Teanaway Country 100 Course Guide

The climbs: relentless, exposed, and the whole point

This race is climbing. About 31,000 feet of it on the 100M, stacked into long steep grinds up to exposed alpine high points and gnarly little pitches that barely resemble trail. There is no single signature climb that defines the day. It is the accumulation that gets you, climb after climb, hour after hour, with rocky footing the whole way. The runners who do well here are patient on the ups and good at hiking efficiently, because you cannot run most of this and you should not try.

Up high you are out in the open on ridgelines and around alpine lakes with little cover, which is gorgeous and also exposed to whatever the weather is doing. Some of the highest aid stations, like Van Epps and Gallagher Head Lake, are 4WD-only with no rides out, so once you commit to that high country you are committed. Move smart, eat on the climbs, and keep your effort honest so you still have legs for the way back.

The descents: free speed that wrecks unprepared quads

All that climbing comes back as descent, and on rocky, rough Cascade trail the downhills are not a gift unless your legs are ready for them. Long technical descending late in a 100 beats your quads to pieces, and on the out-and-back you pay for any climb you pushed too hard with a slow, painful return trip. The classic Teanaway mistake is hammering the early descents because they feel easy on fresh legs, then having nothing left when you most need to move.

Train controlled, technical, downhill running before you show up. Being able to keep your feet quick and your legs turning over on rocky descents at mile 75, in the dark, when your quads are shot, is honestly what separates finishers from the people who time out. Poles help on both the up and the down here, and most people use them.

The night and the cold: plan to keep moving in the dark

On a 40-hour clock almost everyone runs through a full night, and some through two, so the night is part of the course, not an afterthought. Mid-September up in the Cascades can drop below freezing in the high country even after a warm afternoon, and wind, rain, and snow are all on the table. Pack and stash layers in your drop bags accordingly, because being cold and wet up high at 3 AM is how a good race quietly falls apart.

Do not count on sleep. Most 100M runners keep moving and nap little or not at all, but if you crash hard, a short reset at a crew-accessible aid station beats stumbling for hours. Keep eating overnight when your appetite is gone, manage your light and your warmth, and remember that the lows always lift if you keep the engine fed and the legs moving.

Aid, crew, drop bags, and pacers

The 100M has about a dozen full-service aid stations spaced roughly 8 or more miles apart, with a longest gap around 10.6 miles, so carry enough food and fluid to clear those stretches instead of rationing to the next one. There are four drop-bag locations. Pack them for cold nights, real food, caffeine, and a backup of whatever your stomach still tolerates late.

Crew can reach about half of the aid stations, and you can pick up a pacer for the 100M from the Miller Peak aid station around mile 43.6 (pacers have to register first). Taking aid from crew or a pacer anywhere other than a crew-accessible station can get you disqualified, so know which stations are which before race day. Build a crew sheet with your in-and-out plan for each accessible stop so those stops are fast and you are not standing around losing time and body heat.

Pace by grade and effort, not by the watch

Your flat-ground pace is meaningless on a course like this. What matters is grade-adjusted effort, so hold a steady output you can sustain up the long climbs and power-hike the steep pitches without feeling like you are giving anything away. The error here is treating the early miles like a race instead of the start of a very long day. Use a grade-adjusted pace to turn your real fitness into honest climbing and descending targets, and you will get to the night with something left.

Build a vert-aware finish prediction and back into the cutoffs

Do not guess your Teanaway finish off a flatter 100. The 31,000 feet of gain, the technical footing, the night, and the altitude all add real time, and a road-time guess will get you in trouble against the cutoffs. A vert-aware finish prediction that accounts for this much climbing gives you a realistic window, and then you can work backward into the intermediate aid-station cutoffs so you actually know how much buffer you have at each one instead of finding out the hard way.

Carbs: steady, trained, and protected overnight

Aim for roughly 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour, lean to the high end early while your stomach is fresh, and fight to hold a floor through the night when your appetite disappears. Over this many hours the deficit is what kills you, not any single bad patch. Practice your exact race-day carb rate on long back-to-back training runs and on tired legs, so 80-plus grams an hour feels normal and not like an experiment you are running at altitude in the dark.

Sodium, fluid, and the long gaps

Scale your sodium with your sweat, often around 500 to 700 milligrams per liter of fluid, and more if you are a heavy or salty sweater or the afternoon is warm. Just as important on this course, carry enough food and fluid to clear the long stretches between aid (up to about 10.6 miles) instead of showing up empty. Weigh yourself before and after a hot long run to find your real sweat rate, and stash backups in your drop bags so an aid station that is out of your thing does not sink your night.