Love that Mammoth trail fest includes this fun party pace option. It's a great race for anyone who is accompanying a hardcore friend or family member doing one of the longer distances during race weekend. I heard there were roughly 200 participants, but it felt smaller than that, meaning that it wasn't crowded and we were all pretty spread out enough even though we jumped on a single track trail as soon as we left the village. The climb was gradual and not too intense, but the elevation will still have you breathing heavy no matter your speed! The aid station before the turnaround point was ON FIRE (not literally of course). You could hear the cheering from a half mile away and the energy was amazing. I loved that it was before the turnaround point so you could go through it twice. The only room for improvement would be to add even more glow sticks or lighting in the last two miles when it is the most dark and you're flying downhill. I had no one in front of me for a good amount of it and I was questioning whether I was still on the right trail at times.

Really impressed with what they pulled off for the inaugural version of this race. The course had Broken Arrow Skyrace vibes but with fewer people. The first mile was a bit dodgy as it usually is until people spread out but the elevation profile allowed for it to be pretty mellow the first couple of miles until you started the first big climb. And there were climbs! I wish I had used poles because I ended up hiking a lot of the uphill but I also didn't intend to go all out (despite their fun tagline of show up and blow up) and instead took advantage of the amazing views and stopped for several photos and videos along the way. The crowd was mostly advanced runners but without too much competition, we were all out there to have fun. The expo had lots of picnic tables which made it great for hanging out after, but we wished there were one or two more food truck options for those who didn't want BBQ. The raffle prizes were definitely worth sticking around for though! So maybe bring your own picnic next time.