At 5:00 in the morning on Saturday, June 19, almost 200 runners stood at the start line in Lake City, Colorado. Fellow Montrail athlete Matt Hart and I stood amongst this group in nearly new pairs of Rockridges. We have been living together in his van for the past week touring around Colorado, and we were both looking forward to a great race.
The San Juan Solstice 50 mile run began sixteen years ago with less than thirty runners and has steadily grown in size to the point that this year the race sold out in about ten hours. The cause of this can be attributed to many factors, but to me the largest draw was the aesthetic perfection of the course. This race has no out and back or paved sections – it is largely singletrack, with a few gnarly jeep roads, and the parts that aren’t on trail merely strike out across the tundra in a line of little red flags stuck in the grass. But quite possibly the most striking difference from other races is the fact that the race has 13,000 feet of cumulative uphill, the low point of which is the town of Lake City, at about 8,600 ft. The first half of the race features two solid 4,000+ ft. climbs, and the second one tops out at 13,300 ft. That’s really high.
Maybe you’re like me and have hiked 14-er’s and thought to yourself, “this isn’t bad. I can totally breathe up here.” But running at that altitude is an entirely different scenario, and can be extremely frustrating when your legs won’t let you move up a hill that would be totally runnable 4,000 ft. lower. This is the way everyone on the course felt last Saturday when we were running the 9-mile section across the top of the Continental Divide, which was completely above timberline. This is why I wanted to run this race; because the course invites runners to challenge ourselves in some of the most difficult and beautiful mountains in the world.
I ran/hiked (more hiking) up the top of the first climb with Gary Gellin, Ryan Burch and Scott Jaime. This section features about nine creek crossings, most of which we just splashed right through Hardrock-style. At the top of the climb, around 12,800 ft., I was leading the race, but Ryan Burch easily caught me on the downhill. I tried to keep up with him while also attempting to save my legs for later in the race, and in the midst of this concentration managed to trip on a rock and completely flatten myself into a small creekbed. How this happened is still beyond me, but without thinking I was suddenly on my back in the water, with an extremely bloody knee and bloody wrists, as well as mud all over my right arm and shoulder. Fortunately this was only a flesh wound, and I managed to rally like a Spartan and finish the descent with my bottles slipping on the dripping blood. Trust me, this sounds way worse than it really was.
The second aid station was at the bottom of the mountain, and my parents were there being an amazing crew which allowed me to hardly falter as I switched my water bottles and pulled ahead of Ryan. After that we climbed all the way up to the top of the Divide in a huge push, and just below the top I switched my water bottles for a pack in anticipation of the long dry section along the top. Once on top the hills did not end. In addition to a debilitating lack of oxygen that reduced my pace by a depressing amount and forced me to walk on many nearly flat sections, the ridge goes up and down in countless small peaks that frankly hurt. A lot. But somehow, despite all evidence to the contrary, the section did come to an end eventually and I got to the Colorado Trail’s yurt aid station in about 5:32. A few more miles and a little over an hour brought me to mile 40 at the Slumgullion aid station, which my mom and I executed flawlessly. I didn’t even break stride as I flew down the hill, threw my pack and grabbed my bottles for the final ten. This may or may not be on video somewhere online, but I’m quite proud of our efficiency. At about this point I looked at my watch and realized that on a normal course I might actually have a shot at breaking Matt Carpenter’s record. 6:40 with ten miles to go, and the course record is 7:59. I got excited, and tried to run as much of the next 1,700 ft. climb as I possibly could, but came to the realization that this is in no way a normal course, and my CR chances were slim. Also, 1,700 feet for that last climb? I beg to differ. 9,700 ft. might be more accurate, or 170,000 ft. The uphill took me – this is a rough estimate here – two lifetimes. Maybe three. At the top the little flags were happy to indicate that I was not on top at all, but had several hundred feet yet to go. This could best be described as painful. Eventually though I crested and flew down the rest of the trail. I knew I was out of reach of the record, but wanted to see how close I could get. The final aid station filled up one bottle and gave way to a little more uphill and then A LOT of steep downhill. The kind I like, with rocks and roots and turns and all kinds of fun. After my utter defeat going up the mesa I found my downhill skills were in much better condition than expected, and I careened down this section at a sub-6:00 mile pace. Three miles later I ran into town and was given the honor of having the race’s founder, Chip Lee, escort me to the finish line in 8:13.
The San Juan Solstice 50 is without a doubt the most exciting race I have ever participated in. The combination of the altitude, the difficulty and the views made for an amazing experience I will never forget. The people of Lake City who put this race on were incredibly friendly and helpful and I could never thank them enough. I would like to send a special thank you to Annette from Lake City and to Chip and Cathy Lee, who were hospitable to us beyond the call of duty. They fed, housed and cheered for Matt and I throughout the weekend, and made our stay wonderful. We cannot thank them enough. The volunteers were also incredibly helpful. I had never been on the course before and didn’t get lost once thanks to the fantastic marking, and even though I rarely stop at aid stations for longer that 50 seconds they are essential to my racing strategy. And I’m not alone in this. This race was incredibly good to me, and I have nothing but good things to say about the town, the area and the race in general. I recommend the Lake City 50 to anyone who wants to challenge themselves in a beautiful place.
Ryan Burch finished second with a PR of just over 8:40, and Sean O Rourke came in third in his first 50 mile race, which he signed up for the night preceding the race, and ran in a cotton shirt. Matt Hart finished in the top ten in 9:54 – overcoming a lack of altitude training to meet his sub – ten hour goal. He will continue to train hard for Wasatch later this summer. Matt and I are now in Crested Butte sleeping in his van again. Tomorrow he’s going to run to Aspen and the following day I’ll run to Leadville. On Thursday we both fly out to support friends at Western States. This is the life! Montrail runners on the road, training hard in beautiful places.