John Cappis 50K Fat Ass

Expect about 19,000ft of elevation gain, and to go over 6 peaks that are about 13,000ft tall or higher plus one more that is over 12,500ft. The terrain will be a mix of dirt and 4WD jeep roads(20%), single track trail(14%) and plenty of off-trail miles(66%). Due to the steepness, the altitude and the rugged footing expect to average less than two miles per hour at best, unless you’re one of the best ultrarunners in the world and then maybe you’ll average close to three miles per hour. Also the course will not be marked — you will need to carefully follow the map and written directions to stay on course and (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) use the GPX file with your GPS watch and or phone app like Gaia GPS, MotionX-GPS, Backcountry Navigator or others.

Schedule
5am start at The Avon Hotel (10th & Blair)
19 hour cutoff at the finish at midnight– 4pm cutoff at mile 19.2 at the 3rd drop bag station
Drop Bags must be dropped off by 5am

We directed a race, THE EPIC 50K, here in this area a decade ago with a 50% finisher rate and the winning time was 8 hours and 56 minutes, the winners were two of the best ultrarunners in the country Kyle and Erik Skaggs. The next runner to finish took 12 hours and the first female took 13 hours. This course is based on THE EPIC course which had 14,400ft of elevation gain and was 66% on trails and roads–The John Cappis course is way better(read harder)!

This being a free, small scale, fat ass style run you will not be pampered like at a normal race, nor will you get much support or free stuff like t-shirts or prizes. There won’t even be aid stations but you can have crew and or a drop bag at each of the three check points.

​All runners for this fat ass run must be experienced ultrarunners with ample experience running/surviving in the mountains. Ideally you have run tough mountain 100 milers like Hardrock, Barkley, Plain, Wasatch, The Bear, Bighorn, IMTUF, etc. and have experience running at high altitude(over 8000ft) and have plenty of experience running/hiking on very rugged terrain, such as scree slopes, boulder fields, river crossings, exposed ridges, avalanche chutes, etc. A large portion of this course is not on trails or is on trails that are not normal so you should be used to traveling in the mountains on your own under difficult conditions, if you’re not used to doing that kind of thing then this is not the run for you, sorry. You will need to sell us on your abilities, otherwise your application will be rejected after it’s been reviewed.

​For those of you who don’t know John Cappis, he’s one of the founders of Hardrock and a pioneer of the sport having finished 3rd at Western States back in in 1978 in under 20 hours. When I first met him back in 2004 he was in his 60s and was on the tail end of his running days but he could still get up and down the San Juan Mountains like a mountain goat and he was organizing a bunch of difficult mountain fun runs in cool places all over the south west United States. John and Charlie Thorn were the masterminds behind the current Hardrock course and spending days with them out on the trails was always fun, educational and inspiring. John’s not running the trails anymore these days but a run like this is the kind of thing he’d do all the time and if he could be the first to sign up I’m sure. Thanks John for all that you’ve given to us!