Gabe's Twisted Fork 64k (42 miles really) Race Report
Race Report: Twisted Fork 64k (42 miles really)
Background
This was the inaugural year of the Twisted Fork 64k. The owner of the Park City Running Company created the race to showcase Park City’s trails. It attracted the who’s who of ultrarunning in the SLC area. The Ultrasignup rankings were the most stacked field of any ultra I’ve done.
The course starts in Park City and consists of two big loops. The first loop is Flying Dog, named because the resemblance on a map (see below). It’s a popular MTB trail and was super buffed out. The second loop goes along the Jeremy Ranch dirt road, turns up the Mormon Pioneer Trail (which was used by the early pioneers settling the area and also by the infamous Donner Party), and then connects to the Great Western Trail (which is part of the Wasatch 100 course but is sparsely used the rest of the year, leaving it overgrown). It has over 6000ft of vertical. It was advertised as highly runnable. I’d say that was true to the Flying Dog loop, but the Mormon Trail and Great Western Trail were often slow going. In particular, the Great Western Trail was heavily overgrown, and I felt like I was bushwhacking and wished for a machete. It was also 2 miles longer than advertised at 42 miles, making it more correctly a 69k.
This was the best organized ultra I’ve done. Ultras tend to be low key affairs where the start line might be a line in the dirt from the race director dragging his foot across the trail. Twisted Fork included timing chips (a rarity) and personalized shirts with your name and race number that you could wearing in place of a bib.
Relive 'Twisted Fork 64k (42 miles really)'
The purpose of this race was to transition from triathlon training to ultrarunning in preparation for the Wasatch 100. If you’ve been following my adventures and misadventures, you know my plan this year was to use Ironman training culminating in Ironman Santa Rosa to build a diesel endurance engine. Then I would layer on specificity with trail running. This race put that theory to the test.
Right before the start.
Highlights
- The diesel engine experiment worked! I never got tired and had a strong kick at the end. I ran with a group for most of the race where we’d take turns passing each other. The last mile was highly runnable and I laid down a strong kick to drop all of them. I feel better after any ultra I’ve done, or any race for that matter. I’ve been sorer after big training weekends. My longest run this year was 4.5 hours. Kind of cool that I could run for twice that time and not be destroyed.
- I was able to run strong on the flat and downhill sections. Downhills are the sneaky part of ultras that can ruin your day. The eccentric motion causes more muscle damage than uphill. Most ultrarunners train for uphill but neglect downhill. I look at them as free speed and make sure to run downhill fast on many training runs.
- No niggles or injuries. My hip has been bothering me off and on, but I had no issues. I’m feeling durable right now.
Lowlights
- I need to get more vertical in. My legs were toast for climbing after the second big climb up the Mormon Trail. Luckily 80% of the climbing was done by then. My upper body was actually sorer than my lower body because I had to put my hands on my thighs and push off on all the steep climbs afterwards. Climbing will need to be effortless for the Wasatch 100, which features over 24,000ft of gain.
- I lost time on the really technical, overgrown section from about miles 24-32 on the Great Western Trail. This is part of the Wasatch 100 course, although it is not overgrown in September, and represents what much of the course is like. I’ll need more time on technical trails.
Top of Bald Mountain.
Key Take Aways
- It’s time to double down on being an ultrarunner. I had a romantic idea that I was going to do the Crusher in the Tushar 72-mile gravel bike race in two weeks, but that would punch a two-week hole in my run training. Twisted Fork reminded me how fucking hard Wasatch is going to be. I’ll have to do 4x the amount of vertical! I sold my race entry for the Crusher to a buddy who is doing the Leadville MTB 100 and was stoked to use it as a training race. Instead I’m doing the Speedgoat 50k on July 21.
- Yup, specificity is still king for ultrarunning. I’ll focus the next 10 weeks leading up to Wasatch training on similar terrain, or the course itself. I’ll include a shit-ton of mountain goat vertical.
- I’ll keep cycling for cross-training as a volume booster. I think this is some secret sauce for ultrarunning to get volume without the risk of injury. I mentioned above that I ran with a group most of the race. I connected with a few of them on Strava afterwards. When I looked at their profile, they had all put in over twice the running mileage I have this year. In particular, I’d like to experiment with reverse run-bike bricks that I read about in Relentless Forward Progress. They idea is to jump on the bike or trainer immediately after a long run to keep the motor going.
Next up is the Speedgoat 50k at Snowbird put on by Karl “Speedgoat” Meltzer, who has won more 100 milers and lives in the SLC area. This may be the toughest ultra pound-for-pound with about 14,000ft of vertical over technical terrain. The finish times are usually more like a 50 miler. To put it in perspective, Jim Walmsley (who just won Western States) won this race last year with a time of 5:04. I’ve run a 50k almost that fast before.
Finisher medal.
Comments
Glad your dropping the Tushar gravel grinder and getting to work on that specificity. Just read "North" Scott Jurek's AT record where "Speedgoat" helped him quite a bit. That 50k looks like a beast, Ultrasignup has you estimated at 7:29 and 29:xx for the Wasatch 100. Cant wait to watch this build and always enjoy the Utah pictures!