Running, my second job and passion...: Jed Smith 50K 2023: the long but steady road back to speed

When I first ran Jed Smith in 2009, it was a low key trail race at a ranch. In the spirit of Jedediah Smith who spent his life exploring the Rockies in the 19th century. What an evolution the event went through to become a sanctioned and course-certified event and place of several National Road records!

In addition to perfect course conditions after a lot of cleaning and clearing work by the Park rangers since our big winter storm of early January, the weather was also ideal: chilly at the start but not cold, no wind, some sun initially but mostly overcast otherwise, and 5 dry hours before it started drizzling in the afternoon. Add to these conditions the super pro timing of Rich Hanna's company, Capital Road Racing Management, you understand why some new or out of State speedsters now show up, every year.

We had a good men lineup from Quicksilver:

In addition to Keith, Stuart, Yoshi and Marc on this picture, Martin and Stephen were there too. Too bad we don't have more gals joining our fun!

The traditional American River hydrology report on the first Saturday of February: we got some water in January this year!

5 distances were proposed, from 50 miles to a half marathon, but only the 50K was part of our Pacific Association USATF MUT Grand Prix. I like to drive early to see the 50-mile start, I left home at 5 am. 140 miles of highway, without traffic at that early time, but a heavy fog on 5 (driving at 65 mph without visibility isn't so safe...). I wanted to be on time as I had two 2021 award plaques to hand over to amazing runners on the 50-mile: Jonah Backstrom and Bev Anderson-Abbs. I was able to catch Jonah as he was warming up but Bev only made it to the start line with 45 seconds to spare, I left the plaque at her car.

A flying presentation to amazing Bev (with Allan still able to keep up in the second mile):

Both the 50K and marathon started at 8:30, 1 hour after the 50-mile and 1 hour before the 30K and Half. Rich had told me that Jacob Nur was aiming at improving the M65-69 American record, after setting 3 American records in that age group last year: 5K in 17 minutes flat, 10K (35:42) and half marathon (1:18:00)! And that's improving records from famous Brian Pilcher and Tom Bernhard, two other Pacific Association fellows.

But that's not all: Billy Mertens was visiting again, from Colorado, to set a new mark in the M55-59 age group --yes, mine-- after leaving an indelible mark in the M50-54 category when he broke Rich's (3:17:52) and my (3:18:05) 2016 records, on another Jed Smith course, in 2017, with a blazing 3:16:29. I had seen last year that Billy won our M55 age group at Boston, in 2:39:36, I knew he'd give a try a this record. But there was some suspense as he entered just a few days before the race. He also complained at the start of suffering from a bit of a cold and his hamstring bothering him, we had to see. I assured him that I wasn't going to pace or chase him this time, still having to rebuild after a 4-year injury hiatus.

Here is the record-chaser dashboard for men at Jed Smith 50K:

Stuart asked what was my goal. I had run a very encouraging 3:41 50K in training mid January so I confidently replied I was aiming at a 3:37-3:45 range, corresponding to a pace between 7:00 and 7:15 min/mile. I was able to run a few sub-6 miles at the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot for a good change but I've rarely broke 7 min/mile in training these past months. My focus for January was to rebuild volume and I was please to log 610 kilometers over 28 days in January. Last time I put so many miles in a month was September 2018, in the remote pre-pandemic era...

Jacob's record to break was 3:41:41, a 7:08 min/mile pace, right in the middle of my goal range. I decided to stay behind him as long as I could. We ran most of last year's race at that pace with Stuart, who got so close to break 3 hours on the marathon distance last year, Stuart was also aiming at similar times. We had a great plan!

Well, except that Jabob started a bit faster than what I was hoping, closer to 6:50-6:52 for most of the first miles. After 3 miles, I decided to slow down a bit and let Stuart run and chat with Jacob, a few yards ahead. That allowed me to relive some of the pressure, as I had so many negative thoughts firing in my mind, that this was going way too fast. For me anyway as Jacob's stride seemed so efficient and relaxed.

By mile 5, as we got to the first aid station, Jacob grabbed a cup of water and, carrying two bottles (GU Brew and water), I passed through and we ended up running the next 2 miles, together. I chuckled when Jacob called me "the legend" while he is himself a National M65 sensation! After this nice chat, I had to catch my breath and let Stuart and Jacob lead the way again. Still staying a few yards behind, and closing on them when Jacob was slowing down a bit to grab on of the gels he was carrying.

With that, we were still below 7 min/mile by the end of lap 3 (mile 16.5) except that I lost about 20 seconds in an inefficient stop by my car to leave my GU2O bottle and grab a pouch of Vespa. This time I was about 100 yards behind Jacob and it took me a couple of miles to close on him and Stuart.

At the end of lap 4, it was Stuart's turn to get his little adventure while stopping to his car to grab a new bottle; I could hear a car alarm getting off and, sure enough, it was his, as he inadvertently pressed the alarm button on his key fob, dang! It might have been only a few seconds lost to get back to his car but it does matter when we are moving at 7 min/mile for so long, hard to catch up.

With another stop of Jacob to grab a cup of water at mile 20, I caught up with him again and we ran a couple of miles together. He asked me if we had 2 or 3 more laps after that one, I replied only 2. To confuse him a bit more, someone jogging crossed us and said: "3 more laps!" What did she know, with all these distances and all these laps, it's so confusing to keep track of who's where at, better not trying to help! ;-)

I had another bad stop to grab a gel at the end of lap 4 and lost some ground on Jacob again. 4 miles later, I even felt some cramping coming in my calves, that was a bit early. But I still managed to close on the marathon mark with a respectable 3:05:42 (I'll be 60 for Boston 2024, and will need a 3:50 to qualify, that should do). At that point, I was ahead of both Stuart and Jacob, now on a 7:05 min/mile average pace. But it was harder to even keep a 7:15 pace especially with a few episodes of cramping which forced be to walk a few steps. I took a 4th S!Caps to mitigate, as well as my latest technique, huge breath in, to accelerate the intake of oxygen. That seemed to do the job as I was able to avoid stopping again, except for that cup of water at the remote aid station, to help swallowing the S!Cap.

Without much excitement, I missed Jacob's goal by a few seconds, finishing in 3:42:03. Stuart clocked a PR of 3:46:39.

Jacob, cramping badly on the last lap, a PR too, at 3:49:33. Still so impressive at 67, yet he was disappointed with the miss on the last lap.

We talked about electrolytes, as well as maybe starting not as fast. I'm sure it's a matter of months before he breaks that record! I did share my recipe: water on one hand, GU Brew on the other (about one bottle every 15 miles), 4 S!Caps, 3 pouches of Vespa (-45 minutes, start and mid way), 3 GU gels (including one Roctane).

Now, while I was pleased to shave 23 minutes off my 2022 time, confirming the road to recovery and rebuild, this is still so far from my pre-injury level. And while I was 5th overall, I was so far behind the lead runners this year: Peter Bromka, 41, from Portland, had won in 2:58:14, missing the Masters American Record by 38 seconds! Then Daniel Button, 36, from Eagle, ID, in 3:06:37, also a fast time! Then... the 56-year old Billy Mertens himself in... 3:20:36, wow! Breaking Jeff Mescal's 3:21:54 by a good margin. Now that makes me feel so slow, you get the picture and the data points...

4th overall was the female winner, Jennifer Schmidt, 31, from Davis, in 3:25:02.

Yoshi rounded our Quicksilver Men team scoring with a 4:23 finish.

Less than 4 minutes later, Martin got a new PR with 4:27. Later this Saturday, he learned that he was selected to run Bad Water: so much joy for one day, as evidenced by this picture!

Stuart in the comfortable chair for some RD to RD talk:

Post-race debrief with Jacob and Stuart:

Meeting Jacob again at our Pacific Association recognition awards banquet in the evening, in South San Francisco (lot of driving today, 350 miles for me as I drove back home for a quick 1-hour shower and rest stop in between, South Bay).

Much grateful to John Feeney for directing this top class event, year after year, and his club, the Buffalo Chips for manning these two aid stations and all the course monitors along the loop. 35th edition since 1987, what an amazing tenure and ultra tradition!

For me, that was the13th Jed Smith participation, 12th finish (I deliberately entered the 50-mile in 2021, as a test and training run, when I was still injured), 75th 50K race, 169th ultra finish, I don't have any particular milestone in mind, just happy to get back to some speed so I can keep running at least, if not farther and/or faster.