Jackpot 100-mile Road Nationals: bet big, run long!

This maxim was the tag line on the bumper sticker included in the goody bag, illustrating the energy and passion which race directors, Ken & Stephanie Rubeli put not only in this event but their business, BeyondLimits Running! Think about it: it's already quite something to setup one ultra race, but what about 6 ultras at once to make it a... festival, namely, the Jackpot Ultra Running Festival. Oh, and throw a marathon in the mix to reach out to a broader audience. As for the ultras, not any ultra but up to the dreadful 40-hour format, super hard not just on runners but on the organization as well when you think of the number of 4-hour shifts this require (Ken was looking for volunteers for 55 hours total!). 48-hour, 24-hour, 12-hour, 6-hour, 100-mile and 50-mile.

When I heard that the event had been selected to host the 100-mile road USATF Nationals, that got me excited as this is the only ultra running championships we have on the West Coast this year. Although, I was disappointed that the date conflicted with the second event of our Pacific Association Ultra Grand Prix which was held this Saturday too in Auburn with SingleTrack Running's FOURmidable 50K. And this is going to be an issue next year again if both organizations keep these dates because FOURmidable has been awarded the 50K Trail Nationals for 2019 and 2020 (after 2017 but having to let go to the benefit of New Hampshire which will occur in August 2018).

I procrastinated so much, hesitating between the two events that, when it was time to finalize the logistics, I realized that most reasonable airfares to Las Vegas were gone for this busy President's Day weekend. I decided to drive instead and it was a great decision since I'm actually going to stay for an IBM event his week in Vegas, killing two birds with one stone. It's more than 500 miles and 8 hours one way, but doable with a stop in Bakersfield and quite amazing landscapes on the way, including a few mountain ranges to go over. And I'm really pleased with the comfort and efficiency of my new Hyundai Elantra with which I easily top 40 mpg on highways.

Speaking of driving from the Bay Area, I almost did it with my teammate Jim Magill, whom I already carpool to our last race, Jed Smith 50K. But, first, Jim had a strained hamstring issue during Jed Smith so was really uncertain for the past two weeks and, second, Jim is retired and had more latitude to take his time on the way in and out. And since I decided to stay for another week in Vegas, it all worked out, albeit without car pooling.

The 48-hour was already 8 hours in when I stopped by the start for the packet pick-up. The weather was perfect: super clear blue sky, just a breeze and temperatures ranging from 40 to 70F (3 to 20C), a typical large amplitude for this location in the middle of the Nevada desert.

I was staying at a hotel 10 minutes from the start, an easy and a quick access to the start in this urban park and the start of all the non 48-hour events was set at 8 am, leaving plenty of room for a great night. I had some important goals for the 100-mile but, as opposed to One Day in Auburn, did a much better job at taking it easy and not stressing too much about.

Pre-race picture with Jim:

Yet, I missed the start of Ken's briefing, and the group picture, as I was finalizing my preparation and filling my bottles for instance.

As usual, it felt good to get finally moving after Ken sent us off and I was surprised to end up in front of the 100-mile race while feeling the pace to be so slow, just under 8 min/mile. The big shots were quite familiar to me as I met them several times: Jon Olsen, first American to run 100 miles under 12 hours a few years ago and World Champion of 24 hours that same year; and Mike Bialik, who made the 100K Team USA by winning the MadCity race when I was there in April 2015. There was prize money for the top 2 and, with both of them present, I was relieved of counting this money target in my list of goals!

So, which goals or big bets did I have left?

1. Fist and foremost, since it was a National Championship, win my age group to get an 11th title. This goal didn't seem very hard: there were a few other 50-54 entrants but I didn't know if they were USATF members. As it turned out, I was the only one so I just had to finish the 100-mile distance in the 30hour allotted time limit...
2. Second, attempt to place in the top 3, behind Jon and Mike; I actually thought this would have been a first, but I placed third at NorthCoast 24-hour in 2014. Well, again, for what it is worth given the little competition and elite attendance at our Nationals nowadays...
3. Third, break 15 hours. First, because I already did at Run d'Amore in 2012 (14:54:58) but the timing system had failed there so I was hoping to get a more official PR; and, more importantly, also improve our American Age Group record which Brian Teason set at 15:02:30 5 years ago, for Road. Since Jay Aldous has set a blazing 13:52:29 for that same distance on Track, I thought there was reasonable room for improvement. As a reference, Brian's record corresponds to 9:01 min/mile and Jay's, 8:19!

After completing the first 2.5-mile loop, the course appeared to be much more convoluted and difficult to set a record on. First, there was 100+ feet of cumulative elevation for each lap, which would lead to more than 4,000 feet after 40 laps. Second, there was a mixed of concrete and asphalt, with a few sections of gravels including a short rocky and bumpy section, plus 200 years on uneven grass. And a lot of passing and crossing of other runners, with quite an uneven road etiquette.

There was still a runner ahead of us, but I'm not sure which race he was in, maybe the marathon who was won by Patrick Sweeney in 3:17, a few minutes faster than what Jon, Mike and I did. Similarly, Pete Banks passed us on his way to winning the 6-hour with 17 laps (42.5 miles) and probably a 1.5 or 2 miles in the remaining 12 minutes he had left. Other than that, the three of us were clocking laps just under 20 minutes. I passed Mike in the 10th lap as he had issues negotiating the rocky single track (he is such a great road runner and that section was really outside the norm for a road championship). I was really please by how I was holding the pace yet felt a bit of setback when Jon passed me with so much ease in our 19th lap as we were approaching the 50-mile mark.

With this little mental breakdown on my end, or bruise to my ego, I stopped for the first time at the aid station and went 3 minutes off pace, which allowed Mike to pass me as well. On one hand, I preferred it this way, given not only my age but the caliber of these two, I wasn't meant to lead the race for the first half anyway. And that allowed me to pay more attention to my own race and goals, including fueling. Although, given my new Optimized Fat Metabolism (OFM) diet, this was very limited, including electrolytes. Learning from the One Day in Auburn painful experiment, I was taking on S!Cap per hour and limiting the Gu2O to just carrying the bottle every 6 laps or so when leaving my water bottle at the main aid station to be refilled. I drank less than 2 Gu2O bottles for the entire race, as opposed to 1 every 15 miles before I switched diet. Note that it got warm during the day but I only took my hat off at noon and my arm warmers around 1 pm, not feeling so hot throughout the day. According to my racing top, I definitely did sweat, but I wasn't feeling it in this dry air. But I did drink a lot of water!

The second part of my race became this internal argument in my head between a voice which was telling me I could break 15 hours, and another big one stating otherwise. Meanwhile, I was loosing 2 or 3 minutes here and there and, my mile 75, lap 30, it was dark, getting colder and my mind was so fried that I did the maths wrong, I was certain I won't do it and I decided to walk some to let the pressure go. I also told myself that I will put a top layer up and my pants at the next lap. Unfortunately, slowing down was enough to cool my body down and I was now 1 mile away from my table and bag, having to spend 10 minutes near the fire pit of the main aid station, which helped a little but wasn't near enough.

The extra layers really helped getting back to some running but my mind was gone. I did another 10-minute stop in lap 34 (mile 85) then cruised most of the remaining laps around 25-27 minutes, but the last one under 24 minutes. Meanwhile...

1. The big drama came in lap 26 when I couldn't spot Mike ahead anymore and saw him in his chair, completely livid and haggard and with two very bloody knees. He must have felt hard in the single track and I could notice in the previous laps that he looked exhausted when we crossed each other. Again, a very unfortunate outcome for a road championship where you are not supposed to trip on a rock.
2. That got me back into the money, with all the stress associated to it which I didn't want; at some point, I even checked if Kermit Cuff was closing on me but he finished 3.5 hours later (Kermit could have easily won his 60-64 age group would he have renewed his membership).
3. The one closer to me was actually another Team USA members, Traci Falbo, who ran a very consistent race, winning the women division in 17:03.
4. And, with almost 5 laps to go, I actually saw Jon winning in 13:39 as I was going around the grassy area, at the finish line overlook. While I had only 12 miles to finish, it was going to take me 1 hour and 55 seconds...

So, I ended up placing 2nd overall with a time of 15:34:07. Not quite breaking 15 hours but quite a good performance given all the circumstances.

Nutrition-wise, I kept pushing the fat burning to new levels, with a very limited calorie intake during the race: 7 Gu Energy gels, 3 cups of Coke, 1 cup of vegetable broth, 2 pieces of watermelon, a handful of potato chips, 12 slices of salami, 2 1/4 of grilled cheese, 1 brownie, 13 S!Caps, 2 bottles of Gu Energy Brew, 6 pouches of Vespa Power (-45', start time, then 3, 6, 9 and 12 hours). Between 11 to 12,000 calories expensed, and way less than 2,000 calorie-intake. And it feels good to know Jon has been on this diet for 10 years, it gives me even more hope and belief.

My main mistakes this time were to get cold in the evening, missing the timing to put a layer one after I had slowed down, and not believing enough I could keep going (I didn't even cramped so it was really in my mind).

I stayed near the fire pit for almost an hour, exchanging ultra veteran stories with Jeff and Jim, but I was still feeling super cold after that. I eventually drown back to my nearby hotel, enjoyed a warm shower and was in bed by 1:30 am for 6 hours of sleep before getting back to the park for the award ceremony and see the last 100-mile runners finish.

All results available through the chip timing company, It's Your Race.

In other news, the 48-hour saw an amazing yet friendly duel between the celebrity Ed "The Jester" Ettinghaussen and Greg Salvesen, from Santa Barbara. Greg quickly got my attention when I stopped by on Friday because he was wearing last year's UTMB shirt which he got from running CCC. And also because he was so encouraging and gracious throughout these two days on the course. Greg ended up clocking 1 more lap than Ed for a total of 82 or 205 miles, wow! 3rd overall was Cheryl Simmons who did 78 laps, or 195 miles! Seeing them make me feel I'm so not ready for the 48-hour format...!

Speaking of The Jester, as if 48 hours weren't enough, or to train for more sleep deprivation for his upcoming 10-day event in New York (Sri Chimnoy 10-day), he stayed for a few hours to chat and support the 100-mile runners still on the course this Sunday morning (they had until 2 pm, hence the 55 hours of volunteering Ken had to fill).

Jim made it around 11 and was handled his finisher medal and 100-mile belt buckle from Stephanie. He also won his age group as well, in 27 hours or so (last lap not recorded in the live results as of this Sunday night).

While every participant had his or her unique ultra story to tell, something 2 researchers from Stanford were here to capture on video, the one which stood out for me was from the other Ed, Lyell, a local firefighter and medic who covered 100 miles in 42 hours while carrying his firefighter outfit and 50 or so pounds of equipment! Then, in the peak of the heat on Saturday afternoon, I saw him attending to another runner, then staying with her for the remaining of the race. Only to learn at the award ceremony that they are husband and wife, certainly a good reason to resuscitate her!

Impossible not to mention Ann Trason's 100-mile milestone, given the courage and perseverance it now takes her to hike this distance with her medical condition.

Pure inspiration from the front to the tail of the pack and the sideline as well, starting with Ken and Stephanie's story and the kindness of all the volunteers helping at the aid station. Oh, and all the Vegas-them bling too!

The weather was also perfect, apart from wind gusts rising on Sunday morning. But certainly much better than last year's stormy and wet conditions I heard about, phew!

Inspiration from Howard Nippert as well: Howard was the representative of USATF at the event and is the coach of Team USA for the 24-hour. He came all the way from West Virginia, not only to officiate, but also run the 6 hours, logging 22.5 miles. Which isn't a lot if you consider his lifetime athletic achievements, but amazing when you know that he got a kidney transplant last Fall.

We also had the visit from an ultra legend from Minnesota, Edward Rousseau, 78, who, short of completing the 100 miles after feeling too cold through the night, introduced me to his friend's product which I'm going to test tonight: Epsom-it, the Original Epsom salt soak without the tub! Looks like a good idea from a sustainable development, avoiding the need for water! And more practical too, ready to use/apply.

The course wasn't the one I expected for a faster performance, it will actually be redesigned for next year so check it out in a few months when Ken finds time to get back to the drawing board. Likely after his next BLU ultra festival happening in April. Wow, some people live the ultra life in Vegas as well!

Exhibits --

Jon's splits (as Ken mentioned during the award ceremony, Jon The Metronome...!)

Mike's

Jean's

Traci's

2 months into my new diet: fat-charged turbo-diesel

Time flies, days, night, weeks and weekends are getting way too short... I started writing these lines on day 61 of my journey toward fat adaptation, right on 2 months, but it's already day 84 this Thursday, better get this post out before I reach the 3-month milestone!

While it has been almost 3 months on this path, I'm still feeling quite incompetent to write about a dietary subject, still very much learning about the basics. Or maybe more experimenting as a matter of fact because I'm certainly not studying everything I should if I was pursuing a degree to become a Registered Dietitian (yes, this field has specific Bachelors and Masters, and I assume Doctorates too!).

But, as a few people encouraged me to share about this experience, here are a few random thoughts on my journey to become a fat-adapted athlete.

First, I'd start with some contradiction. In my original post regarding this change of diet, I mentioned that was the toughest experiment I had ever attempted in my ultra running career. It's hard to compare it to a tough 100-mile, and I've yet to attempt 200 miles or multi-day events. It's certainly very different from a physical standpoint but it requires quite some mental to change these life habits. Tough enough if you are in the lab of your house, but even more challenging when you travel or have a social life. That being said, 

Take my breakfasts for instance. For more than 50 years I've enjoyed a bowl of chocolate milk every morning with a few toasts and butter. Quite simple, no jelly, no honey but I was really  looking forward to the taste of it to start my day. Every day, that is more than 18,000 times since that's my lifetime. Well, look at my new typical breakfast nowadays, quite a change!

From an experiment standpoint, it was great to pick the first month during Advent, right after Thanksgiving, and before Christmas. Yet, we had quite a few Holidays parties which could have derailed my plans but my motivation was high as I had wanted to test this new diet for quite a few years and I wanted to do a 30-day reset of my body anyway during my yearly running break. That being said, cutting on gluten, grains and even all dairy was still tough after leaving and thriving from them for 50 years.  Thankfully, and gratefully, Agnès accepted to do the same experiment and I must say that, having your significant other on board, is a huge success factor. Indeed, there is more cooking involved and you don't want to fight temptation at every meal by looking at others enjoying bread and pasta in my case, or other delicious desserts.

Ahhh, the desserts... I quite well adapted to all the other constraints but I'm still missing them so much! Being raised in France, a meal isn't complete for me without something sugary under my palate to finish on a sweet note, pun intended. To make the matter worse, I tolerate stevia rather well but Agnès not at all, and vice-versa for erythritol, darn! We are now experimenting with coconut sugar which, surprisingly enough for such a natural sugar substitute, is absent from most of the keto cooking books and recipes we've found so far. Initially, Agnès even did her wonderful chocolate mousse with 99% cacao chocolate: it was hard to eat but we finished all of it as we were starving for a dessert a few weeks ago! ;-)

In contrast to the previous picture, look at the last extravagant dessert plate I enjoyed on Thanksgiving dinner, before plunging head first in the carb starvation! I have to say that I pushed the envelope on that one, that wasn't representative of my daily diet, thankfully...

To be clear, I'm not doing the experiment to prove anything, there have been enough success stories in endurance sports including ultra running, just look at Zach Bitter, Jon Olsen or Anthony Kunkel! Yet, it has to work on the individual basis so, beyond all the proven theory, it still reminds a single-individual experiment. Here are my main motivations:

1. Get on a diet which makes a lot of sense from an ultra endurance standpoint, that is about burning fat which we have plenty of in our body, much more calories overall than the carbs our muscles can store;
2. Besides, a diet which allows you to cut on calorie intake during races, hence decreasing the risk of GI issues;
3. A diet which is also much more relying on natural ingredients, cutting on any processed food;
4. Decreasing the sugar which cancer cells are so hungry for and live from;
5. A diet which is also renowned to help your body better manage the cholesterol levels (good and bad ones), allowing you to avoid the infamous statins;
6. Decreasing the risks of inflammation associated with repetitive stress on all joints and high volume;
7. As for performance, not expecting much as I had quite some speed already, but hoping to gain more endurance in the longer distances (i.e. 100 miles and beyond).

I didn't include weight management in the list because I had already this under control and operating at a low weight already, but that's definitely a factor which some people are looking for when picking keto (or paleo at least). As a matter of fact, the first therapeutic application of keto diets is to help handle epilepsy, nothing to declare on that side fortunately. One other benefit which many people report about keto is mind clarity. This is definitely appealing but I can't say much about it from these initial 2 months (I never drank coffee to say awake or high, nor any substance, I'm probably not a great reference for that part of the experiment! ;-).

Regarding the management of my cholesterol levels, it's still too early to tell, we need at least 3 months for new blood test to be relevant.

So, the big question and the elephant in the room, is it working? What I can say so far is that I'm certainly functioning quite well, mostly running on fat for these past 2 months, and that shouldn't be a surprise to the folks following me on Strava. Over the first 6 weeks of this regiment (following a 2-week break at the same time I was getting fat adapted), I ran 483 miles including 2 ultra marathons and more than a handful of fast workouts at the track (short speed workout sessions or tempo runs of 64 to 80 laps). And since I'm not taking much carb anymore, all the energy has to come from fat, hence the title. As a matter of fact, I've never been so lean which makes sense since I use the fat I eat.

Another amazing benefit is the loss of sense of hunger with this diet. Since your body uses fat as fuel, you are not subject to the lows and highs associated with carbo loading, and I can now keep going for 6 to 7 hours without feeling hungry.

Since I delayed this post for so long, you've seen that I managed to run a good 50K 2 weeks ago. I'm now on my way to Vegas to run the 100-mile Road National Championships which will offer another major test of the fine balance I'm still working on between fat burning, the use of strategic carbs and the management of electrolytes. Leveraging the professional insights of my coach in this matter, Peter Defty. Then it will be time to post about the first 3 months, another major milestone in this journey which has been rather successful so far.

In the meantime, I look forward to keeping the new turbo-diesel running, meeting familiar and new faces at the Jackpot Ultra Running Festival this weekend, and hearing about how others do at our 2nd race of our Ultra Grand Prix in Auburn, the FOURmidable 50K which I feel sorry to miss. USATF calling in too many places at the same time! ;-)

Jed Smith 50K 2018: 10th consecutive year and, finally...

What could have finally happened to this event which I now ran 10 times consecutively? While I ran my first ultra at Way Too Cool 50K in March 2006, I entered my first Jed Smith 2 years later, after I found out about the Pacific Association Ultra Grand Prix in 2007, and won my age group that year. And since I started blogging in March 2007, the past 9 editions area all preciously documented but, to spare you the navigation, and read anyway as Mark Murray told me my posts were too long, I'll summarize with the following points to put the above question into context:

1. First and foremost, I've never DNFed at Jed Smith so far, a good thing! Would #10 change this?
2. I always broke 4 hours and, out of the 9 previous editions, actually broke 3:30 7 times, including twice under 3:20. Would I break 3:15 and set a new M50-54 American Record, or would I miss the 4-hour mark?
3. My first edition was at the Gibson Ranch Park but it quickly moved to a faster course on the levee of the American River, except for last year. For 2018, we were back on that course.
4. The worst I've placed overall at this race is 4th in 2013, coming back from a minor injury and getting in the race with not training at all. The best place? 2nd overall, 6 times out of the 9 editions, enough to get the Raymond Poulidor label on that one (Poulidor, aka Pou-Pou, was an amazing French cyclist who made his name for being the Eternal Second to legends such as Anquetil and Merckx)! Would today mark the end of my curse?

The thing with Jed Smith is that it's impossible to make competitive plans for it as it takes registrants on race morning. Again this year, I was wondering if Rich Hanna would decide on entering at the last minute, as he has done a few years ago to set a new American record for our age group. While I was warming up, Rich told be he had suffered from several injuries these past months which kept him on the sideline unfortunately. Now, speaking of a late entry, my brand new Quicksilver teammate, Thomas Reiss, from San Luis Obispo, told me 20 minutes before the start that he had seen Camille Herron warming up on the course! Wow, that was a scoop and meant the race will certainly go fast at the front. For those who don't know, Camille has won dozens of marathons, and several ultras recently including Comrades last year, plus setting a few Open Women American Records!

To add to the race context, Thomas is going to turn 50 in March and is preparing for the 100K Road Nationals where he wants to lower our M50-54 AR which stands at 7:38 right now. He was aiming at 3:30 today and was going to run with his training buddy, Jadd Martinez.

Closer to Sacramento, Mark Murray, who turned 55, was going after the M55-59 AR, a rather soft one at 3:39.

As for me? A few things made me sand-bagging for that race:

1. First, I spent much more time behind the bar these past 2 weeks than running. No, I didn't say the bars (phew!), but the handlebar as I'm getting back to motorcycling after a 28-year hiatus. I used to ride, 35 years ago, but Agnès had rather me stop while we were raising a family. It's time to get on the saddle again before I'm getting to old for it.
2. With running taking the third stage, the first being my IBM job, still, I didn't put as many miles as I wanted, especially last weekend. To make it harder, I took a red eye for Newark on Sunday night, and flew back on Tuesday evening after two very short nights. On Wednesday, I went for a run but had to stop after 3 miles with a sharp pain deep in my left calf, yikes!
3. Then, on Sunday night, I banged my quad badly on the sharp corner of the bed; it really hurt and I could feel a sizable hematoma deep inside my right quad. I applied some deep tissue massage myself, including while driving to work and to the start this Saturday morning, but could still feel a small ball in the muscle just before the start. I was really wondering how these two muscle issues would play on race day so my goal was mostly to finish honorably and certainly not push too hard. Most certainly, I wasn't in shape, neither physically nor mentally, to give another try at our age group record!

As expected, with Camille at the front, the start of the race was super fast, around 6:10-6:15 min/mile! I let some gap form but, as usual, it felt good to be running on this course again, so I stayed 50 meters or so behind Camille. Besides, the weather was announced to get hot during the day but I was still cold myself, so much that I was wearing a beanie, a pair of gloves, my Brooks arm warmers and a Buff. While many were just wearing a singlet.

I maintained the 50 to 100-meter gap with Camille for 5 miles, thinking that I was going too fast at 6:15-6:20 min/mile but it was such a unique opportunity to have such an inspirational lead to follow. In our 6th mile though, something strange happened: I saw Camille grabbing something to fuel and that made her slow down to a 6:35-6:40 min/mile pace, so much that, against my will, I closed the gap and had to pass her to maintain our original pace. I did so and kept running 6:15-6:20 minute miles for several laps them, again, with positive and negative thoughts battling in my mind: am I going too fast, too early in the race? But wouldn't it be cool if I could keep up with that pace for 31 miles...?

I dropped the gloves after the first lap, but kept everything else as I was barely sweating despite the bright sun. The other big decision during the race was to only carry water, not my usual and traditional other bottle of GU2O (GU Energy Brew). I completely screwed up my electrolytes at the One Day in Auburn 12-hour 2 weeks ago so I didn't want to repeat the same mistake and took the other extreme, just relying on 1 S!Caps every 45 minutes to 1 hour.

I was still feeling great at the end of loop 3 but felt some cramps half way in the 4th lap. Running on fat and Vespa, I took a 2nd GU gel at the end of the 4th loop, then double on S!Caps at the end of the 5th lap. With the cramping, I had to slow down and mile 28 was the first one above 7 min/mile pace (7:08). From there, I switch to damage control and more cruising, checking behind a couple of times to see if anyone was closing on me.

I crossed the finish line in 3:26:45, not a great time but enough this year for the overall win, yeah!! And, back to the title of this post, finally... I had to keep racing that one until nobody faster would show up on race morning, this requires some tenacity! ;-)

Here is a short video from Greg Durbin who happened to be at the finish when I approached it:

I want to dedicate my race to two key persons associated to this event. First, in memory of Greg Soderlund who passed away 2 years ago after an inspirational yet heart-breaking battle to cancer. Greg has been the Race Director of Western States 100-mile for 13 years and I had the privilege to work with him when I was the Captain of the Last Chance aid station with the Stevens Creek Striders. But, closer to Jed Smith, until the very last year, he used to stop by the race and walk the course counter-clockwise, blessing us with his communicative smile and encouragements. Our ultra community misses him so much...

Second, in honor of Frank Bozanich who ran Jed Smith 8 times. A few months ago, I saw a post on Facebook where he was describing the feat of winning a race while being over 50. I thought it was Jed Smith that he had won at age 53 but it's actually Helen Klein 50K, when he was 56, in a time of 3:31! Bottom line, I still have 3 more years to go to match that, phew, that's not getting easier 20 years later with all the competition around! ;-)

Speaking of such a performance, it made me realize that Helen Klein 50K time was faster than the M55-59 AR record Mark was trying to break, because the course was likely not certified. The good news for Mark is that he achieved his goal, clocking 3:32:16 yesterday, good enough for a 2nd place this year.

Thomas took 3rd a few seconds later in 3:32:57.

Then Jadd in 4th, 30 seconds behind Thomas.

With Camille easily winning the women race in 3:35:16.

We even had an official award ceremony on the brand new Buffalo Chips podium cubes, a neat addition to the professionalism of this race, which still remains very friendly and low key on many other aspects.

For the sake of reporting on the health of the American River, once a year at that race, it was flowing strong and healthy this weekend, to the enjoyment of many ducks!

This was my 150th ultra race, including 65 50Ks, and out of 297 races in my running log; persistence starts adding up!

Great pleasure to see a few of my teammates, the Men in Blue, from the Quicksilver Running Club of San Jose. Respectively: Keith, Stephen, Marc, Jim and Jeff (who was making a come back after a major stroke last year).

Although we were way out numbered by the impressive show of the Pamakids, from San Francisco:

A special thanks to the early bird volunteers manning the registration booth and handing out my custom-made flier promoting the PAUSATF Ultra running Grand Prix (start there if you have any question regarding this way to get points at our ultra races):

John Feeney, the Race Director, was busy on all fronts this Saturday morning: on the picture below, see how he appears like securing the shoe laces of runners at the start of the 50-mile race! Kidding aside, he was putting the chip timing tag for a runner who didn't know it had to be taken away from the bib.

I did it for another 50K runner myself, but on the above picture, he receives a hand from Alan Abbs, who ended up winning the 50-mile race.

The race was officiated by elite runner Rich Hanna and his timing company, Capitol Road Race Management. And let me apologize publicly for doubting the 1-mile out and back as I thought the mileage was wrong upon finishing lap 4. My GPS ended up with 31.2, that's actually quite close to the targeted distance.

In conclusion, another very successful Jed Smith event organized by the Buffalo Chips. I'm not sure what happened in 1983, it's the only hiatus in the 37 years which Ultrasignup.com is tracking for that race since 1981, for the 50-miler. 38 years, that's ultra impressive! Actually, it shows only 30 editions for the 50K (1987 then 1990-2018) so I managed to run 1/3 of them! And a good reason to keep coming back year after year...

That was the first of the 14 races we can score in the Ultra Grand Prix this year. Check out the schedule, and see you soon on the trails or the road for more, then!