Aravaipa Strong 100

As soon as the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic was known, races cancellation notices began popping up left and right. Every spring and early summer race of significance was either cancelled or postponed, and with good reason. Many virtual races started appearing, but there were very few large scale races that catered to the ultrarunning world. Enter the Aravaipa Strong. 

Jamil Coury and his team at Aravaipa Running, a for-profit trail and ultra event company based out of Phoenix, Arizona, quickly organized Aravaipa Strong. This was a virtual race that was open globally, comprising seven distances—5k, 10k, half marathon, marathon, 50k, 50 miles, and 100 miles. Runners could sign up for a small registration fee and had from April 17 to April 26 to complete their chosen distances. As a virtual event, runners chose their own route, recorded their own times, and submitted the results for review. Unlike most virtual races, everyone's result was verified, official results were published, and awards were given to those with the fastest times. 

With 10 days to get it done, I decided I'd go for 100 miles or bust. I would've loved to run some epic route on the Finger Lakes Trail and complete the whole race in one day, but there was no way I'd have the time or bandwidth for such a monstrous effort. A week-long effort it was, then. 

To make this race fun and interesting, I set myself a couple of loose ground rules. I would do all of the miles on trails, with no repetition. That meant no multi-loop run or long out-and-backs, and no running in the same park or forest on more than one day. If I became short on time or energy, I'd make exceptions and even include neighborhood walks with the babies if it was the only way to finish the miles in 10 days. Staying active and enjoying the time outside is more important than racing hard or chasing an audacious goal. I signed up for an activity that would help reduce stress during a stressful time—not to add more stress into my already upended life. 

Day 1: 

The clock started at 1:49 p.m. as I began the first leg of the run.

I discovered some new-to-me trails on the west side of Monkey Run leading up to and around the golf course, then past the stables and back down toward the suspension bridge at Flat Rock. I also spotted some additional trails I didn't have time to check out. This route might not be possible once the golf course reopens, but for now it's a welcome extension to the standard eight-mile loop I cover frequently. 12 miles today; 12/100 miles total. 

Day 2:

I hit up another double digit, waterfall-strewn trail loop. Buttermilk Falls and the preserves at Lick Brook were a good choice for a trail run after a night of steady rainfall. Avoiding hikers and physically distancing wasn’t too difficult, even though it was a Saturday with lovely weather. There was a ton of mud on the orange FLT spur trail between Buttermilk and Lick Brook. 10.1 miles; 22.1 miles total.

Day 3:

Today I had the energy but my legs just wouldn’t move. This was one of the tougher routes in the Ithaca area—the 8-mile Abbott Loop at Danby State Forest, with a few extra miles tacked on using forest roads and lesser trodden trails on the forest's north side. This covers most of the Danby Down & Dirty 20k course, including all of the steepest climbs. Add mud to the already challenging route and you have a real slogfest. I took a wrong turn near the end—left on orange instead of right on white—and had to double back. I ran here to avoid crowded trails elsewhere but passed more people than I’ve ever seen at Danby. 11.5 miles; 33.6 miles total.

Day 4:

In a route I like to call the South Hill Medley, I covered most of Ithaca's South Hill neighborhood's trails in one go. My body felt a lot better today compared to yesterday so I went longer than planned. You could call it a runners high on 4/20 with no illicit substances required.

I had to hustle the final few miles to get off the trails before dark since I didn't bring a headlamp. Also, I think I broke my left fifth toe last night by accidentally kicking a door. It didn’t hurt today but it was purple AF. 

I'm really digging the new pair of Saucony Mad Rivers. The run ended with a view of some beautiful new murals on the wooden fence at the Recway entrance on lower Hudson. 10 miles. 43.6 total.

Day 5:

Damn! It's April 21 and winter has returned to Ithaca. The Waterfront Trail was incredibly windy and I was greeted with light rain. If you count this flat, paved bike path as a trail, then all my Aravaipa Strong miles have been off-road so far. This run covered the Farmers Market to Cass Park and Allan Treman State Park. Today was day 5 of 10 and I passed the 50 mile point. 8 miles today; 51.6 total.

Day 6:

Earth Day saw me running a Thom B loop at Hammond Hill, starting from the Roy Park Preserve boardwalk on Irish Settlement Road. The higher elevation forest had a dusting of snow in some spots plus some mud. The Thom B loop was about half dry, with lots of water on the connector trail between the loop and the car. This is one of my favorite loops to run when the trails are dry. 11 miles; 62.6 total. 

Day 7:

Bright green flora around the FLT singletrack at Robert Treman State Park made for an odd contrast with the large white snowflakes swirling through the woods. At least the crummy weather kept people away from this often crowded park; I had the place all to myself! 10.3 miles; 72.9 total. 

Day 8:

I got out early for an easy 5.5 miles while everyone in the house was still asleep. The morning run covered the Stewart Park end of the Waterfront Trail, along with the park's woodchip path and a loop around the adjacent golf course.

In the afternoon I was able to get out for a second run—rainy singletrack on part of the Forest Frolic course in Virgil, with a detour down the Valentine forest road and back up the FLT to add distance. I ran short on time near the end and took the Kurzai Cutoff trail back to the car. Kennedy State Forest is one of my favorite places for trail running, but it’s depressing to see the toll logging operations have taken on the forest. 14.7 today; 87.6 total.

Day 9:

Alright, let's wrap this race up! Only 12.4 miles needed to finish over 8+ days. I went out to the Finger Lakes National Forest to avoid large crowds at the state and city parks, but it was still a lot more crowded than I'd hoped. It was also pretty muddy, but dryer than I predicted. I ran 12.7 miles of the Finger Lakes 50s loop to reach 100 cumulative miles for the race.

To close it out with an exclamation point, I ran an extra final mile as a downhill time trial on Mark Smith Road in the forest. This was on a dirt road with a net downhill of about 350 feet in a mile. I got the idea to combine Mile Wardian’s “Depletion Mile” with Kyle Pietari’s sub-4 down Lickskillet Road in Colorado.

I actually thought it would be tougher to run fast, given that I’d just done 12+ miles on trails around the forest. My previous PR was a pedestrian 5:40 at the 2015 Ithaca Festival mile road race. I swapped the Mad Rivers for the Hoka Cliftons and crushed the mile in 5:14. I’ll have to try this again in a concentrated effort; I should be able to break 5:00 pretty easily. 13.7 today; 101.3 miles total.

That last mile ended at 4:04 p.m. on April 25—Day 9 of the race. This gave me a finishing of 8 days, 2 hours, 15 minutes, and 33 seconds for the 100-mile distance. (Pro tip: You can download the .gpx files to your desktop to get the exact second you started the first activity. On the race's final activity, do this to get the start time, then add the run's elapsed time to get the exact second of the finish time. Split the difference between the start of Activity 1 and the finish of the last activity. Voila! You have your elapsed time over multiple days.) Not exactly a fast 100! I did meet my goal of running all the miles off-road without repeating locales and with only minimally repetition of trails. (I'm counting the paved Waterfront Trail as a trail, since it it technically off-road.) I took it easy on all of the runs to keep my energy level high and avoid burnout. The only run that was a drag was Day 3 on the Abbott Loop. 

This race was difficult to do with newborn twins, but made easier by the fact that my wife and I were both off from work. The Aravaipa Strong 100 helped me find a sense of purpose aside from taking care of the kids. I used the exercise to maintain a shred of sanity while raising two babies during a global pandemic without the benefit of visitors or any outside help. 

The ultrarunning online community was all about finding creative ways to get in the mileage for Aravaipa Strong, which made it fun to follow along with other runners. Signing up gave me motivation to get out the door at times when I’d rather take a nap. In short, it was what I needed to help me better cope with the pandemic and the stress that comes with being a new parent!

Kudos to Jamil Coury and his team for putting the race together in a short amount of time while keeping it well organized. Self submitted results for all distances were verified via Strava links and awards were given to the fastest finishers in each distance. I'm not one to fixate on swag, but they did have high quality items and I was happy to pay a little extra for the optional 100-mile belt buckle. This was my first chance to run an Aravaipa race. I hope to someday make it out to the southwest to run one of their races on location. (Javelina Jundred, I'm looking at you!)