Altra was sponsoring an aid station at the inaugural Skyline 50 mile Mountain Marathon, and since my family was out of town, I decided to volunteer.  We were stationed at the Public Grove Hollow trail head (FR 620) on Avon Pass Rd. above Eden, UT.  It was a gorgeous day and it was fun seeing the runners come through.  We were at about mile 12 of the race.  After everyone went through, I had also volunteered to sweep the course up to the next aid station. The purpose is to make sure everyone is off the course and accounted for and then tell then next aid station that they can pack up and go.  It was about 5.5 miles. I planned on refueling and filling my water and just running back to my car – for a total of 11 miles.  That is a lot for me, but I knew that I could take it slow on the way back if needed.

Now – before I start my long rant, let me say that in the end I had a good time.
There was a great scene at the finish line and it was a lot of fun socializing and meeting some new people in the trail running / ultra community.
Very nice people.

By the time I hit the trail it was heating up (around 10:15 AM). I headed up Public Grove Hollow on FR 620, eventually branching left (west) when it turns north. It was a gradual climb, all on a ATV trail. The last 2 miles slowly descend (with lots of rolling ups and downs). Not bad.  When I got to about 5.5 miles I didn’t see an aid station.  Perhaps my GPS is just a bit off, I thought. There were ribbons on stakes and tied to trees marking the course, so I knew I was in the right place. I thought that maybe it was just a little further down the trail. I continued seeing ribbons until about mile 6. But after that they disappeared.  Now I was getting worried.  Was I supposed to take one of the side trails or branches of the road? I had looked down each of them for ribbons but hadn’t seen any. I continued on until about mile 7.5 and then turned around. By this point I had dropped in elevation down into the Devil’s Gate Valley area I hadn’t seen a ribbon for about 1.5 miles and figured that I had somehow missed the turnoff.  By this point it was hot and I was getting low on water. I had been pacing my water consumption with the expectation that I could fill up before running back. With the temperatures now getting up into the 90s, I was worried.  I met some motorcyclists and chatted a bit on my way back – they offered me a bottle of water. On my way back to where I saw the last ribbon I again checked the paths branching off – and nothing no ribbons.

I made it back to my car, but it had turned into a nearly 25 km / 16 mile run – my longest ever.  In a way I was happy that I had been pushed to run so far. A (still slow) 1/2 marathon PR. Even with the extra water, I ran out at the end and was getting dehydrated – it was bad. Without that extra water, I would have been in serious trouble.

I drove my car down to the finish line to report in and apologize for getting lost and not reporting to the next aid station like I was supposed to. And this is where it gets interesting.

It turns out that I hadn’t gotten lost. I ran right to where the aid station was supposed to be and beyond. The problem was that the aid station had already packed up and left!!!

I suddenly went from trying to apologize to being a bit peeved. Wait a second!  You guys knew that I was out on the trail, sweeping it to come report to you, and you just packed up and left?! I was dumbfounded. They knew I was coming. And, they had to have known that I would showing up asking for either A. a ride to my car, or B. Water and some food to fuel my return run. But no – they had just left. What is the purpose of sweeping the course if you can’t report to anyone when you get there? So, I ran right past it. AND – on their way out, they had removed a bunch of the flags/ribbons – which is why I hadn’t seen any after about mile 6. They could have left a note on the trail saying – hey, you made it, sorry we had to leave early, go ahead and turn around.  Here’s a bottle of water. OR – since they were on freaking ATVs, they could have ridden up the ATV trail until they found me and told me to go ahead and turn around. Here I was, out volunteering to help ensure the safety of runners and then they just leave me out there to suffer on the trail, endangering my own safety.

This wouldn’t have been a big deal if not for the fact that it was HOT and I was 7.5 miles away from my car with almost no water.  Without the good samaritan motorcyclists giving me water, I would have been in bad shape. I would have made it back to my car, but I would have been hurting.

If you can’t tell, I was a bit upset – I still am.

On the bright side – I made it. I had a slightly unnerving and stressful, but successful run.

15.9 miles in 3:09:38 @ 11:57 min/mile and 1,923 ft. elevation