Forest Park's Wildwood End to End Ultramarathon

Right about a year ago, on March 13 2021, I headed to Forest Park to run the trails on a warm Saturday morning. Parking in St. Johns under the iconic bridge, I headed across the river to the Ridge Trail trailhead for a steep, muddy start to what would only end 24 miles later. Hours spent on the trail, my body and bottles depleted of water, I determined that I could indeed set out to run an ultramarathon. More specifically, I could run the Forest Park Wildwood trail.

above from my March 2021 exploratory run starting and ending at St. Johns

The Wildwood was dreamed up in the 1980s, but was only completed in 1999. Since then it didn’t take long to reach legendary status among regional trail runners. Excited about the robust local trail running community, I went down a happy rabbit hole that landed me on the mailing list for another local legend who creates a weekly summary of trail running happenings all over the northwest.

I joined some Facebook groups too, like the FoPo Run Club and Eastwind Endurance, ready to commit to the right thing at the right time. But sandwiched between further east (Eastwind seems centered near Gresham) and west (Foster-Powell), I am in a bit of a no-man’s land when it comes to running clubs so it feels like it takes an extra effort to get together on early morning runs or post-work weekday runs.

But that’s ok. No complaints. With Powell Butte and Glendoveer Golf Course and the Springwater Corridor within easy running distance, there’s plenty to keep me going on those days when I don’t meet up with running buddies. And I know I’m not alone in driving a little distance to get to a club meetup run.

My original idea for running the Wildwood end-to-end was going to simply be me and my friend Seth. We had some loose plans that never materialized. Feeling completely novice in truly long-distance running, though a lifelong runner, I was unsure when or how to make this goal a reality. My previous long runs included only a smattering of DIY half-marathon distances running trails in rural northeastern Mozambique. But after subscribing to the Northwest Dirt Churners email, I became aware of all kinds of options near me that made me way more excited than the prospect of running any longer road races.

Covid isolation was a great impetus for long distance running, or so it appears from the conversations I’ve had with new friends. This certainly was true for myself. In 2021, I experimented with the Bigfoot 20 at Mt. St. Helens [results]. Part of a series that included a 20, 40, 73 (at the time) and 200 mile race, I knew my fitness and experience levels weren’t up to anything more than a 20 miler at the time. So 20 it was.

In early 2022, I challenged myself to a slick, steep, wet 25k trail run at the Run Forest Run run in Montesano, WA [results]. I loved the trail, despite the pain, and the small community who was there to appreciate one another’s shared miseries and triumphs. For me, the triumph was completion and doing so within my own estimated time. At 48, a late bloomer in long distance trail running, I’m just thankful to be healthy enough to be pushing myself and learning new things. With these two long distance runs with serious elevation included, I was feeling encouraged to continue.

In late 2021, Northwest Dirt Churners teamed up with FoPo Run Club to announce a group training schedule that would take several months to train us in ultra running. We would meet up every other week or so to get in 15, 17, 20, 23 (more or less depending) miles together with optional hangout/food/drinks afterwards. Aside from this, I also discovered the Wy’east Wolfpack and began running Thursday nights with them when it fit my schedule. These running groups were just what I needed, and so when the time came on April 30th to meet up at the zoo parking lot, I felt ready.

Thursday nights with the Wy’east Wolfpack running club

FoPo Run Club meetups on longer runs as we train together for the E2E (Forest Park, Crown Zellerback Trail and downtown Portland)

I wasn’t sure the trail was ready for us, however. With recent inclement weather, trees were down on many parts of the 30+ mile course. It would be muddy for sure, and possibly heavy rains according to the forecast. But we were determined to make the attempt, rain or shine.

Logistics are always good to sort through beforehand. I dropped my van at the end of the trail (we would be running in a south to north direction) on Newberry Rd., then waited for others from my group who would also drop a vehicle and have someone give us rides to the zoo parking lot. We set out around 7:30AM headed for our first refueling station about 9 miles later. Other aid stations came at mile 16, 25, the finish and zoo.

While my goal was simply completion, I estimated and hoped to come in between 6 and 7 hours total including aid stations. I also hoped to enjoy the entire thing, which meant walking up lots of hills so as to conserve my energy. It felt great to finally knock off an ultra run from that bucket list!

Here’s about half of our crew at the start. Several runners arrived quite late due to a road accident that held up traffic.