I’m not allowed to do it again, but few would want to. Part of the difficulty with this race is that registrations starts at midnight and they only take 666 entries. It’s hard to get into as it fills up almost immediately. In a few minute like 2 or 3. Sometimes registration is on Friday the 13th. Then the organizers keep messing with your head. A lot of people aren’t up to it or don’t want to deal with the hassle. The messing with your head, the Le Mons 800 meter running start and required gps course download are too much. It’s a lot like army basic training, mental hassles plus extreme physical abuse. It’s self supported without aid stations, in and out of cell reception. There are a few unofficial trail angles that have food, the wurst aid station is usually somewhere with bratwurst, grilled cheese sandwiches and beer. Before the ski jump climb there was a young gal with her SUV tail gate up and many varieties of hard booze. I drank some Irish and it kept coming up, a mistake. You have to pick up wood poker chips at random places, different each year except at the last one. The last one is on top of what the call the worlds largest gemstone, Jasper Knob, a grueling climb. When I got to the top the token basket was stuffed with pine cones and acorns. I didn’t get the joke, I was mentally exhausted. Another guy told me it was a joke. The finish guy quizzed me about the basket and then gave me the last poker chip. Two years ago all the chips were near the end in one place. People kept thinking they missed the check points. Last year it was candy tokens, life savers, dumb dumbs, atomic red hots. One guy didn’t get it and ate his first token.
