The Badger Mountain Challenge was my first ultra, which I ran with my partner (his first ultra as well). The consensus is that "50K" is now actually 55K, and that aligns with our experience. (Spoiler: We finished!)

We drove to Kennewick on Friday afternoon to pick up our bibs at Runner Soul. Typical of trail events, it was a straightforward affair—get your bib and go.

We took the early start at 6 am on Saturday. The race started from the Badger Mountain Trailhead parking lot, and there was plenty of parking at the early hour. We checked in with the race director, and when it was about time to start, joined about 8 other runners also starting early (the rest of the 55K runners started an hour later). The race director gave a short briefing—follow the pink markers, thank the volunteers, don't go out too hard, and take care of your feet.

Badger Mountain and the surrounding area is in a desert, sage scrub all around, so you have clear views all around. And the weather was fantastic—40s at start and warming to 60s with mostly clear skies. We got to see a pretty spectacular sunrise glimmering on the Columbia River as we started our day. The downside, later in the day there was no respite from the sun except when a cloud drifted in front of it.

The course—an out and back—is described as "deceptively challenging", and I get what they mean. Overall we clocked about 5300 feet of elevation gain. The obvious climbs are at the start, over Badger (~800 feet) and then Candy Mountain (~600 feet). There are some stairs at the start of Badger, but the rest of the ascent and descent of Badger is pretty symmetric and moderately graded with lots of switchbacks, so portions of the ascent on the way out felt runnable and running down felt comfortable. The trails on Badger and the front half of Candy (with the exception of the road crossing) are packed gravel and wide enough to easily allow passing—important as many of the 100 milers were coming in as we headed out.

The course changes up on the back half of Candy—steep and rocky on the way down. The bottom of Candy brought the one major glitch of the day. You run along a wide dirt drive for a short way before turning left. We missed it. Fortunately we were only about 0.2 mile past the turn when we realized it—lack of markers were a tip off and my partner had the GPS track on his watch. We turned back and found the turn easily, and also why we missed it. The flags were all on the left, along a 270 angle turn. A chalk arrow would have been useful to stay on course there.

The turn takes you into a long culvert under the highway, so it's nice to have a light on your way through. This also brings you to the more deceptive and, I think, unexpectedly challenging part of the course—the "flat" part. This is the the longer road section, maybe 1.5 miles, starting with a long shallow uphill. You're soon on a wide dirt path between the road and the vineyards, before ending up on unmaintained drives along the edge of the vineyards. The vineyard roads are undulating, and a mix of once asphalt that's started breaking up and gravel roads.

After a few miles meandering along vineyards, you hit the jeep tracks—rutted, sandy, rocky ups and downs, some of them quite steep. According to some other runners (regular start 50Kers who'd caught up to us), the trails were actually in pretty good condition compared to last year when they were inches of moon dust. The jeep tracks take you to the turn around, which means you're just going right back to them.

On the way back, we knew the jeep tracks would suck. The vineyards and road section were a grind (part of the "deceptive" characteristic, roads should be easy but they started to wear us down). Then it was back under the highway and up Candy. The return trip over Candy is brutal. It's mile 28 and now you're doing 600 ft over the course of a mile instead of 1.5+ miles at the start. The return over Badger wasn't so bad, but by the time we hit it, we were simply beat.

The volunteers along the course were fantastic. The spread at the aid stations was awesome—a lot of standard staples (chips, oreos, orange slices, water and gu brew) at all plus some different "specialties" at each (coffee at one, grilled cheese at another). The stations were also pretty well distributed, about every 5 miles with another at the 17ish mile turnaround. Having the 2 close aid stations on either side of the turnaround was really helpful since this was a more challenging section of the course.

As promised, the race director was waiting at the finish to give us a high five. The WSU Tri-Cities nursing school had volunteers providing foot soaks and bandaging at the finish.

Since it was our first 50K, it was nice to get a medal at the end to add to our collection. It was a long and exhausting day, but any first 50(ish)K would have been for us. The event was generally well marked and well organized.

NW Trail Runs knows what they're doing! This is an excellent trail event for early in the year in the PNW.

Much of the surrounding area on the mainland had been hit hard with snow and rain in the preceding weeks (so much so that a few trail events were cancelled and others pretty messy). But trails at Fort Ebey/Kettles were in excellent condition. The half marathon course, which is just repeated to get to a full marathon, was essentially dry—almost no mud—and a couple of trees that had blown down were already cut to ensure an unobstructed path.

The trails were mostly single track dirt, a mix of hard pack along the bluffs and softer trails through the woods. Although narrow in places, the trails aren't super technical—an occasional root and one short section that's steep down with some loose rock underfoot. The race started with a short loop around a field to get the pack strung out a bit. A few stretches throughout the course were wide enough to easily enable easy passing, and generally there were places along the single tracks for people to step off to let faster runners pass. There was a very short section of trail with two-way race traffic. There was a cold, stiff wind along the bluffs—but also some incredible views—but we didn't spend too much time in that exposed area.

The marathon course provides about 5500 ft of elevation gain, yet it's very runnable terrain. There are a few short steep climbs, a lot of rolling trails and some sustained but very low grade climbs. Most of the descents were pretty shallow too.

It takes a lot of turns to get 13+ miles in Fort Ebey/Kettles Parks. But consistent with prior NW Trail Runs experiences, the course was really well marked. The turns were clearly indicated—pin flags and a sign or chalk arrow pointing the way, plus often a tape blocking the way you're not supposed to go. Confidence streamers and chalk arrows between turns helped settle concerns too.

There were 2 aid stations along the half marathon loop, around 4.5 and 9.5 miles (so again around 18 and 23 mi for the full), and another at the start/finish/half marathon point. They were well stocked with usual trail event goodies, and the volunteers were wonderful and encouraging. At the finish, they had sandwiches, soup, coffee, and other excellent options on offer.

We opted in for the race shirt at additional cost. There was no finisher medal or other swag, but that really helps keep the cost of events down, and I'm happy with that tradeoff.

Overall another great event from NW Trail Runs! Looking forward to more to come.

This was a well organized, untimed fun run. Road Runner Sports was a bit crowded for bib pickup but still progressed smoothly and quickly. Traffic and parking might have been a bit challenging if driving, but the location is generally easy to get to.

About 15 minutes before start time, everyone walked as a group to the start line at Green Lake. The majority of runners and walkers were wearing lights or costumes. There was no chip or clock timing, just 1 loop around Green Lake for the "5Kish" and 2 for the "10Kish" (the actual distance is 2.8 mi per loop). The path was still open for use, so there was some maneuvering around people walking the opposite direction. The path was crowded for the first mile or so of the first loop, then spread out. Not many continued on for the second loop. The atmosphere was festive, the medal was great. It's a good option if you're looking for a no-pressure, fun event.