From the Cascade Crest 100 to Angeles Crest 100, ultrarunner Jeffrey Stern shares the story of running two hundred mile races in two weeks.
On Friday, July 19th in Easton, Washington I toed the line at the 26th Cascade Crest 100. My goals going into my second hundred miler and first mountain hundred were simple: be patient, fuel and hydrate well, and compete in the final quarter of the race. Not once did I think about potentially racing another one in just two weeks time.
I tackled the course with meticulous attention to detail, much like I did during my 2020 Backbone Trail FKT attempt, at the time my longest outing. I reminisce fondly of the dedication I put into that pursuit nearly four years ago and how far I’d come since.
Throughout the day at Cascade Crest I shuffled back and forth between seventh and fourth place until the “Trail from Hell” at mile 70, where I moved firmly into fourth and then a handful of miles later just past the Mineral Creek aid station where I took over the final podium spot, racing like a mad man and holding it to the line back in Easton just as the sun was starting to come up.
After congratulatory high-fives and hugs from the RD Jess Mullen and my PNW team, Ritvik Mishra, Zach Szablewski, Jon-Erik Jardine, and Mike Wilburn, someone jovially asked me, “Are you going to do it?” The ‘it’ of course being the second hundred on August 3rd in Southern California, the notorious Angeles Crest 100. Without a shadow of a doubt in that moment I responded, “No *expletive* way!”
I did however feel as if I learned quite a bit that day that made me feel strongly about my ability to run more hundreds in the future. As someone who had never been on a step of the course, it’s really helpful to have pacers who have been — thanks Zach and Ritvik. I fine tuned my nutrition ever so slightly and reaffirmed my process each hour which really is about eating and drinking things every 10-15 minutes; I had zero bonks or low energy moments in 20 hours. I also freakin’ love poles. It’s like 4-wheel drive. They are fun and efficient for both climbing and technical descending on tired legs.
After a river shower, nap, an incredible bacon cheeseburger and milkshake, swapping stories with other race finishers and a few brews, my mind began wandering down that dangerous path… but I wasn’t ready to make any commitments.
The next day I woke up a bit sore, with some blisters and somewhat of a hobble, but I didn’t feel that bad. I traveled home early that morning in time to go for a short shakeout bike ride to mull the wonderful weekend over. In just 24 hours the “no way” had progressed to a “maybe” in my mind, perhaps you could say I was now fifty fifty.
48 hours removed on Monday morning I felt, great? “What’s going on?!” I thought to myself while sipping my morning cup and contemplating my near future. Maybe it was using the poles most of the day, fueling like a champ, recovering like a pro, or perhaps a combination of all three. Later that day I started texting my Southern California friends. First was my best friend, David Silverander, who’d crewed me at the Backbone, too. “Do you want to crew me at the AC100 next Saturday?”
He responded emphatically, “Hell yeah brother!” Then I texted my Mammoth buddy, fresh off his incredible run at Western States. “Are you still in for pacing me at AC100?”
“For sure.” Rod Farvard responded nonchalantly.
I needed one more person to bring me home the last 20 miles from Mt. Wilson to Altadena in the night. I reached out to my friend and former AC100 Champion Jerry Garcia. “I’m in as long as I can get it off from work!” The longtime forest service firefighter told me.
By Wednesday, I’d assembled my team, made hotel reservations, and started hatching together a plan to go after my Quest for the Crest.
I hadn’t run yet, but had gotten in a handful of short walks and bike spins. I dusted off my trusty old mountain bike, the one I rode the Leadville 100 on in 2013, and went for an hour ride with a buddy on Friday, July 27th and told him about my plan. The legs felt great, I was excited, and the motivation was there. “You’re crazy dude, but that’s so cool. You should definitely do it,” he said.
This was something I’d trained my whole life for. I had another amazing team behind me supporting the pursuit. I was doing it — the double was on.
I ended up running four times between the two races for a total of twelve miles. I went on that one ten-mile mountain bike ride, did a few other easy road spins, a couple of hikes, a handful of dog walks, and played tennis twice. There really wasn’t any traditional training to be done. I just needed to recover, get excited, make a plan, and surround myself with individuals who inspired me to do something just last year I would have thought was completely unfathomable. The rest would fall into place.
So at 5 a.m. on Saturday, August 3rd, I found myself amongst 200 brave souls in the small mountain hamlet of Wrightwood, ready to tackle a point-to-point AC100, something that hadn’t happened since 2019. I was honored to be there and felt great, ready to compete and see what I could do.
I had made minimal changes from Cascade to Angeles. The nutrition and hydration plan was nearly the same. Salt tabs proactively every 30 minutes was still my go to to stave off dehydration. A new ice bandana and sun sleeves stuffed with ice at every station would be critical. Although I was running on sections of the PCT just as I was two weeks prior, there were no big forested sections providing reprieve from the blistering midday sun. Staying cool was critical all day.
As Rod and I moved from the heat of the day and into the night where he passed me off to Jerry, I could taste it. I’d been in fourth place since mile 40 and while it was unlikely that we’d sneak onto the podium, we pushed hard with lights visibly bobbing down the mountain behind us. Hopping over a rattlesnake and chasing a scared black bear down the trail at mile 95 not far from the streets of Los Angeles was a thrilling way to close out this true quest.
I waited nearly eight years to run my first hundred miler race because I respected the distance and it scared the britches off me. Now in the last two weeks I’ve run my second and third hundreds at two of the most fabled events in the country.
The distance has now catapulted me forward and become my favorite ultra event. I’m excited to dream towards 2025 and which one might be next. No matter where or when it is, I’ll be sure to gather a group of people who believe in my ability to chase these wild dreams even more than I do.
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Special shoutout to Yu-yen Mo from San Jose who also completed this incredible double.
Although these two races haven’t always been two weeks apart, they’ve run fairly close to each other and 28 other people have completed this double since the inaugural Cascade Crest. In 1999, Eugene Trahern from Sisters, Oregon, ran both races when they were staged one month from each other. Monica Scholz of Lynden, Ontario, was the first woman to complete the double in 2001.
