Crewing and Spectating at Western States, and the Greatest Finish Ever

Crewing and pacing two college buddies in the 2012 and 2014 editions of the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run has fed my obsession with this epic event, making it number one on the race bucket list.  While I'm hoping the third time is the charm this December in getting in via the lottery, I wanted to head up and be a part of the 2015 edition of the race in any way I could.  I'm all out of fraternity brothers that run 100 milers and didn't have any luck with my Bay Area network of finding a runner to help, so I was planning on either just spectating or trying to volunteer.  But about two weeks prior I threw up a post on the event Facebook page, and within an hour had a response from a UK runner that was coming to Squaw by himself, happy to have some help.  So there I was at the track in Auburn on the last Friday in June picking up my runner and heading up the mountain to Squaw.

But let's first jump to the end of the race.  From 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM and the thirty hour cutoff on Sunday has been called "The Golden Hour" and "The Greatest Hour in Ultrarunning".  And this year more than lived up to the billing.  I sat by the entrance to the Placer High School track for the last 90 minutes or so, watching the runners that had been out there through two sunrises and a full night enter the track with their pacers, crew, and families.  I found myself getting teary eyed more than once as people celebrated this amazing accomplishment on their run around two-thirds of the track to the finish.  As time wound down, legend Tim Twietmeyer came over to where a few of us were anxiously awaiting any final runners, and said that there were two runners still on the course that had a chance, with the second being 70-year old Gunhild Swanson.  Just before 10:58 AM a runner named John Corey hit the track with all of us exhorting "Go, go, go!"  About 30 seconds after him in came Gunhild, accompanied by winner Rob Krar who had gone up to Robie Point in his flip-flops to help run her in.  Those assembled were now screaming, "You gotta go, you gotta go!  Go!" Several of us ran across the infield to the finish to see John cross with 30 seconds to spare, and then Gunhild hit the finish line at 10:59:54 - SIX SECONDS TO SPARE!  The crowd exploded, strangers hugging, people crying and cheering.  Western States released a great video of it, and I captured it from my spot as well:

A moment that no one there will ever forget, to be sure.

And now back to the start for a quick recap of the prior 30+ hours......

Saturday morning saw 371 brave souls take off on the 100.2 mile journey.  I took off to Robinson Flat to meet my runner, arriving a few hours before he was scheduled to arrive to spectate and watch the race unfold.  I missed the top 10 or so men but saw the women's leaders and then about two-thirds of the field come through waiting for my runner, who struggled early with the heat and arrived just 45 minutes ahead of the cutoff.  We got him in and out of there fairly quickly, and I headed back down to Foresthill to watch the front of the race.

Foresthill is what I imagine the big European trail races to be like - people lined along both sides of the road cheering runners along, drinking beers, and ringing cowbells.  I ran into some fellow Pine-to-Palm 100 alums and posted up in a shady spot near them, and was able to see both the men's and women's leaders come through with leads they would hold all the way to Auburn.

Rob Krar on his way to Cal St. and keeping his M1 bib for 2016

After several hours at Foresthill it was off to Michigan Bluff to meet up with my runner again.  From the online tracking I could see that he was losing time to the cutoffs, so after resting for a bit in my mobile crew station, I headed down into the aid station.

Trying to stay off my feet

Michigan Bluff is another big Aid Station, and a key point as runners struggle up out of the canyon on a pretty rough climb.  As time ticked toward the cutoffs, crews and pacers anxiously awaited seeing their runners come down the fire road.

Awaiting runners at Michigan Bluff Aid Station

My runner finally came in at 9:30 PM, just 15 minutes ahead of the cutoff, and left with just 3 minutes to spare.  We decided I would start pacing him at Foresthill instead of Rucky Chucky, and I told him he had to pick things up a bit if he was going to make it.  I drove back to town and changed, filled my hydration pack, and tried to rest a bit before pacing 38 miles to the finish.  Unfortunately, as the 11:45 PM cutoff neared and with no runner in site, I knew I was all dressed up with nowhere to run.  I headed out toward Bath Road to meet him, and brought him in to the aid station about 13 minutes late, his race over at 62 miles.

The silver lining was that I was able to get back to the finish line in Auburn to catch several runners coming in sub-24.  Most notable for me was my friend Erika Lindland moving up from her 11th place finish two years ago to finishing 9th this year!  So excited for her, what a smart race she ran moving up the field and making up around 50 minutes on the women ahead of her from Foresthill to the finish.    I then took a nap in the car for a bit before heading back to the track to watch runners trickle in, all the way until that incredible final two minutes.

Quicksilver 100K - Western States Lottery Qualified!

Aside from my third Way Too Cool 50K back in March, Quicksilver 100K has been the only race on my 2015 calendar.  While I have plans to run other ultras this year, most likely including a 100 miler in the Fall, the focus was solely on Quicksilver as it was, quite literally, my ticket to the 2016 Western States 100 lottery in December.  With a limited number of qualifying races and with many of them hard to get into (I'm 0-2 in the Miwok 100K lottery), what I choose to do the rest of the year was really dependent on getting this race done in the States-qualifying standard of sixteen hours or less.

Unfortunately, some knee pain that started in mid-March really kept me from hitting the key 50-60 mile hilly weeks I had planned for this training block, and over a three-week period from March 16th through April 5th I struggled to get in just under 20 miles per week.  I ramped up the visits to my secret weapon and self-proclaimed soft tissue geek, Chappy Wood, for electro-stim/lasers/Graston/chiropractic work, and a couple of 15ish mile runs and a relatively hilly 20 miler in April gave me a little confidence going into a two-week taper.

This was just my fourth race at 50+ miles, and unlike the previous three I was on my own.  My girlfriend/crew chief extraordinaire took a pass on this one as her mother was coming into town that weekend from out of the country.  I considered putting the word out to some local ultra friends to find a pacer, but decided to take on the challenge of doing this one solo.  So after a week of putting together my pace charts, drop bags, and octuple-checking my gear list, I headed down to the South Bay on Friday afternoon to get checked in to the hotel and the race.  After picking up my bib and swag and running through my gear one last time, I put down the salmon and rice I brought with me for dinner and tried to settle into the hotel watching some of my favorite ultra-themed YouTube videos (thanks Sage Canaday and Billy Yang!).  Unsurprisingly I was super-antsy, so I walked over to a local restaurant for a vodka soda to calm my nerves, and found distraction in encouraging someone I met that was getting ready to run the 50K as her first ultra the next day.  I'm sure that someday I'll be relaxed enough to get a good nights sleep the night before a race, but this was not to be that night.

I got up before my alarm at 2:30 AM and put down my chia/coconut milk/UCAN shake, brewed some coffee, and headed off to the start.  I was there in plenty of time to check in, mill about, talk to a few friends and then get ready for the start.  It was a low-key event, with the RD backing us up into a field that served as the parking lot and then saying, "This looks like a good place to start."  After earlier signing two additional waivers, we were once again appraised of the three mountain lions that had been recently seen around the course, and then at 4:30 AM we were off! 

Low key start, old school ultra style

Per usual I started at the back, and as it was already comfortably warm I threw my long sleeve shirt on the trunk of my car as I went by, and up the trail we went with headlamps bobbing.  The race starts with a 1,200' climb over 3.7 miles, some rollers, and then another 1,000' climb into the second aid station at mile 12.  I settled into a power hike, passing several people on the climbs (easy since I was the last person to hit the trail head) and running a bit where I could.  The knee was feeling fine, I was hydrating and fueling with Tailwind, Bonk Breakers, and banana chips, and things were going really well.   I had set the Virtual Partner on my Garmin for a 15 hour pace, my B-Goal, and I was easily gaining time on that mile after mile.  I cruised through the Hicks A/S at mile 7, and hit the Bald Mountain A/S around mile 12 in about 2:38, or sub-12:00 pace, which was well ahead of my 14-hour A-goal pace of 13:30. The sun came up and we were running through the fog and clouds, really comfortable.

Runners in the mist

  

The miles continued to tick off pretty well - 10:11, 10:33, 11:29, 10:36.  Then into mile 16 we hit the climb to the highest point of the course, a steep 1,200' up to Kennedy A/S over two miles.   As this was an out and back section I started to see some of the leaders, and as always the elites and the mid/back of the pack encouraged each other.  Then it was a 2,200' drop down into Lexington A/S, and my old nemesis started to make itself known on the downhill as my right IT band began to hurt a bit.  

What goes up must come down

I regrouped a bit at the bottom knowing I had to turn around and climb right back up that 2,200', and it was 13:21-21:20 miles as I hiked as best I could.  It was a loooong climb, but coming into Kennedy A/S for the second time I was encouraged to have the biggest one out of the way at the 50K mark, and I was still well ahead of 14-hour pace.

I was surprised to see my buddy Tony sitting in a chair at the A/S, as he's a much better runner than me.  Turned out he was having a tough day already with some Achilles pain and stomach issues.  He got up and left with me and we hiked for a bit, but he was resigned to dropping at the next A/S - there was no good way to get him out at the last one, so he had to hike 5 miles just to be able to drop.  I wished him well and shuffled off again, knocking out four more sub-11 miles despite the worsening pain in my IT band.

Back at Hicks A/S and my drop bag at mile 36 I took the time to re-lube my feet and change socks. 

Still feeling good. It's Early!  Photo credit Chasqui Runner

Other than the IT band I was feeling pretty good, still eating and drinking, still moving alright, and dousing myself with ice water from my handheld insulated bottle to try and keep cool.  We hit my least favorite section of the course here as we rolled into Hacienda A/S at mile 43, but I was still moving ok.     

I got a good laugh out of a great sign at the A/S, and then it was down and then up a short, steep climb into Mockingbird Hill A/S at mile 42, and my pace continued to slow due to general fatigue and my IT band making it tougher to run the downhills.

Favorite.Sign.Ever

About 7 hours in I had switched from Tailwind to water in my hydration pack, and was nursing GUs regularly a nip at a time, trying to almost chew it and use saliva to kickstart the digestion.  My nutrition and hydration had been really good and my energy was great....until it wasn't.  As the day started to warm (it hit low-80s I think) and we hit the last major climb of the course at mile 43, my stomach simply shut down.   

We hit a section of trail around mile 45 that was basically crawling and climbing up loose rocks, and I struggled up. 

Those houses below have no idea of the struggle happening above them.  Photo credit Shiran Kochavi

I kept taking sips of water and nips of GU, but I could tell nothing was moving through.  I tried S-caps to change the osmolality of my stomach, I took some Coke at aid stations at miles 47 and 53, but things were just backing up.  As I started to dehydrate and run low on calories, I just got slower and slower.  The Enriquita A/S at mile 57 was an out and back, or rather a down and up, and I hit a serious low point.  My stomach was done, my IT band was shot, and when I got there they were out of Coke.  I filled my bottle with water and hiked back up the hill, running into volunteers coming down with a 12-pack.  They offered me some, I took a few ounces, and kept hiking.  But as I hit the top, I knew I was in trouble.  So I bent over on the side of the trail and puked and puked and puked.  Three to four hours of fluid and calories came gushing back out.  A runner asked if I was ok, I said, "Just hitting the reset button," and he replied, "Hit it hard!"  Totally fitting.

From then on, it was full death-march mode.  And my Garmin had died, so I was running blind a bit in terms of time.  The sun was going down, it was cooling off and I was taking sips of fluid, but calories weren't going in very well.   

Started in the dark, and now the sun is going down

It was 15-20 minute mile pace, but at the Bull Run A/S at mile 59 I confirmed that I had plenty time to get in under 16 hours.  I shuffled and shuffled, finally hearing the cowbells of the finish line.  I managed to put together a jog as I came into sight, and finally crossed the line in 15:17:13, and literally collapsed fifteen feet later, not moving for probably twenty minutes.  Not the sub-14:00 I thought I had a chance at earlier in the race (and I know I'm capable of), but well ahead of the 16:00:00 I needed.  Most importantly - I'll be in Auburn for my third straight Western States 100 lottery this December!

Exhausted but satisfied!

Huge thanks go out to the Race Directors and Volunteers, Quicksilver is a first class race all the way.  

Gear List
Hoka One One Stinson Trail 

DryMax Socks
2Xu Compression Calf Sleeves
Saxx Pro Elite
UCAN SuperStarch
Tailwind Nutrition 

Run Goo (no blisters!)
Ultimate Direction AK Race Vest (original version)

Work Trip to Boston Provides an Opportunity For Something Different

The life of a business traveler is oh so glamorous.  Wednesday was nearly 12 hours door-to-door from home to my hotel in Mass, complete with an extra 90 minutes sitting in the plane at SFO while they worked out being re-routed around the midwest weather and then having to add more fuel (shouldn't they just top off anyway?).  It was a rainy hour-long drive on winding back roads from Logan out to the hotel, and the expected restaurants on the way never materialized.  By the time I got there after midnight the only food within miles was a cold steak wrap in the hotel's mini-mart fridge, which I was assured had been made "this morning...or maybe yesterday".  I washed it down with a trio of Sam Adams, only because they didn't have anything stronger.  The time zone change managed to keep me up until 2:00, which was ok as I was finalizing my presentation for my two hour onsite meeting Thursday morning.  I almost fell asleep at that point but something startled me awake, and for some reason I wasn't able to sleep at all after that, finally just getting up at 6:00.  Fun day and night, for sure.  

After my meeting I headed back towards Boston and stopped on the way to get some real food.  I had planned to run on the Boston Marathon course in the afternoon, but I was so tired that I passed on the ahi salad I knew I should order and went instead for a french dip, sweet potato fries, and two vodka sodas that I hoped would facilitate the nap I had planned once I got to the hotel.  But by the time I had navigated Boston traffic and was checked into my room, I decided I needed that run.  My knee has been bothering me for the last month, which has been cutting into my training pretty significantly.  Since I wasn't sure how it would feel after my chiro/PT threw Graston, electro-stim, lasers, different lasers, some pneumatic thumping device and maybe voodoo at it two days prior, I decided to keep it simple and run the mile from the hotel to the finish line and then head up the course until I felt like turning around.  To keep up the Perfect Storm of stress, shitty food, booze, and sleep deprivation, I threw down the complementary warm DoubleTree chocolate chip cookie and headed out into the cold, misty New England afternoon.

As I trudged up Boylston toward the finish line, I got some odd looks.  What, you city people and tourists have never seen a dude running down the sidewalk in dirty Hokas carrying an Ultimate Direction handheld and rocking an irunfar hat?  It's not like I was wearing my calf panties or anything.  I did have a  woman tell me I had nice calves, and that she wished hers were like mine.  I thought it was strange she wanted oversized, hairy calves, but I'll take the compliment as my PT just calls me Popeye or Fred Flinstone while he works on them.  Once I got there I stopped for a few minutes at the finish line and took in the scene.  The bomber had just been found guilty the day before so there were a few news trucks doing live shots from there, and I reflected for a moment about that day two years ago and the stories of friends and strangers that were there.  

Boston Marathon Finish Line on Boylston Street.  #bostonstrong

Then it was time to keep moving. It was inspiring to be running on this historic course, no doubt, and my normal disdain for the pounding of pavement was absent.  I was thinking I'd be happy with 10 miles, but I just kept cruising up Beacon St until I hit Chestnut Hill.  At that point I knew it wasn't too much further to Heartbreak Hill, so I carried on through Boston College and down the hill before turning around.  While the infamous hill didn't seem like much 7 miles into a run, I'm sure it's a bitch after 20 miles of hammering at marathon effort. 

As I headed back toward the finish I actually started thinking that I might want to run a road marathon again some day.  Maybe even really focus on the training and see if I might even get fast enough to qualify for Boston, or what I like to call "The Western States of Marathons".  But those unlikely thoughts were interrupted by the unholy trinity of french dip, sweet potatoes and vodka that had decided they were done with me and wanted to return to hell.  Every runner has had that feeling, a mile from home, of a rumbling from the bowels that has to be audible to cars driving by.  I know some trainers say to focus on "activating the glutes" while running, but I don't think they mean squeezing them together to keep your insides from becoming your outsides.  But I managed to get back to the hotel, up to my top floor room (really?) and avoid having to explain the laundry fee on my expense report.

It was a full day of travel on Friday back to the Bay Area, and Saturday I went out and tested the knee with my first hilly effort in a month.  While it's still not "right", I was able to knock out 16 miles with no pain or discomfort, which was encouraging!

Singletrack in Olompali, Diablo in the distance

As inspiring as knocking out some miles on the Boston Marathon course was, it was even better to be back on the home trails of Mt. Burdell in Novato.    

View from the top of Mt. Burdell

Four weeks from today I'll be lining up at Quicksilver 100K attempting to finish in under 16 hours and qualify for my third straight Western States 100 Lottery.  But this week a quick work trip to Boston provided me with a great experience and continued inspiration and appreciation of the opportunity I have to just keep moving.

Happy With a New PR at 2015 Way Too Cool 50K

This was my third straight year at this race, which serves as the unofficial kickoff of the ultra season on the West Coast.  With over 1000 registrants this year, it is also the largest trail 50K in the country.  

I ended last year's race report with the words "....of course by Sunday morning I was already thinking about the time I left out there, and thinking about how far below 6:00:00 I can get when I go back again next year....."  That was indeed my goal for this year, to get under that 6:00:00 mark.  I actually took a figurative page from Maffetone's 1:59 marathon book, and focused mentally on 5:59 and not sub-6:00, a subtle but important mental difference for me.  I knew my training was better this winter/spring than last year, and that it was realistic to cut 12+ minutes from my time.  I just didn't know how much.

Kylie and I with the Frog

Race day started out fine - coffee, UCAN and chia seed drink, and off to the Cool Fire Station to check in.  Once again my daughter and girlfriend were in tow, and they hung out in the pizzeria nearby while I took care of business, both in terms of picking up my bib and hitting the port-a-potty.  We then mingled with some friends around the start line, including the ubiquitous Way Too Cool Frog.  

With that many runners there are two wave starts, and I was in wave 1 and took off down the road at 8:00 AM. 

Getting ready to hit the trails with 1000 others

After about a mile-and-a-half of road the course veers off into doubletrack trail, and another mile into that is singletrack for most of the rest of the initial 8-mile loop.  I made a concerted effort to start a little further up than last year and move up the field to get in a position that the inevitable conga line would at least be quicker than what I faced the past couple of years.  It worked, and I made up quite a bit of time on this loop and finished it about 10 minutes quicker than each of my prior races here.  I knew I was pushing just a little, but it was comfortable through this pretty flat section of the course and I felt good coming back into the start area and heading down in to the American River Canyon.

I hit that 1,000' drop pretty well, but not pushing to hard, and then it was 6 miles of rolling, slightly climbing fire road above the river.  This is the best place to chat with others on the course, and I would talk until we hit a climb, then pull away from whoever I was next to, rinse, repeat.  At mile 17 the course veers back up out of the canyon and climbing begins, with the bulk of the 4,666' elevation gain occurring from that point on.  I hiked pretty well up that, and hit the rolling section from miles 20-25 with some legs still left - a part of the course that I had nothing for last year.  

Then I hit Goat Hill - a short, steep climb of 20% average grade over .3 miles, with sections that hit over 40% grade.  I had been running comfortably hard for 25 miles and over four and half hours, and this was a hands-on-knees struggle.  But I got up it, gasping for air, and got a sponge down from Volunteer Mike from Western States lore at the top.  But as I moved on, I couldn't catch my breath.  I could be walking or running on flats, hiking ups, running downs, it didn't matter - my breathing was completely labored.  Unfortunately that continued all the way through the final 5 miles or so, but I was able to push on and finish in 5:54:46, good for a more than 16 minute PR.

Pushing through the line for a new PR!

I collapsed afterward and really struggled to pull it together.  Every time I tried to stand up I would get light headed, and my breathing remained labored for a good 10-15 minutes.  I found a slight downhill to lie down on, head down, and finally started to feel "normal" again.  I think it was a combination of effort, dehydration (it was over 70 degrees by the finish, warm for this time of year), and possible low glycogen, but I'm not sure.  I'm re-evaluating my Tailwind drink nutrition strategy, as I think I get sick of sports drinks and end up getting neither enough water or calories in during warm efforts.

Obviously I'm excited with the improvement I've seen in this race, basically a minute per mile over a 2-year period.  It was also a good experience to be focused on my time from the beginning and almost feel like I was "racing", even if I was only racing against 2013 me.  That's not something I have a lot of experience with.  And I know I can continue to improve, which is exciting considering I'm 42.  It was a good check of my fitness at this point in my training for Quicksilver 100K, and gives me a little confidence for the next 2+ months.