100 Miler in Maine

[gIANt]

I've been talking with a guy who organizes a 30/50/100 mile horse ride in Buckfield, ME on August 18th, and has invited us to work with him to put on an ultramarathon to coincide with the ride - ala Vermont100. Ultimately I decided that there wasn't enough time to pull together a race for this year, but suggested that we bring a group up to Buckfield to run in the horse race this year, see the event first hand and then decide if we want to be part of turning it into a real ultra for 2015.

This is from one of his emails to me:

My name is Blaine Jack and I'm the ride manager for The Northeast Challenge in Buckfield Maine (between South Paris and Turner).
 
The Northeast Challenge is a sanctioned equine race consisting of either a 30 mile, 50 mile or a 100 mile race, depending on what the rider choses to participate in. All horses in each distance start the race off at the same time and each mile grouping generally start in 1 hour staggered increments. So the 100 milers leave at 5AM, the 50's start at 6:00 and the 30's start at 7:00. Endurance riders all have different goals and purposes for their ride. Sometimes it's to race to win, sometimes it's to race to finish to accumulate points/miles, and sometimes it's for the purpose of building the strength of their horse for future rides. Visit AERC.org for more info.
 
The 100 mile racers have a hard cut off of 24 hours to finish where as the 50's have 12 hours and the 30's have approx 7 hours. The trails consist of dirt roads, wooded snowmobile trails, with very little tar (approx 4 miles of 100). My trail system currently consists of "loops" bringing everyone into base camp for the vet checks instead of having remote check points. If the runners wanted a continuous loop that could easily be managed using the same trail systems and the runners and horses would share trail for the duration of the race. All the trails already have landowner permission that I renew each year.

This sounds interesting and I think it would be fun to check out as sort of a fat-ass style ultra run alongside horses. If anyone is interested in taking the lead (it won't be me) on possibly organizing the event for 2015 then I can put you in touch with the guy.

gIANt

[D. Bidler]

This sounds like a really cool opportunity, Ian.  I'm on the waitlist for the Eastern States 100 which takes place the same weekend, but if I don't make it into the race I'd love to come up to Buckfield both to run and to help out. Unfortunately, I won't know until I know. If you're planning to head up there beforehand to do some recon give me a shout. If it's on a Sunday I'd be more than happy to roll with you.  

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[James Demer]

Streaked Mtn is in Buckfield and is a pretty big climb. This could be a good course!

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[John Rodrigue]

I would like a course map as I worked in the western region of maine and could run sections of the course after work....I am interested in co-chairing this event with many agreeing to help....I think running the course during the horse race this year is a great idea....like Ian has mentioned...it would give time to network...meet the horse race people...give them a looksee at runners while they are on horseback and give us a chance to scope the course and course logistics....

The gentleman RD'g the horse race seems to need a bit of time to swallow the amount of volunteers, time & logistics it takes to put on a 100 mile 'Running' event....

I would definately want to help with this....its ti.e for maine to have a formidable/legit 100 miler....not that an expert and probably the furthest from it as a Trail Monster rookie.... :-D

[Valerie Abradi]

S&S have lots of miles to do that day and would be up to sharing the trails with equine.