My first observation of this edition is the stark contrast between the more than four decades that tradition has lived and thrived through, starting with the souvenir of local humble legend, Dick Collins, and the display of renewal of our Bay Area trail running community. I already had a glimpse of such a change at the Tamalpa Headlands 50K last month, seeing so many new faces, and less of the ones I used to run along when I started. As a matter of fact, and that should be verified more scientifically, it seems to me that there are now even several communities which has formed, given the higher number of trail running addicts. We say that there are 16 micro climates around the Bay, maybe we tend to that many groups of runners. One one hand, there is the geographical spread: San Francisco, Marin, the Peninsula, South Bay and San Jose, South East Bay around Fremont, Oakland and Berkeley.
Let's start with a bit of background about Dick Collins as this run his named after him. And since images have so much weight nowadays, here is a 1997 gem which ultra volunteer, ex runner and documentation guru, Stan Jensen, kept preciously for almost 30 years. It has been a privilege and quite a few hours to work with Stan this Summer on identifying as many names as possible in this group gathered for Dick Collins' memorial, in Oakland.
If you believe you can contribute to this identification project, the picture with tag is also accessible in Google Draw, with extensive zooming capability. (The picture has the grain of an older picture, but it had been scanned at 2,400 dpi to capture as many pixels as reasonable.)
The younger folks might not be as excited as I am, I do find the ability to put a face on names of runners from the 80s and 90s, before the web age, quite fascinating. For instance, you'll see quite a few names on the picture, in the Firetrails 50 1995 results. I know, who still cares about history and the last century...?
Closer to home, this brought quite a special connection. Changing age group make me check on AGCRs, aka Age Group Course Records. I still have amazing memories of turning 50, feeling young again and chasing all these records. I even set an age group world record on track at Desert Solstice, and broke a 31-year old record for 50K Road while experiencing a mini stroke (TIA). Locally, I set the M50 course record at Firetrails with a great time of 7:14:27. For M60, the record was set 31 years ago, in 1995, at 8:19, by a certain Dwaine Batt. Well, it took us a few cycles to find people tagging him, he is the tall guy in the upper left corner, holding his wife, Sadie, in his arms. While Dwaine passed away (obituary), Sadie is still alive and I was even able to exchange with one of their daughter, Barbara, over Messenger. Ah, the good and original genuine and useful side of social media, to connect! One of my goals for this year's edition was to aim at borrowing the record from Dwaine (records are meant to be broken later, hence the temporary owning...).
While there is a good margin between 7:14 and 8:19, I'm nowhere near my fitness of 12 years ago, having experiences two significant injuries since (one at 54, hamstring tendon fissure, the other on the very day of my 60th birthday, a meniscus tear which kept me away from running, and exercising in general, for 7 months). Besides, back in my marathon times, I had devised a personal physiological law, consisting in predicting my marathon time by adding my age in minutes to 2 hours, in other words, losing one minute for 26 miles, each year. Since a 50 mile is about twice this, and 12 years have passed, that would lead to 24 more minutes since my last run on this course in 2014. Aggressive but doable. On the other end, with all their bizarre calculations and aggregations, UltraSignup was predicting my finish time at 8:47...
Another key factor with these records is that the course has changed over the years. Kudos to Race Director, Adam, for not only perpetuating this 50-mile tradition but attracting a broader field by adjoining a 100K (since 2017), and a trail marathon. And managing to get us back on the OG course.
As for Dick Collins' life, you can find a few accounts on the web. Best though are two articles from journalist James Raia, who is in the upper right corner of the photo, but these pieces are only accessible to subscribers of UltraRunning Magazine (I've been an avid runner for 20 years, I highly recommend, you get many tips and motivation from every issue, every other month): Part 1 and Part 2. Quick facts: Dick started running late, at 42, but he then raced intensely, completing 1,037 races in the last 22 years of his life (yes, that's an average of 50 races a week!). 10 Western States finish (1979-1991) and 401 combined marathons and ultra marathons (~230 ultra marathons). But these are just numbers. For everybody who met him back in the 80s and 90s, he was the cool humble and encouraging, unassuming running companion. Ann Trason calls him her mentor.
As I mentioned above, Adam also added a 100K distance, the race starting at 5:15 am, under quite a majestic full moon.
Running Coach Michael got on wheels to lead the 100K runners on the first 1.5 miles, in the dark. He will do it for us again 45 minutes later.
Sending the 100K runners for a great day on the trails.
I stopped by the Livestream which was setting up, and had a quick chat with Western States legend and such a big voice on the ultra American scene, Andy Jones-Wilkins, aka AJW.
Christine had been up for a while already, handling the bibs, in the dark... And already snapping pictures, she is quite a multitasker! :-)
Our 50-mile field wasn't too large at the start, just above 100. And, again, with fewer known faces, especially at the front. With that, I found myself leading the early pack for about a third of a mile, despite not pushing it that much. I finally got passed by a handful of runners in the climb to the first aid station, Marciel Gate (mile 3). I even purposely walked certain steep sections to not lose my breath that early on and slow down a bit to time the arrival at the aid station with the first lights of the day, in order to drop my headlamp at Marciel, instead of Bort Staging, an aid station which winds down very late at night, while the Marciel crew can get the lamps back to the start in the morning (and that worked out as planned, I got my lamp back before leaving).
I really like the next 5 miles to Bort, with a lot of downhill on a wide fire road and great footing. I traded places a couple of times, I assumed I got to Bort in 6 or 7th place. Carrying my usual Ultimate Direction bottles (one for water, one for GU Energy Brew, aka GU2O), I didn't stop at Bort, except to ask Christina from Pamakids why she wasn't running today (darn meniscus tear too).
I didn't stop at Big Bear either, still having enough fluid to reach Pinehurst, in this cool early morning. The first surprise of the day was to leave Steam Trail to do quite a hilly detour on Chown then French Trails. Having raced in this area many times, I can't remember if that was indeed part of the OG course. If not, that certainly derailed my plans: with my goal of averaging 9:58 for the whole race, including the killer turnaround, I was around 9:30 at the bottom of this detour but lost about 15 seconds for the average when I got back on Steam Trail. From there, I started really doubting, especially as I was looking a few more seconds on the climb to Skyline Gate.
This time, I stopped at Pinehurst to refill my bottles, at mile 16.5. By that time, I was already above 10 min/mile average and knew the next section wouldn't help lower that number, unfortunately. I still tried to believe but the climb to Sibley was really testing my faith... and my legs, and glutes...
Just before getting to Sibley (mile 19), one tall runner passed me, saying "oops, I might have started too hard for my first 50 mile." I didn't see his face or number, so I can't say how the day ended up for him. But it reminded me of my own first 50-mile on that course, when I took 3rd overall in a time of 7:25, good enough to win the rookie award at 42. From the hands of ultra legends Ann Trason and Carl Andersen (Carl on that Dick Collins Memorial picture too). I wasn't even blogging yet, only started 4 months later.
I refilled a bottle at Sibley, and drank some Coke poured into my water bottle (I had missed that it was a cup-free race...). I like the subsequent steep downhill, except that I can't stop thinking that we have to climb it back, most of the course being an out and back format. Additionally, I'm not as agile as I used to so I can't let it all go and fly at full speed. With that, I waste a lot of effort, and especially through the adductors, in putting on the brakes. Back in the faster and younger days, I used to think that it was stupid from others to NOT let it go, I guess age isn't just a number sometimes, and it catches you...
I hiked some of the mile up to Steam Trains, thinking of the days I used to run that whole section, actually the whole course. And I have to say, when you walk uphill, time doesn't fly as fast, it makes for a longer day. I crossed quite a few marathon runners in that narrow single track uphill section, with a few still having to learn some trail etiquette of giving priority to trail users going uphill, even when you race.
I was now about 20 seconds above my average goal, at mile 22. Bree (Lambert), who used to be on our Quicksilver ultra racing team, was one of the three running the livecast. She had a microphone in hand and hesitated approaching me for an interview but changed her mind after seeing me so focused. Indeed, I was still hoping to regain a few of these lost seconds on the 4.5 miles downhill to Loan Oak, the turnaround at 26.7 miles.
1,200 feet of elevation loss in 4.5 miles, that's rather mild, nothing compared to the Alps or Colorado. But at this point, feeling I had missed a key goal for the day, I was unable to get a good speed in the descent, not able to loosen up and extend my stride. Crossing a few of the lead 100K and 50-mile runners confirmed that I was still in the top 7 or 8, so there was that, from a motivation standpoint. I refilled my bottles again at the bottom, fearing that I will walk most of the climb back up to Steam Train. As it turned out, now uplifted by crossing the other runners behind, I did run more than I had imagined. Well, run might be too big of a word, let's say shuffle.
I got some ice in my water bottle at Steam Trains. The new goal wasn't about the finish time and seeing how long I could hold on in the top 10, given it was such a slow year. That became my motivation for keeping moving, in addition to finishing, of course.
I felt terrible going so slow in the trick descent after Sibley, down to San Leandro Creek. Embarrassingly for a down hill, that has been my slowest mile of the day at 16 minutes, yikes! Roots, rocks, dusty washed out slippery gullies, my brakes were burning! It was so bad that I felt relieve to get on a hill again and clocked a 15 minute mile, hiking up to Pinehurst. By the way, and I hadn't noticed earlier in the morning, it was a joy to see some water flowing in the creek, I love running creeks!
A joy too to see Christine again, at Pinehurst. She had just delivered sandwiches to the aid station crew and snapped a few pictures before driving down to Big Bear. Ah, you should never eat a gel in front of a photographer... ;-) (Next 4 pictures, credit Christine Chapon.)
I couldn't wait to get back on Skyline trail, that section I really liked on the original Skyline course as well, to climb up to Skyline Gate (the course has changed the past few years). Well, once on the rolling Skyline, after a few ups and downs, I saw pink ribbons on a branch and started thinking I had missed a turn as it was orange for the 50-mile. I stopped for almost a minute, the time to ask a biker if she had seen some orange ribbons down the trail. Stupid hesitation which did cost me to get passed by the runner whom I had tried to keep ahead of for the past 10 miles. Well, there were these lost seconds, but also the fact that I kept slowing down. Plus one but still in the top 10 per my calculations. 2 miles later, I got passed by teammate Guillaume Tremintin, then the impressive 100K lead, Alejandro Torres.
I got more ice in my water bottle at Big Bear, as well as the 4th and last refill of my GU Brew bottle. I was close to 42 miles and quite down when realizing that, 12 years ago, I had already finished at that time. That was going to be a longer day. Yet, if I kept moving, much shorter than for many, behind...
I alternated some shuffling and power walking the steep climb on MacDonald Trail. Although I was pleasantly surprised by that okay climb, I again had difficulty speeding up in the long section down to Bort Staging. Some good care from the Pamakids crew, such a long shift for them, and more ice which motivated me of keeping drinking water. It was comforting to hear there were only 2.5 miles to the next aid station, Clyde Woolridge, merci Jen!
There, I saw the famous guy wearing an OG Dick Collins Firetrails t-shirt from the 90s! For the youngsters and new comers, that would be Stan Jensen I referred to in my introduction. And Christine was at that station too, again. From 4 am to 10 pm, that's quite some ultra volunteering! For Scena today, a change of her outstanding involvement and impact into RBO (Run for a Better Oakland) where she has inspired and motivated thousands of kids to run, over the past 15 years.
Photo credit, Jessica de Leon, for RBO:
The final section is challenging and deceiving because you start believing your are done when seeing Chabot Lake, but there are still a few never ending rolling miles to the finish. At last, 2 miles are on asphalt to make it more comfortable. And then you start hearing the announcer. That big voice on the ultra scene. Andy. Telling everybody that I was 62 years old. And finishing my 200th ultra. And that, yes, I was likely in the top 10.
As I chatted later with him, he was as surprised as I was by the slower times this year. He ran this race twice in times of 7:34 and 7:07 at the age of 34 and 35, respectively. My 5 previous runs were between 7:02 and 7:25, between the age of 42 and 50. The winner's time today: 8:22. Not even under my initial goal and that M60 AGCR of 8:19. Hence the above slow year qualification.
My time? An embarrassing 9:42:48, yikes. 9th overall, 8th in men, 4th Masters. But, still, yet another ultra finish. And an age group win. And even more respect for Dwaine's performance. I even wonder if I'll dare to chase that AGCR again...
By the way, there was a brand new time tracking and live reporting system by Laurel.
Here are my embarrassing splits, showing the wheels falling off early:
And a 3D-flyover video to show you that OG course, from your seat, or couch (click on the image below or that link).
Back to this 200-ultra milestone, these are only the official ultra finishes. It doesn't include 17 DNFs, 16 of them I dropped after the marathon mark. And it doesn't include 334 ultra runs done in training. For a total of 550 lifetime ultras. Although... for that big voice in our sport who doesn't count 50Ks as ultras, the number would then be lower. I have to admit, my sweet (ultra) spot remains the 50K with 87 of them. Only 43 50-milers, 31 100Ks, 22 100-milers. And a couple of dozens of other formats (multi-day, 6, 12 and 24-hour races, and Spartathlon as my longest race. To date.). As a true ultra runner, Andy asked me what's next. A lot this Fall, stay tuned!
No cramping today, going slower and hiking certainly help! I'm still proud of how I managed hydration and nutrition. Only 7 GU gels, as I still combine the strategic carbs with fat burning thanks to Vespa (2 pouches before the start, then one Vespa Concentrate every 3 hours). And 9 S!Caps to maintain my sodium level, some of which ended up on my top after cooling down my head and neck with iced water at Big Bear (as seen on the video below). I had thought of racing a 10K this Sunday morning (Trailblazer in Mountain View, a fundraising event for Friends of the Stevens Creek Trail) but I bailed out and just did a 15K recovery run instead. 200 is just a number, more to come! As long as the body allows...
Mostly for my records, a couple of spots I appear in Part 2 of the livestream recording:
- At the finish (1:30)
- Interview with Bree and Victor (12 min)
Our club had a much better show this time: Guillaume took 6th overall, Elizabeth Omodt, 3rd woman, 4 minutes before Jill Cole, Anil Rao, 24th in Men, Charles Blakeney, 39th in Men for his record 26th Firetrails 50 finish, and our team captain, Gary Collina, 58th in Men. That will allow us to score two teams this time (Mixed and Men).
The course marking was outstanding with hundreds of ribbons, flour marking and signs. Thank you to the aid station volunteers for such long shifts, and caring for 2-way traffic on the out and back. I much appreciated the cooked-to-order burger, as well as some ice cream. And I concur with the comments I heard on my table about the quality of the goodies, t-shirt and hoody.
Next year will mark 30 years since Dick Collins left us. I hope to visit from France for a very special anniversary and celebration. To the one who inspired so many runners... last century... and today again!
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