Rob Youngren was ready to hang it up at the San Juan Solstice 50-mile endurance run, despite having completed it five times already. He was being a bit whiny, feeling bad, battling some altitude gremlins and doing that internal “Gahhhh, I just wanna end this now” deal.
So, Youngren texted his wife, Kathy, and after a few back-forth messages she typed out, “What else do you have to do today?” Nothing, of course, other than to knuckle under and keep going. Youngren did, and was one of 211 finishers out of 290 that started the grueling test in Lake City, Colorado.
We asked Youngren for a recap of the event, which was his sixth San Juan Solstice finish and 200th ultramarathon. Here are his thoughts:
San Juan Solstice Recap
This was my 6th SJS50 finish and my 200th ultramarathon (In my personal record keeping I count any event, regardless if I DNF or not, IF I’ve covered at least 50km in that event. Plenty of DNFs along way but I think the number of actual finishes is close to 180-185, pretty high finish rate except for my numerous Barkley attempts!).
My first experience at this race was way back in 1999 when it was still the “Lake City 50 Mile.” At that time the race was in July and had a starting field of only 40-50 runners. The level of support was minimal and frequent rain and thunder storms were the main highlight. I placed Top 10 that year in under 12 hours. I was only 25 years old then and right in the middle of the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning, finishing the four original trail 100s in the same summer (Old Dominion, Western States, Leadville, Wasatch Front). I thought I’ve got nothing to do in July, so why not hang out in Lake City and do this tough 50-miler I’d heard all about. That was the “summer of Rob” I was fresh out of college and had no plans so I lived out of my car and drove all over the country doing these races in the Slam.
Fast forward to 2023’s event. In the interim, I’d introduced this magical place to my wife (Kathy) and late in-laws who also fell in love with Lake City, Colorado. My in-laws ended up buying and building onto a cabin overlooking the famed Lake San Cristobal just outside of town, a property they kept for over a decade. My wife and I, and the occasional friend, would spend weeks here over the summers that followed. Kathy and I spent a lot of time hiking the five 14ers in Hinsdale county: Handies Peak, Redcloud, Sunshine Peak, Wetterhorn and Umcompagre. Then Kathy’s parents sold the property and later passed on, and we hadn’t returned to Lake City in almost nine years. So, it was a sweet homecoming of sorts to be back to do this race.
Lovely Weather
This year’s weather was the best I could remember. Nothing but bluebird Colorado skies and temps permanently stuck in the low 70s (all week long). However, as good as the weather was, it’s the course that is the real wildcard of difficulty. The first 15 miles of the race are the most difficult of just about any race I’ve ever done. In that first 15 miles we climb from around 8700 feet to nearly 13,000 feet, all within the first 8 miles!
But that’s the easy part. Before we even get above treeline (around 11,500 feet) we have to traverse 11 stream crossings with high flowing pure snow melt water! COLD! With 300 runners starting the race, each crossing became a long conga line as runners carefully threaded their way across each stream crossing one by one. It was so frustrating to have to wait and wait some more. Only thing worse was feeling your feet begin to painfully thaw out as you waited in line to do it all again at the next crossing!
The other wildcard was the high amount of snow on the trail above treeline. This is a bench-cut trail with steep drops on one side and cliff face on the other. A lot of snow covered many sections of the trail that had to be negotiated. High chance of slipping and falling into oblivion if you weren’t careful. Often the route was flagged to avoid these snow patches, so you had to carefully climb off-trail and traverse scree fields or thick alpine tusoks and mud just to avoid the snow. Often, these sections weren’t much safer traversing than just sticking with the snow and ice. Very loose material and just as slippery with black ice! These patches occurred in abundance in the first 15 miles and only occasionally later on.
Altitude? Yep!
So, coming from the flat lands of Alabama the altitude killed me. Once I got above treeline I suffered immensely. Light headed, hard to breathe and just mentally foggy. Every step or arm swing seemed to take much more effort. So having to traverse these tricky sections really wore me out; my heart rate would get so high; nearly anaerobic! So by the time I got to the first checkpoint at 15 miles I was spent completely, and less than an hour ahead of the cutoff! Normally, even as a flatlander I’ve cruised through with much more time to spare on the cutoff; it’s typically of no concern! But I had to take careful note what the cutoffs were!
I honestly wanted to quit, and thankfully Kathy wasn’t there to crew me at this stop or I’d’ve gotten in the car! I even tried to text but it didn’t go through (no coverage). So, I decided to keep going as long as I made the race cutoff times and the race management stopped me. I figured I would never make the next cutoff, about 7 miles away, as it’s up another big climb.
In another weak moment I used my Garmin InReach (required by the race for tracking purposes) which has two-way satellite text communication to send some messages to Kathy. I still wanted to quit even though I was a mile up the steep road to the next checkpoint. Eventually she helped talk me into continuing as well. “What else do you have to do today right?” She was right. I continued and buried the mental funk as best I could. I always hate the first half of any event I do but love the back half — always!
San Juan Solstice Finish
To wrap this up as quick as I can, I ended up making the next cutoff by 25 minutes. But the next long 10+ miles would be above 12,000′ feet up to around 13,100 feet. I barely made progress at around 2 mph, and saw several 40-minute miles as well! I passed nobody. Everybody seemed to just blow by me. I had to be nearly in last place when I reached mile 31. But, even as bad as I felt, and as slow as I was I was still about 20 minutes ahead of the race cutoff!
Now, though, I knew I’d finish. The remaining 19 miles drop in elevation to back below treeline. Once I got below treeline I could breathe, the mental fog was gone and I COULD RUN! Not blazing, but instead of 2 mph I was running 4-5 mph and passing EVERYBODY. By the end I’d made up another 30 minutes or so on the race cutoff and finished in just over 15 hours (final cutoff is 16 hours). I was so happy I didn’t quit! Finished the race with my daughter, dressed in a butterfly costume, and felt pretty good.
So that’s the long and short of it. My family has so much history in the area it was wonderful to return and we’re already making plans to go back again soon.
Rob Youngren is a longtime runner and ultramarathoner who coaches with Cadience Running. He is co-founder of Fringe Events, which puts on the Devil’s Race Track Backyard Ultra and Blue Heron 100s. His wife, Kathy, also is a highly accomplished endurance runner.
