By Nikki Buurma
As soon as the Mammoth Trail Fest races popped up on my radar, I wanted to go. When I won a free entry in an Instagram contest, it was an easy Yes. The question was – which race? The Trail Fest offered a 26k with 3700ft on Friday, a 50k with over 7000ft on Saturday, and the Dragons Back Ascent (2.75 miles and 2300ft) on Sunday. All at altitude. The start and finish of each were around 8000ft but all the races summit over 11,000ft. I’ve always lived at sea level and have never spent more than a few days at altitude, so I had no idea how my body would respond to racing hard up high. I asked friends – “The 26k because that’s all I can handle?” “Or the 50k because it will be slower and easier breathing at that pace?” My main goal was to see as much of the area as I could and maximize my time there, so I leaned towards the 50k…Until I saw the option to do all 3…Tempting, but was it crazy to think I could do 51 miles and nearly 15,000ft at altitude over a weekend? A friend said, “Well you won’t be competitive at any of them, so you might as well do them all.” That’s all the convincing I needed.
The week before the race some logistics fell through, but with the help of some friends I found a ride from Reno to Mammoth with EmKay and Tom Sullivan. About 5 days before the race I convinced Kennedy Rufener to come along and race the 26k and Ascent. A long travel day later and we were checking in to our room at the Mammoth Village Inn. One look around, plus a free upgrade to a 2-bedroom condo and we knew we were in for a fun and luxurious weekend. Sporting our fluffy white robes, we made our way to the hot tub and pool daily to stretch and loosen up for the next days efforts. We could watch the racers finishing from our balcony, and the convenience of staying steps from the start and finish was well worth it.
On Friday the 26k didn’t start until 12:30pm so we had plenty of time to nervously prepare. On the short warmup the lack of oxygen was readily apparent but overall I felt good and excited for the day ahead. Probably a little too excited. Off the start line we ran through the village, up a few flights of stairs, and out onto some beautiful single track. I was feeling good and moving up trying to find my spot in the line of racers until…mile 2 or 3. The nausea and dizziness came on strong and I realized I was out too fast. And then I rolled my ankle. Nothing serious, but enough that it stung for a few minutes and pinched with any misstep or transitions from up to down hill. Time to regroup. I kept moving but eased off the gas and tried to collect myself for the steep climbing ahead. Rolling single track turned to steeper switchbacks as we made our way to the summit. It was hard! Hard enough that I was really worried about the coming days. I wasn’t even sure I could finish the first race. The gorgeous views helped distract me as I slowly climbed to the summit. A quick stop at the aid station and then we had basically 8 miles of descent back to the village. As soon as I started down everything changed: glorious miles of dirt road and pristine flowy single track. I wanted to really let it rip but knew I needed to try to save some quads for the 50k. It was fun! Probably the most fun trail I’ve ever run on. That joy carried me to the finish – 13th Female and 2nd in my age group.
Post race my ankle felt jammed and tender walking around. I found the PT’s at the med tent and after some top notch joint mobilizations it felt much better! I taped it up for the next 2 races and other than stiffness and some tweaks on the rocky terrain it was very manageable.
On Saturday, waking up the the daunting task of the 50k was rough. Could I really handle twice as far? But the weather was beautiful and I was excited to get to spend the day out on the trails. I started much more conservatively, and either my slower pace or the extra day of being at altitude helped a lot with the dizziness and nausea. We started similar to the 26k before turning off onto trails deeper into the wilderness – mostly rolling single track but a lot rockier. The first 10 miles went by ok but I could tell my legs were tired, way more tired than I expected. I split 2:20-2:30, which was over my 6-7 hour finish goal but not bad. The middle 10 miles were rough. I wanted to lay down; convincing myself to run anything that was slightly uphill was a challenge. I hiked…a lot. I relied heavily on my poles and arms to push me up the hills.
From miles 18-21 we climbed the dragon’s back ascent to the summit. It was hot, sunny, and high. Lots of people had the “sits” as in – stop-and-sit on a rock a minute. I got passed by so many people, it was discouraging. But every once in a while one would see my bib # or we would talk about something and they would discover I was doing all 3 and their kudos and cheers at my effort would remind me that they had much fresher legs and I shouldn’t compare. To be honest, I gave up a little, maybe a lot. But I knew the names and faces of the other 2 women closest to me in the triple so I focused on just racing them. I’m so thankful to have their competition to motivate me, and I’ve never raced as back and forth as I did with Shelby. I made it to the summit around 5 hours, way later than I hoped. After the summit at 21, I hoped we would have a similar flowy downhill back to town. We did. Briefly. And then we turned onto more rocky trails and eventually onto a dirt road where we climbed another 1200ft from miles 24-26. Woof. I trudged, pathetically, up what felt like a never ending climb. I was just exhausted, more than I’ve ever been before, even in much longer races. When I finally made it to the top I started to actually believe I could finish. I did the best I could to make up time and run the downhill, especially the smooth and flowy final 2 miles. A few other competitors were right behind me so I mustered everything I had left to climb up and down the stairs and hurry through the village to the finish. I finished in 7:45, sadly much slower than my goal. 23rd Female was not where I hoped to be, but I was almost 7 minutes ahead of the other woman in the triple. Shelby had beat me by roughly 3 minutes in the 26k, so going into the final race I had a 3-4 minute lead. It was going to be tight!
Sunday, the last day, held the Dragon’s Back Ascent – 2.75 miles of uphill charging. There was a rolling start and we were supposed to self-seed ourselves into waves. The nervous energy in our condo was high. I’ve never done an ascent-only race and it’s been a long time since I raced such a short distance. My friend Alice drove Kennedy and I to the start at Twin Lakes and then she headed up the hill to cheer at the top. Kennedy and I warmed up with the Emkay, Elaine, and Helen along the flat trail. It was a great reminder how welcoming and kind the running community is and how sharing the experience is what it’s really all about. The first wave took off and I could feel myself hoping Shelby would go with them, so I could shy away from the challenge of truly competing. (It was chipped timed so when you start didn’t matter, just the total time accrued). It felt safer to race not knowing for sure how we matched up. I had lots of excuses and caveats as to why I shouldn’t care, to protect myself from the discomfort of being “all in.”
We started together in the front of the 2nd wave and it was time to embrace the challenge. She took off at a great pace running up the hill, I followed as best I could, trying to match run and hike sections to her effort and keep her in view as much as possible. I kept repeating, “You can’t see 3 minutes.” As long as she was in sight, I figured I was close enough to hang onto the lead. The gap grew despite my best efforts. A trio of high schoolers passed me, and their unbridled effort reminded me that the grinding is supposed to be fun. We finally made it to the clearing where you can see the final 1/3rd of a mile to the summit. I huffed and puffed with my poles as best I could to close the gap and finished in 58:34, about 55 seconds back of Shelby, and under my 1-hour time goal. In total we finished 2 minutes and 20 seconds apart over 12+ hours of racing. Pretty incredible – I definitely would have lost motivation out there had we not been pushing each other along. So much gratitude and I really hope to share trails together again someday.
At the top there were finish line festivities, podium pics, and lots of stories of the weekend shared. All in all I couldn’t ask for more beautiful trails or people to share them with. So many new friends and fantastic memories. Huge thank you’s to Kennedy for being my last minute travel buddy, Alice for the ride, cheers, and support, Emkay and Tom for the ride down, and especially to Tim Tollefson and the entire crew who put on the event. The effort and work that went into making the entire weekend such a success in its inaugural year was truly impressive. Already dreaming of going back.
