In my last post, I mentioned that I was running the Kesugi
Ridge Traverse a couple of Saturdays ago, June 24. Well, I did, and it was
awesome, and I will tell you all about it.
Kesugi Ridge is in the Denali area, so it is a couple of
hours’ driving distance from my house. The race starts at the Little Coal Creek
trailhead, and ends at Byer’s Lake campground and trailhead. The race director
had arranged a free (although rocky) group camping spot at Byer’s Lake, so I
decided to head up Friday night and spend the night. Becky and her friend
Vivian decided to come with me (the same kids that crewed for me at AETR),
which again worked out well. When we got to Byer’s Lake, the group campsite was
as rocky as advertised, but I was able to find a fairly comfortable spot right
next to the only other person I knew that was running the race, my friend
Chris, who was also at AETR, and managed an amazing 57 miles in his 12 hour
race. He’s fast, so I knew I wouldn’t see him once the race actually
started. The girls slept in the back of
my Cherokee, and I put up my 1 person tent, and was quite comfortable. Chris
lent me one of his inflatable sleeping pads, and I have been tempted to buy one
before, and now I’m convinced I have to have one.
I always worry that I am going to oversleep for a morning
race (even though I never have), so I set multiple alarms on my cell phone. I
woke up half an hour before my first alarm, though, and briefly thought about
going back to sleep, but didn’t. I found I had slept very comfortably, and
wasn’t sore anywhere, which is not my normal camping experience. Gotta get a
sleeping pad.
It’s a good thing I got an early start, because I was still
barely ready at go time. I made a quick breakfast of Optavia blueberry and
almond hot cereal (yummy) with water boiled in my new Jetboil stove. That’s a
new purchase for me, and this was my first time using it. The instructions were
frustrating, as they were all pictures, without written instructions, and I
found it to be too much to decipher first thing in the morning. Chris, however,
is well versed in Jetboil use, and showed me pretty quickly how it worked. That
thing was amazingly fast! It had my ½ cup of water boiled in seconds! I mentally
went through my packing while I ate, and decided which foods and how much I was
bringing with me. Then I packed up my tent and sleeping bag, returned the
sleeping pad to Chris, and we were on our way to the Little Coal Creek
trailhead, where the race began, 20 miles further up the Parks Highway.
When I got there, I tried to quickly get organized and get ready
to go. What I thought was plenty of time turned out to be barely enough. In
fact, a friend lent me a Delorme In Reach satellite beacon with tracking and
text capabilities and I didn’t even get it turned on. I decided that if I
needed it, I would turn it on then. In fact, I didn’t even get my GPS watch
searching for the satellite soon enough, and the race started before I even had
a signal. I was .2 miles into the race by the time my watch was ready to go. Oh
well. I just had to add .2 to all my distances.
So, this race has a pretty tough cutoff at about the halfway
point. You have to make it to about mile 14.5 in 4 hours to be able to continue
the race. If you don’t make it, you have to hike out at Ermine Hill instead of
going all the way to Byer’s Lake. I knew, thanks to simple math, that I was
going to have to really push to have a chance at making the cutoff. So I did
not stop to take any pictures at all, because I didn’t want to waste a single
precious second. All the photos are borrowed from when I hiked this with my
family last summer.
The first mile is sort of rolling trail through the woods.
But the next 2+ miles are pretty much straight uphill. You gain over 1000 feet
of elevation in those 2 miles. Those miles took me a long time, like 26 minutes
per mile. That ate a big chunk out of my 4 hours. Over an hour had passed by
the time I got to the top of the ridge.
I was already starting to worry, but I
had given this a lot of thought ahead of time. I decided that I was going to
keep pushing, and try my best to make the cutoff, but also not stress about it
if I didn’t. Either way, I was going to be spending most of the day running in
the mountains and I was determined to enjoy it no matter what. So every time I
started worrying about the cutoff, I reminded myself to just keep going and do
the best I could and not worry about the time.
Once up on top of the ridge, the terrain becomes rolling,
with lots of ups and downs, but is very rocky. I found that there were only a
few places that I could confidently run at anything close to full speed. I
tripped lots of times, but didn’t actually fall.
And I have to say I HATE
crossing boulder fields, but I did it. They were much easier with my running
pack than they were with a 35 pound backpack the previous summer.
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The weather was sunny and very warm, and there were
beautiful views of Denali for a little while before it got clouded over.
I ran and I ran, and I pushed as hard as I could given the
terrain, but I didn’t make the cutoff. I missed it by 36 minutes. I was
disappointed, but I’m confident I’ll make it next year. After passing the
Ermine Hill junction, you have to go about ¼ mile farther down the trail to get
to the checkpoint, and it was up a steep hill. Climbing that hill, knowing I
wasn’t going to be able to continue running, was the only time in the race that
I got really frustrated. I was still feeling really good, and felt confident
that if I had made the cutoff, I would have been able to finish the race. After
checking in with the volunteer at the checkpoint, I stopped to finally take
some pictures of the beautiful rocks all around me, then headed back down the
hill to the Ermine Hill trail junction.
Once I got back down to the junction, I took off
my shoes and socks to tend to my feet, which had blistered during the race and
been ignored. They felt much better after putting chapstick on the blisters and
letting them be bare for a couple of minutes.
My plan was to run down the 3.75 miles or so to the
trailhead. The race sweep was just behind me, and we quickly caught up to a
girl that had gotten to the checkpoint about 10 minutes before I did. She was
not in very good shape. It was really warm and sunny, and we had all been out
in the sun for close to 5 hours by that point. She was stumbling down the trail
with her trekking poles swinging aimlessly. I called out and when she turned
around, her gaze was clearly unfocused. She said she wasn’t feeling very good,
and I believed her. As we were talking to her, sort of assessing her condition,
we passed a tiny streamlet that crossed the trail. I encouraged her to dip her
buff in the water, which was nicely cold, and drape it around her neck. She did
that, and I tried to get her to do the same with her headband, but no luck. I
took my hat off and dipped it in the stream too and the cold water felt really
good on my head. We found a patch of
shade and had her sit and rest for a bit, and encouraged her to drink some
water. She did, and promptly threw up. I was starting to worry that she might
not make it out on her own feet, but after resting for a while, she was able to
eat a few dried mangos and drink some more water and kept that down. Soon she
was looking much better, and we got to our feet and started moving again.
We crossed another steam and I made her get her buff wet again,
but she was doing much better, and was able to make it all the way to the
trailhead under her own power. After a few minutes wait, a shuttle (a guy in a
Subaru that was helping out with the race) picked us up and took us to the
finish area at Byer’s Lake, where I got some food and watched some other
runners finish.
I was hoping to see Chris finish, but by the time I was
ready to go (and the girls were begging to go), he wasn’t in yet. Chris is a strong
runner, though, so I wasn’t worried, and headed home. Turns out I should have
worried. Apparently, several runners really struggled with the heat and
suffered badly from cramping, including Chris. He had a really tough day out
there, and since he is a friend, I felt bad that I wasn’t there to support him
when he was able to make it across that finish line. I’ve heard second hand,
though, about his commitment to making it across that finish line himself, even
after being encouraged to let a 4 wheeler bring him in, and I am super
impressed with his strength and persistence.
It really was super hot and sunny, and while the weather was
a blessing because rain can really make for a crappy run with poor visibility,
you are completely exposed the entire time you are up on that ridge, with no
shade anywhere to get a break from that unrelenting sun beating on the rocks.
The trail sweeps were familiar with the course and had Delorme satellite
beacons in case of emergency, and they were friendly and supportive of the
slower runners (including me). This was an excellent, well organized, well
prepared race and I completely enjoyed every minute I was out there.
I mentioned in my last post that I was using this run as
sort of a decision point for Angel Creek 50. Although I felt great, I did not
make the cutoff at the halfway point, and I have decided to not try to run
Angel Creek 50 this year. Instead, I am going to focus on being ready for
Resurrection Pass 50, which is on August 12, because I think if I can get some
quality training in between now and then, it’s totally doable for me. Angel
Creek will have to wait til next year. I know Travis and Chris are both running
it though, and I wish both of those guys lots of luck. Travis missed the cut
off by 1 minute last year, after battling through some nasty conditions. The
weather looks like it could be much better this year, and I think he’s got it
in the bag. I can’t wait to see how they do!
