PCTR Headlands Hundred 2021: not quite there yet, but trying. Hard.

It has been a week already, let's do a quick one before memories fade away and, scoop, before a business trip to Texas this week, the first since my last client meeting in March 2020! And it had to be Texas, in the midst of a serious outbreak thanks to these crazy anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers...

Speaking of adversity, and especially for that ultra marathon running event, throw in some devastating wild fires still raging in California. Between COVID and poor air quality, even more kudos to race organizations and directors for keeping is moving, what a fate in itself.

And, then, some like Greg and Jennifer Lanctot are bold enough to produce something which has never been done before in our local Marin Headlands, a single event combining distances from half marathon to... 150 miles! Not to the overwhelming scale of this past week's UTMB, or North Face's ones, but still, and especially much harder economically, at the small scale to preserve the sense of ultra community.

For many reasons, I happened to select the 100-miler in this year's Pacific Association USATF Grand Prix of Mountain, Ultra and Trail running. Ironically, that was conflicting with the annual picnic of my running club, Quicksilver. Would you rather suffer for 20 or 30 hours on rough trails or get free food and drinks with friends? Seriously, I'm asking...

Anyway, despite common sense and my hamstring tendon still being painful, I decided to lead by example and enter the 100-miler, what could get wrong, right?

This was my 173th ultra race and 17th 100-miler, even the 2nd this year, so you'd think preparation wasn't needed anymore. Well, first, the physical preparation has been quite spotty the past 2.5 years with the long lasting injury. And mental has been quite destroyed between the lack of racing and work-induced stress during the pandemic. With 17-hour days since I took a new position in July, I was super glad to at least have handled the logistics part rather well. See for yourself, I had some serious ultra stuff lined up!

4 headlamps, 1 waist lamp, plus batteries, I could run through several nights!

I even stocked up for the season with Vespa Power, GU Energy (gel, waffles, electrolytes), Succeed (S!Caps) and even a pair of poles from Sports Basement (although I would have rather get my favorite Leki which I have left at our place in Chamonix).

A few days before the event, Greg shared the news that the Park Officials were forbidding aid stations from serving hot food. While I typically don't each much during ultras thanks to the OFM and Vespa's intrinsic power, a cup of soup can't heart during the night, or at the finish. I got 4 insulated bottles filled with water and, on Friday afternoon after work, scrambled to find good preparations for chicken soup and mashed potatoes. Again, I was ready. Oh, and, Friday night, to the risk of wasting an hour of sleep, I even created and printed out aid station charts since I was going to be screwed (an expression meaning that I won't have a crew to help this time) and the course can get quite convoluted and confusing when you are exhausted at night.

Again, I was ready on the logistical side. Sleep wise, completely deprived after a few nights under 5 hours. On the mental prep side, my main objective was to finish to get some points in the Grand Prix. Not with much pressure as I believe I was the only Pacific Association member in good standing, in my age group. I just had to finish with the 33-hour cut-off. The last time I did this race was in 2013 when I won, setting a Course Record of 18:22:25. I had a super crew, Team Farther Faster (Agnès, Toshi, Judy and Sachin), was well trained and at the top of my game. It was obvious that I will need the extra 14.5 hours this time! Hence the purchase of the poles to at least power walk the hills.

With the race starting at 6 am, before sunrise, I woke up at 2:30 (not even needing an alarm, just the work and race stress) and arrived at the start before 5 am. There were only 40 of us in the 100-mile, and a few had started mid day Friday or Friday evening. With that, check-in was really fast and I almost fell asleep in the car having 20 minutes to kill and no cellphone coverage.

I was still preparing my bag in the finish area, which we'd visit 3 times during the race (4 25-mile loops), barely paying attention to Greg's pre-race briefing when he seemed to indicate a course change. As the second UltraSignup seeded runner, I was expected to be in the lead but I was so confused to hear we'll now start with a 5-mile loop with orange ribbons, I let another runner lead, likely the only one with a better UltraSignup score, Robert Ressl-Moyer of Sacramento, whom I didn't know. He was using poles right from the start, although I was surprised of their short length (like for cross-country skiing, I go long for poles when I use them, so there is really something to pull you up in uphills. 130 cm.). Anyway, Robert was in front and just behind me was Miwok super volunteer, Charles Zuckerman, for whom it was his first 100-mile race in 13 years. Charles kept teasing others that he was in trouble if he was still seeing me, 1 mile in the race, but, given the circumstances, I was just happing trotting in the first steep hilly miles, over Rodeo Lagoon. As we approached the ridge, I actually passed Robert and took the lead on Wolf Ridge trail, enjoying the downhill toward Miwok Trail. There, I took right to follow the orange ribbons which were easy to spot with some daylight now. I completed the loop under 50 minutes and got back to the same trail again, this time following the yellow ribbons as expected (the first loop was to make up a last minute course change imposed by the Park Officials again who prevented us from going all the way down under the Golden Gate Bridge).

I saw Charles finishing his first loop, about 4 minutes behind, but no more sign of Robert. I assumed he had either slowed down a lot, or that he had switched to the 100K since I heard another 100K runner boasting that he had started with us, while 100K runners were supposed to start 5 minutes after us, and do another 2-mile loop of their own. Pen Perez was catching shots of us just before the stairs:

2 miles in the yellow ribbon section, I started passing the tail of the 50-mile race, which was quite entertaining as we were exchanging encouragements and that would last until I pass most of the 50-mile runners but 5, in the first 28 miles. Occasionally, we were also seeing, passing or crossing, the early 100-mile starters and, even more inspirationally, the 9 valorous 150-mile competitors. 150 miles on this terrain, I've heard about 200-mile races, but wow, humbling!

I was moving quite well through Pirates Cove, although the tendon started yelling around mile 10, ouch! Nothing unmanageable, this has been the case for the past 2 years on every training run anyway. I plunged into Stinson Beach and just grabbed a banana at the table, before turning around. I started the big climb with ex Quicksilver teammate, Shiran Kochavi, while finishing my banana and catching my breath. Half way up, so about half a mile from the aid station, I saw Charles coming down, followed by 3 or 4 100-mile runners. I turned left on Coyote Ridge Trail which has some serious uphill sections in which I alternated power walking and jogging. At this point, I got into the cloud and the visibility was reduced to a few hundreds yards. But more importantly, I was completely wet between the mist and the sweat, and getting cold as a result. I kept pushing the pace to stay on the warm side and was happy to get back to Tennessee Valley, under the cloud. I drank a cup of Coke, got my bottles refilled, mostly GU2O because I hadn't drink much water, and forget to take a Vespa pouch which I regretted afterwards. My chart had 12.8 miles to my next drop bag so I knew it was important to stock up there.

I love the Marincello Trail, this is the section I did chat with Hal Koerner after pacing Mike Wardian at North Face 50-mile in December 2008. Hal taught me this expression of Diesel Mode, retrograding into first or second speed, keeping a slow, steady, easy pace. And, despite the great image, I have to say that I'm struggling with slow running in the hills, something you'd think is easy, right? One more thing to learn and practice... On that hill I did catch up and pass the lead 50-mile female runner, Maria Steinhauser who was killing it! I felt better, temperature wise, in that uphill, but then we got close to the cloud again on the ridge on SCA, dang. In retrospective, I made an interesting mistake, forgetting that there were at least 16 microclimates around the Bay! I did check the weather at Stinson Beach, not Sausalito. Stinson Beach has some clouds in the morning, then a sunny afternoon. But on the Sausalito side, the cloud was real, so thick and low that we couldn't see the Golden Gate Bridge. On Friday night, Agnès had reminded me of enjoying the views... well, not that Saturday!

I was around mile 20 when, surprise, I see Robert coming back from the Fort Baker aid station (which, again, wasn't at Fort Baker but, thankfully, much higher, just below Conzelman Road. Robert stopped and asked "were we supposed to run an extra loop at the start?" When I confirmed, he said he could do it after finishing this first large/main loop. That made all more sense. He was a good 4 to 4.5 miles ahead, he was killing it as well. Myself, as I saw them on my way back up to SCA, I had about 1 to 1.5 miles on the next 3 100-mile runners, Charles still being part of that group.

I was now at mile 24 and, for the past 10 miles, had experienced something really inconvenient, some electrical discharge along a nerve between my lower back and the injured left leg. Not far from the injury but not quite, more like a sciatica pain. First, it was occasional, like once in a mile. But it became more frequent as I was enjoying the long downhill toward the start/finish area. And, with every electrical shock, I was losing the control of my left leg which made me trip several times. All signals were green, I wasn't cramping, not bonking, but I was so bummed because I couldn't think that this will get better. It was like so much pain as accumulated around my pelvis and lower back, like this area was acting as an electronic capacitor and firing 380V randomly and, now, more frequently, and even as I had slowed down to a slog or slow walking.

Of course, you can argue that I started way too fast given the lack of training but I still ran the first 28 miles way slower than my recent training runs on Black Mountain. Which makes sense since I still had 72 grueling miles to go, but still. Where I messed up though is that I was hoping to run the first loop in around 5 hours. With that, I felt ok to get to the finish area after around 4 hours and 50 minutes of running, and spend almost 10 minutes assessing the situation before getting back on the course. But I had forgotten about the extra loop, so we weren't at 25 miles as planned, but my GPS had 28.5. At 10 min/mile, 3.5 miles are a big difference, pace wise! Photo credit, Jay Boncondin:

Anyway, I painfully got back on the course, having a few additional electrical shocks even on the flat section of Miwok Trail, pretending everything was under control while now crossing paths with the other 100 and 50-mile runners finishing their own loop. But, as I was approaching the 50K mark, it became obvious that I wasn't going to hold for 70 miles like this and, not wanting to end up on the Tennessee Valley side to drop, decided to turn back, to the surprise of a few who had no idea what I was going through (although they probably thought I was a rookie and had started on a crazy pace). Anyway, I got back to the finish area with 33 miles on my Garmin, to DNF.

At least that made for a shorter race report! Still, some disappointment of course, although I had serious doubts about the whole venture before even registering 1 week before the race. For my first 100-mile, Western States 2007, I took several days off, wrote several pre and post race posts, had the whole family with me to crew, had a super pace in Rob Evans, was super motivated and prepared. Fast forward 14 years, what a difference! As people say, we'll live to fight another day! Still, that makes for 17 DNFs our of 173 races, dangerously getting close to the 10% territory. That being said, as I recall, only one of these DNFs stopped before the marathon mark (Quad Dipsea is the culprit! With 28.6 miles, there is really no point in not finishing if you passed 26.2 miles...).

Although I saw only 6 hours of the mega 4-day event, I read so many accounts from other participants and I happily join the crowd to thank the PCTR staff, the aid station team captains and the dozens of volunteers who took turns over 4 days to keep all the runners safe and pumped up!

I left before Chef Yaku could officiate, having prepared some hot food off site and working with Greg on keeping it warm per the last minutes COVID rules of the Park Officials.

Buffs on!

I was expecting some sun, but not quite that Saturday afternoon over Rodeo Beach:

I drove to Tennessee Valley to grab my drop bag and saw I-Tao Tsai there who had stopped by to encourage his Pamakids teammates.

Then drove back home, leaving around 2:30 pm. Technically, I could have stopped by Club the picnic for the last 10 minutes, but I wasn't sure there would still be some action down there (Agnès had to stop by her school to prepare and had left around 1:30). Now, I need to share, at least for my own records that, despite only running for 50K, I was getting sleepy driving on the way back. I can't imagine a night of walking in this fog, I probably would not have survived in that state. Lack of sleep is certainly a recipe for disaster in ultra, let's work on this in September and October!

Not surprisingly, the injury didn't disappear after that. I was able to run a decent 10K the following Sunday and on Tuesday. But too much work again and a 24-hour round trip to smokey Tahoe for a wedding on Friday prevented me from running much otherwise. 16.6 miles this Sunday at 7:02 pace, a healthy run if it wasn't for the hamstring complaining as I write this, Sunday evening. It took Anton Krupicka 6 years to come back after a series of injuries, and podium at Leadville this month, here is for some silver lining.

Stay safe out there and special congrats to all the Headlands finishers last weekend (see the results)!

PS: here are 2 AQI shots as of Friday night. I haven't checked the theory of air quality in the fog, I would assume droplets can catch/fix quite a few particles, right?

Backs to Black Mountain: keeping moving forward. And up!

Not this weekend, but last Saturday, and the week before Skyline 50K, I went back up to Black Mountain. Technically three times as I also did the Bella Vista and Indian Creek trails loop on the other side so that makes two climbs to the top (otherwise, it's an 11.5-mile climb from my house). All in all, 3 ultra runs in 3 weeks for a big change. And improvement!

I used to visit Black Mountain several times a month in the good ol' days, that is on the weekends I wasn't either racing or traveling abroad. So much have change between the pandemic and my hamstring injury. No business travel since March 2020 and a couple of periods without much running, certainly nothing hilly. Although every left stride triggers pain in my butt, my doctor says "this shouldn't prevent me from doing what I have to do!" Define the what... Let's start with enjoying the 360-degree aerial views of the Bay, the Pacific Ocean and Peninsula!

Zooming on the extraterrestrial Apple Park in Cupertino (left):

The Pacific was clear of smoke last weekend of July, but that has change since:

And also enjoying some heat and hill training combo...

On this familiar run, a few things have changed as well. First, I'd say I still see more people on the trails up there, even folks camping. More than I used to before the pandemic. It seems like some new good habits have been formed from an outdoor physical exercise standpoint, there is that! Up on Montebello Road I still get a kick when passing cyclists. I used to be passed only by one local guy but, with my lower fitness, I just barely lost to a road cyclist at the top of the road. Never mind I was at mile 10 our of 28 and he turned around.

Another major change reflect another local crisis, the drought! The Stevens Creek Reservoir is so low, it's closer to a puddle at this point. Yet, they release water to make sure the creek itself doesn't dry up under the dam. This is the view of the reservoir from the start of Montebello Road. See the expected water level on the left?

Let's zoom in to give you a sense of how far and low the water is today...

And to continue on the water topic, there is still water at the campground, fortunately in this heat! It's marked as not potable, but my first trail running mentor, Charles Stevens, assured me there was an UV filter upstream, as long as power was on at the relay (and you can figure this is the case if you don't hear the power generator kicking in).

As for the pipe on Waterwheel trail, the dripping is really getting low (and, no, I don't drink that one). It's so refreshing, I'm enjoying it to the fullest like it was the last time, like the Planet was going to burn tomorrow...

I rarely see anyone on that trail, I strongly encourage the detour. Well, unless you have a special permit from the Park Rangers, the closest public parkings are 2 miles away (below the campground) or 7 miles down on Montebello Road at the winery, you still have to plan running a few miles to visit. Here is my favorite section on that detour, a mile-long downhill after the pipe.

By the way, with the drought comes much dust on the trails. Playground for wild fires...

Overall, it feels great to get back up, albeit slower than I used to on these tough training runs. One step at a time. One feet of elevation at a time. What's next? What about a 100-mile race in the Marin Headlands next weekend?!

Skyline 50K 2021: so hard but good to be back!

Sorry if the title looks like containing an ounce or two of the sadomasochist nature of ultra running, I can't help not to as it captures my state of mind. And, from what I could see on social media, it hasn't been easy for most of us indeed, yet... so good!

First, the good part: we are back to racing! I'm particularly grateful to Race Director Adam Ray who took over this long-running East Bay ultra tradition several years ago, for braving the headwinds of organizing an event of that scale. Of course, last year's edition got cancelled due to the pandemic but it was scheduled nevertheless so, since 1982, that makes it one of the longest running 50K in North America and, allegedly, the longest in the West. Everybody was adamant about the joy to gather as a community again! To make the opportunity even more impactful, Adam had added a shorter distance to include even more trail runners, with a half marathon. Adam had set the date and registration website back in January, that's resilience!

Now, are we in shape for this? Except for a few exceptions who kept racing weekly or monthly like Jason Reed or those who trained for and ran 100-milers already this year (think Western States or Tahoe Rim Trail), the answer to the question is a resounding No! Well, not me anyway.

Those following my blog have noticed the lack of activity. Between COVID (which I might have contracted back in February 2020), the lack of racing but, more importantly, the November 2018 hamstring tendon fissure, I fell off the cliff. I barely survived the heat and 50K of slow walking at the100-mile Nationals in April. I was feeling better in May while preparing for the 50K Road Nationals in June but, during one of my trips in France, badly fell in a slippery staircase and reopened the wound. I saw my specialist in France who said, after a lengthy consultation: "the diagnosis doesn't explain your pain, that shouldn't prevent you from doing what you want..." What I want? Well, getting back to running fast but it has become so hard to even train when every stride hurts. On one hand, there is the famous adage: "listen to your body." On the other: "Keep going." So confusing... The ultrasound scan showed the injured tendon attach 35% larger than the healthy one in the right leg, because of so much scar tissues. Almost 3 years, how much harder it is to heal with age... When I think of Russian gymnast Artur Dalaloyan who got a gold medal in Tokyo less than three months after surgery on his Achilles', while typical recovery is at least 8-10 months, this is insane! And what am I really complaining about...?

Anyway, with that, my main goal was to finish and I took extra care of not getting caught in the front of the race. For instance getting at the back of the pack at the start which gave me the opportunity to get this selfie of our team, and a full frame picture by another runner. Short of a very involved team these days, so cool to have 6 runners in to potentially score a men and mixed team!

Starting in the middle of the pack and on a paved section, despite making sure I wasn't going out faster than 8 min/miles (as opposed to sub 6 certain years when chasing Chikara!), I still passed quite a few runners, but never had a glimpse of the leaders. I chatted with a few, it felt good to see so many familiar faces, but new ones as well, so typical of that race which sees many rookies in ultra running given the accessibility of the race from around the Bay.

As soon as we started climbing I realized the lack of training and fitness; that was going to be a longer day this year! The funny thing was that, on the first rolling section, I kept trading places with a handful of runners, getting passed in the uphills and passing them on the way down. That included my teammate Lisa Hughey as well as another female runner, both looking really strong. Tagging along Lisa at the start, photo credits Michael Lucid and Scena Performance:

This lasted for 9 miles until to Bort Meadow aid station. From there, I was really impressed with the smoothness of the pace of one runner in particular, bib 68 (Jake Edman) and 51 (Oliver Chan). Both photo credits Michael Lucid and Scena Performance:

While I typically hammer it down and run on my own, it felt important to tag along today, and that proved a great strategy! While I lost sight of them in the steep climb to the Skyline Gate aid station at miles 16.5, Jake was still at the station when I got up there and I formed the dream and goal of finishing just behind him.

He left the station just before me and I had to let him go as I had a rare and, fortunately, super short occurrence of nausea, with my mouth full of potato chips and... salted caramel GU gel. The thing is that, after being assisted by super volunteer Chihping Fu, I had left in a hurry when I saw Blair Howard (GVH) and Markelle Taylor (Tamalpa, bib 608) closing on us. I didn't know their age group but thought they might be in mine, dang!

Faster than Jake in downhills, I did pass him on French Trail while he was lacing his shoes. I was super careful myself and it didn't take too long for Blair to catch-up before the bottom of the trail. Both my calves were cramping badly, I took an additional S!Caps and a pouch of Vespa concentrate, that quickly helped. I was also encouraged by my stronger walking going uphill, not losing too much ground on Blair, even managing to pass him a mile later. Jake caught up with us and passed me, and I caught up again just before our return to the Big Bear aid station.

Then, with too much walking on my end, and more cramping, I lost sight of Jake at the top. I was only able to catch him right before Bort Meadow. We ran the next 2 miles to Grass Valley, together, and that's when I let him know I'd be thrilled to finish with him. Bringing it back home, only 4 miles to go, photo credits Michael Lucid and Scena Performance:

I told him about the final roller coaster miles, tried to pickup the pace, but that didn't prevent us from being passed by Jonathan Goergen in such an impressive fast pace, phew!

Jake and I finished a few seconds apart in a time of 4:55.

Ouch, my worst finish in 13 runs, that hurts. While the fog was still covering the ridge for the first two hours, it got quite hot at the finish despite some refreshing breeze (the wind which fueled the awful wildfires unfortunately). The race not being too competitive, that time was good enough for 15th overall, 14th men, 3rd Masters and 2nd M50-59, so far behind Cliff Lentz today (48 minutes, ouch!).

Poor Adam who couldn't tell why I wasn't fully satisfied with my race despite a perfect weather, a perfect course (albeit quite dry and dusty), a perfect race organization, from the pre-race communication and briefings on Zoom to the dedicated volunteers, me breaking 5 hours, and the burgers at the finish (I would also mention the beer if I was a fan, but not really). Oh, and these 16 or 20 super cool and helpful radio volunteers along the course, a unique Skyline 50K feature on our ultra running circuit! Photo credit Michael Lucid for Scena Performance:

So, what was not to like? Well, my finish time as I just mentioned. You don't have to apply too much data science to relate to the "falling off the cliff" expression I used at the beginning of the post, the numbers speak for themselves. Hopefully, I can rebuild and get back to more normal times, I still have hope, hopefully that's not too wild of a dream!

Apart from the finish time, mostly good news: I didn't trip down, didn't roll an ankle (a few incidents earlier this year...), didn't bonk thank to Vespa, no asthma, not too sore on Monday despite some cramping (but a good session of Normatec air compression boots does help), still managed to run a reasonable amount of uphills, felt great in the downhills.

The youngsters took the top honors in the Men with defending Champion Steven Kool, 26, taking first again in 3:40 (that time brought back great memories on my end), Andrew Catanese, 28, 2nd in 3:54:30 and Evan Molineux, 27, 3rd, right under 4 hours (3:59:00)! Then Karl Schnaitter, 4:10 followed by his Excelsior teammate and M50-59 extraordinaire, Cliff Lentz (4:11).

On the women side, Kristina Randrup won again this year in 4:16:44 (Adam thought it was a course record but YiOu Wang ran 3:53 the year I set the course record for M50 in 3:52, in 2014. 2nd place was Isabel Diaz from Tamalpa (4:57:32). Then the runner I was running with in the first hills was in third place, about half a mile from the finish, when a drama happened: she didn't feel well, just had the time to call her husband on her phone before passing out. That's when Blair arrived on the scene and, as an exemplary ultra runner and experienced CPR, he stayed for 10 minutes to assist before an ambulance drove on the course. We heard that she was fine but that's a scary experience of course! Both photo credits Michael Lucid for Scena Performance:

With that, my teammate Lisa took third instead (after checking on the distressed runner first before passing by of course, that's what we do in our ultra trail community)!

For our club, Marco finished strong in 6:50, Marc in 7:05, Loren 7:19, our septuagenarian Steve and Jim in 7:41 and 7:58 respectively, then 8:21 for Keith. Bad news though, Marco and Steve didn't renew their USATF membership in time to score. Coach Marc:

How dusty were the trails: dusty enough to make the Dusty Bottoms running club members really excited, both on the runner side but the cool volunteers too!

Special thanks again to Adam for having persisted through the upmost uncertainty of the year and for supporting our Mountain, Ultra, Trail Grand Prix with this race, and Firetrails 50-mile at the end of September. And all the volunteers who took care of us in this summer heat, to keep us cool!

40 years since the first edition which Carol LaPlant ran in 1982, followed by 10 others. With knee issues, Carol still managed to complete the half marathon, along with Mama Lisa (Felder) who motivated so many people to hit the trails in the East Bay in particular. Carol ran about 170 ultras, that was #172 for me, what a coincidence!

At 66 Joe Swenson finished his 21th Skyline, comforting his lead in Adam's Skyline 50K Hall of Legends! Well done, Joe! All finishers got a t-short, a pair of "The Guy Socks" and, for that special edition, a medal!

All in all, moving forward and hoping the effort kills some scar tissues off my butt! Stay safe out there, running and COVID wise...

PS: another site for Michael Lucid photography.