Quad Dipsea 2023: not getting easier, especially on tired legs!

Not quite a same-day race report but not too bad, on the following day. And what a special occasion to celebrate with this 40-year anniversary of this other Bay Area ultra running tradition. On the famous, or should we say infamous, Dipsea trail, the course of one of the oldest running race in North America. I haven't run the single Dipsea yet but the Double 3 times (2001 to 2003) and that was my 8th Quad Dipsea, albeit including one "Triple Dipsea" DNF in 2016.

As a matter of fact, I doubled with a Turkey Trot 2 days before, for these 8 times. Also, being the last race of our Ultra Grand Prix for many years, I usually didn't need to score to secure my age group, and risk an injury on this challenging course. But this is now our season opener, a good excuse to return. Overall, I ran it in 2006, 2008, 2009, 2014, 2016, 2021, 2022 and 2023. 3 more finishes to the 10-time finisher jacket! This time, in addition to pushing on a 10K on Thursday, my legs were sill tired from running all day and 106 miles at Fat Ox last weekend... One could say, not the smartest tapering! ;-)

That late in November, the conditions can vary a lot. This year, they were perfect: sunny, soft course after some heavy rain a weekend earlier then a dry week, and some breeze on the ridges. Even better, I got a very comfy ride to the start on Dominick's Tesla Y and we got one of the best parking spots near the school and 1 block away from the start thanks to leaving Cupertino by 5:15 and getting there around 6:20.

It was still dark under the redwoods canopy but Stan Jensen was already at work!

As well as John Catts of course, for his 10th and last year directing, with Ted Knudsen soaking in all the guidance and tips as he takes over the next editions.

The long porta-potty line is always a great opportunity to meet other runners.

Although teammate Sylvie just got her dual citizenship, I'm the one still wearing layers like I'm not Californian!

Was great to see the 200-miler queen, Catra, back on her quest to 25 Quads!

And look at who showed up again in the midst of such a super competitive Western States selection process, with the lottery in a few days: it's Race Director! As I told him: "You must be doing something great to get 9,600+ hopefulls in the lottery!"

Tropical John and Lisa made the trip to Mill Valley again for this very special celebration.

I was expecting a 5-minute speech at the start, but John Catts is more reserved than the Tropical one! Anyway, we were sent off on time at 7:30 with a sprint to the bottom of the first 700 stairs and I ended up being around the top 20 by then, although that didn't last for long!

I got passed by so many runners in the stairs but that was ok. Dominick, 52, caught up in the middle and I managed to stick to him. We were going to run the next 11 miles together, with an initial split of 1:14, right on his 5-hour target.

There were so many runners ahead of us, I lost track how far from the leaders we were, place wise: I'm guessing around 45. Distance wise, I was at 5.7 miles when I saw last year's winner, Nick Handel, on his first return: that made for a 2.8-mile gap already, wow!

On the way back from Stinson Beach, I was able to stay close to Dominick. We passed the Cardiac aid station and, 1 mile later, got into a couple of runners attending to one laying down on the side. Oh no, it was my teammate Sylvie Abel, in foetus position and looking unanimated as I got on the scene. So scary! Hopefully, she was just in shock and distress, having difficulty to catch her breath as she complained about hitting her rib cage and fearing something was broken. Her trail angel managed to get her to stand up, then sit down on the nearby trunk which she might have hit hard in her fall.

I wasn't up to take a picture while she was laying down, but here she is with her helper who stopped for a while. Dominick had just stopped for a few seconds and left when he realized we were enough to help out. I did leave after a couple of minutes myself after another runner stopped by and said he was an MD. With that, I didn't hear the helicopter which were sent over the scene but was told after the race that Sylvie ended up ok, getting assistance from the medics at Cardiac, then a drive back to the start. So long for a 2024 season opener for Sylvie and our team.

Without Dominick as a visual lead, I lost some of my mojo but was still happy to cross him as he was starting climbing the stairs again. I clocked a 2:31 at the turnaround and stopped for just a few seconds to drink a cup of Coke.

The third leg was surely not as fast and efficient as the first one but I kept pushing, remembering we had quite some power walking on the first leg already. This time I stopped at Cardiac, getting help from Jerry Flanagan to refill my GU Energy Brew bottle.

I crossed Dominick as he was at the beginning of the stairs on his way back, right after the Stinson Beach aid station. My clock was showing 3:51 and I returned to that spot at around 3:58. Not too bad of a gap but, again, I had lost my motivation to really pushing as hard as the 2nd leg. I even took the time to stop and snap a few pictures of the amazing views, to the surprise of 4 younger racers who passed me.

Cardiac aid station, with quite a panorama view!

I jogged everything I could but walked way too much and felt the fatigue especially in the irregular stairs of Steep Ravine. These darn stairs, which I-Tao captured on leg 2:

This year's splits: 1:13:56, 1:17:49, 1:21:55 and 1:27:02, for a total of 5:20, not a great pace this time again. I thought I had run 5:21 last year but it was 5:09, so here is to some more disappointment. So far from my 4:20 and 4:19 of 2006 and 2008, I lost so much with the 4-year injury of 2018... Needless to say, so far too from Nick's winning time of 3:48:44, the 3rd fastest time in the race history!

Dominick had an amazing 4th leg, passing a lot of struggling runners, finishing 26th overall in 5:02:43 and winning our age group. I ended up 54th overall and 4th in M50-59, although 1st above 55. Maybe my odds will improve next year, at 60! ;-)

From our Quicksilver club today: Sylvie (DNF), Gaspar Morra, Bree Lambert-Sanders, Clare Abram, Scott Laberge (not USATF), Steve Patt, Stephen Strauss (Captain, DNF at the Triple).

We stayed until almost 3 pm, for some great connections with the local ultra running community. I have to say I was really impressed with how many people called my name on the trail; and Dominick was also stunned. Thank YOU to all of you, and sorry for being so focused on the trail for missing a lot of eye contacts and acknowledgments. At least I didn't get too distracted, and I didn't fall, one of my top goals at that race!

Ultra volunteering is a full time job for Stan Jensen, making for some long days caring about us!

To sweeten this celebration even more, John Catts got us superb technical fleeces from Salomon, embroidered with the 1983-2023 milestone. 

Looking forward to year 41 already, hopefully for another finish, #8. Meanwhile, great to see so many of you yesterday!

PS:John posted this great event report on Facebook a few days later. Precious addition of details about the leaders, the volunteers and those who got the closest to even splitting!

Silicon Valley Turkey Trot 2023: shorter doesn't mean easier!

As I posted on Facebook last night, I'm barely touching ground between all the racing this year and keeping up with the blogging, not to mention my first job of course! But trying hard... So, after recounting my epic albeit pathetic 3rd place at the 24-hour Nationals last weekend, after running the grueling Quad Dipsea this morning, after not being able to make the time yet to report on my Spartathlon, let's continue with Thursday's Turkey Trot.

Of course, it was only a 10K so that makes it much easier to blog about. But, on the athletic side, many people imagine that running 10K must be much easier than running 170K (last weekend) or 246K (Spartathlon). Well, it all depends on the intensity and pace you put into it. And for the ones who know me, they wouldn't expect I just stroll a 10K.

It was the 19th edition of this amazing local Thanksgiving tradition which Carl Guardino initiated in 2004 to raise funds for local charities. Surpassing 20,000 participants, it quickly became the largest Turkey Trot in North America. While it had to go virtual during the pandemic, it's now in full swing under the leadership of Race Director, Chris Weiler.

For me it was number 15, a nice and particular milestone, and streak. We ran quite a few as a family but the boys are now far away. Agnès is also a big fan, on the 5K, and we also have friends joining, as well as colleagues from IBM.

We have had a few rainy runs but the conditions were perfect again this year.  This makes a huge difference when dealing with such a huge crowd. We got at the parking lot on 3rd street around 7:15 when the city was still so quiet. Plenty of time to get prepared before the 8:30 am start of wave 1.

After running 106 miles last weekend, I was still sore on Wednesday when I went for a slow 10K run to get the blood flowing. That made me quite worried about how I'll fare this Thursday. With the focus on Spartathlon, I've done almost no speed work this year but I went for a track trial the week before the Nationals and was surprised I could still break 6 minutes. But, again, my legs were trashed after running in circles for 24 hours last weekend.

Before sending the wheelchair competitors off, we had a short allocution from San Jose Mayor, Matt Mahan, then the National Anthem (click on 2nd image below to get to the video/recording).

I still started in front and decided to give it all my best. By the first turn, about 400 yards in, my GPS was showing a 6:15 min/mile pace, not too bad. And, yet, especially with a combined 5K and 10K start, there were so many youger runners ahead already. My first lap ended up at 6:25 and the second at 6:29. And I couldn't really go faster than that, this year. An anecdote from the third mile: I was following a runner who, all of sudden, picked his phone and started answer a call and having a conversation. At 6:30 min/mile, respect! Well, I ended up passing him but I think he caught up on mile 4.

I clocked 6:32 for that 3rd mile and the field got more sparse after many turned toward the 5K finish. The sunny areas of the course were getting warmer but there was still a lot of shade on the side, you could pick what you preferred. I was still on mile 4 when I saw the lead runners coming back toward the finish, wow! Yet, I couldn't get the needle to move much, it was challenging enough to maintain this pace which I've not run on for a long while after so many weeks this Summer logging between 100 to 200 miles. Mile 4 ended up being the slowest one at 6:38, followed by a mile at 6:33.

With only one mile left, I was more free to give it all or at least some of the all I didn't have in the tank. I clocked a 6:30 then started seeing the finish line with the clock showing 39 minutes already, yikes! I used to break 6:35 on this course but, again, the circumstances were very different. At that point I hear someone yelling my name on the right, it was ultra runner Chihping Fu. Needless to say, I kept sprinting and managed to break 40 minutes by 5 seconds, phew, that was close! 6:26 min/mile average.

Ranking wise I wasn't surprised in the evening to discover I had missed the age group podium for a change, falling in 7th place in the M55-59 (I'm 3 month off turning 60, not the right end of the spectrum! ;-) ). What baffled me though is that this ended up being the most competitive age group in the Masters: there were 6 runners below 40 minutes in the M40, 2 in the M45, 5 in the M50 and 2 in the M60. Excited to get into a new age group then for the 20th anniversary next year!

Despite the size of the crowd, I did see my former best speed work buddy Bob M, one IBM colleague, Shawn, and a few friends.

And I chatted with Bob Anderson, the founder of Runner's World who, today, at 75, broke 50 minutes to place 2nd in his age group.

As for Carl, he was hard to miss, doing an interview right in the middle of the finish area!

Now, the important stuff: while running is an amazing excuse to get people out for a healthy family activity on Thanksgiving morning, the real deal is that the event raised $11 millions for these local charities. Way to make an impact as a group, congratulations all!

See you next year for the 20th anniversary, this is going to be yet another huge party and opportunity to raise the bar of fund raising!

Fat Ox 24-hour Nationals: could I be tired yet?

A week has passed since Fat Ox and I already raced the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot 10K yesterday, time to keep the blog going with such a heavy regimen! (I'm still waiting for some pictures, I'll add later.)

Fat Ox: did you think from the name and the logo that it was about celebrating a big fatty local bovine? Well, sorry, you completely missed it, you got misled, and so was I! ;-) Nope, this is about a major real life Fat Oxydation experiment which has been set especially for Nick Coury to validate some key physiological hypothesis. Nick is actually the lead of our 24-hour Team USA on its way to the World Championships in Taiwan, next week. A major calendar conflict which explains why the big guys and gals of the discipline didn't show up at these Nationals.

In addition to being the current American record holder for 24 hours with 173 miles, Nick is one of the best representatives of the power of the Optimized Fat Metabolism (OFM), accelerated by the Vespa formula, a Japanese supplement product. In case you aren't a regular of this blog, I've become a big fan and user for the past 15 years (since Mt Diablo 50K 2008). In all disclosure, after refusing any sponsorship given the benefits I was deriving personally from the product, I became a Vespa Ambassador in 2019.

It was still dark when I checked in at 6:45 am.

After 8 attempts, my PR at this format has still been peaking at 133.4 miles, a mark I set at the NorthCoast 24-hour Nationals of 2014, placing 3rd overall, soon after turning 50. I had to stop for 2 hours after my pee had turned brown, so I always felt I was worth more miles if I could use the full 24 hours. Yet, I've struggled at this one-day format since, sometimes due to the weather. With that, I was excited to experiment again and hopefully improve on this PR.

In good albeith wet spirits before the start, with Lin Gentling, our USATF Official to oversee the Championships.

My primary goal was to win my age group, which would have been my 20th National age group title. Unless another M55-59 competitor was signing off, I was the only one in that age group when the online registration close which meant that I only had to complete one lap to fulfill this goal. How embarrassing...

One sad news was that Devon couldn't make it because of the impact of her Lupus. We were left with 9 participants and only 3 real competitions among 3 open men (under 40), 2 M65-69 and 2 open women. I had prepared in my luggage the plaque our Pacific Association committee which I chair made for Devon at the beginning of the year.

The event actually started on Friday morning with a 48-hour and various other time formats across 24, 12 and 6 hours, so there was always some action on that 0.988178-mile certified course. Our championship started at 8 am on Saturday. A few days earlier, the weather forecast was giving just a few minutes of rain at the start. While we ended up with almost 2 hours, it was not too bad, mostly drizzling. The 48-hour runners though got drenched as it poured so much in the early morning. I was actually shopping for some water and garbage bags at 6 am and had to wait for 10 minutes in the car on the parking lot to wait for the storm to pass. As a result, the flat and slick concrete course had quite a few puddles to slalom through in these first 2 hours. Thankfully, a handful of volunteers, including the big Aravaipa boss, Jamil, spent quite some time literally sweeping the course for us: top and most welcomed manicured course care! (Photo credit: Lin Gentling.)

I had conscientiously let the younger Open runners go at their fast sub-9 min/mile pace but I actually had trouble slowing down enough myself. After a few laps I was still averaging 8:35-8:40 minutes per mile. Lin was taking pictures while walking and monitoring the course:

Now, without any competition in my age group, I was free to take more risk and wanted to see if I could take advantage of the crazy training regiment I had put through the summer for Spartathlon, including a couple of 200-mile weeks. Plus the progress I made mentally as well with that experience. With that, I was even free to get a bit crazy: despite being only 3 months away from changing age group, I wanted to give a try to the 12-hour M55-59 which Bob Hearn set had set a few years ago at 78.7 miles. That was requiring 80 laps of 79.05 miles.

I was right on 20 miles at 3 hours. The glutes were tight, I know too well they have become my weak spot after my recent 4-year injury, during which I lost faith in recovery and didn't do enough strength training. But I could still hold on that sub-9-minute pace. By that time, the rain had stopped and the heat was picking up, making for an interesting weather pattern with the high humidity of the ground and air. By noon, it felt like I was not the only one suffering from the heat. I was too focused on my pace for stopping and taking the time to get some ice, I kept pushing until I reached 39.5 miles before the 6-hour mark, right on track. It was 2 pm and I was unfortunately not feeling as fresh as at the start, quite an understatement. By that time, it became much harder to maintain that pace, but I tried until I quickly fell off the rhythm.

In the morning, a local runner, Rich, was coming back on the course to continue his 48-hour run. He offered to share his table and actually moved the stuff I had left near my car onto his table. That made my stops much more comfortable than having to bend down to the ground.

Having lost the initial excitement of chasing the 12-hour record, there wasn't much positive goal remaining. After passing the 50-mile, I was even considering stopping. However, I saw a runner stopping by the timing tent and asking Katie, the Race Director, to look at the buckles. At the net lap I stopped myself and asked what the buckles were for: "100 miles!" Katie replied. Dang, there you are for a goal. Still, after initially dreaming of 135+ miles, 100 miles felt quite a remote and hard goal with all the slow walking which I had turned to. After the initial 39.5 in 6 hours, I managed to log 23.6 miles in the next 6 hours. Painfully.

At that time I was still in 4th overall, and 3rd in the Men, so "in the (some) money!" and I had 7 laps on Steven Barnett, 38. Steven shared that he enjoyed the cooler temperature of the evening and he was definitely moving faster than me now. The emulation kept me on my toes all night and I definitely felt the pressure seeing the lead decrease down to 4 laps. I walked a coupled of laps with Rich and that helped maintaining a 17 min/mile pace. Until Rich, and I as a matter of facts, reached 100K and called it a day as he was in the 48-hour mostly to support a friend who had already left.

If was past midnight when Steven passed me once more and, this time, I found the will to react and follow him in his acceleration. We passed each other a few times in the next laps and I felt the pressure and pace quite unsustainable as my legs were so tight and tired. Then I lost track of him for a lap until I saw him in his chair. For one lap, and one more, and another, rebuilding a 11-lap lead. All this battling eventually got me to 100 miles but I was still uncertain he couldn't come back and kill it. But then he eventually left, I think around 4 am.

Meanwhile I had jogged and walked along 5th place, David Harris, 69. David had a rough patch through the heat of the afternoon, even passing out. I was actually running through the aid station when I had seen the medical team called in a rush for a runner who had fallen, but didn't know who that was. As a consequence, they kept him in observation for a while and he got off pace for his 120-mile record goal.

Around 5:30 am, and with Steven now gone, I was getting a bit cold and decided to stop by the car to put one layer on. It was too tempting, I also got about 20 minutes of sleep, in 2 intervals. Someone seemed to be sleeping in the car next to me so I drove to park at the other extremity of the lot as I was running the engine to get the seat heating on. The whole stop did cost me about 55 minutes, really not efficient.

I came back on the course before sun rise and the sky was amazing. We were now less than 10 on the course, with a friendly battle between 1st and 2nd place, respectively Don Reichelt, 38, and Nick Elben, 29. As they were jogging or walking together, that looked like a Backyard format with Nick playing the assist. Don ended up being more consistent actually clocking several impressive fast laps in the last hour. Equally impressive Sierra DeGroff who finished strong, with 113 laps.

As for me, I kept on with my embarrassing and pathetic slow walking. After the 102 laps needed for the 100 miles, I painfully managed to add 5 laps for a total of 105.7 miles. Dang, so far from my initial goal. Last lap, in David's company, photos by Lin:

The overall 2024 American Champions, Don and Sierra:

Despite the small field, it took another 30 minutes for Kathy and the chief timer, Andy, to compile the results. At least the early morning sun was already providing a healthy warmth.

While we wait, here is a detailed list of my fueling (with the lap format, I was able to keep a bag of my wrappers, no need to keep track in my head, phew):

• GU Energy
• Waffle: 1 before the start
• Gels: 8
• Chews: 7 servings
• Brew: 7 servings
• Vespa: 7 concentrate (1 45 minutes before the start, 1 2 laps in as I had forgotten to take it just before the start, then 1 every 3 hours, skipping hour 21 as I was barely moving)
• S!Caps: 18
• Aid station: 2 cups of Coke, 2 small nems, 4 small avocado/ wraps (the best!)
• Mashed potato (Idahoan): 2 1.5-oz servings (I intended to take 1 every 6 hours but completely forgot about it until late in the evening, oops, the joy of being screwed, that is without a crew!)
• Water: I lost count but probably more than 10 20-oz bottles including quite a few stops for ice in the afternoon and even through the night.

Speaking of wrappers (yuk!), I keep mine when possible throughout the year and I love that GU Energy is offering to pay for shipping to send them to Terracyle (check this page, it doesn't even have to be GU Energy products). It was cool to see Aravaipa offers the same, on site at the aid station, although a bit disappointing to see how empty the box was at the end of 48 hours (until someone was frequently emptying the box as it filled):

Here is the mashed potato I used in races, super easy to mix with hot water up to the black line I draw with a marker in advance (I ate 4 of these during Spartathlon):

On behalf of USATF, Lin gave us our medals and the coveted patch. And Kathy, our buckles and checks. Next year, the qualification process for the 2025 World championships will be in full swing so you can expect a much deeper field and much more competition!

Here are some stats illustrating our poor job at initial pacing, with the 6-hours mileage splits:

• Don: 40, 34.1, 29.6, 23.3
• Nick: 39.5, 33.6, 28.7, 14.8
• Sierra: 39, 31.6, 25.7, 15.8
• Jean: 39.5, 26.2, 24.2, 15.8

Overall, I was super impressed by the professionalism of Aravaipa. It's not the first time I experience the quality of their organization, but it's only going up, kudos to the leadership, management, employees and volunteers for such a well oiled race machine! Particularly impressive was to see the speed at which the whole camp got unfolded and put back in the large trucks in less than 3 hours (I could watch as, without a hotel, I prepped for my flight back home on the parking lot, packing in the back of my car and using the restrooms to wash, missing the showers advertised on the park's website).

Before I close, I'd be remiss not to talk about the 48 hours in which Simen Holvik won by logging 224.3 miles, setting a new Norwegian record! And I can really not take Spartathlon myself as an excuse for a poor performance because, in his 3rd participation in Greece, Simen place 2nd this year 7 weeks ago! When I get to my Spartathlon race report(s) eventually, I'll tell you more about these tatoos. It was humbling to hear Simen's story as he focuses on his passion for these crazy long runs while taking care of his kids after his wife died last year. Thank you for visiting from Norway, Simen, what an impressive pace you could maintain over 2 days while we could see how much you were hurting...

Until we come back for more loops next year, I'm looking forward to seeing what Team USA is going to deliver in Taipei and I hope you'll follow the tracking as well! Go Team USA, we will be watching!