The Yeti 100 is a beautiful race course with wonderful volunteers, one of the best Race Directors and sweetest buckles in ultra running! My running buddies, Carrie, Lisa and I have had buckle envy over this buckle for 2 years. In late 2015 when everyone was signing up to run the Yeti 100 in September of 2016, it was all we could do to keep from signing up. We had already planned a trip to the Grand Canyon to run R2R2R just days before the race, so we all knew we had to wait until 2017. Carrie and I both went to the 2016 race after returning from the Grand Canyon to help out volunteering and pacing.
Yeti 100 is a beautiful course along the Virginia Creeper Trail that runs approximately 33 miles on a rails to trails path, following creeks and rivers, crossing over more than 40 trestle bridges along the way, showcasing gorgeous views and scenery. You run the race from Whitetop Depot down to Abingdon, back up to Whitetop, and down once more finishing in Abingdon. Because of the non-technical surface of the trail and being fairly flat, the course is completely runnable. I’m more of a mountain runner and this type of course is not necessarily in my wheelhouse. After enjoying my time volunteering at the race last year, I decided not to sign up for it this year with Carrie and Lisa, find an “A” race for the year and help at the Yeti race again.
This year’s race became more exciting when race director Jason Green designed a special sub 24 hr race buckle. If you “shot called” sub 24 and succeeded, you would get this sweet sub 24 race buckle. If you failed to complete the race in the sub 24 time you got nothing but the finishing time. The new buckle didn’t interest me because I’d had 2 years of buckle envy for the regular race buckle and a sub 24 time was not even remotely within my reach anyway. After running my “A” race for the year, I decided to reached out to the RD to ask about getting into the race and had two and half months to focus my training on the Yeti 100!
Spoiler Alert: I finished sub 24 and got the buckle! If all you want to know is how fantastic the race is, how each aid station is top notch with every volunteer taking care of each and every runner, how the course is so beautiful, how the RD is awesome, and how it should definitely be on your bucket list of 100 mile races, you can stop reading now. If you want to know how a mid-pack runner at best, trained and finished this race in sub 24, keep reading. This might be a little long but if ultra runners are good at anything, it’s talking about running and our races!
I have been working with a coach for over a year now, and the Yeti 100 is my fourth 100 miler under her guidance and training! I feel like a smarter, more patient and stronger runner than I have before. I finished Vermont 100, my “A” race, with a PR and felt strong and good the whole race. Once I had some recovery time, I shared with Coach Sally that I wanted to run the Yeti 100, which was 11 weeks later, along with a small list of other races. Her reply was something like “you are gonna give me a heart attack! ha ha!” She crossed a few races off my list, made me promise to allow myself good recovery after Vermont, listen to my body and we immediately went to work, seriously concentrating on my core work, strength training, speed work and stretching.
While I still didn’t care so much about the sub 24 buckle, I was beginning to think about testing my limits. I had worked hard all year and felt strong, but I’m really not a sub 24 hour runner by any stretch of MY imagination. This course could be a fast one, giving me the best chance for a PR and doing well, but it could also be my worst nightmare. Since I’m not a flat surface road runner, I didn’t have shoes I love for this rails to trail course, and I tend to get caught up in going out way too fast. I know the carnage this course brings after seeing it firsthand last year. So with just 2 weeks before the race my regular running buddy, David, told me I should tell my coach about my sub 24 idea. I knew she could guide me and would let me know if that was even something I should push for. Her reply this time was “I think you can do it” along with a rundown of what I needed to do over the next couple of weeks, including some big changes in my running and workout schedule. Just 48 hours before the race, Coach Sally and I chatted for a long time by phone. She calmed my anxiety, encouraged me, and told me she thought that I was way stronger than I thought I was. She believed in me! We went over my race strategy in detail, and if I could execute the plan and run smart and patient, taking care of me throughout the race, she was sure I could do it.
I had no crew and essentially no pacers. My buddy David got into the race at the last minute, so I wouldn’t be able to get help from him. Carrie and Lisa had crew coming down from Wisconsin to help them out, the same friends of Carrie’s whom we had run with doing the Grand Canyon R2R2R! I knew they would be there if I happened to see them. They also had a cabin right on the trail in Damascus next to the main aid station at mile 17/50/84. I was able to put my crew bag and a cooler on their porch so I could access that if needed. Damascus was also a Drop Bag AS, but I thought having my personal bag for quick access would be helpful.
I had been training and running all year with my other running buddies, Rich and Jen. We live fairly close together and catch some weekly runs and most all our weekend long runs together. Rich and I have been able to push and support one another as well as run some long races and work through problems together. So I knew going into the race we would run together, but if you’ve run races long enough you know anything can happen. Our plan was to run together and have a strong race. It wasn’t until much later that we quietly discussed the possibility of running sub 24. We didn’t “shot call” it and we really didn’t want to feel the pressure from anyone. We wanted to run a smart, patient race and see how it went.
Jen, Rich, Me, Lauren and David
As with many Georgia runners, we are personal friends with the RD Jason Green. We also know and are friends with more than half the runners, so this was a family reunion, party, and race all rolled into one! Packet pickup the night before the race was nonstop hugs and high fives. Then it was off to the hotel to settle down and get some sleep. Race morning was a shuttle ride from the finish in Abingdon to Whitetop, and before I knew it, Jason gave us last minute greetings to have fun and go!
Most runners try to break this race down into thirds. It’s a down, back and down race so it really makes sense. There are aid stations about every 7-10 miles, with Damascus in the middle with our drop bags. Since it starts with the first 3rd being a gentle downhill all the way to Damascus, the key here is to watch your pace. Not only is it easy to get caught up in the race and go out too fast, the downhill section of easy running makes it even more difficult to keep yourself in check. While you feel good running downhill, later in the race you can really pay for too fast a pace. Several times in this section we had to check our pace and really slow down to stay under control. I kept focusing on strategy Sally and I discussed; be patient and focus on how you want to feel at mile 70. Then Rich would say “Slow down Trena Machina”!
Our first time coming into Damascus
We got into Damascus with a quick stop for food and a cold coke before we were off towards Abingdon. I don’t drink caffeine in my regular diet. I had given it up many years earlier. The only time I drink a nice cold Coke is during an ultra race, which is one of my favorite things. I’m not a vegan or a vegetarian, or even a particularly healthy eater for that matter. I like my ice cream! One thing Coach Sally has taught me to do is eat real food in my races. I used to come into aid stations and look for the cookies and candies, but I now focus on finding real food to take care of myself. I like potatoes, fruit, soups, PB&J sandwiches, grilled cheese, etc. I do like my cold Coke but stay more focused on real food. In my bladder I use Tailwind and have a water bottle in the front of my pack.
The day was warming up and we were now in the less shaded section of the course. A few miles out we came across Tracy, who gave us some cold bottles of water and would become our “trail angel” several more times during the race! Many times we came across crowds crewing other runners and they always offered us cold water and asked if we needed anything. Just seeing smiles, cheers, hearing the cow bells and claps from those people was so awesome, giving us a mental boost. We passed through the Alvarado aid station at approximately mile 25 on good pace. It was now 9 miles to the turnaround at Abingdon. Shortly after crossing Watauga Trestle Bridge, Rich said his stomach was not good. Yikes! This was a more uphill section and we had been running for 30 miles or so with no walk breaks, so we decided to power hike and give his stomach a chance to calm down. Soon thereafter, Rich had to stop on the side of the trail to throw up. Stomach issues are something that would get to a lot of runners in this race. The fast pace, the heat, and trying to eat – the wheels would begin to come off for many runners and it’s not easy to recover.
Alvarado AS was Magical!
Rich worked hard to keep up a good pace so we could keep moving and stopped when he needed to throw up. It forced us to slow down our pace, which we later felt probably turned into a good thing, giving us a chance to rest our legs and keep things in check as we went the last few miles to the turnaround aid station at Abingdon. We also began to see the runners who were in front of us as they worked their way back towards Whitetop, and it was super exciting to see so many of our friends and cheer them on as we passed. Once we got to the aid station, we found Carrie and Lisa’s crew who gave me a cold coke and gave Rich a ginger ale. Rich had managed to get his stomach back under control, the ginger ale helped, and after quickly grabbing food we headed back out. We stopped briefly to hug Jason Green again. I told him that I had been training hard, and I didn’t know if I could get a sub 24 but I was hoping to. If we did get in under 24 I really wanted to have my picture taken holding one of the sub 24 buckles even though we hadn’t shot called it. Jason told us if we finished sub 24 we would be getting both buckles! Now there’s some motivation. But we had a long way to go. Focus. Patience. Take care of business.
We now began to cheer on those behind us, giving high fives and hugs (and kisses to Jen from Rich) as we passed runners on our way back. We were back on target with our pace and still doing well. But this is 100 miles and we were only 1/3 of the way in and anything could happen. Before each aid station we discussed what we needed so we could keep our stops brief as possible but still taking care of ourselves. Back at Damascus and the half way point, we planned a longer stop. I needed to change shoes as the ones I began with were not a good choice. I found that I had calluses with blisters under them which needed to be drained and patched up so I could keep moving. I changed into dry clothes, picked up head lamps, jackets, ate some food and got back on the trail towards Whitetop. We made it to the next aid station at Taylor Valley before dark. We ate some warm broth here and took off. It was a fast power hike up to Green Cove which would be within 3 miles of the final turnaround. We got into our jackets, gloves, and warm clothes for the final push. We were starting to see more runners now coming down from the turnaround as we got closer and closer to the top.
It was definitely colder up at Whitetop, so we made our stop brief, but managed to take in warm soup before heading down. We were now at the point we had planned to be all day. We felt relatively good, stomach and legs were great and we were ready to make up a little time and head down to Damascus. Sometimes our plans don’t go quite as planned, however. We ran a good stretch down to Green Cove before the small rocks on the trail seemed to be tripping us both. We would slow to our fast power hiking pace to keep from falling. Every time we started to run, one of us would trip. It was very dark at night up there, and even with lights it seemed hard to see the details of the course. So we moved as fast as we could down to Taylor Valley and back through Damascus for the final time. We knew our stops needed to be quick, because the time was ticking away. This sub 24 hour time was getting tough. It felt like constantly chasing cutoffs, knowing that if you let up you couldn’t make it. We left Damascus with a good running pace trying to bank more time to give us a little cushion, but the night just seemed to drag on and the legs seemed to slow down. Our plan was to get to Alvarado AS with 2 1/2 hrs left on the clock to complete the final 9 mile climb up to Abingdon and we didn’t think that would be a cake walk. With no idea of our mileage due to both our watches shut down, we only had a clock to go by. Alvarado turned out to be a mile further than we thought and we came in feeling defeated, and knew we would have to settle for missing our goal. We would still finish strong and still get our buckle, but sub 24 had just slipped through our fingers, despite all our hard work. We chatted with the awesome AS crew and told them we couldn’t get our sub 24. They tried to convince us we could, but we told them we just were not moving at that pace anymore and we were now down to only 2 hrs and 15 mins with 9 miles of slight uphill. They said it was only 8.5 miles, but we still felt we were done.
We got some food and walked out silently as we both let it soak in that we wouldn’t make it. Another runner came ever so slowly past us moving at a steady pace. I turned to Rich and said “we have to go for it!” We pulled ourselves together and knew we had trained hard, we had worked hard to get here and knew we couldn’t give up. I kept telling myself what Coach Sally had said to me, “you are stronger than you think you are!” We could do this. The miles slowly counted down with the markers on the side of the trail to help us count down our pace. Six, Five, Four, then Three miles. We came across other runners but we wanted to silently push ourselves along without others around us. With around 2 miles to go my headlamp went out. We both knew there wasn’t time to change the batteries. Our margin of error was too tight. I got out a small hand held light that was stowed in my pack and grabbed on to Rich to keep from tripping as we kept up our pace. We were within a mile now, and we both dug deep to run it in. It was still dark out and that final corner in a 100 mile race seems to take forever to reach, but soon we saw the finish. Rich started sobbing (he told me early in the race he probably would) and we ran into the arms of Jason Green with just 8 minutes to spare. Jason took a second to realize who had come in and started to celebrate with us and Rich fell to the ground and yelled “Yeti Army”! We had done it! Jason gave us sub 24 buckles and the regular buckles saying “everyone needs surprises every once in a while!” It may be the only sub 24 hr race I ever run, but it couldn’t have been any sweeter! A Yeti race with all our friends along the way, and our friend and RD Jason there with his arms open to embrace us after our hard fought journey.
Jason Green, Yeti 100 Race Director, #NotACult
We had no crew and we had no pacers, but we had each other. But we couldn’t have done this without all the help we got along the way: Outstanding aid station workers at each stop, random crew along the course, including our trail angel, Tracy, and Jason Anderson. Mary and Jane, who crewed Carrie and Lisa, and also gave us a hand along with countless friends who cheered us on each time we saw them. My fantastic coach, Sally McRae, who has guided me and I knew believed in me more than I believed in myself at times. Running buddy David Yerden, who I told Rich would be more proud of us than anyone if we went sub 24, and sure enough he was! My husband Ed, who puts up with my running schedule so I can do what I absolutely love to do and is always my biggest cheerleader.
One of my favorite photos on a trestle bridge
Trail Running 100 