2 which would be about ~45 miles. Jeremy left, and I pounded the burger and some fruit as quickly as possible. I got my night gear on and then checked out for loop 2.
Miles 62 to the Finish: Loop 2 started off badly. I was going off on my own as Steve was still getting himself fixed up and Jeremy had about a 10-15 minute lead on me. I probably ran about 200 meter or so on the forest road and then realized that I was told in the race briefing that I would not be on the road at the start of loop 2. I ran back to the intersection where everyone was and then noticed the trail I was supposed to take after consulting my maps. After a few switchbacks up the trail, I could hear clapping and cheering from the race director, Tim and the volunteers. I laughed at myself for the blunder, then refocused knowing that they couldn't tell me I was going the wrong way and could no longer receive any help. Now on the correct path, I noticed Jeremy's footprints and I followed them closely. This section had a lot of whoop-de-doos of short punchy climbs and descents. You could jog these a bit but you couldn't get momentum or find any flow. Eventually, the seven mile trail finally came to an intersection at Alder Creek Campground and I had to refer to the map and also for Jeremy's footprints. I head left on the Chikamin Tie trail and started the last 5000 foot climb of the race up to Chikamin Tie Ridge.
The forest became dense and dark as the Sun set. I could see the moonrise and it was spectacularly bright even through the woods as I climbed up the mountainside. I tried to look for lights ahead of me, but none could be seen and Jeremy was so far ahead. I also looked back and couldn't see light either which was a good sign as I could maybe I had put a good gap on Steve. I think I was around mile 75 and my legs had disappeared. Knowing I hadn't put in enough training for this race and was kinda winging it was now biting me in the butt. But I knew I was going to finish and I continued to put one foot in front of the other. The climb was super slow and there was a false submit after about 1700 feet that threw me off since it leveled out and we were then going back downhill. I thought I had screwed something up but the footprints ahead of me gave me confidence Jeremy has went the same way and I hadn't come across any trail junctions. After what felt like a couple miles of rolling terrain, the trail then went straight up another 3000 feet to the real summit of Chikamin Tie Ridge at mile 80 where the check point was waiting for me. The volunteers here were super nice and I said the password and kept it moving as the cold temperature was starting to roll in. Now all I had was a marathon left to run. I refilled my bottles at the next flowing stream and made my way down the mountain. The miles were awfully slow as the trail coming down was very rutted out from the motorcyclist and had stupid amounts of granite rocks mixed with concrete cinder blocks called "Pavers".
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| Cinder blocks and the moon dust. |
I then remembered what I had read in previous race reports that told me about the last marathon was super rough. They were right, the trail had no flow and I was not moving well on the descent. Eventually, the sleep monster was starting to jump on my back and really slowed me down. I sat down for a couple minutes but couldn't close my eyes as I was getting cold, so I got back up and started down the trail to rewarm up. All of a sudden, a light is coming towards me. I was surprised and I hoped it was Jeremy but it ended up being Takao who was coming up to take photos.
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| Struggling in the night. PC: Takao Suzuki |
I continued down the trail but I had hit the dreaded wall. I sat down to recollect myself and clean out the rocks in my shoes. I thought I was safe in second but boy was I wrong. It is not over until it is over. Tomo happily running down the trail catches me. I tried to stay in front of him for a bit and we chatted about his day and I asked him how close and who was behind him. He said Steve and Scott Martin were behind him and I just silently thought to myself, "Crap, these are the two people I don't want chasing me down at this stage of the race."
I didn't want to keep Tomo since clearly had paced himself better in the early stages of the race so I let him go and he disappeared into the dark. I then repeated my mantras as I made forward progress. Steve's light eventually came into sight as I switchbacked down the trail. He caught up to me and then I stuck to him as we made it back to the trail junction to close the lollipop of loop 2 at the Alder Creek Campground. We recited the password one final time to the volunteers and then grabbed water for the final seven miles back to the finish.
I stayed ahead of Steve and we again worked together those final miles. He said he was trying to beat his personal record of 26:31 which we could totally do. We "ran" all the downs and flats and whenever we got to a hill, we power hiked aggressively. I told him that Scott was probably closing in on us too and that really motivated him as he didn't want to lose to Scott. If Scott had caught up to us, then Steve said he'd sprint and drop me, so that got me fired up to keep pace. We then talked about how we wanted to finish. if we wanted to sprint it in and every man for himself or tie for 3rd. I said "let's finish this thing together" and we did our best at hammering the final miles. We looked at our watches to see how much further we had. Just a few more switchbacks and a couple more punchy climbs. Finally, we could hear the generator from the finish line and folks talking. Together, Steve and I round the final corners on the trail and pop out on the forest road by Deep Creek Campground and since we had leapfrogged and worked pretty much all day together, we grabbed each other's hands and celebrated as we crossed the finish line together in 3rd Place in a time of 26:15. 🙌
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| Trading in my DNF rock for a Plain 100 Finisher rock with RD, Tim! PC: Grant Hopper |
What an incredible day of moving in the mountains and being self sufficient. So grateful for my body and mind and to finish my 25th 100 miler and fifth of the 2024 season! 😎 Thank you to all the amazing volunteers, Search and Rescue and to Race Director Tim Stroh for putting on this spectacular race. If you're looking for a different kind of race experience and want to test yourself, I encourage you all to look at this Hardrock qualifier.
Major thanks to my incredible sponsors: Topo Athletic, Paago Works, PR Labs, VESPA and The Feed for all the support. Thank you to COROS for providing the best watch and LEKI for the best poles. Last but not least, thank you to Maria, her family, my family and many dear friends both domestically and internationally for all the love and support. 🙏🙏🙏
Final Stats:
Miles Ran: 107 miles (Strava)
Smiles: Tons
Shoes: Topo Athletic Ultraventure 3 Blue/Orange Combo
Socks: Injinji Crew Length Trail Socks x2
Pack: Paago Works RUSH 11R
Fuel: 11x Vespa Wasp Extract, 10 Precision gels and electrolytes, 8x Tailwind
Hydration: ~11L of water
Clothes: Janji Tee, Janji shorts, Ortovox fleece pullover
Layer(s): Norvan GTX jacket
Watch: Coros Vertix 2S
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