Beautiful and hurty. If I was given a limited number of words to describe the incredible San Juan Solstice 50 Mile race, those would be the words I’d use. But those words simply don’t describe how extraordinary Lake City and the race were all-around.

First off, Lake City is such a cute and cool town. I can’t emphasize how friendly and welcoming everyone was, especially the volunteers. These incredible people donated all their time, not having paid positions – as all proceeds from the race went directly to the Lake City EMTs. This race is truly one the whole town puts their heart and soul into, and it shows.

The first 2.7 miles of the race up the canyon to Alpine Gulch trail was a nice, relaxing start. And then came the first test: river crossings, soon after sunrise in what felt like slightly above-freezing temps. These were quite the inception to ultras. From the creek crossings, you could say I was beginning to be hooked on ultrarunning. Forming human ropes to cross the creeks showed me the character of ultras as being truly a team effort and helping each other.

After the large 7 creek crossings and a few more to add a little more excitement to the race, we reached a lookout point in the trail,  Alpine Gulch aid station, where we got our first glimpse of the spectacular scenery of the surrounding 13er and 14ers. We continued up more of our 4500 foot climb to the tune of more, “Wow! Look at that! Picture time!”, and a general sense of awe. Towards the top of this climb, we began encountering snow fields, followed by steep talus fields, and were welcomed by more incredible views. 

After reaching the top of our largest climb, we descended through some steep tundra, then into aspen groves, meadows and hillsides filled with flowers, and at long last, our 2^nd aid station, Williams Creek campground. Coming into this station, I was so grateful to see our awesome crew, Jessi and Dave (Team Labunkel!) and for a change of shoes, after running along in soaked shoes and socks for the last 4.5 hours.

From Williams Creek, we continued along a relatively flat road (a welcomed contrast from the climbing and descending of the last 16 miles). After wondering for a couple miles whether I had missed the left turn up the jeep road to the old Carson townsite, the “Carson: 4 miles” sign was a welcome site. This jeep road gave us more stunning views as we climbed.

Slightly before the Carson aid station, I came upon a cute little kid that yelled out, “124!”, my bib number, and welcomed the warmth and fuel of a Cup of Noodles.

Continuing up the jeep road, we were greeted by more views of beautiful mountains surrounding us. The Continental Divide trail provided a nice contrast to the rockier jeep road of the last 5-6ish miles. The Continental Divide trail turned into the Colorado Trail, and led us to the highest point in the race where a short snowstorm greeted us near the top in talus and snow fields. From our peak, the descent – though rocky and steep in sections – felt great compared to the previous butt-busting climb. During this section, pain started to set in more, but a thought that kept me going was the fact that Scott Jaime, ultrarunning legend who completed the Colorado Trail in just over 8 days, had done 65 miles on his first day, so what I was doing and the pain from the last 26 miles was essentially nothing in comparison.

After almost 15 miles near 11,000-13,000 feet, a descent into the trees and through marshland brought us into the Divide station at 32 miles. Leading up to mile 32, I was greatly anticipating the aid station, not knowing how much longer my water would last, and wanting to be that much closer to mile 40, the next large landmark and aid station. Luckily, from mile 31-32, I met a very nice runner from Steamboat and talked about – guess what? Running! – to tick away the minutes until the Divide aid station.

At the Divide, my mom told my brother Forest and I to continue on our own, to ensure we could make it to the next aid station, Slumgullion, 9 miles away. Out of the Divide, we climbed a little, and I felt like a slavedriver, pushing the pace, worrying about building up a cushion of time, anticipating the unknown difficult of our final climb and steepest descent in the last 10 miles. It was at this point that Forest and I really adopted the “granny shuffle”, as both of us began developing anterior tibialis tendinitis. It was also during this section that I was feeling more and more the mistake of wearing new shoes (seriously, just a 4 mile run before racing in shoes is not a good idea..between tripping myself and rubbing the inside of my calves raw to blisters, I can tell you why running in new shoes for 24 miles is a cardinal mistake in racing: 

During this section, we learned that if you want to make up time, the downhill grade of 31-40 miles is the place to do it.

At the end of a steeper downhill rocky section of the jeep road, we gave up the granny shuffle for some chairs at the Slumgullion aid station. We changed shoes again - simply taking off the shoes from the past 24.3 miles felt heavenly. We picked up my dad as a pacer, and continued on our way, feeling rejuvenated (almost better than mile 25!)

The next few miles were a blur of beautiful meadows, flowers, and gorgeous mountains, with occasional breaks.

After the peak of our final climb, the descent started out gradual, and thought, “What is it about this downhill section that everyone complains about? This isn’t bad at all!” A few miles later I discovered the merit of everyone’s complaints – the Waterdog trail is steep! And especially so after 46 miles and 14-15 hours of running/hiking. The trail seemed to go on forever – we looked out onto Lake City, trying to find the park. We finally heard cheering from more awesome volunteers that met us at the junction of the trailhead and the road into town.

A couple turns later, we were turning into the park, and I was on the verge of crying tears of happiness. 

Thank you SO MUCH to all of Lake City, the volunteers, race officials, runners, our awesome crew and pacers (shoutout to Team Labunkel, my stepdad, Jessi, and dad!!!) for the best experience I’ve had the privilege of doing. You all were an incredible introduction to ultrarunning.
 

(Left: Our awesome crew!

Right: Applauding fellow runners at the awards ceremony)

Thank you also to the Lake City bakery for putting on the wonderful breakfast in the park the next morning with the awards ceremony. It added yet more character and a personal feel - one that will keep me wanting to come back in the future.