Subject: HURT Trail 100 report, extremely long Date: Wed, 07 Feb 2001 07:52:40 From: akabill Ultra Runner, Below is a close approximation of one story that was sent into UltraRunning magazine regarding the inaugural HT100. Two things you ought to know. Most event entrants learned about the event through this list or Stan Jensen's site. We accepted 30 entrants after practically no advertising. The event is all on State maintained trails. We don't know what cap the State might put on entrants but we do know that they are rightfully very protective of the trails and their use. We expect that they will limit entrants to something below 100, maybe way below 100 like 50. At the same time we five Race Directors are pretty sure that we don't want the event to get out of hand. Individually we are overly responsible types and recognize that is a personal weakness. We want the HT100 to be the best of its kind and we want to be able to keep it going as the best. Thus we have to limit the size of the event. We haven't agreed among the five of us how many and how much. Each of the five of us willingly donated major bucks to the success of the event. Except for the cost of the shirts no one has submitted an invoice or bill. We each donated major time to putting on the event. Nobody punched a clock but if we did charge accordingly hardly anybody could afford to enter. That has nothing to do with you but it does have something to do with how this event develops after the glow wears off. We got all the mahalo's we can stand from the finishers. Now we need to look to the future. We are going to put an ad in UltraRunning. That is it. Maybe some of the big boys will offer sponsorhip and there will be a second ad. That truly will be the end of it. If what you have read or will read about the HURT Trail 100 excited you, or if what you read below interests you and you want to be a part of the HURT II event then get in touch with me pretty quick. I have no idea what the entry fee will be or what we will decide we have to charge to cover expenses. The entrants this year will get first shot at reentry. After that it comes down to who responds first to the official announcement. REPORT: ++++++++++ 1st Annual H.U.R.T. Trail 100 Mile Endurance Run w\100K option Saturday. January 20th 2001 Koolau Mountain Range, Oahu, Hawaii 5 Laps Single Track Tropical Rainforest Trails w\23,750'+ total climb Ultra Runner 100 Mile Name Time 1. Luis James Escobar 37, (CA) 28:02 2. Alfred Bogenhuber 61, (CA) 28:40 3. akabill 57, 33:24 4. Ed Bugarin 51, 34:22 5. Monica Scholz 33, (ONT) 34:23 6. Jim Benike 51, (MN) 34:35 7. Mike Garcia 53, 35:18 8. Catra Corbett 36, (CA) 35:18 We knew going in that the difficulty of the course was going to be a surprise even for veterans of these trails so we included a 100K option. 100 Kilometer Name Time 1. Lyman Perry 33, 17:12 2. Jeff Huff 39, 17:38 3. Ben Cavazos 41, 19:54 4. Jason Hodde 30, (IN) 21:12 5. Hans-Dieter Weisshaar 60, (GER) 21:30 6. Bob Murphy 42, 22:01 7. Cheryl Loomis 53, 22:59 8. Paul Schmidt 49, (CA) 23:42 9. Leon Draxler 58, (WA) 24:35 10. Suzi Cope 53, (TX) 25:13 11. Frederick Davis III 53, (OH) 26:36 12. Howard Feldan 39, 26:57 13. Filiesha LeRand 46, 27:21 14. Patricia Carroll 51, 27:21 15. Julia Bramer 36, (CA) 27:21 (29 starters) January 20, 2001 Hawaiian Ultra Running Team (HURT) Guru John Salmonson started the inaugural H.U.R.T. Trail 100 mile endurance run on inauguration day in the inaugural year of the 3rd millennium. Appropriately at 0545 dark a Hawaiian Kahuna chanted a blessing for the twenty-nine starters. In Hawaiian she named each trail segment and prayed that the gods would look after the entrants in this most difficult and dangerous trail run. Later that night her prayers were answered when Jim Benike escaped a forty foot free fall unscathed and later Hans-Dieter Weisshaar slid fifteen feet over a cliffside with only his pride damaged. For years HURT members had been looking to put on a 100 mile true trail run in Hawaii. Finding the venue was the problem until that fateful day when Jeff Huff, Greg Pirkl and I finished the Tantalus Triple T-bone 100K and said: "'bad word' we do this five times and we've got a hundred miler. We can do that." That was when the HURT Trail 100 (HT100) mile endurance run was conceived. Then we measured and found out that the supposed 100K wasn't quite 50 miles. The HURT Sunday Runners scrambled to find a course that would give entrants at least one mile for every dollar of fee. The entry blank to the HT100 says it all: "Very tough 100 mile multiple single-track trails in a mountainous tropical rainforest with precipitous dangerous drop offs. There are over 23,750 feet of climb on muddy, rooted and rocky trails. Ten stream crossings. This event is designed for the MINIMALIST adventure ultra runner only. Don't expect lots of trinkets. We will supply 'Aloha', HURT style." HURT wanted to do more than just put on a 100 mile trail run. Aloha is critical to what HURT is all about. At its most basic "aloha" is "giving without thought of return." When HURT Guru John Salmonson joined the race directorate he announced in his expansive way "we are going to give them the best they ever had." That became our mission. HURT Sunday Runners wheeled and measured every available trail in the spider web of mauka tropical rainforest paths. We read multiple altitude gains and losses and discussed many complex alternatives. Finally Jeff Huff came up with an elegant design and the five-man Race Directorate (John, Jeff, Mike Garcia, Greg Cuadra and akabill) set the HT100 route. Five laps of twenty miles each with two down and back ups each lap. Nearly 24,000 feet of gain and loss on unrelenting soft single-track trails, roots, rocks and hard packed earth. The key word being "unrelenting." No fire roads, no jeep track, no passing lanes, no asphalt unless absolutely necessary. They want trails we'll give them true trails. Included are a steep hog back, constantly changing forests, bamboo clacking in the wind, the fountain of youth, a waterfall, a pig ravished cliff side trail, sweeping views, roots, wild pig wallows, switchbacks through head high grasses, ginger blossoms in your nose, singing Shama Thrush, more switchbacks cut down a no can see trail with slippery boulders beneath the feet and nowhere to fall either side, hundreds of yards of roots that lay high over the ground, a winding trail switching fourteen times to a jumble of wet mossy rocks, more rocks with hard packed dirt and gravel falling down a slippery slope with roots holding the rocks in place, precipitous drop offs, and trail disappearing into the woods just before a streamcrossing. And on and on and more unrelenting beauty. This course is one breath taking five sense engorging trial. These are trails. Honest to god trails. Even that .7 mile of boulders, gravel, roots, and slippery stuff traveled by hundreds ecotourstii americana every day is trail. Even the road leading to the first aid station at Paradise Parking Lot is more of a trail than what Continentals are used to. In early December Stan Jensen came out to Hawaii and reviewed the HT100. Stan stood on the flat former parking lot above Jack Ass Ginger and said: "akabill this course is two tough (pun intended). It is tough physically. It is tough mentally. You are going to push the limits." And I thought: "YES! We are raising the bar" and smiled as we spent the rest of the day considering the implications of the course. Jeff's aesthetically pleasing design divided each lap into three legs with an aid station at the end of each. John took responsibility for raising the aid station bar and decided they would compete to be the best anywhere. Each would have a theme and each would provide real food for real ultra runners. The first (white) leg goes from Makiki Valley to Paradise Parking Lot 7.3 miles away. There was the Funky Hawaiian aid station with fruits, Jook (rice soup), sandwiches, pie, sweet bread and several oriental specialties. The second (pink) leg reverses out of Manoa Valley and down into Nuuanu 5.4 miles away where the Pac Five High School Cross Country team had the Ulta Burger aid station with full on fixed up burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, jerky and ice cream for akabill. The fifteen teenagers were standing by with big eyes ready to do whatever's including pacing when called on. The third (yellow) leg climbs back up Nuuanu Nightmare and around the other side of Mt. Tantalus back to the Nature Center in Makiki 7.3 miles away where Big John and PJ had the Hawaiian Hut with its full on local style Hawaiian food and especially the best Kalua Pig on a roll anywhere. It is a long wsy between aid so we required runners to carry at least two bottles and that often was not enough. When the Kahuna finished the blessing we all had chicken skin. Then the conch shell sounded and we started through a line sparklers along the single-track trail headed up towards the steep hog back known as Roots and Rocks. As soon as there was room to pass Alfred Bogenhuber Wolfie) went by akabill with his usual challenging greeting. Luis Escobar then asked akabill if he (Wolfie) knew the way and when akabill said "Yes" the race was on. These two mad men raced up Roots and Rocks to the 4-way while everybody else did their best to maintain a solid quick walk. In the second tier were Monica Scholz, Lyman Perry, Jason Hodde and I. We traveled together to the first aid station with yours truly going much too fast playing tour guide and story teller the whole way. God was that fun. Then Monica went down letting out a squeal. "Black butt buys the beer" was all Lyman and I could say as we had her run it off and pushed the down hill switchbacks to Manoa Falls and then out to Funky Hawaiian aid station. One of the beauties of the course is that in Manoa and Nuuanu Valleys you get to see who is ahead and behind you. Every lap tells a story. Coming back at us on Manoa Falls Trail were Luis with Wolfie a couple minutes behind. Luis looked very strong and Wolfie looked like a hunter with a deer in his sights. Monica and Lyman were quick out of Paradise Parking aid with me giving chase much too quick and up we went to the top of Aihualama. At the top we were into the bamboo forest again and then after the roots of Pauoa Flats there is totally different forest leading to Nuuanu Valley. The grassy ridge with sweeping views of Honolulu and the Pacific Ocean is tantalizing by day and magnificent at night. We three raced down a steep grassy knoll past akabill's rump stump and Vernon's butt slide to Nuuanu Nightmare which is a narrow crumbly trail with straight downs on the left and jumbles of rocks littering the path. We broke out onto the Enchanted Forest of Cooke Pines where we got to see the leaders coming back at us again as we switch backed down to Judd Trail. We could run! Then a hidden root grabbed my toe and bam, faster than I realized I was bouncing off a cushion of pine and up again and running ten steps till bam going down for a six point landing. Monica was amazed. Saying "You went down without even a whimper." Lyman just ran around me on the Judd Trail which is very well marked and still it disappears into a tangle of roots and over a rock slide and along a stream and back into bamboo and across the "ford" HURT built just the week before and up the hill to the Ultra Burger aid station where Stan had stood and said: "You could get lost between here and the stream." And so you could. As we three headed back up Nuuanu Nightmare the whole rest of the gang came down at us a little more strung out than in Manoa Valley and so it went through the day and into the night; Wolfie on a mission chasing Luis with the rest of us strung out along the trail just trying to hang in there. When the race started the weather was as perfect as it can get and it stayed that way. Too perfect. We had had only one good hard rain since before Thanksgiving. This meant that nothing had washed away the thin layer of dirt covering the rocks and root tops. When the sun went down and dew was followed by a light rain the dust became as slick as wet ti leaves on a slippery slide. As day turned into night the now slick roots and rocks were an ever-present challenge to small motor control. No matter what shoe you wore a thousand times that night your legs went six different ways from Sunday and the trick was to hit the ground standing up. In the spirit of aloha we had put a 100K option into the run. Even with a 36 hour time limit we knew that some entrants just wouldn't be able to finish in time and we figured anybody who passed 100K on this course deserved credit. We had eight Grand Slammers entered but we knew that even they would be challenged by the time limit. Well the 100K option turned out to be a major psychological barrier. The course is remorseless. There are no easy sections. There are very few places you can relax and just run. Even though the State Na Ala Hele group (Hawaii Trail and Access System) had gone to extraordinary lengths to clear trail and eliminate barriers there still was no way to relax out there. Stan Jensen couldn't possibly realize the full extent of what "mentally tough" meant on this course. Instead of a face saving device the 100K credit option was too attractive. The first two to succumb were local Silver Bucklers (Leadville and Western respectively) Lyman Perry and Jeff Huff. Finishing their third lap while in third and fourth place overall the challenge of 40 more miles was more than what they wanted on that night. Then came Ben Cavazos followed by Grand Slammers Jason Hodde and Han-Dieter Weisshaar. Considering that MiWok has been recognized as the most difficult 100K in the country and its sixteen hour cut off is one hour twelve minutes before the first finisher of the HT100K there was no shame in not going on. Later each of the 100K finishers swore that they will be back in 2002 to finish their business with the trail. Meanwhile an unfortunate shoe choice had reduced the bottoms of my feet to mush and my every step past 100K to the PP aid station was painful. Because HURT knows aloha Lyman Perry leant me his pacer, Amy Cowan (ultra woman extraordinaire) and then he and Jeff Huff met me at Paradise Park and fixed up my feet so I could complete the last 33 miles of the event with somewhat less pain. I'm glad they did because I really wanted to be in on the race between Luis and Wolfie. Coming out of Manoa Valley the fourth time Wolfie was just on Luis tail. He looked like a very very hungry animal. An hour later when I was going down into Nuuanu there was a big gap between the two. When Wolfie came up out of the darkness at me his words were "I'm getting too old for this 'bad word'" and I knew the race was over. At least that race was over. All day and all nightlong coming at me was Ed Bugarin, retired from Delta Force and now an adventure racer. Ed had successfully finished the last Eco-Challenge in Borneo and was looking for new meat. Every time I left an aid station Ed was twenty to thirty minutes behind. My second pacer, sixteen year old cross country star, Christal Cuadra had me convinced that Ed was just behind me the whole way home. I owe my sub 34 hour finish to her great play acting and gentle persuasion to run it on in with class and style. I lived to do that and at the end knew I had finished the hardest event of my life, bar none. Ed came in 58 minutes later with Monica closing fast. Jim Benike had traveled the first lap with his injury-slowed wife and then spent the next twenty-four hours picking off runners one by one. If it hadn't been for his free fall adventure he might have closed on us all. Mike Garcia was the real hero of the day. He had convinced Catra to go out on the fifth loop and then stayed with her promising that they would finish together. Even though he was forced to go on ahead when he arrived at the finish line he refused to touch the gate until Catra got there. They touched it together for a 7th place tie. What a guy! Just ask Catra. By all accounts, and I do mean all accounts, the initial HURT Trail 100 was a huge success. Everyone said they would come back in 2002. I don't know what it is. We created what we believe to be the toughest, non-altitude challenging, 100 miler in the country and everyone wants another stab. Hans-Dieter went so far as to say that the HT100 is tougher than Hardrock and so he has to come back and finish the full 100. We will see in 2002. The trail won't hold a lot. I'll be there to improve. Sign me simply akabill Life is good! and getting better all the time. akabill