Bridger Ridge Run Training

I have a friend who is training for his 7th consecutive Ridge Run, which is widely regarded as the hardest 20 mile race in existence. The race begins by climbing up Sacagawea peak (9,200ft ish), the highest in the Bridger Range, and follows the knife like ridge for the next 20 miles all the way to the “M” (a giant M on the side of the last mountain). It’s not really a run as traditionally thought, it’s more like a fast hike, occasional jog, controlled slide, and a lot of praying. For an idea of what it’s like check out this link, then click on “clients”, then click on “events” for a short movie.

Thankfully, today was only training. We parked at Bridger Bowl and hiked up to the ridge, then hiked/ran/cursed/stumbled the last half of the Ridge Run course. I had skied off of several of the peaks we encountered, but I couldn’t believe that anyone actually ran the whole thing. Hey, it’s 6,800ft elevation gain and 9,500 ft elevation loss… that’s a lot. The record is 3:08… are you kidding me? He rand the entire 20 miles in less time than it took us to do 10. This is loose rock the whole way, huge hills, high elevation, and very high injury risk to anyone who runs it. Roots, downed trees, and the majority of the run is a VERY exposed ridge line. If you fall, it’s going to hurt badly. With that said, we trudged along on our own 10 mile ridge excursion, and we did pretty well for a training run. I had never been up there in the summer time and the wild flowers were really something to behold, and of course, the views were incredible the whole way. The quads will hurt tomorrow.

Check out the Ridge Run Homepage or Stats