Lake Folsom Trail Half Marathon: great to get back to some speed

I still have the last of four posts on our last trip to French Polynesia to complete and I have scribbled on a memory card an account of last week's 100K Nationals in Madison on my flight back from Chicago on Wednesday night but, for the sake of seeing of I'm still capable of doing same-day race reports, let me go out of order for some change. A half marathon, how hard can that be to wrap it up in a day, right? Especially when you woke up at 4:30 am. But the thing is that there was 5 hours of driving to Folsom Point State Park, some time to prepare before the 8:30 am start, then one hour and a half to catch up with the trail running community and wait for my car pool buddy. And we have some family visiting from Europe for dinner tonight, full day!

This was the first time in the MUT Grand Prix history that we included an Inside Trail Running (ITR) event in our calendar and I was looking forward to finally meet Tim and his crew. I also picked that particular event to give a chance to Pacific Association clubs from our NorthEastern part of our area (Reno, Tahoe, Auburn, Sacramento) to participate and get points. Similarly to Jed Smith, that didn't prove very efficient again, forcing the larger contingent of the MUT Grand Prix participants to drive from the Bay Area. Like the 6 men from our Quicksilver Club in San Jose did (from left to right: Chak, our Treasurer Keith, Sean, our President and Quicksilver Race Director, Stuart, Jean and Steve):

Steve, who had the honors of being the doyen of the field, if there is such a thing, carpooled with me. We left home by 5:30 am and got to Folsom Lake at 7:40, leaving a good margin to get ready for the 8:30 am start. Although, spending some time to watch the start of the 50 and 35K, and my return to the remote parking lot, I actually missed the briefing. Thankfully, Stuart was there to tell me that the blue ribbons were marking trails we should NOT go on, the orange flags were the ones we had to focus on!

To our good surprise, we were delighted to see the lake at a healthy level. With the most severe drought we are experiencing again this year, that seemed surreal. And there is still some snow pack around Lake Tahoe to come/melt down eventually.

The first mile included a large portion of the levee, I was just happy to still see the leaders who had taken off at a sub 7 min/mile pace. I was just behind Stuart and we clocked 6:51 for that first mile. There were 5 runners ahead of us including Jonah Backstrom (West Valley Track Club) and David Tran (Excelsior) leading the hypersonic charge. After that flat levee, everything else was single track, with smooth dirt but numerous rocks and occasional roots and stream crossing but, more importantly, with numerous short uphills and downhills. At least, starting 30 minutes behind the 50/35K runners, we didn't have too many to pass on the out section (6.5 miles).

I stayed on Stuart heels for about 2 miles then took the relay when he slowed down a bit. Carrying two bottles (water and GU brew/GU2O), I didn't stop at the first aid station (mile 3.5) and passed a younger runner as we were exiting the station. I kept pushing although the miles were now down to 7:20-7:30 minutes. I was convinced that our other teammate Sean was still ahead and happy that I didn't have to lead the team anymore at my age! ;-) Right after mile 6, I was stunned to see Jonah already on his way back, phew, already one mile ahead! Then Andy, then 2 other runners but not Sean, so that made me the team lead and in 5th place. I didn't stop at the turn around aid station and started swimming against the current like a salmon. Indeed, at this point we had to cross path with the remaining half marathon field (122 on the entrants list although I think quite a few didn't show up*). These runners were so nice, most were getting so much out of their way to allow the lead runners to save a few seconds here and there. I want to hereby officially and very sincerely apologize to all of them whom I didn't properly thank, short of breath.

I was much slower on the way back, trying hard to keep all the miles under 8 minutes still (see below, all but one!). With such technical trails, I didn't even take the risk of watching behind if someone was closing on me. What was more important was to give it all but also be super focused on the footing to avoid any fall or twisting of an ankle, 2 weeks before Quicksilver 100K. Not that easy when you are trying to get as fast as possible and you lost some agility with age...

Under such self-imposed pressure, and having plenty of fluids which I wasn't taking the time to sip much anyway, I didn't stop at the last aid station either. Knowing from the Mount Diablo finish of last January how strong Benham is in flat and downhill sections, I kept pushing on the levee, albeit against the wind. My Garmin reports I ran the last mile in 7:02, so close to the initial 6:51, that actually got me impressed... Anyway, I crossed the finish line in 1:39:29, good enough for 5th overall, 2nd Master and first in my M50-59 age group. Time wise though, Jonah had killed it again, clocking 1:26:13, just a few seconds off the course record unfortunately. To make the performance even more impressive, let's say that Jonah is 48 and getting faster and faster (which reminds me of the fire I had in me at that age... ;-) ). I'm glad that 10 years separate us though, so I'll switch age group when he turns 50!

Stuart finished strong, just mere 2.5 minutes behind me, taking 2nd in his age group (tough to be in the same age bracket as Jonah). Then came David Gerner, from the Golden Valley Harriers in Davis, who just entered my age group, phew (1:44:35)! David and Jonah:

With Jonah:

Sean finished 12th overall in 1:51:33; Chak who joined our club yesterday took 4th in the M50-59; Keith 31st overall, 2nd 60-69; finally, Steve was quite happy to not only win his M70 age group but also get close to his 2:45 goal with 2:50.

As usual, most of the rest of the Pacific Association field was from Pamakids, with a sizable contingent and healthy mix of men and women to score 3 teams again.

I used only one Vespa pouch today, 20 minutes prior to the start, one GU Energy waffle 15 minutes before the start to complement my 5am light breakfast, and one GU gel at mile 10 to ensure a strong finish. Only drank half my GU2O bottle, and didn't even think of taking one S!Cap at the top of the first hour. Half marathons are too short and intense! ;-)

Worth more than a thousand words, here is the Relive's flyover of today's course (click on the image below or this link):

And more stats including heart rate for a big change, since I just upgraded my Garmin Forerunner 230 to a 235 replacement after the 230 died while snorkeling in French Polynesia...

A very solid and healthy 180 step by minute cadence. A very intriguing ramp up of the heart rate over the first 4 miles, then the rest of the run in the red zone (please leave a comment below this post if you have some insights). One mile above 8 min/mile...

Running in the red zone for 100 minutes...

And more statistics... Including a much shorter than usual average stride length.

Overall, great impression about ITR, especially the professionalism of the timing and the neatness of the aid station at the finish (I didn't even have a look at the two other aid stations we went through). I'm particularly grateful to Tim for having endured the training USATF requires from Race Directors in order to sanctioning the event. Although I regret this is a requirement given the limited relevance when you don't really spend time one on one with event participants, as opposed to what coaches do. I went through all the process myself when becoming an official 3 years ago, this is a lot of work. Different ambiance than the PCTR family feel, we are so spoiled by having so many trail racing devoted organizations in our area. We'll surely have more from ITR in the future!

And there you are, 18 hours after waking up, a same-day report, finally! It feels so good to apparently having the November 2018 hamstring tendon injury under control at last, and finally getting back to some speed. Although there is so much to rebuild still to get to pre-injury and pre-pandemic level, even taking into account 3 more years of aging. But I'd rather not get too excited at Quicksilver because I didn't do my hill training yet, and I know for a fact that my glutes didn't get any stronger these past 3 years... Meanwhile, I'm so happy to see new and past faces; let's keep fighting to get out of this resilient pandemic by still applying caution and control the revived spread of yet another variant in many areas of the globe. See many of you at Quicksilver in 2 weeks then!

* About the 122 registrants: 97 finishers are listed in the results so not that many no-shows/DNS (Did Not Start) actually.

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And a few bonus pictures and video.

The 50K start (video)

The 50/35K start conga line

Half marathon finishers

Very nice collection of 3-deep age group awards: