PCTR Mount Diablo 10K: let's talk Mountain!

Mountain... Snow? Ski? Snowshoeing? Nope, I wish we could have driven up to Tahoe to enjoy some fresh snow for a change but between road closures and the COVID omicron variant frenzy, we didn't. But we still have mountains around the Bay, we are that lucky to live in such a unique place, let's never take that blessing for granted!

Familiar with the Alps, I've always been somehow circonspect when hearing about the Santa Cruz... Mountains for instance. For sure, there are some good uphills around here, but mountains? Well, let's look at the definition of Mountain Running. Back in 2016 when I took the Pacific Association MUT Chair responsibilities after Bill Dodson, our Grand Prix had basically been exclusively about Ultra Running for its first quarter of century. Intrigued by the MUT acronym, standing for Mountain, Ultra, Trail Running, I went to Richard Bolt, our National MUT reference in the US. Richard sent me this for the Mountain part:

Mountain Running.  A race with large amounts of ascent or ascent & descent (250 meters of vertical change for every 5 km).  Can be on roads, trails or mixed surfaces.  Doesn't have to be on a "mountain".  Known as "Fell-running" in the United Kingdom although some purists insist fell races should only be over grassy, muddy, open ground and can't contain any roads or even defined trails.  The World Mountain Running Association was founded in 1985 and modeled after cross country running with short 10km to 15km races and team scoring.  You can find WMRA technical regulations here.

We first introduced sub-ultra Trail races in our calendar and, in February 2020, our first ever Mountain race with PCTR's Mt Umunhum 14K! Then a well-known pandemic hit... Fast forward quite a few months of struggle around the world, I did spot that Mount Diablo race while working on the 2022 schedule and notice the elevation was matching the demanding standards. I even went over there to run the course, right after the wet and snowy storm over the Holidays, the last miles had turned to a sticky mud fest (fest with sticky mud that is). Not counting a few stops to check on the course directions, it took me 1:14 to cover the hilly 6.2 miles, ouch! But I could confirm the Mountain label eligibility at least, especially with the first super steep 2 miles which gave a taste of alpine running!

Souvenirs of my frosty and muddy January 2 recon:

A blessing for us runners, albeit the continuation of our drought calamity in California, we didn't get a single drop of rain since the holidays, just the moisture of the Pacific fog that this big mountain is able to capture to keep the trail soft but not slippery. 

Visiting three weeks ago, I could predict parking was going to be an issue on race day. Agnès and I drove early. That give Agnès ample time to hike her 8-mile loop and for me to see the start of the 30K and half-marathon races. Even hours before the spicy food contest, RD Greg was already on fire and his passion for trail running contagious. Cherry on the cake, the weather was perfect: definitely on the chilly side for me but a few 10K participants were wearing singlets and I ended up on the sweaty side with my long tights and warm gloves and hat. Still, I didn't regret being on the safe side.

I missed part of the race briefing as I went for a 2-mile warm-up along the nicely flowing Mitchell Creek. There was quite some excitement with close to 50 participants from our Pacific Association, half of them from one single club, Pamakids! Exciting to see speedster Chikara Omine toeing the line after a 2-year injury (same as mind, the hamstring tendon, albeit on the other side). So much excitement that a few runners followed Greg across the timing mats, before the official start, and I believe that explains a 35-second gap between chip and gun times except for Felipe Garcia (more on this later).

From my recon 3 weeks ago, I knew I didn't want to get stuck in a conga line on Mitchell Rock Trail (I've done enough of that in races in Chamonix! ;-). Of course, the small field helped and we actually spread out rather quickly. True to his legend, Chikara exploded right from the start and we lost sight of him rather quickly. He actually had another running I didn't know, on his heels. I settled in 7th position, right behind another runner from Excelsior, Victor Skorapa. Victor passed Jack Hsueh from Pamakids and it took me another 300 yards to pass Jack as well, trying to resist to the urge of walking. Jack passed me back and I was getting close to the red zone, and impressed that Jerry Flanagan (56, Pamakids) was close behind. I stopped looking behind and gave it all in the long downhill on Eagle Peak Trail, so much that I did catch and pass Victor and clocked a sub-7 mile (after two 9 and 12-min miles on the way up).

Victor passed me back on As I turned onto Back Creek Trail, I could see Benham closing on us, that kept me on my toes and pushing on the next uphill. I passed Victor in the downhill to Donner Creek fire road, then Benham passed me on that flat section. We traded places on every hill, me being faster on the uphills, and inversely. Given the steep downhill leading to the finish, I knew I'd better to push in the last uphill before the Mitchell Rock intersection. I was super pleased to finish in 6th place, in 54:44, 10 seconds ahead of Benham, 2nd Masters behind Jack (46). My first goal was to win my age group, second was to break 1 hour, third was not to fall and break a leg, all of them were met. Still impressed with Jerry's 56:28 and David Moulton's 57:34, ah these Road and XC runners! With the three of us being part of the 13 sub-hour finishers, that made for a powerful age group podium!

Speaking of podium, the surprise came when Greg called Chikara for second place but Chikara refused to bulge, assuring Greg he finished a few seconds behind Felipe Garcia. Indeed, we can see something unusual with the timing results, that Felipe is the only without the 35-second difference between gun and chip time. My guess is the issues comes from the fact that Felipe followed Greg across the mat before the official start, before getting back into the field. A specialist of winning these shorter PCTR races, Jason Poncy won in a time of 49:32!

Agnès and I were going to meet Greg at the North Entrance after his ride up to the top of Mount Diablo, from Walnut Creek's Bart station so we left promptly after the award ceremony and missed the fun of the Mount Diablo Hot Sauce Challenge. Well, define fun, that looked like really painful to me, very glad this isn't part of the MUT standards and definitions, phew!

Huge thanks to the PCTR gang and all the volunteers who allowed us to race on these trails. Nothing better than some competition to push the envelope and test where we stand at the beginning of this new year. Next week we are getting back to the regular ultra format with Jed Smith 50K in Sacramento.

And to conclude, a call for information I had after visiting three weeks ago. Mitchell Park Entrance, Mitchell Rock Trail, Mitchell Canyon, Mitchell Creek Trail, ... There is Where's Waldo?, but what about Who's Mitchell? I did stop to the Park Ranger and volunteer information booth to ask. To no avail so far. A nice lady said that it was a great and good question, alluded to a former local rancher, mentioned they had a great website and that she will check. Well, I did some searching on the web too and couldn't find anything except for a contemporary family of ranchers releasing some acreage in... Florida. So, while the assumption of a local family having forfeited their ranch, this still has to be further validated and confirmed. Any hint?

And more pix/movies...

The 30K and half marathon starts, respectively:

A few podiums

Overall Men

Overall Women

W20-29

W30-39

W50-59

W60-69

M20-29

Team Impala

Team Quicksilver

And several pictures from the course, on Agnès' hike

Mount Diablo 50K: which race strategy?

The idea came from ultraholic Rajeev during a run at Rancho where I complained about the lack of heat in the Bay Area to get acclimatized before Western States. I was not planning to race between Ohlone and Western States but Rajeev rightly suggested this PCTR (Pacific Coast Trail Runs) race on Mont Diablo. I had run to the top of Mount Diablo in 2001, on the road from the North entrance, and that was all I knew about the area, that is very little.

The day started very early with a carpool with Scott (Dunlap), a nice occasion to catch-up with him since last year's Helen Klein. We checked in around 7am and Jasper was already ready to go. With the start scheduled for 8:30, that gave plenty of time to discuss the running season and seeing many familiar faces coming in. I had even the good surprise of seeing again Team Tufunga, Rachel and Simi, who I met in January in Costa Rica for the Coastal Challenge. Here they are at the Coastal Challenge with Tica, the dog who followed us throughout Costa Rica and whom they adopted.
Unlike the first days of the Coastal Challenge, today was going to be dry and hot, and a Ranger made sure to remind all the runners that smoking was forbidden!
The briefing from race director Wendell was quite simple. Stay hydrated, follow the pink ribbons and if you don't want to get lost, stay behind Jasper (Halekas). Jasper lives in Oakland, works at Berkeley and these hills are his favorite terrain, almost his backyard. He set the course record of the Diablo 50-mile two years ago, and the record for the Diablo Marathon this year. Jasper also won TRT, the Tahoe Rim Trail 100-mile, last year, making him the US 100-mile 2007 champion. Needless to say, it seemed a good race strategy staying behind him indeed. Below, Jasper (grey top) and Scott (black cap), with me already hydrating:
Another noticeable runner was Graham (Cooper) of course. Last year, Graham had used this run as a pure heat training exercise, biking 40 miles to the start, wearing a hat and black layers, then biking back home. This year was different with Graham only earing his usual Olympic Club white singlet. I had the feeling Andy (Jones-Wilkins)'s course record of 2005 (5:10:15) was going to fall and I wanted to be part of it.

With a combined 25-50K start the pace was quickly set to high gear despite the first steep hills. Andy (Holak) took the lead in the canyon, followed by Jasper, I and Graham, all on a pace which seemed a bit unreasonable to me. After about 2 miles, Graham passes us and I decided to follow him, passing Jasper. By mile 4, on the way up to the Juniper Campground aid station, I passed Graham, which we reminded me our run at Ohlone last year (when I thought it was crazy to pass the winner of Western States 2006).

I had a nice run up to the summit (1:19), barely stopping to enjoy the amazing 360-degree view from the terrace. On the way down I first saw Graham followed by Jasper, the three of us remaining within the same 2-3 minutes all the way back to the start. I reached the start area in 2:12:42 which I learned later to be a new course record for the 25K race. For what it is worth since, unless Ruth Anderson, switching to a shorter distance was not an option today. I changed bottles taking two new ones from my cooler, with Sarah's assistance, and ate some chips, a piece of banana and cookie, and a baked potato dipped in salt (unfortunately not baked enough in my opinion).
And it was time to go as Jasper was getting in 2 minutes after me, followed by Graham less than one minute behind.

The first loop I didn't know the course. Now I knew how hilly it was, yet very runnable especially on the way down. Unfortunately, with such a fast start, the increasing temperature (in the high 80s), my followers' pressure and the hard to digest potato, the second hike up to Mount Diablo got quite painful, with leg cramps triggering by mile 19 (quads and hamstrings). Jasper passed me in the 18th mile, and Graham shortly after. I made a good halt at Juniper Campground, getting some ice in my water bottle and some on my cramping muscles (felt so good, thanks guys!). I kept pushing up to the summit (4:11), going up to the terrace again through a thick cloud of... earwigs (every step we were killing dozens of them, disgusting!).

To my good surprise, I was fine going down (no cramps). My last stop at Juniper was short but beneficial enough to get my bottle filled with ice again, a treat in this rising heat. I flew in the down hill but got into trouble for the last two flat miles to the finish. I kept thinking I could still match Andy's record except that I had to stop three times to walk and catch my breath, which cost me a minute. I crossed the finish line in 5:11:21, almost 6 minutes behind Graham and 23 minutes (!) behind Jasper who had added a new Diablo record to his credit: 4:48:48. Diabolic Jasper! Records are meant to be broken, but this one should be safe for a while. Unless Steve (Stowers) run next year...
I was quite beaten up from an overall fast run with such 8,900 feet cumulated elevation and the heat, and nauseous like many others would be at the end of the run. With salt all over my singlet and shorts showing that I didn't manage hydration well. Also, it was a race purely managed following my heart (run strong as long as possible), not the mind (pacing myself); result: starting too fast and crashing in the second loop. Not that you can expect a negative split on this course with the rising heat at mid day. But look at these two diagrams. The first one is elevation/distance, basically two big hills:
The same elevation profile now but with elapsed time on the horizontal axis. Not the same profile, like wind was blowing Mount Diablo. A good illustration of how much slower my second run to the summit was (the two descents being respectively 52 and 61 minutes). I love my Garmin 205!
A mix of 25K and 50K runners kept coming every 5 to 10 minutes (there were about 300 runners including the 8K). Whit (Rambach) finished 8th overall in 5:57, looking amazingly fresh and definitely ready for handling the heat on the Western States trail which he knows so well. Scott came in 6:10 and 11th place. Kim (Holak) won the woman division in 5:42 and 5th overall. Her next race is Hard Rock (100-mile) next week. Kim and Andy went for another 5K loop to make the most out of their trip to California, from Minnesota. Other results are posted on the PCTR website. Kim and Jasper, the overall winners:We stayed at the finish line for a couple of hours, enjoying the cold drinks, the shade and the fine ultra running company and it was time for Scott and I to drive back to the other side of the Bay. I was too tired to blog that same night, it's hard to blog after racing on a Sunday. In addition to physical fatigue, there was also the news of the tough races that other from our ultraholic group had gone through this weekend:

• The most successful was Mark (Tanaka) who completed the Kettle Moraine 100-miler in 20:39 in insane weather conditions (heat, humidity, tornadoes, thunderstorms); Mark was the defending champion and placed 2nd overall this year, kudos Mark!
• Still at Kettle Moraine, and in the same stormy weather, Adam Blum (my Western States pacer) ran the 100K in 13:55 and 13th overall.
• In 100F and 100% humidity, and with a stress fracture for the past several weeks, Chihping (Fu) ran the Old Dominion (another 100-miler) and was forced to DNF before the 100K mark after getting lost three times on the course. Flying back to the Bay Area to find out that he was laid off after a merger, on Monday morning. A tough weekend.
  
• In much dryer conditions, Michael (Kanning) was giving a shot to the US Junior 100-mile record in San Diego. After a fast start (sounds familiar), Michael dropped by mile 70 after more than 22 hours of running. Michael is running to raise money, make sure to visit his website.
  

Yet another ultra busy running weekend overall, leading to my last week of hard training before Western States, or the Auburn Track Meet as Karl (Meltzer) calls it (in reference to us finishing on the Placer High School track). By the way, check Karl's post where he included me in the favorite list. OK, not in red or blue, but on his black list, in case I really have an astonishing good day! What an honor but really no risk I'm going to challenge the 10 to 15 guys who can pretend to win this year (my bets are on Anton, which seems like a safe bet unless Anton gets lost as he is not very familiar with the trail). It is going to be an amazingly competitive edition, should be fun to watch on the race webcast.

All the best to all, and a good tapering for the ones going to Auburn at the end of the month!

PS: see more pictures on my Picasa album (some courtesy of Hao's wife who was handling both her and my camera during the race).