Sharlie Shuffle 6 and 12 Hour

Description:

A brilliantly beautiful FUNdraising fun run through one of the best parks in Idaho, for as many hours as you see fit! (ALL proceeds/registration fees go to Ponderosa State Park trails.)

SATURDAY, MAY 30, 2020 (the Saturday AFTER Memorial Day weekend). Registration opens October 14, 2019, and the campgrounds at Ponderosa State Park will be OPEN for our 2020 race-weekend, so you can (& should, if you want to camp!) make campsite reservations online in advance.

With gorgeous views of Payette Lake and towering ponderosa pines, varied terrain, and a festive, low-key atmosphere, we think this is a race you [and your family, and friends, and well-behaved, leashed dogs] will just keep coming back to, one 4.79-mile-loop at a time. Sign up and run for twelve hours, or run for eight or six or four. Run as few or as many hours as you like! Every single runner will get something awesome simply for showing up to run, but this isn’t your typical medal-laden sort of endeavor.

In addition to being heaps of F-U-N, and great training for longer summer and fall endeavors (think: IMTUF 100, Pine to Palm, Bighorn 100, Run Rabbit Run, Bear 100, Wasatch 100, etc.) our races are also low-impact: You won’t find any paper products at the Sharlie Shuffle, and we strive to have less than one full bag of trash at day’s end. As with all of our races, we also avidly support local businesses, which means as much aid (and prizes!) as possible will come from the McCall area. Speaking of aid, we’ll have some of the best out there. We’ll supply awesome fuel as your legs run loop after epic loop, and we’ll also provide reusable mugs for you to use throughout the day (though if you have a favorite mug, you’re of course welcome to bring your own).

GO GO GADGET EPIC LOOPS!
We love timed loop events, and we’ve been enthusiastically putting them on for years. The Sharlie Shuffle’s run on a clockwise, 4.79-mile loop in McCall’s Ponderosa State Park. You’re welcome to run as few or as many loops as you like, but here’s what to expect on each loop: Rolling trails, rocky trails, flat trails, stairs and boardwalks, lots of serene single-track, some stride-widening double-track, and even a little pavement, to keep things interesting. Some trails will go up, and some trails will go down. Each loop contains just enough gain to keep you honest (~640′), so expect to (have fun, yes!, and) be challenged.

If this description of the event feels somewhat vague, don’t worry—We promise we send out more detailed info to all registered participants as we get closer to race-weekend. But if you’re looking for maps or an elevation profile, you’re not going to find that here. Or anywhere.

Part of the fun of the Sharlie Shuffle is how low-key and old-school it is, which means we like to keep the course a secret for participants until race-day, and we don’t sweat the small stuff (and hopefully you don’t either!). We hand-make our bibs, count laps with star stickers, and we’ve worked with the Park to hand-pick a brutally beautiful and sustainable course for you to run. Basically we’re trying to tell you that you’re in for a really really FUN day.

WANT DISCOUNTED RACE REGISTRATION?
Like we do for our other beloved loop races, we’re offering a way for you to knock $15 off the registration price of either the 12-hour or the 6-hour.

Just email us at [email protected] and sign up to bring a tasty aid station food and/or drink to share with your fellow runners on race-day (we keep these events intentionally small, so we’re not talking huge quantities here), and we’ll give you a code that’ll discount $15 off your race entry when you go to register. You can make a local farmer’s market stop, and/or grab something you love from Costco/Ridley’s/your pantry, or you can even bring something homemade!

We’ll keep a master list of stuff folks are planning to bring, and might even ask you to bring something specific, so we don’t end up with too much of one good thing. And we’ll keep offering discounted entry as long as we need more aid station food and/or drinks—BUT PLEASE EMAIL US BEFORE YOU REGISTER if you’d like the discount.

If you don’t want to worry about bringing something to share, that’s cool, too! Just register as usual and we promise we’ll take good care of you. We always aim to have some of the best aid station food around, and we always try to keep things simple and easily digestible (nuts; wraps; fruit; vegan soup; good sweets, etc.).

NEED EVEN MORE INCENTIVE? THIS RACE IS A FUNDRAISER FOR TRAILS!
As McCall locals, these are our beloved backyard trails, which means we’re very passionate about them, and extremely grateful for the opportunity to work with Ponderosa State Park to ensure these trails get the continued love and support they need to thrive.

The 6-Hour Run starts at a modest $50 (+ applicable sales tax & UltraSignup processing fees), and the 12-Hour at an equally modest $70. Prices first increase January 1st, then once more May 1st.

This race, like all of our other Endless Trails FUNdraising trail races, is a fundraiser for local trails, so any and all funds that don’t go to permitting fees/awesome aid and prizes will be donated to Ponderosa State Park via our Northwest 501(c)3 non-profit—to support ongoing trail work, trail education, and trail advocacy. We’ll be accepting cash and check donations on the day of the event, too, and you’ll also have the option to make an additional donation to Endless Trails as you’re registering. Every little bit helps, and all of it goes back to Ponderosa! Which means you can feel doubly good about your registration fees and any additional donations you make being put to good use. It also means we’ll give you extra high-fives of gratitude every lap you run.

RACE DAY
Start & finish beside Payette Lake in Ponderosa State Park.

For the 12-Hour Run and the 6-hour morning crew, gates to the park will be open for us by 6:30 AM, at which point check-in starts; the fun begins at 7 AM.

For the 6-Hour afternoon crew, check-in starts at 12:30 PM and the run begins at 1 PM. (6-hour runners can also elect to start at 7 AM with the 12-hour folks, but be sure to sign up for the 6-hour AM registration if you’d prefer that option!)

For both races, expect pre-race announcements just a few minutes before the start. The 6-hour AM race ends at 1 PM, and both the 12-hour and 6-hour PM races finish at 7 PM—any laps finished after that time will not be counted toward your day’s total. [By May, we’ll have longer days to work with, so you shouldn’t need headlamps for any portion of the run unless you want it for the first lap of the day in the woods.]

We’re capping registration right around 50 runners, total, so if you’re interested, sign up! Like our other looped events, we want this low-key event to stay small and feel cozy, like a fun family gathering between like-minded trail crazies.