From owner-ultra@caligari.Dartmouth.EDU Thu Sep 11 14:27:12 1997 From: Date: Thu, 11 Sep 97 14:26:10 -0700 Subject: The Eagle 100 - Random thoughts To: ultra@caligari.Dartmouth.EDU Having returned from the Eagle 100-miler in Canada, I thought I'd pass along some observations that might help other ultra folks decide whether they should add this event to their list for next year. The location: The race starts and finishes at the Apex ski resort about 30 minutes west of Penticton (the location of the Ironman Canada which is held the week before Eagle). It's a great spot for staging any ultra. The resort is closed for most of the summer other than the two big events, Ironman and Eagle. The rooms are very nice and are quite reasonable ($69 canadian, about $50 US) and some come equipped with kitchens (which is good because there's no food service and the closest store is 30-minutes away in Penticton). The place was about two-thirds full for the race so they can handle about 80 runners with the size of the lodge. Doug Fleming, the one-man proprietor, was awesome. We even rigged his satellite dish into the lobby so we could watch the NFL on Sunday (the CBC just doesn't cut it when football is on). This is a great location for training or even just hanging out with your SO for a couple of days before or after the race. The course: The course is interesting. Start at 6000 feet, descend to 1600, climb to 8100, descend to 1600, then climb to 6000. That's about it, in a nutshell. I believe Dan Barger said it had about 14,000+ feet of climb according to his Avocet. The interesting parts include Hedley creek which has about ten creek crossings that are about 10-15 yards wide and about thigh-deep. The trail through this part of the course isn't well-maintained so it was nice to get a few cuts on the legs so it could sting a bit on each stream crossing. The race has a river crossing that you do twice. It was up to my nipple-line and I'm 6'3", so some of the shorter folks had water up to their necks. At the 35-mile point you start up a trail called the Lakeview trail (elev. 3000 ft). It took me 2.5 hours to get to the next aid station at Quiniscoe Lake (43-miles,elev.6800 ft.). Needless to say, there was some steep stuff on that eight-mile stretch. From Q-lake, you climb to the cairns at 8100 ft and then start a descent back to the 1600 ft elevation. From the 43-mile point to the next aid station at Ewart Creek (54-miles, elev. 3000 ft.) was a "3-hour tour" (I was lucky I'd taken my UD Aquifer from the 25 mile aid station because I needed it). Not the fastest downhill on earth, partly because the aid station had problems and didn't quite make it to the 54-mile marker. From there, you retrace your steps through Ashnola, dance by the rattlesnakes along the river, go through the med check at Hedley for a second time, then start the grind up Nickel Plate Road to the finish line. This road is a beaut. My wife had to close her eyes when we drove it the day before the race. It climbs 500-feet a mile for the first seven miles. The nice part is that it's graded very well and in the dark, a flashlight is a luxury rather than a necessity. The road crests at about 6200 feet after 15 miles, then descends two miles to the finish line. Not exactly the fastest last 20 miles. Since the race starts and ends at the steps of the hotel, it's a short elevator ride to the shower. How convenient. Was it a good race and would it be worth doing it again? Yes. The nice part is that as Wasatch and Leadville (the two 100's that are on either side of the schedule from Eagle) become more difficult to get into (at Eagle it isn't big enough yet to make you commit to it in January) Eagle becomes an attractive option. It's also nice because it doesn't have extreme altitudes, and the weather is usually pleasent (as it was this year, although it can get nasty). It's a nice place to vacation if you're looking for some peace and quiet (I have three young boys, so just reading a book on the couch in a hotel room is a vacation). The course markings were a bit dicey in places (Nick Bassett took at three-hour detour and others made shorter excursions off the course), and some of the mileages and information in the brochure were off. If you're looking for a race where there's an aid station every three miles and someone there to babysit you for 100 miles, you'd better stay home. If you're looking for a challenging course that doesn't require supplemental oxygen, Eagle fits the bill, just bring your water wings if you shorter than Gene Thibealt. Twiet.