Mt Disappointment 2016

Dad and I were invited to help with radio communications at the Mt Disappointment Endurance Race on July 9. Dad had never worked this particular race before but we were both familiar with parts of the course, and in particular the location we would be working. You might remember from this post in 2013, we spent several years working the aid station at Shortcut Saddle for the AC100 race. Well, that's where they wanted us for Mt Disappointment!!

Mt Disappointment has three races wrapped into it - 25k, 50k, and 50 miles. We would only see the 50 mile runners. When we looked a couple days before the race, there were 43 entrants who hoped to go that far. Okay, kind of a small group, but it'd be fun and I'd get to play radio and spend the afternoon at Shortcut!

This race actually uses part of the course from the AC100. For the 100, runners get to Shortcut at about mile 66, cross the highway and go downhill for a while. Well, for Mt D, they came UP the hill, saw us, and then more or less went back down the hill, but on a different route. Let me explain in pictures, maybe.

 The other side of the street is where the AC100 aid station "city" sets up. You can almost see where the trail comes up (or maybe I can see it cuz I know it's there?!) That crosswalk was for our crews, but that's where the runners would cross for the AC100. We were basically sitting where the hams sit for the AC100 (go back and read that other post!!).

This is the aid station for the Mt Disappointment. The runners came up the trail right there on the right. They'd get their bottles filled and such and then head out right past us.

That's our setup there. So the runners would go up that dirt road and down and around and off on another trail. We were at mile 42 so they had one more stop and then on to the finish! (side note: I walked up that hill 4 times to my own personal bush ;) )

That's Dad :) Doing radio stuff. This was kind of a unique race. Well, for a lot of reasons, but for the radio part especially. Several of the other hams at other stations were also affiliated with the AC100, including the guy who created their computer tracking software. So, just for fun, we set it up and used it. Only 3 stations had access to it which caused some interesting hiccups, but it was still nice to have it. We only called in the first few runners, first female runner and then the last few. But because the finish line people didn't have access to the computer info, they called regularly to see where runners were. Like I said, hiccups. But I enjoyed getting to talk on the radio and be helpful!

Here's the thing about this race. We got there a little after 11am and left about 8 or 8:30. We saw 25 runners!! TWENTY FIVE!!! That's really not very many at all. And three of those dropped there. Two with heat exhaustion and one because he didn't make it within the cutoff time. That guy showed up with another runner though. Weird moment for me. We knew we were waiting for one more, number 153, I think. The finish line people had JUST ASKED about #154. He had dropped at the station before us and we assumed he was in the car with them on their way out. Nope, he'd kept going, unofficially, with his cousin that we were waiting for! I still don't quite understand how that happened but we were able to clear things up for the finish line since they didn't know where he'd ended up! We then sat there and waited for their ride to come get them.

Even though it was a small race, I enjoyed myself immensely! Radio, drama, runners, Shortcut... it was a great day!!! In an after report email, the race director mentioned not doing the 50 miler again. I don't blame him. But I'd do it again!!