Mammoth Trailfest

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.

Bring more than one source of light! I wore a headlamp on my head and I also had one around my waist that died on me halfway through and made it tough to see all of the tree roots and rocks on the way back down so I was a bit more cautious and couldn't go as fast as I wanted. You do need to be careful and pay attention on this trail, especially in the dark.