Blog 1: The Bigfoot 200

Earlier this season, we shared some exciting news — Summit Physical Therapy is proudly sponsoring Rachel as she takes on one of the toughest endurance events out there: the Bigfoot 200, a 200-mile trail race through the rugged Cascade Mountains of Washington. With over 45,000 feet of elevation gain and loss, this course is a true test of mental and physical endurance.

We’ve had the privilege of supporting Rachel throughout her training journey — from injury prevention and recovery to performance optimization. Her grit, resilience, and commitment to preparation perfectly reflect the values we stand behind at Summit.

Now, Rachel is taking us behind the scenes. In this first installment of her three-part blog series, she shares what it’s taken to train for an event of this magnitude — the highs, the lows, and everything in between. Whether you're an endurance athlete, a weekend warrior, or someone who loves a good story of perseverance, you’ll want to follow along.

Let’s dive into what it really takes to prepare for 200 miles of mountain trails.

Journey to 200 Miles

By Rachel Fadeley

When I first googled “how to train for a 200-mile run” I left my computer with more questions than answers. I did not find a tried-and-true formula or prescribed plan like you might follow for marathon training. However, I found that athletes running multi-day distances have a lot of advice and recommendations born out of experience, but this can vary. One could assume that to be successful the best way to train is to have high weekly mileage, but what does that realistically look like? Does running 100-mile weeks translate to success? Does training for sleep deprivation work? What is the best way to mitigate chafing? How do you keep up with the caloric demand over multiple days of constant exertion? These questions are just a handful of many that bounced around in my head for the past year as I prepared to run the Bigfoot 200, a 200-mile point-to-point trail race in Washington.

My training and preparation for this event was truly an amalgamation of things learned from podcasts, books, blog posts, friends, family, personal experiences, and a lot of mistakes. I was also fortunate enough to work with Aidan Philpot at Summit Physical Therapy Inc. for many months leading up to this event. Aidan’s knowledge and expertise was invaluable throughout the process of injury recovery and as I prepared for this event. Additionally, his enthusiasm for what I was doing kept me motivated and gave me a sense of accountability to the hard work and effort that he put towards helping me achieve my goals.

Last fall, my training emphasis was on building a base of strength and stability. This slowly transitioned into building up weekly running mileage, although I chose not to place too much emphasis on this. I was more focused on the duration of time that I was on my feet and incorporating incline as much as possible. I had to navigate this all within the context of adapting to and recovering from an injury. In addition to the physical preparedness aspect of training, I had a lot of trial-and-error to see what worked best for me for many of the complementary elements of this event. This included things like figuring out when to wear glasses vs contacts, trying out various ways of fueling, and eating a full meal then immediately working out to simulate aid stations. I also listened to podcasts about wildlife encounters, thought a lot about running alone in the dark, what I would do when I started to hallucinate, and my arch nemesis, blisters.

Although I tried to prepare for so many of these non-running specific variables, I constantly reminded myself that I would most likely be in situations along the trail that would require troubleshooting scenarios that I had not thought about, read about, or heard about. As nerve wracking as that can feel, it’s also what makes this distance so unique and personally enticing. 200 miles is a long time for something to go wrong, but it’s also an opportunity for everything to fall into place.