Los Gatos Overgrown: Back to Back Fat Ass

Back to Back Fat Ass? No, this isn't a intimate position (oops!), just two fat ass races in 2 days. Yesterday I told you about the 2nd Saratoga one, today was the 6th Los Gatos Overgrown run organized by Adam and Sean. I ran it for the first time last year and, without knowing the course and profile, hammered it with one of our newest and youngest Quicksilver Ultra Running Team mate, Marc Laveson. After yesterday's hilly run, and given my chaotic start of the season, I wasn't trying to match the 4:05 of last year. I actually ran with my camera again which always gives me a good excuse to slow down...

After his briefing, Adam sent us off 2 minutes before 8 am. I must admit that, as the picture shows, this was the more hilarious and confusing of a start I had ever experienced (not that John knows where he is going, straight to the right trail...! ;-).

I let everybody go which allowed me to properly warm-up before pushing in the hill and also take picture of all the runners as I passed them. As usual, John (Burton) set a very aggressive pace at the front. He was joined today by Chris Wehan from Santa Cruz. With my slow start, I actually only saw them at the turn around where I had a 18-minute gap already. They were running together but Chris ended up covering the distance in 4:08 followed by John in 4:20 (or maybe 2 minutes more as they noted a finish time of 12:08 and 12:20 pm respectively and we started 2 minutes before 8).

The format allows us to see everyone, one way or another. Lisa, Sean and Heidi offered us a fully stocked aid station at Hicks Road, at mile 13.5 and 17.3, approximately. I didn't stop the first time but enjoyed a water refill, a cup of Coke and a few potato chips before the final climb.

Like last year, I walked a lot in this last climb. My average pace was 10:48 min/mile by mile 8 (long initial climb) then down to 9:20 by the English Camp turnaround (mile 15.1), then up again to 9:50 at the top of Wood Road/Woods Trail. Despite the 100K of this weekend, I had a reasonable run on the way down, getting the pace to 9:30 at the bottom of Limekiln Trail and 9:24 at the finish (4:46:28). 46 minutes slower than last year, what a change one year makes. Granted, I usually don't race 50Ks back to back and I wasn't pushing to preserve my calf (which didn't complain this time!), yet there is much work to do to get back to the great fit level I was already at in February a year ago.

Overall, yet another great run in such an amazing weather. It wasn't as warm as yesterday thanks to a nice breeze. Thanks again to Adam and Sean for organizing this unofficial training run! And please visit my Picasa album for more pictures and many smiles!

See some of you at the Pacific Association Award Banquet tonight. After a shower, please...! ;-)