Wyoming Range 100 - 2020 Update #4 (7/6)
Runners,
We spent the long weekend up on the Wyoming Range course, doing a lot of running and thinking. After reflecting on all the advice and feedback we’ve received from our runners, team members, key volunteers and local partners, we have decided to move forward with the 2020 running of the Wyoming Range 100.
We are thrilled and hope you are, too.
Before you get too excited, we want to emphasize that the race will look a little different from what’s on our website today. We are making a handful of key changes, which we’ll detail below, to minimize COVID-19-related risks. Ultimately, we believe we can keep all the race’s stakeholders healthy and still honor the vision we set out for the Wyoming Range when we started planning this race two years ago.
Here are the key changes:
Drop Bag “Heavy” Aid Stations: To minimize person-to-person and person-to-food contact at aid stations, we will require runners to provide the majority of their calories via drop bags. This means you can (and should) pack larger drop bags for you and your pacer. We will still provide food at aid stations, but the selection will be limited and rely more on pre-packaged goods. As a point of reference, we consider a banana a pre-packaged good. (Send us suggestions for "low contact" food!)
Three More Vehicle-Accessible Aid Stations: To allow drop bags at more aid stations, we turned three hike-in aid stations into vehicle-accessible aid stations. Basically, we moved these stations farther down the ridge line to the nearest gravel road.
Two Fewer Aid Stations: To accommodate the additional miles associated with making three aid stations vehicle-accessible, we removed two aid stations that were close together. The race is still 104 miles, so this change increases the average distance between aid stations from 8.0 to 9.5. For some runners, the 1.5-mile increase could mean an extra 90 to 120 minutes between aid.
Updated Waiver: We will require runners and pacers to sign an updated waiver, which we will share on our website.
Slightly More Climbing: Determining a race’s elevation change is far from an exact science, but our math says the new, “drop bag-friendly” course will have about 1,000’ more of climbing – from 28,000’ to 29,000’. Of course, your watch may read 24,000’ to 32,000’.
No Shuttle: We will not provide a shuttle to the start. We encourage runners to get a ride with their crew.
Check-In Thursday: To ensure we get all your drop bags to the right places at the right times, we are moving check-in from Friday morning to Thursday afternoon/evening.
You can compare the original and updated courses. We hope you’ll agree that the overall changes are minimal. Our aid station color-coding is as follows:
Green: Vehicle and crew accessible
Yellow: Crew accessible (via hike-in from a parking lot)
Red: Closed to vehicles and crews
We will update our website with these revised details by 5:00pm MST on Wednesday, July 8th. We would ask that you review the changes and make a personal go/no-go decision by 5:00pm MST on Sunday, July 12th. If you decide that 2020 isn’t the right year for you, send us an email, and we’ll gladly issue you a rollover to 2021 or a full refund (less UltraSignup’s processing fee). After Sunday, we will assume you are in.
There is one critical component to our race that hasn’t changed: It’s a first-year event. We say this in the interest of full disclosure and to emphasize that something will probably deviate from plan. We’ve been working on this event for two years and have turned over virtually every detail, but we’re bound to miss something. Just as you learn something new every time to run a race, the same goes for hosting a race. Every runner deserves and should expect a well-orchestrated event, but they should also be fully prepared to take ownership of their well-being and success.
August 21st is weeks away, and things could change - up to and including a subsequent decision to cancel the event. If community health conditions deteriorate, or we have to change the race so much that we lose sight of our founding vision, we will cancel it. Please familiarize yourself with our refund and cancellation policies.
Thank you, all, for your continued support. We cannot begin to express how honored we are that more than six people registered for this nonsense in the mountains. We set out to make this event a classic and hope you will be among our 125 founding runners.
Train hard and feel free to give us a shout.
Denis & Colin