Knickerbocker Canyon 35K 2025: the epitome of trail running

Single track trails, fire roads, switchbacks, rocks, roots, mud, puddles, creek crossings, creek running, steep uphills, steep downhills, dead leaves, pine needles, fallen tree, tough competition and emulation, camaraderie, great volunteers, legendary trails, professional organization, sub-ultra but challenging distance, Knickerbocker had all the ingredients of the essence of trail running! I just wish I had brought my camera with me to illustrate all these keywords with pictures. Although I'm not sure I had the time to spare for a photo safari...

We added this race to our Grand Prix in 2023. Unfortunately, pushed to the side of the road by a large truck drifting from its lane after Vallejo, I blew up a tire and missed the start. Last year, I was signed up but no show with my freshly broken meniscus. After a good test with No Hands Half in January, I was excited to finally make it to the start this year.

I left home by 5 am and arrived to the start at 7:25 am. For a great improvement, 8 other club mates showed up this time, way to represent! (Chak not on that picture.)

After a few weeks with some much needed and welcomed rain, the conditions were perfect again: soft ground, not too muddy, and thin layer of clouds, clearing up at times in the morning. This time, I made sure to get close to the start line which allowed me to get in the top 15 before we got onto the narrow single trail.

I was in Paul Broyer's footsteps for the first mile and passed him as we got on the Western States trail. One runner had passed three of us running together but I passed him before getting to the legendary No Hands bridge. No stopping at the aid station and up K2 we were, together with a half-marathon runner, with a blue top. In January, then on the half marathon, I had run a good portion of that super steep hill but not this time: I just focused on power walking, knowing there will be another race starting at the top. There was a another 35K runner well ahead of us whom I couldn't close in as I was trying hard to save my breath. This hill is such a beast!

At the top, I thought that we were on for a nice flat loop around Cool. Oh my, I'm so bad at reading maps... I had seen a bit of a dip but certainly not realized we were going down to the American River, once more! 

At the next aid station, the volunteers announced 4.8 miles before coming back to them and I asked if we were going to retrace the same route. As they responded affirmatively, I had assumed it was an out and back. For the next 2 miles, down to the river, I was surprised not to see the lead runners then, only to realize at the bottom that we were going up on a different route. From time to time I could still see that same runner as on K2, a minute or so ahead but, more importantly, I could spot 2 yellow jerseys behind, Paul being in the second. That emulation kept me pushing as hard as possible in the uphills, dang!

I picked a GU gel at the aid station and kept pushing upstream, literally, as that trail section had turned into a creek! Eventually, I caught up and passed that runner ahead, before Cool. I still had no idea how many other runners were ahead but I was resolute to at least resist the charge behind.

From a quick look at the course map last week, I estimated that we were returning to Auburn on the same finish as the No Hands Half Marathon course of January. Which was on the long side, with 13.7 or 13.8 miles. Well, this time, we kept going until we crossed the road which I remembered from quite a few finishes at American River 50-mile. Granted, we needed more mileage to get to 35K, we had to go farther. I was still moving reasonably well in my opinion, passing more Half Marathon runners, when I spotted a yellow jersey a few hundreds yards behind, yikes! This course is relentless, I had to give more!

I finished in 8th place in the Men (chicked x2!), 3:13:12, 4th Masters and winning my age group this time, by a good margin. I should have been super happy with that result, except that the overall winner had crossed the finish line almost 40 minutes ago! Oh well, 87% UltraSignup score for me, when age is NOT just a number... ;-)

Short of being able to race, Shiran snapped a few pictured of my finish.

And that yellow jersey? It was Markus Lampinen, 38, of San Francisco, who finished 3 minutes and a half behind. Followed by Paul right on 3:19.

Worth more than thousands words to describe this course, here is a Relive flyover (click on this link or the picture below).

Despite the slow time, relatively to first place, I'm so grateful for being back to racing competitively. And I'd be happy NOT to still be the fastest on our team... A team which did quite well actually: at 18, Keahi Jack finished 13th overall in 3:19:17. Bjorn in 25th place, then Chak and Richard in 43rd and 44th respectively, Kellen, 11th in the women division, Bob, 75th overall, our Captain Gary in 78th and Keith in 83rd. 9 finishers total but we will only score two teams, one Men, one Mixed.

Speaking of teams, I'm blown away and very pleased to see a new club taking the spotlight in the Mixed division with SRA Elite having the top 1, 3 and 5 spots overall: Garrett Gardner, 2:34:52, Peyton Bilo, 3rd overall and first female, then Gallen Faris. Way to represent the Sacramento area and make a big impression on our Sub Ultra Trail Series! Looking forward to seeing you on Mt Diablo and Horseshoe next month, then in September/October for the last 2 races.

And an additional wow for Jonah Backstrom who, at 51, took 2nd. He was so happy for having broken his 2:40 goal which was Tim Tollefson's winning time of the original edition in 2015 (before Tim set a 2:24:33 course record in 2023).

I took 2 Vespa before the race, 4 GU gels during the race, especially as boosts before the climbs. I realize after the race that I had drunk most of my GU2O/GU Brew bottle but almost nothing from my water bottle, oops! And 2 S!Caps did the trick, sodium wise, as it wasn't hot.

Great finisher medal and tee, recto and verso!

A note on my shoes: I took the risk of running in a new pair of Brooks Pure Grit. Not the latest model as the box sat in my garage for at least 7 years, but the second generation, with an exceptional grip. It was the perfect shoe for the trail conditions, great bet!

For the anecdote, I kind of push shoe mileage quite far, here is a pair of the original Pure Grit I retired a few weeks ago, after the sole pretty much disintegrated, after 844 trail miles... A pair I started using in 2012, time flies.

The drive back home wasn't as pleasant as the way in, with a lot of traffic and a few jams on 80. After spending more than an hour at the finish, I was back home by 4:30, in time to start this blog but crash for an early bed time. Busy Sunday with home projects but I was able to run a 5K loop to get the legs moving. Some soreness but not too bad as I didn't cramp during the race. Meaning there is still room for pushing harder. But not too hard to save the knee. That is the new dilemma...

At least, a good hill training session, thank you Inside Trail Racing, Craig, and your team of volunteers for allowing us to play hard around the Endurance Capital of the World™!

Back to Black Mountain for a big change!

That nearby summit of almost 3,000 feet used to be my weekly playground. Between the focus on road and distance training for Spartathlon in 2023, then the meniscus injury 12 months ago, my last run up there was March 25, 2023. I wouldn't have remembered, I'm glad to have kept a detailed running log for 29 years! Anyway, 2 years since I went on Black Mountain, time flies so fast...

As I wrote last week in my Big Bunny 5K race report, I have to work on my endurance and hill training to prepare for my next races, this Spring. So why not right away? The glutes had worked a lot to power the pace on Saturday but I wasn't sore the next morning. Still, after all these months not running hills, or not running at all last for 7 months last year as a matter of fact, my main goal was to just go the ultra distance, with a conservative pace. So, here I go on the Mountain, last Sunday.

Incidentally, I was pleased to see so much water, first in the Stevens Creek Reservoir, then all the creeks flowing. I write this post thinking this may serve as a geological survey. Who knows, when water get much scarier in the future, most probably, it might be interesting to some to find some information about our past. Speaking of surveyors, I was thinking of my buddies whom I was running these trails 10+ years ago: Charles Stevens, Mark Williams, Chuck Wilson, Chris Garcia, ... Will a younger generation take over monitoring these trails through running?

Running wise, I managed to actually run the whole 28.5 miles, even the steep Indian Creek on the back side of Black Mountain. Very promising to still have the stamina. And some glutes to power up. And shorter strides/steps as you can see on this chart, around mile 15. Two images came back to mind wile powering up, two tips from ultra legends: Hal Korner's diesel mode, and Scott Jurek imagining his head/mind being pulled by a string.

As a matter of fact, the downhills were way more annoying, triggering pain in the left knee, dang. Here is a Relive.cc flyover.

Beyond the knee pain, the worst experience on that Sunday was an encounter with cyclists rushing down Montebello Road. Fearing those as much as they fear cars driving up, I was running up the hill on the left side of the road, against traffic, as pedestrians have to. I'm always thinking of such potential encounters so, in a turn, I was carefully running on the left side of the white stripe, in a turn. And not fast as it was steep. A first cyclist was surprised to see me. He wasn't even close to the side but deviated toward me anyway, the reflex to avoid a potential car coming up. Now, the second biker had plenty of time to see me but decided to yell at me, like I was the danger! A loud and infuriated: "Come on!" to which I replied with all my energy and yelling "F..k you!" At least the third cyclist stayed mute... Between the emotion and shouting with all I had, I had to walk a few steps to catch my breath, phew! Really, I get it is stressful to ride down Montebello at 50 miles per hour, but to act like you own the road... Disgusting behavior.

Not counting a few pit stops to enjoy the views, I clocked an average of 9:10 min/mile. I would have been encouraged by this start to hill training if it wasn't for the knee pain which resulted and persisted all week, hampering my weekly mileage: 28.6 miles this week versus 65.9 miles last week! I used to average 100 km per week for 9 years, but these 106 km felt like overworking... With my damage knee I might have to just do hill training while racing, and work on strength training otherwise.

From a survey standpoint, I noted that the phone booth at the backpack campground is still up, but without a tone. More like a museum artifact...

No communication but the level of the water reservoir at the top of Black Mountain is healthy at least!

Cupertino's Big Bunny 5K: the teen ruling the town!

Phew, back to the same-day race report, yeah! The race starts around the block, on a Saturday morning, and is fast and short, perfect setting and much easier to wrap it up on the same day than a 100K race, for a change...

This is a low key event organized by our city, Cupertino. It used to be on Easter Saturday, a date which drew families with young kids for an Easter Egg hunt. Needless to say, the event attendance suffered the pandemic hit. I was told it was still not back to pre-COVID registration levels, yet slightly better than last year. 509 names on the result sheet from SVE Timing.

After breaking my meniscus exactly a year ago, it felt great to have been able to work on rebuilding some speed in preparation of this race, at the track. After last week's workout, my goal was to break 20 minutes, with sub 19 as a big bonus.

In addition to the excitement for this race, or rather stress as I take running rather seriously, my mind and heart were filled with emotion and excitement after watching Ireland-France: what a game for Les Petits and Les Bleus! The game finished 15 minutes before the start of the race, not much time to warm-up! I got to the start just in time, literally! As I got to the front at 8:28, the speaker announced 4 minutes before the start. That was helpful to catch my breath but then, 10 seconds later, it was a 40-second warning. Then "runners take your mark" then... another 10 seconds. Then a 10-second count down. Certainly not a USATF-sanctioned event...

As usual, a few kids rushed out of the gate like it was a 60-meter dash sprint. With my own rush before the start, I didn't have my GPS watches on the right pacing screens so I just went all out as well. Passing by the house at 0.7 mile, I was still in good company.

I ran the first mile in 6:02 which was on the aggressive side, given my current fitness level. And age, I may say. It wasn't too uncomfortable but I didn't believe in me enough to hold that pace. A tall runner I didn't know, Chris Heinonen, 46, was running just behind and I was secretly hoping he was going to pass me to lead the second mile but that didn't happen. Instead, two teens, one with a Lynbrook shirt, pulled ahead while maintaining the 6-minute/mile pace. And, as opposed to 20 or 10 years ago, I had lost sight of the leaders...

My GPS watches buzzed at the exact same time at the end of second mile: 6:25, yikes! Still within my sub-20 goal but better not slow down more, I was eating the buffer... Thinking of my fellow Frenchmen's battle in Dublin gave me a kick and, pushing the pace, I managed to pull away from Chris. Agnès snapped another picture before the end of the third mile which I ran in 6:12.

I kept sprinting to the finish for a chip time of 19:02. Ahh, so close to 19 but I'll certainly take that milestone as a proof that hard work is starting to pay off. 8th overall, 2nd Master (40+) albeit far behind Jonathan Kimura who took second in a blazing 16:31.

Speaking of sub-17, I do miss these years... That was was only my 9th edition as, for several years, the event conflicted with my Boston runs (seven there so far). 16:54 in 2002, 16:50 in 2004, 16:06 in 2005, 16:33 in 2006, 16:09 in 2007 (the year I started blogging), 15:54 in 2008, 16:36 in 2010, 16:20 in 2013, 19:02 in 2025 (12 years gap including two key injuries...). Let's see what's in store for a number 10, hopefully next year, and shaving off 3 seconds!

Quick chat with a volunteer queen, Fari, who keeps our neighborhood safe and prepared for disasters.

I went back on the course to run another loop as cool-down and to net 10K today. The award ceremony started around 10:20. The weather and family spirit were so great that many age group winners were still here, to get the honors of the podium. For a nice change, it started by the 80+ category so I wasn't too far behind! ;-) With Big Bunny, and Alejandro Gonzales who, at 63, was the last of 15 to break 20 minutes today.

The metric I'm the most pleased with is my average stride of 1.38 meters. The longer it is and the faster I go, the least pounding and stress on my knee! I still need to rebuild my glutes, they are the ones screaming at that pace, more than the lungs.

Back to the title, it was humbling and cool to see so many teens among the fastest time today, hats off! The winner of this 2025 edition was Leo Silberstein, 14 years old, in 16:28! 6th and 7th place were 14 too and 10th place, only 12!!! 8 teens or under in the top 20, bright future ahead!

Look at this age distribution. This event is a family one, many parents running or walking with, or behind, their kids.

Good diversity on the gender side too.

And on the world representativity as well, based on people's names. I've lived in Cupertino for 26 years and love that diversity, from Asia to Europe and the Americas of course. Well done, Cupertino, stay healthy!

After this stint into road speed, I need to switch back to endurance and longer runs to prepare for the 50K Nationals in Wisconsin next month, then adding some serious hill training before Quicksilver 100K in May. This polyvalence is both challenging and exciting! And more complicated now that I can't log as many miles as before given my damaged meniscus.

With that, don't forget we change time tonight and see you next year, Big Bunny!

PS: the title is also a wink to my boys who sat on the Cupertino Teen Commission, 10 to 15 years ago...

365 days later: an Oscar marathon

On the first anniversary of my knee and meniscus tear, I have to admit that I did savor each and every step of a casual and slow 10K training run. Beyond appreciating the blessing of being able to run almost pain free, my focus was to just enjoy and not mess up! To be transparent, on Friday evening, after a stressful day and week at work, I had indulged my first 20K in the neighborhood since the injury. I was so used to not go out for less than 15K, it had been a while since I ran 4 of my local laps. These were not fast, but still progressing on the right track.

We say "time flies" but that year has been particularly painful and annoying. At the opposite of all the excitement I had built around getting into a new age group... The first 4 months have been filled with the anxiety of not understanding what the damage was after the internal snap in my left knee. Then a minor surgery to get a few pieces of meniscus out through an arthroscopy by the team which had fixed Djokovic's knee a week later, to much success. In Paris. Then 3 months of additional rest and recovery. According to the surgeon the pain had supposed to disappear but the first few weeks were completely demoralizing. While I could bike or row without pain, I turned back after 300 to 500 yards in my first attempts of running. While the pain in the knee decreased as I was able to log more miles in October, I started realizing how much muscle, strength and endurance I had lost in my glutes in particular. Races after races, training runs after training runs, I finally logged a few marathons at the track in the 3:15 range.

Now, this weekend was for a much different marathon: AMC was running a pre-Oscar marathon on Saturday: 4 movies in 13 hours, one of my birthday gifts! We watched Wicked and The Brutalist in the afternoon, missed A Complete Unknown for a dinner with friends in Los Altos, then I drove back to Saratoga to see Dune: Part Two. Until 1 am... For a change from ultra running, kind of ultra movie-ing. A proof that you can run a marathon from your couch! Sadly, there were only 7 of us in theater, what another big societal change!

Back to actual running... As I mentioned in my latest blog posts, it's only in February that I was able to do more consistent speed work, and flirt again with the 6 min/mile pace. Through discipline and determination. This Sunday, after last week's 10 repeat miles, I set a new goal: run a few 5K trials under 20 minutes.

Well, that was poor planning vis-à-vis the weather forecast: while the rain had stopped by the time I left home, the wind had picked up at 15 mph, and gusts of 30 mph, yikes!

I couldn't hold last week's pace and was disappointed of clocking 20:49 for the first attempt. Warmed up, I decided to push harder on the second series: first mile at 6:19, 6:27 for the second, 6:20 for the third, then 41" for the last half lap, for a total of 19'48", phew! While I was pleased of at least breaking 20 minutes, I didn't think I was going to improve from there, especially with that wind, and didn't want to take more risks of pushing too hard, so call it a day and just ran back home.

I'm excited to see which pace I can hold at the Big Bunny 5K next week. After that focus on speed, I'll had to get back to rebuilding more endurance for the upcoming Spring races.

As for the knee, it seems like, the faster I run, the less I feel it. It's more like a mild inflammation afterwards, but nothing compared to the pain of 12 and 6 months ago. As they say: "Enjoy while it lasts..." So, yes, I'm grateful for these additional miles of running. For many months last year, I wasn't sure I could get back at it at all.

Grateful for the dozens of messages and wishes I received over the weekend, that was definitely a very special time. Including not snapping my knee this time, phew! Regarding the messages, it feels so great to hear from more friends than your age in years. I know, when age is only a number... 😜 Love you all. And feeling so much for the Ukrainians... 

Speed work analytics: what about the mind?

The left knee is still sensitive on most of the runs, enough to contain my eagerness to returning to logging 62 miles a week, an average I hold on for 8 consecutive years, before the pandemic. Some will call that a blessing... The famous "listen to your body" adage...

This Sunday morning, after watching an impressive win of France over Italy --that would be rugby-- and working on my CFO duties for one of a non profit I'm involved in, I went back to the nearby track. As I wrote at the end of my trip report to Saint Lucia last week, we live in running paradise, here in California. Better make the most of it!

Last week, I did 6 repeat miles. Coming back from a week of slow running in the Caribbean, the first mile was sluggish at 6:40 but I eventually push the pace to run the last mile at 6:06. This week, I had in mind of running as many repeat miles, each below 6:30.

To my surprise, I clocked 6:12 with relative ease so decided that was going to be the new bar for the series. 6:09, 6:07, 6:04, all separated by the same 2-minute rest, I was on a roll! Since I wanted the series to last longer than 6, I eased up a bit to clock 6:05, 6:06 and 6:05 for the next ones. I finally got to 6:00 on repeat #8, then 5:57 for #9, running 100 meters behind a kid doing a 1,500-meter test, timed by his father. I couldn't match that in #10 (6:07) and decided that was an indication that was enough of a work out. The best news, for me anyway, was to feel the glutes so engaged and participating into the leg work challenge of the combination of an even faster cadence (my default one is already high) and longer stride (that I need to regain).

It felt exciting to be able to hold at that pace, for a big change. Even more so as I didn't feel my knee at all (but I did on the slow 8-min mile back home). That workout made me think of my Chicago marathon PR when I hold that pace (6:01) for 26.2 miles. 21 years ago, time flies, and disappear...

Overall, there is a ton of KPIs to track the biomechanics aspects of running. But when it comes to the mind and motivation, you have to listen to... your body indeed! That inner voice. The little monkey on your shoulder. The mind game...

So, short of having an objective measure on that end, sharing analytics collected and inferred by Garmin and Coros. With Coros tagging this training run as "Excessive" and giving me a punition of 92 hours until full recovery. Feeling like I got a red card on that one... when I thought I was doing something right... 🤪

Ah, these years when there was only one measure on your watch, time! Last century... A reminder of not forgetting to still run with our mind, head, soul and heart! 🤗

----

Coros summary:

Garmin Connect charts:

Garmin Connect laps:

Garmin Connect zones:

Coros Apex 2 (analytics at your wrist, some while running, some, post workout):