Plain Endurance Runs
2026 Plain Endurance Runs
100 Miler
Cancelled
This year's race is not being run. Everything below describes the race as it was planned. Cancelled roughly five weeks before race day. The Little Giant Fire, started by lightning northwest of the course, burned southeast onto the route; the Forest Service issued a closure order covering many of the course trails and checkpoint access roads, in place "until the snow flies," ruling out even a modified race for 2026. Registered runners were offered a rollover discount toward the 2027 event.
Race dateSeptember 19-20, 2026
Duration2 days
First held1997
Free, and always will be. NavRun makes money from race-day planning for runners who want it, never from this.
Ultras change constantly, sometimes the morning of. Always confirm with the race director and the official website before you rely on anything here.
Distance
not checked yet
Climb
not checked yet
Descent
not checked yet
High point
not checked yet
Time limit
not checked yet
Aid stations
0
Started
not checked yet
Finished
not checked yet
Finish rate
not checked yet
The race
What this one is
A 100+ mile (100 Mile) and 100K self-supported ultramarathon on U.S. Forest Service trails and roads in the Cascade Mountains near Plain and Leavenworth, Washington. There are no aid stations, no course markings and no pacers; runners navigate by written directions and a paper map, filter their own water from streams, and check in with Search and Rescue volunteers at staffed checkpoints using a bib number and password. The 100 Mile is two laps of the same Deep Creek start/finish, each lap a different route; the 100K, added in 2014, is the first lap only.
Founded in 1997 by Tom Ripley and Christina Ralph of the Cascade Running Club (which also directed the Ron Herzog 50K, White River 50 Miler and Bridle Trails Twilight 8 Hour) as Washington's first 100-mile trail race, three weeks apart from Cascade Crest 100 the same year. Six runners started the first race; a snowstorm above 6,500 feet ended it early with no finishers. The first finishers were Tim Stroh and Randy Gerke in 1998; Liz McGroff became the first woman finisher in 2002. The original start/finish was Thousand Trails Lodge; in 2011 it moved to Deep Creek, with an added out-and-back spur to Thousand Trails to keep the distance the same, and the race course has not changed since. A 100K (the first loop only) was added in 2014. Wildfires cancelled the race in 2003 and 2015; in 2014 a wildfire forced a course modification that dropped the Tommy and Tyee checkpoints and added a foot-access-only Whistling Pig Meadow checkpoint; 2020 was cancelled for COVID-19; 2018, 2022 and 2026 were cancelled for wildfire. Tom Ripley and Christina Ralph retired as race directors in 2015, handing the race to long-time participant and SAR Support Team Commander Tim Stroh together with Tim Dehnhoff.
Getting in
Getting in
Entry, lottery and what the race asks of you before race day.
- Lottery
-
No
docs.google.com
- Lottery opens
-
not checked yet
- Lottery draw
-
not checked yet
- Field cap
-
75
docs.google.com
- Registration
-
UltraSignup
ultrasignup.com
- Qualifying
-
not checked yet
- Minimum age
-
not checked yet
- Transfers
-
not checked yet
- Deferrals
-
Yes
plain100.com
Crew access, pacers and drop bags
The rules that shape your day
Anything marked "not checked yet" is a gap in what we hold, never a no from the race.
- Crew allowed
-
not checked yet
- Vehicles per runner
-
not checked yet
- Pacers
-
not checked yet
- Muling
-
not checked yet
- Drop bags
-
not checked yet
- Cupless
-
not checked yet
- Course marking
-
not checked yet
- Night running
-
not checked yet
- Dogs
-
not checked yet
- Headphones
-
not checked yet
- Crew rules
-
not checked yet
- Pacer rules
-
not checked yet
- Drop bag rules
-
not checked yet
- Cutoff philosophy
-
not checked yet
Same race, other lines
Other distances and other years
What it looks like out there
Somebody has been out there with a camera
the tables say the climb is long. these say what long feels like.
Nobody has been out there with a camera or a microphone yet. A gap means nobody has found it, not that it is not out there. Seen a course preview or a film of this one? Send us the link.
Add to this page
What you know
every one of these is read by a person before it changes anything
Ran this race? Tell the next runner what you know.
Nobody sees it until we have read it. No account, no sign-in.
See something wrong or out of date? Suggest an edit.
This changes nothing on the page on its own. Somebody checks it against the race first.
Seen a course preview or a film of this one? Send it over.
Somebody watches it before it goes anywhere near this page. What we are after is footage of this course, on the ground. If it would be just as true of any other race, it is not this.
Have the GPX? Send us the link.
We want the address of the file the race publishes, not the file. We download it from there so the page can say where the line came from.
Are you the race director? Get in touch and we'll make it right.
We read every one of these and we write back. Every fact here carries the source it came from, and the way a wrong one gets fixed is a person checking it against what you tell us.
Where this came from.
Every fact on this page records its source and when we last checked it: 31 sources for this race. Hover a source link to read the sentence it came from.
0% of what we track for a course is filled in. The rest says "not checked yet" rather than guessing.
Ultras change. We will tell you when this one does.
Cutoffs move, races get postponed, lotteries open and close. We read the race's own sources and record where every fact came from. Put your email in and we will send you what changed, and where we read it.
No account, and nothing to cancel.
What happens to your email. Nothing else. I do not sell it, and I will not send you anything except this race changing. One click gets you out.
I keep this catalog because the information is scattered and hard to trust. Telling you when it moves is the same job.
Running this one?
NavRun builds your pacing from your own training, then turns it into a plan your crew can follow: when to leave and where to park.
Start free
