Greg F.  4/24/09

If only there were more than 5 stars to rate the difficulty of this race! This is one of the hardest races I've ever completed, and I finished it back in '05 after racing an Ironman anda PR Marathon. I knew I was in trouble when the race director declared that in all his Ultramarathon experience his best 9 Trails times was still slower than his best 50 mile time!

The course zig-zags up and down the mountain, with next to no flatness anywhere. All is on beautiful trails through the mountains with some spectacular views of the Santa Barbara Coast Line. I was going into this race thinking I would finish in no more that 5 hours and I was off by almost 3 hours! As my first ultra experience I was amazed that my legs could keep moving for so long.

Better than the course and the views are the amazing people. I met one man who fell off one trail during training a week prior and broke a rib! Most of us would believe that would be a great excuse not to run, but he ran the entire race with a bicycle tube wrapped around his rib cage to keep it in place! Another man fell off one of the trails 10-15 miles into the race and messed up his ankle, fellow runners helped him back to the trail and to the nearest aid station. He was able to get to the hospital to get patched up and was waiting to cheer everyone on at the finish line on crutches! These ultramarathoners have a love of life matched by few others.

I will be back again to take on this great challenge, though its harder to sign up for now that I know what I'm getting into! If you are looking for a grand challenge, here you go! Just don't fall off the trail :)