Memorial Weekend Training trilogy: part 2, back to the Dammit memory lane!

After the hilly 35 miles on day 1, my plan was to log 16 easy flat miles along the rail track this Sunday then run my 50-mile route to Fremont on Monday. So I left home with only a pack of GU Chews and one bottle of GU Brew (aka GU2O). Although I typically take 1 S!Caps at the turn around on Winchester, but I even forgot to take any with me this time. I mention this because, 4 miles into my run, I started thinking I'd rather go longer to avoid having to spend 7 or 8 hours on my run on Monday. Maybe 20 miles? Or maybe even longer for another ultra training run?

A few weeks ago, I wrote about continuing onto Winchester, taking left, along the track. Not a great trail with lose rocks. This time I took right for 2 blocks, then left on Lark Avenue and there was the Los Gatos Creek Trail to score a few miles. I very rarely see any soul on the 6-mile segment along the track since it isn't an official trail, except for a couple of short sections within Saratoga. The contrast with the busy Los Gatos Creek Trail was quite a shock: walkers, runners, cyclists, you have to remain on your toes, literally! With so many humans, at least you get a few convenient drinking fountains at least.

Running that trail brought back many memories, including a San Jose marathon edition (maybe 1999 or 2000, I wasn't blogging back then, and the svmarathon.com website domain has disappeared in 2021; illustrating that even in our data intensive age, records aren't safe for ever; thankfully, the Internet/Web Archive, WayBack Machine, is still up; yet, I could access the 1999 results, but not the 2000 ones; nor could I retrieve the course map which was what I was looking for).

Anyway, after a few more miles, I got onto the final miles of Los Gatos Creek Trail and up the infamous Lexington Reservoir Dam: the terrain of the Dammit Run tradition which ran for several decades before being killed by the pandemic. A 5-mile loop from the Los Gatos High School track, mostly on trails and including some serious climbs. Short of blogging back then, and the loggatosdammitrun.com website being dead too, I still have my log to refresh my memory. According to this blog post, 2019 was the 47th and last edition.

Again, I wouldn't have remembered without the help of that log, I ran 4 editions:

• 2003: 30'17" (6:06 min/mile)
• 2004: 30'24" (6:07)
• 2005: 29'24" (5:55)
• 2006: 30'59" (6:14)

I have to say that, especially after struggling to slog the steep mile to climb over the Lexington Reservoir's dam, then the killer St. Joseph's hill this Sunday, I'm quite impressed with these times and pace averages. Time flies and speed is all relative, literally.

I retraced my way on Los Gatos Creek Trail except for a detour to pick some Gatorade and a Snickers bar since I hadn't properly planned for this long run. By some incredible serendipity again, in reference to that above April post for instance, Stevens Creek Striders club mate, Peter Hargreaves, spotted me while driving through Los Gatos. He couldn't stop so we just exchanged a quick sign but amazed at the odds.

Here is a Relive.cc flyover with pictures and video clips of the Wildcat mini train at Vasona Lake:

6 days later, as I write this post, I'm back from a repeat, this time with some serious heat training with temperatures topping 93F. While I didn't die --phew!-- I have to admit the heat made it much more difficult. Not pressed by time, I actually stopped for 2 hours overall, including 30 minutes to cool down in the Los Gatos Creek Trail at mile 15, at the end of that Dammit loop. Quite some current in the creek and soaking my feet for 20 minutes felt so good. A luxury not available while racing...

At mile 24, I even stopped at the Seven Springs Fire Station to ask for some ice. And I got plenty! With all the stops at water fountains and bathrooms to cool down, it was already 6 pm so the shade was also helping. Overall, I didn't push to the whole 50K, only 29 miles this time.