Bandera is a very rocky course, which I guess is typical for that part of TX. I'm not used to that rocky of a course so I tripped a few times and so did some of the folks running with me at times. I doubt I'd go back but its spot on the calendar makes it nice to get a 100k WS qualifier done early in the year so you can focus on 100 milers.

I just did the IceBox480 this past weekend in River Falls, WI which was a fun race. You basically run as far as you can in 8 hours (480 min) starting off on a 7 mile looped trail. At 2 PM you have to decide if you want to attempt another 7 mile loop and finish before the 3:30 finish time (if you don't finish the loop the miles don't count), or switch to a 1 mile loop and run as many of those as you want. I did 6 full loops (42 miles) and didn't feel like doing a mile loop in the remaining minutes for 15th place overall. It's a pretty fun but challenging course and I'd recommend it as a low key end of season race...or for me it's kind of kick-starting 2018 training.

The Canyons 100K (CA) in April will be my first trail ultra of 2018 and its a WS qualifier (must be under 18 hours to qualify)

Ahh the 2017 ultra thread is back with real results...definitely helps with motivation for the upcoming 2018 season for me as I remember when this thread started and I felt empty not being able to say I was planning an event. Congrats to everyone for either tough finishes or learning and getting back out there to try again. I just need the 2018 ultra thread now to be posted. ;)

My 100M is this weekend. Training through Sept was great. Then I had a 10 day stomach bug, followed by an upper resp infection, and news of an impeding major surgery for one of the kiddos. Still managed 250 miles in Oct, but it should have been 300-320. I am trying to get my head on straight for the race. A positive attitude is the only thing that is going to get me through this anywhere close to the time I was hoping for. Last year I did 16:09. I wanted to pull back those 9 minutes and 4 seconds. We will see. I waver from "hell yes", to "I don't even care".

Bigfoot 200 is in the plans for 2018 if I don't get into Norseman. Also put into WS. 2.5% chance, but why not.

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Brian

A bit late to the party, but what the hell..

January 8/17: 8-hour indoor track ultra. Turned out to be a 232m cement track. Hated it. 65.33km / 2nd O/A

January 21/17: 3-hour winter trail race on a 2km loop. Foggy, mushy snow. Had fun. 24.4km / 1st Woman O/A

April 29/17: Pick Your Poison 50k. Mud while running up and down a ski hill (5,440ft of elevation), but a nice day. Used as training race. 7h37m

May 27/17: Sulphur Springs 100k. Ludicrous mud for my 1st 100k attempt - 5 x 20k loops with 8,400ft of elevation. Tripped over NOTHING AT ALL at 56.5k while running downhill and ended up a bit bloody. Finished just after dark in 15h54m / 3rd W<40

July 8/17: Limberlost Challenge 56k. Did I say there was ludicrous mud at Sulphur? I had no idea how muddy a course could be. Finished 4 x 14km loops less than 3.5 minutes before the cut off in 9h56m - lots of people either quit between laps or didn't make it under 10hrs. Only 4,300ft elevation.

September 9/17: Haliburton Forest 50 miler. 1st 50 mile attempt on a fairly technical course - 40km long trail so a single out-and-back with 6,500ft of elevation. Had no specific goal until I reached the turn-around, then thrashed myself through the second half to squeak in under 13hrs (12h53m).

October 7/17: Sticks n'Stones 50k(ish) - new race for this year put on by friends. Non-technical, 10 x 5km loops (actually about 5.2km), only 2,500ft of elevation but the day was hot as hell. 6h34m / 3rd W30-39

October 28/17: Horror Trail 6-hour on a 2.5km loop. Been doing this one annually since 2010 and this was the worst mud I've ever seen - as bad as Sulphur. 46.87km / 3rd Woman O/A

Feel pretty good about what I accomplished this year - also ended up 2nd woman <40 in the season-long ultra series that includes the Pick Your Poison, Sulphur Springs, Limberlost, Haliburton and Horror Trail races (plus a few others), so that's a pretty sweet cherry on the top.

Looking at my first 100 mile attempt next year, but starting things off with a new indoor track 6-hour ultra bright and early on January 6th, 2018.

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ill advised racing inc.

...Hey. I was searching the forum for experiences for the Eiger 101. I have won the lottery and can now sign in. Before I do that I was wondering what kind of training people do for things like that. Would you mind sharing a quick recap on your training leading up to this run? I am a decent marathon runner and have done an 80k 3400k run previously, but the 6.7k climbing scares me a bit....also when you say gnarly trails does it mean just difficult to run or also exposed with a danger to fall?

Thanks a lot!! And good luck for your future races...hopefully there were a few in the meantime.
Uli

Congratulations on your entry !


By gnarly trail I mean essentially unrunnable: very steep, with lots of rocks (both fixed and loose) and roots to trip you up, and sometimes wet and slippery underfoot. The worst was the bit just before the halfway mark, going down from Schynnige Platte. I literally fell down the hillside onto the lower path a couple of times. I still don't know how I did not break any bones or twist any ankles.

My longest training run was only about 6 hours, but included a ton of climbing, and I did that for many weeks. I live in Bellingham WA, and my training ground was Chuckanut Mountain (summit around 1750') . I would go up from one side, go down the other side, come back up by another way, go down another side, go back up another way, and then return to my starting point. Lots of steep terrain as well as lots of long winding trails through the woods. No idea what actual distance I covered on these runs; probably only about 40k. But that seemed to be enough; the distance did not seem to be an issue in the Eiger run.

Thanks a lot for your feedback. It sounds like a lot of fun 😎. Not sure I will reach a training level where I will be confident about the run....