Knickerbocker Canyon 35K 2025: the epitome of trail running

Single track trails, fire roads, switchbacks, rocks, roots, mud, puddles, creek crossings, creek running, steep uphills, steep downhills, dead leaves, pine needles, fallen tree, tough competition and emulation, camaraderie, great volunteers, legendary trails, professional organization, sub-ultra but challenging distance, Knickerbocker had all the ingredients of the essence of trail running! I just wish I had brought my camera with me to illustrate all these keywords with pictures. Although I'm not sure I had the time to spare for a photo safari...

We added this race to our Grand Prix in 2023. Unfortunately, pushed to the side of the road by a large truck drifting from its lane after Vallejo, I blew up a tire and missed the start. Last year, I was signed up but no show with my freshly broken meniscus. After a good test with No Hands Half in January, I was excited to finally make it to the start this year.

I left home by 5 am and arrived to the start at 7:25 am. For a great improvement, 8 other club mates showed up this time, way to represent! (Chak not on that picture.)

After a few weeks with some much needed and welcomed rain, the conditions were perfect again: soft ground, not too muddy, and thin layer of clouds, clearing up at times in the morning. This time, I made sure to get close to the start line which allowed me to get in the top 15 before we got onto the narrow single trail.

I was in Paul Broyer's footsteps for the first mile and passed him as we got on the Western States trail. One runner had passed three of us running together but I passed him before getting to the legendary No Hands bridge. No stopping at the aid station and up K2 we were, together with a half-marathon runner, with a blue top. In January, then on the half marathon, I had run a good portion of that super steep hill but not this time: I just focused on power walking, knowing there will be another race starting at the top. There was a another 35K runner well ahead of us whom I couldn't close in as I was trying hard to save my breath. This hill is such a beast!

At the top, I thought that we were on for a nice flat loop around Cool. Oh my, I'm so bad at reading maps... I had seen a bit of a dip but certainly not realized we were going down to the American River, once more! 

At the next aid station, the volunteers announced 4.8 miles before coming back to them and I asked if we were going to retrace the same route. As they responded affirmatively, I had assumed it was an out and back. For the next 2 miles, down to the river, I was surprised not to see the lead runners then, only to realize at the bottom that we were going up on a different route. From time to time I could still see that same runner as on K2, a minute or so ahead but, more importantly, I could spot 2 yellow jerseys behind, Paul being in the second. That emulation kept me pushing as hard as possible in the uphills, dang!

I picked a GU gel at the aid station and kept pushing upstream, literally, as that trail section had turned into a creek! Eventually, I caught up and passed that runner ahead, before Cool. I still had no idea how many other runners were ahead but I was resolute to at least resist the charge behind.

From a quick look at the course map last week, I estimated that we were returning to Auburn on the same finish as the No Hands Half Marathon course of January. Which was on the long side, with 13.7 or 13.8 miles. Well, this time, we kept going until we crossed the road which I remembered from quite a few finishes at American River 50-mile. Granted, we needed more mileage to get to 35K, we had to go farther. I was still moving reasonably well in my opinion, passing more Half Marathon runners, when I spotted a yellow jersey a few hundreds yards behind, yikes! This course is relentless, I had to give more!

I finished in 8th place in the Men (chicked x2!), 3:13:12, 4th Masters and winning my age group this time, by a good margin. I should have been super happy with that result, except that the overall winner had crossed the finish line almost 40 minutes ago! Oh well, 87% UltraSignup score for me, when age is NOT just a number... ;-)

Short of being able to race, Shiran snapped a few pictured of my finish.

And that yellow jersey? It was Markus Lampinen, 38, of San Francisco, who finished 3 minutes and a half behind. Followed by Paul right on 3:19.

Worth more than thousands words to describe this course, here is a Relive flyover (click on this link or the picture below).

Despite the slow time, relatively to first place, I'm so grateful for being back to racing competitively. And I'd be happy NOT to still be the fastest on our team... A team which did quite well actually: at 18, Keahi Jack finished 13th overall in 3:19:17. Bjorn in 25th place, then Chak and Richard in 43rd and 44th respectively, Kellen, 11th in the women division, Bob, 75th overall, our Captain Gary in 78th and Keith in 83rd. 9 finishers total but we will only score two teams, one Men, one Mixed.

Speaking of teams, I'm blown away and very pleased to see a new club taking the spotlight in the Mixed division with SRA Elite having the top 1, 3 and 5 spots overall: Garrett Gardner, 2:34:52, Peyton Bilo, 3rd overall and first female, then Gallen Faris. Way to represent the Sacramento area and make a big impression on our Sub Ultra Trail Series! Looking forward to seeing you on Mt Diablo and Horseshoe next month, then in September/October for the last 2 races.

And an additional wow for Jonah Backstrom who, at 51, took 2nd. He was so happy for having broken his 2:40 goal which was Tim Tollefson's winning time of the original edition in 2015 (before Tim set a 2:24:33 course record in 2023).

I took 2 Vespa before the race, 4 GU gels during the race, especially as boosts before the climbs. I realize after the race that I had drunk most of my GU2O/GU Brew bottle but almost nothing from my water bottle, oops! And 2 S!Caps did the trick, sodium wise, as it wasn't hot.

Great finisher medal and tee, recto and verso!

A note on my shoes: I took the risk of running in a new pair of Brooks Pure Grit. Not the latest model as the box sat in my garage for at least 7 years, but the second generation, with an exceptional grip. It was the perfect shoe for the trail conditions, great bet!

For the anecdote, I kind of push shoe mileage quite far, here is a pair of the original Pure Grit I retired a few weeks ago, after the sole pretty much disintegrated, after 844 trail miles... A pair I started using in 2012, time flies.

The drive back home wasn't as pleasant as the way in, with a lot of traffic and a few jams on 80. After spending more than an hour at the finish, I was back home by 4:30, in time to start this blog but crash for an early bed time. Busy Sunday with home projects but I was able to run a 5K loop to get the legs moving. Some soreness but not too bad as I didn't cramp during the race. Meaning there is still room for pushing harder. But not too hard to save the knee. That is the new dilemma...

At least, a good hill training session, thank you Inside Trail Racing, Craig, and your team of volunteers for allowing us to play hard around the Endurance Capital of the World™!

Back to Black Mountain for a big change!

That nearby summit of almost 3,000 feet used to be my weekly playground. Between the focus on road and distance training for Spartathlon in 2023, then the meniscus injury 12 months ago, my last run up there was March 25, 2023. I wouldn't have remembered, I'm glad to have kept a detailed running log for 29 years! Anyway, 2 years since I went on Black Mountain, time flies so fast...

As I wrote last week in my Big Bunny 5K race report, I have to work on my endurance and hill training to prepare for my next races, this Spring. So why not right away? The glutes had worked a lot to power the pace on Saturday but I wasn't sore the next morning. Still, after all these months not running hills, or not running at all last for 7 months last year as a matter of fact, my main goal was to just go the ultra distance, with a conservative pace. So, here I go on the Mountain, last Sunday.

Incidentally, I was pleased to see so much water, first in the Stevens Creek Reservoir, then all the creeks flowing. I write this post thinking this may serve as a geological survey. Who knows, when water get much scarier in the future, most probably, it might be interesting to some to find some information about our past. Speaking of surveyors, I was thinking of my buddies whom I was running these trails 10+ years ago: Charles Stevens, Mark Williams, Chuck Wilson, Chris Garcia, ... Will a younger generation take over monitoring these trails through running?

Running wise, I managed to actually run the whole 28.5 miles, even the steep Indian Creek on the back side of Black Mountain. Very promising to still have the stamina. And some glutes to power up. And shorter strides/steps as you can see on this chart, around mile 15. Two images came back to mind wile powering up, two tips from ultra legends: Hal Korner's diesel mode, and Scott Jurek imagining his head/mind being pulled by a string.

As a matter of fact, the downhills were way more annoying, triggering pain in the left knee, dang. Here is a Relive.cc flyover.

Beyond the knee pain, the worst experience on that Sunday was an encounter with cyclists rushing down Montebello Road. Fearing those as much as they fear cars driving up, I was running up the hill on the left side of the road, against traffic, as pedestrians have to. I'm always thinking of such potential encounters so, in a turn, I was carefully running on the left side of the white stripe, in a turn. And not fast as it was steep. A first cyclist was surprised to see me. He wasn't even close to the side but deviated toward me anyway, the reflex to avoid a potential car coming up. Now, the second biker had plenty of time to see me but decided to yell at me, like I was the danger! A loud and infuriated: "Come on!" to which I replied with all my energy and yelling "F..k you!" At least the third cyclist stayed mute... Between the emotion and shouting with all I had, I had to walk a few steps to catch my breath, phew! Really, I get it is stressful to ride down Montebello at 50 miles per hour, but to act like you own the road... Disgusting behavior.

Not counting a few pit stops to enjoy the views, I clocked an average of 9:10 min/mile. I would have been encouraged by this start to hill training if it wasn't for the knee pain which resulted and persisted all week, hampering my weekly mileage: 28.6 miles this week versus 65.9 miles last week! I used to average 100 km per week for 9 years, but these 106 km felt like overworking... With my damage knee I might have to just do hill training while racing, and work on strength training otherwise.

From a survey standpoint, I noted that the phone booth at the backpack campground is still up, but without a tone. More like a museum artifact...

No communication but the level of the water reservoir at the top of Black Mountain is healthy at least!