6 month without blogging, I feel so bad. Hopefully this is a BR (Bad Record) I won't beat anytime soon. Because I don't want this blog to die, as much as I don't want my running experience to end...
And missing weekly posting is not the only reason I'm feeling so down right now. Yet, I am so much on the good side of life. Like some people said: "we may be in the same storm, but we are definitely in the same boat!" For me, the down spiral started with what I first thought would be an insignificant injury triggered by slipping just one inch on a wet crosswalk 5 miles in the 2018 Silicon Valley Turkey Trot. Not getting a good diagnosis for 7 months, I still ran half an ultra season on the injury, just enough to get a couple of National titles and winning a 13th consecutive MUT Grand Prix, in 2019, with our NorCal USATF Pacific Association. Then COVID hit...
A good excuse to give time for the injury to heal you'd think... When I finally met a sport medicine guru in France in July 2019 he said "this is going to take some time to heal, it's going to be long." Well, I had no idea long would mean a couple of years. All I can say now is that, after year of denial and pushing the enveloped, I finally realized aging was a thing, that tissues weren't as elastic, or resistant, and repair wasn't as quick as in your golden years. And a key advice: do not get injured!!
With this preamble, let's get back to the title. If I didn't do a same weekend report, it's because I had to much to say about this return to competition, and this event. Let's split into these 5 sections:
- The build-up
- My race
- Who is this Alex Ratelle?
- Rich Hanna's turf
- The social lab
1. The build-up
In good normal years, the ultra season and our Grand Prix need to be planned out mostly by September as some events open registrations as early as October. Needless to say, with the ultra racing world at a halt, there wasn't much rush to make decisions last Fall. Still, I surveyed all the participating Race Directors (RDs) in October and November. I was especially interested in Jed Smith since that has been a traditional opening event for the past 20 years or so. Without any response to my pings, including in January, I assumed the event was yet another victim of COVID. It was spared last year as the local counties only closed in March. To my surprise though, I received a notification from UltraSignup in the first week of February, stating the event will be held the last Saturday of the month, instead of the traditional first one. While it was too short notice to include it in our 2021 Grand Prix, not to mention that many of our counties were still in purple state, I was impressed by the Buffalo Chips club's work and investment to still sanction both the 50K and 50-mile distances (this year the event also included a marathon).
Long story short, Buffalo Chips managed to pull all the strings to avoid an interruption in this ultra tradition now spanning 4 decades. I wasn't born to ultra running in 1983 to explain that only hiatus but I can testify to the resilience of this event, and it's growing significance. For instance, when I first ran it in 2009, that was quite a low key event, with the course even including a potentially muddy section at Gibson Ranch. We got more asphalt when John Blue had to find a course replacement in 2010. Then we switched to that new classic loop around the American River and over two bridges. Except in 2017 where that park was closed and we moved to a crazy fast loop around office buildings.
Despite the low key nature, Jed Smith has become a very respectable ultra lab, one of the very few certified and sanctioned 50-miles in the country. In 2009, Todd Braje ran an impressive 5:30 50-mile. Several records have been set on that course by Bev, Rich, Meghan, Billy (Mertens) and Bill (Dodson).
I've had quite a good run at this event. By 2018, 9 podiums out of 10 participations, and finally a win in 2018 (thanks in particular to Chikara or Rich not showing up...). I didn't run 2019 because, still in pain with the quad tendon tear, I had run the Redding Marathon the week before, to submit a better time for the Boston start. And I was traveling in Europe last year. This year, I slowed down so much, I didn't have the heart to compete in the 50K. Instead, I picked the 50-mile as a training and test run. Registration was closing at 6pm the previous Thursday. I got in at 4 pm. Followed by Rich just before 6 pm...
2. My race
Given the circumstances, my goals were simple: a. finish; b. see how long I could run at 7:30 min/mile pace; c. not get caught into the M50-59 competition (in addition to Rich, James Scalan who, at 50, won the 50-mile last year in 6:24, was back this year to defend his title; and Alan Abbs and Grant Carboni also joint our age group this year).
How hard can it be to run at 7:30 min/mile pace. Well, first, it has been really hard last year after I got sick in February. Was it COVID, I'll probably never know because, back then, we weren't even tested and my Doctor didn't believe in the efficiency of anti-body testing (the only I got was in September which is too late anyway). But, by July, I still experienced breathing issues in the first 1 or 2 miles of every run, so much that I could barely hit 8 min/mile anymore. Yet another hit on my morale, plus the fact that I almost lost my job at work. I spent 2020 wondering what to do with my training and, eventually, almost 2 years after the quad injury, finally getting a shock therapy done over 5 weeks in France in September. The positive effect started showing in November but full extensions are still painful, so much that I haven't resumed speed work at the track yet.
To my surprise given the small field, the start was staggered, one runner starting every 30 seconds. I arrived at the start area with Jason Reed and only one minute to spare, ready to get at the end of the line, but Rich wanted to take the third spot. I declined and took the 4th spot, just before Bev and Alan Abbs. Quickly checked on Rich's goal who knew about the road record of 5:53 for our age group (this record tracking page has a few errors which bring confusion). As for Bev, she is also back from injury (ACL), and was aiming at a 7-hour run.
With this race start format, you were on your own right away. After a week of tapering (just a 10 and 5K to get the legs moving), but more importantly the excitement of being racing again, and seeing other runners on the short initial out and back, I caught myself running under 7 min/mile, dang! I tried to slow down after getting on the 4.85-mile loop but it was hard to run slower than 7:10, it felt way too easy... Yet, even at that space, I lost sight of Rich around mile 4. Rich had told me at the start he was aiming at running 7 min/mile, still under the record pace, but he was even faster than that.
By the end of the second loop I could see a Team USA top ahead. I knew Meghan (Canfield) was in the 50K and that got me excited to keep the 7:05-7:10 pace for a little longer to catch her and say hi. When I got to her, I was resolute to slow down, yet kept going at around 7:15, so long for my most important goal...
A couple of pictures, the first from Eric Schranz (ultrarunnerpodcast.com) then Alan Fuss who spend hours tracking all of us around the course with is tele lens!
I got to 25 miles in 3:01 (7:15 pace), then the marathon mark in 3:10 (7:15), then the 50K in 3:46 (7:17). Then from there, I had pretty much decided to drop as soon as it was going to get painful, which it did on the 7th loop. I walked several times on that one, enough to finally get the pace to quickly decrease, or rather raise close to 7:30. I decided to call it a day at the end of that lap: 4:25:39 for 35.7 miles, that will have to do for the test. The biggest finding on my end is that I need to retrain my brain to better handle the suffering coming with ultra. Oh, and work on that slower pace still... Otherwise, no cramping, I even ran a 10K at a comfortable 7:15 pace on Sunday morning. Nothing to brag about but, given how far I'm coming back from, it feels good to see Vespa is still doing its magic!
Now, one of the reasons I wanted to stop was to see Rich's finish on this major record attempts. Apart from the 7:04 pace corresponding to the 5:53:08, which you have to hold for 50 consecutive miles, including any stop at aid stations, the record had been set almost 40 years ago, in October 1981. So long ago that nobody knows the holder, Alex Ratelle...
3. Who is this Alex Ratelle?
I even checked with the supra ultra historian, Davy Crockett, who didn't know either. Fortunately, well, in this case, fewer and fewer details escape Google nowadays... A search allowed me to actually learn a few things about this mythical Masters legend:
- First, to Davy's defense who only covers ultra, it looks like Alex Ratelle only raced 2 ultras in his life time: a slow 50K and this amazing 50-mile! This is confirmed by his DUV page.
- I did skip the Dr title, but he has been an anesthesiologist for almost 40 years.
- 67 missions on B-17 bombers during WWII, including being shot down twice! (source: TwinCities Pioneer Press).
- Although he ran in high school, he really picked up marathon running when he was a Masters.
- One of his feats is a 2:30:46 at age 56.
- All in all, his obituary mentions he ran 160 marathons (this page from the Association of Road Racing Statisticians also lists shorter distance races) and once held 8 world records and 32 American age group bests.
- He died in 2017 at age 87; his wife also died knowing this record resisted to the years, in 2020. Their daughter died in 2007 (source: findagrave.com) (personal note: while not running for 7 months in 2020, I spent lot of time working genealogy, and I'm amazed the information that this page contains about Alex's family, from his parents to siblings).
- A few more details in Sherman's 2012 column in Sun Current.
- And, albeit less relevant for this blog, he was also an accomplished amateur car racer.
And two pictures found on the Internet to put a face on this legend:
4. Rich Hanna's turf
Back to Jed Smith where Rich still had two loops to complete after I dropped. At mile 40 he still looked super smooth, composed and so fast.
Looking more tired at the start of the last lap but he still had more than 40 minutes to complete just under 5 miles.
Once again, on his training ground, and while being time tracked by his own company and employees, Rich didn't disappoint at all: taking the 1:30 staggered start time off the clock, he completed the 50 miles in a blistering 5:50:52 (right on 7:01 average pace).
Outstanding performance especially given the headwind we had especially while crossing the first bridge, up to 10 times. Gave it almost all, that record should hold for quite some time!
By the way, yet another "carbon shoe plate" record, there is really something about these shoes, either from Nike, Hokas or Brooks (Hyperion Elite 2).
5. The social lab
While the event didn't gather the whole Pacific Association MUT community this year, it was great to see a few familiar faces again. Special mention to the big show from the Excelsior's team. Starting with Chikara Omine who clocked a PR, finally breaking 3 hours on the 50K (2:59:41 a 5:47 average pace!). And still, that wasn't even good enough for first place as Malcom Richards took the win in 2:51:49. 5:31 average pace, you see what I was talking about when I mentioned in the intro that Jed Smith was turning into a most respectable ultra event!
Dennis and Chikara:
Race Director, John Feeney, with Meghan, and Craid Thornley (Western States RD).
A selfie with Kevin Beile, the finish line aid station volunteer (it was the year to be anti-social, I didn't stop at any aid station this year, but at my car twice to change bottles and take a Vespa pouch at mile 25).
Carl Jacob from the Tamalpa Runners club, in the 50K
Alan Abbs having a great day for a short 50-mile run (compared to his and Bev's recent win at the inaugural 500K HOTS).
Bev who'd win the 50-mile race again:
Verity Breen having both fun and speed on the 50K:
And Chief Endorphin Officer, Tony Nguyen, following Chikara's steps (almost!) with a 50K PR too!
Special kudos to John for having the guts to run this edition while the county was in purple state. What a feat which allowed many of us to see each other, and push the envelope again for quite a few outstanding performances. One optimistic news to bring hope for a 2021 recovery! Thumb up, John and Buffalo Chips!!
1 comment:
Hi Jean, Very pleased to read you again! Stay safe and…run.
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