Jackpot USATF 100
February 14, 2025
27:25:08
1st in age group 60-64
6th woman
77th 100 miles or more event
Windy wind or Wind Magedden is how I will remember Jackpot 2025 along with miles of smiles. I think this is the sixth or seventh time I have run Jackpot. I originally was not going to go and signed up for another 100 mile race at the end of February to give me more recovery time from ATY. Alas I got FOMO and signed up for Jackpot. A lot of BIRCs were going and I didn’t want to miss out on the fun. BIRCs are a name we have given ourselves for a local NW running group. BIRCs stands for Bad Influence Running Club. Kind of appropriate as we sign up for a lot of races, almost every weekend of the year, silly.
BIRCs short summary: Terri was going for her first buckle and nabbed it. Cecilia wanted a big number in the 48 hour and got it as well as third place. Jess took 4th overall in the USATF race and had another sub 20 hour hundred. Stef finished a tough 50 miler with neuroma issues and of course our cute BIRC couple, Amy and Chris completed over a hundred miles each. Me, I ran almost 90 minutes faster than last year in the USATF race and won my age group. So that’s a six pack of buckles for the BIRCs.
Fortunately my friend Jess was heading to Jackpot as well so I tagged along. We travel well together and had some great Mexican food both before the race and after. Jess finished her 99th hundred so it’s off to Badger mountain next month for the big 1 0 0. X 1 0 0.
It rained a lot the day before Jackpot and fortunately all the rain cleared so we only had wind. Well that wind dried me out. I’m still thirsty and feel desiccated. But the real story was watching the wind absolutely destroy tents and pop up shelters. The wind was strong all day and then died down right around dinner time. So I guess people set things up thinking it was safe. Well the wind had one last hurrah and ripped things up. One tent was strapped down so well that the wind had to rip the fabric up and then twist the metal. Each lap it was a sight to see how much damage the wind had accomplished. Finally in the late evening or middle of the night the wind died down and became a gentle breeze. Whew, made it through. I’m sure running into the wind slowed my time but I was elated to be running so well, all day, all night and little into the next day. Happy to finish faster, much faster than last year.
There was one other gal in the 60-64 age group with me. After a marathon, I lapped her a couple of times and then she was gone. Must not have been her day. Then several other women were not having a great day and stopped early. Five women finished ahead of me, all under 22 hours. Then I was the only gal out there in the USATF race with all the old dudes and some of these guys are in there 80s. We encouraged each other along because that’s what we do and that’s the advantage of a loop course. On one or two occasions a meeting of almost all the BIRCs happened on the loop, quite cute to see each other and support one another. Silly friends, gettin loopy.
Jackpot was a success and looking forward to another hundred in two weeks. I get to recover and then taper, skipping out on the training part. Should be interesting. Thanks for reading, happy running.