Bryce 100 - Accomplished - Kind Of

So, over the weekend I ran the Bryce 100. Here is the Reader's Digest version, I'll write a full race report to put up tomorrow.

The scenery for this race.......wow. Completely indescribable.

My race started off in style. There were two options for transportation to the starting line: 1) Bus, or 2) The back of a U-Haul. Which did I take? Correct. The back of the U-Haul. With the door opened. Across miles of dusty road. We started the race with a hefty supply of lung butter. I'm blaming this on my less-than-stellar race performance. (Kidding.)

We didn't see any wildlife despite notice that bears, mountain lions, and rattlesnakes were possible running companions. I did see these tracks though. I'm no expert, is this from a bear or cougar?

This course was by FAR the most difficult race course I have ever set foot on. The elevation gain, relentless climbing and descending, and the altitude were insane in the membrane. I talked with lots of ultra veterans who said this was among the hardest they had ever run also. Views like the ones we enjoyed don't come easy.

Unfortunately I had a knee acting up and I couldn't seem to get it to cooperate. I tried threatening, compassion, babying, belittling, and bribery. Nothing worked. It started around mile 20. By mile 50 I knew that stubborn knee wouldn't be able to make it another 50 miles. After doing a handful of these long races, I'm starting to learn what can and can't be worked through. I knew I could make it to the 100k mark (around 62 miles) and with that, the Bryce 100 became the Bryce 100k. (With some cool bling.)

There were things that happened and things I saw that made this one of the best race experiences I've ever had. Let me collect some of those moments and I'll give you the whole scoop tomorrow.