Silver State 50-mile: let's now race!

After Miwok 100K 2 weeks ago which I called a training run, and Quicksilver 50K last week which served as a recovery run, it was time to race again this Saturday!

When Max announced the date of his graduation at Yale, I was slightly bummed as it fell the day of Ohlone 50K, my fetish race. I ran Ohlone 50K 7 times and always placed in the top 3, winning overall 4 times. At least that made someone happy, John Burton has an eye on that win (but he may not be the only one this Sunday). Anyway, that was the opportunity to run the only race which I still have run on our Grand Prix for the past 8 years, Silver State 50-mile in Reno. With the constraint to catch a red-eye to JFK at SFO on Saturday evening, I was blessed to join Marc and Toshi's carpool. We left San Francisco by 2 pm on Friday, and arrived just in time for the check-in and race briefing by Race Director, John Trent.

We stayed at the Super8, a few hundreds yards from the entrance of the park hosting the start and finish area. Very convenient and better than camping, but my room smelled like 20 people had been smoking cigarettes right before I got in, yikes! A motivation to enjoy the outdoors after a short sleep.

Here we are, Toshi, Marc and I, ready to rock and roll on that tough course. Let me add that both Toshi and Marc were aiming at the Silver State 50-mile / Ohlone 50K double this weekend! Quite hard core, which isn't surprising from these Barkley Marathon fans.

Being in Reno and farther away from the Bay Area, there were less familiar faces at the start than usual, but still quite a few. And a few speedsters as well. Among them, Bob Shebest, who won Tahoe Rim Trail 100-mile last July, and just turned 40, was my favorite. Especially as I thought he was local and training on these trail (which he isn't as he lives in Sonoma County). Chikara Omine, who won the Quicksilver 100K last week and holds the course record of the 50-mile with a blazing 7:05 was also here. We joked about him better not chasing his course record today after his 100K win on a grueling course at our club's Quicksilver. Eric Skaden was on the front of the pack on the start line, as well as Nikki Kimball.

We started right at 6 am, in a very nice breeze and good daylight. It was slightly overcast but we could see the moon and the sun could go trough the thin layer of clouds. I said high to a few runners, including JB Benna who was running the 50-mile today. He had a full crew from his company, JourneyFilm, with 4 cameras which covered almost all the aid stations. Looking forward to seeing the result (I got interviewed by Camron at the finish).

After a few turns, Marc took the lead, followed by Chikara. Bob was third and I was in 8th, following teammate Stephen whom I nicknamed "Dancing Shoes" as he was navigating around the rocks with such ease, lightness and agility. We were at mile 3 and I felt like I was running like an elephant instead, scared to trip and feeling pretty heavy. Not that my legs were tired after a full week of tapering but I didn't feel like jumping and bouncing. I passed Stephen at the first aid station (Radio Station) and slightly picked up the pace to catch-up with the 2 runners ahead of us by the second aid station, where I stopped briefly, knowing there were 5 hilly miles ahead to the 7,800-feet summit. On the large fire road, I passed them, then Chikara who was struggling. Chikara passed me before the summit but I didn't stop at the aid station and passed him on the way down, in the lose rocks sections which he had hard time negotiating in his race flats (although Toshi assures me Chikara set the course record in those). I must say I was very please with my shoe selection, running in the Brooks Launch again this Saturday (like Quicksilver last week). More cushioning was great to fly over the sharp rocks and the steep down hills.

I was now in third. I could see Bob in the distance, about 2 minutes ahead but I thought it wasn't wise to chase him at this point of the race (mile 14). Anyway, he is a much faster descender than I now am, I lost some of this skill with age and after breaking my shoulder in a bad fall on the Tahoe Rim Trail. I'll always remember how Bob flew by me at mile 30 of TRT 100-mile last year, very impressive. 10 years younger and much faster, Bob could have it today. The course has a long downhill from mile 12 to 19, sandy or rocky at times but very runnable. I got my bottles refilled at the aid station (3 volunteers), and went on the next steep climb on which I walked for the first time. But it's actually a short one and the rest is actually quite nice except for a "rocky waterfall" (a short and steep section of lose rocks) at mile 25, on which I spotted Bob less than 3 minutes ahead. Basically, I was losing a minute or so in the downhills and making that up in the next uphill. I saw Bob going through the 27-mile aid station. Unfortunately, Marc was there two and his lung problem triggered again. Marc couldn't finish Fuego y Agua 100K back in February in Nicaragua, and also dropped at Lake Sonoma. All tests have been negative so far, so he doesn't know what causes the issue. He kept going on, painfully hiking the steep downhill to the turnaround at mile 31 where he dropped.

I wasn't seeing Bob ahead on that downhill section which didn't surprise me since he is so fast going down. I was pleased though with my speed, just scaring myself twice and a stupid slow-motion fall while trying to avoid getting my feet wet at a creek crossing. I pointed Bob 4 minutes ahead of me at the turnaround, not too bad. I put my head down and here we were for 8 miles straight up to the summit again. I did some walking but jogged most of the next 5 miles to the intermediate aid station, at mile 36. By which I had reduced the lead to 3 minutes. I had seen the next two runners after the turn around but Bob and I had now created a sizeable lead, at least 5 or 6 minutes. After the Sandy Hill aid station though, there is a steep and... sandy hill which I decide to walk. At that point, I was perfectly fine with the idea of finishing second to Bob. But I could see that he was struggling as the lead was still not increasing when I was seeing him in the distance. Eventually, after passing more 50K runners on their way back, I caught-up with Bob in the last rock scramble before the summit. He was cramping very badly, legs and right side of his torso, but he left the aid station first. Sincerely, I had been on the verge of cramping too for a few miles now, but was able to keep it under control. With the cramps, Bob wasn't as fast as usual and I passed him with 10 miles to go, feeling great and happy to get some speed after the slow climb. My average pace at the summit had slowed down to 9:40 min/mile, it was time to make up for some time. From the course profile, I thought he was mostly down for 10 miles but not quite so. On the way back we had to get on super rocky trails, which were tough on tired legs. I kept pushing the pace despite nagging cramps by mile 43 and enjoyed a quick stop at the very windy appropriately named Ridge View aid station at mile 43.

The final section seems quite long actually and, rightly so as my GPS indicated 50.77 miles at the finish. I looked behind several times and couldn't see Bob or other 50-mile runner behind so I decided to walk a bit to catch my breath and enjoy the scenery. My main goal for the day was, first, not to get lost as I had heard that had happened to Gary Gellin a few years ago . I had printed out and taped the course profile and greap course map, but that was really unnecessary as the course was fantastically well marked, with so many ribbons plus chalk signage. My second goal was to improve the M50-59 age group course record of 8:40. My third goal was to eventually break 8 hours. And it really never occurred to me that I could win the race, I wouldn't have bet any money on me, despite Toshi teasing me at the briefing that I could get the champion wooden trophy.

Well, first I came in indeed in the 50-mile this year, not with a great time given the perfect conditions, but a solid 7:48, shaving 52 minutes off my age group record. And 3rd overall win this year! Bib #56 (will look name up when results are published) came in second 14 minutes later, then Bob who was exhausted after his long struggle with cramps.

Without much surprise, the women race was won by Nikki Kimball, paced by friend and local Jenny Capel.

What an honor to be this year's champion with Nikki!

Toshi finished just under 9 hours, ready to tackle Ohlone tomorrow! Although he was also exhausted by a final sprint and friendly duel with Eric Skaden.

Special thanks to Marc for taking pictures at the finish while I was recovering!

We left before 4 pm, without seeing Stephen, Amy or Jim finish, so I could catch my flight. By the way, Vespa worked wonders again and it was great to see VespaPower's owner, Peter Defty, on the course.

A huge thank you to the Silver State Striders and John Trent's team for putting such a professional and challenging event, mixing three distances for the pleasure of all (50-mile, 50K and half-marathon). I particularly liked the marking (wow!), the friendliness and competence of the aid station volunteers, the ice at aid stations, the selection of Gu and availability of S!Caps. I couldn't eat much more than fruits (and chocolate sherbet!) but we stopped at In and Out in Auburn on our way back to the Bay Area. The weather was perfect, no snow, no hail (unlike last weekend!), quite sunny and exposed but not too hot thanks to the breeze. The key for a successful run here seems to be ample hydration (air is slightly thinner and definitely dry, especially with the breeze/wind) and pacing ourselves to be able to run or jog the long up hills (like at Ohlone).

With that, the three back to back podiums, it's time for me to take 5 weeks off racing before the upcoming PCTR 24-hour Summer Solstice at Crissy Field in San Francisco. Although I ran 9 100-milers, I never ran for more than 21 hours, so I look forward to this new experience! In the meantime, more business trips ahead to DC and London and some family vacation in France and Malta. Living life the fullest! In the meantime, looking forward to reading your updates on Facebook and seeing the results of Ohlone tomorrow! Happy trails, Run Happy!