Running in Arizona isn’t limited to hot, desert trails winding around saguaro cactus and ocotillos. Although that is the typical scene around the Sonoran Desert surrounding Phoenix and Tucson, just a couple hours north brings higher altitude and the dense Ponderosa Pine forest surrounding Flagstaff. The town itself is at 6,910 feet and is situated at the base of Arizona’s highest mountain range – the San Francisco Peaks which rise up to 12,633 atop Humphreys Peak. Flagstaff is well known in the running community as a hotbed Olympic caliber athletes looking for high-altitude training. Flagstaff also offers one of the best mountain trail systems anywhere, with a local urban trail system, trails in the Mount Elden / Dry Lake Hills area right next to town, access to the 800 mile long Arizona Trail which runs through town, and the Kachina Peaks Wilderness which encompasses the San Francisco Peaks.
There is a very passionate and active community of runners in Flagstaff, but opportunities to run ultra distances in the surrounding areas have been limited to solo training runs and loosely organized group runs. Our hope with the Flagstaff 50 Endurance Runs was to create a tough, rugged ultra starting in town and traversing as many of the local mountain trails as we could fit in.
After over 2 years of planning, it was tough to believe that the inaugural weekend had finally come. With aid stations setup, course markings in place, communications teams assembled, and runners checking in at the local running store Run Flagstaff it was all coming together. The race was set to start out of Buffalo Park, a multi-use park near the center of town operated by the City of Flagstaff, which is also the site of the local cross country meets. The 50 mile runners took off into the Coconino National Forest just after dawn, heading for the first climb up the Oldham Trail. Michael Carson who placed second at this year’s Zane Grey 50 Mile led to the first aid station near the top of Mount Elden. Runners traverse north along a ridge offering up spectacular views of the rising sun and golden aspen leaves off to the East before dropping 1800 feet down to the Little Elden Trail below. A gradual climb up to Shultz Pass ensues, encircling the Mount Elden range before runners go right up to the Kachina Peaks Wilderness boundary.
Carson continued to hold his lead along the 9 mile out and back section of the course to the Rocky Moto Trail within the Fort Valley Trail System. Korey Konga was running about 15 minutes back in second place along this section before eventually trailing back to join Adam Barstad. Carson continued to build his lead over the final two big climbs of the day up to the top of Mount Elden and then the exposed Heart Trail. He finished in a time of 8:41 on a course that many called tougher than Zane Grey. Adam Barstad finished second in 10:27 and Flagstaff local Jason Henrie finished third male in 11:06. In the women’s race, Katherine Metzger of Prescott ran a strong race to finish 3rd overall in a time of 10:33. Maggie Beach of La Crescenta, California came in second place in 11:31 and Flagstaf local Janet Bain finished 3rd in 12:12.
The 50 kilometer runners enjoyed the same course as the 50 milers with the exception of the out and back to the Fort Valley Trail System. The race shaped up to be very competitive with 2:19 marathoner Kalib Wilkinson who recently moved to Flagstaff going up against first time ultra runner and local pizza maker Caleb Schiff, and Flagstaff local Karl Jarvis. Kalib led to the top of the first climb followed closely by 22 year old Prescott runner Zac Mendenhall and then Caleb. Kalib ended up dropping later in the day and Caleb rolled his ankle, paving the way for Zac to take the win in 5:12. Karl finished second in 6:06 and Seth Redden was third in 7:17. Our top women was from Flagstaff with Leslie Grabel winning in 7:56, Shannon McQuaid of Tempe was second in 8:01 and Renee Stevens of Tucson was third in 8:28.
The toughest section of the day turned out to be the 8 mile loop going down the Elden Lookout Trail and back up Heart Trail where runners faced a technical descent and steep climb along exposed trails that burned back in the 1977 Radio Fire. No runners missed any cutoffs during the day and our final runner in the 50 miler, Greg Grady finished in 15:37.
Thank you to the Coconino National Forest and City of Flagstaff for permitting this event, the Coconino Amateur Radio club for providing communications all day along the course, our volunteers from the Sedona Running Company who ran the Sunset Aid Station, Ian Torrence and his team of volunteers at Shultz, Bret Sarnquist for taking photos, Run Flagstaff for hosting the packet pickup, Flagstaff Brewing Company for offering $1 off beers for finishers, David James for helping to mark and sweep the course, and all of our volunteers on race day. We hope to see you all next September for the second running.
