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The Mature Runner: A Tale of Heroes at the 2022 BRR

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By David Summerfield

Since I’m not physically present at the race anymore, this is what I’ve gleaned from conversations. I can’t help but see everyone involved in the BRR as people determined to fulfill their inner drive to be heroes of some kind. This may seem an exaggeration, but everyone in some way is always challenged to dig deeply into the inner self, and struggle in some way – and that’s what the hero’s journey is all about.

This year several sweeps could not show up, so alternates had to show up. One was Darryl Baker, who spent all summer coordinating the hauling of 2 1⁄2 gallon jugs onto the ridge. And he helps set-up the finish line, and helps take it all down. One busy individual, as you all know. But on Aug 13th, he found himself following a runner from Oklahoma, who barely made the Sac summit under 75 minutes (the cut-off). Being told the next aid station was a downhill 5 miles, the runner decided to go on to Ross Pass. According to Darryl, this runner fell over a dozen times coming off Sac – yes, the boulder field is tricky, so this Oklahoman had his own “hero’s journey” – making it down alive to Ross Pass!

This is Darryl’s picture taken that day coming off of Sac.

Another hero was Dean Folda, who tirelessly (actually he did get tired out!) cooked all the burgers on Kurt Buchl’s BBQ for the crowd for so many hours. His brother James had been doing this for many years (with his family) and sadly passed away in April. He asked to take his brother’s place to honor him. A true hero doesn’t take any credit for his deeds – he’s always doing it for a higher good. And that sentiment goes for the horde of volunteers who put on this race, like Boz. He’s always the unsung hero every Ridge Run. He accomplishes the feats of a dozen volunteers. He’ll have to be the subject of the next post-BRR article.

I realized something very important was missing the day after the race. There was no article or results in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, interviewing runners at the finish line. That had never happened before. Yes, there was one picture of Kristina Trygstad (who was the 1st woman down, and with just one male runner in front of her!) – but nothing else. So, I got her on the line, and had a great conversation – here is the fruit of our little talk:

Many of you know Kristina Trygstad-Saari as a member of a storied family of Ridge Runners, and more importantly of Norwegian (mom Anne) and Finnish (dad George) descent. Her mom holds the over 60’s and over ‘70’s records. Kristina held the overall women’s record of 3:40:37 (2019). But this year, the stars all lined up just right, and here’s the story.

Kristina coaches cross-country skiers in the winter (officially she’s the US Paralympics Nordic Skiing Coach & Manager), but keeps up her running year round. As soon as the trails get clear of ice and snow, she regularly trains going up and down Baldy. (My last trip up Baldy her mom Anne passed me going down – oh, and you can see their house on Bridger Canyon Road from the summit.) Wanting to be in really good shape for another fast Ridge Run, she took it easy the months leading up to Aug 13th. She only did one longish trail race – a 30km trail race in Ketchum (Idaho) called the Standhope Ultra Challenge, July 23rd. Oh, she won that race, outright (3:22:13)…98 runners, the guy behind her was 5 minutes back, and the woman behind him was 37 minutes behind. Kristina said this was a low-key race which was perfect for being relaxed come August 13th. Not to be misleading, she did pretty heavy distance work on her favorite trails (going up and down Baldy all summer!!).

I pressed her for her nutrition. Remember, her body is not like yours, so her regimen is what works best for her, not yours! She likes food that’s easy on the stomach, that digests well. This means pasta, rice, eggs, fruit – she prefers bland food, and light on the veggies. The night before was pasta, and just a bit more than usual. Having no ride to the start, she drove herself up, and was the 1st runner to arrive (“I wanted to beat the train!”) She relaxed in her car as the sun rose, and then strapped on her waist belt (3 GU’s, and 1 bottle of water). She also carried one handheld water bottle. She had Chris (her boyfriend of many years who is in his last year in nursing) meet her at Bridger. He handed over 2 more GU’s, and exchanged 2 full water bottles. I was struck by her not having any fancy, chemically enhanced powder in the water. “No, water is best for my finicky stomach!” And 5 GU’s total for the run, like 1 every 1⁄2 hour or so. And that’s it. Period. Talk about different bodies….my last Ridge Run I downed over 3 quarts of strong Gatorade, 6 GU’s, 14 ecaps, stopping at each Aid Station downing as many calories as I could get…potato chips, pretzels, pickles, gummy bears). It also took me over 7:30 to finish 🙂 Back to the rather unreal Trygstad-Saari world…

Kristina did go to the “M” parking lot to examine the new finish area the evening before the run. I’d say she was conscious of the possibility of breaking her own record, and knowing it would take an extra minute or 2 to get to the Fish Hatchery. She said that’s when she realized “I’m just going to go for it!” At the start, she was in a pack of 4 guys, some of whom she knew. And soon she was just behind Zach Perrin (who won), knowing that she wouldn’t catch him, but not having anyone behind her to push her. This meant the pressure was off – she just had to run her own race. Weather? Not a factor since it was cooler than usual, and by Baldy, there was the usual blazing sun.

This is her 6th time to race the BRR, and she’s the type who clearly knows the times needed at various checkpoints, so she was totally aware of her pace and possibilities. She glanced at her watch as she passed approximately where the old finish line was, and her watch read 3:37. That’s a CR (Course Record). And she only needed another couple minutes to cross the new finish line in 3:39:25!!

What type of person can be called a hero who has such an easy time pulling off a heroic feat?? The telling of this story does make it sound like Kristina was just doing a “walk in the park”. But it was the result of not racing the Ridge for 3 years, for starters. You could call her a “one point focus” hero. In talking with her I could hear the unsaid

thoughts – like “I know I can go faster”. She’s 37 and in the prime of her running life. I know of no runners who finish such runs without knowing “I know I can do it faster next time!” They also don’t brag about their exploits. They work harder than most of us know how to work. Fear doesn’t exist – caution, yes, but no fear. Just assurance that if you focus all your efforts, you can do whatever you set your mind to.

And I’ll leave it at that, finishing on a preposition as well…I seem to remember Kristina was an English major 🙂

Summer Happenings

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We’re off and “running” this summer with Bridger Ridge Run lotteries out of the way and invites sent, and Old Gabe out of the way, we’re in full swing training, hauling water and running every Wednesday at 6:30. A few announcements:

Signs ups for the John Colter race are open! Sign up soon, this is one of our most popular race and we are capped at 300 runners. (SIGN UP)

We had a VERY successful weekend of water hauling for the BRR to the point that we have fully stocked both the Baldy and Halfway aid stations along the southern portion of the route. Next up is Ross Pass and Bridger. Stay tuned for more information and how you can help! Volunteering doesn’t guarantee you get into the next BRR, but it helps a LOT and we appreciate our volunteers tremendously.

Our July Fun Runs are as follows:

6-July                           Glen Lake Rotary Park (formerly East Gallatin)

13-July                         Middle Cottonwood

20-July                         Bear Canyon

27-July                         Kirk Hill

Just show up at the trailhead and be ready to run by 6:30. Each run has a 1, 3 and 5 mile option. Hope to see you there!

The Mature Runner

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He Won the Ridge Run…and Then Everything Else!

By David Summerfield

In the search for something interesting to write about for this newsletter, I chanced upon the official list of running world record holders for every distance and age category imaginable. I had fun learning about (again) Derek Turnbull and his running exploits, which are worth noting again. He is a New Zealander, lived to be 80, and started running when he was 40. In a 3-month span in 1992 (65-69 age category), he set six World Records, ending with the London Marathon in 2:41:57! I remember finding out about that some 20 years ago, and instantly realized I would never set a world record in the marathon. Sigh. (His other records include a 4:56 mile, a 16:38 5k, and a 34:42 10k). Here he is setting one of those records!

(Photo from mastersathletics.net)

So then I went down the list of various distances, and my eyes popped out when I saw Jim Walmsley as having the fastest ever (in history) 50 mile run last year. Somehow I consider Jim a “local” hero, even though he didn’t set the BRR record. As I remember he was having foot problems from a previous run and was trying out Hokas to ease the pain (he needed more padding). He signed up just like everyone else and made it through the lottery somehow. I remember his essay included the fact that he could run well and was likely to be a potential winner. Here’s what the official BRR plaque says, 3:14:03! But he won, even though the year before Minde Erickson ran a 4:13:37!

All I could remember of Jim was his outlandish Rim-to-Rim that same year. So, I was propelled down memory lane once again…In 2015 Stacy and I did the Rim-to-Rim (south to north) of the Grand Canyon in a mere … 13 hours. Here we are arriving at the North Rim Trailhead, which would be Jim Walmsley’s start and finish just two months after his BRR in Bozeman (how egotistical to put us in any kind of league with the world record holder, but it’s sorta fun:-)

After we met Greg Young, Terry Leist, and Carrie Krause at the North Rim we all feasted the night away, and sent them off to do the North-South route the next morning…in a mere 7 hours. Here are the 5 of us the next afternoon as the trio arrived at the South Rim Trailhead:

That seemed SO fast to Stacy and I – almost twice as fast 🙂 Then along came that Walmsley fellow who had the audacity to do the R2R2R in a FKT of 5:55. Sheeesh. That was no “mere” time! He had moved to Flagstaff, AZ, so was a short drive away from the South Rim. He did “repeats” down into the Canyon and back, honing his skills and comfort level (even if agonizing pain is the price of getting comfortable tearing down the path and back up). For those of you who haven’t done this yet (and really, you should) there are 1000’s of steps created in the paths with logs or rocks as steps and those steps (to cut down on erosion) are between 6” and 12” high. And the steps are anywhere from 2 to 6 feet apart, so the body is constantly landing hard at irregular intervals. And going up, there’s the constant need to hoist yourself up ever changing heights. Stacy and I got worn down, and on the way out to the North Rim we pulled out the hiking poles so we could more easily push our way up each step. Jim, on the other hand (and there is NO comparison of course) developed his strength over time, and also knew every bend in the trail so well. He developed a “battle plan” over several years, especially using conversations with Rob Krar (the record holder before him in 6:21:47). It is really worth the read (irunfar.com/jim-Walmsleys-grand-canyon-r2r2r) for those interested, especially if you intend to even do the “simple” crossing (Rim-to-Rim). Here is Jim finishing the first half of his trip, arriving at the same kiosk as us the year before – actually, his time for the South-to-North was a FKT as well. 2:46:08 … hmmm, that means he was 5.3 times faster than our trip. Okay, he’s fast!

(Photo from Runningmagazine.ca)

In his account, he had an encounter with a mountain lion down near the Colorado River, and his watch recorded 2 consecutive 5-minute miles as he “ran for his life”. It was still dark, and all he saw by headlamp was the glowing pair of eyes, and the long tail disappearing up a nearby rise as he went by. He figured that must have changed his game plan, and as he neared the North Rim, he figured he should just stop, knowing he had already gotten a “fastest known time”. But there was a crowd there, and everyone was expecting him to continue going for it. I like the look in his eyes… “Darn it all, I’ve just had the run of my life, and you guys want more….can I really pull this off?”

While getting all this information, I finally found out another reason he’s so famous. Back in 2016 he had gotten to mile 93 in the Western States 100-miler, and was way ahead of everyone else. Then he made a wrong turn, and lost enough time to only come in 20th. His last 3 miles took him an hour – he was broken! That set him up for a major depression, and the Jim Walmsley we saw at the starting line of the BRR was a much chastened and recovered ultrarunner. The 2016 Western States was run on June 25th, just 6 weeks before the BRR that he won. Seems like he was maturing the champion he was to become. By 2018, he entered the Western States again, and broke the course record, and broke that record again in 2019 (14:09:28) and won again in 2021 (14:45:56). Somehow with all these records flying around, he is staying healthy and if you go to the Wikipedia thing, they list all his 1st place finishes. It’s a long list.

And the last thing I really wanted to write about was his actual World Record 50-miler. It happened May 4th, 2019 in Folsom, CA, and he ran the “Hoka” event on a USATF-certified course that includes an 18.8-mile point-to-point stretch from Folsom to Sacramento on the American River Parkway followed by nine consecutive loops around a 4.7-mile circuit in Sacramento. The more I read, the more nauseous I felt! This was a publicity stunt! Everyone (12 hand-picked elite HOKA runners) ran in a “top secret” shoe called the “Carbon-X”, but that name was a secret until May 4th. Of course, the shoes were available in stores on May 15th – be the 1st on your block to own a pair….. And this next piece is taken from an article written by Adam Ruggiero at “GearJunkie”: “The 36-year-old 50-mile record fell to Jim Walmsley running in a pair of HOKA ONE ONE’s Project Carbon X, a shoe release focused on breaking road running records.

A dozen HOKA athletes, all striding in the same pair of shoes, pounded the pavement Saturday in Folsom, Calif., each of them focused on setting records. Dubbed Project Carbon X, the event was part athletic endeavor — the 100km course received USA Track and Field (USATF) approval and was eligible for IAAF world record status — and part publicity stunt for HOKA’s upcoming racing shoe, the Carbon X.

“And while the coveted 100km record eluded the HOKA fleet, 29-year-old American Jim Walmsley managed to take down the 50-mile record set by Bruce Fordyce in 1983. Walmsley eked past Fordyce’s 4-hour, 50-minute, 21-second mark with a new record time of 4 hours, 50 minutes, 7 seconds.”

There. For those of you who follow the current ultrarunning world, this is old news. But for the rest of us, I’ve brought you up-to-date a bit. Who among us has been the 1st to buy a pair of Carbon-X’s? Do any of us really wear 8.5 ounce shoes? I need gobs of cushioning. Well, Kyle Klickir probably has a pair – right Kyle? Anyway, happy melting of the snow and ice, and hello to the mud and receding snowfields!!