This 24-hour event is the cornerstone of Side Quest Adventures. It has been the avenue that has led Tony and I to expand into our own brand. So what does it take to put on a weekend-long event?
REVIEW: What can we do better?
Planning doesn’t start after one event ends; it begins during the event. For instance, throughout the weekend of the 2025 race, we took rapid-fire notes on any roadblocks we encountered as well as any feedback we received on race day.
Once we are back home, unpacked and recovered, we do take the time to perform an AAR, After-Action Report. We set up a document that includes various aspects of the event and we discuss. This process includes analyzing feedback we received on things such as trails that could have benefited from more trail markers, or if any side quests didn’t make sense upon execution, or on how well parking went.
But any good event needs more than the input of the Race Directors; it needs yours. At the end of each event, we send out a feedback survey, and then, after we’ve given time for our racers to submit their responses, typically a few weeks later, we analyze all that data.
Which side quests are the favorites?
What would you like to see added?
Those of you who take the time out of your day to fill out the feedback survey, we thank you! Your side quest feedback is instrumental in the creation of next year’s quests.
As you probably already know, our volunteers are essential to making the SISU 24 PNW happen, and they also get tapped for feedback as they often have a different perspective than the racers. Not to mention, 100+ tasks Tony and I have going through our heads at any point during the weekend 🤪
BRAINSTORM: New ideas happen here!
Once our own feedback, volunteer notes, and the participant survey are all gathered, we move into brainstorming. This is the part of the process in which Tony pitches very big ideas and I have to bring him back to reality (Yes, it would be cool to access trails on the other side of the highway, but do we have enough volunteers to serve as 24hr crossguards, we can’t actually stop traffic so what if there is a long line of Mt Rainier visitors, and do we really want tired racers, who may already be hallucinating, crossing the highway at night?). He’s the creative person; I’m the one who executes the ideas – it makes for a great team!
In winter, a graphic theme is chosen for the year, and Tony drafts up a few t-shirt and sticker designs for us to choose from. Over the course of a few months, we deliberate on what side quests should be brought back and what new ones should be added. This is where wew ideas such as switching from the ping-pong balls and crystals to new Sasquatch and the accessories happen (shoutout to the OGs who remember those days).
PREPARATION: Where the rubber meets the road
Typically in December, we start 3D printing Sasquatches and accessories, and that doesn’t stop until registration closes. Fun fact: each Sasquatch takes about five hours to print and uses approx 106g of filament. As we enter the New Year, designs are finalized, and a heavier marketing push begins (arguably later than it should, but hey, we’re just in this for the fun of it). We also start to choose side quests and begin purchasing any necessary materials for them. This is also when Tony begins designing and printing side quest stickers for your log books.
Eventually, we need to actually sit down and do some physical labor. This year, we had amazing volunteers (friends & racers) meet up to tackle the daunting task of sorting all of the trail-marking material that got shoved into a box while packing up last year…Don’t judge us; we’re tired on Sunday too 😅. This is when the flags get sorted; we check each marker for reflective material, toss some if need be, and sort them into separate drybags so we can more easily mark the trails. Additionally, signs are sorted and checked for quality and usability. If needed, more are printed and laminated. All of the 3D prints are cleaned up and placed in lockboxes. All this work is essential to improving our race weekend setup process; heading out to mark trails doesn’t take quite as much brain power.
Right around the time registration closes, we order shirts. There is usually a little wavering between ordering them earlier to ensure they arrive on time and ordering after all potential registrations are in 🤷♀️another reason to sign up early!
Again, our volunteers are so essential, and we love them! May is usually when I start putting on the peer pressure for previous volunteers to come back and pitch newbies on the beauty of Camp Sheppard and the fun of watching exhausted racers play Wordle!
In the weeks that lead up to SISU 24 PNW, more amazing support is provided by one of our 100 Mile finishers, Elke, as she runs the trails as part of her training, and she graciously shares gorgeous photos from the various routes along with the trail conditions. Sometimes we don’t know until the weekend of the race if Noble Knob will be free of snow 😅.
RACE WEEK: It’s Go Time!
The Wednesday before the race, Tony and I play Tetris with our Subarus and somehow always fit everything we need (that we remember, thanks, volunteers for bringing things we forget!). On the way to the venue, we make a big stop at Costco to grab race snacks and food for the volunteers – this year we have the amazing Laura Heider as our dedicated camp cook (yay! because we usually get distracted and don’t really eat, whoops). Arriving at Camp Sheppard feels like coming to our second home. Despite only staying there 4-5 nights a year, it’s such a precious place to us. We pause to breathe in the clean forest air…and then we get to work.
There are trails to mark! Camp to pitch! Headquarters to set up! The starting arch to assemble! And many, many other things like posting signs and setting out the Sasquatches!
The top priority is always marking trails, as that takes the most time. Depending on which route(s) we are marking, we take the drybags with the relevant flags, a marking kit that includes supplies to Macgyver things as necessary, and a bunch of signs for all of the directions and for trailheads.
I’m going to share a secret here that you have to promise not to exploit. After the first SISU 24 PNW when we (mainly Tony) marked all of the trails from camp and back, exactly how you run them, we discovered there are trailheads at the top of the ridge 😳. These days, every Thursday morning, we get one of our super fabulous volunteers to drive us 45 minutes up a forest road to a trailhead that is…close to part of the Noble Knob route. At that point, Tony and I split. He heads up to the Knob to set up the lockbox and side quest info, and marks the trail on his way back down, including Little Ranger Lookout when he gets there, and then some of the Goat Falls trail after he hits the junction where they all meet on his way back to camp. Meanwhile, I take the top of the Palisades Loop, which inevitably has a bajillion fallen trees (which is why you don’t run this part) and come down to the Little Ranger Peak turn-around and enjoy lunch at the viewpoint, unless it’s raining or hailing…
If you followed that last bit, you just figured out that we are mostly moving downhill when we mark the trails, teehee. Our volunteers who take down the trails on Sunday use the same method, work harder, not smarter, am I right?
Woof, so Thursday is spent marking four trails, and we’re usually a little beat from hauling all of those supplies- yes, even though we’re going downhill! This is where I, the non-athlete, tap out and work on setting up HQ, and Tony, the endurance athlete, decides he’s going to mark either Snoquera or Goat Falls. Go Tony, Go! Turns out he’s the idea guy and the muscle.
Friday morning comes and ohmygod-we-still-have-so-much-setup-to-do-oh-jeeze. Tony goes out to mark another trail, while my trusty Theresa and I get to work setting up everything that remains – except the arch, which requires Mr. Muscles to be back in camp. Routes and schedules are posted, signs are hung, Sasquatches are set out, Mom heads out to (wo)man the parking passes, you exquisite people start arriving!
At HQ, we hand out bibs & swag and collect waivers. We give hugs to old friends and greet new ones! The energy is palpable at this point. We catch up, answer questions, hold a meeting, and try to sleep.
On Saturday, we’re up around 5 AM to get the computer booted up and hold the meeting for the 100-milers. After a quick shower, it’s back to HQ to continue check-in for any morning arrivals, hold another meeting, and collect everyone’s first trail. We get the time clock going, and off you go!!
While you’re out and about, all the visible things are happening, like checking racers in and out of the trails and verifying their side quests. Behind the scenes, inevitably, errors are made in our race logs that have to be corrected; we find out a stamp has been cut and taken from a trail, and/or it turns out the instructions for one of the side quests aren’t as clear as we thought they were.
At some point, food is eaten, limited sleep is had, and whatever “fires” arise are stamped out as best we can. Before the race concludes on Sunday, we are sending out volunteers to start taking down Noble Knob and Little Ranger Peak, and depending on what our 100-milers have planned, they may also pull Dalles Falls and Little Ranger Lookout. Once they’ve been sent out, it’s difficult to change their instructions as cell service is limited and the handheld radios only reach them once they’ve hit the ridgeline that looks down on camp.
Points are tabulated, awards are distributed, everyone packs up camp, yet the 100-milers remain! They have many more hours to go still, and as they trek tiredly on, meanwhile, HQ is slowly packed up. What happens next varies every year, but eventually all of the racers are done, remaining supplies are packed up, volunteers are sent home (seriously, love them), Tony and I split whatever trail markings still need to be taken down, and head home already chatting over the phone about what we can do better next year!
