Aaron Wieczorek's Staging Area

Really enjoyed this race. Despite the small parking area and directions that it may be full, it seemed like there was enough parking for the earliest race, the 50k, for everyone participating. I was worried I would have to park a mile down the road and walk there post-race!

The race itself was energizing. It took place on mostly single track and well manicured trails. They changed the course this year a little, and based on my training on last year’s course route and running this year’s course route, the new route was a bit better because there was less repetition in the route to hit 50k, and there were a couple parts that were less steep overall, i.e. taking a different route with more consistent elevation gain rather than as many punchy, “gain 1,000ft / mile” climbs, which I found more enjoyable.

The course was extremely well marked, it would have been hard to get lost. At every trail intersection there was a big arrow marking the correct direction and a big X marking the incorrect direction. Combined with the regularly hung ribbons along the trail, it would have been very hard to get lost. There was only one point on the backside that was iffy on the second lap because the hard veer to the right got a bit worn away. Someone, perhaps the race directors themselves, put some twigs across the trail at that point on the second lap indicating _something_ was up, and reminded me to turn. It was subtle enough that it would have been easy to run right past this turn in a weary second-lap state, so glad someone did that. 🙂

Views were very reasonable. One thing about the Squaks is that none of the peaks are above treeline, so the peak views are mostly just trees. There are a couple points on the east side where one can see adjacent Tiger Mountains and that’s a good view. But, views aren’t always about vistas, the trails were beautiful and some of the sweeping tree views as one comes along the trails are great.

This was a small race and so the minimal race swag was perfect. I loved the finishers refrigerator magnet, it was delightful. I do wish they didn’t run out of shirts for purchase in my size, but nothing you can do about that. I’ll buy one when I run this next year.

In a trail race, one should always bring specific nutrition if needed. I personally don’t like the taste and consistency of gels at all, and there are only a few flavors that don’t make me gag (but they do work very well for energy) like Gu Triberry and Gu Cola. They had Clif ones, which I do not like, but this is why I brought my own just in case they didn’t have the gel brand / flavors I prefer. Totally fine. However, bringing one’s nutrition only goes so far, solid food is needed with gels for just about everyone. I wasn’t super happy with the solid food options. At the Upper Aid, it was essentially single serving trail mix and on the second lap some tiny single-serving, clif-style bars, gummy bears, and bananas. Lower was exactly the same, though lower added small bags of regular potato chips. I don’t really consider any of that “real food” except the bananas. For a trail ultra, I would have expected some “real” food like PB&J sandwiches (individually wrapped uncrustables maybe? if not homemade), soft pretzels, cooked potatoes, watermelon, bacon, broth, grapes, etc. Totally get times of Covid not feeling comfortable providing, but this was my only constructive feedback about things to add in the race. It cramped my style a little (literally, some stomach cramps, some gastric distress) but the bananas really saved the day this time.

Overall I enjoyed this race a lot, the energy from the directors, the trails, and the difficulty. I will be doing this next year and running Squak more in the meantime as it was so delightful.