2013 Pigtails Challenge
The Pigtails Challenge is held at Lake Youngs, a water reservoir for the city of Seattle, WA. Originally known as Swan Lake for the large number of swan in the area, the lake was renamed in 1924 to honor Luther B. Youngs’ 28-year service as superintendent of the Seattle Water Department. Youngs moved from Kentucky to Seattle, in 1883, to work in construction.
Lake Youngs can only be seen at a few specific places, and even labeling the sight as a view is a stretch. The reservoir is fortified by tall trees and the actual lake is barricaded by a fence owned by the City of Seattle. A gravel mote wide enough for city maintenance trucks encircles the viewless lake. It’s on this 9.4 mile path of gray that footsteps become mindless as the mind becomes trampled with doubts, confusion, and little victories.
Race Director Van Phan describes the USATF Certified course as a non-technical trail with only a few areas where the footing is not smooth. There are three distances a runner can choose to race at the Pigtails Challenge: 100-miles, 150-miles, or 200-miles. The 200-mile race begins on Thursday, the 150-mile race begins on Friday, and the 100-mile race begins on Saturday. After the out-and-back start, each runner will run odd laps around the lake clockwise and even laps counterclockwise.
The loops make for mind-numbing experiences that begin to present themselves on the runner’s faces around lap six. Their smiles being to tarnish and their eyes become dilated with focus. You can almost hear their thoughts as they patiently wait at the aid station for water and food, “I need to get away from here. It’s too chaotic, it’s too comfortable. I’m missing something.” It’s the loops, however, that make the Pigtails Challenge a community much more than an event.
In 2012, I paced a few different runners throughout the four-day event and one of the most memorable moments was when Ron Horton and Matt Hagen ran by each other. Both men were running the 150-mile race and the fatigue had already taken over. It was around 1:00 am when Ron and I approached the dot of light from the unknown runner’s headlamp. Ron paused. I paused. Then a familiar voice to both us broke the silence of darkness. “Ron, is that you?” Matt Hagen asked. His jovial voice now tethered with exhaustion. Ron replied, “Yeah. Is that you, Matt?” The slow introduction continued for minutes.
The two runners rested their hands on their knees. They had been running for hours and were now reduced to simple child like greetings. I stood there fresh as a piece of toast and thought, “What the hell is going on?” Ron made an attempt to introduce me, but he realized mid-sentence that he didn’t know me and the introduction became slurred and turned into, “So, Matt, how you feel?” I wasn’t offended. Ron really didn’t know me. I literally just showed up in the middle of the night with a cardboard sign that said I was looking for a runner to pace. Ron came into the aid station and said, “Yeah, I could use some company…I guess.”
This year, I wasn’t able to pace due to injury, but I was able to stay connected. I wanted to share the smiles, tears, laughs, and footsteps of the makeshift community surrounding the Pigtails Challenge. The turnout of support for everyone I was able to report on was phenomenal. People from all over were commenting on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. It was really tough to manage it all. At one point I had 87 new notifications on the Facebook Page. People were sharing pictures and sending messages to runners. Social media was being used for a greater good.
On Saturday night, or early Sunday morning, I was walking with Amy Wismer and her pacer back out to the loop. She was running the 100-mile race, and I think she was on lap 6 or lap 7. She was in a rut, and ready to throw in the towel. But after she got in some warm-up water, some food, and picked up a pacer she headed back out. On our walk back to the trail I showed her a picture of her husband Bob Wismer, also running the 100-mile, that I had taken earlier in the day.
I read her a comment that Samantha Ananya Brown left on the photo: “Please send Bob and Amy love and support from Stephen and Samantha! Tell them they look GREAT, that we are thinking about them and wishing them much success, and that we ate dark chocolate on their behalf. GO TEAM WISMER” You could feel the positive change in her voice as she laughed. Amy would go on to finish her first 100-mile race.
Over the next few days, I will be trying to reach people about their experiences. So much happened in the last four days that I really want to showcase as much as possible. I hope to gather a few really unique stories this week and post them sometime next week. Please stay tuned, and if you have an interesting experience from this year fill this form out and let me know about. There have been a lot of responses already, so give me some time to get through it all. Most of all, thanks for another great four-day Pigtails Challenge
