Back in 2007, I was so excited to join the Western States hopefuls and veterans for a 3-day training weekend on the legendary Western States course. With the years passing though, I made my own version, leveraging the local heat of the East and South Bay, the hilly trails, and saving on the drive and hotel, a way to run more sustainably.

After the 3 great back to back races in May, it would be ok to admit that I'm on the tired side. But it's actually not much the physical effort as it had been the lack of sleep, a key element to recovery. I barely slept 2 hours on my red eye to JFK right after winning Silver State on Saturday night, annoyed by the guy next to me in the middle seat who kept nudging. 7 hours on Sunday night then 4 hours after my flight back home on which I had to finalize a key presentation for Tuesday morning.

A few short nights the rest of the week with two trips to SFO to pick Alex at 1:30 am on Thursday morning and Max at 3:00 am on Saturday. With that, plus some stressful work left on my to do list, I started the long Memorial Day weekend pretty much exhausted, having ran only 9 miles on Wednesday and 12 on Friday.

Not sure this is the best training for the upcoming 24-hour race in a month, I'm glad I'll have 2 weeks off before the event actually to recharge the batteries.

Day 1 - Saturday - Black Mountain

Despite the fatigue, I was excited to get back on my favorite local "mountain" (2,800 ft) and took it reasonably hard, clocking and average 8:06 min/mile for 29 miles and a good climb on the back side of Black Mountain (REI and Stevens Canyon Road). I actually started rather easy with a social run with the Stevens Creek Striders, a nice photo shoot opportunity.


Michael Shields who proudly announced at the club meeting the time of hisrecent half marathon: 1 hour and... 60 minutes! Nice job, Michael!
We ran along the reservoir which is alarmingly low this year.
2 years ago I was kayaking with Alex over this grassy area...
 And here is the classic group picture at the end of the REI trail:
After this great warm-up, I pushed the pace in the next 7 miles up to Black Mountain and managed to maintain the average pace close to 9 minutes/mile. Refilled at the camp ground before enjoying the view at the top, 2,800 feet above the Pacific:
And a selfie with the Brooks "I Love Running" T:
On the way down, I also stopped by the bucolic and refreshing Waterwheel, a place which I visited quite a few times but I don't believe I covered with pictures in my blog yet (not that the pictures really convey the coolness of the dripping water).









I pushed the pace on the way down to Cupertino on Montebello Road and managed to get the average pace down to 8:06 by the end of this 29-mile loop. Hard work for this fist day, I was certainly not less tired at then end than when I did start...


Day 2 - Sunday - Shoreline and Palo Alto Baylands

With the fatigue, I didn't feel the energy to go back on the hills and went North instead, toward Shoreline Park in Mountain View. There was some breeze but it was hot and this course through the streets of Cupertino and Sunnyvale then across Shoreline Park and the Palo Alto Baylands' levee is very exposed. I ended up getting a good sun burn on my forehead (I had thankfully put some sun screen on my nose...).

On these flat miles but with tired legs, my average pace oscillated between 7:20 and 7:30, ending up covering 30.3 miles at 7:30.

Day 3 - Monday - 9 x 3.1-mile loops

By the third day, my energy and motivation tanks weren't looking great and I aimed at running at least a marathon in the neighborhood, that is either 9 or 10 of my local 3.1 training loop. It was already quite hot in the morning and I had to be back by 1 pm anyway for our family lunch (the three boys were home this Memorial Day weekend, a family gathering not to be missed). I've ran that loop so many times, that was rather a boring run but overall a good mental training for the upcoming 24-hour race at Crissy Field in June. I ended up doing 9 loops at 7:28 average pace. All that before another short (< 5 hours) red-eye to DC which provided another opportunity for sleep deprivation and 24-hour training...

Overall, 87 miles and a few flat ones, quite far from the 126 hilly miles I logged on that same weekend back in 2008, or the 122 miles in 2009. I'll focus on faster flat miles before the 24-hour race, then I'll have to work on hill and heat training before TRT 100-mile in July. With that, I hope it won't be said that I rest on my laurel. That was a laborious training weekend, I hope it was worth it and will help building up on a great racing season so far.

See you on the trails, in California, elsewhere in the US or even Europe where my next trips get me, otherwise virtually on Facebook!

Vacation time, time to catch-up with late posts, phew!

This run actually happened before my last post about my Memorial Day training weekend and its traditional 3 ultra runs in 3 days. I was working at a client in Herndon, VA (Virginia) that week and staying in Sterling, both being close to IAD, aka Dulles International Airport, Northwest of Washington DC.

I did a few searches on the web for nearby trails and it wasn't too difficult to find that the long W&OD (Washington & Old Dominion) trail was passing by Herndon and Sterling, less than a mile from my hotel actually. I had run once on that bike path back in 2010 but didn't realize it was going on for so many miles away from the capital. The W&OD Railroad Regional Park is most likely the thinnest regional park in the US, if not in the world, at least the most linear: 45 miles long but only 100 feet wide!

I didn't have much time to squeeze a run in between short nights and client work but I still managed to run a half marathon before breakfast. No picture from the luxurious vegetation bordering most of the asphalt bike path, but here is the overview map.
Whenever you stay in this area, look for the best place to hop on the W&OD trail!

I was supposed on a personal trip to Europe for some family reunion in France and some vacation in Malta but a last minute business request got added at the last minute with a detour to the UK (see my next post). I still managed to stop by Paris to see my parents and, for the 36 hours I was in Paris, I couldn't resist to go on my cherished Coulée Verte which I already covered in much details on this blog, 7 years ago.

I wasn't sure how long I was going to run for as I had to get back by lunch. The weather was good and I felt great trying to keep up with some bikes so I did push the pace and... the distance. I passed the Massy-Palaiseau train station and continued on to Saclay Bourg which, having started my run at the entrance of Parc Montsouris in the 14th district, was right on 15.5 miles, the perfect turnaround for a... 50K, cool!

I made a stop in Saclay to buy some water and Coke at a small convenience store and ran back to Paris even faster for an overall 3:33:53 (a final emulating and exciting sprint against the tramway for the final mile helped! ;-).

So, here is the route for an extended Coulée Verte (the official one stops at Massy-Palaiseau). 'Till the next time when I have more time to explore further...

Last time I visited England I did cover how to follow the bike paths/routes to get a long run while in London. This time, I was attending a conference an hour West of London, at a beautiful resort in the minuscule village of Wokefield so I don't expect this post to be so helpful unless you are staying yourself at this luxurious and spacious Wokefield Park venue.
Being in the country side, I assumed and was looking forward to a rural and quiet run. Well, maybe we weren't far enough from the capital. While the roads were narrow and winding across fields and farms, there was still quite some car traffic which was scaring in blind curves in particular, and no shoulder at all. I've run in many challenging urban places, I was certainly not expecting a similar (bad) thrill in such a rural area.

Anyway, and only for those "stuck" at this resort and not incited to play golf, here is the route I used twice at the end of our meeting days.

PS: While the green area in the center of the loop is the golf course of the resort, on which joggers are not welcome if you wonder, Google is quite discreet about the grey area on the North side of this map. It is one of the sites of the British Atomic Weapons Establishment company (AWE), all bordered by very impressive fences (very high, electrified, multiple cameras, dog patrols, ...). Another thing I was not expecting in the country side, made me think of a James Bond movie... ;-)

Paris, London, Wokefield, next stop Rouen for the wedding of one of my 13 nephews (I only have 2 nieces), hopefully the first of a long series! And I can stop by Rouen without running the balcons, which I first did as a 50K fat ass in January 2008 then, twice back to back, in July 2008.
I announced my visit to Guillaume whom I ran the balcons with in quite wintery conditions in December 2010. Guillaume is going to come to Tahoe in July to run Tahoe Rim Trail 100-mile where I'll be back as well to attend at some unfinished business. Guillaume made a few calls to local runners but it was only him and I at the start of my 6th edition, on Pentecost Monday.
After the last two snowy editions, the weather was much more clement this time, nice temperature, yet we did get some rain around the marathon mark and the trails where a bit muddy, reminding me that Normandy never seems to be short of water: my brand new pair of Brooks Launch shoes was due to a good car wash before we flew to Malta the next day! Here is one of Guillaume's pictures as we arrive at the viewpoint at the top of Côte or Colline Sainte Catherine:
3.5 years passed since my last run of this course so I had to pay attention at each intersection to make sure we were staying on course. Between the two of us, it wasn't much of a problem except in Canteleu where we encountered quite some trouble trying to avoid running on Rue Molière as I couldn't find the trail below. Fortunately, we did find the bakery which has been my main aid station on this course (Guillaume's pic).
And here is Guillaume with his UFO (Ultra FOndus) top:
Guillaume was just back from injury and supposed to taper before a 24-hour race the following weekend, but we managed to cover the whole distance together!
Guillaume ended up covering 195 kilometers at his 24-hour, hope I didn't interfere too much with his tapering. Looking forward to welcoming him in Nevada in a few weeks for TRT, where the weather will be much drier than this run in Rouen in June...
Between the wedding events on Saturday and Sunday, I also managed to run 21 and 10 laps of the 1-kilometer horse track of Bihorel's hippodrome (Les Trois Pipes). Some additional good training for the upcoming 24-hour in San Francisco.

Gozo is the second largest island of the Maltese archipelago. Not a large one, about 5 by 3 miles. Yet, it is loaded with the same historical heritage as Malta, being in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea at the cross road of so many different civilizations and conquests. It is now a proud independent European Community country but, over the centuries, it has seen the influence when not ruling of many other countries.

Gozo is much less populated and urbanized than the main island, Malta, and therefore a better place to run. Victoria is the main city in the center of Gozo with its spectacular citadel which dominates the whole island. Maltese have a long history of combating potential intruders and have built numerous fortifications all over. Here is Victoria's citadel:

I did stop at the information center of Victoria which provided me with a great flier detailing the trail circumnavigating the whole island. The flier listed four sections and I cover two of them, in addition to crossing the island for a total of 18.5 miles. It was hot, above 90F, and sunny so I took a few breaks in addition to many stops to take pictures and appreciate the stunning views of the vertiginous cliffs.
Here is the map of the run and the Garmin activity:
The trails has some markings, red arrows on the rocks, but it is worth getting the flier and follow the instructions.
And the corresponding photo album (with comments!) giving you a visual tour of this Mediterranean jewel! While you are making your mind about traveling to Malta, make sure to click on the slideshow button to get a preview of this wonderful country!

I still owe you a second post about Running in Malta, then of course, a belated (1 week already!) race report of last weekend's PCTR Summer Solstice, my very first 24-hour event and 100th ultra race. But, for now, let's keep the pace with another amazing weekend, the legendary and mythical Western States 100.

I wasn't supposed to be in California in June, but Europe, so I didn't even try to make it through the lottery. With three runs (2007, 2009 and 2010), I already feel on the lucky side anyway, given the hundreds of runners who can't get in every year. Of course I'd like to get back on that amazing course, where the weather creates a unique version of the event each year. But there are other ways to be "in" Western States, and equally essential to the success of the event. First, through volunteering at one of the numerous and sometimes remote aid stations. Second, pacing one of the runners between Foresthill (mile 62) and Auburn (mile 100.2). Third, crewing for a runner which, given the remoteness of certain aid stations, not to mention the heat, is a sport in itself. Fourth, of course, spectating, either along the course or on the net thanks to UltraLive.net's live webcast or the various Facebook updates.

I had the privilege to get pacers for each of my runs, and I know this makes a huge difference. So much that Karl Meltzer, who won more than 35 100-milers in his career and still counting, is a big advocate of a rule which would prevent the elite to place if they have a pacer. I heard that, among these elites, Rob Krar and Max King ran without a pacer, and they may be others too. Anyway, for me, I took advantage of this great support and I still have found memories of my pacers:

• 2007: Rob Evans (last 38 miles)
• 2009: my son Max (16 miles from Forresthill down to the river, Rucky Chucky) and Adam Blum (river to finish)
• 2010: my son Max (also from Forresthill down to the river) then Pierre-Yves Couteau

It took 4 years for Pierre-Yves to get picked in the lottery, 2014 was his year and, since I was in town finally, I was thrilled to return his favor (Pierre-Yves actually also paced me at my failed attempt at Rio del Lago 100-mile in 2011).

But, before meeting Pierre-Yves at Foresthill, I had time to volunteer in the morning. I have been the Aid Station Captain of Last Chance, a station which has been manned by my Cupertino Stevens Creek Striders club for more than 35 years at mile 43, but this year I decided to answer to the call of my other running club, the Quicksilver Running Club of San Jose, which has been operating the Duncan Canyon aid station for a few decades as well.




I needed a driver to move the car around while I was pacing Pierre-Yves and Greg was nice enough to make the trip again to the Western States trail. We slept in Auburn on Friday night instead of dry camping at Duncan Canyon, left Auburn by 5 am and were at the station by 6:45 am. As we arrived, the volunteers who camped were getting their breakfast. Greg was assigned to the fluids table.

Race Director, Kristina Irvin, delivered her briefing before the opening of the station at 8 am, along with Co-captain, David Roberts.
Kristina has run (and finished!) Western States 10 times already, and the infamous Hard Rock, 8 times, so she is an expert at ultra running and this is a way for her to give back to the ultra community from which she has received, and we all do as well, so much from. A big thank to her for the huge effort that leading such an endeavor takes!

Because the 400 runners or so come through the aid station in about 3 hours, we operate this station with more than 50 volunteers, a large number which provides a dedicated helper for each incoming running for instance, to attend to the runner's need.

Our Master of Ceremony and announcer was of course our Club President, Gregg Lanctot.
Greg also picked the theme's of this year's costumes, the Far West. Here I am with Sachin:
I worked the check-out job with David Foote and we picked the time of all the runners going through except a handful of the elites who all flew by together and whom we missed. Hopefully all these numbers help runners and race officials.

I look forward to seeing all the pictures that station Chief Photographer Officer, Tonya Perme, took all morning. I managed to get a video of the leaders, Max King for the men and Stephanie Howe for the women, and legendary and Western States Endurance Run founder, Gordy Ainslegh, but that was it, the rest was just crunching numbers for 3.5 hours. Except a brief interruption to attend to Pierre-Yves' needs when he arrived into the station.

Unfortunately, Pierre-Yves had another of his bad days, not much so because of the heat which he doesn't like, but it wasn't so hot this weekend, in the 80s, but because of GI issues which started around mile 6. With that, he was in 245th position, certainly not in his usual spot, and it promised to be a long night for us.

We dismantled the aid station by 1 pm and Greg and I drove back to Auburn so I could take a nap before meeting Pierre-Yves at Michigan Bluff. I was encouraged to see Pierre-Yves gaining 42 spots at Last Chance but unfortunately he lost all of them in the subsequent canyons, back to square 1.

We met Pierre-Yves at Michigan Bluff indeed, just after 7 pm. While he was smiling, his intestine was really giving him some trouble and he eventually puked just before leaving the station.
I was not sure he'd made it to Foresthill by dusk on such an empty and painful stomach, I gave him my headlamp in case.
Thankfully, he not only hold on in the next canyon but managed to pass 20 runners, making him 217 at Foresthill School. More soup, more ensure, more watermelon, and it was time to move and go down to the river together.
We had a lot of fun going down for a few miles and started passing quite a few other runners faltering as we were approaching midnight. We had left Foresthill (mile 62, with 38 miles to go) around 9 pm and I set the goal to get to the river crossing by 1 am. At most of the subsequent aid stations, there were runners on chairs or cots. Without keeping a precise count, I could see we were gaining quite a few spots as the hours passed.

Our stop at the river crossing was sub optimally long with Pierre-Yves having to answer questions for the medical study, him spending some time in the porta potty, and the much needed refueling. We traded a few places which we actually regained in the 2-mile uphill to Green Gate on the other side of the river. By the way, it was the first time I crossed the river at night and I was certainly not suffering from heat myself to enjoy the coolness of the water. But I was so impressed with the courage of the volunteers who spend hours in the water to hold the cable for us and indicate us the path across and above the immersed boulders. Kudos to you guys!

Pierre-Yves had set his mind on walking up to Green Gate but I managed to run/jog/shuffle part of it, to his own astonishment. In the process, we passed a runner paced by living legend Ann Trason (Ann won this race 14 times over 15 years!). And, from now on, nobody was going to pass us again! Every light ahead became a target which we were happily hunting, keeping moving between stations at a great 13 to 14 minute/mile pace. We still spend the required time at the aid station for Pierre-Yves to refuel and eat, but the stops were getting shorter and shorter as we were progressing.

Unfortunately, at the exit of ALT by mile 85, I experienced a bad fall, stupidly tripping on a small rock which I missed. I fell on my side, hip and elbow, and, in the process tripped into Pierre-Yves' legs as I was following him closely. Fortunately, Pierre-Yves didn't fall himself and kept going. I was so much in pain that it took me a few minutes to catch him up and I even considered quitting at this point, each left stride becoming painful. It was a good pacing lesson and I decided to not mention any issue to Pierre-Yves, making sure we focused on his progression.

With that, I was happy with the 14 minute/mile pace myself, but I kept on pushing Pierre-Yves to shuffle the uphills and came up with the concept of virtual walking poles for driving an efficient power walking on the hills he couldn't run (walking/running poles are very common in Europe but forbidden on most of the races in the US so it doesn't damage the trails in National and State Parks, at least I believe that's the official reason).

I had seen Hal Koerner (2-time champion, 2007 and 2009) and Tia Bodington (Miwok Race Director) in the afternoon at the hotel Pierre-Yves had booked a room at, and it was uplifting to see them again at the rocking (as in Rock 'n Roll) Brown's Bar aid station (mile 90). It is always a delight to be helped by some of these high figures in our sport, like if James Lebron was giving you a ball on a basketball court in your neighborhood.

Keeping passing more runners, we had fun counting the remaining miles: a half marathon, phew! Then a 10K, then a 5K... All in all, Pierre-Yves gained 67 spots after Foresthill and we covered the 38 miles in 9.5 hours, that is just below 15 minute/mile. I was particularly proud of Pierre-Yves and how he was finally enjoying and having fun running again. And, for me, it was a great tune-up for night running for Tahoe Rim Trail 100-mile, in 3 weeks (I did run through the night at the 24-hour race last weekend, but the course was so flat and smooth, it barely required a light).

Pierre-Yves crossed the finish line in 25:39:56, taking 150. His first goal this weekend was to stay alive and avoid any incident like what happened to him at Ohlone 50K in May 2012 (helicopter evacuation and a few days in ICU). Checked! His second goal was to finish that mythical race, meaning finishing within the cut-off time. Checked! Third was the sub-24-hour of course. Unfortunately he wasn't that far but the initial struggle of the day killed this possibility. A Bronze Buckle will have to do it then, and, this Sunday morning, Pierre-Yves was barely realizing what happened yesterday and through the night, having had serious doubts after struggling so much for the first 62 miles (100K).
Not expecting us so soon based on Saturday's progress, Greg #4 (Pommier) was still sleeping when we arrived at 6:40 am but, thankfully, the "other" Greg (#2, Lanctot), with his amazing dedication and support to our running club in general and our ultra racing team in particular, was up again all night this weekend again and captured this nice shot at the finish:
While I was waiting for Pierre-Yves at Foresthill earlier Saturday afternoon, I saw quite a few known faces from our local ultra running community. Among them, Scott Dunlap who had paced Brendan Davies of Australia, down to the river. With two cars to handle at Foresthill, Scott was now waiting for someone to drop and request a ride back to Auburn. I also spend some time chatting and catching-up with Brian Robinson who was on the wait list, having offered to any runner in need of a pacer at the last minute. Brian did wait for some time and I was to see him just before No-hands Bridge as we passed his runner.
Western States undoubtedly remains the most sought-after 100-mile race, being the "mother" of all 100-mile races in the US and around the World. Although, 2012 and 2013 champ, Tim Olson, wasn't present to defend his title, there were at least 20 elite men who came and had the potential to win this race or at least place top 3. In the midst of this tough competition, Rob Krar passed Max King after Foresthill (which is the place, at the 100K point, where elites say the race begins...). Rob took first overall in 14:53, the second fastest time ever and one of the three sub-15-hour marks in the 41 editions of this event. Unfortunately, albeit still quite an amazing performance for his first 100-mile, Max got passed by two other runners: Seth Swanson, 2nd in 15:19, and Dylan Bowman in 15:36 (I chatted with Dylan at the hotel breakfast on Sunday morning, he was certainly delighted with the outcome).

In these perfect conditions (no snow, dry trail, top temperatures in the 80s), 129 runners managed to get a Silver Buckle, finishing under 24 hours. Quite a high number but not quite yet the 148 of 2012.

As for our team, Ian Sharman (M4) took 6 this year, Gary Gellin 16th with a time of 17:47 and 3rd Masters. Clare finished 28 minutes ahead of Pierre-Yves, good for 21st in the women division. Sandra Campos in 27:36, Loren Lewis, 28:53, Paul Ng, 29:42. Unfortunately John Nguyen dropped at El Dorado Creek (mile 52) and Jim Magill at Brown's Bar, mile 90. Jim finished his 10th Western States in 2004, he was going for his 11th at age 67 this year. He'll be back...

And back I hope to be in the coming years too, in any capacity. Indeed, there are many ways to be "in" Western States!

PS: a few more pictures. With ultra photography vizir, Glen Tachiyama:
Glen and Greg:
The cooling (sponge) station:
The check-in post:
Jennifer Bena, JB Bena's wife, and their JourneyFilm crew:
iRunFar.com's live cast coverage with satellite connection:

The medical crew:
The club runners and a special mention for Darcy Fick who abruptly passed away 2 weeks ago and was a mother for our club, being the chef with her husband Paul Fick of the renowned QuickSilver 50K/100K BBQ.

Yes, June 21 was my 100th ultra race and what a better way to celebrate that a new race format, a 24-hour run! I wasn't supposed to be in town for the second half of June but my Mom's health led to a change a plan late May and an earlier family vacation than usual in Europe (see my previous blog posts from England, France and Malta). As a result, I was able to take part of this inaugural event in our Grand Prix which had been missing such an important format for at least the last decade. Besides, the race was organized by John and Maureen Brooks' PCTR (Pacific Coast Trail Run), proud of keeping Sarah's great legacy alive including the famous motto: "Serious Fun!" We are also grateful that John joined our Quicksilver club and ultra running team!

It was a low key and local event, nothing to compare with last week's Western States, especially in terms of competitiveness. For this reason, I was a favorite again. Despite being my first attempt at that "distance" as we say, our Grand Prix co-chair, Bill Dodson, offered to come and record all my splits in case I was going to set a new Age Group Record (M50-54). Although that record still shows at 140 miles on the USATF tablets, Ed Ettinghaussen, aka The Jester, has run 146.6 miles in 24 hours last Fall. And Ed was actually present to run his 17th 100-mile race, on his way to setting a new Guiness record of the highest number of 100-mile race ran in one year (which I believe is 40).

As you can see from the picture, Catra (Corbett) was also running, see more about her ultra passion, addiction and achievements in this interview. Yes, that was her 100th 100+-mile race back then, not "just" her 100th ultra race as it was the case for me 2 weeks ago. For the non insiders, an ultra is any distance beyond the marathon mark (26.2 miles or 42.195 km), typically 50K (31.1 miles), 50 miles, 100K, 100 miles, ...

The start was conveniently set at 8 am which meant a breakfast before 5 am for me which wasn't much of a problem since I had flown back from 3 weeks in Europe the previous day (Friday) so the jet lag woke me up even earlier than that. I woke up at 5 am in Annecy to catch my flight in Geneva so I had been up for 25 hours the day before the race which was less than ideal, maybe some late sleep resistance or deprivation training, but I don't recommend to do that the eve of a 24-hour race...

Getting into the race, I knew my biggest challenge was not to start too fast so I made all the efforts not to take the lead, knowing we were mixed with participants in the 12-hour and 6-hour races. I settled on a very comfortable pace between 8:30 and 9. After a few laps, my GPS distance was actually off the official marks (multiples of 1.06-mile lap), so I was actually not sure about the real pace. Besides, it was difficult to really gauge the effort as we were running against wind gusts for the northbound half-mile, more on this later.
We were a good contingent representing our Quicksilver club and, with this slow pace, I didn't see Stephen and Lisa for many laps, them running at a similar pace. On such a 1-mile loop though I kept passing slower runners and we exchanged encouragements most of the time: way to get entertain for those who think such format is boring. Furthermore, apart for the strong wind (15-20 mph), the weather was perfect and you can't get tired of the amazing views of the Golden Gate, the Presidio, Alcatraz and San Francisco, even for 100 times in one day!
As I mentioned above, that was my first attempt at running for 24 hours straight. I ran 9 100-milers actually but, not counting the two which I DNF'ed (Did Not Finish), my slowest time has been 21:30 at Western States 2010 so I indeed never ran for a whole day and a whole night. For this reason, I wasn't sure what to expect and, more importantly, how to decompose the distance in sub goals. I started feeling some fatigue in the 5th hour, mostly the wind gusts eroding my mental. It is around that time, after 50 laps, that the wind blasted John's computer table with two computers and a large display getting onto the ground to John and Bill's dismay, and me as well as I was approaching the finish area just at the time. Thankfully for me at least, Bill had kept a manual count and record of all the splits, so I was confident they'd be able to keep the count straight.
In these 5 hours, I had made more than a handful of pit stops, more stops than usual which I attributed to the long transatlantic flight (I tend to hydrate more than needed in such long flights) and some race-induced stress. These stops resulted into a few 9 and 10-minute laps, otherwise many of my 40 first laps were actually under 9. I slowed down slightly after mile 50 yet was pleased to be right on 80 miles at 12:00:00. 80 miles are my official PR for 12-hour although I ran 84 miles in 12 hours a Run d'Amore 18 months ago on my way to running 100 miles under 15 hours. Happy but tired, especially pushing against the wind at every lap. It was 8 pm and not getting weaker. I actually asked Catra if the wind was going to stay that strong all night and she wasn't sure, she advised me to ask John. I didn't even dare because there wasn't not much John could do about it anyway...

I kind of recall that the wind decreased shortly after midnight. The night was cool but, keeping running and running, and fighting this wind, my body temperature was fine and I ran all night with a very light wind breaker. My legs were fine, it was more my mental which was getting weaker. Pierre-Yves (Couteau) had stopped by on his way back from Sacramento for Darcy Fink's celebration of life, and he did help me during the evening with a few bottle refills and mixing some mashed potatoes (I was racing in Darcy's memory and in honor of my friend Ann).

Later, Greg (Lanctot) also stopped by after his trip to Sacramento and another obligation, and stayed all night and the next morning to support us which was super helpful for me.
Without my own crew, I was also helped by our team Captain, Loren Lewis, and Lisa's husband, Harris Mason, when they were not busy with their own runners or running themselves across the Golden Gate to enjoy the area and kill some time. (Photo: Pierre-Yves Couteau)
In 80 laps or so I had lapped Lisa only a couple of times so I knew she was running very well and strong. Lisa has had an amazing season so far and she had a sight on the Team USA 24-hour qualifying time (125-mile minimum for women). I told her that I didn't even know what it was for men but that guys making the team typically run more than 150 miles.
During the night it was hard to keep track of the other runners first because of the lack of light but more importantly because many runners were making long stops, to change, take a nap or even sleep for a few hours, or drop. Yet, John was well awake next to the computer screen and acknowledging each of our passages. I had released Bill of his official tracking function around 9 pm if I recall when I knew that I didn't have any record in me. Here is the time keeping triumvirat, from right to left: John Brooks, RD, Dave Combs and Bill Dodson.
From 145 miles, then 135, my revised goals were first to run without stopping for 24 hours to see what this was about and, second, cover at least 200 kilometers, that is 124.4 miles.

Running through the night was so peaceful but, with my previous long day, I was getting tired around 1 am. Based on Jon Olsen's experience at the 24-hour World Championships last year which he won with 167 miles, I had bought a bottle of 5-hour Energy booster. I mentioned that to Greg and he didn't object so I took it around 1 am. Wow, for someone who never drinks coffee, that was something. Again, not much physically as the pace was slow by then, but I was seeing much clearly all of a sudden! (4 next pictures from Shiran (Shir) Kochavi)
With that, it was amazing to see the day light coming back around 5 am, with 3 more hours to go. Slower pace and, more importantly, longer stops at the aid station which I started enjoying way too much ending up clocking laps over 15 minutes now, even a 21-minute one on my 101th lap, oops. It wasn't too long before Lisa lapped me back once. She was really moving and I didn't feel the energy to fight back to keep the lead much more. I had a 13-lap lead on Ed who had a rough night and, with 2 hours to go, that was enough to win the men division, and yet meet my revised goals even if it meant walking the last laps. Which is what I ended doing anyway. And, as soon as I started walking after 22 hours of running non stop, my body temperature dropped and I started shivering. Time for another pit stop, this time under the heated tent of the Red Cross crew with Greg helping me changing from head to toe.

I went back on the course dressed like for a winter run and, as I was feeling a bit better and started jogging again, I got too warm, peeling off layers in the last two laps.

I crossed the finish line with 15 minutes to spare, not enough to walk and jog another lap, satisfied enough with 120 laps and 127.32 miles overall for such a first attempt at the 24-hour format. In the last laps, a few runners had regained their form and both Mark Tanaka and Ed lapped me as I was walking. Ed finished 3rd overall with 109 laps, and Mark 6th with 104.
Extraordinaire Lisa won overall with 124 laps, that is 131.564 miles, all while smiling for 24 hours: many and big kudos to her!
We waited for all the remaining 24-hour finishers to come back to the "harbor" and got this super cool picture at the dawn of a new day.
I drove back home by myself which was slightly on the unsafe line at the end of a very long 31-hour day (not counting the physical challenge and fatigue of running 127 miles). By far my longest running day ever. Even pacing Pierre-Yves last week at Western States was less hours and miles on my feet. Craving for food after having run on Vespa and only 17 Gus total, I stopped by a Mac Donald's to learn that they were not serving meals before 11 am, damned! Thankfully, I found a Burger King which was more open to the idea of a hamburger and fried  at 10 am, and crashed in my bed by 11:30 am. Just slept for 5 hours to wake up and work on a work project.5 more hours before going back to conference calls on Monday morning then flying to DC in the afternoon, getting to the hotel in Georgetown by 1 am. I must admit I was really tired on Tuesday and wasn't 100% up to my game for the important customer meeting in the afternoon but it went ok. On Tuesday evening I even met Alex for a short 10K run in Rock Creek Park. I was still tired and short of breath and I had hard time keeping up with him despite a mild 8:30 min/mile pace on these nice trails, phew! Alex ran his first marathon last year in 3:38, a great performance for the little training he was able to put in with his studies and job, and he got in the Marine Corps Marathon again this year.
Special thanks to:

• John and Maureen Brooks and their PCTR volunteer crew for setting up such a professional event, staying up for even more hours than us, wow!
• Bill for staying for more than 14 hours and logging at least  85 of my laps!
• All the runners for their encouragements as we were passing each other so many times in a day.
• Loren, Harris, Pierre-Yves and Greg for the assistance at the aid station, with a special mention to Loren for taking pictures with my camera to make this report more visual.

I'm really glad I did manage to keep moving for 24 hours, that was a big endurance test, one which tested and pushed my limits, both physically and mentally when running against the strong wind. I'm very glad that I covered more than 200 kilometers in that longest running day to date, that's a nice symbolic milestone.

Now, I didn't meet all my goals but a few were certainly too aggressive for a first. Too many pit stops, not enough sleep the previous nights, drinking too much (for once!), no specific training, a very "positive" split (80 + 47 miles) or should I say negative, the lack of combativeness in the last 3 hours, some chaffing, the fatigue the following 2 days, there are quite a few lessons to learn from to improve. Running on Vespa mostly worked with one pouch every 2 to 2.5 hours: I topped it with 17 GUs, one can of Coke, 2 cups of soup and one bowl of mashed potato, not that many calories compared to those spent. Overall, I've even more respect for Ed's amazing M50-54 record at 144.6 miles.

Next race is in 2 weeks, the grueling Tahoe Rim Trail 100, "a glimpse of heaven... a taste of hell..." Some unfinished business to take care about from last year, yet again one my primary goals will have to start conservatively. You'd think that I'd know better about pacing by my 100th ultra race, but I'm still young at heart and taking the risk to push my limits while I can. Let's see how this plays in 2 weeks then!

I should be tapering, not running, before my return to the Tahoe Rim Trail 100-mile next week but, I promise, I spent more time sitting and following Hardrock 100 this Friday night and Saturday than on my feet, running! It was both humbling and inspiring to read the live updates of iRunFar.com on Kilian Jornet's perfect race leading not only to his overall win but a new course record (of course!). Now I'm really intrigued by Kilian's quote at the finish "Hardrock was the last race on 'the list'." I now he is on another quest, climbing all the highest and most challenging summits on all the continents, and in record time each, but he is only 26, he can't just disappear like that from the running circuit... We had three club teammates in the race this year, John, Kristina and Chihping. Not only this is the toughest course of the 100 or so 100-mile races in the US, excluding Barkley, but the conditions were awful on Friday with heavy rain and lightnings especially for the lead runners. In these condition, Chihping was the first of the three to drop and Kristina didn't make one of the cut-offs on Saturday morning, heartbreaking. Now, John (Burton) did amazing, finishing 12th overall and 11th men in the midst of a very strong competition. Kudos to him for this outstanding performance!
Being in Austin for a few days to teach in a boot camp for new hires in our business rules practice, I had the joy to run with Max this Saturday morning as he just started working for IBM here in Texas. Max took the lead to make me discover the trails near the IBM site, in the North of Austin. In the process I got some good last minute heat training for next week (TRT is supposed to be hot again this year, hopefully not as hot as last year though).
We started West of Mopac running through the Balcones District Park, then crossed an area called Centrum to end up picking trails randomly in Walnut Creek Park. An easy 9-mile run but a good sweat!

As you can see on the pictures, Austin is quite green in these preserved creek areas. That reminded me the run I did along another creek in Austin last year, Barton Creek Greenbelt, South of Austin. And, rereading this post, I realize it was also a week before a 100-mile race, one which I won actually (Headlands Hundred) so maybe I'll have a better TRT this time! I hope so, especially as Toshi accepted to pace me again, go Team Farther Faster!
Well, if it doesn't, it will be because Judy is missing, being in India this month, volunteering, so for a very good cause! ;-)
Looking forward to next week for some hilly trails in amazing Tahoe. For a glimpse of heaven, and not too much taste of hell this time hopefully... See some of you up there, have a great week in the meantime!

It was the 9th edition of Tahoe Rim Trail 100-mile, not quite the 41 years of the mother of all trail 100-milers, Western States, but a history and legacy is steadily forming in Nevada. And, along the history of the event, the creation of many very personal stories as participants experience both "A glimpse of heaven, a taste of hell..." (as the event tag line says). From our Quicksilver team, Mark Tanaka was back for a 5th finish. Defending champion, Bob Shebest, had already 3 finishes under his belt, each time shaving 2 hours of his time. Victor Ballesteros was back after three bad experiences and DNFs on this course. And, including the 50-mile distance, there were runners coming back for their 10th participation.
In comparison, my own story with TRT 100 is rather short. 2 years ago, I got in but broke my shoulder the day before the training runs, farther on another section of the TRT, a few weeks before race day: DNS (Did Not Start). Last year, I really enjoyed discovering the course in the first 50-mile loop but messed up my stop at the main aid station and got dehydrated and lost motivation in the next 12 miles, dropping at Tunnel Creek 4 (4th passage through that aid station): DNF (Did Not Finish).

This year, it was supposed to be "my" 100-mile scoring event (we can only score one 100-mile event in our Grand Prix) except that I later decided to fly back from Europe in June to run the 24-hour race which was added later to our list of events and where I logged 127 miles, getting the points of a 100-mile event. With that, my main goals became to improve the M50-59 age group record which was at 23:03.

Agnès and I drove to Carson City and arrived just in time for the check-in (I hadn't realized it was such a drive from the Bay Area with the long stretch on Highway 50). Quite a few familiar faces but also many runners coming from other states with a handful from abroad (Canada, Mexico, France).
For the pre-race briefing, the Nevada State Assembly amphitheater was filled with an unusual population, several hundreds ultra runners all anxious to hear about the race details and conditions, especially the weather forecast.
Last year was exceptionally hot and dry but other years are actually chilly with some of the trail sections covered with snow, so quite a range. And the week leading to the race had an unusual high number of storms with lightning on the course as well as rain and even hail. At least this was cooling off the area and it wasn't supposed to be as hot as last year. And here is Dean explaining the subtle use of the timing mats at Tunnel Creek:
While it was amazing to get the timing chip technology introduced to this event for the first time, I must disclose from the feedback I received from family members and friends and my own when tracking other team members later, that the website needs some important user experience redesign to become more intuitive...


For those following my blog, you might remember that I did run a "fat ass" in June with Guillaume Sautai in, or more precisely around, Rouen, France. Guillaume included TRT in a family vacation, touring the American great west. Here he is, at the start, between myself and Frederic, another Frenchman of the Bay Area and new teammate on our Quicksilver Ultra Running Team.
Chatting with Guillaume while getting ready...
We started promptly at 5 am. The temperature was already in the high 60s and it felt good to run before the sun hits us later in the morning.
Bob Shebest immediately took the lead and I thought I'll never see him again. I really wanted to pace myself (read: not start too fast) and, without pushing at all, settled in 3rd place for the first climb. Last year I didn't take a lamp with me and had to piggy back on the runners in front of me and guess where the rocks and roots were, which is a bit stressful and risky. This year, I took a headlamp with me which I switched off at 5:30 (you really need light for 20 minutes).

On the final switchbacks of the climb, we caught up with Bob, then he disappeared in the next downhill section, he is such an amazing descender! Just keeping jogging the last uphill before Hobart (mile 7), we caught him up again and I actually passed him to take the lead as he made a stop at the station, while I had enough fluids in my two bottles to cover the first 11 miles to Tunnel Creek 1. We were a group of 6 runners and, for what it is worth, that is nothing, I was the first to get to the "photo shoot" as we were passing a ridge with the sun rising. Bob passed all of us again in a down hill, then we passed him again on another climb. Sincerely, the pace felt ok but my plan wasn't to race against Bob so that got me uncomfortable. In the switchbacks down to Tunnel Creek I even told the group "I'm too hold to be at the front!"

We reached Tunnel Creek at 6:54 am, that is 4 minutes faster than the race plan I had printed out on Thursday, credit to Frank Schnekenburger's UltraSplits website. Despite power hiking the 3.5 miles and 1,700 feet elevation gain up to Tunnel Creek, my crew, Agnès and our friends from Incline Village, missed me by 2 minutes. The time I find my drop bag to take a Vespa, I was the last of our group of 6 to take the plunge down to Red House. I could still see Bob in the lead but, with 2.5 miles of steep downhill in which he excels, that was the last time I was going to see him that time. Here is Bob in a solid lead by mile 17:
With the pounding of rushing down the steep trail, my intestine started to hurt really bad. I started to have some GI (gastrointestinal) issues earlier in the week while teaching at a boot camp in Austin, TX, and was hoping to have it under control by race morning, but not quite so unfortunately. It became unbearable on the way up to Tunnel Creek 2 and, with the pain, I had hard time smiling at the runners who were crossing in that section and nicely providing us with encouragements.
As I reached the aid station, the medical staff took my weight which was just one pound below the weight on my bracelet. Then I rushed to the porta-potty, my first of many stops to take care of my diarrhea. I was still able to drink but, too uncomfortable with my GI system and being a bit nauseous, I wasn't eating much, certainly not enough to sustain the effort throughout the day and night at this rate. In retrospective I should have stopped longer at the station to take care of the issue but, with the racing spirit in my mind, I went on toward Bull Wheel, albeit now at a much lower pace which was kind of depressing only 20 miles in the race.
I got passed by a few runners in that 9-mile section to Diamond Peak, making 3 or 4 stops behind bushes or rocks to take care of the painful "business..." It almost feels that the saying "shit happens" is appropriate in my race report to sum-up my morning, sorry for the crude expression...

It was a relief to see my friends at Diamond Peak, along with teammates Toshi and Sachin. Toshi had come from the Bay Area to pace me from mile 50. 2 weeks ago, he was already on this Tahoe Tim Trail completing an amazing feat, covering the entire loop, 165 miles, in 75 hours, solo and unsupported! They helped me refill my bottles and off I was on the incredibly steep 2-mile ski slope up to Bull Wheel. Not only steep but also sandy, making each step a challenge, especially under a burning sun now. By Diamond Peak I was still right on track according to the 20:40 pace chart, not far from my 2013 splits.

Including a long and painful "pit" stop near the summit, it took me 60 minutes to cover the 2 miles between Diamond Peak and Bull Wheel, yikes, slow motion! As I was approaching the end of the hill, Chris Calzetta caught up with me. Chris joined our team 4 years ago and had a few very successful ultras before getting injured then moving to Monterey and focusing on work and soccer. It was his return on the ultra scene and he seemed to really enjoy the day so far, power walking the steep hills with his poles. We ran together for a few hundreds yards after Bull Wheel but I told him not to wait for me and, indeed, I lost sight of him pretty quickly. I got passed by another handful of runners in the 3 miles to Tunnel Creek 3, on a trail which is both somehow technical with the big boulders and busy as we cross many of the 50-mile and 100-mile runners on their way to Bull Wheel 1 and Diamond Peak 1.
Agnès welcomed me at Tunnel Creek and I told her how bad my GI issues were getting. After another stop at the porta-putty I finally decided to take the few minutes needed to assess and address the issue. I had in my drop bag a medicine to treat stomach and GI issues, which I should have taken at my first or second passage through Tunnel Creek. I also asked for ginger candies which I had heard can help in such cases. Like at Diamond Peak, I was 4 pounds below my Friday PM measure, which was still manageable.
I left the aid station with Victor who started the day with a conservative pace and seemed to finally have a good day on this course. I was barely jogging and he was running so I didn't see him for very long. I actually walked most of the 5 miles to Hobart, getting passed by more and more runners and feeling quite depressed with my average pace falling down, now over 11 min/mile. What I like in ultra running is really the running part, not the walking one... During that section, I decided that I was too sick to meet the goals I had set for the day and that I will stop at mile 50. I spent 30 minutes at Hobart, taking 2 cups of soup, a delicious smoothie, cooling off my head with ice water and staying in the shade of the tents. That helped but I still didn't have the energy, at least mentally, to run. I asked a volunteer (Ken, 10th last year) to text Agnès that I'll drop and to release Toshi so he could pace Chris who didn't have a pacer.

Again, I walked most of the next 3 miles to the next aid station, Snow Valley, at mile 43. That seemed so long, I was really not interested in spending all night moving at that slow pace. I enjoyed the great service and company of the Boy Scouts manning the aid station and stopped for another 15 minutes I believe, able to drink a cup of soup and a few chips. The intestines were now feeling better and I started jogging again but I couldn't even keep up with Mark Tanaka who was himself on a rebound after a tough morning.

Five miles from the 50-mile checkpoint, I got passed by two runners who were shuffling solidly and I decided to try to pick up their pace. It felt really great to be moving and running again and I felt better and better, passing other runners in these final miles getting us to the barn. It felt so great that, upon getting to the aid station, the idea of dropping wasn't so clear to me and I was confusing the volunteers and Agnès with my hesitation. Seems like I was even smiling when I reached the aid station... ;-)
On one hand, with 11 hours for that first loop instead of 9 last year, 90 minutes behind my race plan, it was very clear that I had missed my key goals for the day. But there was still a possibility of finishing, maybe even under 24 hours, or even under 23 hours. Now, with all the pit stops, I was chaffing pretty bad, with the GI issue I had not fueled properly all morning, and my mental was pretty low having had planned for the last 15 miles for a drop at the end of the first loop. To add to the bad excuses, the weather was turning pretty bad in the area and it indeed fired a few nasty hail storms on runners later in the afternoon.

Looking at the results, I'm amazed at Bob's performance with not only another win but in a blazing 17 hours and 38 minutes, a new course record (previous one was set by Thomas Crawford, 30, in 2010 at 17:47)! 2 hours and 45 minutes ahead of second place, Mark Austin, from Boise, ID (Mark who came last year to win the 50-mile race in 8:38). Chris placed 5th in 21:30, Victor 17th (23:28), Mark finished his 5th TRT just under 24 hours with 1 minute to spare (and "screwed" that is without any pacer or crew the whole day and night!); Amy Burton (QuickSilver) took 3rd in the women division in 24:08, 1 minute behind Jamie Frink, Guillaume placed 24th in 24:16 and Frederic completed his first 100-miler in 26:03. And Charles Cheya of Sacramento improved the previous M50-59 age group course record by almost half an hour (22:35:31). We were 10 QuisckSilver team members to toe the line and 8 did finish, quite a successful rate overall: Jill in 29:53, Stephen 30:36 followed 4 minutes later by Scott (30:40), Harris in 32:57 and Jeff in 34:08. And it was inspiring to see other team members stepping up to pace us: Toshi, Guy, David, Greg, Clare, Sandra, Lisa, Harris, kudos to you too!

Apart for the late afternoon storms, the weather conditions were much better than last year, at least not as hot (correction as I read some comments after my original post on FaceBook, the night was actually chilly and even the award ceremony got cancelled on Sunday afternoon because of lightning, rain and flooding. Good for another yikes!). This, plus the support of the volunteers all passionate about ultra running, contributed to many personal successes. It remains a tough course and the loop format is certainly part of the challenge of this event especially if you had a bad experience in the first 50-mile loop.

On Sunday, our friends, Agnès and I hiked up to the Tunnel Creek aid station again to get my drop bag, a good excuse for a morning exercise and some post-race stretching. It was so impressive to see the last runners going through the aid station before the 10:05 am cut-off at mile 85, and also the volunteers who had been up and busy since 5 am the previous day.
That's ultra... volunteering, with Noé Castanon being a prime example of, volunteering when he can't run, even when recovering from shoulder surgery. Here I am with Noé, proudly carrying my Victory Design drop bag (thank you Victor! ;-):
Overall, I'm of course disappointed for having failed at meeting my goals at this race again and adding another DNF to the list (5 out of 101 ultra races in 9 years). But I feel that diarrhea is still a good enough excuse to have only covered 50 miles and it wasn't worth more pain given that I race so much. My main regret beyond of course not getting the unique 150th Nevada State anniversary belt silver minted medallion, is that, after 10 attempts, I'm still struggling at the 100-mile distance. Speaking of racing, next one is in 2 weeks, Skyline 50K, a distance which fits me much better (it will be my 47th!).

Congrats to all who succeeded at TRT, good luck to those who didn't, for a rebound, and I always enjoy meeting you on the trails, or the web!

Business travel isn't always fun, especially when flying domestic, but I love to discover new places especially when they are as runner-friendly as Columbus, OH. Downtown is pretty boring, especially at night and during the week, when there isn't a big hockey game, but the Mayor and his Parks & Rec are really committed to getting the local community fitter.
They designed a network of bike paths which extend dozen of miles from downtown, ideal for some long runs. Incidentally, the weather this week has been perfect, quite sunny after a major storm on Sunday and temperature around 70F at the end of the afternoons. I was able to go on a run twice this week and enjoy the 14-mile trail along the Olentangy river. It's now time to taper again before this Sunday's 50K race.
Needless to say, Columbus is the nationwide capital, like Cupertino is for Apple. Here is Nationwide's headquarters, a 1978 building on Nationwide plaza:
On the Nationwide Boulevard, you pass a monument which looks like a ruin from Italy or Greece, with Corinthian-style columns:
Well, thanks to Google, I learned that this wasn't coming from Europe but the remains of a local train station, Union Station #3.

The best way to catch the Olentangy trail from downtown is to hop on Long Street and run toward the West, you will find a trail starting in North Bank Park and a bridge going over the estuary of the Olentangy River and its confluence with the larger Scioto River.
The bike path has mile markers which you can't miss:
The path goes on for miles along the quiet river:
After 2.5 miles, you run along the campus of the Ohio State University (OSU), home of the Buckeyes:


At about mile 4, you pass under the Lane Avenue bridge,
where you can stop and cross over to visit a very special monument to honor cancer survivors on the other side of the river, an opportunity to think of all the people who know who are battling cancer so courageously:

See my Picasa photo album for more pictures of the 16 motivational plaques around Victor Salmones' sculpture:

On my way back, after sunset, I started seeing flashes in the dark bushes and wondering if I was hallucinating... No, I can still run 16 miles safely, it was just a myriad of fireflies or, as the locals call them, lightning bugs. They are quite hard to photograph while flying but look closely at this black picture, you should see a fluorescent green spot (it not, you need to see your eye doctor! ;-).
And here is a closer look and more interesting view of a Photinus firefly:
Again, that's only one of the trails composing a much larger network, some trails still under construction or only planned, but a major commitment to bikers, including commuters, something which reminded me of what I've seen in Scandinavia for instance in Sweden this winter.
With that, if you ever stop by Columbus, Ohio, you'll know where to run!

Have a great rest of the week and see some of you at Skyline 50K, that will be my 8th consecutive one, 47th 50K race, looking forward to it!

I'm on jury duty this week so I thought I'd use some court verbiage in my blog for a change, I'll explain the title later in this post.

As you could read from my previous post, I was in Columbus, OH last week. I was supposed to fly out from Port Columbus, the local international airport, at 8 pm but was able to get to the airport earlier and got on a stand by flight at 1:30 pm, which could have gotten me to SFO around 6 pm instead of midnight. I always try to get at least one good night of sleep 2 days before an ultra so that would have been nice. Unfortunately, some bad weather over Chicago got in the way and started derailing our plans, the Friday afternoon consulting commuters. It takes 47 minutes to fly the direct route between CMH and ORD but it took us twice that much to go around the weather, flying over St Louis instead (see the green line below).
By some miracle, and some loyalty to United Airlines, I managed to get on the 7 pm flight out of ORD and, from the 6.5 hours I had before my flight in Columbus, I ended up in SFO 1.5 hours earlier than the original schedule, all the rest was wasted in waits from stand by flights to stand by flights. Anyway, I got 8 hours of sleep, much more than the previous nights, at least...

I was excited to run Skyline 50K again this year. It was going to be my 8th consecutive run out of 33 editions of this event, one of the oldest 50K races in the US if not the oldest (see Sarah's great post about the long history and unique character of Skyline 50K). All the previous years I've been running against the clock on this hilly but quite runnable course. 3:48 in 2007, 4:17 in 2008 when I injured my quads in the Alps a week before then came up with the stupid idea of strangling it for 20 miles, then 3:54 in 2009, 3:43 (2010, my PR so far), 3:46 (2011), 4:07 (2012, taking it easy as I was still recovering from my broken shoulder) and 3:57 last year. Adding all these times, I am at 27h34 for 7 runs and I started thinking of a new goal of averaging less than 4 hours for as many years as possible, like the 1,000 miles in 10 days buckle at Western States (10 finishes under 24 hours). That's the beauty in ultra, you can always set your own challenges and goals, ultra running has no limit, by definition and design...! ;-)

This race has seen quite a few impressive young and promising runners so the age group course records are hard to set, but it's getting easier in the older groups. In our M50-59 group, Kevin Rumon from Tamalpa had set it to 4:13:24 in 2012, and I thought that one was at reach although I don't really need the extra points to win this year's Grand Prix again (a big shout out to Gary Wang for keeping all the race stats online on his RealEndurace.com website!, note to forget our Grand Prix standings for the past decades). But the real goal for today was to win the team competition and get the only point which is missing us to tie with Excelsior in the men competition.

Race Director, Adam Ray, allowed for quite a few runners to get an earlier start at 6 am. With the thick fog, it was still quite dark but thankfully, the first 2 miles are on a paved road.


The official start was at 7 am and off we were, with the bright yellow tops of the Excelsior team taking the first spots. I settled in 10th and heard John and Jeremy talking about a gal who ran a 2:38 marathon. Sure enough, she was just in front of me, I was already chicked, right off the bat, yikes! But I decided not to panic (!), that we had still 30 miles to go and things may change. Stephen, from our team was in 3rd, behind the lead guy with a white top and another Excelsior in yellow. I was running with another Excelsior, Karl Schnaitter. Karl is 18 years younger and getting stronger race after race, I was anxious to see how he and his teammates were going to fare on this course. And I was hoping John and Jeremy were just behind, covering our third base...

At mile 6, after going through the Grass Valley aid station, we were flying down Jackson Grade and I managed to unchick myself, phew. Well, just for a minute as Yiou passed Karl and I again on the next uphill on Stone Ridge. We didn't stop at Bort Meadow aid station and I could see Stephen and Yiou but not the lead guy anymore. I passed Karl, then another Excelsior, Tim Comay, and managed to keep Yiou and Stephen in sight up to the turnaround at Skyline Gate, at mile 14.4. I was now in 4th.

Karl was close behind for the next 3 miles and passed me by mile 19 before we returned to Big Bear. I felt like pushing the pace to be able to keep up with him which I was able to do for the next 8.5 miles, through the Bort Meadow and Honker Bay aid stations. It wasn't my pace, I would have gone slightly slower if it wasn't for the team competition, thinking that Stephen was still upfront neutralizing the lead runner. Approaching Honker Bay aid station, photo credit Erica Teicheira:
Unfortunately, I saw Stephen a few hundreds yards ahead of us as we exited Honker Bay and, now on the rolling trail along Lake Chabot, Karl was pushing the pace even harder. Karl passed Stephen as we had about 2 miles to go and I asked Stephen to stick with me, telling him that I didn't know what was going on behind us but that I thought every seconds were going to count. I kept pushing to get as close as possible to Karl and, eventually, we closed on Yiou. That gave me a kick and I decided to "attack" with one mile to go, passing both Karl and Yiou at the bottom of a short but steep hill. With that final sprint, I managed to finish second in 3:52, 9 minutes behind first place, Evan Sparling, who, unfortunately for us Quicksilver, was also running for Excelsior. The don't have Chikara Omine putting points this year but, jeez, a 2:26 marathoner, I'm really too old to match that! Here I am with Evan and Karl, for the Men podium:
Yiou, 29, took first overall and, in an outstanding performance, exploded the Female course record by 21 minutes (her time was 3:53:28, while the previous record was previously set by Danielle Widenmann in 2009 at 4:14:38, and she was 26). In a less dramatic performance, I did improve our AG CR by 21 minutes, this should stick for a few years.

Stephen finished a minute behind Karl so we were 10:14 minutes behind at this point with two runners each. There was quite some suspense while we were waiting for the rest of the teams to come in, the 3 best times counting for the points. And, 16 minutes behind Stephen was... Tim Comay from... Excelsior, followed by Jeremy, 8 minutes later. Bottom line: Excelsior: 11:46:33, Quicksilver: 12:04:54, still missing a point, yikes!
Our Club President, Greg Lanctot, had stopped by to witness and enjoy such an exciting and close finish. Thanks to Adam and his crew of volunteers, we had a great social gathering while the rest of the team and the runners were getting back to the barn. For Quicksilver: myself, Stephen, Jeremy, John, Tim, Stuart, Harris, Greg, Amy, Cecilia, David, Jim, Loren, Kat. Great way to rally and represent the club, all!



Overall, I was happy with my fueling strategy today, Vespa plus 3 GUs taken strategically before the key hills. All our run was in the fog or under the cloud, the sun making its appearance around 12:30 pm. I'm now at 31:26 hours for 8 Skyline races, a good margin under the 4-hour average (for what it is worth, that is nothing in particular... ;-). Ultra race #102 and 47th 50K race, getting closer the the 50x50K milestone!

By the way, back to the title, I really thought Yiou was going to chick us all, like Lisa did at the PCTR Summer Solstice in June. Not quite this time but it was close and I have a strong feeling that she will next time she joins us on the trails when not working on her Olympic Marathon trials.

Big thanks to Adam for perpetuating such an amazingly long lasting and friendly tradition in the Bay Area. Special mention to his kids who "had" to attend the post race party... Although I only stopped at one aid station to get some water, huge thanks to all the aid station volunteers for being out there and giving up their Sunday so we could enjoy this race and these great trails. That also includes all the park volunteers and Ham Radio folks who contributed to our safety again this year, many that I recognize year after year. And we had a few photographers on the course too, including the omnipresent volunteer, Noe Castanon (see my TRT race report):
Last but not least, and sorry that the picture didn't work out, big shout out to Steve Patt, the owner and software developer of Stevens Creek Software, for timing us with his handy timing system. The results were updated in real time and you can find them on line.

I look forward to many more of these Skyline runs, a summer treat on our local ultra running circuit. And, like if one treat wasn't enough for August, I'm in Tamalpa Headlands 50K in 3 weeks! Time to build back some speed after the longer races of the second quarter. Great seeing so many familiar faces today, looking forward to seeing many of you again on the trails!

No, regarding the ramblings in the title of this post, I didn't go "abo" (as in Aboriginals) this week... And if you are intrigued by the expression, you'll have to get a copy of the August 2014 issue of UltraRunning Magazine and check on page 74. An interesting tip from Dean Karnazes, which I need to try one of these days.

No, by ramblings, I mean a few random running and training-related topics for this week, following my great run at Skyline 50K last Sunday. And some ire against a serious issue regarding our local park management.

Thanks to Vespa and no cramping at Skyline, I was back to training on Monday and Tuesday, keeping regaining some of the speed I lost back in February with my tibialis issue, followed by all the hilly miles of the Spring races. Quite a great season so far, I already passed the 500-point threshold in the PAUSATF MUT Grand Prix, the highest score I ever got despite winning my age group the past 7 years. It certainly helps getting the youngest of your age group! ;-) But the season is not over, I (and we...) need to keep working...

I took Wednesday off to focus on a work project but ran 11.5 miles at Alviso on Thursday and 15 kilometers on Friday. With all my travels in June and July, it had been 3 months since I ran at Alviso, it felt great to see my fellow visiting pelicans again! After all these flat miles, I ran to the top of Black Mountain on Saturday, twice actually as I also ran the Bella Vista loop, going 900 feet down Black Mountain on the other side. A solid 28-mile hilly run at 8:24 min/mile. I even met Agnès at the top of the mountain who was hiking with my nephew Cosme and our friends Caro and Hervé, the three of them visiting from France (photo credits: Hervé).


On the way down to Cupertino, I enjoyed running the Waterwheel loop and stopping by the small creek to get a fresh shower. A much welcomed stop as it was quite hot this Saturday and a large group of cyclists camping at the Black Mountain campground had drained all the water up there, I couldn't even fill my bottle. More about Waterwheel in a few paragraphs.
This Sunday, I went to the Cupertino High School track for some tempo run. I used to do up to 16 miles at 6 min/miles these past years but, not having done track workouts since January, I did lose quite of this speed (mind some of my fellow runners, I have hard time running a long series of 1:30 laps right now, I'm slower...). The longest I had done was 68 laps in 2012 and 60 laps the week before Skyline. This time I went farther, albeit not faster, for 70 laps in lane 2 so slightly more than 17.5 miles at 6:45 min/mile average. Quite a good tempo work out, getting in the right direction, it feels good to be back to the track discipline.

Overall, a good 86-mile training week right after and not counting the 31 miles of Skyline, no time to rest much with the next 50K in 2 weeks (Tamalpa Headlands) and more races in September, October and November.

And now on for the rumbling... I was just informed by a friend on Facebook of a project that the Board of Directors of our Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD), the organism managing several of our local parks, is negotiating with the Ridge winery a swap of land to allow them to extend their vineyards on quite a few acres of the Montebello Open Space Preserve. I did find more about this project in a meeting notice from 2012 so it seems we are late to the discussion. Although it sounds like a 1:1 swap from acreage standpoint, and that public access to Waterwheel Creek Trail will not be affected except seasonally during the harvesting for instance, I fear about the fragile creek which is already endangered by the drought. I look forward to hear more about that from the Board and will let you know if we need more support to fight against this project. One thing is for sure is that I strongly disagree with this statement of the project: "The properties proposed for exchange have been appraised and are of equal value; therefore no funds
will change hands between the parties." Knowing that Ridge Vineyards are owned by the large Japanese pharmaceutical firm Otsuka Holdings Co., and that the land they have en eye on will be transformed into vineyards as opposed to the acres they have today which have no agricultural potential, I find these statement quite offensive for the tax payers that we are... The least they could admit is that this swap will create a lot of wealth and share some of it so we can use the money toward more land preservation! And here is my frustration and disapproval...
Enough negative thoughts for tonight, hope to learn more in the next few days about this, and let's run happy in the meantime. Have a great week!

A short post, written from a plane for a change, 31,000 feet above the Great Lakes, in the friendly skies... Well, almost friendly, as I'm stuck in a middle seat, again...

While the Europeans battle on the track in their European Championships in Zurich, with the Russians dominating, it was also quite a track week for me. After the 70-laps-in-2-hours of last Sunday, I finally managed to hit the track with Bob and Mike on Thursday morning for our "usual" track work out of 5:45 am which I had missed for at least 4 months with my busy travel and ultra racing schedules. It was really refreshing to meet Bob again a few months after our running focuses and priorities totally diverged earlier this year. Bob is on a mission to break 5 minutes on the mile and 2:15 on 800 meters. In the meantime, I need to regain speed to even break 6 minutes on the mile, ouch! On the other end, Mike, a triathlete, is preparing for Pine to Palm 100 in September, so he wasn't going to push too much.

I was amazed at how much speed Bob gained these past months despite his own busy work and travel schedules and a few running issues. I was pressed by time with a conf call at 6:30 am so, after 3 miles to warm-up, we only did 6 400m repeats. I would never have pushed as much if it wasn't for trying hard to stay in Bob's aerodynamic drafting. We usually alternate the lead at each repeat but, this time, I was just happy for Bob to set the pace. Without pushing, Bob was consistently clocking laps between 73 and 75 seconds, while I was finishing a few seconds behind, barely breaking 75 seconds for my 6th and final lap. Not only the breathing was tough, but I could feel in my legs a few muscles that I had not felt for months. It really takes another type of running and stride to go faster on a track! I feel like having to learn all about running again, this is weird. But I'm really happy to have Bob as a partner to work on my speed again. By the way, we exceptionally met at Fremont High School as there has been some ground work at the Mountain View High School all Summer. Should be over by now, with back to school happening tomorrow!

2 days later, this Saturday, I went back to the track again, at Cupertino High School.
It was hot when I started my work out at noon, about 90F. I didn't have a clear plan in mind so, after the first 2 laps at 1'38", I decided I'll try to run as many laps as I could under 1:40. By lap 40, I was still on target but I started feeling a blister forming under my left foot, dang! I very rarely get blisters, I can probably count them on my fingers for the 36,400 miles I have in my log, but that was the day. I was feeling too good otherwise for stopping and kept on pushing despite the increasing burning sensation. It was actually bearable until I stopped running but the blister was so large that walking was really painful afterwards, so I walked the mile back home limping, so much that a lady walking her dog asked if I was ok and proposed to drive me home, sweet (although I passed on the offer). Ouch, a large double bloody one...!
I managed to complete 72 laps this time in 1:59:20, all in line 2, that is slightly more than 18 miles. A great workout, once more, the fartherst I ever gone on a track, but still quite far from the 16 miles at 6 min/mile pace I used to hold for 16 miles until January. Still, this is encouraging progress in the right direction and I'm looking forward to more of this track discipline over the coming weeks to prepare for the Fall races.

Only 71 flat miles this week, but quite a few good quality and fast ones. Happy to taper again for a few days before another challenging 50K race this coming Saturday, the Tamalpa Headlands. An event with a few speedsters from the East Bay and the expected domination of the hosting club, Tamalpa, and Excelsior also sending a fast contingent again. This tapering will also give my feet a break and time to recover from the blister. See some of you next Saturday on the hilly trails again, and have a great week, all!

It was only my 4th participation to this event so I can't say I have the same love story that I have with Ohlone and Skyline. Actually, it started on a bumpy road in 2007 when the event was serving as the USATF National 50K Trail Championships. Back then, I was still thinking that a 50K was merely a marathon with 8 more kilometers, how hard could it be. I had pleasure re-reading my 2007 race report and remembering my excitement about participating for the first time in a national event, only to find out that very few runners flew in from other states so we were competing among the usual suspects. It was my first encounter with Cliff Lentz who dominated our Masters division. Taking third after Steve Stowers who made the 100K Team USA the next year wasn't small feat. Yet, I wasn't so proud of my time of 4:23, it will take a few years before I appreciate that the course is actually quite challenging.

2008 was a strange edition. Only 77 entrants, championships cancelled at the last minute and most of us having slower times. Given the small field, my 4:40 was good enough for 3rd overall and 2nd Masters behind... Cliff of course!

Fast forward 5 years, my third participation was in 2013, on a new course, now starting from Muir Woods instead of Rodeo Beach. And a great experience with a Personal Best and Masters win for my last year in the M40-49 age group. And 4th overall behind Alex Varner who crushed the course record, Jon Olsen before he went to win the World 24-hour and Bob Shebest who had just won Tahoe Rim Trail 100. Good times.

This year, I was mostly looking a last good battle with Mark Richtman before he turns 60. Mark pushed my limits at Miwok where we finished a couple of minutes apart after racing for 100 kilometers on a hilly course. Mark has been on the Team USA for 100K a couple of decades ago and he can't wait to turn 60 to dominate this new age group. Unfortunately, he was just back from 5 weeks of hard work throughout Europe (Switzerland, France, Italy, Croatia) with another super athletic friend, on elliptical bikes. When he came back in the area last week he went for a run to find out that the lack of running had taken a toll on his quads so, despite being in an incredible shape, he decided to pull out and save his quads from a potential injury, rather than putting his hope to set a new Age Group course record at Western States next year. Ultra wisdom.

Another motivation would have been our Grand Prix team competition but, with the strong Tamalpa participation (18), another Excelsior show and Jeremy who didn't want to push as he is a few weeks from a 100-mile in Idaho, it was determined we didn't have a chance this Saturday.

Since I have many more points than I need to win my Age Group Grand Prix for the 8th straight year, the only remaining motivation was to have another good training run and take a shot at the AG Course Record. Which, according to Gary Wang's RealEndurance.com was 4:29:43 . How hard could that be after running 4:19 last year, right...?

Actually, that was from local Mark Ritchman of course, back in 2005 when he had just turned 50. And I believe this was on the previous course. Since then, Mark ran a 4:32:58 in 2011 which I assume was on the revised course. In any case, I didn't want to take any chance so 4:29:43 was what I set my mind as the time to beat this year.

On Friday, Eric Shrantz posted on his UltraRunnerPodcast.com that he was expecting a showdown between Lon Freeman and I. Although not racing a lot, Lon was dominating our local circuit when I starting running ultras, winning for instance the famous Miwok 100K in 2008, and also Quicksilver 50M or Ohlone 50K this year. While I was looking for running with Lon again, I thought Eric had really overlooked 6 youngsters and speedsters in the entrants list. Not to mention Mark, Karl Schnaitter again (see our Skyline 50K finish of 3 weeks ago) and Quicksilver teammate, Stephen Wassather. With so many runners much younger, some less than half my age, I was rather thinking that it would be a performance to already get in the top 10. By the way, that was not counting Yiou Wang from the Asics Aggies, who Gary Gellin was even giving for not only F1 but also M1 (overall winner).

With that, Race Director Tim Fitzpatrick let us go at 7:30 am, for a heck of a fast start. It was foggy with temperatures in the 60s, perfect conditions for running hard. I settled in 14th on the first single trail, close to Cliff, Karl, Stephen, Lon and Yiou and we climbed the steep Coastal Trail out of Muir Beach together, already loosing sight of the top 6 runners. Stephen and Karl led our way down to Pirate Cove, me happy to follow Yiou in the tricky trail going down the cove. Yiou's strength is the uphills and I would have passer her on a fire road, but, since I broke my shoulder, I'm much slower and more prudent on any technical downhill.

Lon and Cliff were slightly behind and I decided to keep pushing and keep up with the younger folks and ran all the steep uphill out of the cove (you need to know the trail to really appreciate... ;-). On the way down to Tennessee Valley, I hammered down to catch-up with Stephen and Karl, flying by Yiou who was struggling going faster yet returned my encouragement. One guy looking like Anton Krupcika joined us at the end of the fire road, climbed up to Wolf Ridge with us but left us in the dust in the technical trail going through the bunkers, before going down to Rodeo Beach.

Stephen and I climbed Miwok Trail together, with Karl quietly staying a hundred yards behind. At his point (mile 8.5) I couldn't see much of Lon or Cliff, not even Yiou which surprised me. I didn't stop at the Tennessee Valley aid station wither and kept pushing the pace on Miwok with Stephen shortly behind, then Karl.

Karl caught me first at the end of the Miwok Trail, around mile 17, about the same distance where he passed me at Skyline earlier this month. We could keep sight of him all the way up to Pantoll on the legendary Dipsea trail, up to the infamous Cardiac aid station (not the aid station, but the Cardiac hill! ;-). This time, I had to make a stop at the aid station to refill my GU2O bottle, it will be the only stop I'll make for the whole race, thanks to taking Vespa and carrying the 3 GUs I took that Saturday. I was slightly tired after the climb and pushing to not lose Karl and took an extra S!Caps as I could sense some cramping coming. I decided to ease-up on the way down to Stinson Beach, and could see Karl less than 2 minutes ahead at the top of Matt Davis Trail but lost sight of him in the switchbacks, especially as I was really careful hoping over all the roots and steps in this section. I used to love this technical section but, now, it feels much longer and painful. Here is a picture at the Matt Davis trail junction, photo credit Pam Wendell (she graciously posted 285 pictures in a FaceBook album):
Stephen caught me at the end of the trail and we reached the aid station together, him doing a quick stop, me just flying back (sorry Andy Ward for not acknowledging much your encouragements and Kevin Rumon for taking you by surprise as you were away from the table! ;-).

I had my first steps of walking at the bottom of the Dipsea Trail, mostly to catch my breath while taking my 2nd Gu and one more S!Caps but I told Stephen we had to keep moving, albeit shuffling the stairs up. We couldn't see Karl anymore in the distance that meant we had lost at least 2 minutes on him. On the other end, I couldn't see anyone behind either which was good because I didn't feel like pushing much anyway. I even lost sight of Stephen in Steep Ravine in which I walked way too much to my taste. I took a third Gu to give me an extra boost for the final mile up to Pantoll and that helped me getting moving again as soon as I reached Old Mine Trail.

I reached the Cardiac aid station after 4 hours and 2 minutes of running. I first asked Alex about his course record and he replied it was safe. Then I asked a volunteer how many miles to the finish, she said 3.8 miles. I had 27 miles on my Garmin, that meant basically 4 miles under 7 min/mile, time to move. I was happy to see my GPS average pace going in the mid 6 min/mile range and kept pushing as much as I could. Many of theses miles are very runnable, so that helped. But then I reached the final 25 or so switchbacks of Heather Cutoff Trail and I was getting really concerned to see the time flying and the pace now back over 7 min/mile with all the needed stops at every switchback turn. And, after a final sprint in the flat meadow, really relieved to cut the finish line in... 4:27:36, good for an new age group course record indeed, and just good enough for top 10, phew!

Now, back to the title: while this time was good enough to meet my main goals, let's talk about the team competition. With most of their members helping out with the event and two of their 3 lead listed runners, Mark Richtman and James Nielsen, not running, Tamalpa didn't do so well yesterday. Excelsior took advantage of the situation for winning the team competition again with Karl, Cliff (4:45) and Jason Reed (4:54). Jeremy surprised me by finishing in 5:15, way ahead of his goal. What I didn't realize before playing with all the data in Excel is that we ended losing to Excelsior by a mere 3 minutes and 20 second difference. I would have known, I would have pushed more in Steep Ravine, just for the sake of being done with the season. Anyway, like some people say, it is what it is... Kudos to Stephen for a very strong 4:23 for his first run on this course!

One big surprise upon finishing was to see Yiou who was there, eating a piece of pizza. I couldn't believe she had passed me so that meant she had dropped. Indeed, shortly after passed her on the way down to Tennessee Valley, she slipped in the downhill and torn a muscle in her quad. She has so much potential on the marathon, it was a bummer but certainly a good decision to not push further.

The race was won by Ivan Medina, 28, in 3:47:35 for his first 50K. Gallen Burrel was second in 3:52 and Sam Robinson took third in 4:04. Here are Sam and Ivan (#3):
Sam chatting with Gary and Holly:
A few men in blue after the effort:

Jim was all fired up telling about the top 3 M60-69 finishing within a minute! (Well, that's before Mark Richtman joins their age group in a few months...)
A huge thank you first for Tim and Diana Fitzpatrick for directing this top class even now in its 28th edition (ultra volunteer Stan Jensen was proudly wearing a "1996 Point Reyes 50K" t-shirt, letting Jeremy and I know that the Headlands 50K had been created to replace that event, due to a permit loss). Second, the hosting Tamalpa Running Club with many members manning the aid stations and keeping us safe at road intersections: thank you to you all, volunteers! Special thanks to Tamalpa member Jed Tukman for bringing to the finish line his delicious thin crust pizzas, straight from the oven:

Between the great finisher goodies (Brooks t-shirt, impressive medal, Barking Frogs buff, EO and Flora Udo's Oil samples, cool tote bag) plus great prizes for age group winners (North Face hood, Bungalo Munch muesli and bowl, Victory Design Coyote 1 organizer) it felt like Christmas in August!
Thank you to all these sponsors who support our ultra sport and community!

Sorry for not having more pictures from the course itself, short of having a crew today or carrying my camera, but you can find many in the previous posts highlighted at the beginning of this post.

My legs were sore this morning but I don't regret having gone for a 10K recovery run at 7:30 min/mile pace, this will allow me to resume training quickly this week. My next goal is a flat 24-hour event in a month, so I'm going to stay away from hills for a few weeks.

PS: for those interested, here is a sneak preview of the results before they are posted on UltraSignup (click on the picture to zoom).

The first weekend of September we celebrate Labor Day and it's an opportunity to have an extended 3-day weekend, an opportunity to... work more as I highlighted in my blog already (Labor Day 2013: what a laborious week!, 2012: Labor day: back to (running) work!, 2010: Labor day: how hard are you working on your running?, 2009: Labor(ious) Day weekend: 4 stories, 1 post). You see from the titles of these posts, as much as we were all meant and born to run, I do consider we need to put some work in our running, so we can enjoy more of it! I also think that the multiple uses of the word laborious reflects the potential fatigue from the first 8 months of the season and especially the tiring runs and races in the Summer heat.

As many of you know, I like racing for the opportunity to test and push my limits. Racing so much also provide great, that it hard, training opportunities, training intensity that you would not necessarily reach training alone or even in social and fun runs. Moreover, racing also provides great opportunities to have fun by meeting other participants, volunteers and crews, and discovering new places and trails. And an "excuse" to taper from time to time!

After last week's Tamalpa Headlands 50K, I ran 10K on Sunday but was still too sore on Monday. I ran all the other days of the week for a total of 42 miles. On Saturday, I went back to the track for another long tempo run. I wasn't sure how long for but, as it was late morning and quite hot (88F), I set a goal to run laps at or just under 1 minute and 45 seconds, all in lane 2. After the 72 laps of 2 weeks ago, I reached a new milestone with 80 laps this time! One more step toward a marathon and an ultra on the track... Well, quite a few steps actually as my Fitbit counted 25,950 steps for these 20.3 miles (I was curious about how longer a lap is in lane 2 and, of course, the Internet has the answer! See: Track Training - Differences in Lane Lengths). I was very pleased with the regularity of my laps, I only ran 6 laps slightly above 1:45 for 3 bottle-change stops and 3 changes of direction (every 5 miles). Average lap time: 1:44, spot on!

On Sunday, I wanted to have a more precise goal to log a few miles and I chose to run from home to the Palo Alto airport. I had been months since I did this run and I thought it was going to be a short ultra (28 miles or so) but forgot it was closer to 33 miles, thankfully with a few water stops on the course. It's about 5.8 miles from home to the start of the Stevens Creek trail in Sunnyvale, then 6 miles to Shoreline Lake. By Bixby park in Palo Alto, my GPS shows 15.4 miles, a place with restrooms and water fountain which I sometimes use as a turn around for 50K goals. I did stop for a while to cool down, I really needed it! Then I went on around the Palo Alto airport and golf, stopping again for a few minutes at the Baylands Sports center. There was a breeze but, for some reasons, I couldn't bear with the 90F temperature and blazing sun at noon. I ran back to Shoreline, along 101 and made another stop at the Lakeside café which was super crowded. Got a Coke and some ice and, still under 7:25 min/mile, went back on the Stevens Creek Trail toward Sunnyvale and Cupertino, seeing less bikes than 2 hours earlier in the morning. I covered the 33 miles in 4 hours and 4 minutes, not counting the handful of long stops I made to drink and cool off. Our Summer is definitely not over, glad there is still water at these drinking fountains, phew! Can't wait for a rainy Fall and Winter now...

Another 12-mile run this Monday, and in 90F+ temperatures at mid day. I would have run a few more miles but I was pressed by... work. Yes, on Labor Day... Overall, not an extravagant ultra training weekend, "just" 108 miles for the week, and flat ones, but at a better/faster pace nevertheless.

As for playing, I did enjoy following quite a few fellow runners at the grueling UTMB (Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc). Francois d'Haene won with a magisterial new course record of 20 hours and 11 minutes, improving Killian Jornet's record (20:36 in 2011) and Xavier Thevenard (20:34 in 2013)! To put things in perspective, Anton Krupicka finished in 26 hours and Michael Wardian finished 10 hours after Francois, yet he placed 123 overall, out of more than 2,000 starters. On the women side, Rory Bosio of California won this year's edition again, twice in a row! After training quite a few times on the course, I need to get this beast on my program sooner than later.

Hope you had a relaxing Labor Day Weekend, yet didn't stay on the couch! Have a good and short week all, or a full one for those who are not reading from the US or Canada.

I just landed this morning after 20 hours on a plane and 29 hours door to door. Plus 2 hours to wait for an available room as arrived at the hotel in the morning. A rather smooth trip overall except for the stealing of my new Garmin and old Canon camera from my suitcase. After flying more than 1.7 million miles, it was time something like that happened to me, still it's always a bad surprise and almost jeopardized my plans to explore Johannesburg on foot. What is disconcerting is that it seems so common particularly with South African Airlines according to this thread. You'd think that, after a few years of consistent occurrences and reporting, a few cameras would catch the thieves and address the issue. Speaking of camera, I passed by many gorgeous villas in Sandton, each with electrified fences and at least a handful of cameras. The cost of living in such a contrasted and divided country with extreme wealth on one side (houses, luxury cars) and extreme poverty on the other one (and I know I haven't seen much in the area I'm staying in).

Anyway, having gotten the usual warning of not exercising outside in this country, and Johannesburg in particular, I did some search on the Internet about running in Sandton. I didn't find much, just a few posts reassuring foreigners that Sandton is particularly safe in the early morning, and recommending to run in the nearby parks or the indoor track of the Radisson Hotel's Planet Platinum gym. This didn't seem very appealing for a long run so I de zoomed on the map and found a very interesting stretch of green area along a creek, on the West side. It seemed so obvious, I was disappointed when the Concierge of the hotel had no idea about what I was pointing him to on the map. His only reaction was that it must be very far. Indeed, 4 kilometers, phew! ;-)
So I decided to go after sending an email to Agnès with the Google trace of my targeted route (only to find out upon my return that I hadn't hit the send button before leaving, oops!). The sidewalks are quite uneven along the main arteries of Sandton and it's also dangerous to cross roads and streets in a country which drives on the other side of the road (I almost missed to cross one looking at the wrong side of the incoming traffic, with the wrong habit and reflex); as a result, I was glad to find the Braamfontein Spruit Trail. It's kind of the Parisian Coulée Verte (see 2007 and 2014 posts), or maybe a local PG&E trail since the trail isn't much about leveraging the nice creek as it seems to rather be to allow for the passage of a huge power line across the city.
But, when not looking up, it is really surprising to find such a natural creek running in the heart of the city.
There is no marking but the path is rather easy to find and follow. It was actually quite dusty in this early September, after a dry winter. Yes, it's still winter here for a few more weeks, yet the temperature was 86F this afternoon and quite dry (16% humidity)!

I saw dozens of mountain bikers but only a handful of runners.

After about 12 kilometers I reached the Emmarentia Dam:

The reservoir is surrounded by the Johannesburg Botanic Garden which was crowded today with locals enjoying early Spring conditions.

I did see a few local species, for instance these ducks which seem to wear a brown mask or sun glasses, and a sort of ibis.

And a few upside-down inhabited nests as I've seen in Senegal last year:
Great city escape for a long run if you are staying in Sandton. Note that the trail keeps going North for a few more kilometers. More to explore another time, I won't have this luxury with my busy work week here. A good excuse to start tapering anyway after another reasonable good training week (88 miles, including a good speed workout on Thursday with Bob) and before the upcoming US Nationals of 24-hour in Cleveland in 2 weeks, which I finally decided to go!

When I visit a foreign country or city, I make sure to check on the web what the local running community is recommending in terms of routes, or any other tip posted by other runners who have visited before. Conversely, I hope others find my "Running in..." labeled posts (see the "Running in..." labels in the right column) with more than 50 reviews from around the world!

When it comes to South Africa, and especially Johannesburg, getting local tips is particularly essential as there is so much insecurity caused by the extreme gap between wealthy and poor populations cohabiting in this city. One of the most common advice is "don't even think of running on your own outside!" In retrospective, and as I was told by colleagues afterwards at the office, the run I did upon arrival down to the Botanic Garden was slightly on the risky edge although I didn't feel threaten at any time even when passing groups of homeless in the underpasses (oops, put this way, that doesn't sound so safe!).

For the exclusive and privileged Sandton area, some people advised to pay for a pass at the Radisson Blu fitness center which has an indoor track. I don't know how long it is but I doubt this would have fitted my desire to run at least 10K. Besides, if it is about avoiding the treadmill, rather be outside (any takers among hotel owners and managers to install treadmills outside?). Here is the imposing Radisson Blu:
The next hint was from seeing a large green area on Google maps, the Innesfree Park. However, I learned later in the week that the nearby area on the other side of the highway is extremely dangerous and unsecured, so a clear no go (I think we drove by and it's also an open area with many people hanging out).

The last tip I found was for a rather small local park called Mushroom Farm Park and renovated in 2009. Along with mine, here is an enthusiastic blog post about this green patch in Sandton: I'm in love with a park. Indeed, it is the best compromise for a safe run outside. It is opened from 6 am (at least) to 6 pm, has at least 3 guards on duty patrolling the park, has high fences all around, only one opened entrance (the parking one which is ok to use for pedestrians although the signs say otherwise). It is very accessible and close to the major hotels in Sandton, which is the default area for business travelers (Hilton, Radisson, Holiday Inn, Courtyard). For locals, or those brave enough to drive a rental car on the left side of the road, it has a free and rather spacious parking.

It has a nice pathway, albeit quite narrow when there is other users, especially the bridges.
But, for such a small area and short loop, a great variety with a winding trail, 2 bridges over a small creek and a couple of hills.

From a practical standpoint, the park has restrooms, which I didn't visit and I brought my own water so I didn't test/taste if the water is drinkable (but tap water is throughout the city, including at the Botanic Garden as I was told and experienced).
Quite conveniently, for those interested in cross-training, it has an original outdoor gym:
Also a playground for kids to have their own fun:
Here is the sign which will please the bird watchers (and, yes Steve, I did spot a few ducks and pigeons! ;-):
Last, but not least, the park attraction is a balloon which Hyundai sponsors, offering aerial views over Sandton for RSA75 (about $8):
Note that the balloon can be seen from miles away so that's an easy landmark to spot Sandton from anywhere in Johannesburg.

Since I got my GPS stolen from my suitcase at the airport, I could tell for sure the length of the loop. One of our consultants whom I ran with on Thursday said 700 meters. The first day, I clocked 3:25-3:40 loops without going in the red zone. On Thursday, I was in my 16 th lap, having ran all the previous ones between 3:15 and 3:20 when I passed 2 runners only to find them picking up the pace to follow me. It was enough to get my engine (or ego... ;-) started and here we were, running the next lap in 2:56, phew! I did another one under 3 minutes, still "pushed" by them and they finally stopped so I slowed don a few seconds for the last 2 laps to make it 20. Great speed work out, which I hadn't really planned for as I was rather meant to taper, one week before the US 24-hour Nationals in Cleveland, OH. Yes, tomorrow...! Anyway, with these times, it must indeed bit slightly shorter than half a mile.

Again, a perfect option and compromise between outdoor running and security, a definitve "must run" if you are staying in or nearby Sandton (which is actually quite some distance from downtown, but has a large train station).

Run happy AND safe in South Africa!

It was my 104th ultra race but only my second participation in a timed 24-hour event, so what would you expect? A few learning rookie experiences...

Focusing on the USATF North California Mountain and Ultra Trail running Grand Prix, in which I won my age group again this year for the 8th time in a row, I don't race much outside of California. And, while I travel extensively around the globe for work, I'm not so used to traveling to races. Last time was for the US 50K road USATF Nationals where I won my brand new age group, the day after my birthday. I had passed one the 100K Nationals in April as I was still recovering from the nagging injury which bothered me through February and March plus, it was the weekend between American River 50-mile and Ruth Anderson 50-mile.

So, after 12 ultra races so far this year, including my first 24-hour event in June with 127 miles, I had 4 weeks to prepare for this 24-hour USATF Nationals in Cleveland, Ohio. I flew in on Thursday night to attend client meetings with 2 local financial institutions and get ready on Friday evening. I stopped by Edgewater Park to have a look at the course and parking lot and had the pleasure to meet a few other runners including elite Serge Arbona who already ran 156.5 miles on this course, had 6 24-hour events beyond 150 miles under his belt and was looking forward to add a new one.
Serge is 49 so, at this rate, he is going to blow away our M50-54 age group record and I thought it was my last chance to improve Ed Ettinghausen's one of 146 miles.

The path is really smooth and mostly flat, a great race track, with gorgeous views of Lake Erie (so large that is looks like the Ocean...).


Comforted by this quick recogn of the site, although slightly concerned about the strong wind coming from the lake, I went back to the hotel, downtown, 3 miles away from the start.
The race starting at 9 am, there was no rush to go to be too early. Surprisingly for a night leading to an important event, I slept like a baby for almost 8 hours, a good start!
I arrived at the Park around 7 am and there were already quite a few tents up in the crew area.


Look at this runner's table, this runner already had the beer ready to flow, although not the one my Quicksilver Running Club buddies are used to drink in the Bay Area! ;-) I had never seen root beer used as an ultra drink before.
I didn't have a tent and set my bags on the grass next to one canopy. Later, the two occupants, Mary Dasilva and Lauren Idzik, both from upstate New York. I was really impressed how organized they were with chairs, boxes, coolers, tables, packs of bottles, ... Certainly set for self-sufficiency for 24 hours! I thanked them for their offer and, since rain was announced for the night, gladly accepted it, saying that I will "move in" when it starts raining tonight.

For once, as opposed to our local races in California, there wasn't a single runner whom I knew among the list of 170 participants, so it was great to get welcomed by them and a few others, experiencing the most welcomed ultra camaraderie. Serge arrived around 7:30 which surprised me as he was supposed to sleep in his car on the parking lot. He set his table on the other side of the course and told me that he actually had a rough night because the Police didn't allow him to stay last night so he had to find another parking lot and couldn't get a good sleep, stressed that he was of getting kicked again from the place he found. Not a good start for him... Yet, he was positive and optimistic, a key strength for this type of ultra running event.
To finish my preparation before the start, I stopped by the restrooms to fill my bottles and made the first mistake of the day. I filled 3 bottles of my Gu2O mix then filled a 4th bottle with only water, only to find out the water was yellowish/brownish. And it tested really bad as well, yikes! Unfortunately, flying light with only a carry on, I had bought just enough Gu2O pouches for 150 miles (one bottle every 15 miles or so) and couldn't afford losing the content of the three bottles, I was just hoping it wouldn't upset my stomach and kidneys.

With that, it was time to go to the start line, with a couple minutes to spare. Oh wait, all the runners were gathered 200 yards from the start line, that was weird. I started jogging toward the area when I heard Race Director, Dan Horvath, blowing the horn (Photo credit Cameron Dedrick).
Oh well, we were on for 86,400 seconds, a few weren't going to make a big difference. (Photo credit: JohnnyDaJogger)
I joined the middle of the pack and made my way to the front and stopped progressing when I saw Serge, resolute I was not to pass such an experienced ultra runner. From what I could see, there were two runners ahead of him, running at a blazing fast pace, while Serge and I were already under 8 minutes/mile, oops!
The sky was clear, temperature nice for a jog in the park, but the wind had changed direction in the night, now coming from the land, against us as we were coming back to the start area. It wasn't as bad as last night but strong enough to feel the need to push to keep the pace. Thankfully, though, nothing to compare with the wind gusts we had in San Francisco in June for 17 straight hours!

I had to make conscious "efforts" to slow down and not pass Serge. We were clocking 7:30 laps (each lap is 0.90074) which I knew was already too fast, under the reasonable 9 min/mile pace. At some point, Serge made a quick pit stop and I slowed down even more so he can catch-up. But after a few more laps, I couldn't help myself and passed Serge who didn't seem to have a good day.
I kept going and passing participants, surprised that quite a few of them were already walking a few hours into the race, but realizing all the various and amazing personal challenges. There was this ultra runner, Charles Moman, who was in a major car accident 6 months ago and was told he might not be able to walk again and here he was, walking for 24 hours and more than 43 miles, an ultra! There was Leo Lightner who won his M85+ age group with 37 miles at 86 (and I bet he can go longer but he was the only competitor in this age group). On the other side of the age spectrum, this amazing girl, Angela Demchuk, 13, who had never run more than a half-marathon (already a feat in itself at this age) and, while keeping joking, smiling, laughing, providing encouragements to others, logged a whopping 58 miles for her first ultra; mind blowing! (Photo credit Jen Goellnitz.)
The entrants list had 35 names who didn't show any previous ultra results. With that, it was an unusual mix of experienced and "serious" competitors and a good group of participants who were leveraging the event to discover and experience how far they could go. Well, for sure, we were all here to see how far we could go in a certain time.
Back to the title, this format of event is still new to me and I've still hard time developing a strategy, in particular, how to decompose the intimidating challenge of running for 24 straight hours. For instance, 4 blocks of 6 or 8 blocks of 3. Without a crew, I didn't even have to set goals explicitly. Implicitly, I was hoping to run 75 miles in the first 12 hours and, well, as close to 75 miles in the last 12 hours... With a few laps in the low 7 minutes and almost none above 8 minutes, I was a few miles ahead of my plan by 6 hours. After noon, the temperature had raised significantly and many runners were suffering from that. I had trained a lot in the heat in California so that wasn't bothering me much but all the salt accumulated on my top and shorts was a concern for a few volunteers at the aid station. For sure, I had sweat a lot but I had drunk a lot too and taken one S!Cap consistently, every hour.
By 8 pm, 11 hours in the race, it was dark and the temperature had decreased of course, but not that much. As usual, I had started too fast and logged 80 miles in the first 12 hours. I stopped at the aid station to have a look at the rankings, I was in second place. Isaiah Janzen was in first with a lead of a couple of laps. He was part of those who had never run an ultra before so I wondered how strong he could keep up for another half day. When he lapped me, he knew who I was and briefly introduced himself.
My legs were feeling good but I felt the need to slow down the pace a bit and my laps were now closer to 9 minutes. I picked my headlamp when day light disappeared and, although I agree that it's not necessarily, it makes running and staying alert in the dark easier, which is important to keep the pace when you are getting tired both physically (distance and effort), physiologically (sleep cycle) and mentally. As we were progressing into the night, the rain came. I'm not exactly sure when, I think around 10 pm. It was a gentle drizzle which felt actually very good and helped washing out the salt from my clothes and body. Speaking of which, between the sweat and the rain on one hand, and the abrasion of the salt and the sand, I had started chaffing pretty bad in the afternoon (tights and butt). I had put more vaseline to appease but decided that I'll take care of it after the race, ouch...!

Deeper in the night, many runners had either left, such as my canopy hosts, or gotten into their tent for some rest or sleep. But a good number of "studs" kept going even it meant a lot of walking. I passed the 100-mile mark by 1 am, that is 16 hours in the race. At this point, I was running at about 10 min/mile and revised my goal to 140 miles. The chaffing was very painful but, more worrying, I discovered at 2 am that my urine had turned brownish. Darn, this never happened to me before and, based on previous accounts form others, I interpreted that as the symptom of blood in the urine. I did a few more laps but decided to stop at the medical tent to get my urine tested only to hear that they didn't take this responsibility. Disappointed, I went back on the course but decided to walk it to think about what to do next. 2/3 in the lap, Dan, the Race Director, was walking toward me, he was on the course to find me and walk with me based on the medical staff's concerns, what a dedication from a race director! An opportunity to mention how impressed by the calm and accessibility of Dan throughout the 30+ hours that he must have been up.

The rain actually started to pick-up as Dan and I were approaching the aid station. Dan was insistent that I go straight away to the medical tent but I told him that my stuff was not under a tent anymore and it was key that I get it protected from the rain. By the time we got to my bags, a storm and pouring rain were hitting us and I was completely soaked when we got into the race headquarters, so much that I was shivering pretty bad. Dan was even more insistent that I hurry to the medical tent but I had to change first, at least my top. It took at least 15 minutes before I stopped shaking. The MD in charge, Greg, examined me and, based on the fact that my kidneys didn't hurt, ruled the blood in urine issue out. Rather a good (as in very bad...) case of dehydration. He got me to drink some cranberry juice and a few cups of chicken broth. It took me an hour to get warmer, even though I was laying down under a heater. And 20 more minutes to decide to get back on the course. The chaffing of the first 17 hours was so bad that it made even walking excruciating. And there was still almost 6 hours to go...

Despite this pit stop of 1 hour and 20 minutes, I was still in second place which surprised me. For sure, I had missed much of the storm, which must have slowed others down too, Thankfully, it was only occasionally drizzling now. But my lead on 3rd place was down to only 3 laps. Surprisingly, I found myself running faster than before I stopped, about 9 min/mile. I even caught-up with Harvey and that upset him so much that he yelled in the dark and went on a crazy sprint. Sincerely, that looked weird but, like they say, don't take it personally... Here is Harvey's picture by Jen Goellnitz on Saturday afternoon (singlet):
I maintained that good pace for a few laps before feeling some fatigue again on top of the extreme pain of the chaffing. In addition, my urethra was so painful that I had to make frequent pit stops. The good news is that I was drinking a lot of water and soup and managed to get my urine clearer after a couple of hours. But, with three hours to go, I was left with my bad yellowish Gu20 bottles of the morning which I decided not to use. Given my condition, it was probably not a good idea to skip electrolytes for 3 hours, but I really had my doubts on the quality of that water. 88888 was running so strongly that he eventually passed me but 3rd was still quite an honorable position to be in. We were running in the daylight again, by a beautiful morning, and more runners and walkers were back on the course. I was now passed by runners with fresh legs while I was battling to clock 10 to 12-minute laps. The last hour was particularly stressful as I found I had a 4-lap lead on Matthew Garrod in 4th. I now wanted to keep the 3rd position as well as top Master so I just kept moving, now beyond 140 laps. I lost 1 lap to Matthew in the following 30 minutes, creating some suspense... In the last lap, #148, with 10 minutes to go, I experienced something really new, my body just refusing to run... I could barely put one foot after another, lean forward, it felt surreal, albeit not in a good way. The tank was on empty, the battery was dead, many runners were now passing me, it was pathetic... But I was so resolute that I managed to finish the loop, plus a few yards in the remaining 3 minutes. I had covered 133.4 miles in a day, 6 miles more than in San Francisco in June, so a new Personal Best at this format. Yet, I was quite disappointed to be so far from my original goal although it made sense based on what had happened to my body during the night.

The physical and mental fatigue was so big that couldn't even walk back to the finish area. Ted, from Harvey's crew, helped me but we barely covered 50 yards. He went to the medical tent to get Dr. Greg Hom and Katie who made me drink a cold chocolate milk which I liked very much but I didn't keep. As I was sitting on a bench, one of the Park Rangers passed by with his car and I suggested that he gets me to the finish line. Yes, again, a pathetic way to finish. I took me another hour to call Agnès at home and tell her the story which wasn't told in the results or the nice photo montage she had posted on Facebook to our friends.
I left with quite some hardware in addition to new friendships and lifetime memories. A gold medal for winning my age group, a bronze one for 3rd overall and, for running more than 100 miles, a gigantic belt buckle, so large and heavy that I probably will never wear it but, as Agnès and Greg said, that will make an impressive paper weight! ;-)
The drive back to the hotel was short enough to be safe despite the tiredness. I went to bed at 1 pm and woke up at 6 pm, worked and social networked for a few hours then had a good 7-hour night sleep to get back on track for a client meeting in downtown Cleveland on Monday then a 3-hour drive to Detroit for 2 days of customer meetings there before flying back to the Bay Area on Thursday. Yes, running is only my second job, there is hopefully another one to pay the bills! ;-)

As of this Friday the complete results aren't finalized yet but we pretty much got the right number of laps. For his first ultra (!!!) Isaiah logged a whopping 154-mile distance, I'm sure this must be unheard of!

From the timing to the setup of the single aid station, the organization was very professional. Family and friends really appreciated the live rankings on my end, although they got a shot of adrenaline when the results went off in the final hour on the website. The volunteers were amazingly dedicated to each of our needs; if they happened to be short of what you wanted, they had it for the next lap, made to order! Without a crew I really appreciated the possibility to leave my bottle which I'd found refilled at my next passage, very helpful to keep the momentum and save precious time. During the peak of the afternoon heat the poor volunteers had to fight wasps making their job even harder. It was also amazing seeing volunteers taking successive shifts with the same efficiency.

I'm extremely grateful to the medical crew for their recommendations, their patience to handle my disappointment and impatience, and for getting me back on my feet in the middle of the night. Here are some of them, after the award ceremony. From left to right: Katie, me, Dr. Greg Hom who flew all the way from Florida to lead the team composed of local students he had worked with before and Dr. Andrew Lovy, 79, who not only worked the medical tent but also logged 36 miles and placed in his age group! Dr. Lovy spent years on the front line in Vietnam so he certainly knows what both service and ultra endurance are!


In retrospective, I certainly made a big mistake not taking care of the chaffing early enough. As for the dehydration, I'm really not sure what I could have done differently as I did drink a lot of both electrolytes and iced water before it happened, as well as took one S!Cap every hour. I didn't get any cramping, so the pace seemed adequate and sustainable, although I should manage to slow down more in the first 6-12 hours... I used 10 pouches of Vespa which allowed me to eat very little compared to such a prolonged effort. No foot blister and the Brooks Launch were the perfect shoes. Overall, not too many rookie mistakes, but enough to jeopardize any chance of record. 2nd 24-hour, there will be more...

All week I debated if I was going to race both the Stevens Creek 50K and Trailblazer 10K this weekend as I did these past 3 years with much success (winning the 50K 3 times). I procrastinated until this morning and the registration was closed for the 50K so that's taking care of the decision. I'm in the 10K on Sunday, hope for a decent performance in my age group, short of much track and speed training this year.

Since it took me so long (5 days!) to post this race report, I can mention a few other participants' accounts who did beat me at this game:

1. John Hnat (100 miles for a major come back from back surgery!)
2. Lynn David Newton (a nostalgic ultra career end; maybe the last ultra but hopefully not the last run or shorter race!)
3. Alene Nitzky (a few struggles too for a quadruple Badwater girl)
4. Diana Martinez (a new ultra marathoner, whoot!)
5. Angela Maraldo McKinstry (congrats on your 3rd NC24!)
6. Mary Mathews Nabb (yes, you have an impressive and very consistent "energizer bunny" stride! ;-)
7. And we still wait to hear from the winner and amazing ultra debut of Isaiah Janzen on his blog...

I love participating to special anniversaries of our races and runs, and most especially this one today, which supports our local trail system: today was the 20th edition of the Trailblazer event offered by the Friends of the Stevens Creek Trail.
I met Race Director and Executive Director, Aaron Grossman, after the race, he told me that they had a solid stride, just missing the September 2001 edition for various reasons (certainly a special and memorable year...). He also mentioned that the turnout was higher this year than last year, a great news!

Incidentally, my first run of this event was in 2002 and I had quite a consistent run all these years: 34:39 (02), 34:52 (03), 34:16 (06), 33:57 (07), 37:44 (09), 34:25 (10), 34:24 (11), 35:21 (12), 36:24 (13). My "worst" performances were the day after running respectively a challenging hilly trail double marathon in 2009 and last year after winning the Stevens Creek 50K for the third time. Otherwise, this race on its flat and fat course represents a great test before the end of the season.

This year, I skipped the "Stevens Creek" double and did run the 50K yesterday. I felt it wasn't reasonable, less than seven days after taking 3rd at the US Nationals of 24 hours last weekend. With 133 miles in one day, I had my weekly mileage already... ;-) Actually I went for 15 and 20K on Friday and Saturday to get the legs moving and I was really wondering what I'd be able to do this Sunday as I had a few remaining muscle spasms in my calves before I even went for my 1.5-mile warm-up, oops!

I didn't have a particular goal this morning, just hoping to get in the groove around 6 minutes/mile, following the lead. With my focus on ultra running this year, 13 ultra races so far including 2 24-hour events, I didn't spend as much time doing speed work on the track as I used to a few years ago and it has been a while since I even ran a mile in 6 minutes...

Aaron sent us off promptly at 8:30 am. As usual, it was a fast start and I had no intention to keep up with Jose Pina Sr. this year, really. I was in 6th at the first turn but quickly moved to 4th then 3rd by the first half mile. The last runner I passed, Simon Azriel, kindly asked me if I had run 100K the day before, sounds like people have some expectations for me and that I did set the bar pretty high... ;-)

By mile 2 I was about 15 seconds behind Jose and Benjamin Mearls, 25, was way ahead. This is when Jose experienced some GI issues last year which prevented him from finishing. But he was good and solid this year, he had his second place and Masters' win, easy. Well, not sure about the easy as he was later limping and had ice around his knee, hope it's not too serious, I know how much he cares about the cross-country (XC) season.

My GPS indicated a consistent 5:40 at mile 1, 2 and 3, a pace I was pleased with given the circumstances. I lost a few seconds going through the tortuous course as we pass near the Shoreline Lake area and pushed again for the final 2 miles, not crazy though as Jose was out of reach, 1 minute in front, and I had even more lead on Simon.

The final mile is challenging and tricky as we run through both the back and front of the 5K pack, a race which starts 15 minutes after ours. I crossed the line in 35:59.46, a hair split from 36 minutes, phew! My official pace was only 5:48, my GPS was off by 0.2 miles.

Now, if you think 5:48 is fast, consider the 4:41 min/mile that Dennis Kimetto of Kenya clocked 26 times in a row to win the Berlin Marathon this morning and set a new World Record at this mythical distance. Wow! Closer to us, Benjamin did win our race in a blazing 32:59, and won on of the surface tablets that Microsoft was sponsoring in addition to hosting us on their parking lot. I already won 2 XBoxes here, time for the young generation to have fun! ;-) Oh, by the way, notice that both overall winners wear Brooks shoes, eh eh...

Here is picture of the results while they are getting finalized and published on the race website:
After the race starts another marathon, a 2-hour award ceremony and generous raffle, and the kids mile race in the middle.
It's so cool to see 2 more generations participating to this running event. After meeting my ultra running buddy Bill Dodson, 79, who completed his 5th barefoot Trailblazer 5K, it was cool to see kids and toddlers go for 3 laps, encouraged by us and their families, and digging dip according to a few cries and tears. No pain no gain as we say...


Bill placed 3 in his competitive M70-and-over age group
Surprisingly, I took the Masters title which was unusually set at 50 and above this year (it's typically 40 in most races, or 35 in world events):
As a consequence, Aaron gave the M50-59 award to second place in our age group, another Frenchman living in Cupertino whom I didn't know, Joseph Maggiolino (40:18).
Jose won his M40-49 age group by a few minutes but missed the grand prize this year.
I also touched base with this other amazing local runner, JR Mintz, who, mind you, races an average of 3 races a week. Yes, that's 150 races a year!!! He admits that's it's hard to maintain quality with such a quantity, but that's a way to dedicate a life to our sport!

After the dust settled and everybody left the area, I went on for another 10K loop which I cruised this time in 42:31, a 6:50 min/mile pace. For the love of running... ;-)

Thank you to all who participated by running and walking, providing support to this very nice organization and the Stevens Creek trail in particular. We need such support to keep and win the battle of extending the trail so it connects the Bay to our hills at the Stevens Creek Park and Reservoir! A big thank to all the volunteers who made this event possible, from the association itself to many joyful high schoolers! And to the sponsors for their invaluable support: Microsoft, Hobee's, Google, StarOne Credit Union, Recology, Avery Construction, HONU Wealth Management, Rotary Club of Mountain View, Fenwick & West, Tori Ann Corbett, RJG Consulting, Prometheus, Palo Alto Medical Foundation.
Hope to see all of you next year for the 21th edition!