Personally, I had a blast! I met my goals and came away really pleased with how my body held up over 35 miles. I even felt like I had a little push in my the final 3 miles or so. I knew I could maintain the stamina needed but was concerned about muscular fatigue and cramping (not enough time in the weight room) but I was really happy with how it went. Honestly, running daily at 5000 ft in Nepal and then dropping down to 200 ft felt like I was just drinking in oxygen.
I thought the organizers did a good job. Being my first ultra, I don't have anything to compare to but I was happy with all the information leading up to the race, the enthusiasm brought by the organizers the morning of despite the rain starting at 5 minutes till start time and then the aid stations were pumping out great food and snacks and energy despite the rain as well.
It rained consistently the first 6 hours, which I'm sure played a big factor in only having 7 finishers of the 28 runners attempting the 100, but personally I really enjoyed the rain. I wasn't nearly as cold as expected, and it wasn't until about the 25th mile did I start noticing some areas getting a bit muddy, but the course is rocky enough that the mud was just in sporadic spots in which you had to watch your step as to not slip. It was never for long enough stretches that your shoes would bog down and collect weight. In the 35 mile course there were a few sections where the trail was covered in baseball sized rocks and maybe a more agile runner than myself could tip toe through those stretches but I would have rolled an ankle if I'd tried. I didn't particularly enjoy those sections, but other than that I really enjoyed the course and felt most of it was runnable otherwise. The 100 milers had to do the 35 mile loop the rest of us completed and then go for a long out and back which consisted in much more climbing. Only about 5k feet in the first 35 miles, another ~25k ish for the final 65+ miles.
Pre race, I had been dreading a creek crossing at mile 10 because I hate soggy socks but since it was raining at the start I figured it'd be a moot point anyways. But at mile 3, while still running in the dark, a group of about 10 of us managed to over shoot a turn by 10 feet and instead turned up a creek bed which then turned into a creek and before we knew it there were about a dozen of us trudging through this creek, water up to mid thighs, all of us way too confident to stop and say, "hey this doesn't seem right", before we see a couple headlamps passing us on the left bank, actually on the trail, where we should have been. We all got a good kick out of it though and had a good laugh. It definitely made the rain seem less impactful from that point forward.
