Wahsatch Steeplechase 2010

Brynlee, my 3 year old cheerleader waits for me to finish- Photo Tanae Nelson

As I lined up at the starting line of the Steeplechase for the third time this year, I had an eery feeling of calm.  Without hesitation, many of my friends that I run and race with, would say that I am a very nervous racer.  It is common for me to not sleep well for days leading up to a race, I find myself pacing and fidgeting more than normal, and nervously eating anything in sight.  Strangely the nerves weren’t nearly as intense as normal on Saturday morning, I had slept well all week, including the night before the race and honestly wasn’t overly concerned about the last minute details of the race.

The Wahsatch Steeplechase is a very exciting 17 mile trail race that starts very near the Capitol in Salt Lake City.  It has an amazing 7 mile-ish long climb right from the very beginning.  The last portion of the climb is described as a class 5 scramble along the high ridges of Black Mountain.  The course clearly favors the uphill runner, and then ups the ante when the scrambling begins.  The ridge then takes a dive to the Smuggler’s Notch Aid Station, which was were a group of Moonshiners hid out during prohibition.  After passing through the aid station the descent continues to dive, the next two miles are the kind of steep I refer to as hold-on-if-you-can, this section has been very overgrown in the past, but thanks to the hard work of some SLC ultrarunners who did their trail work for Wasatch 100 last weekend it was easy to see the steeply descending trail.  The descent mellows as you hit City Creek, there are a couple of miles of mind numbing pavement, then a few more of great single track before you arrive at the finish just on the other side of the creek from the start.

From the start, eery calmness aside, I knew I was going to have a great day.  Nearly from the word go, Brad Mitchell, a great runner, La Sportiva Teammate, and fellow Idahoan, and I pulled into the lead.  The pace was quick but not too much, runners started to spread out pretty quickly and once we left the initial pavement and hit the single track a small lead pack of 5-6 runners had formed, with myself and Brad out front.  A couple of miles in my calfs started to tighten up a little too much for comfort so I dropped my pace a little and was passed by Brad and another runner (sorry I didn’t catch his name).  I kept them is sight for the next couple of miles until the base of the steep climbs up Black Mountain. I slowly reeled in Brad as the climbs steepened.  We ran together on the high ridge until we hit the “crags” the class 5 scramble, I knew that this would be an area for me to pull ahead as I thrive on very technical running.  I ran ahead of Brad and quickly caught the other runner.

Jared Campbell running the Crags in 2009- Photo Greg Norrander

I continued to push and take some risks through that section hoping to put some distance on Brad and anyone else who would be pushing the pace.  I tried to hammer the dive to smugglers and then really let my legs roll all the way to City Creek.  Once I hit the road section I paid for rolling the steep descent as my quads rebelled a little, a sip off of the EFS flask and some nuun took my mind off of the angry quads.  A quick glance at my watch revealed that I was pretty close to CR pace and I immediately decided that I would try to break the CR, I was running scared knowing that many strong runners would be following suite, but I did not allow myself to look over my shoulder and let the fear and my watch to drive me along.  My body continued to feel very relaxed, I kept repeating in my mind fast and relaxed, and kept pushing hard.  As I got near the end I quit looking at the watch and just focused on turnover.  I finished in 2:16:00, about 30 seconds off of the CR.  I thought about being disappointed for a split second but then started to celebrate the win and a major improvement over previous races on this course.  Brad Mitchell finished a strong second in 2:19 ?? followed by the runner that I passed in the Crags a few minutes later.

Myself and Brad Mitchell Showing our 1st and 2nd Plaques- Photo Tanae Nelson

I was more than happy with the results of the race, the weather was beautiful, and so many runners had a great day on the trails.  Butch the RD and all of his crew did a wonderful job putting on a great race, I am already planning on coming back next year and you should to!  I will post a full list of the final results in the comments when available.

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