Registering for a 100 mile race and how I almost screwed up the easiest part of this whole goal (37ish Weeks to Go)
As I mentioned in previous posts, the 100 mile race that I had my heart set on was the Yeti 100 Mile Endurance Run in Abingdon, Virginia on September 26th, 2025. Well, this is how I almost missed the boat.
Like most trail runners, I use a website called UltraSignup to find and register for races. Its little triangle-tree logo is very enduring and the no-frills website is easy to utilize.
If you use the search feature, you can filter out to whatever you are looking for based on proximity from your home, distance you want to run, or what month of the year you are looking for. Although not every trail race is listed in this database, the majority are and it’s a great way to quickly read a summary of the race and review previous years’ results.
So, in 2023, when I was searching for what 50 mile race I wanted to do, I had stumbled upon the page for the Yeti 100 and became enamored with the photos featuring beautiful eastern rolling hills and bridge crossings. I also was drawn to the bold words claiming: “Perfect for your First 100”. Also, this race is less than 2 hours from me. The terrain is very similar to what I train in here in Western North Carolina and the race runs along the Virginia Creeper Trail, which is apparently gorgeous during the fall. Win, win, win. And the 2025 race is going to be their 10th year which means they are organized and successful. I love logistically well run races.
So around October, I checked when the registration for the 2025 race would open, it had stated that it would be at midnight on January 1st, 2025. Ew. New Years Eve?! Come on! Not cool.
So I set an alarm on my phone for the eve of 2025 at 11:59 pm since the website said the race tends to sell out quickly. Leading up to new years eve, I was pretty anxious about registering. I was nervous I would forget and miss out even though this goal has taken up a lot of my brain space over the past two months. However, when new years eve actually arrived, I became pretty distracted with cocktails, tequila shots, and enjoying the company of my disc golf buddies while we watched the ball drop.
It’s kind of comical if you can imagine it. My alarm goes off right before the countdown and honestly surprises me. 2025 rolls in and I give a quick cheers to my friends and as they all celebrated, I’m over here fixated on my phone trying to drunkenly register for this insane race. However, once I got to the website, the registration time had changed to 8pm the next evening! I breathed a sigh of relief, quickly set another alarm on my phone for the following evening, and had another glass of champagne (or two).
The next day, on the evening of January 1st, I was back home intensely cleaning up the kitchen and had 100% completely forgotten about the race. I had fixated on New Years Eve for so long that the drunken change in registration time had fallen off my radar.
Suddenly, my alarm goes off and I thought it was my family calling at first. Once I got over the shock of what was happening, I got on UltraSignup and at 8:01, I clicked that beautiful green register button.
A little box popped up and said that 20 out of the 100 spots had already been filled!
I panicked a little and sped through filling everything out (with, thankfully, most was already on autofill from registering in previous races) and with only the slightest “oh, shit, this is for real now” going through my head, I hit the submit button.
My registration went through and I received my confirmation email. You can see the time stamp is 5:01 (8:01EST).
Phew!
Thank goodness my tipsy brain had the wherewithal to set that second alarm (and correctly)!
Out of curiosity if all my anxiety was for not, I checked the main page again around 8:11 (you can see the military time stamp on the screen shot) and to my shock, the race had sold out!
Insane!
So it’s official now. September 26th I’ll be suffering through 100 miles on the Virginia Creeper Trail and I’m already so thankful to be a part of this small group.
And yes, $323 was the cost. Yikes. This will actually be the second most expensive race I’ve ever registered for, with the first being my Half Ironman in 2021.
Fun way to think about it, this race cost $3.23 every mile!
Also, side note. I did a 15 mile long run today and it’s the first time in months that I’ve done a distance like that solely on road. (I’m training for a road marathon in March so I’m subjecting myself to pavement for a few months). It was pretty chilly out and my right knee kind of bugged me a bit and once I finished, I had this moment of, “holy crap, that was tough and it was only 15 miles. Which, is like, 15% of what I need to do in September. Agh!” But that’s a part of this whole process. You can’t just jump into such a huge goal like that. And it’s important to celebrate the small steps along the way.
