Ultra Fest 100
September 19, 2026
28:47:07, 96th hundred
Emotions and running hundreds
We all spend a great deal of time and energy preparing physically for hundred mile or multi day events. We strength train, eat right, try to get enough sleep and run and walk a lot of miles. However I have always said you run the first fifty with your legs and the second fifty with your heart and mind. Getting your head in the right space really helps you get to the finish line.
Well for Ultra Fest my head was all over the place. Lately during hundreds I am a bit whiny as I want to be done with this adventure. And right before Ultra Fest, the day before, we dropped off our daughter Aurora at the airport for a 2.5 year adventure of her own with the Peace Corps in North Macedonia. We had just spent a lovely summer with her and she is an adult, a joy to be with. Now I’m expected to go run a hundred? with little mental prep as I was focusing on her? Another factor was that I just completed two hundreds in Colorado at elevation and in the heat. Such a short time between events, I just recovered my blistered lips and I was a bit spent and with only 12 days between Front Range Ultra Dayze and Ultra Fest. I was a bit worried about finishing in under thirty hours because I just wasn’t ready to go again so soon.
Thank gosh I had my friend Jess drive me to Easton in the early dark hours for a 6 AM start. She is always good to catch up with and it felt like so many of our other hundreds we did together, just a normal part of the plan. Laugh and chat and get ready for a big day, night and part of the next day. Also, we got there early so I was able to help with check in which is always fun for me to see the runners and their nerves. I met a few of the first timers and one asked for a tip, so I shared how we were going to go by each other on the out n backs and smiling and staying positives is a great tool to stay on course and finish. Another rookie recognized me as the oldest in the hundred and said they had looked me up on Ultra sign up and said wow you have done a lot and so I smiled and said yes, I like to run. The 45 min of check-in went well and it was time to go so my nerves were distracted and AOK.
Starting in the dark is fun as I like to run in the mornings in the dark. It was brisk and warmed up nicely. The first out n back went off without a hitch as most of the trail is in the shade and it was an easy morning 34 miles of out and back. The next section was a bit hot heading to Cle Elum mostly exposed and in the hot sun, likely high seventies. This felt warm but I told myself I survived Colorado in the mid nineties so this was nothing. I gave Amy some shit as she went by me and as she told me she was dropping. I reminded her that when the sun went down she would feel better and should keep going. I saw less and less people and enjoyed going beyond Cle Elum as I haven’t gone that far east on the trail.
On the way to the turn around at Cle Elum aid station I added some Skratch to one of my bottles and didn’t shake it soon enough and it clogged up my bottle. First time for this. I tried to unclog it and used the water at the turn around to try to do this. It didn’t work so I decided I would get help at the Cle Elum aid station when I returned. I was so focused on the damn bottle I forgot to punch my number. Getting to the fifty mile turn around by 12 hours was fabulous because I knew I was going to finish in less than thirty hours. This pumped me up until I realized I forgot to hole punch my number, oops, had to run back to get that punch, so I punched it 3 times and told myself silly Hudson pay attention.
On the way back to Easton it cooled and then got dark and of course my Aftershokz ran out of power so I called my husband to tell him when I was finishing and then listened to music from my phone. Now I don’t like it when people listen to music out loud instead of using head phones so when I went by people I turned it off. This did give me more time to think. Gee I hadn’t thought about quitting and I found that interesting. Instead I thought about how I’m going to miss this night time running when I’m done with these hundreds. Ok that is just sick. I so wanna be done but then I now don’t wanna be done, so which is it.
I got to Easton, ate some of the Inari with avocado that I made, yum and had a cup of hot chocolate, put on the clothes that I brought, said hi and bye to Jess and got on with it. I am good at getting in and out of aid stations quickly and did this all day and night which often made it so I passed a lot of people who would then pass me back on the trail. That is fine as I was the oldest out there and I just needed to finish, this is what I reminded myself.
On the way to Hyak the second time there is a long section of over nine miles. I come up on a runner and his light is weak and dies. I had been running, more like shuffling and walking to stay warm as it was cooling off. Well his light was dead and I said he could walk with me till we got to the aid station where they likely would have a light for him. Well it was over six miles of walking and I was getting cold. But I got him there and all was good because I could start shuffling to get warm again and I got to listen to the book because I got my second pair of Aftershokz. The book was A Walk In The Park by Kevin Fedarko and it was a good non fiction story of people hiking the length of the Grand Canyon. The author used a plethora of vocabulary to describe what they were going through and he did some good research on the Indigenous people history of the area. I enjoyed this book a great deal. The second book I started during this race was Brain Damage by Frieda McFadden, a great thriller or who done it author and it is already good and I can’t wait to finish it. During my taper I read Calamity Club which was also very good. And a troubling but authentic book called One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. I recommend all these books. Libby from the library where I get my reading books and audible books is my best friend these days.
As usual I got to the Hyak turn around and everyone was tucked up into the aid station in chairs and blankets around the heaters. There was not room for me so I got some mashed potatoes which were burnt and went on my way. The aid stations did a great job with everything we needed and an excellent breakfast awaited us at the finish. I just thought it was funny how good mashed potatoes were at another aid station and that she actually served me some with black flecks all through it from the burnt ones. Again some of the people who left the aid station later did pass me but who cares as I was on my way to the finish and would be done before thirty hours which was the goal.
Before this race Aurora, Chris and I hosted a garden party. It was so fun to plan and prepare food for the party with our daughter. She is a gem. At the party and after the party people were asking how I was feeling, like I was supposed to be emotional about our daughter leaving the country for so long. I was being brave and said I’m fine. Because I was fine and I had this damn hundred to run, so no time for emotions. Well those emotions were hiding and they hit me in those last miles of this race. I cried the big ugly cry and it was cathartic. Aurora is fine. She made it to Macedonia, all is good. And mom finished another hundred, number 96, so close yet still 400 miles to go and I finally can see the finish line. Thanks for your support and reading these missives.