PCTR San Francisco One Day: another long day and night on our feet

A whole week passed since San Francisco One Day, it's about time I'm getting over it... As a matter of fact, I wrote this sentence and most of the report last weekend, but didn't finish it before flying to Paris then Krakow, so now this makes 2 weeks...

The race started on Friday night, finished at 6 pm on Saturday so I don't even have an excuse to have missed a same-weekend post. Well, I actually have, on Sunday, we went to the San Jose Symphony, then had a presentation to prepare for a meeting in the evening plus another function, and some work, so still a few excuses. But, more importantly, short of being sore, I was still way to sour to write something.

A 24-hour is such a long race, I changed the title of this blog post several times through the night, and the following day. My first idea was "Good news, bad news." By bad news, I was going to refer to my discovery, 3 hours prior to the race, that Greg had slightly changed the course and wasn't USATF certified anymore (per Greg, the original certification had elapsed anyway). My bad for not ensuring the proper application of the Pacific Association USATF rules for a Grand Prix event! The thing is that I had some big ambitions for my 8th attempt at this event format. I set a PR of 133 miles on my 2nd 24-hour, at the US Nationals in 2014, I've always felt I could do better, but no luck so far. So, back to that idea titles, I was hoping that, at least, short of a certified run, I would at least improve that PR.

As a matter of fact, the weather conditions were questionable. While a clear sky was expected for 24 hours, with warm temperatures preventing the fog to surround us, there were gusty winds expected for a few hours, including at the start. And they didn't disappoint indeed!

We were 50 to compete in the 24-hours, along with other runners running either 12 or 6 hours (they could start every 6 hours). And a few Men in Blue from our Quicksilver Ultra Racing Team:

Right off the start, two runners took of, and they included Ian Driver who took 3rd at Quicksilver 100K, behind me. I was very fine loosing sight of them as I was already running faster than my goal. While I was aiming at 9:30-9:45-minute laps, (9-9:15 min/mile), I had hard time slowing down and clocked a few 8:30-minute laps. I was amazed by the fact that even Chikara Omine had the discipline to stay behind, although that didn't last too long. The one who was really staying just behind me was Matt Ward, for more than 10 miles, while he enjoyed getting paced by a friend for the first 20 laps or so.

By the way, the lap was measured at 1.05 miles and, to complete the course description, it's a flat course, 45% asphalt and 55% dirt. With amazing views of the City by the Bay, alternatively the Golden Gate and the Marin Headlands, then downtown San Francisco, including the brand new Salesforce tower. And, after 5 laps, we could change direction at our leisure. The view under the PCTR arch, breathtaking either way!

I completed lap 10 in 1:27, 7 minutes faster than my fastest plan, oops! By lap 20 (2:58), I was still 11 minutes under, then 10 minutes at lap 30, 6 minutes at lap 40. Finally, I crossed over before lap 50 and was now 6 minute above the minima, in better territory if I wasn't slowing down too fast though...

Ah, slowing, I'm incorrigible: I hate slowing down, and even more so, walking, yet I typically get too excited and start too fast, like a kid. It's one thing to remain young in my head, but can't I have figured it out by now...?

By mile 55, my pace slowed down to 10:15-10:30 min/mile, that wasn't looking good at all. It was 3:30 am when I reached 100K and I was feeling dizzy and sleepy. I should have rushed to the car right away but I attempted another lap, walking this time, then stayed at the aid station for some time to see if I could recover but decided to get some sleep eventually. I was really exhausted, it was 4 am, and slept like a baby, stunned to actually wake up on my own at 5 am. The sun was rising, the light magnificent, that gave me some peps and wings.

Well, the legs were feeling heavy and tight so I did walk from the car to the aid station to complete lap 61, with my teammate Jim Magill, 71 (year old, not laps!). If I recall, Chikara was in the lead with 71 laps, but had stopped himself to get some rest on his chair, at the aid station. And Matt Ward was in 3rd place, 4 laps ahead of me I think.

The views of the sunrise were amazing and uplifting!

Lap 62 was actually a breeze as I resumed running. As a matter of fact, I clocked a few miles under 9 minutes which was a bit insane, but it felt so good to get running again, I got a little excited and did 8 laps at that speed, phew! Chikara came back on the course but couldn't manage to run so got back to sleep, on his chair, after 3 more laps (74). At this point, I got tired again and, worst, out of breath with a bit of asthma, dang! And we weren't even 12 hours in the race. I had 75 miles at the 12-hour mark, not too bad except that I was completely worn out now.

From there, I started a slow walk, aiming at at least reaching 100 miles so we could score that distance as a team.

Jeremy had not stopped the whole night but dropped after 74 laps and 16 hours of running. Jim used the whole 24 hours to log 78 laps (82 miles!) to finally win his disputed 70+ age group!

Our team captain, Loren Lewis, had entered at the last minute and, despite the lack of tapering, he kept running in the late hours, logging a total of 105 laps. Although he was only aiming at 100K initially, another teammate, Dan Aspromonte, 62, went one lap further than the 100-mile mark, for a total of 101.85 miles, allowing us to score at 100 miles!

Because, yes, I did manage to reach 100 miles eventually, after an embarrassing time of 22.5 hours, and so much deception on my end. My pitiful photo finish:

96 laps and I called it a day, or a night because I really don't recall, I was a complete zombie by then. My hands and legs were extremely swollen, I got sunburnt on the neck and lost quite some skin on Thursday, I couldn't take a full breath without coughing and I was sweating in the car like I had fever.

This belt buckle got me walking to complete 100 miles...

It has been a week and I'm still not sure what happened. I gained 6 pounds during the race, which I only lost after a training run on Wednesday, celebrating Global Running Day at work. And my legs returned to normal on Thursday. I believe I took too much carb, tortillas in particular, and retained too much fluid as a result, which is what happened in Auburn at another failed timed event in January.

15 miles on the following Wednesday, 12 on Friday, 29 on Saturday and 9 last Sunday.

What a shame, what a lost opportunity; clearly, you can't race for 24 hours every day... I hate the idea that this type of event isn't for me, but I have to be better disciplined on the pacing when I try again. I find it so hard to run at 9 min/mile when my legs are fresh, then so hard to walk at 15 min/mile afterwards...

That being said, what a blessing to be given this opportunity to run for a whole day by Greg, Jennifer and their PCTR crew, starting with Shrina and her family. Between the setup and the run down, this is 30 hours of volunteering such an event requires, wow!

I'll be back, and try again...