The Legend of Le Grizz

Born of a bar argument, the third-oldest 50-mile footrace in the world is set to celebrate 33 years of punishing its dedicated participants. In doing so, the Le Grizz Ultramarathon bids farewell to legendary race director Pat Caffrey.
Every autumn on the second Saturday of October, dozens of runners lie half awake on the frozen ground near Spotted Bear Ranger Station, varying degrees of regret registering as fist-sized knots deep inside their intestines, bleary eyes twitching in a dazed state of panic-stricken anticipation, knowing that in a few short, sleepless hours a bone-rattling shotgun blast will rip across the cold, slippery surface of Hungry Horse Reservoir, signifying the start of the annual Le Grizz 50-mile Ultramarathon.

The runners know this fact, expect it with such gut-wrenching certitude, because for the past 33 years, with a metronomic regularity fueled by crazed, obsessive passion, the man with his finger wrapped around the trigger has been Pat Caffrey, a professional sadist, retired forester and adventure junkie who, in 1982, influenced by an intoxicating slurry of Zen-like athleticism, met-enkephalin (the chemical compound responsible for the “runner’s high”), the dubious company of an impish band of running misfits, and the consumption of untold oil cans brimming with Foster’s beer suds, divined Montana’s first and longest-running ultramarathon event.