Jam on Tam: a classic I didn't know existed!

Does Jam on Tam resonate with you? Am I the only one who thought that was Greg or Todd's invention? I have to love that ultra running is so humbling, a never ending experiment in which you always learn something, a sport in which there are always people having done more and harder stuff than what you just did or thought was doable!

Living in the Bay Area, I had my fair share of seeing pictures of people summiting Mount Tamalpais, on a weekly basis, if not daily. And I've seen that mountain top many times, racing in the Marin Headlands for more than 10 years (Miwok 100K, Headlands Hundred miles or 50K, Quad Dipsea, Tamalpa 50K, etc.). But another super popular place which I felt embarrassed for not having visited yet.

My previous two posts were about two of the three Open Courses constituting the Bay Area Open Course Triple Crown, Streak to Mission Peak and Hum up Um. With Jam on Tam being the third one. All under 8 miles, how hard could that be, I thought... Let's do them over 7 days, Mission Peak on Sunday, Mount Umunhum on Thursday and Mount Tam on Saturday!

I had a chat with Greg (Lanctot) on Friday and he mentioned that a gal had just broke YiOu Wang's 38'30" FKT for the ascent (Fastest Known Time), with a new time of 37'03" (Bailey Kowalczyk). He didn't say Jim Walmsley clocked a 30'38" on that course. But he warned me it was a tough one, and asked I'd be careful. Run carefully, I can do! Since several bad falls in mountain races, including breaking my shoulder while training on the Tahoe Rim Trail, I know how to be slow and extra cautious on tricky trails! But Mount Tamalpais isn't a mountain in the Alps or the Rockies, right? At least all the races I've been doing in the area have been on typical smooth trails (except for the Dispea stairs). Well, Jam on Tam is different, read on...

After accompanying me on the two Open Courses, Max got hooked and was all in for starting from the bottom, at the clock tower in Mill Valley, while Agnès and Greg were going to hike from mid way. Max even let me start ahead but, like on Thursday for Hum up Um, that didn't last long. I just didn't have the stamina, started walking before the end of the first mile, still on the streets (the first 1.5 miles are on asphalt).

We reached the trail as Agnès and Greg had just found a parking spot, and what a trail for a first comer: straight up! And steep rocky ravine style or irregular stairs.

Oops, so much walking, slogging, barely power hiking. Not really running against the clock at that point, just trying to reach the summit, my first visit to the famous and emblematic fire lookout station! With gorgeous views over the City by the Bay, and the whole Bay as a matter of fact!

I remember checking my Garmin watch and seeing 46' when we were in the last switch backs, actually quite close to the station.

Just underneath though, I noticed on maps.me that we had to leave the trail to climb... oh my... a wall! I was definitely prepared for rock climbing. Nothing difficult but spent a few minutes trying to find our way.

Finally touching the door, 53 minutes in the run, ouch! I already felt like I'd have to come back and redo it on fresh legs.

The down hill starts with another technical trail before we reach a segment of road.

There was a good moving runner ahead who took a trail which didn't look like the one we were supposed to be on. Max and I tried a few other options as I was not sure how long we had to stay on the asphalt section from the maps.me trace. Coming back on that section of road, we crossed three hikers and I almost missed the start of a trail on the left side. I stopped abruptly but Max was still looking to the hikers on the side and hit me at full speed: I couldn't avoid a bad fall on my back, although I was happy my head didn't hit the asphalt. My right but hurt really bad, skin scratches on my back and a bloody hand, it could have been worst, nothing broken at least, phew!

With that, I did what I know best these days, being careful and slow on the next single track section, a wonderful trail if you aren't in a hurry! ;-)

On the fire road, we went all out, crossing quite a few mountain bikers.

Then, after a few other hesitations at the next fire road junction, finally found the trail going straight down to Mill Valley. 1:42:59 total (1:35:19 moving time), I can't believe how long this back and forth took us. Really interested in trying it again now that I know the course.

Here is the corresponding 3D flyover in Relive:

On a very practical matter, I loved the brand new super clean public restrooms on the back of the café and bookstore. We pick-nicked on the Depot Plaza then stopped by the gallery of our friend Emebet (whom we went to Ethiopia with at the end of 2009), the Desta Gallery, just by the course start (exhibits change every 6 weeks, check great artists out!).

A excellent way to start the day, before checking 3 more peaks off our Bay Area 9 Peak Challenge list, Tamalpa being #3 of 9.

Hum up Um: second Open Course and Peak #2/9

Humming up Umunhum. Mount Umunhum that is. Hard to believe I had never ran to this iconic top over our South Bay area, nor hike, ride or drive for that matter. The closest I've been to it was during grueling Quicksilver 100K races which provided great views of it, from beneath.

Agnès and Max had hiked to the top a month ago and said it was a must to do but also reported how busy the single track trail was on weekends. I decided to pick a weekday then and, after a fist morning 7-hour shift (most of my days start with calls with India or the East Coast at 5 am, nowadays...), we drove to the trail head with Max at lunch time.

The weather looked uncertain so I picked long sleeves for a change. A few miles on 85 and it started raining... Oops, it looked like I didn't pick the right day to visit the top of a mountain! March showers kept coming and stopping but, as we were climbing up Hicks Road (I've never driven to that aid station, had no idea about the significant incline), the clouds looked darker and darker and the only vehicles we were seeing were County Park Rangers driving down. That's always encouraging...

Not surprisingly then, the parking lot was empty. With the humidity, I felt chilly right out of the car. At least we had 3.5 miles of uphill to warm up! I took off ahead of Max but, after half a mile, the legs were still feeling tired from the Mission Peak effort and subsequent soreness, even 4 days later. I walked some of the 2nd and 3rd mile, since this was an Open Course race. The trail was turning into a running stream in many places. At the top, the course says you have to go around the mountain top, anti-clockwise. I hesitated as the gate was closed with a sign indicating that the trail was too hazardous given the conditions. But I didn't want to get off the official course, what a dilemma...

Eventually we reached the top in the cloud, so long for the wonderful 360-degree views of the Bay and Santa Cruz which Agnès had sold me, I'll have to go up again in better conditions. A quick selfie as an additional proof, and down we were.

Because of the trail closure, Max ran the mountain top, clockwise. Myself, I got confused on which trail or stair was going down to the parking lot and lost precious seconds. It took me almost two miles of sprinting downhill to catch him, such a great rabbit! :-)

At least we didn't see a soul so that was a plus from a speed standpoint. But I'll have to try again with fresh legs, I may be able to shave a few minutes. For sure, youngsters and speedsters can get well under an hour on that one, although maybe not on a busy weekend or holiday. 1:04:51 for me this round.

As a first experience, I was super happy to see such a well designed and managed trail. It has been open for more than 3.5 years already (September 2017), it seems to age well. And it was really time I get there, finally...

Check this Hum up Um Open Course out, the trip to the top is really worth it if you live in the Bay Area! And look at this 3D flyover to get a preview!

See you soon, virtually, on that... Open Course!

Streak To Mission Peak: my first Open Course race!

Enough hibernating, between COVID and a 2-year injury stint, it's time to get back on my toes and rebuild! On one hand, I can't believe how much fitness I lost, both physically and mentally. On the other, it makes complete sense. Indeed, I praised myself for putting a lot of hard work in training and racing, back then. In other words, there is no free lunch, I couldn't even train because of this hamstring injury, even less so work hard. Well, on the running side, because on the first job, that has turned insanely taxing.

COVID has seen an abundance of virtual races and challenges. Imagine telling Usain Bolt, go to the nearby track, race 100 meters at 110%, time yourself, and let us know. No spectators, no competition, no adrenaline to aim at a gold medal in fair terms, no assurance the weather conditions match other performances (e.g. wind, temperature, humidity), that's just not the same! Sure, it allowed many to get out of the door and maintain so motivation. What the heck, I even succumbed to the game, I entered Paulo Medina's Single Track Running 100 miles to Auburn back in June, to celebrate Western States but, more importantly, in honor of a dear friend couple, both battling cancer (Bob died a few weeks later). And I completed that event twice (once over 4 days, and another one with a series of 10Ks or so).

Fast forward 9 months, I offered to the boys an entry into PCTR's Bay Area 9 Peaks Challenge. I have already enough trouble training for faster and longer flat miles but, in case Quicksilver 100K is confirmed, I'd better work on some up and downhill skills as well! Two key things decided me to enter this challenge:

1. Supporting one of our local race organization businesses which have contributed many key races to our USATF Pacific Association (PA) Mountain Ultra Trail (MUT) Grand Prix in the past;
2. Having a challenge to tackle as a family;
3. Get some specific goals to bring variety in my boring training and come back;
4. Discover places I'm ashamed for not having visited before; yes, that would include the top of Mount Tamalpais for a start, but also Mount Davidson, Slacker Hill (although I've been around many times, like Mt Tam), Montara Mountain, Mount Umunhum (double shame), Mount Vaca and Mount Saint Helena!

We started the 9 Peaks Challenge with Mission Peak, 2 weeks ago. Between all my runs of Ohlone 50K and my special connection and love for this race, and using the steep incline as a hill repeat course when I was in top shape, that felt like an easy way to start. Although I had never run up that mountain from that side, starting from the... Ohlone College. At least that solves the parking problem encountered when you start from Stanford Avenue (see the section Park entrance controversy in the Wikipedia article...).

Now, 3 of the 9 selected peaks have an Open Course associated to them. Since I'm more into running than hiking, I decided to also register for these and kill 6 birds with 3 stones. Having real races would help pushing the envelope and get in some much needed hill training after such a long break.

But, first, what is an Open Course? It's a race open for a few weeks on a very specific course which you can run when you want, but follow meticulously. Like a standard course but without any ribbon. Like a standard race but without seeing the competition. It's different from the popular Virtual Race format in which you basically run a certain distance but on a course you pick. To make sure you are not cheating, PCTR, trough its spinoff The Trail Portal.com, partnered with PWRLab. PWRLab, a startup providing online automated coaching based on your GPS recordings, claims some patented technology to recognize who is actually running from a GPS track. I'll elaborate on the experience in upcoming posts.

Back to Mission Peak, the start from Ohlone College is really steep for the first 1.5 miles. The course eases up a bit when you get through a nice grove.

Then you get back to a large fire road with switch backs which reminded me of our motorcycle ride through the highest passes of the French Alps 3 years ago.

The last few hundreds yards up to the summit of Mission Peak are always epic, not just because of the rocky terrain but all the hikers. Starting at 7:30 am wasn't early enough to beat the traffic on a Sunday!

I took a selfie at the summit pole, nicknamed Mission Peeker, then rushed for the descent, still paying extra attention to my footing on the first yards, a section I fell badly in the early part of Ohlone 50K 2016, the first time I missed the overall podium after 9 participations.

I was really happy to fly down the fire road and get the watch displaying a 5:45 min/mile pace at some point! Fast downhill is good training too, makes different muscles work hard.

Overall, 48 minutes for the climb, 24 minutes for the descent, this is too symmetrical, I'm sure youngsters can do much better on the 3.8-mile climb, I did walk way too much! As I said, I'm just back at hill training, and it showed in my awkward walking for the following two days... As I said above, I can't believe how much a lost and what I need to rebuild...

Here is the 3D flyover (click on this link or this screenshot):

Max had started 5 minutes before me and I missed him while he was enjoying the views from the summit. Agnès and Greg did hike to the top in a power walking mode.

One Open Course done, 2 more to go in the Bay Area Open Course Triple Crown series. And one Peak done, 8 more to go!