Black Mountain 50K: cry me many rivers!

If only we could find a way to channel all the atmospheric rivers California has received these past 3 months, underground, into the aquifer/phreatic zone which we depleted with our intensive agriculture! Meanwhile, we can go with and enjoy the flow, but even such a prolific El Niño isn't going to get us out of a sustained and systemic drought.

That pessimistic caveat being made, what an exceptional situation we have on and around Black Mountain! And since a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be worth at least one million! See this Relive.cc flyover of my 31-mile training journey around and to the top of Black Mountain this Saturday (short of being able to get to the start of the Knickerbocker 35K race in Auburn after blowing up a tire on 680 on the way). Click on the image below or this link:

I had initially planned on running up Montebello Road but changed my mind at the bottom of Stevens Creek Park, and that made it much more interesting. And challenging as well as I made a detour up to Coyote Ridge first, then on Mount Eden Trail before running the whole Stevens Creek Canyon (the road section first, then the trail, up to Bella Vista Trail). So many creeks flowing from both sides of the canyon and giving Stevens Creek such an unusual and rarely seen power. No wonder why the Stevens Creek Reservoir is now full again. So uplifting to see this! Elijah Stephens would be glad and proud (see the history of the Stevens Creek including the various names it went through since 1776).

With another storm last week though, we lost more trees, and not just dead ones, but younger and healthy ones. See for instance that one at the Waterwheel spring. Less shade this Summer...

If you live in the Bay and have the opportunity, take a run or hike up in the nearby hills to see what fresh water looks like. Such a common thing to see in the Alps, with the glaciers melting faster in particular, but not here. And not in many places around the world as the international community just discussed in New York at the UN Water Conference, the first in 50 years! Let's enjoy as it lasts as we say and protect this essential asset in our lives. I have to admit again: I much prefer fresh water to a glass of beer. I know, it may be just me...

That was my 8th ultra this year, including 3 ultra races. Not a fast one at 9:10 min/mile average, not counting picture stops, but a great training with 4,400-4,600 feet of cumulative elevation and a few steep hills. After 3 months focusing on road training and racing, it was about time I get back to the trails, albeit wet ones, to prepare for the Spring season and Quicksilver 100K in particular. Way different running, a much more engaging one for the glutes and quads.

A taste of Pura Vida at the top of Black Mountain, with views of the Pacific:

Zooming on San Francisco by a clear day:

Mt Umunum in the distance:

White Black Mountain: historical snow fall!

I like when there is something very special about my running, that provides an opportunity to get back to my blog for the sake of documenting memories for the future. After more than 15 years of sharing about my ultra marathon and trail running journeys, many training runs aren't worth a post!

Shortly after we moved to the Bay Area at the end of 1998, we drove up to Skyline with the boys to enjoy some snow up there. Coming from France and having lived in Switzerland too, playing in the snow was rather customary for us. What we didn't know id that, with the series of droughts, this would become very rare occurrences in the next quarter of century. Which makes this week's episode quite remarkable!

Despite good rain precipitations so far this winter, we are certainly not out of the rut, drought wise. Assuming the acceleration of extreme measures, and optimizations on the use of water in our strategic local agriculture industry in particular, it will take decades to replenish the aquifers, and also assuming rain doesn't stop for good with our climate change patterns. But at least it's a much better year on the surface: reservoirs fill up again and high mountains ranges received an outstanding level of snow pack (which hopefully won't melt too fast at once, or all this will wash out straight to the ocean).

And there are our our little hills which have joined the party this week, thanks to very weird weather pattern across the US: record high temperatures on the East Coast, and record lows on the West Coast, go figure! I should be tapering before the 100-mile Road Nationals next week but I couldn't resist the temptation of experiencing that snow, a rare phenomenon in an area blessed with sun and blue skies most of the time otherwise.

It had been more than 5 months since I ran with the Stevens Creek Striders along the reservoir: what a change all this rain makes, it's almost full and the water district is even letting a good flow through, toward the Bay.

In addition to 3 wineries, there are probably 50 houses or so on Montebello Road. The traffic is usually very light, the biggest danger being the cyclists zipping down the winding road, some yelling at me when we cross path as I'm running up against the traffic on the left (the way it should be anyway). Despite quite a few trees and cables down, the Rangers had decided to let some traffic through, which makes sense for the people living and working on that road.

Except that, as some might have expected, it was onlookers who created a bit of a mess along the road; despite the "road closed ahead" signs, I've never see so many people on Montebello, even on weekends! For one thing, there is no allowed parking neither at the top, nor along the 5 miles, so you are supposed to have a good reason to drive up (either because you live there, or you visit a winery).

Thankfully, the higher up I was going, the more snow there was, and less cars too. What a wonderful beauty to see this fresh snow at the top! With temperatures in the 40s, the snow was quite wet.

I wasn't equipped to run the trails in the snow, nor did I wanted to go the full ultra distance, so I turned back shortly after the top of the paved section of Montebello Road, still regretting not seeing the white top of Black Mountain this time. Only 21 miles for the out and back, that time.

Overall, a super cool experience, so close to the heart of Silicon Valley. As you can see on pictures and the Relive fly-over (click on the above image or this link), there was even more snow on the higher peaks of the East Bay. One fresh memory to lay on paper to make it crisper when our future is likely to become too hot for such white blanketing of our nearby Black Mountain. A white coat which even resisted more than 24 hours, and counting! And one which France 24 highlighted on prime time this Saturday on its standard global coverage. As I said at the beginning of this post, something really special!

Burning 50K on Stevens Creek Striders' Trail Half course

Let me start with an apology... No, not to Dean after my rant in last post, but to the readers of my post in our Pacific Association USATF Mountain, Ultra, Trail Grand Prix group on FaceBook. Indeed, 2 weeks ago, I posted an invitation to run our next scheduled event, the Stevens Creek Striders Reservoir Trail Half Marathon. A half marathon for a change, how could that be difficult after our previous 100-mile (Headlands), 50K (Skyline) or 100K (Quicksilver), right? So my invitation advertised a "very accessible" race. First, I meant geographically, Cupertino being quite accessible from the Bay Area. But this was rather insensitive to our members living in Reno or Auburn for instance, while this park is in my backyard. The thing is that, when designing our Grand Prix schedule, I pay a lot of attention to select events from most places across our wide Pacific Association which includes all North California and North Nevada, technically from San Luis Obispo on the South West to Reno on the North East. And, yet, most participants are still Bay Area-based...

My second thought regarding accessibility was the distance. Our MUT Grand Prix has been exclusively about ultra running for its first 20 years. When I took over, I made a point to expand the content to the two other sports/disciplines which MUT stands for: Mountain and Trail. Mountain being short but super steep races, Trail being sub-ultra races, on trails obviously.

With that, I was excited to preview the course and, since it's Labour Day weekend, typically a weekend I put into practice my concept that running requires a lot of work, in addition to the fun and pleasure, I decided to run the course twice. Plus a few miles to run from home to the Stevens Creek Park. Which is home to the Stevens Creek Striders, the first running club I joined 20 years when I wanted to explore something other than road marathons. It's from illustrious members that I heard about ultra running: Mark Williams who was the first to finish the infamous Barkley Marathons (that is an impossible 100-mile), Brian Robinson who was the first to complete the 3 cross-US trails within a year (hiking triple crown), and later would also be a Barkley Marathons finisher, and Charles Stevens, who gave me one of his Western States club entries when I didn't get picked in 2018.

The temperature was really nice when I left the house at 8 am in order to be at the reservoir for the club's business meeting and gathering. But we even got a heat wave alert at work so it was meant to be another deal later in the day. Although I'm not a member anymore after I joined Quicksilver's Ultra Running Team in 2008, I've run these trails for many years, much more than the Almaden Quicksilver's ones which I mostly hit for the Quicksilver races as I'd rather skip the 30-minute drive. Yet, there were some sections of next week's course which I didn't remember. Thankfully, Robert, the Race Director, was with us again this Saturday morning so I got a personal briefing, which proved valuable as I left the group after 3 miles at the end of REI/Tony Look Trail.

With the 4 miles from home to the Park it was now 8 miles when I hit the first serious climb of the course on Canyon Trail, toward Mt Eden. Short, 0.6 miles, but not sweet, at least in this weekend's heat wave, phew! Moreover, when you reach the top, you get good 0.6-mile downhill to the turnaround, only to have to climb it back. Seriously, who designed this course? Just kidding, welcome to trail running, the XL version of XC (cross-country)! The climb, from the top of Lookout Trail on the other side of the canyon:

Once you've retraced your steps down to Creek Trail, you get back on Tony Look Trail, this time continuing up on Lookout Trail which is narrow, has a good amount of poison oak, countless switch backs. On race day, you may not have much time to enjoy the views at the top, but you may gasp for air anyway and stop to catch your breath. From there you'll leave most of the woods shade, now finishing the climb up to Coyote Ridge Trail, using the Vista Loop and Fern Trails.

Views of the ugly quarry disfiguring the Cupertino hills:

A lonely horse rider on Coyote Ridge (heading back to the Garrod Farms).

On Coyote Ridge you then turn right on a steep descent into the Fremont Older Open Space Preserve for a loop on Seven Springs Trail. This one brought back great memories of club runs, I probably hadn't run it for at least 10 years though. The trail is quite smooth but don't get your mind lost in the great views of the valley, there are quite a few turns, you don't want to fall in the downhill under Hunter's Point. You'll finish the loop with a gradual climb, then the steep climb up to Coyote Ridge (more gasp!).

Finishing Coyote Ridge can get you some significant speed this time! It's so steep that there is warning sign for bikes at the top, although no speed limit! Hopefully we won't encounter bikes or horses on race day next Saturday. Once back at the Stevens Creek park headquarters, you finish on the only asphalt section with another short but good climb back up to the Villa Maria parking lot. Last gasp!

Overall, this course has all the best ingredients for some serious trail running: a mix of single and fire roads, only two road crossings albeit 4 passages, a mix of shaded and exposed sections, lot of dead leaves, some lose rocks, a few roots, a good amount of poison oak on the trail edges, two creek crossings albeit all dried up, a few wood bridges, amazing views of different angles on Silicon Valley's South Bay, a few water stops albeit the one on Canyon Road wasn't operational, and TON of elevation for such a short distance. 

For this 50K run, Garmin gave 5,850 feet of cumulative elevation versus 6,000 for Strava. Look at some classic 50K elevation in comparison: Way Too Cool: 4,830 ft; Skyline 50K: 4,770 fr; Quicksilver 50K: 6,000 ft; Ohlone 50K: 7,800 ft. And yet, I'm not proud of so much walking, explaining a time of 5:20 (not counting three bathroom stops to cool my head off in the sink). The top 3 times of the event (since 2019) break 2 hours and range from 1:43 to 1:52. While this sound slow for a half marathon distance, that's some serious good moving for such a hilly course! And Andrew Catanese just got in so that should be another fast year!

By the way, I still had 3.5 miles left to get back home but, between the heat and poor planning/estimation, I called Agnès for a pick-up. I had lost a lot of sweat and salt again, had taken only 4 S!Caps with me, one Snickers bar and 2 GU Energy gel. And no Vespa... Hopefully the heat wave will break sometime this week, all this makes me wonder about the future of trail running if average temperatures increase by so many degrees every year! And I'm one who tends to fare better in the heat, just saying... Actually, when I was finishing by second loop through Fremont, I didn't see one soul for almost an hour, that felt surreal. The temperature was above 90F and I thought that it would have been quite dangerous if I had gotten some heat stroke there. I did see a lone biker barely moving up in the climb toward Coyote Ridge, who ended up turning back before even reaching the top. Yes, the temperature made exercise rather grueling this weekend. Not Burning Man's naked 50K in the desert, but salty tee and shorts...

To conclude, here is a 3-minute video summary, enjoy the movies!

Hope to see many of you next week. If you had registered based on my previous invitation, you'll know how important pacing yourself at the start is going to be. If you haven't registered yet, I'm hoping my warning isn't deterring you, you can even register on race day!

PS: looking back at the course published on Garmin Connect after I posted this, just realizing that I did the Seven Springs loop in the wrong direction (clockwise instead of anti-clockwise).

A short ultra for breakfast. And a Stevens Creek Striders promo.

I so used to run (short) ultras for breakfast a lot, I mean for training, early on Saturday or Sunday mornings. Including the real ultra races, I averaged 33 ultra runs a year for 11 years in a row, from my second year in that sport, in 2008 until I fissured one of my hamstring attach tendons in November 2018. Healing has been so much longer than both hoped and expected, I'm now only getting back in the groove after 3.5 years. In 2019, I had to ease off and logged only 15 ultra runs, then 12 in 2020. How do I keep track of all these stats? I still do Excel, not as old school as Camille Herron's handwritten log book, but sill odd in the age of GPS-fueled social platforms). And it's good to keep a running log because, although I felt terribly out of shape last year, I just realized I actually managed to have 35 ultra runs in 2021. And 16 so far.

Again, that includes some short ones. Although I go by the 26.2+ miles definition, Andy Wilkins-Jones has often questioned if 50K should even be considered as an ultra. At least in his golden years (multiple top 10 Western States finishes), maybe he'll become more inclusive with age... ;-)

I confess that, between that injury, the pandemic struggle and other sources of life unbalance, I lost the appetite, will or eagerness for waking up early on weekends in order to squeeze in long runs. But, for a change, that's what I managed to do this Saturday, phew! I made the deliberate decision to stop working on a client project at 10:30 pm on Friday, set my clock to 6:45 am in order to start my run with a stop at the 8:30 am Saturday club meeting of the Stevens Creek Striders, 4 miles from my house. At the Stevens Creek Reservoir which is on Stevens Creek (upstream through the Stevens Creek Canyon and downstream, toward Moffett and Shoreline).

This Club is where I got acquainted with trail running (2003), then ultra marathon (2006), before I joined the highly competitive team Adam Blum and his company, RhoMobile, sponsored within the Quicksilver Running Club of San Jose (2007). I stayed with the Striders for a few years during which I even served as Captain of the Last Chance aid station at Western States.

This Saturday's meeting was chaired by Robert Luemers who is also the Race Director of the Club's Stevens Creek Striders Reservoir Runs, including a trail half marathon which is part of our Mountain, Ultra, Trail Grand Prix for the second year. Two heads-up:

1. First, a price increase coming up next weekend. The event has been up since last December, time to signup!
2. Second, for those competing in the Grand Prix and not familiar with the fine prints: if one of your scores isn't for a Trail event (sub ultra trail), you'll lose one of your scores. This is the last opportunity of 2022 to get such a score in the Trail category (Excelsior's Star City Half could have been one but, with their move to later in October, it won't be part of the Grand Prix this year).

In any event, join us for this very accessible run in Cupertino's foothills and meet other members of our local trail running community!

At mile 3 of the group run, 7 miles for me, before I continued on Stevens Creek Canyon road:

The informal setting of a running club meeting:

On this last weekend of July, I was pleased to see a bit of water flowing through rocks at the bottom of the canyon. But the farther I was going up that road, the less flow I could hear until there was no more water at all in the bed of the creek.

May 28

2 months later...

In other news, I'm afraid we have just lost high-speed Internet access at the top of Black Mountain! Just kidding, this is old-time telephony, I wonder who all these cables were meant to provide phone signal at the park entrance at the end of Stevens Creek Canyon road.

Actually, teasing apart, I need to check if the public phone booth at the camp ground still works, who knows. Although it's more likely for that spot to be served by a line along Montebello Road instead.

I occasionally walked on the way up to Bella Vista trail but not too much, this is encouraging, both from a physical and mental standpoint. I did cross a few cyclists, on the road of course but, less common, on the trail itself, and saw quite a few deers. If we apply Machine Learning to this data, you could infer that deers get excited by a lot of Tour de France watching as well! :-)

As I turned on Bella Vista, up toward Black Mountain, I first saw a red ribbon on the side of the trail, potentially marking some erosion or ground slide. Shoot, how shocking to see a truck on its top, which flipped off this single (duh!) track!

At least you can say that they got lucky the truck fell into a ditch, not too deep, wide enough to allow the truck to stabilize flat and narrow enough that it stopped the vehicle from rolling more. 20 yards more and they were good for quite a scary series of lateral or back flops...

I've launched a FaceBook investigation. It doesn't seem the trucks is from the rangers, phew! Someone proposed the hypothesis of a contractor working on a communication or power maintenance job. In any event, huge navigation mistake, instead of getting on Montebello Road to drive to the submit.

To spice my run even more, a few hundreds yards later, I almost got hit by a bike. The guy hammered on the break but the back wheel blocked immediately. I didn't even have time to yell anything, I just jumped on the right edge of the trail and bended over the void of a steep slope. One of these closed encounters which could get one more trail closed to bikes...

With that, it was hot but a cloud layer brought some welcomed shade and relief. No campers at the campground, where I refilled both bottles. A few pictures at the top (mile 17) then it was time for the 12-mile downhill.

To add some mileage and elevation, I went on my favorite Waterwheel Trail, stopping for a few minutes at the refreshing, albeit weakening, spring.

Back on Montebello Road, I hammered it down, finally clocking a few sub-7 miles and not stopping for 10 miles. For a total of 29.5 miles at 8:28 min/mile. Elevation wise? Maybe something between Garmin's always optimistic guess of 4,293 ft, or Strava's more reasonable and plausible 3,760. In any event, a good last long training run before now tapering for Skyline 50K this Sunday then Headlands Hundred (hilly miles...) 6 days later. Even more time to work more... until I see some of you these next two weekends to play again on the trails!

Relive.cc flyover (this link or click on the following picture):

PS: and since I'm looking at my stats, lifetime ultra run #461.

A few Striders on the move!