Working the Pocatello Scout Mountain Ultra Race

Every year on the first Saturday in June since about 2009 Pocatello, Idaho has hosted a grueling mountain trail race. Runners had the option of running a 100 kilometer or a couple of shorter lengths. This year the race was expanded and lengthened to a 100 mile, a 50 mile, and a 21 mile race. Further, the 100 mile race would kick off at noon on Friday June 1st and the racers would run through the night Friday night and into the afternoon or evening on Saturday, June 2nd.

Nina and I were invited to provide communications support at the City Creek aid station located about 63 miles into the race for the 100 mile runners. The 50 mile runners would start at 5am on Saturday morning and 13 miles later go through the City Creek aid station.

The aid station was schedule to open at 11:30 pm on Friday night and remain open until 10:30 am on Saturday morning. In addition, any 100 mile runners had to arrive at City Creek not later than 10 am on Saturday morning in order to continue for the rest of the race.

Nina and I arrived at the aid station location about 8 pm on Friday evening as I wanted to set up while we still had a bit of daylight. We’d then kill time until the real opening time. The aid station volunteers were there as we arrived with the same intention: getting set up while there was still some daylight.

The first runner, a 100 miler, came into the aid station at 12:20 am on Saturday morning. Throughout the remainder of the morning, 100 mile runners trickled into the station, got some refreshment, tanked up on electrolites, and continued on their run. The first 50 milers came in about 7:15 am and all of them were in and out of the aid station by 9:30 am. At that time there were still fourteen 100-miler runners on the course who had not yet arrived at the City Creek aid station.

The 10am cutoff time came with five runners still unaccounted for. At 11:15 am three of them came into the aid station. They had gotten off the trail earlier and spent more than an hour trying to figure out where the trail was when they stumbled upon the course sweepers who escorted them to the City Creek aid station. The course was laid out in segments and two volunteers acted as “sweeps” to go behind the last person on the trail in that segment so that when they arrived at the next aid station, we could be assured that no one was on the course behind the sweepers.

We arranged for the three runners to be transported to the finish line and then went about figuring out what happened to the two other racers. One we eventually determined had dropped out of the race earlier at a point close to a road but hadn’t told anyone until they were driven by a family member to the finish line to turn in their ID chip (an RFID chip used the by the timing system which kept the official race times). By late Saturday afternoon when Nina and I left, there was no additional information on the other unaccounted-for runner.

So What Did We Do all Night and Saturday Morning?

First, radio communications to the net control station located at the finish line was our priority resonsibility. We reported when we opened, any significant events (such as the first male and first female runners in the 100-mile and 50-mile races), information from the runners about course conditions, and information about any runner who decided to drop out of the race at City Creek. If needed we would summon medical assistance or call 911 if needed. If the aid station itself needed anything, we could call net control to send it up.

In addition, we answered questions from other aid stations about specific runners, usually whether or not they had gone through the aid station and when. Often these were answering questions from friends or family of a specific runner. These questions would come via net control.

Secondly, we tracked all scheduled runners into and out of the aid station. When a runner arrived, the arrival time was noted. When he (or she) departed, the departure time was noted. Recording the 100-milers was pretty straight forward. After 63 miles, these racers were pretty well spread out giving lots of time between each runner. The 50-milers, however were only 13 miles into their run and they would arrive in groups. It took two or three of us to note all of the incoming or outgoing runners and get their information logged.

With an accurate tracking log, we were able to know which runners were still to come and by the cut off time know whether or not all runners were accounted for. We didn’t want to have any lost racers out there in the mountains somewhere without us knowing and able to launch a search.

How Did the Communications Work?

There were a dozen aid stations spaced along the course. Line-of-sight communications across the entire course was not possible at all. The course was divided up into four sections with a cross-band repeater serving each section. The radio operators in the section used a specific VHF simplex frequency which was picked up by the cross-band repeater and repeated out on a UHF simplex frequency. The cross-band repeaters were up high on hilltops and they all had line-of-sight communications with each other. The cross-band repeaters were linked on the UHF side and served the aid stations in their section on the VHF simplex frequency. All of that funneled into net control.

In case of issues, there was also a regular amateur radio 2meter repeater on Scout Mountain (the race’s namesake mountain) that most of the aid stations could hit (some of them with a LOT of steam on their signal). There was a period of time early on Friday evening when an issue with one of the cross-band repeaters necessitated using the Scout Mountain repeater. That issue was resolved and normal communications were restored.

How Cold Did it Get?

We knew the forecast … a low of 37 degrees Friday evening. There was a period when I’m sure it was around -50 degrees!! We were somewhat prepared, but will double down on cold weather preparation for next year. According to the weather service, temperatures at the Pocatello Airport got down to 42 degrees. Up in the mountains the temps were up to 10 degrees cooler. It definitely got cold … but the runners seemed to love it.

Would We Do It Again?

Well, this was my 5th year working one of the aid stations, Nina’s 3rd year. We seem to be addicted…. If invited, we’ll be back next year, health and circumstances permitting.

Meanwhile, there are several other events in our area in Utah needing communications support. We’ll do some of those, and report them here!