The Pocatello 50 was an event to behold--and be a part of. I was sitting at my desk Tuesday afternoon and Jamie and Brian Williams came by the office to see if I could fill in for her relay partner. I felt obliged to run, so I jumped at the opportunity. I had been planning a long run on Saturday, and figured I would stay on the trail as long as the race director would let me after my leg. Long story short I didn’t want to stay on the trail.

I am generally all about running in adverse weather conditions. I live in Logan, UT and 6 months out of the year that is exactly what the weather is, adverse. But Saturday was a different story. After finding my way to the Mink Creek Pavilion (it took a little while, Pocatello has a bunch of one way streets, and at 5 in the morning that’s slightly confusing for me, luckily there wasn’t a lot of officers out) and taking my last pit stop for the next 17 miles of my life I found my way to the start line. Because of the time spent chasing around Pocatello I didn’t have time to warm up, and it was in the low forties, overcast and a little breezy so I decided to start out with a wind breaker on. Within 2 miles I had to strip it off and tied it around my waist.

I am never good at making my way to the front of the starting line, so I had to manage my way through the crowd and worked my way up towards the front of the race. I found Jon Allen and Cody Draper and decided that they were the best company I would find to run with so I fell in line and trailed them all the way to the top of the first saddle. The trail was dry and the weather wasn’t all bad, but as soon as we turned and headed back down hill things turned sour. It began raining, which would turn to hail and snow from time to time. Then the wind started, which made it feel even colder. The trail turned to a mud slick and I will admit to hitting earth at least once. Heading down hill I was almost better off skating than running and my calves were caked with a thick adobe of hair and mud.

We breezed through the first aid station and headed on to the bushwacking 1.3 miles to the top of the first major ridge (I think it was somewhere around 7500 feet.) For a second I thought the precipitation was going to stop. Silly me. About half a mile in it got bad. The wind was a solid 40 mph with gusts that had to reach 60. The air temperature before I got to the top must have dropped to 20 F and I was in my race shorts, a long sleeve tech T and had my wet jacket tied around my waist. It was cold; in fact that is an understatement. It was downright frigid. Ask Jon, he’ll tell you all about it. I made my way to the top and took off as fast as I could in an attempt to get the feeling back in my fingers, toes, and other extremities. It was snowing horizontal, and I didn’t see the point in wasting any time getting off of that mountain. Unfortunately I was functioning so well because of the freeze on my system.

I finally made my way to the bottom and sent Jamie out the gate. I was happy to be done, but made my way over to the race director to tell him about the conditions. It would take them another leg to call the race. It is too bad that the weather didn’t cooperate, but it did make for an epic race while it lasted. I wouldn’t trade those 17 miles for any that I could have had around Logan on Saturday. I might trade the 2 ½ hours I spent stirring chili though for getting home in time to make the Styx concert…

It was a good event, and I am certain the race directors learned a ton about managing an event when the weather turns sour. I give them props and all their support staff and volunteers for keeping things under control. Looking forward to running it next year!