Robyn and I had a good time doing sweep for the Bigfoot 200 last year, so we decided it might be fun to sign up for some sweep shifts at the Cocodona 250. The race is sort of in our backyard, starting north of Phoenix, meandering through various mountain ranges and valleys, and ending in Flagstaff. We have both been curious about it and I'm finding that sweep volunteering is useful, good hiking training, and a great way to see parts of a race course.
Plus an enjoyable way to spend hours with friends! John joined us for the first section since we were responsible for our own transportation (different from Destination Trail races) and a self-shuttle between the remote aid stations would have been very challenging without his help. Thank you John!!
We picked up Robyn at the Phoenix airport and had a couple hours to check out the Capitol building. I enjoy seeing state capitols and we hadn't been to the one in Arizona yet. It's perhaps the least obvious of all the state capitols we have seen so far, not easy to spot when driving around downtown.
The exhibits inside were much more interesting, including a giant Lego state flag:
Here's the building, if you're ever looking for it in Phoenix:
Well hello little cactus!
John drove us up to Crown King a few hours before our shift started, which was fun for racer-watching. They also fed us well, much appreciated. We took a little nap and then it was time to get started:
Gotta love a nice Jo(h)n!
Our overnight walking went well. Except for some initial complaining about the course markings being tied to the vegetation instead of attached by clothespin. Another plus for Destination Trail. We had needed to wait for the previous sweepers at Crown King, so we started with a gap on the racers ahead of us and didn't see anyone that night.
The sun came up as we trekked along the doubletrack road that took us to our midpoint aid station. They seemed a bit surprised to see us but managed to scrounge up some snacks for us. A brief music/dancing break to a Train song was the highlight of that stop.
The course splits at that point, with the Bradshaw Brute 100 taking a longer path to the left. Those course markings were still up, so apparently that sweep team was late. We continued along the 250-mile route and gathered the markings we were responsible for. When the courses converged again, Robyn had the presence of mind to ask whether we might be missing any 100-mile runners in the previous section (since the markings were still present at the other end too). We didn't have cell coverage to see the race tracking map. A quick InReach chat with race command confirmed that we were still behind all runners and good to go.
Looks like someone forgot a tool at some point in not-too-recent history, seemed photo-worthy:
The end of this section climbs up, up, up, toward a tower visible from a long way down. We eventually caught up with a couple runners and stayed with one until the summit. Then she took off to run the next downhill mile while we continued picking up course markings.
On our way into the Kamp Kipa aid station - hi Kip! Also, Robyn found another tool, less rusty and worth carrying the short way in:
John was there to greet us, we had an excellent aid station breakfast, and we met the next sweep team. We offered to drive their vehicle down to the Prescott aid station where they were finishing, and they appreciated not having to come back up to retrieve it.
After a quick pop-in at the Whiskey Row aid station, we dropped John off for the shuttle that would bring him back to Tucson. Thank you again John!! Then it was off to a hotel for showers and sleep.
The next morning we swung by the aid station at the Dells to see my friend Jil (aid station captain there) and it was great to chat with her. It was also the 100-mile finish line, and a super scenic location:
Just so pretty!
Next stop = the top of Mingus Mountain, where a couple podcasters had set up a basketball challenge for the racers. What's that, you might ask? We kept hearing about it and got quite curious too. They were using a real basketball court and had set up different points for different shot selections:
One of the brains behind the MBA (Mingus Basketball Association):
We shot some hoops (poorly) and admired the leaderboard listing the highest scoring runners. Apparently many of them appreciated the quirky diversion and some even scored some points:
On to Jerome, where we wandered into the kaleidoscope shop. The woman working there took this trippy picture of us, too funny:
We headed down to Sedona for an EV charging and coffee shop break. Then over to the Deer Pass aid station to park Tug-E and pick up our taxi ride. That took us to the Jerome aid station, where we hung out for a while and sampled the delicious cinnamon roll waffle invention:
And - birthday cake! Which was fortuitous because it was also Robyn's birthday that day! Glad someone managed to take care of her (even if by random happenstance) - happy birthday, Robyn!!
Hanging out with the aid station guys into the evening, when it got cool enough for one of them to break out his, I'm going to say donkey?, suit:
Our last runner barely made the cutoff, and various people helped him with food and supplies while they encouraged him to keep going. He sat down just outside the aid station for a while after that. While we waited for him to collect himself, I noticed the big Jerome "J" lit up on the hill. I didn't imagine what kind of memories this picture would spark later:
The runner got going eventually and we slowly followed. The bright "J" was no longer visible and I lamented to Robyn that she hadn't gotten to see it...
It didn't take long to catch up to the guy, who was second-guessing his decision to leave the aid station. His feet were hurting, which was understandable after so many miles. We paused for a moment to admire the "J" that appeared again up on the hill, making me happy that Robyn hadn't missed it after all (it's the little things in life). There was a brief moment of wondering whether our runner had missed a turn, but we were in cell phone range now and could verify on the tracker map that he was indeed going in the right direction.
We caught up to him again at a gate that was hard to open. He had given up on it and was lying down next to it, so we figured out the gate and the group of us continued on down the hill. Our course manager got ahold of us to find out our status and to clear up some confusion about what Spot tracker we were carrying (a repurposed runner tracker because the next sweep team was way behind and unable to hand theirs off).
It was good to have contact with the course manager because our runner finally decided he needed to quit (he wasn't going to make the next cut-off at that pace). We coordinated an extraction, followed our guy down to the next road, and handed him off to her.
Now moving at our own pace, we continued collecting a huge amount of signage. Walking through deserted Clarkdale in the middle of the night was a hoot. Back on the trail, along the river including an odd swampy spot, then to the calf-high river crossing. Next we went through a section of Tuzigoot National Monument I hadn't seen before, past a weird abandoned car if I remember right, and then into the Dead Horse Ranch state park trail system.
The cutoff times for this and the next section were really tight, faster than we could move with all the course markings to collect and carry. That, plus the extraction, put us well behind the aid station scheduled closing. Luckily we had an excellent course manager who made sure to leave out plenty of food options for us, even though everyone was long asleep. We resupplied at the Dead Horse aid station, thankfully dropped off the pile of signs, then continued on up the trail.
Amazingly, the giant bright "J" was still visible. Every time we thought we were heading away from it, into the hills, we would turn a corner and there it was again. Were we going in circles? OK, now that has to be the last time. Nope, there is it again! The race course twisted and turned and kept coming back around to point toward Jerome.
Finally we exited the state park and set off across the desert as it was starting to get light. This section felt very long. We didn't see another racer, although I tracked a woman I thought we might catch. Then she got extracted (I watched a medic Spot track drive in to collect her) before we could reach that point.
Taking a break in the shade before the final push:
Carrying course signs in my arms as we approached hints of civilization:
We trekked under a highway via tunnel and into the Deer Pass aid station, where we could drop off another load:
We were again well past the aid station closure, and this time there weren't any provisions available but at least we had the truck and our own supplies. We took a nap before driving up to Flagstaff to prepare for the final leg of our journey. Showers at Planet Fitness, food and race watching downtown, then over to the Tuthill campground for the night.
That was a good spot to sleep (actually, oversleep!) because our last sweep assignment was the beginning of the 40-mile Flagstaff Crest course which started at the fort. I missed my alarm but only by a little. We threw everything in the truck, ate a quick breakfast, and we were only slightly later than planned at the race start. We watched the runners depart and headed out soon after:
The walking was lovely, through ponderosa forests, along familiar routes, on a nice cool morning. We chatted with 250-mile runners - mostly walkers by this point - all of them moving well. We didn't even have to pick up course markings (except 40-mile specific signs) for several miles, until this split:
We hoped none of the 40 milers missed that turn. The difficulty in this sweep shift turned out to be the lack of Spot trackers on the racers (since it was a shorter course). We had gotten used to verifying that we didn't accidentally walk past someone who might be off in the woods "on business". Now we were on urban trails, around non-race runners, and it was harder to keep track of the people we were supposed to be following.
The aid station in the middle of our section featured happy people, snacks, and this funny elevation chart that looks way worse than it is:
Our mistake was not thinking to contact race command to verify that all the 40 mile runners had crossed the aid station timing mat when we arrived. I learn things every time I sweep and maybe someday I'll get proficient at it. A short way down the trail we got a text that a runner had come in behind us. Somehow we had missed him, presumably one of those "doing your business in the woods" things because he turned out to be someone we would never have overlooked if we had seen him.
So we waited for him to catch up, chatted a bit, then continued our task of collecting race markings like this one that Robyn peeled off the sidewalk and plastered to her front:
That made me giggle and decide to collect an arrow of my own - we might have been a bit punchy by this point:
The rest of the walk involved trying to keep track of our runner. He disappeared into a park bathroom when we weren't looking and managed to end up behind us AGAIN. For a seemingly easy sweep section, this one turned out to be challenging in an unexpected way. Finally we reached the second aid station without losing anyone else (that we know of!)
After overnighting in a hotel, we had a few minutes to watch some of the last 250-mile finishers, and they were so inspiring! I should have thought to take some pictures but it was more fun to be in the moment. In lieu of that, here's the finish line at a quieter time:
What an entertaining, interesting, different kind of week! Thank you for the excellent company, Robyn! Let's spend more time together on the trail sometime soon.
Photo credits include Robyn and John
No comments:
Post a Comment