Fort Ebey Kettles Trail Run, held in February of every year, is becoming my annual ritual as this is my fourth time running its trail marathon in last six years.
The race isn't overly technical with minimal rocks, tree roots and other debris on trails and the elevation gains are mostly from gently rolling hills with many short ups and downs. But, despite no large climbs, the course still packs impressive elevation gains of 5,500 ft over marathon distance, which makes it a perfect "training" run to test any new gears that you may have acquired over the winter and/or to do a self diagnostic check on your fitness before the ultra running season begins.
The race is held in Fort Ebey State Park, which is located in the middle of Whidbey Island, which according to Google is the fourth longest island in the US. To get to island from the mainland, you can take a ferry from Mukilteo, located about 30 mins north of downtown Seattle, to Clinton, located near the southern tip of the Island, and drive north about 40 minutes to the park. The entire trip will likely take you about 1 and 30 mins if you make the ferry right on time.
Or, alternative route is to drive past Mukilteo on I-5 for 30 more minutes to a town called Mount Vernon and turn left to get on to Whidbey Island and drive south to the park. This trip will likely take you close to 2 hours but you get to enjoy one of the most beautiful places in Washington, the Deception Pass. Below is a stunning aerial video of the Pass firmed by Tom Spurlock:
Fort Ebey State Park was originally acquired to protect Puget Sound from possible naval invasion and the park still has Gun Battery and magazine storage areas that people can visit. The race starts on an incredible beachfront bluffs with breathtaking view of Strait of Juan de Fuca and Olympic Mountains. Immediately after the start, there's a short loop around the beachfront bluff to help spread out runners before heading out onto trails.
The course is mostly comprised of switchbacks and gently rolling hills through forest areas until around mile 10, at which point the trail opens up onto a beautiful waterfront trail along scenic bluff-top overlooking the strait and Olympic Mountains. Little less than a mile in length, the waterfront trail eventually leads to the starting beachfront bluff where runners do a loop to get back on to the bluff-top trail going the other way that leads through the campground and to the finish. Marathon runners run this loop twice for 26 mile and 5,500 ft of elevation gains.
There are two aid stations per loop (other than the finish area): the first at 5 miles and the second in 9.5 miles.
Overall, Fort Ebey Kettles Run Marathon is a great race. It wasn't overly difficult with well-maintained trails and small hills making most of the race runnable so it was a great opportunity to check out my fitness level (and my knee) before running my first 100 miler of the year: Badger Mountain Challenge in Richland, WA next month (Mar/2023). I suffered from ITB Syndrome since last summer and spend this winter working on strengthening my legs, which seemed to be paying huge dividends as I did not experience any discomfort or pain during the race even without wearing the compression band! If you are suffering from ITB, check out my post and see what you can do to continue running while working to strengthen your legs.
I would definitely encourage both road and trail runners to run this race! Just views alone make the trip to the island worthwhile!
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