Ante Scriptum. This is so embarrassing, it took me 4 weeks to write this race report. Oh no, not full time at all, I came back to my notes and Blogger at least a dozen times. Why so long? First, after losing the time pressure imposed by my job, my natural procrastination has spun out of control. For the past 20 years, after each race, I typically had a few hours before either an international business trip or major deadline to rush a post out. No such pressure anymore, that's for one bad excuse. Now, for... number 2 (reason) in the case of this race, there has been some medical condition involved, which has developed 10 days before the race and continued until recently, 4 weeks after, which created quite some uncertainty about the whole experience, I wasn't sure where to start and to finish... Beware, some recipe for some poor writing...
(Tamalpa Headlands profile picture, no credit provided)
<Friday August 21>
Things can get tricky with guts. First, unlike some external injuries, you don't really see what's going on inside. Second, and more importantly, there is a significant lapse between when you eat something and when it's fully processed, it can be several days. Third, and commonly these days, if diarrhea lasts for more than 5 days, there is probably some bacteria or parasite involved. And to be treated with the right antibiotics, you'll need to know exactly which one.
To make an unappealing long story much shorter, I started suffering from some severe diarrhea one week before the race, on Sunday 9. I had flown back from 6 weeks in Europe on 7/30, ate the mini salad on the plane, then more salad in the next few days before hiking for 3 days in the Sierras (Mammoth Lakes, Yosemite) where, I admit, I splashed myself in creek crossings, although not drinking the water. On Wednesday before the race, I even tried a full 24-hour diet, skipping three meals. GI trouble resumed on Thursday, dang. At least I didn't get tempted to run all week, that was some serious tapering. Was it Giardia, or Cryptosporidium, or...? At this point I was thinking of digressing and branching out with a rant about the American healthcare system, and my frustration with its costs, I'll just say that two online consultations didn't get me the referral I needed to get my stool tested.
<Tuesday August 25>
Dang, I wrote the above 6 days after the race and I got stuck so 10 more days passed again... First, the diarrhea continued for another full week so I didn't know how to move on with my introduction. Second, I got mad again with the healthcare system here, so much that I didn't get my stools tested and, while symptoms have mostly disappeared on week 3, it bothers me not knowing if there are still some bugs inside my guts. Oh well, I hear you, that's not your business!
Let's get to the start line then... I had offered to carpool with Quicksilver teammate, Anil. Between the uncertainty on my end, and his workload, he bailed out on Friday evening. The bad news was that we won't even have a team to score, with only Sylvie and I starting.
I arrived around 6:20 which I thought was going to be plenty of time to get a good parking spot, with a 7:30 start time. To my astonishment, the parking lot was already half full. Thankfully, that meant they were now filling the left row, so the spot wasn't too far. With a field of almost 300, I had never seen so many cars on this lot! And what I noticed when getting my bib was the few faces I knew. Although it wasn't a National Championship after all, there were $10,000 of prize money so a large contingent of speedsters from out of state, as well as, probably not for the money, a lot of locals I had not seen before.
Actually, many regulars showed up later and, as expected, Pamakids had the largest club participation, not only on the course, but along the course, manning the Tennessee Valley aid station notably, plus presence at Cardiac among others stations.
Important detail to mention: no car flew or tipped over on the course this year but... this year's drama was only the discovery of a bee nest, right in the middle of the start area, and on the path to the check-in table!
Course Director, Ken Michal, discovered it the painful way, suffering from more than 20 stings! At least the course change was more straightforward to figure out and implement, this time!
Speaking of bees, I couldn't believe the porta-potty brand which was selected this year, that can NOT be a coincidence, someone was playing with the local ultra community! ;-) And, no, I didn't enter the draw, no appetite! ;-) If I was an RD, I'm not sure I'd pick that brand...
I'm no bee specialist but I checked on line (yes, that AI...), and it seems that the bees nesting underground aren't honey bees, but solitary, or... bumblebees. Please leave a comment below if you know more on this hot topic!
Victor, who has been directing this race for several years already, got his fun tradition going of us raising our arms to create some cool buzz before sending us off. In retrospective, I called that the bee vibe, given the bee hive incident. Cool picture which I can't attribute credit to, as it was posted as profile picture on the event page, without the photographer name.
Unsure how my GI system would hold, not to mention the fatigue of a full week battling this major digestive issue, I was happy to get passed by dozen of runners as we were crossing Santos Meadow on an uneven ground. I picked up a few spots on the Frank Valley Road though, especially after realizing that, contrary to previous years, we weren't hopping on the short single track section of Redwood Creek Trail. (Photo credit: William Dai)
Getting onto the steep Coastal Trail, I could see the leaders already 3 minutes ahead, after only one mile, yikes! Remembering the years I was running that whole hill, I felt bad of having to walk part of it now. I wasn't the only one but a few younger runners were managing to still jog and then, someone who looked like he could be in my age group, passed me! I didn't know him, I found out his name at the finish: David Long, 62, from San Luis Obispo. I decided to push a little to at least keep up while power walking.
That got us through Pirates Cove then Wolf Ridge at a good sustained pace. Like me, David didn't stop at the Bunker Road aid station, and we were then up on Miwok Trail. I enjoyed that section as I was just following and not making or pushing the pace, alternating some jogging with some power walking. Actually, on that segment, another runner joined David. They seemed to know each other as they kept chatting. I also found out at the finish this was another M60 runner, Daniel Jansen, also from San Luis Obispo. I didn't know if they were in my age group, or would could be ahead, but I could sense I would have to at least keep up or pass them at some point.
After the long downhill on Marincello on which I passed both of them, I also skipped the second aid station, Tennessee Valley, then pushed the pace on Miwok, to a point that I lost sight of them before getting to the crossing of Highway 1, where I got my GU Energy Brew bottle refilled, right according to the plan at mile 16.
On the long way up to Cardiac, I passed a few runners but got passed too as I eventually had to walk a few sections. Cardiac lives to its tradition, especially as we get older, phew! I stopped for a few minutes at the aid station as I felt quite worn out. I had briefly looked at the course but had no idea about the loop which was added this year, on a trail which I had never run on. And it didn't disappoint, it was a tricky one with many roots, meet Stapleveldt Trail! After being sent on it by Scena Performance's Adam Ray, at the Panoramic Highway (not) crossing, I experienced a high with a laughable experience: at the connection with the TCC Trail, Tamalpa President, Paul Herrerias, was standing just before the bridge, with his arm extended across the path. I thought he was giving me high five so I tried to make contact with his hand, before getting on the bridge, only to miss it and realize that he was just trying to indicate I should have taken the sharp right turn; I'm sure it would have made for a hilarious video! Another course monitor was posted a few yards away, for the next tricky split between the two trails.
After some additional gnarly downhill, it was time to power walk back to that infamous Cardiac aid station for the second time, on the legendary Dipsea Trail. I made a brief stop, anxious to see who I was going to cross on the next out and back down to Steep Ravine then Stinson Beach.
<Wednesday September 2>
Shortly after I left Cardiac for the second time then, I crossed Robert Schütz and, based on his blazing times and wins at three other of our Grand Prix events this year (Diablo Half, Horseshoe Lake 30K and Quicksilver 100K), I assumed he was in the lead. Not far behind him was teammate Sylvie (Abel), looking amazing! With that, although that meant I was probably a good hour behind, I imagined that I had caught the front of the race just in time on this long out and back. Only to discover at the finish that there were 5 runners ahead of Robert: wow, what some good prize money does!
On that Dipsea Trail, I continued crossing the lead runners. Including the super impressive M50, Jonah Backstrom (who would end up taking 9th overall, and first Masters, at 52!). I was so far behind, I didn’t really kept count of how many runners I crossed before the Stinson Beach turn around. Down there, ex club mate, Keith Blom, tried to stop me literally, as in physically, as I was trying to get to the water table instead of just going around the cone marking the turnaround. All good and good intention but, oops! Now, he was right, I had to move on: as I climbed back the stairs, I first crossed Daniel, 4-5 minutes behind, then David, higher up. The pressure kept me pushing the pace through the deceiving stairs after Steep Ravine and all the way to Cardiac.
At my third stop up there, I had only one wish, getting some ice in my bottles, for the final 3 miles: I asked Holly who referred me to Gary, alerting him that I needed help! But there was no ice, so I left promptly, knowing how difficult that final section can be given the poor conditions of the trail. Oh my, they scraped it recently, it makes the 2 miles before the switchbacks now so smooth, easier, and faster, a breeze!
I even passed one runner before the Heather Cutoff trail, and chased another one down the switchbacks. To my surprise, I had to keep my eyes up too, as I was seeing another runner with a white shirt closing on me… and I couldn’t go any faster! I finished 5 seconds behind Tommy Chheng and Pascal Joly crossed the finish line 3 seconds behind, what a close finish! Here is Pascal (#136), with another Frenchman who was visiting from Salt Lake City, Nicolas Sondaz (red tee), who took 13th overall, top 10 in Men, in 4:52, at 52. And James Tung.
The Men podium was Spencer Ferguson-Dryden, 28, in 3:50:57, Kevin Stewart, 36, in 4:01: 45, Nick Cioci, 26, in 4:09:10. It helps to be young, and fast! ;-) Jonah’s time: 4:45:31 (my M50 AGCR of 4:27 held on again, and it helped it was set on a faster course...).
One the women side, Sylvie won the race in 4:30:55 and 7th place overall! 15 minutes ahead of Leandra Zimmermann, then Zuzana Trnovcova in 4:50:55.
Picture with teammate Sylvie before the start:
And she was as fresh after her race, looking so effortless!
I finished in 41st overall, in a disappointing time of 5:36:12. But at least the GI tract held on during the race and I won my age group so there is that. Daniel took 61st in 5:51 and David, 66th, in 5:58. Here is the M60 podium:
Regarding the times, everybody seemed to agree that this course was much longer and harder than previous editions, and especially last year since the tipped over car incident led to a last minute shortening of the course. This year, my Coros showed 31.07 miles at the finish, close enough!
Right after my finish, Katherina (Laan) took care of me as I was looking for some drinks. I had met her in May as we teamed up to mark part of the Miwok 100K course. It took me a while to recover from the effort, giving plenty of time to chat and connect with both new and old acquaintances. I stayed at the finish line for about 3 hours, before driving down across the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco.
Shiran Kochavi's finish (it still blows my mind he does this after getting two bionic knees last year!), with Kristina, and Victor showing off the bright shorts he doesn't have! ;-)
While the drive through San Francisco and the Peninsula wasn't too bad, I would have stopped if there had been rest areas on the way with toilets. My guts were revolting with cramps. And this is the part your radio station you warned you about... Upon getting home, I had the most explosive diarrhea incident, yikes! While this isn't a medical technical term, this online desciption really conveys how bad that can be: "severe, sudden, and forceful type of watery diarrhea." I'll stop there, that's painful and descriptive enough!
<Friday September 11>
Sorry again for such a disjointed account, let's wrap it up for good, shall we? Phew, I finally feel better after 4 weeks, although I still don't know what that was about. Hopefully it wasn't a parasite because these things may move to other parts of the body. Hmm.
Most kudos to Victor and Jena for another successful edition of this Bay Ara classic, and for bringing the dozens of volunteers to keep us safe. To Ken and his crew for the super well-marked course. And the many volunteers at the aid stations and key trail intersections, from the Tamalpa running club in particular.
Gratitude for the sponsors as well, starting with the super generous Arc'terix and their prize money for the podium. A new sport skin care company in Marin County: Anadel Lab. The beer from PondFarm Brewing Company. And more like Freaks of Nature and Skratch Labs.
Ironically, this was supposed to be a National Championship before the National LDR/MUT committee decided to change their mind and assign it to Daybreak Racing for that exact same date, on Mt Hood in Oregon, only for that race to be cancelled because of wild fires and air quality, and moved even further away from a major city, on the ocean coast, at the beginning of October. Let’s start the lobbying work to get the Championships back in town…
That was race #399 in my running log, ultra finish #199 (50K #87) and, including both races and training runs, ultra #332. After Dick Collins Firetrails being my first 50-mile in 2006, I’m now hoping to make that race my 200th ultra finish, 20 years later! In a few weeks. In Dick Collins’ spirit and memory. See some of you there!
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