Not too many people would consider Way Too Cool, one of the nation’s most sought-after 50K trail races, as way too easy. For sure, it’s no jaunt in the woods, no lark to be undertaken flippantly. Runners realize that early on or, certainly, after climbing Goat Hill at mile 25.
Then again, Flagstaff ultrarunner Pete Mortimer is not like most people. When he says he likes to go long, he means loooooong, 200 miles long, multi-days long, 20,000-feet in elevation-gain long, rhabdomyolysis-inducing (for mere mortals, not Pete) long.
So, yeah, when Mortimer lines up in the hills surrounding Auburn, Calif., Saturday morning for the start of Way Too Cool, he’s both not expecting to win and not expecting to put in a great deal of effort, either.
“Way Too Cool is really just a fun run for me,” Mortimer, 42, said in a recent interview. “Just get a long run in. I’m going to push myself in that race, because I like to compete, but … let’s say It’s a not even a blip on my radar.”
You might call Way Too Cool the start of Mortimer’s ultra season, but it really doesn’t heat up until his 100-mile-plus efforts later this summer.
Here’s his ambitious plan, post-Cool:
- April 26: The Mt. Fuji 100 in Japan, a World Trail Majors event circumnavigating the famous mountain.
- May 17: The Cruel Jewel 100 in Georgia’s Chattahoochee National Forest.
- July 19: The Ouray 100 in the same Colorado mountains that Imogene “fun runners” traverse each September.
- Sept. 1: The Swiss Peaks 360K, smack in the middle of the Alps.
For those counting at home, that’s four races totaling 184,684 feet in elevation gain.
OK, so that does make Way Too Cool’s 4,800 feet of elevation gain seem like a flat course for mountain goats like Mortimer.
Explain yourself, Pete:
“But I like the hardest, gnarliest races you can find,” he said. “I ran across Wales, ran across England, in UTMB around Mont Blanc, done the Barkley. That was disastrous.”
“I like the hardest, gnarliest races you can find.”
Pete Mortimer
The infamous Barkleys in the wilds of Tennessee may have been the only ultra-ultra that has gotten the best of Mortimer, whose day job in Flagstaff is working for the medical device company, Stryker. He finished second to Prescott’s Michael Versteeg in the inaugural Cocodona 250 in 2021, won Hawaii’s HURT 100 in 2022 and, in 2023, finished second in the 268-mile Montane Spine Race.
“My forte is the longer ones,” he said. “I like going an throwing down (efforts) are shorter 50Ks because it’s out of my comfort zone… It’s been a slow build, but I’ve found my niche.”
That niche? Extremely long distances.
This season may be Mortimer’s most diverse – arguably his toughest – yet. He originally wanted to culminate 2024 by competing in the brutally difficult Tor de Geants in the Alps (205 miles, 78,740 feet in elevation gain), but he didn’t get selected. So Mortimer decided to go for his backup, Swiss Peaks, plus combine vacation with his teen son and Mt. Fuji.
“Swiss Peaks is about as hard as (Tor de Geants) – a little longer, not as much climbing, in a different country (Italy). And my son’s graduating high school this year and when my daughter graduated, I told her I’d send her on a trip somewhere. She went to Morocco.
“So I asked my son; he’s really into street cars and he wanted to go to Japan. I thought, maybe I could find a race while I’m out there. And (Mt. Fuji) happened to be part of the World Majors Racing Series. One of my sponsors, Aravaipa, is part of the world majors and I made a phone call and they said they could get me in. 1000 miler, circumnavigates Fuji, up and downs, quite a bit of climbing.”
Mortimer resists deep introspection when asked his motivation for going ultra-long. He’s happy, though, to share how he got into ultra running; it’s an inspiring story for newbies. (He also is a trail coach.)
“I started running in 2010 and could barely run a mile,” he said. “I was running more to lose weight, even though it’s not the best way to lose weight. For me, it was getting out the door. I’d never even done a half marathon, and then I did my first half and then first full. When I found ultras, I just, you know, in the beginning, it was just seeing if I could finish them. But when I finished, I’d say to myself, ‘I gotta do something harder, push myself.’ I kept getting faster to the point where I can compete now.”
He might not win Saturday’s Way Too Cool 50K – there are some speedsters entered – but do not be surprised if Mortimer places high in this “fun run.”
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