Blog 2: The Bigfoot 200

After months of training and preparation, the moment finally arrived — Rachel set out to conquer the Bigfoot 200. This 200-mile journey through the Cascade Mountains is more than a race; it’s a mental and physical odyssey through some of the most remote and challenging terrain in the country.

In this second blog, Rachel recounts her experience on the course — the unexpected challenges, the small victories, and the moments that tested her limits.

The Legend of Bigfoot

By Rachel Fadeley

Running in the Bigfoot 200 was like nothing I had ever experienced before. It is impossible to distill multiple days of experience down into a simple post like this, so the following is a cursory overview.

It would be remiss of me to leave out the fact that the absolute highlight of this entire event was spending time with my family. I was crewed and paced by my older sister (who also functioned as crew captain), my dad, and my younger sister’s partner.

The day before the run my sister and I drove down to race headquarters in Randle, WA. There we linked up with my good friend and fellow runner and had a lengthy mandatory check-in process and runner meeting. That night was fitful, but the morning of the race was surprisingly calm.

We took off at noon on race day and it was tricky at times because so many runners were condensed on limited trail space until we started to stretch out around 6ish hours into the run. The area was beautiful as we ran across boulder fields and through the Mount St. Helens blast zone. Heading into the first night, I was nervous to be alone in the dark but before long, I started to enjoy the solitude and stars.

At the mile 37 aid station I linked back up with my friend and we spent the next 19 miles together, rolling into the next day and hitting Mt. Margret (the highest point of the race) for sunrise. Following this segment, I was able to meet up with my crew and picked up my dad as my first pacer at mile 56. Here I tried (unsuccessfully) to take a nap, although it felt good to get off my feet. My dad ran with me for the next two segments, totaling about 26 miles and this took us into the next night. During these segments I started having mild but constant hallucinations. This night was memorable because we kept seeing toads jumping around on the trail (I had to verify this reality with my dad).

We got to the aid station at mile 82 around 0030 and I was hurting from the sleep deprivation and in some physical pain, so I decided ample rest, icing, and foot care was needed. I was able to get 2-3hours of sleep, was attended to by the medic and left that morning around 0700 with my new pacer, Alec. From here, we had about 37 miles and a LOT of climbing to do before we would see crew again. Alec and I charged ahead, ascending roughly 12,000’ and descending close to that, and met back up with crew at mile 118 around 0230 that night.

I wanted to have a quick turnaround but was struggling with the sleep deprivation and decided to try for a quick nap. I jumped into the truck and fell asleep as my sister was rubbing my legs and popping blisters. If that isn’t love, I don’t know what is.

Within the hour, my dad and I were heading back out. Unfortunately, during this section I developed substantial pain in my quad/knee, and it continued to worsen throughout the miles to the point where I was struggling to walk on a flat, gravel forest service road. An unfortunate development that I was unable to bounce back from, this eventually led to me pulling out of the run, resulting in a DNF.

It was such a profoundly intense and emotional decision to stop, and I will reflect more on the ongoing emotional & mental aspects of this experience in my next post but I want to say that while the way I wrote this chronologically leaves off on a seemingly sour end with the conclusion of a DNF, that is in no way how I feel. I was able to spend days playing in the woods with people that I love, challenged myself, and experienced something new. That is a true adventure to me.

I noted in the first post that I worked extensively with Adian before this event and strongly feel that all of the PT and prep work we did allowed me to function with a pre-existing injury to the point where it wasn’t a debilitating or stopping factor. While this would not be the case for everyone and with every injury, I feel very grateful that he was able to help guide me through this process and gave me the tools that I needed. I am still reflecting on how I would refine training for the next endurance event that I settle on, but I do know that working on my sleep strategy is a priority as is getting an expedient blister care routine down. Overall, this was such an awesome challenge, and my sister and I are already planning the next endurance adventure.