No Hands Half: K2 fun and more!

It feels so amazing to get back on the trails and my cherished PA MUT Grand Prix. It's hard to put words on how hard it has been to miss an entire season. I started competing with Way Too Cool in 2006, won 13 consecutive age group awards from 2007 to 2019, then 2022 and 2023, but couldn't do one single race last year due to my broken meniscus.

This was the first race of our 2025 14-event series, and also first of the 6-event sub-marathon trail series. I design these series with many objectives in mind, including fairness of locations for our members in the Sacramento, Auburn and Reno area, and these shorter races to be more relevant and accessible to both younger and older generations to meet and compete. Auburn is 2 to 2.5 hours from the Bay Area, still we had more members driving from the Bay.

Speaking of driving, we had better to start early. I car pooled with my teammate Keith who wasn't so excited when I set the start time at 4:15 am from San Jose. But even before 6 am, you never know what may happen on highway 80. We were 2 cars when a highway patrol car started swirling and closing the highway for a few minutes to allow a construction truck to exit the highway. Passed Sacramento, we arrived in a section where the cops were sending us off the highway. Luckily as I was changing lane and trying to squeeze on the right, the traffic reopened so we lost only a couple of minutes. Craig, the RD, had to delay the start of the 50K by a few minutes to allow for a few late participants.

I had assumed the 50K would start at 7am and I was concerned about the parking options. There were plenty of spots when we got in at 6:45, phew! The temperature was chilly before sunrise, in the mid 40s, it was going to be a gorgeous weather to run.

I caught a few pix of the 50K start, shortly after sunrise, see the others at the bottom of this post.

Quick chat with Eric Shranz who used to be at the center of the Ultra world when he was hosting UltraRunnerPodcast.com. He wasn't here to run but encourage his son, 13. Passing the trail running bug!

It was our turn to start at 8. Not being in shape, I didn't even think of trying to get too close to the start. I wasn't too far behind but we start downhill and on a single track so I quickly got stuck behind a conga line. The were roots and stones so I didn't risk passing. Even more tricky was the sun rays blinding us from time to time. It wasn't worth the risk of falling that early in the race. But with that, I never saw the lead runners. I had seen James Scanlan and Cliff Lentz signed up in the M50, and heard about Chikara signing up at the last minute, but I had not see much competition in the M60. Although we were in line, a gal with her bib in her hand passed us. Keith told me afterwards that she had to pass everybody and it was certainly worth it as she ended up winning the women competition (Anna Louden, 10th overall)!

I was finally able to pass a few runners and push the pace a bit, yet my gps indicated a first mile over 8 minutes, despite the downhill, yikes, that was going to be a slow half. I pushed the pace as much as I could in the next 3 miles down to the legendary No Hands bridge, thinking I was going to regret the effort in K2. With the pounding in the downhill I could feel my left knee but that wasn't too bad. I was able to get the pace down to 7 minutes.

I was carrying my usual pair of UltimateDirection bottles, one filled with water, one with GU Energy Brew, I did skip the aid station both times. I passed about a dozen of 50K runners in K2. I ran a few steps but mostly power walked, or hiked, paying attention to not sliding too much as rocks were slippery. Beyond the K2 nickname which convey the extreme steepness, seems like the original Pointed Rocks Trail name fits well. I got passed by a tall half marathon runner with a black top, and passed another one near the top.

Took a GU gel at the top before flying down the Western States Trail. I ran 3 WS100 but always this section in the dark and after a long and hot day so that felt very different. During one edition of Foumidable 50K, so in day light, this is where I got stunned by Eric Skaden calling me a cheater. Back when I started, he was calling me the Frenchie, he was so strong and superior, then he disappeared from the ultra scene shortly after turning Masters. Never understood what that was about. Anyway, apart from that memory, this is the part of the race I enjoyed the most, flying down this technical single track alone with great sensations coming back while dancing and hopping over the rocks with what I thought was some decent speed.

It was time to get back on that famous No Hands bridge which gives most of us, ultra runners, a chill. I was maybe half way when I heard the bells of the volunteers at the aid station meaning there was a runner not far behind. Instead of looking back I forged ahead and pushed the pace. There is no better training motivation than some race emulation!

When we leave the Western States Trail for the Riverview Trail, things get really serious and yet, that steep downhill could get even worse with more water and mud. This is a section I discovered when I won the inaugural Lake Folsom in 2015. I remembered thinking back then: "great, we climb up from No Hands and they now get us down to the river again..." It's actually not quite down to the river but there is some decent... descent! I used to like technical downhills but I confess that, after breaking my shoulder and not being as agile at 60, they now scare me. With that, a few more minutes lost to put on the breaks yet I became optimistic about breaking 2 hours when I passed mile 11 after about 1hr40 of running. That hope gave me some energy to keep pushing the pace on the Robbie Point Fire Break Trail, so much that I caught another runner who seemed to struggle, resumed running when I passed him and asked me if we were almost there. I had 12.7 miles on my GPS so replied positively although I remembered from the Folsom Lake race that there was still a good uphill to get to the River Canyon Overlook area. If I had known that there was still an entire mile...

1:56 at mile 13 and I still had hope although it made no sense as I couldn't see any ridge above me. With the 2-hour mark missed, I walked the rest of the hill and crossed the finish line in 2:06:21. Oh my, that was a long half, or a heavy one as the RD call it. Not complaining, this is trail running, not road, and others told me it was advertised as 13.5 miles. Cool pictures from Shiran.

I wasn't too surprised when I learned that I was 15th overall. But stunned to see that I hadn't even won my age group. 14th place was another PA runner from West Valley, Brian Sterling, 60, almost 5 minutes ahead of me! Oh well, if I can't train consistently, I can't get to the top. Winning time was 1:43:37 and it wasn't even Chikara but Travis Lavin, 37. Chikara took 2nd overall and first Masters in 1:45. Overall, it was the Excelsior Men show today with the team taking 6 of the top 9 spots or 7 or 11 top men, wow! (Photo credit Diann Leo-Omine, on Spencer Hoffman's phone.)

Pamakids had 18 entrants and got 5th and 17th in the Men, consistently impressive club engagement!

Tamalpa scored a Mixed team. Embarrassingly, my club, Quicksilver, only had two participants, Keith and I, so no score, dang!

Steve Jaber, Tamalpa.

Shiran, Pamakids' Captain, taking care of Christine, Lake Merritt Joggers & Striders' Captain, at the finish.

The weather was amazingly perfect of a trail race. We experienced strong winds which made for an infinite visibility, but it kept reminding me of why the fires in LA are so bad. Devastating...

Here is a flyover of the course, click the image below or this link.

Thanks to Craig and his Inside Trail Racing team for a very professional organization. And to all the volunteers who welcomed us and made sure we could play on the trail, safely: aid stations, marking, course monitors, ... It takes a village...

As for me, again, I'm stoke to be back. Those who know me will understand I'm still frustrated for still being a few minutes off my previous marks. Time will tell if I can regain some and rebuild strength. I had some soreness but assuredly I didn't work my butt (aka ass) as off as I could, hence the off pace. Yet, that allowed me to log 17 7:50-minute miles at the track this Sunday. With the knee not yelling, just whispering after a 50K week-end. Next big test at Jed Smith 50K in 3 weeks...

* 50K start pictures:

Quicksilver Trail Half-Marathon: so much better than the gym!

How dare I, comparing a trail race on our Quicksilver running club's turf with a gym! Well, as the title implies, at least I value the event much higher than a gym routine. As the regulars of this blog know, I'm rebuilding after a painful 6-month hiatus due to a meniscus broken on my birthday. I was cleared by my medical doctors to resume running in September but the knee was still so painful, there were many days I couldn't even run for half a mile. I met these doctors early October again and both were adamant that there was no reason to worry, that I'll get back to running normally.

With that optimism, I decided to give a try to racing on a short(er) distance, with a road half marathon, 2 weeks ago. The knee didn't bother me during the race but complained the following few days. Not a great time, clock wise, but at least the satisfaction of moving forward again.

This weekend was the second of two annual club races. Both are trails, the one in May has 2 ultras, the 50 and 100K, the one in the Fall, a 10K and half-marathon. I signed up at the very last minute on Thursday evening, just after flying back from an IBM conference in Las Vegas. Not feeling great after a tiring week, sore throat and still a handful of extra pounds, but believed that this would be another good test. So, here we are, 2 races and race reports in the same month, like the good ol' days!

As much as Quicksilver is my racing club, I mostly run at Almaden Quicksilver when racing, not much for training, given I live 30 minutes away. I've been a members for more than 15 years so I certainly know most of the trails but I would still hesitate to volunteer as a guide. For instance, looking at the map on Friday evening, I hadn't realized we were running so many sections of the ultra races in reverse. That certainly brings a different and refreshing perspective! Actually, this was my second participation to that race but many things were different. First, 15 years have passed, and not any years, but all in Masters' life where each year seems to count for two. Second, as I mentioned, I'm barely back from a serious injury. Third, the course has changed, and it is significantly harder. Back in 2009, I broke 1:30 which is still the 5th best time ever (or at least since UltraSignup started keeping tracking in 2002). This time, I was going to be very happy to break 2 hours. Actually, UltraSignup's awkward prediction gave me a time of 1:58 and seed 1 based on my average lifetime score. I certainly knew I didn't have a win in me this time and my money was all on Karl.

There are always new comers at these races so you never know who other new speedsters can show up. The half-marathon distance attracts runners who may not necessarily realize the difference with a road format and the difficulty of a cumulated 2,450 feet of elevation.

With that, I settled in 9th place in the first mile and was happy to still see Karl at the turn on Hacienda although I was already 45 seconds behind after the first mile. I remained focused on listening to some knee pain in the steep downhill of the roller coaster but it wasn't too bad. Pictures from course monitor Richard Ward:

I passed a couple of runners in the downhill before we got onto Mine Hill, then another runner before the Cap Horn aid station. Picture from teammate Luciano Piccoli there:

I passed two more runners in the next 2 miles then closed on 3rd place, a runner with a red cap (Lluis Mas-Ribas). Pictures from course monitor at the Day Tunnel intersection, Jen Wheelock:

Lluis wasn't carrying bottles so I was expecting him to stop at mile 6, knowing that we had 5 miles to cover before returning to that aid station (Prospect 3), but he didn't. From the first miles I could see he was stronger in the downhills so I passed him early on the Prospect 3 climb, another section of the 100K course which we cover in reverse. Yet, despite this burst of energy, I could still see him not far behind at the top. I hammered down on Providencia, trying to forget about the injured meniscus, then on Mine Hill.

After a 7:00 min mile, I was hoping I had finally created enough of a gap but, not quite, I could see him not far behind again when I turned onto Randol at mile 9. Still 4 miles to go, and push! This time, I wasn't seeing anyone behind before I passed through the aid station again, phew! But there were still almost 3 miles to go, no time to relax and take the foot off the pedal.

I still took 2 seconds to marvel at the view over San Jose on the steep and tricky section down Prospect 3 before turning right on New Almaden: that view is my favorite in this park, always bringing back memories of my experience guiding blind runner, Simon Wheatcroft. New Almaden was in perfect conditions and I crossed only a few considerate hikers so I could keep moving at good speed.

I managed to finish in 3rd overall, in 1:56:57, really close to UltraSignup's projection after all. Karl had indeed won in a time of 1:47:47, close to last year's 1:48 winning time of our own Sylvie Abel (who, this Saturday, took 3rd female, 4th overall at the Javelina Jundred 100K). Chengquan Li was second in 1:50:38.

Now, the surprise was to see Keahi Jack finishing just ahead of Lluis. Keahi is only 17 and plans on running our club 100K next May! He just completed the Dick Collins Firetrails 50-miler last month. This Saturday he shaved almost 10 minutes from his time on that same course last year, great progress! I'm delighted to see new blood flowing into this club, so the grandpas have a chance to retire! ;-)

Nutrition wise, I used 2 pouches of VespaPower before the start, 1 GU Energy gel at mile 6, 1 S!Caps at mile 7. I was too busy pushing on the way back to Prospect 3, I could have used the second gel I was carrying to potentially save a few seconds in the last 2 miles. I didn't even drink all my bottles of GU Energy brew. Half-marathons are so short... ;-)

I like how Coros normalizes the effort pace, taking into account the elevation.

And how Garmin colors the course with the actual pace.

So much data to analyze nowadays... Soon, it will generate blog posts automagically...

Sincere thanks to Race Director, Laura Braun, who also coaches our Club XC Youth teams. And all the volunteers making this lower key event such a community success! I can't name them all but here is our Treasurer, Keith, coming back from sweeping the first part of the course. And notice how he stops his clock when crossing the finish line. Once a runner, always a runner, even training on volunteering gigs!

With Stuart Taylor, our Club President, busy helping out while tapering for next week's Rio del Lago 100-mile.

My left knee has been whispering this Sunday, I took it for a 20-mile ride to Shoreline, to avoid any additional pounding. The pain was mostly good otherwise, with some healthy soreness in the legs from the first hill work of the year. And here we are coming back at the title: as much as I spend hours to rebuild at the gym these days, there is no way to match the intensity and range of muscles engaged in hilly trail racing, at the gym. While I agree that cross-training has some advantages, I remain convinced that, for 20 years, my best training was my heavy racing regimen, on a variety of distances and terrains. After all, xrays show that, apart from some wear on the meniscus, my bone cartilage is in perfect condition. The trick is now to rebuild muscle mass without all the pounding...

Quite happy with the progress overall. Now, this was only 1/5th of Quicksilver 100K, in 1/5th of the time of my best Quicksilver 100K, when ultra is so not linear... A lot of work ahead, buckle up! But still hoping to get to the start of my 8th participation, short of being able to run it this year. One half marathon at a time...

Bois-Guillaume Half Marathon: coming back from the dead...

Almost 11 months have passed since my last race, the Quad Dipsea 2023 ultra. And 8 months since I broke a meniscus. This season has been a disaster. I've resumed jogging in September with the knee pain still persisting until mid October. This week felt better and I managed to run 9 miles every day, albeit still at a slow pace, around 8 min/mile.

I was in Rouen this week to close on a house in Bois-Guillaume. Driving around on Friday I noticed road closure signs for the Bois-Guillaume 10K and Half Marathon races this Sunday. Technically, registration was closing on Thursday at 4 pm but the city website was listing Friday instead. I managed to get one of the organizers on the phone who accepted to sign me in given the website error, super nice of her! For my first race this year, about time...

Like most of this year, the week was quite rainy again but the forecast for this Sunday had no rain but overcast skies and temperatures in the 58-60F range: great running conditions! The 10K course:

There were about 800 runners on the 10K starting at 12:30 pm, and 400 participants in the Half Marathon at 2:30 pm. That was a certified course and FFA-sanctioned event (Fédération Française d'Athlétisme, the equivalent of our USATF), there were a few big guns on the front. My main goal was to test which speed I still had in me, an aspect I didn't have the time and opportunity to gauge based on such a long and late recovery.

One of the last 10K runners had collapsed on the course at the finish so our start got delayed for almost 15 minutes, the time that the ambulance got off the course.

I didn't have much to lose so decided to start ahead of the 1:30 pace group. I clocked 6:37 for the first mile, a pace which felt rather uncomfortable, breathing wise, as I've not been running under 7:40 min/mile since March. Philippe Levasseur took and posted 3,648 photos of us!

I slowed down to 6:53 in the second mile but was able to push a bit in miles 3 and 4, respectively at 6:44 and 6:45. But that was way too fast given my current form and I had to slow down again to a 7:08 mile, which led me to get passed by the 1h30 pace group, which had about 10 runners. I still managed to complete the first loop in 45 minutes but I was so tired, I contemplated dropping at the halfway mark. Then I remembered that I had run 12 half marathons in a row at Spartathlon, I may well do one today!

But, coming back from the dead, I wasn't able to smile to the photographer on the second lap, sorry!

Thanks to the encouragements of spectators and volunteers spread along the 10K-loop, I kept pushing, now completely outside my comfort zone. On the second lap I clocked slower miles from 7:11 to 7:32. But I managed to finish at least, in an embarrassing time of 1:33:45. 60th overall and, to my surprise, 1st in my M60-64 age group. Embarrassing for someone who broke 1:15 at 49 and ran 50Ks at faster pace in his 50s... But definitely taking it, while it lasts... 

I'm glad that my average stride got much longer than the past weeks, at 1.22 meters, but that's still so far from my 1.35 meter marathon stride. I'm stunned by how much glutes and hamstring strength I lost this year, it's going to be a significant uphill effort to rebuild, literally speaking. I also lost quite some VO2max apparently, my lungs are trashed tonight, with some asthma, which hadn't happened in a while. Still, I wasn't bothered by the knee at least, an encouraging sign I can ramp-up the training. I'm also very glad that I was able to get back to same-day race reports, after barely making the same-year deadline for my Spartathlon report!

A few additional stats from my Coros watch (I also ran with my Garmin):

My sister and brother in law joined me at the finish. I jogged back to their house, a mile from the start/finish area, to shower, then we drove back right away for the award ceremony.

That was an urban run and I was impressed how the local community came together to ensure our safety along the course, special thanks to all these volunteers! Very timely and professional timing system from ChronoBoost.fr, with real-time online results. I was also very grateful to the organizers for letting me register at the last minute!

I'm sorry I missed our annual Ruth Anderson Memorial in San Francisco (50K/50-mile), but what a way to get introduced to my future city and running community!

PS: award ceremony pictures.

Top 10 Women

Top 10 Men

Women age group winners

Men age group winners (those stil at the finish for the award ceremony...)