Starting things off along the Animas River just south of Silverton, Colorado.
In early-August I headed down to the San Juans to join my friend Sarah Boyum at the Silverton Ultramarathon, likely to be my last ultra race of the summer. It wound up going well for both of us despite being one of the more challenging courses either of us have run to date.
The Silverton Ultramarathon (SUM) is the second race of the year put on by race director Megan Finnesy (the first of course being the Dirty 30 in June). The SUM starts and ends in downtown Silverton on the same street corner as the Hardrock 100, and as of this year the last 11 miles of the race follow the same route as the Hardrock as well. The course traces out a big natural loop around Sultan, Grand Turk, and the Twin Sisters, with many segments of trail already familiar to me from hiking peaks in the area in years past.
A map of the 55k course.
Two distances are offered – 55k and 100k – with the latter including a long loop around the south side of Engineer Mountain in addition to the loop the 55k’ers run. Both distances make for a beautiful day out with over 90% of it being on singletrack trails. Pretty much a no-brainer to check this race out sometime if you like trail running, scenery, and rugged San Juan topography.
Molas Pass aid station with Snowdon Peak looming above. Not surprised to still see snow in the Naked Lady this year.
After 7 miles of running down the train tracks paralleling the Animas River the course climbs up the Molas Pass Trail to the first aid station on top of the pass. Sarah and I ran the first 15 miles of the race together, which was super nice to be able to chat and keep our minds occupied for the first few hours of the day.
Sarah running along the Molas Pass trail on a beautiful morning in the San Juans.
North of Molas Pass with Engineer Mountain in back.
From Little Molas Lake we headed west for several miles along the Colorado Trail, gradually climbing to the second aid station on the pass to the southeast of Bicentennial 13er Rolling Mountain. Sarah and I parted ways somewhere through this section, wishing each other well for the rest of our races.
Rolling Mountain (13,693 ft) with Aid 2 just ahead.
Still feeling pretty good I departed Aid 2 and enjoyed the long descent down past Rolling Mountain to the Rico-Silverton Trailhead. From there the course loops down along the Silver Creek Road for a mile or two before joining the Hardrock course for a 3,000 ft climb up Porcupine Creek. I tried to make quick work of this climb, eventually running into a gal named Wendy just above treeline. We found ourselves scrambling to get up and over the high point of the course as thunderheads began to surround us from all sides.
Wendy nearing the top of the final climb with the Twin Sisters in back.
Thankfully just as a few thunder claps began to echo across the sky, we managed to get below treeline in Putnam Basin. After passing through the last aid station and the big descent down Bear Creek, the finish line was in sight.
At the finish line where Anna-Lisa and Jax were waiting for me.
I finished in 8:27:26 which was good for 10th place overall (full results here). Gotta love these smaller races where a top-10 finish is actually possible. A few minutes later Sarah came through, tired but happy to have finished strong as well. Congrats to her for breaking a new distance milestone too 🙂
After hanging around the finish line for a bit we were off to Ridgeway for some dinner in town, then a hot tub soak at the ranch we were staying at courtesy of Sarah’s boyfriend Mike.
The next morning – coffee out on the deck and a panormic view of the Dallas Divide.
This was possibly my favorite of all the races I’ve done so far and easily the most scenic, even compared to races like the San Juan Solstice and Never Summer 100k. Again, I’d recommend checking it out if you haven’t already. Definitely makes me wonder about the 100k for next year. But for now it’s time to hang up the running shoes for awhile…
Thanks for reading!