Thursday I was gearing up for a trip to Seattle to visit someone when it was pointed out that I would be traveling much more then I thought, somewhere in the neighborhood of 8ish hours.
It would go like this … drive my ass off followed by a brief day of hanging out to a evening camp out. The next day I would watch a triathlon and jump in the car for a return trip home and arriving mucho late. At the time it didn’t seem like a good idea and I bailed.
On Friday the more I thought about it the more I realized I should of made the trip. I was feeling pretty low and knew I should fill up the week as much as I could so as to not think about “things”.
Enter Friends Fest a new category of ultra endurance activity. 48 hours of endurance activity and challenging tests of strength. All done with friends or in adventure racing terms a “team”.
Stage 1, hour 1: The event starts at Brew Fest in Missoula where I must enter a crowd of drunken people and seek out team members, get extremely drunk with them, and then jam to a funk band late into the night. Bob Skogley and his family teamed up with me and together we finished out stage one in the main peloton.
Stage 2, hour 4: This stage is to go to the Union Club in Missoula where one team member would play the drums while I was to dance with at least three other tem-mates. The stage was scored by style points, endurance dancing time, and presence.
I scored highly on all three counts. I quickly learned some dancing moves that wowed the crowd. Team-mate Ed Stalling was on the drums and my main dace partner was Laurie Stalling with supporting roles by their friends. I put in a decent amount of dancing time. My presence was scored highly due to the “hotties” I was dancing with. I pulled ahead on this stage because I shut the place down.
After this stage was a bike ride to the camping facilities where after only 3 hours of sleep I had to rise and take on Stage 3.
Stage 3, hour 13: Climb Squaw Peak. I teamed up with Joshua Phillips and friends. This stage started out rough as fatigue settled in and had to endure a extreme hangover. I was a tad late to the first check point and I fell behind a bit. As the day wore on I caught back up and we topped out on the peak to some great views. On the way back to my car I decided to pick up the pace and soloed back trail running. I was getting a second wind.
Stage 4, hour 17: A quick transition drive to Missoula to check point Stalling. I arrived in the nick of time to be stuffed into the back of a Subaru and hustled off to Snow Bowl. This test would be the hardest. The stage comprised of first overcoming vertigo, second was to run to the top of Point Six, and third another vertigo challenge that was even more extreme then the first.
The first part was a chair lift to the top of Snow Bowl and I handled it quite nicely due to being distracted by a bear sighting and casual talk with team mate Ed. On top we took in nutrition and headed out for the run up Point Six. This is where I came face to face with Kelsey a two time marathon runner who was half my age. At first we were neck in neck but I was to fake her out by a sudden surge to the halfway point of the climb.
The final dash up the “Skin Trail” and I was becoming the super star of the day. There were fans lining the trail up and they were quite inspired. At the top I was surrounded by mountains in every direction and the Mission Range to the north.
I faltered on the third part as we rode the chairs down the mountain. I felt like there was this force pulling me forward and out of the chair. I was to fall to my death and knew my moment had come. I don’t know how I made it through.
My team mates Ed, Laurie, and friends greeting me at the conclusion of the stage and reported that I was as white as a ghost.
Stage 5, hour 21: This stage was in direct contrast to the endurance activities of the morning. I was to put down around 8000 calories in 1.5 hours interspersed with a acting session where I was to pretend to be a family dog .
Again I teamed up with Ed and family and we decided upon Old Post for massive food overload. This is where the “team” element paid off. I was able to catch a cat nap in the trunk of their Subby as they drove me back into town.
After consuming about 7000 calories I used my surroundings, a trunk of the Subaru, for my acting section. I barked like a family dog at passing pedestrians, cyclists, and cars. I really did quite well.
On to my final test of strength and we pulled up to the Big Dipper for a session eating Cardamom ice cream. While deep into this test I ran into day 2’s team mate Sommer and her friend Jenny. We briefly discussed the next day’s stage options and then I turned to my team to finish up the caloric event.
Does Cardamom ice cream taste like fruit loops? Back to the story …
Stage 6, hour 34: Sunday’s first stage was a TBA ride. It was a test of negotiation and compromise. Sommer was the first to call and I agreed immediately. We would do the Sheep Mountain Trail Loop.
Our team of 4 was well balanced and ready to rock at the trail heading out at around 10 AM. The group included Ed and Laurie Stalling, Sommer, and Jenny. Laurie was the first casualty who had started the ride feeling sick and left the group about a thousand feet up.
We arrived at Blue Point about 3 hours later feeling our oats. We all climbed strong while I cleared the headwall in the woods and was on a roll to set a personal PR for “dabbs”. Then we reached Wishard Ridge and finally Sheep Mountain. 4 hours into the ride we set forth on the long and demanding decent. Through the rain forest and BC ravine. We rolled back into town around 6.5 hours later.
Sommer, Ed, and I hit up The Bridge Pizza to recover enough for the last stage of the “fest”.
Stage 7, hour 44: This was the final stage and I was already in the lead and virtual tour winner. All I need to do was finish the stage. The stage included and impromptu judging of a fashion show followed up by more caloric intake. This stage was really a “wind down stage” kind of like the last one in the Tour Dah French.
The event ended at the Hip Strip Block Party here in Missoula. 7 stages, 46 hours, 11.4 miles on foot, 28.7 miles mtb, and 9,000 vert feet. I spent the weekend with quality people … good friends. I am thankful.
Hey, who wants to go riding?
Boneshakerbike 
Your Thoughts