So I started out the day at sunny Cool, CA with Mary as we tried to find parking…and quickly friends started to arrive. We saw Kellie while we were parking, since she parked just on the other side of the small road from us. Every year the WTC parking is crazy…and this year was no exception. We were a mile down the road from the Start/Finish and that’s arriving 1hr 15min before start time. The fun part though is that while you are walking up the road towards the starting line you get to see friends walking around and in their cars driving down the road to park…all the late birds. What gorgeous weather, though. It’s was going to be an awesome day!
My goal, besides the normal ones of staying healthy and finishing strong, is to run the course in about 5hrs and 30mins. My PR for the course is from a couple of years ago and it’s 5hrs 45mins. I should be in better shape now and should be able to beat that…but it is not my top priority. My priority for this run is to run all the hills as much as possible. The plan is to walk goat hill and maybe a couple of the steeper ones, including part of the final climb up to the meadow from 49. We’ll just have to see. So there I am at around the 9minute pace sign when the race starts. In ultras sometimes it’s hard to know when the race starts cuz there really isn’t a gun, or horn, or anything like that. Someone at the starting line usually says go and everyone goes. When you are towards the back you only know because the crowd moves forward. So I cross the mat and click my Garmin start button…away we go. It really is like running in a chute at the beginning of this race because you have cars on both sides of the road we are running down for about a mile and a half. Of course, being an old guy, I have to stop and pee a mile down the road…off to the bushes. Crazilly enough that would be the only time the whole race.
So much for starting out front. After rejoining the race I catch up to Mary and Kellie who are chatting as they go. I surprise Mary by pinching her as I go by. Then I am back to the race. I move up a bit in the group, as much as I can in the “chute”, and get to the dirt at about 1.5 miles feeling loose and in a good groove. I am in a group as we head down towards Knickerbocker Creek. As usual there is a line of people waiting to rock-hop across it and I go around them and barrel through the creek trying to pass some more people as I do.
Splashing through the creeks is part of the fun! I jog up the hill and turn onto the Secret Trail. I hear Nicole, Sunny and Cathleen here and we all run together for some time snaking our way through the single track, getting frustrated when the conga-line slows on these small hills for people to walk. Audible growns are heard when this happens so early in the race on such small bumps. I find many opportunities to pass and make my way around as many as possible as the miles go on.
Splashing through creeks, and picking my footing through the mud, I set a PR (according to my Garmin log later) for this section coming back through past the firehouse.
I see Paul and Steve as I come racing through and drop some clothes with Steve (thanks buddy!). Now for the fast part!
I make my way though the meadow and start heading down the Western States trail towards the first hwy 49 crossing. This is always a fast section and I just let my legs float me quickly down the hill. There are some really slippery and wet areas through here and I slip a couple of times but this is mostly a fun section. Now we cross hwy 49 and make our way down to the aid station on the start of Quarry Rd, which is really a dirt fire road/trail that goes for the next 5 miles along the Middle Fork American River. I have been running alone, mostly, for the past 2 miles and continue to most of the next 20 miles to the end. I pass many friends and see many at the aid stations but our paces just don’t seem to match up so I spend most of the time alone.
I continue to run the hills down this section until the last hill before main bar. I walk this a little and get to the base of ballbearing feeling pretty good. I continue around towards poverty bar continuing to run a comfortable pace…plus a little push. I check my watch at 15 miles to see my halfway-point time to try and extrapolate my total time…2:27. Uh…that would put me in under 5 hrs! Yeah…not gonna happen. I know that the trail ahead has some nasty hills and it is just going to wear on me. But I like the fact that I am still running most of the hills at this point and moving forward comfortably. A later check of my Garmin file shows that I ran miles 5 to 15 all under 10 minute per mile pace and a couple under 9. So it will be easy to say that I went out too fast…but I ran my plan which was to run the hills and run comfortably. These were just comfortable paces.
Finally I reach the upper ridge of the course which turns back towards Cool and the finish. It’s a 9 mile stretch to the finish which winds it’s way back and forth on the ridge and enters and exits many little mini-canyons. The trail is somewhat runnable and shaded through some rolling hills. For me it’s the most beautiful part of the course. I wind my way in and out…up and down...passing some people and getting passed by some. I’m starting to feel some fatigue at about mile 20 and decide to have my hummus/avocado wrap to get some food in me. I haven’t eaten anything at the aid stations so far, and have had a couple of GU packs and one Powerbar Performance Energy Blend (blueberry/banana), along with the Tailwind that I have been drinking since the start…and water (I’ll list a full inventory later). I stop to walk and eat the wrap and will tie my shoes a little tighter since they are wet and so are a little loose. Now I take off again and immediately start having some pain with every step on the top of my right foot. I stop to re-tie my shoes a little looser to get some pressure off from the laces, and it still hurts when I start running again. I stop two more times before I get the pressure right that I can continue to run. When running this ridge I almost always find myselft trying to guess which mini-canyon is the one with the small wood bridge that is right before the brown’s bar area. I almost always anticipate it incorrectly. Someday I’ll actually count them. This time, though, it sneaks up on me and I am crossing the bridge before I realized it was coming up. I think I was distracted by some groups that I was passing on the ridge which helped break up the miles a bit. I cross the bridge, and jog slowly up the hill and then make the left to go towards Goat Hill. At mile 26 I reach it. Goat Hill is a steep climb of about a half a mile and today it is a little slippery too.
I hike up this agressively, okay to walk since my plan was to walk this all along. I hike it hard, though, and pass a couple of people on my way up. Then I hear Greg and Steve yelling encouragement from the top to people and others cheering up there too. Really helps you up the hill to hear all of that getting closer and closer. I make the crest and Steve has the nerve to say “I expect to see you again going the other way since you should be finishing, then turning around and running it again for a 62 mile training run!”. Funny guy. I think I said something like “wait for me…I’ll see you on the way back”…as I jog away. I also see Megan and others up there but can’t remember/list everyone. A nice and needed boost to see so many at that point in the race.
Now I’m in “single hand digits”! For me that is under five miles…amount of fingers on one hand. A checkpoint for me and that gives me a bit of a boost…but I can feel I’m starting to get tired as the miles click by…no more speed in my legs…nothing left to “push it”. I have one last climb to do. I roll my way up and down all the way to the last hwy 49 crossing which is a little over a mile from the finish. I cross the street with the help of the traffic cop stopping traffic and go by the aid station there. I eat one last GU for added boost up the hill and start jogging. The first part of this hill towards the meadow is not that steep and I run all they way up to the Short Cut trail. As I run by that intersection it does get steep. I slow to a power hike and continue up picking my way through the water running down the trail and more mud. Finally it flattened out a bit and I see the person in front of me start running so I start running too, continuing up the last of the hill to the meadow. I get to the top, make the hard left turn and can smell the finish. Picking my line on the trail, trying to avoid too much slop, I can finally see the fence ahead which means I am close. I continue to run the last couple of small hills, turn right along side hwy 49 and head to the finish.
As I round the last corner I hear a bunch of screams and yelling and look over and there are the FTRs cheering me on to the end. I see these wonderful friends and I get chills as I go by them and make my way across the finish line. This year they give us medals, like a marathon, and I think to myself that our friend Claudia, who is running her first ultra here today will love this. She loves her bling! I cross the finish line showing 5:27:25 on my watch. A really solid time for me and I am happy.
I grab a water and start walking. I head over to the place where I saw the group and get lots of congrats pats on the back for a strong finish. Great to be part of such an awesome support system. Speaking of which, Matt’s cooler is there full of beer and Ice.
I grab a beer, pop it open, and savor the taste. I guess the water will have to wait. Then I notice that there is a muscle-milk in there and decide that this is probably a better recovery choice so I quickly chug it (thanks again Matt). Then go back to sipping the beer. The next hour is spent getting a roller massage from Kelly, cheering other runners that I know in, and waiting patiently for Mary to arrive.
It’s my wife’s first Way Too Cool and her second 50k. She is hoping to improve on her previous time by breaking 7 hours. I got a couple of texts from her saying that her stomach went south about mile 20 and then another note that she had 5 miles to go. After about an hour of waiting I ask my friend Helen, who is doing safety patrol, if she could go look for her. Helen returns a few minutes later with another runner and then heads out again to find Mary. A safety patroler’s work is never done! Then I decide to head out there too…wanting to walk her in if that’s what she’s doing. But after about a half mile I see Mary and Helen running their way in!
We run in together and the cheers go up again from the group and others as Mary crosses the finish line. She destroys her last 50k time and is happy about her effort. I’m so proud of her for gutting out the last 10 miles! We walk around some, talk to more people and Mary even gets a roller massage from Kelly too!
The next couple of hours are a lot of fun with friends, family and gorgeous weather! No better way to spend a spring Saturday. Thanks everyone for your encouragement and for being such great support. Good times!
Special thanks to all my friends on the course who took pictures, many shown here. It’s really great having the support out there on the course and great to have so many pictures to remember the day with.
One race down and 3 to go…including the “big dance”!
What went well:
- Relaxed and ran comfortable pace pretty much the whole way
- Ran all moderate and below hills
- Continued to run when feeling tired, including the hills
- Didn’t doddle or graze at aid stations. Still trying to find right mix of nutrition though
- Completed under goal time. Pushed enough to keep good pace
- Great Family, Friends, and weather!
What can I improve:
- Still need to dial in sweet spot on nutrition
- Need to carry baggies of Tailwind to replenish my bottle as I go. I think this would have helped towards the end
- Need to figure out what’s going on with my foot pain. May need larger shoes on race day.
- Found myself looking at my watch, and remaining miles, too much. Need to stop this and just “run”
- Need to get there earlier for better parking place. Got there at 6:45am…parked a mile away
- Ran alone too much. The next couple of races should help since I won’t have an agressive time goal
Day-After Pain:
- Left foot achilles and plantar
- Right foot top of foot bruising
Gear:
- Tahoe Rim Trail Run Hat
- Gordy Ainsleigh InkNBurn Shirt
- Nike two-in-one short
- Balega Trail Sock
- CEP Calf Sleeves
- Montrail FluidBalance Trail Shoes
- Nathan Zelos Hydration Pack
- AR50 Houdini Jacket (to Steve after 8)
- Arm Sleeves(to Steve after 8)
- Gloves(to Steve after 8)
Nutrition:
- Water
- Tailwind Energy Drink (not enough of it)
- 4 GU packets
- 1 Powerbar Performance Energy Blend (blueberry/banana)
- 1 Hummus/Avocado Wrap
- 4 SCaps (sodium pills)
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