Top 5 of 2020
Hindsight is 2020, thank God.
Last year brought unique difficulties, but it also provided unexpected opportunities. Cancelled races, travel restrictions, and safety concerns were stacked on top of all of the normal challenges that are associated with going hard in the mountains, on the roads, or otherwise.
This year, like every other athlete I know, I had to be creative. I didn’t have a race to tell me what I wanted to do, so I had to decide for myself. The choices I made led me to go after goals and zones I’d never considered. Some of it was good, some of it was bad, some of it was all time. And that’s why I’m making this list.
This is my Top 5 adventures in sport from a year that will not soon be forgotten.
5. OSRGC 13.1
My primary spring goal heading into 2020 was the Whitefish Marathon. I wanted to run around three hours, but hadn’t really jumped into the more difficult training when the pandemic took over and cancelled the race. I was left without anything to push me out the door.
I follow a group on Instagram called Orchard Street Runners. They are a running group in New York City that are infamous for creating alleycat-style running races that challenge not only a racer’s speed, but also their guts and knowledge of the city itself.
At the beginning of shelter-in-place, OSR expanded their horizons from the locked down streets of NYC. The OSR Global Challenge was a virtual race that placed you on a leaderboard with a small group of people from all around the world. Somewhere in the middle, was me.
I took the challenge to heart and, after spending hours on GAIA, found a course that was 90% gravel road just outside of Charlo, MT. It was net-downhill a few hundred feet with enough turns to keep it interesting.
I had never raced a half-marathon, or even ran one all-out. All I had to go off of was a nebulous VDOT-based projection of what I could maybe run and a couple recent workouts that had felt decent. So, I went for it and ended up running 1:28:56.
That ‘race’ was a tremendous confidence boost. Up until that point, I really had no idea if I was any good at running. Now, 1:28 really isn’t that good. But at the time, I was stoked out of my mind, and I knew that was just the beginning. That day laid the groundwork for me to keep working, going for it, and I’m excited to give the half another go this spring. This time, maybe I’ll pick a flatter course though.
4. ‘BM 100’ Midnight Pacing Duty
When it comes to running, there’s a few things that you just can’t say ‘no’ to. Here’s a short list:
- Running with Justin Shobe
- Running in the middle of the night with Justin Shobe
- Running to support a friend (Justin Shobe) who’s trying to run 100 miles on your local mountain in under 24 hours because he can’t make it to his goal race
This day (well, days) checked all three of those boxes.
I met up with Justin and Pete at the Reservoir Trailhead of the Whitefish Trail at around 11:30 PM. Justin had already completed 25 miles and around 5k vert. Pete and I were jumping in to run with him for his second lap of the same metrics.
As in any long effort, we kept it relaxed, but we rarely stopped. We shared hours of great conversation, running while the rest of the world was dead asleep.
A particularly interesting moment came as we connected the Flower Point loop with the summit of the Big. Near the T-Bar, we heard some crashing in the brush ahead of us, and then a rather agitated set of huffs. We all immediately began yelling and looking into the woods to see if we could catch any eyes, which we eventually did. Black bears, and they were about as excited to see us at 2 AM as we were to see them.
We kept up the heckling and eventually worked our way around them. We jogged away to the sound of our heartbeats in our ears, but that wasn’t from the running. New 100-miler strategy: when you start to get tired in the middle of the night, locate and piss off a large apex predator. That’ll wake you up for sure.
The rest of the night and morning was relatively innocuous in comparison. When we eventually made it back down to the trailhead after five and a half hours, Pete asked Justin, “How ya feelin’?” Justin replied, rather chipper, “You know, like 50 miles.”
I walked away from that night beyond inspired. Justin went on that day to get his goal and complete 100 miles and 22k of vert in under 24 hours, a very impressive feat to say the least. Goes to show you that you don’t need a race to get after your goals.
Now that Justin’s got the course record for the inaugural BM (Big Mountain) 100, I guess he’s gotta go beat his own record this year?
3. Fall OTC Mile
A mile on a track is inherently uninteresting, but that’s kind of what makes it interesting, right? After a summer of playing in the mountains, I had set my sights on seeing how fast I could run a mile.
So, my friend and I thought we’d put on a ‘race’. On a very cold, but windless, Sunday afternoon in November, we wound up with 16 runners, a couple unknowing volunteers, and a few mittened supporters all gathered around the local high school track.
Long story short, I went out really fast, realized that was a bad idea, let myself get passed, then hung on the shoulder of a friend for awhile, maybe to 1k, until I passed him. Then I ran hard to the finish. In terms of execution, I’d give it a 5/10, but hey, for never racing on a track before? I’ll take it.
In the future, I think I’ll sit out of the next race that I RD because that was a little stressful, but the experience of organizing something that brought all kinds of people together around one weird common interest was incredibly fulfilling. Not to mention, I still got to race.
Ended up with a 5:16 that, I think, could have been closer to 5-flat. But thankfully the track isn’t going anywhere.
(Photos by @bbulz on IG)
2. Great Northern Hillclimb
At number two, this effort holds a special place in my heart.
A couple weeks before this day in September, I reached out to all of my runner friends with the idea of reviving a race that I had never been to: the Great Norhtern Hillclimb. Back in 2018, I remember seeing a sheet of printer paper stapled up in Coffee Traders inviting runners to come and test themselves against the Flathead’s best that September.
Being very new to running and incredibly intimidated by the thought of racing up a mountain that I hadn’t ever even climbed, I declined to participate.
Little did I know, that would be the last year the race was formally held. In the following seasons, I climbed the mountain multiple times. And though I never got to the point where I would be able to compete with the guys who used to do that race, I still dreamed of letting it buck on the Northern and seeing what would happen.
Fast forward to September 2020, and I’m standing in the parking lot with two running friends, Justin and Nick. We start our watches and begin to work our way up through the dense forest and notoriously steep climb that mark the first half of the GN trail.
We all topped out in under an hour-thirty. Justin finished with a respectable 1:23, Nick 1:25, and myself 1:28. It was all smiles, great weather, and a fun day for a hard effort on one of the Valley’s most iconic peaks.
We ended the day stepping off the summit asking each other the age old question, “How in the hell did French get up here in 1:11!?”
1. Kintla Peak One Day
This was a big one, and as such, received it’s own detailed trip report here. But let’s just say I’ll never forget this day. It truly opened my eyes to what is possible in a day in the mountains, and what I’m capable of.
However, I didn’t upload any of the photos I took on my film camera that day. So, here’s what I managed to capture on my point-and-shoot 35 mm from this awesome adventure:
And with that, 2020, adieu.
To a year that gave both less and more than we wanted, I thank you for bringing opportunities to build confidence, go out on a limb, and do dope stuff with the people that I love in the place that I call home.
2021, LFG.
