From owner-ius-l@AMERICAN.EDU Thu Sep 12 15:45:41 1996 Date: Thu, 12 Sep 96 11:23:39 PST From: "Red Fisher" To: ius-l@AMERICAN.EDU Subject: Eagle 100 mile trail race (long) This is a description of the Eagle 100 mile Trail race. This description if from the perspective of a 12th place 28 hour finish. (I've also completed WS 4 times, and Wasatch twice). The course was a combination of trail and gravel roads. The first 30 miles follows gravel roads. Miles 30 to 60 take you through Cathedral Park, steep uphills and the downhills were poor footing in places. I found it difficult to run a lot of the downhill. The high country in the Park was rocks and scree, without a noticable trail. There were rock cairns and ribbons to follow. This trail section also had an area of brush and mud, which was rather unstable and difficult to run. Miles 60 to 100 were on gravel and dirt roads. Most of the gravel roads were quite runnable, (except of course the steeper uphills, of which there were a lot) the rocks were not too large, and the roads were mostly rather smooth. A car could drive on most of the roads we ran. I thought the course marking was excellent. I had no problems day or night. There were pink ribbons and glow sticks. One advantage was that during some of the nighttime portion of the race, we returned on the same road we were on in the morning. also I had previewed most of the last 30 miles the week before the race. The start-finish area is a large developed Ski Area, Apex. Starting and finishing in the same place is very nice. There is a group of folks who do the majority of the administrative and detail work to direct this race, and I thought they handled all the details of a 100 miler quite well. I had no complaints. The race, and a couple runners, avoided a potential problem when the runners were stuck in the Park high Country after dark. A cut-off time would have prevented this. However, being a 1st time event, the race staff didn't know what cut off time to use, nor did they want to disqualify runners with an untested cutoff time. The race staff was already working at a couple solutions to this. The times: Only 17 of 48 finished, only 2 broke 24 hours. This race is difficult because of the course profile and the Park section from miles 30 to 60. The course profile is like a giant "W". The first 25 miles are downhill and flat. I pushed this part because I knew there was a 20 mile uphill. I was able to run uphill to about mile 30, and then essentially walked the next 16 miles in about 7 hours. The very steep uphill and rough footing was slow going for me. By 10:00 a.m., I knew 24 hours was out. By dinnertime, I wondered if 30 hours was possible. Once out of the Park at mile 60, you can run to the River crossing at about mile 80 on gravel roads. The final 20 miles take you from 1600 feet to 6800 feet. Very tough at this stage of a 100, at night. Comparison to Wasatch 1996: Eagle had 4% under 24, Wasatch had 5%. Eagle had 35% under 30, Wasatch had 28%. Wasatch had 63% under 36. Eagle had no finishers over the stated, but not too strictly enforced, 30 hours. Summary: I ran Western States in 1980-1984, (they didn't even have a lottery the 1st 2 times.) That race is different now. Hype. I have a history of altitude problems, so Wasatch & Leadvill scares me. I really liked the adventure of Eagle: a new course, a 1st time 100 Canada race. Considering all the logistical and other potential nightmare possibilities, The Eagle staff did very well. The aid station volunteers were extremely helpfull, polite and enthusiastic. I expect that this interesting and challenging 100 miler will be back in 1997, even better. I may find myself sending another entry form and check across the border.