It's not easy to find a race to celebrate your birthday, even much so a National Championship! With that, it was a no brainer for me to come back to Long Island, NY, to run the 50K Road National. Last year, I had just turned 50 and I had big hopes in my brand new age group. Unfortunately, I trained too hard in January and had to take a couple of weeks off before the race, leading to a poor performance (3:37) although it was good enough last year to win my age group and get a first National title.

Learning form 2014, I made sure to include a lot of variety in my early season training. Running the 100-mile Nationals too hard at Rocky Racoon was definitely foolish on my end and I was relieved to bounce back with a promising 3:21:58 at Jed Smith 50K a week later in Sacramento, 3 weeks before the Championship. I was also very pleased with my last tune-up, clocking 2:03:12 for 80 laps on the track. Now, that was in Californian weather, that is in Spring conditions since we are missing winter again for the 4th time in a row over there.

With such a level of fitness, my only concerns were the weather and how tired I will be have a strenuous week at our mega IBM InterConnect conference (20K participants, 6 speaking engagements and 18 executive 1:1s). I had a few short nights in Vegas (including a 4-hour one and, trust me, that was just to catch-up with emails and work...), but managed to sleep for straight 9 hours for the 2 nights I spent at home before jumping on a plan again. Now, for the weather, I couldn't do much. At least, it was great to hear that the area had "warmed up" significantly for our arrival, meaning that the temperature had raised from close to 0F to just above 20F. But, even a 24F at the start, that is -4C, still looked frigid for the Californian I have become... At least it wasn't supposed to snow before 1 pm on race day, and no wind either, phew!

Here are Roy Pirrung (see below) and Bill Dodson, our USATF Pacific Association Mountain and Ultra Running Chair, who turned 80 yesterday.
And the runners getting ready and trying to remain warm before the start.
I stayed for a good hour under the tent, so scared to get outside. When it was time, I went on the course to run half a mile and warm up the machine. I was wearing gloves that I use for cross-country skiing, yet my fingers were numb and I couldn't feel them. Kind of scary when you have at least 3 hours of running ahead... In these conditions, there was little hope to warm-up so I went out straight at my targeted pace which was around 6:20 min/mile. Beyond winning my age group, my main goal was to improve the American M50-54 record which has been set more than 32 years ago at 3:19:33. I knew it was a bit foolish in these conditions, but you don't have that many opportunities in life and every year which passes doesn't get you closer, doesn't increase you chance at it. I couldn't get a list of the registrants so I had no idea who was competing in the Masters category, I only knew that Michael Wardian was racing in Peru this weekend so that left some space. Michael turned 40 last year and he is remapping our Masters landscape as he is still very competitive event in the Open division!

Despite running at 6:20, I quickly lost sight of the lead group which was counting about a dozen runners I believe. The only chance to make the top 10 podium this year was going to be though patience and drops of a few of these front runners. But, again, that wasn't my goal.

I clocked 19:48 for the first of 10 5-kilometer loops which was the perfect pace, right on track. Assuming a perfect pace, the record corresponds to 10 times 19'57". After this good warm-up, I was feeling better, even starting to get really good. And, I'd admit it, I'm still young at heart, so I was feeling excited to see I could run with ease at the target pace. So, guess what, I did push the pace a little and passed the two runners ahead of me, lowering down the average pace to 6:16 in the next 4 laps which I covered in 19:25, 19:30, 19:30 and 19:35 respectively. After putting a few minutes in the bank, I started the 6th lap by having strange sensations, getting my far sight blurry. Not really dizzy, but I was afraid that is what was coming next... For one thing, I wasn't drinking as much as I usually do. I took one more S!Caps, tried to drink more GU2O and water, and took another GU gel. Just to be safe as I was otherwise on my Vespa Power regimen. Maybe it was just the cold getting to my eyes...

I covered lap 6 in 19:43 which was still a good time but, with this episode, I eased up a little and finished lap 7 right on 20 minutes (20:00.6!). I kept pushing in lap 8 but it was a bit harder in the little/short uphills. I managed to clock a marathon in 2:47 but I was definitely slowing down with 20:29 for that 8th lap. The record was still at reach if I could hold the 20 min/lap pace, but the doubt started filling my mind and, of course, my legs were lacking their early race freshness...

I ran the 9th lap in 21:29 which means that I was now at 2:59:33, "just" 20 minutes off the record for the last 5K. I started the lap believing it was doable but unable to really get back to my initial pace and I lost hope with 2.5 miles to go. My ultimate lap ended up way over 20 minutes alas, 21:42 to be exact, therefore 1:42 off the record. So long for this big birthday gift but my time was still good for 7th overall and first Masters this year (special thanks to Michael Wardian for racing in Peru this weekend...! ;-). It's Sunday night and the results are already on line, thanks to the chip timing.

I rushed inside the tent to avoid getting cold after such an effort and quickly changed. I did wear 2 long sleeves plus a wind-breaking jacket and didn't realize how much I had sweat during these 3 hours, my tops were trenched, oops! No wonder why I felt dizzy in lap 6, I'm glad I thought of doubling on sodium at that time. There was nothing hot to drink in the tent, just a cold Pepsi and piece of sandwich so, after the award ceremonies, congratulating a few of the top finishers and thanking Carl, the Race Director, I walked back to the car and drove to the Hilton for a nice hot shower. By that time, it was snowing, I'm so glad that the the snow started just as I was finishing...
It kept snowing pretty hard all afternoon, so much that I had 3 inches of fresh snow to scrap off my car to drive to the Marriott for a dinner with a few other champions, another nice birthday present! ;-)
From the right, next to me: Roy Pirrung had won his M65-69 age group, earning him his 82nd National title!! This was his 1,000th race, including 998 finishes. Roy is a legend in our sport and made it into the Masters Ultra  Running Hall of Fame. Next to him is Emily Harrison who won the race last year but had a bad day today so "only" placed 2nd. Ian Torrence has won many ultra trails and, despite suffering from the cold too, improved his time from last year. He also won the M40-45 age group. I met Brian Teason at Desert Solstice, we compete in the same age group. Next to Brian is Joseph Gray who ran professionally and is on Team USA. Joe had GI issues during the race which did cost him the podium this year. He still managed to finish in 3:07. As for Kevin Grabowski, I also met him at the Desert Solstice invitational in December. Kevin came in 9th overall, winning his M45-49 age group. Quite some speed around the table, and many running and racing stories for a lively post-race debrief.

Bill also stopped by to share his own account of the race. Unfortunately, he missed the M80-85 American record by mere 6 seconds out of 5.5 hours, so so close! He felt on an icy section earlier in the race, then collapsed at the finish line, which led the organizers to call an ambulance. Fortunately, Bill was fine, there is really no age to push the limits...

I didn't stop at the aid stations but I still want to thank the volunteers who stayed up in the cold, at the stations or on the course. I bet they had to "break the ice" forming in the cups of water... By the way, this weather makes me appreciate even more both where I live, as well as the hard work that runners in the North East have to put into training in such conditions. Kudos guys and gals!

I look forward to coming back but I would also like to find a race which isn't as risky, weather wise, to give the record another shot. Well, until our local Rich Hanna gives it a short himself as he would surely destroy it (Rich ran a 3:13 at Jed Smith last year, he was 49 and 6 months...).

In the meantime, I'll get back on the trail for Way Too Cool 50K. Yes, I know, this is crazy, it's in 6 days... Well, I have 6 days to taper then, with business meetings in New York and Oklahoma City, perfect excuse to want to race again next weekend to keep a balanced life! ;-)

It was my 50th 50K race out of 109 ultra races, Way Too Cool 2006 being my first one. It feels strange to think that I only ran 22 marathons in 17 years, even not that many 10Ks (45). What a ground covered in 9 years, so many new friendships and remote places explored, so many opportunities to keep pushing my own limits... And what a rewarding and meaningful addition to my life, along with family and work. So excited to see what the coming years and decades have in store to keep living a full life!

With these ramblings, it's time to go to bed, the best way to recover after such an effort. Have a great week all, Run Happy!

PS: a few snapshots from the award ceremony.

Overall winner, Zachary Omelas, 23, from Ann Arbor, MI, who took home an extra $1,000 for improving the course record by 75 seconds with a blazing 2:52:16! Quite a feat in these conditions!
 2nd place Tyler Andrews, 24, from Arlington VA.
 3rd place Kory Cool, 27, from Manhattan, KS.
 4th place Joseph Gray, 31, from Colorado Springs, CO.
 5th place Peter Maksimon (nor Adam Hewey! ;-), 36, Manitou Springs, CO.
 6th place Scott Traer, 33, from Wobum, MA.
 Oh, yes, that's me in 7th and 1st Masters! ;-)
 With Kevin Grabowski, 9th overall.
 #1, 4 and 5:
 Overall female winner, and 8th overall (I didn't get chicked this time! ;-): Sarah Bard, 30, from Somerville, MA.

 2nd female, Emily Harrison, 29, from Flagstaff, AZ.

In 3rd, ultra stud Keila Merino, 33, from New York, NY. Keila completed not only the Ultra Grand Slam last year (4 major 100-miles: Western States, Leadville, Hardrock , Wastach) but also the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc in Europe. This year, she set another amazing challenge, run from Los Angeles, CA to... Long Island, NY. Wishing her very special wishes as she runs in Brooks!

And, 4th overall, 19-year old (!) and local runner, Lauren Dorsky:

In 2006 Way Too Cool was my first 50K and ultra race. I did this race every year since so that's the event I ran the most out of 110 ultras. Although I wasn't blogging yet in 2006, I started a year later so you've heard a lot from me on this event (see all my WTC race reports). What can I add then? Well, between the weather and trail conditions, and how the (ultra) stars get aligned or not, every race is different. In the context of Way Too Cool, even the course changed several times over the 26 editions. Then there is the potential change in race management and directing, this last point being very meaningful as Julie Fingar's NorCalUltras made this race the largest trail 50K in North America with 1,200 entrants! I wasn't born to ultra running back then but I bet that Tim Twietmeyer saw a lot of change through the 24 participations he has had at WTC since 1990!

Another big parameter or variable which influences an ultra is how fit, trained and rested you get into the race. Back in 2006 I was still listening to my best doctor, my sister Marie in France, who was telling me I shouldn't race more than 2 marathons a year. Time has changed and I significantly pushed the limits on that aspect as you know if you regularly check my blog... ;-) I went from running a couple of ultras in 2006 to now running more than 35 ultras a year, including training runs, and up to 3 ultra races in a single month at the peak of the season in May and April. This year, I repeated the Caumsett-Way Too Cool back to back double (like Bill Dodson did this year, at 80), with a much stronger focus on the 50K Road Nationals than this second race of our regional Grand Prix (I still love the hardware... ;-).
Yet, I rarely toe a start line without an urge to run as fast as I can... Here I am with Bill (and ultra legend Roy Pirrung who was running his 1,000th race there) in the much colder Caumsett Park last week:
I spent the week leading to Way Too Cool on a business trip between New York and New Jersey then Oklahoma City. I left Newark (EWR) just after the weekend snow storm but to fly right into a major one... I was supposed to connect through Chicago (ORD) but, after 3 changes of planes and gates at EWR (so long for a restful tapering... ;-), I was sent to Houston (IAH). That flight was late so I missed the connection but was put on another flight to OKC which United created since they had a plane ready to leave for DC where the airport (IAD) was shut down. Let's say that was a good experience and taste of what a real winter is since we have been missing one for the past 4 years on the West Coast. I arrived at SFO as scheduled on Friday morning to hop on my car and drive to Sacramento where I worked for a few hours at our local office before driving up to Auburn to pick my bib. With 1,200 participants, it helps to have Thursday and Friday afternoons as options to avoid the rush on race morning. Thanks to that, I was impressed to see how smooth the race day pick-up was on Saturday morning.

Another kudo to Julie and her team for such a professional race management, all that with a smile! Julie is so into her element when directing that she appears way more relaxed despite the scale of such a race, than when she runs an ultra herself... ;-)

While all these business trips are rather tiring, I had a relaxing evening with my roommate and teammate, Marc Laveson. Marc has had issues with his racing last year and, after multiple tests and doctor visits, it was determined that his blood protein level is too low. Although an explanation/cause hasn't been found yet, he appreciates knowing the effect. After dining at Pete's at the corner of Foresthill Road (I only wished their pasta portion was 3 times larger...), we managed to get a good 8-hour sleep! I was up since 3 am Pacific, so really looking forward to catching up with that sleep. We left the hotel at 5:35 am and, no, we weren't the first ones to get to the Cool Fire Station, but still got parking spots close to the start line (later, there were cars parked a mile away from the start!). All that contributed to a relaxed pre-race preparation, I even managed to work for an hour on my next consulting gig!
We had quite a contingent representing our QuickSilver running club this weekend, 25 runners! Not all of them made it to the frog for pre-race group picture, but still a few, here we are:
This race became so competitive over the past years, it attracts a bunch of super fast runners who are giving ultra rail racing a try. It's not that there is even money to make but Way Too Cool has become a benchmark, a way for some to show their competition how strong they already are, that early in the season. For many others, though, Way Too Cool is their first ultra (I think more than 500 this year!), and for other veterans, this is more of a kick off of the season. With so much disparity, it's good that Julie groups runners into two starting waves, and that the first mile is on a paved road so the pack can stretch before getting on the single track trail. Thanks to a 6:00-minute first mile (oops!), I could still manage to see the 4 lead runners when they got on the single track but that was the extent that I'd see from them today. I was probably in 30th position by then and that was really going fast. I could now even keep up with 2 other runners of my age group, Rich Hanna (50) and Brian Pilcher (58), both notoriously faster than me anyway. Flying at 6 min/mile pace, and feeling chased... (Photo credit: Kyria Wilson)
I finished the initial loop (~8 miles) with the second and third women, Stephanie Howe and YiOu Wang. (Photo credit: NorCalUltras)
I didn't know Stephanie but I had "battled" YiOu when she won Skyline 50K last August and I knew she was really fast. Stephanie was leading our sprint down to Highway 49, but YiOu seemed even more agile and at ease in the rocky section. (Photo credit: Inside Trail)

After 7 min/mile at mile 8, our average pace was now decreasing as we pushed on the long stretch along the American River. YiOu actually left us in the dust and Stephanie stayed beyond me. Last year, I was feeling well in that section too and regretted pushing too soon, I was really not sure if it would work better this year but I decided to keep going on and I was still on a 7 min/mile pace by mile 15 at Maine Bar. I actually passed Victor (Ballesteros) just before the climb and we joked about the crazy fast pace.

Around mile 16 I caught up with Karl (Schnaitter). With the steep climb to mile 19, our average pace was now down to 7:15, still a fast one. When I passed Karl around mile 20, before the ALT (Auburn Lake Trail) aid station, Karl ask me if I was indeed on a PR pace. To which I replied that the course had changed so much over the years, I wasn't sure. And, indeed, I knew I had broken 4 hours a couple of times, but I didn't even know what was my PR at this event.

Anyway, ALT was my first stop at an aid station, to refill my GU2O bottle, and Karl and Stephanie passed me then. It took me at least 2 miles to catch-up with Karl, and Stephanie was nowhere to be seen, so I knew I was losing some steam. Karl and I managed to trot most of Goat Hill's wall, just walking in the last switch back. We were at the marathon mark in 3:15 and I was thinking that the lead runners might have already finished by then. On our way back to the creek, we passed teammate Marc (Laveson) who was cramping badly but was still in good spirit to at least finish.

I wasn't in the mood to push more than just trying to keep up with Karl at that time. Without stopping at the last aid station, Hwy 49 Crossing, we passed a few runners in the last hill, including YiOu who was now cramping too. I crossed the finish line in 3:50:42.

The weather and trail conditions were exceptional, definitely the year to have an outstanding experience and PR. Which leads me back to the title, "So fast, yet so slow..." Did I PR myself? Actually, not, but I was darn close, 17 seconds exactly!
And that was in 2013, with perfect Spring conditions too and a dry course which allowed Max King to set an amazing 3:08 course record then. Well, defying my belief that Max's record couldn't be improved, Patrick Smyth, 28, of Salt Lake City, UT, proved me wrong: he won in a blazing time of 3:04:48, WOW! If the course was effectively 50K (it is close to 1 mile shorter actually), this would be a sub 6-minute average pace! How embarrassing, that made my great performance a poor 80% for UltraSignup, yikes! I also was "slow" enough to get chicked twice: Megan Roche (24, Sunnyvale) was 10th overall and won the Women division in a very impressive 3:41:56. Stephanie (Howe) took 2nd in 3:47:14 and YiOu 3rd, 26 seconds behind me. And it it was not enough, I didn't even win my age group: at 50, Rich Hanna finished 9th overall, 1st Masters, in 3:41:40. Our previous M50-59 age group record was 4:04, he destroyed it! Brian Pilcher was shooting for 3:38 himself but dropped at mile 9 on a hamstring issue. So, yes I was fast, but still quite slow compared to the lead folks: I placed 21st overall, 19th Men and 2nd M50-59. The problem with Way Too Cool is that the level keeps rising! It's not good to get older...

Yet, I was very pleased with my run: still strong despite racing hard 6 days before, no cramp, almost no walking and even a huge smile at the end, something I haven't experienced often at this race (thank you Jena for the picture!). And my Brooks PureGrit worked perfectly on these soft trails.
On our team, Stephen Wassather, who works and trains with many of the fast dudes on Mt Tamalpais, finished in 3:48, 15th overall. I'm super happy for him and it's good for the team that we have runners faster than me! ;-) With courage and determination, Marc finished in 35th, just above 4 hours. Like me in 2013 when I had to rush for a red eye to Mexico, he had an evening flight to Hong Kong, way to live an ultra life!

Huge kudos again to Julie, her crew and army of volunteers for such a flawless organization (well, I didn't experience what it was to go through aid stations after 1,000 other runners...). It's hard to feed 1,200 hungry ultra runners but the small sandwich and the traditional cup cake were enough for me to drive back home. I stayed for an hour to connect with a few, but I admit that, after being away for a week, I was also eager to get back home for 36 hours before my next business trip to Columbus, OH, this Monday. I still managed to get an amazing treatment on my legs from the Monsters of Massage, so good that I was able to run 14 miles at 7:28 min/mile on Sunday, and 9 miles before my flight this Monday morning. Not even recovery runs, I'm back to training already! ;-) But 4 weeks before my next race (American River 50-mile), that looks like a huge break and vacation! Just need to keep training smart and stay healthy. Just...

Wishing you all to stay healthy as well!


PS: I did wear a big 89 in my back in memory and to honor Steve Avilla, his family and his trail running friends. Steve was supposed to run Way Too Cool this year, as his first ultra, but tragically passed away a week before while running on the trails (from a heart situation which he didn't know). As the bib was saying, Run In Peace, Steve...

I started running ultras in 2006 (Way Too Cool 50K in March) and found out about our local MUT Grand Prix later that year. I got hooked to it and that provided me with many racing and training goals. In other words, it has kept me on my toes for the past 9 years.

But, first, what are all these acronyms if you are not an insider? PUSATF stands for our Pacific Association (North California and Nevada) of USA (that one is easy...) Track and Field organization (what is FFA or Federation Francaise d'Athlétisme in France). And MUT stands for Mountain and Ultra Trail. There is actually some debate about the "and" in the acronym, that is if every race in our MUT Grand Prix should be an ultra, or if we should include shorter trail distances too. Like not all ultra races have to be mountain runs (we do ultra marathons on flat roads too, or even on the track). For now, our Grand Prix included 17 ultra events in 2014 and I competed in 13 of them (finished 12, 1 in the M40-49 age group and 11 in my new M50-59 one). As I said, I'm hooked...

The great thing with our Grand Prix is that it also includes team competitions. In our Grand Prix, the top 3 runners of each team score and we have 4 team flavors: Men, Women, Mixed and Overall. It certainly helps making our sport less of an individual one and add a great social component to it.

One more acronym I used in the title: LDR for Long Distance Running. This one is interesting because the Long aspect is quite subjective: it starts with a few miles with Cross-Country (or XC) and as basically no limit on the ultra running side although we don't have 200-milers in the schedule yet and it's really hard to run more than 175 miles in 24 hours. LDR basically groups events which happen outside of a stadium, what we call "hors stade" in France. From Cross-Country on trails (rarely muddy in California though especially these past dried years), to Short Road events (e.g. 5 or 10K), Long Road ones (10-mile, half marathon, marathon) then MUT.

Last year I only ran the Championship in the Cross-Country category and placed 2nd in my age group, behind Rich Hanna. Great velocity test on the 10K distance, and on the course which is going to be used for the 2015 Cross Country National Club Championships in Golden Gate Park this December. Focusing on the MUT Grand Prix and a few Nationals (50K Road and 24-hour), I didn't make room to run any of the Road Grand Prix.

Our QuickSilver Running Club was hosting the yearly award banquet this year in Los Gatos.
With our President busy with a tennis competition in Sacramento this weekend, our Team Captain, Loren Lewis kicked-off the event.
Christine Kennedy was this year's guest speaker. Christine is originally from Ireland but now represents the US in competitions around the world. With a PB of 2:35 on the marathon, she has set many Masters record on every distance from 5K up to the marathon. She just turned 60 and her main goal this year is to be the first 60-year old woman to run a marathon under 3 hours. She plan on doing this in October, a few months after becoming a grandmother! ;-)
Here are a few tips she shared while being interviewed by our Men's LDR Chair, Tom Bernhard:

• Be open to change. Change in your racing. Change in your training. And even leveraging new technologies such as compression boots, cryotherapy or our local NASA Ames Vasper facility. 
• Set a standard for yourself. Raise the bar, don't just "run your age." If you moved up to a new age group, keep racing the younger folks (hmm, sounds familiar... ;-). For instance, Christine doesn't run as "a 60-year old woman" but as a Master athlete.
• Rely on a coach. Rely on someone else for nutrition and stretching guidance, and training plans, so you can remain focused on the competition. 
• Embrace each competition. When asked which distance or event she prefers, Christine says that she likes every competition. From sprinting men on shorter distances, to the challenge of keeping up with the elite on the marathon. You have to live in the moment and get excited by such competition.
• Pay attention to nutrition. Christine still carbo load before a marathon race, but not much otherwise. She would skip bagels, and stay away of pastries, desserts and, of course, junk food.
• Sleep a lot. Christine takes sleep very seriously, between 8 to 10 hours a night (yikes, I need to change job... ;-). Especially to recover after a big competition or work out. If you don't sleep enough, better skip a work out.
• Run with a club. There is amazing value in getting support from club mates. Support, social ties, emulation, motivation.

 A few of the happy winners of the Yoga lessons (thank you, 98point6yoga.com !)





Special thanks to our own Pacific Association athlete Scott Dunlap for his support and plug to the Injinji.com toe socks:

It is almost the end of the first quarter of 2015, we already are out of the winter season --not that we've seen any of a winter in California unfortunately...-- it feels kind of late to talk about yearly resolutions on March 29, doesn't it...? Well, you know me, you know I haven't procrastinated that long to lay out my ultra running calendar! As a matter of fact, as you were able to see on this blog or FaceBook, I had already 4 important races, the first two of our Grand Prix (Jed Smith and Way Too Cool) and 2 Nationals (Rocky Racoon and Caumsett Park).

Blogging on a weekly basis, I was waiting for a week without a major event, either a race or a fat ass. I had planned on sharing my plans (!) last week then but, injured, I wasn't in the mood. Some may have noticed that I was walking funny and limping at our PAUSATF award banquet. I could barely walk indeed that morning, with a sharp pain in my left heel which started after a training run in freezing conditions in Columbus, 3 weeks ago, a few days after Way Too Cool.

I'm still not sure what exactly this is, I assume it's an inflammation. The closest I could self-diagnose on the web is a peroneal tendonitis. I've been on the road for 5 weeks in a row (Vegas, New York, Oklahoma City, and 3 round trips to Columbus, OH through Chicago), not ideal conditions to properly taking care of my heel. I ran 6 miles this Friday and, although it was ok during the run, the sharp pain fired again a few hours later, confirming the hypothesis of the inflammation.

With that, I spent a few hours at the gym, either at the hotels, or at my office on weekends. Spinning and stair master, while watching TV for a change. Hundreds of calories burned, good leg work, but no miles in the running log.


Not blogging last week also freed up some time to read about others, in particular those who are also struggling with injury, for instance:

1. Much more serious issues encountered by Andy Wilkins-Jones which he discusses on iRunFar
2. Jez Bragg's training struggles
3. Jon Olsen's ramping up after months of injury preventing him to even walk normally

American River, a long history for me of ups and downs. I toed the start every year since 2008 so this year was my 8th. In 2008, I had one of these major exercise-induced asthma crisis and I had to walk more than 30 miles, making it a painful crawl, yet finishing just under 9 hours. The following year, same thing, unable to breath by mile 16, I stopped (DNF) at Beal's Point just after the marathon mark. Then I finally broke 7 hours in 2010, 6:47:53 in 2011, 7:55 in 2012 with some asthma again, 6:47:39 in 2013 and 6:51:33 last year on the new course.

For those not following my weekly posts, I haven't been running for the past 3 weeks, suffering from a painful inflammation on the outside of my left heel after a run in the cold in Columbus a couple of days after Way Too Cool. With that, I was quite nervous about this race, wondering how the heel would behave on such a long and delicate trail. Now, the entertaining emcee on the start line recounted a mental advice shared by Matt Fitzgerald at the pre-race pasta party, to replace nervous with the word excited: so, here I was, I was really excited to see if I could indeed race this Saturday...!

Speaking of excitement, the race was so professionally organized by Julie Fingar and her NorCal Ultras crew that we had the privilege to witness a full lunar eclipse right before the start.

The timing was perfect, as it was the shortest eclipse of the 21st century, some moonlight even came back right after the start to make up for the 20 minutes of darkness following the 6 am start. Knowing that I wouldn't see Agnès before Beal's Point, I decided to take the risk of running in the dark without a headlamp, albeit with some hesitation.
It was so dark at the start that Agnès had a hard time capturing much of the action with her camera. Chikara (Omine), Karl Schnaitter and a few other youngsters took off and, still focusing on warming my heel up, I was happy not to engage in a brutal pace and hunt right off the start.
I tied along with a runner carrying a handheld light, I think it was Cody Logan (bib 409, 20, from Bakersfield). The first mile is on the park road so isn't a problem but the next 2 miles are the ones for which a light can help indeed so I thanked him once we got on the first levee. The moon was magnificent, now back to a full orange color and the sun was close to making its appearance.

After these 2 miles of trails in the dark, my GPS was indicating 7:30 min/mile. Apart for some roller coaster-type of road before Folsom Point, the first 12 miles basically have us going down the river, leading to quite a few fast miles on the smooth bike path. By then, my average pace was down to 6:55 min/mile. I was convinced that this was similar to my pace of last year but, re-reading my 2014 post, it was actually 7:12 last year, oops! At least my left heel wasn't complaining, so I was really excited to be running fast again!

By mile 12, something really strange happened, I started feeling cramps in both my calves, yikes! 38 miles to go, that wasn't looking good. I doubled my S!Caps intake at the end of the second hour (2 caps at the top of the hour instead of one in such vernal conditions) and grabbed a few pieces of banana at the next aid station. I kept the same rhythm and stride and was excited (again...! ;-) to see that I just had a 1:50 gap behind Karl and 2 other runners by mile 15 (Hazel Bluffs).

I stopped for a minute to refill my Gu2O bottle at Main Bar (mile 17) and, the cramps worsened as I left the station. At this point, I decided that it was more than time to slow down a little before all this turn to a carnage and prevent me from finishing. And I must say that I'm very please with the way I handled that this time as I'm usually pretty bad at slowing down slowly, that it just enough to keep a reasonable pace without bonking and walking.

I got to Beal's Point after 2:42 of running (mile 24) and took some Coke and banana to keep addressing the cramp issue. Agnès had made it to the aid station just in time to take a picture as I was leaving.
No runner to be seen in front of me on the levee, nor behind either. After the levee, it was cool to run and race with a group of kids training on the trails near the Cavitt Junior High School of Granite Bay. Despite my slower pace, I was stunned that I was catching up with some of them after 25 miles of running, and 25 more to go! How... exciting! After this episode, the solitary run resumed and I was glad to see Agnès again at Granite Bay (mile 29). By then, I had the cramps almost under control thanks to a shorter stride and was glad that I didn't have to walk at all.


I did a very short stop at this aid station, still having some fluid in both my Gu2O and water bottles. Shortly after, nature called right at the beginning of "poison oak territory", not the best place to stop in the bushes, but that had to do. My average pace was now down to 7:27 but at least I was moving and there was still no one to be seen behind. It was time to get into the section I most hate among all the trails I've run and raced on, and there are actually very few of them: the infamous "feet grinder..." The views are certainly wonderful and there isn't much elevation gain overall as we follow the ridge of Folsom Lake, but, except for the new 2-mile loop at Twin Rocks, it's hard to keep a steady pace. After a few miles of painfully hoping over slippery dusty boulders, I was completely out of fluids and, at every turn, was hoping to get to the next aid station, which I believed to be Buzzard's Cove like all the other editions I've ran. But this remote aid station wasn't to be found and I finally reached Horseshoe Bar at mile 38, so glad to finally find some water, having ran on empty for a few exposed miles. My fault for having missed this big logistical change, but I don't think this was advertised enough, both on the web, numerous emails and even at Granite Bay. Knowing there was 8+ miles without an aid station, in particular in this tough section, I would most certainly have filled up my bottles before leaving Granite Bay. And I still wonder how the slower runners fare with such a stretch...

Of course, this is an opportunity to remind us how the original ultra runners raced 40 years ago without all the support we now get and I'm so thankful for getting ice at aid stations in particular. The stop at Horseshoe Bar was more than needed and, with cramps still nagging, I tried to drink as much as possible while running to make up for the earlier dehydration. The rest was fine: using Vespa, I just took one GU every hour, it's amazing how this works!

It was great to see Agnès again at Rattlesnake Bar. Since it was only 3 miles after Horseshoe, my stop was much shorter. At this station, Agnès enjoyed catching up with Greg Soderlund, Garry Towle and Rich Hanna and seeing the 4 runners ahead of me (I had no idea and didn't even dare to ask in which place I was, more concerned about just finishing today).

Respectively, Chikara, Bradford Avilla, Karl, Brian Miller and Greg:




At the top of the wall to exit Rattlesnake, my legs stiffened so badly that I couldn't even walk. I had just taken my 2 S!Caps but decided to even double that. I wasn't feeling so good about that, knowing about the potential risks of electrolyte imbalance and renal failure, but I wasn't going to just drop at mile 41 this way either... I resumed running with most of my legs muscles cramping, even my feet were cramping now, it was pathetic. Thanks to the drinking and the S!Caps, I was able to keep moving again and decided to run, or jog or shuffle until I get passed by someone. Actually, thinking of Matt Fitzgerald's advice, I thought this was too negative of a thought so I changed my motivation to let's keep running so nobody passes me, hoping that others were struggling as I was behind (sorry folks... ;-).

I took more ice at the helpful and very well stocked Dowdin's Post aid station, as well as a cup of Coke, and thanked the volunteer who was manning the whole station all by herself! Keeping moving got me to the bottom of the Dam Hill without being passed and right on 6 hours and 30 minutes of racing. At this point, although my legs were hurting so much, I thought I might well try to hold my spot and even attempt to break 7 hours. With 3 miles to go, that meant 10 minutes per mile, for three uphill miles... Unfortunately, I reached the mile 48 sign after 12 minutes, it wasn't going to be a sub-7 AR this year... But I kept going, and running and eventually ran the next mile in 10 minutes with a very cool "no stop iced water refill" at the Last Gasp aid station (thank you guys!). I climbed the last mile with determination but not trying to kill myself and eventually crossed the finish line in 7:03:53 and, indeed, 5th place.

Not a great time but good enough for first Masters (Ray Sanchez won the M40-49 age group finishing in 6th, less than 5 minutes behind me) and winning my age group of course.
Like often at this race, I enjoyed taking some rest at the finish line...
The second in our M50-59 age group was actually the local legend, Tim Twietmeyer, 56, who was celebrating his 35 consecutive AR finish, wearing the very appropriate bib #35 and being paced by one of his sons, and an ultra runner himself, Austin.
35 consecutive finishes out of 36 participations (Tim was till in college that first year), this is an amazing example of sustainable running, what a strike!! (Gary Wang had run his 20th consecutive AR last year and, per his Facebook message, was glad to sleep in this first Saturday of April, for a change... ;-).

Chikara had won the race in 6:13:39, setting a new course record for this new course. Chikara has won many races but I don't think he got too many nice flower bouquets like this one though! ;-)

Karl ran 4 minutes slower than last year and took 3rd place again.

Second place was Bradford Avilla, 19, who was running his first ultra. A super promising performance and debut with 6:31:41.
And the woman race was won this year by Jennifer Benna:

So, how did I feel about all this. While I felt great about this honorable place, more importantly, I was really happy that my heel seemed ok, at least that it had not bothered me during the run. Now, I didn't want to declare victory too fast because, after running 38 miles with cramps, I had so many pain points to process, it could be that the heel issue was only hiding. I wanted to see how my legs and joints were going to feel when getting cold.

First, I had to work on my muscles to get as many toxins as possible and as quickly as possible: stretching the calves, then getting Ve Loyce's super massage (Monsters of Massage).

After that, I was already feeling better when walking and even better after trying Karyn Hoffman's RecoveryPump compression boots:

Very nice treatment before our 2.5-hour ride home (versus 4.5 hours in Friday's traffic...) and an evening at Greg's high school to see an amazing representation of Cabaret. Another long and rich day...

This Sunday, stairs are still painful, but not as bad as it could have been after so much cramping so I'm thankful to Ve Loyce and Karin for the extra recovery care which gives me a chance to line up and perform at the 100K Road Nationals in... a week!

Now, I have to admit that I put so much on my right leg to try to protect my left ankle that the outside of my right knee was quite sore and painful after the finish, and still this Sunday. That leg took its toll in the feet grinder section especially, when I was hoping over rocks or trying to avoid poison oak branches, all that while keeping the cramps under control, and I think I might have twisted my knee before Rattlesnake. At least I didn't fall, and I was very pleased with the mental strength I had which allowed me to keep moving all the way. I hope the knee recovers on time to bear 100 kilometers of asphalt this Saturday, and isn't the start of a new nagging injury... But, again, I'm at least grateful that the heel issue seems to have been taken care of with the last three weeks of non running and that the under training was worth it.

Big and many thanks to Race Director Julie, her NorCal Ultras crew and army of 300 volunteers for allowing to run this legendary race year after year, and introducing ultra trail running to so many new comers. Amazing logistic to ensure that we do what we love in a safe way. 629 finishers out of 760 or so registered runners, that's an amazing finisher rate!

And special thanks to Agnès for driving, crewing, socializing, taking picture and waiting for me at this very special race!


PS: no, Agnès, nice catch, but Chikara didn't run 50 miles with a funny balloon striped to his back pack! ;-)

It's barely the second quarter and already my 3rd Championship and 6th ultra race this year, what a start! I know I'm playing with the fire but what can I say, that ultra running is a big experiment indeed... As a matter of fact, I'm not the only one to race and run intensely, Michael Wardian race 3 times more than me last year and much much faster! Ian Torrence actually interview us as part of a story he published last week on iRunFar.com about ultra racing and recovery. This is a great piece although it may appear that we all figured it out, which is certainly not the case at least for me. A lot of work and guts but also a lot of guessing to play at the limit without breaking the ceiling...

Back to the title, this was a new event for me. I had heard about MadCity 100K a couple of years ago and was intrigued by such a city weird enough to call itself... mad! As I was working on the logistic and planning for 2015, I learned that this was Madison in Wisconsin. I must admit that, not being born in the US, I'm still quite far behind with my US geography, although I have probably visited more places, cities and states in the US than most average American. Anyway, I had also heard about amazing performance ran on this course so I was excited to see how fast I could run 100K on a course flatter than our local Ruth Anderson loop at Lake Merced in San Francisco (the race is next week!).

After 110 ultra races since 2006, my goals have evolved:

1. Finish? Indeed, there was a time where just finishing was the main goal but not anymore. At some point, I even made a point of not DNF'ing, like when I walked 2/3 of the course at American River 2008 with severe exercise-induced asthma, but, although I still don't like their bitterness, I learned to accept DNFs since then (6 so far). So, no, I didn't come to MadCity just to finish.
2. Winning a national title? That was really cool when I got my first one last year (Caumsett 2014) but I learned since then that many of these events aren't so well attended by the elite so it's not much of a benchmark, especially with the many 5-year age groups above 40.
3. Running a PR on that distance? 7 of the 10 100K I ran so far have been Miwok which is a very hilly course. My PR is 7:51:08 at Ruth Anderson which is a rolling course and I was pretty certain I could do better than that.
4. Winning the Master division? That was a surprise at the Caumsett 50K Championships last month but, no, that wasn't a goal, I knew Kevin Grabowski, a local runner whom I met at Desert Solstice in December, would take care of that (he is 46).

 Lake Wingra
Rear view toward the final mile (6)
 The end of Edgewood Drive (mile 0.5)
 First hill, up Woodrow Street
 Woodrow Street

 Turn from Monroe Street into Wingra Park (mile marker 1)
 Arbor Drive
 First aid station (water only)
 Shortcut back onto Monroe Street
 Monroe Street
 Nakoma Road
 Turn from Nakoma Road onto Manitou Way
 Manitou Way
 Along the Nakoma Golf
Manitoo Way

 Up Manitou Way, toward Seminole Hwy
 The top of Manitou Way
 The turn from Seminole Hwy onto Arboretum Drive
 Arboretum Drive

 Mile marker 3
 Yes, "Way to go!" says the balloon! ;-)

 The first downhill (mile 3)
 Another slight uphill from the Arboretum visitor center
 You can see as far as the Capitol between the trees
 Slightly up toward the aid station at mile 3.8
 Approaching the aid station
 The aid station!
 From here, it's all downhill, finally!
 Mile marker 4

 Oh wait, another slight uphill...!

 The turn before mile 5
 The mile 5 marker

 The flat last mile
 The bridge over Wingra Creek, before the last turn (left) to the finish

Since I started running ultras in 2006, that was my 9th consecutive participation to the Ruth Anderson ultras (2007-2015), a long ultra tradition per Stan Jensen's records on his informative run100.com website. This event is quite special in the sense that it has 3 distances to chose from, 50K, 50-mile and 100K, and you can do so during the race. The only trick though is that you can't revert to a shorter distance in case you kept going and not reach the next one. This brings a very interesting mental challenge which I must admit, I have struggled myself repeatedly. Subsequently, and for various reasons, I've run a variety of distances here, respectively 50M, 50K, 50K, 50M, 100K, 50M, 100K and 50M. In 2011, I even missed the start, still being on the tarmac in Phoenix, AZ with the whole family after a missed connection on Friday night, yet managed to finish the 100K that day! I titled my race report: DSL (Did Start Last)...! ;-)

By the way, the race is held in San Francisco, on a very scenic 4.5-mile around Lake Merced. The 100K option was the first one and has been offered since 1986 making it 29 years this year (the event didn't occur in 1999)! The 50-mile since 2001 and 50K since 2002.

This was also my 3rd of a back to back to back race series this month. I must say that was quite aggressive given the 3 events: American River 50-mile, MadCity 100K Road US Championships and Ruth Anderson. I decided to play safe and not go for 100K but "only" 50 miles today, and I now look forward to one (!) weekend without a race before another monster back to back to back in May with the grueling Miwok 100K and QuickSilver 100K, and my favorite race, Ohlone 50K.

What I didn't see coming though when I put together this ambitious race plan is that I would be traveling almost every week from February to June. This is exhausting and certainly tests my limits, beyond the ultra running ones. And that's I often talk about living an ultra life... This week I was in Ohio again. I actually didn't come back home last weekend as I was racing in Wisconsin. I saw Agnès for a few hours before she left this Sunday for Europe for a week, and I'll see her for a few hours next Sunday between two planes, another tiring sub 4-hour red eye to Chicago...

Anyway, with the race starting at 6:30 am, I was good for yet another early wake-up call at 3:30 am, mind you some Sunday rest. It was still quite dark when I got to Lake Merced and I wasn't even the first one. As a matter of fact, the time to chat with a few familiar participants, I barely had 10 minutes to prepare and I even had to come back to the car before the start because I had forgotten my sun glasses. In a typical San Francisco fashion, the sky was cloudy but last year it dissipated and turn to a very warm day. I was expecting the same although it didn't happen today, keeping the temperature ideal for a long run and avoiding sun burns.

Race Director, Rajeev Patel (along with co-RD Anil Rao), gave his colorful and humorist briefing. This year, that included a life-time award to RD Emeritus Steve Jaber who has volunteered hundreds of hours to this even and many other. And a "tired loopy" award to Barbara Elia, now 70, for countless participations, Rajeev mentioning about 190 laps of racing on this course for Barbara (below, in white).
We started at 6:30 am indeed and Chikara Omine and Enrique Henriquez took off at a sub 7 min/mile pace. I wasn't surprised for either of them, guessing Enrique would go after the 50K win again, but unsure about which distance Chikara was rushing to. I was in third and lost sight of Enrique first then Chikara in the second lap. I was trying hard to slow down but couldn't get my pace lower than 6:52 in the first two laps which I knew was too aggressive (I was aiming at 7 at most). At least, I was pleased to run at ease: no trace of the heel injury which got me to stop training for 3 weeks in March, no trace of the knee pain after American River, and not even any apparent fatigue from last week's 100K Nationals. I actually went for 9 miles on Thursday and I felt really good. With that, I had even formed the ambition to run a sub-6-hour 50-mile today...!

I clocked about 31:40 +/- a few seconds for each of the first 5 laps. In the 6th one, I did a quick pit spot (pit as in pee-t...) and Karl Schnaitter passed me. I stayed behind for the remainder of the lap but lost him in 7th lap as I was unfortunately slowing down. My average pace was now right on 7:00 min/mile and I couldn't even hold this. Getting close to the 50K mark, I was tempted to call it a day but first, my second goal was to at least improve the age group course record which I had missed by a few seconds last year, after a fail attempt at the 100K M50-54 American record, and not even knowing what the M50-59 50-mile course record was (6:21:28 by Joe Schieffer in 2002). Second, our team strategy was quite muddy this year, with very few participants, but, since I had committed on the 50-mile, I didn't want to take the risk of jeopardize our scoring.

It was really painful to get going... and slowing down. But, although I'm ashamed of the slower pace, I'm proud that I didn't walk a single time today. I thank the other runners who encouraged me on the way, returned a few encouragements as well, and kept moving.

2 miles before the end of my 10th lap, Chikara flew by me. In other words, he had lapped me and I thought he was sprinting to a blazing 5:32 or so 50-mile finish. To my surprise, he didn't turn around at the 50-mile mark and kept going for the 100K win instead. At least, since I had another lap to complete myself, that was better for my UltraSignup ranking, phew...! ;-)

It was a relief to be in the last lap and, although I couldn't really run faster, at least I was able to now stabilize the average pace at 7:24, at least that was what my Garmin GPS was showing. 7:30 min/mile was enough to get me the age group course record so I did check my watch quite a few times in that last lap. As I started the final out and back of the 50-mile, I see Karl coming back and letting me know that the 50-mile turn around was nowhere to be found. I replied that we had ran over it (the marking and 3 flags) 10 times already, so I knew where it was. Poor Karl ended up running up the hill to the old 50-mile finish, for probably 2 additional kilometers. Thanks to a comfortable lead though, that didn't prevent him from winning the 50-mile (I thought he'd go for 100K today), but, with this mistake, he missed breaking 6 hours (6:05:56). I took second in 6:14:12 and Brian Purcell, also from Excelsior, took 3rd in 6:25:42.
Excelsior's captain took 4th, rounding up another Excelsior team win.
I had time to change and see a few other runners passing through the finish aid station before seeing Chikara finish his 100K in a blazing 7:06! I believe this is the 3rd fastest time on this course (both Jon Olsen and Joe Binder both qualified for Team USA here). Unfortunately, this may not be enough to make it to the team this year as quite a few runners already qualified at the World championships last year with fastest time.

Far from the 32-year speedsters (Chikara and Karl), Bill Dodson, at 80, was again shooting for a M80-84 American record, this time for the 50-mile distance. Last week, he shattered 2.5 hours off the previous record for 100K. And, today, he shaved more than 3 hours of the 50-mile record! See these M80-84 records, I bet Bill has also an eye on the 67 hours (!!) for 100 miles!

Many thanks to Rajeev and Anil for putting up such a friendly event, and for volunteers extraordinaire, Dave Combs and Stan Jensen for the many hours keeping count and track of all our laps and times!


For our QuickSilver team, it wasn't what we used to score a few years ago, but we managed to get a mixed team on the 50K (Kat Powell who PR'ed, our Captain Loren Lewis who came one week after running Lake Sonoma to round a team up, Harris Goodman who took 3rd and Stephen Strauss who dropped after 8 miles with an injury), and a Men team on the 100K (Mark Tanaka, Charles Blakeney who joined our team yesterday, and Jim The Shuffler Magill). Here is Keith Lubliner who ran the 50-mile.
It was another wonderful ultra experience and I now look forward to returning to the soft trails after the 135 or so miles on asphalt of these 3 races this month! See you on the trails then!

Miwok 100K, an ultra tradition in the Bay Area, more exactly in Marin County, across the amazing Marin Headlands, just North of the Golden Gate. It was actually my 9th consecutive one and, now that demand far exceeds capacity for that popular race, just making into the lottery is a feat in itself. Race Director, Tia, sweetens the deal though, providing extra tickets to volunteers, which draws many expert ultra runners to man aid station, a great win-win for all, including the runners.

I flew back from Ohio again on Thursday night. In a pattern very familiar in a consultant's life, the outbound flight to Chicago was one hour late and, after a flight rebooking and a nearly-missed connection in ORD, I barely made it home by midnight, for an abbreviated night before a client call at 6 am. It was a set back because, with a start at 5 am for the race on Saturday, and a drive from the South Bay of 1 hour and 40 minutes, I knew I wouldn't sleep much on Friday night and wanted to make up that Thursday night for short nights during the week while I was at my client. Anyway, I went to bed at 7 pm on Friday and, strangely, woke up at 11:30 pm, thinking it was 1:30 am, the time I had set my alarm. I started preparing some breakfast before I realized my mistake and went back to bed for another hour and an half, oops...

My friend and teammate Pierre-Yves (Couteau) was kind enough to pick me on his way to the start, a great opportunity to catch-up. Traffic was so good that early in the morning that we made it to the race headquarters by 4 am to pick our bibs. Here is the QuickSilver Running Club's French Gang: Pierre-Yves, Frederic Garderes and I (missing Frédérique Garderes who wasn't running today):
It was pitch dark at 5am, there was no doubt we needed our headlamps for the start, in particular the first climb up to the Cardiac aid station. Tia's pre-race briefing was really short, basically reminding us about the detour on Bunker Road due to some construction on the bridge we were supposed to use. Here are two pictures from our QuickSilver Ultra Racing team Captain, Loren Lewis. The super bright headlamp in the middle is Ethan Veneklasen's. I'm on this right, talking to Mark Ritchman, an ex member of the Team USA of 100K, a few decades ago and still kicking my ass (sorry, I mean that in a good way... ;-) even now that he turned 60! (He almost catch me at the end of last year's race, phew!).
The second is funny because it shows me, in the center, as still checking my GPS while the front runners already took off! It had hard time locking enough satellites, I was hoping it would do it quickly in the run to get an accurate mileage.
With that missed start, I didn't exactly know where I ended in the lead pack, but, with 3 back to back ultras in March, and 3 back to back ones in May, I didn't want to push too much anyway, at least not too early in such a grueling and long race (100K is still quite a distance, especially with 11,000 feet of cumulative elevation and barely no flat section).

My Black Diamond headlamp disappointed me again, compared to some super bright ones I could see some other runners use. It was so dark though that any light was helpful and I managed to climb all the stairs without tripping. There were a few runners without a headlamp, the first 5 miles must have been quite challenging for them. There was a headlamp drop organized at the top of Cardiac but, with our aggressive pace, it was still way too dark for me to leave mine, and I'm glad that I kept it indeed for the long descent on Cardiac. I wasn't seeing the trail well enough though so I got passed by quite a few runners at this point. To make the matter worse, we were now running in the fog, and I cannot afford to take too many risks after my fall of 3 years ago when I broke my shoulder. One runner caught up with me and, very kindly, asked if I was ok after completely twisting my ankle in a hole, yikes. I've such flexible ankles that they resist to such treatment, yet I still worry it may not hold one time, especially at my age... ;-) Anyway, we chatted and I learned that Sam (Ritchie) used to live in SF but has moved to Boulder, CO. He had already run a 100-miler but that was his first 100K, and first Miwok of course. He said that he was aiming at finishing under 11 hours.

We ran together the nice and grassy Redwood Creek Trail then I pushed the pace to catch-up with all the runners who had passed me down on Cardiac. I love runnable hills and there are many on the Miwok course, a gold mine! I didn't keep a count but I see on UltraLive.net's live webcast that I was in 25th position and passed 11 runners in the switchbacks up to Middle Green Gulch. I was back in the race!

I passed another runner on the way down Tennessee Valley, Lance Brady, who was running his first ultra! Way to pick a challenging one for a start (I'm a big believer that it's much better to work up the scale, starting with 50K to learn the ultra trade, but that's just my opinion...). On the way up Marincello, I had 4 runners in sight, a group led by Ron Gutierrez. I raced Ron many time over the past 10 years, I will always remember when he passed me at Whiskeytown in 2007 a few miles before the the finish as I was still having the lead but was struggling. A very strong Masters. I closed most of the gap with this group but lost a few minutes filling my Gu2O bottle at the Bridgeview aid station (the Golden Gate bridge was mostly in the fog but we could see part of it). I finally passed three of these runners before the top of the next climb, Rodeo Valley Trail and ran the descent down to Tennessee Valley close to Ron and Jon Robinson. Ron left the station first and I caught up with him at the very top of Coastal, before the plunge into the seclusive Pirate's Cove. Given that Ron flew by me in the dark down Cardiac this morning, without a lamp, I was glad he took the lead in this descent. However, I was slightly faster down the stairs so passed him at the bottom of the cove and created a small gap on the next climb. He remained close behind me from the Muir Beach aid station to the bottom of Cardiac and I decided to attempt to run up all Cardiac in order to create a definitive gap.

While the climb is gradual and runnable, it was hard mentally as I was remembering what happened last year: because we ran the course in a different order last year, Cardiac was the last major climb and I had to walk most of it, that's when Mark Richtman almost caught me. But, this year, it was only half way (miles 32-35), so there was no point in walking, there was much more ahead... With that, I was quite proud to get to Cardiac with nobody in sight behind. A volunteer refilled my Gu2O bottle and Maggie Tides filled my water bottle with ice. I was right on track with my intake of Gu2O but way behind on the water side, not having drank a full bottle in 35 miles. Ice helped me taking more in the next miles. The scoop was that I was welcomed at the aid station by Gary Gellin, last year's winner and one of this year's favorites. He had dropped, his legs not feeling strong enough after his top-10 effort and performance at Lake Sonoma 3 weeks ago (the weekend I ran the 100K Road Nationals). He was kind enough to indicate me the way out of the aid station when I thought we were going down to Stinson Beach again. I must say that made my day because I was convinced the second loop would start from last year's start.

After the overcast part of the run in the South of Marin Headlands, and the brisk marine breeze, it was time to move to another ecosystem in this amazingly diverse biosphere that the Bay Area offers. The Coastal/Matt Davis trail was now bathe with sun and, at this point, I couldn't tell if my top was wet from the mist we were running in earlier this morning, or the sweat from all these climbs...

Despite running Miwok for the 9th time and these trails in many other occasions, in other races or training runs, I had forgotten how much climb there is on the rolling Matt Davis trail... I was excited to see the Car Wreck again but had forgotten how many nice small groves/bosquets we had to go through before that one. Steve Reagan had posted on the Miwok FaceBook page this great story from KQED, still quite an old enigma...
I checked behind several time but, with the many groves, it's hard to really know if someone is on your heels. I couldn't see Ron so I was hoping I had finally created a comfortable gap. Ahead, I could actually see a runner in red, that kept my motivation high, yet I couldn't really push harder and close the gap. I was quite please with my average pace which I had been able to maintain around 9:00 until the Cardiac climb (number not taking into account a slightly shorter mileage reported my GPS). I was at 9:16 after the climb and my stop at the aid station, and reached the Bolinas Ridge aid station with GPS indicating 9:18. Another stop to get more ice, struggle with my folding cup to take some Coke, pick a few pieces of banana and water melon, and off I was on the rolling ridge with a 9:22 which I was quite proud to maintain for the next 4 miles. Here is a great action shot, credit to Nate Dunn, as I approach Bolinas Ridge at mile 42 (I'm surprised to look so good on this picture, looking like I was hoping this big tree with ease, when I recall it was actually so hard to climb it without cramping...).
Over the years, we have run this section either at mid course (the old and original course when the race started at Rodeo Beach), or at the beginning of the race like last year, or not at all 2 years ago when the race was shorten to 60K because of a risk of fire. I had quite a few struggles in this section due to either fatigue, asthma or hypothermia (2009), so this, the Bolinas Ridge and out and back down to Randall, is my Miwok beast. Thankfully, my mental is getting better, year after year, and I was able to tame the beast this year! I even passed Mick Jurynec, the runner with the red top, in that section. At this point, I thought I might have made it in the top 5, cool (especially as I was wearing bib #5, thanks Tia! ;-).

Apart for the mandatory walk through the Tennessee Valley stables in the morning, and a few stairs when stuck in traffic in the first climb, I was super pleased to have not walked a step in the first 50 miles. About a mile before the plunge down to Randall, I crossed a couple but none of them were showing a bib so I thought they might have been training. Just after the turn, I saw Galen Burrell who was looking strong, running the climb. I figured out that I was about 3 miles behind and, while it was a big gap, I thought it wasn't too bad either. Chris Wehan was about a mile behind and that was the only runners I saw before it was my turn to get into the Randall aid station at the bottom of the 1.7-mile steep descent. I assumed that Chikara Omine had dropped too since he was in the initial lead. Maybe, like Gary, he was feeling the effect of this amazing 7:06 100K at Ruth Anderson 2 weeks ago (where I only ran the 50-mile).

My friend and aid station captain Chuck Wilson helped with my bottle refills and confirmed that the first runner didn't show a bib, so I was in 4th, not third. Still, really not bad at 49 miles into the race. No time to waste then and I was quickly back on the climb. To my disappointment, I was barely 0.1 mile on the climb when I saw Ron flying down and thought: "shoot, I'm going to have to run this beast and push all the way for the final 13 miles..." Ron was followed by Jon Robinson and Mick Jurynec, then Ray Sanchez and Mark Ritchman. When I saw Mark I was 0.9 mile from the aid station. Mark said "Where are all the others??!" which I assumed meant that he was surprised to see me in 4th (or even 3rd since we couldn't see the bib of the lead guy).

I ran the climb for slightly more than a mile, but admit some walking in the last 0.5 mile of it, to catch my breath and keep some reserve for the last half marathon. I experienced the first cramps in my inner quads on the ridge and that had me walk part of the hills. I doubled on the S!Caps and water and took my last GU out of the 6 I carried at the start (would I had remembered that this race was gel-free, I would have taken 8). A huge tanks to all the racers I crossed in this section who gave encouragements. It is such a boost to have so many of you, and the volunteers, even shouting my name!

The bad news on Bolinas Ridge was to see Chikara in the pack. After being 4th at mile 35, he got lost and made it back on course much later, in 56th place at Bolinas Ridge 1, what a bummer!

This time, on the way back, I did a very quick stop at the Bolinas Ridge aid station just to get my water bottle filled with ice for the remaining 7 miles. Running Coastal reverse was challenging because I was so sorry to run against the flow of runners, having them stepping aside to let the lead runners go through. 99% of them were so nice to stop, I only had one incident with a female runner who wouldn't slow down and I'm sorry I hit her back pack, or I'd rather say she hit me with her pack, when I realized she wasn't going to let me pass. For those not running, this trail is super narrow, with many sections washed out, overgrown with grass ("calf washing" is what came to mind this Saturday), and miles of cut across a steep hill making stepping aside of the trail challenging. Again, huge thanks to all of you who let me go through, even providing encouragements. I hope you heard the hundred or so "Thank you so much!" which I whispered in return. I can't imagine how hard this must be for you to do this while some of your are battling against the cut-offs for this very long day.

I was moving fine and couldn't see Ron behind so decided to cruise to the finish. At some point though, I had a doubt that I had missed the turn down to Stinson Beach and asked two runners if they had seen lead runners going through. As they didn't, I retrace my way back uphill and, this time, saw Ron coming in who, very kindly, confirmed I was on course and had to keep going. That gave me a burst of adrenaline and I sprinted the next 2 miles to that famous turn where a volunteer was posted and confirmed the finish was 1.6 miles away. I was so glad to be that close and thought I even had a shot at improving my time from last year which I though was 9:46 (it was 9:43 instead...). But that wasn't counting for the trickiness of this trail with numerous switchbacks, roots, rocks and irregular stairs, not to mention hikers to slalom through and, with the addition of some random cramping of my quads, it wasn't worth risking a bad fall, never mind the time. Besides, after seeing Ron prudently negotiating the descent into Pirate's Cove, I figured out he would back off too.

I did sprint the final yards for a 9:51 finish, 4th overall and 1st Masters. Ron arrived 5 minutes later and I thanked him for the great fight we have had all day.


I also thanked Gary for dropping, he would have easily won the Masters division would have he decided to take it easier, but I know he has much higher standards than that!

Ultra veterans and volunteers, Stan Jensen and Hollis Lenderking congratulated me, with Hollis still wondering how I keep pulling such back to back performances. And, yes, I'm in awe myself...! ;-) As a matter of fact, I feel so blessed to have found the right balance so far to enjoy so much sustainable ultra racing. I must say that it is very challenging  to find that balance between super hard word and playing with the fire at the limit of what the body and mind can do, to remain injury free. Hollis gave me the friendly advice "Take care of yourself, now..." to which I replied "oh, yes, before QuickSilver 100K in a week and another business trip in the meantime..." The joy of an ultra life...
Because of the lottery format, there were more of our Excelsior buddies on the side line, helping out, than on the course, for a change. But that should give them more tickets for last year's edition.

Benjamin Stern, 23, won the race in 8:50, lowering Garry's winning time of last year by 6 minutes. Galen Burrell took second in 8:58. Chris Wehan 3rd in 9:36. Mark Ritchman 8th in 10:10, destroying the M60-69 age group. He was followed my Sam who was all smile with a 10:12 for his first Miwok, you killed it Sam! In my age group, Kevin Rumon took 2nd, 12th overall, in 10:33.

Here are a few other pictures from the finish area.

 John Robinson
 Mick Jurynec

In the women race, my teammate Bree Lambert led for the first 45 miles but lost the lead and race to Laura Richard (10:54 finish). Bree took second in 11:09 followed by Julie Fingar in 11:42.

Vespa (Vespa Power drink) made my day again allowing me to focus on the running, not the eating. I took 2 pouches before the start, then 3 concentrate every 2.45 hours. With all the hills, I could have used 8 gels instead of 6 but, yet, I never bonked and ate about one banana total, 4 cups of Coke and a handful of pieces of water melon. Now, I have to admit that, given the fatigue and stress with my business travels, I gave it all and experienced a low 10 minutes after the finish. Some emotional drain but mostly physically and I was thankful that Agnès drove to the finish to help me change and drove us back home. We had to leave early because of other commitments, and we dropped one of the race photographers in San Francisco on our way back (Andrew de Castilho).
Regarding the course, I would say it's much harder to run it this way than last year's configuration. Again, at least for me, Randall is the beast and I'd rather be done with it early. The other major benefit of last year course is that we were crossing most of the pack on the roomy Bolinas Ridge fire road. Given the size of the field, this is really a key argument for everyone's safety as well as fairness for the back of the packers. It is similar to the great improvement Julie Fingar brought to the Way Too Cool course.

As I mentioned earlier, I want to highlight again the amazing ultra experience and expertise that the volunteers bring to the (aid station) table(s), something which is very valuable to us, runners. Big thank to you all!
And a final shout out to Tia and her crew for offering us such a unique event, blending tradition, passion for ultra running, professionalism yet friendly atmosphere, amazing views and challenging course, outstanding group of volunteers, considerations for ecology and sustainable development, support from sponsors, not to forget the fight to get the proper permits to race in such a pristine area!
Last but not least, like Ohlone in 2 weeks, I'm grateful of these occasions to remember the native Indian tribes that we, Bay Area residents, owe so much heritage from. Here is a mention of the Miwok people that Jim Ruppert posted on the race FaceBook page:

In 1579, Sir Francis Drake visited what is now Marin County, and remarked on the distance running skills of the native Miwok people: "...they are also exceeding swift in running, and of long continuance; ... they seldome goe, but for the most part runne"

Great way to celebrate this 20th anniversary and long live Miwok...!

First, I want to apologize especially to all the volunteers for not being able to return their smiles and admitting that I had a terrific race this Saturday. The fact of the matter is that I was really sad as Agnès had left in the morning for Annecy, France, to accompany her mother who is in critical conditions. Her mom is 85 and has suffered many strokes for the past 5 years, she didn't recognize Agnes this Sunday morning and a peaceful departure would be a deliverance for all yet it is hard to say good bye and that made me cry several times on the course, especially in the tough uphills where and when I was really wondering what I was running for and after. The last and only time I had cry during a race was when getting at Dam Overlook, I think during one of my Rio Del Lago runs, and a volunteer announced me that our wonderful Tom Kaisersatt had just passed away after fighting cancer for several years. Today, the sadness was to think Agnès could lose her mother on a Mothers' Day week, how inappropriate that would be. Anyway, with that, I'm already not a party guy when pushing hard in races, that got me completely down.

The day had started very early with a wake up call at 1:30 in order to get breakfast three hours before an insanely early 4:30 am start. Our Club's ultra feast used to include three distances: 50 miles, 50K and 30K but, following a change of qualification criteria for Western States, our Board decided last year to swap the 50-mile with a 100K in order to offer an alternative to the overbooked Miwok, the other local qualifying option. Of course, while we couldn't fill the race 3 years ago, that completely changed the outcome and our 100K filled in 17 minutes this year! Kudos to our Race Directors Rajeev Patel (who also directs the Ruth Anderson ultras) and John Brooks (the head of Pacific Coast Trail Runs). (Photo credit: Everitt Chock)
Now, with a Western States qualifier comes responsibility and the team designed a very challenging course, not much from a technical trail standpoint (just a few rocky sections), but the cumulative elevation, 13,000 feet, which tops Miwok's 11,000 feet! Another difference is that QuickSilver has much longer hills as well as much steeper walls so, if you are not a good climber and have to walk all the uphills, that surely makes for a long day. For this reason, the time limit is 17 hours (16 hours to qualify for Western), with a few tough cut-offs along the way.

The other challenge of QuickSilver is typically the heat as these trails above San Jose are very exposed. Well, oddly enough from a weather standpoint in the midst of this major drought, not this year. First, it rained on Thursday, providing just enough moisture to make the trails soft but not muddy and, more importantly, avoid the usual dust in this dry season. Second, there was an amazing layer of fog over the hills and it would not dissipate for the first 6 hours of the race, providing more moisture and a perfect cool temperature to avoid our running engines to overheat in the uphills. Perfect conditions for great performances this year.

Last year, I ran --and won-- the 50K so I didn't know much about the 100K course except that it shared a few trails with the previous 50-mile course. Looking at Chikara Omine and Paul Terranova's times from last year, I felt that I'd be very happy to approach 10 hours this year and the course must be indeed much harder than Miwok. Chikara is one of our local elites and has been on Team USA for the World 100K Road championship a few years ago. He was injured most of last year but he is really killing it this year, having won American River, then Ruth Anderson 100K with a blazing 7:06. Last week, he was in 4th at Miwok, before getting lost at the mid point, and that allowed me to place 4th myself, but I was really sorry for his fate. And I was sure he'd want to rebound this Saturday while defending his QuickSilver 100K title.

Paul Terranova is also an elite ultra runner who became a Masters last year. He won the Masters category at the 100-mile trail Nationals in January, and he is a super strong ultra trail runner. He placed 19th at the very competitive Lake Sonoma in April and flew again from Austin to race our Club race.

Completing the "seeded" top 3 was Jesse Haynes of South California, also used to podiums. With that, I didn't have an eye on the podium myself although the awards did look amazing this year. My goals, besides coping with the stress at work and at home, was (1) to see what I could still pull out a week after Miwok, (2) win my age group (M50-59) and (3) improve last year's M50-59 course record for an extra 10 points in the Grand Prix. Interestingly enough, apart from the "youngster" Chikara, the top of UltraSignup's list included more mature runners ( ;-) ), and a few over 50.
In my age group, I always consider Craig Steinmaus as a strong contender when I see his win at Skyline 50K in 2001 or 2nd place at Way Too Cool 50K in 2003 with a 3:35. While that was 10 years ago, he still pulled out a 4:02 at Way Too Cool this year.

As for our age group course record it was set last year by J Russel Gill from Charlottesville, VA, at 12:31:58.

Regarding breaking or approaching 10 hours, Chikara had won in 3:51:52 last year, Paul was second in 10:05, Karl Schnaitter 3rd in 10:49 and Ken was the last one to break 11 hours (10:54). Looking at these results made even breaking 11 hours a challenge all of a sudden...
As you can imagine, it was pitch dark when we started and headlamps were not just luxury but mandatory. We started with the first climb, Mine Heel then veering left on the steeper English Camp Trail. We had our first glimpse of the amazing marking of the course, with numerous glow sticks to mark the turns, doubled by course monitors (aka volunteers!) at major turns. Like co-Race Director John Brooks reminded us before the start, this race has about 1 volunteer for 2 100K runners, an amazing logistic effort led by our Queen of aid stations, Kristina Irvin, our head of volunteer recruitment, Coach Marc (Klemencic) and many other club members. Between my current focus on racing, and my hectic business life not to mention the uncertainty and stress on Agnes' mother, that made me feel really bad of not helping more. A few weeks ago I was hoping to help Paul Fick setup the BBQ area on Friday but I flew back again from Ohio on Thursday night (10th week on the road over the past 3 months) and was tied up with client calls on Friday. I got assigned a 4-8 pm shift on Saturday afternoon so I knew I had to run fast this time in order to recover and change in the meantime, extra motivation! ;-) A picture from SingleTrackRunning.com just before the start.
As usual, Chikara took off hard and grabbed the lead. I was close behind, running along side Jonathan Gunderson, Jesse and Paul, but, after half a mile, I decided to back off a little realizing all the uphills we had ahead of us. I even got chicked in this first mile and it wasn't even one of the three female favorites (Joelle Vaught, Darcy Piceu and my age group resiliency model, Meghan Arbogast who, at 54, still place overall most of the time!).

Knowing that this race is usually so hot, and that we start with a climb to warm up, I didn't put my arm warmers on this time, thinking the fog will clear off quickly. It was actually so foggy at Church Hill that I couldn't see a think with my very poor Black Diamond and had to stop before a steep down hill, making me lose ground on the leaders. I had to push the pace up Mine Hill and, with the momentum, I not only caught up but passed a group of 4 runners on Castillero, with Jesse and Paul who picked up the pace to follow me. We were then down to the Hidalgo Cemetery out and back but I couldn't follow-up them on the downhill, me not seeing a thing. That's it, after buying two Black Diamond lamps, I'm going back to Petzl and will buy a Tikka (thank you for the demo, John Brooks). Unless someone has a better recommendation, if so, thank you for leaving a comment below!

I could see 4 lights ahead on Wood Road Trail before Hicks Road. I knew Chikara, Jesse and Paul were ahead, but I didn't know the fourth on. Shortly after (not stopping at) the Hicks Road aid station manned by teammates Clare and Scott, I passed John Wros, 26, of Seattle. Paul wasn't too far ahead but I couldn't close on him, nor was I really willing to anyway. Around mile 9 we embarked on another steep climb up to Bald Mountain, Barlow Road Trail. That was another section which was completely new for me today so I was reduced to guess the dosage of my effort. I had prepared and taped a very nice profile and aid station chart but, when I wanted to check my mileage against it, it was not to be found in my packet, oops! (Hopefully someone found it because I thought I might have forgotten to take it finally, but I didn't find it later in my car either.)

We ran the 1.4-mile lollipop-format loop at Bald Mountain in a thick fog. There were 2 photographs up there to take shots in the sunrise, that was a miss! I felt sorry for them for having been up there at 6 am... With this out and back, we saw the rest of the field which was now really getting sparse after 13 miles. Thank you to many runners for calling out my name and encouragements, and letting me know I was in 4th, not far behind.

I did walk a bit on the long climb to the Kennedy Trail aid station and was quite bummed by that as we were only 18 miles in the race. I really had hard time dealing with negative thoughts off my mind despite knowing that I had to from a racing standpoint. Here am I, coming into Kennedy #1 and still running in the cloud, photo credit Paul King:
Again, I apologize to the volunteers, for instance Loren and Jill at that aid station, for being so cranky. They helped me refill my Gu2O bottle, I picked a few pieces of banana and watermelon while trying to catch my breath, and off I was for the long descent to Lexington Reservoir. Before the Limekiln transfer/intersection, I had a very brief glimpse of Paul and pointed myself about 3 minutes behind, not too bad. And I couldn't see anyone behind but, between the trees and turns, you never know.

I had a reasonable descent to the Lexington Reservoir aid station where I found more teammates and buddies (Jeremy, Sachin, Marc). Here is a picture from Tiffany Trevers of me trying to swallow two pieces of banana while taking two cups of Coke and trying to both breath and get the gas from the Coke out!!
That wasn't pretty, and I'm not sure I want to see the videos that I believe Marc and Jeremy were taking all along. Anyway, I was excited to see how much I could run of the next major difficulty of the course, Priest Rock Trail to Kennedy Trail.

After a few turns though, my mind was all on Agnes' mother and I couldn't push enough to even jog the uphills. I alternated running, power walking and a few prayers and that kept me moving. Looking at Strava, I find very interesting how close some of us where on that segment. There are only 65 results posted as I write this post on Sunday and we are missing most notably Jesse and Paul's results but it's amazing to see how Chikara killed it: 41:33 versus 48:59 for me in second, Mark Tanaka 49:36, David Sanderson 49:41, Brian Purcell 50:28 and Meghan 51:29. The last of 65 clocked 1:24:41 with a 153 bpm heart rate, this is surely an insane effort. Bottom line, although I felt I was so slow and kept looking behind who could caught up with me, it wasn't that bad after all.

I did some walking again on Kennedy and was relieved to finally get to the aid station where Jill and Loren helped me again, while Marc was helping another runner who was starting her loop. There is a few steep climbs out of the station to get over the ridge and I was glad to get back on the long downhill to Hicks on the other side. Teammate John Burton was sweeping and told me that 3rd place was just 8 minutes ahead of me, which I really had hard time to believe after what I thought was such a bad climb up to Kennedy. And he mentioned Chikara 12 minutes ahead, but I wasn't sure if he meant 12 minutes ahead of me or on 3rd. Anyway, the last thing I had in mind at this point was to get into a hunt. While I kept pushing the pace, I was more thinking of the remaining 30 miles ahead...

Similarly to the previous aid stations, I had hard time breathing while eating some watermelon, drinking some Coke and smiling at the same time, sorry, folks. A mile farther on Wood Road Trail, I crossed Tropical John Medinger who was enjoying our trails. Between ultra racing himself in the early years of ultra running, directing Western States for many years, and Quad Dispea for decades and more recently Lake Sonoma, logging more than 100,000 miles (yes, that's 4 times the Earth circumference, I've done only 1.55 x so far...) and creating and managing for several decades too the UltraRunning Magazine, John is a monument in our ultra running world.

The return to the start area, the Hacienda entrance parking lot, was a bliss, in particular the Yellow Kid Trail and this 3rd Strava challenge. After 40 miles, it wasn't easy to negotiate around the alternate lose and sharp rocks on English Camp Trail, then the irregular ones on Deep Gulch, but at least it felt good to go down. The clock was right on 6 hours and I spent a couple minutes at my car (change of Gu2O bootle, a couple of GUs, more Vaseline on some burning chaffing), then pick up some watermelon at the aid station before going up again. Marc confirmed I was still in 4th but I don't recall if he mentioned a time gap with the leaders. Anyway, at this point, with 22 miles to go, my strategy was more about preservation of 4th place and, since I had no clue what was going on behind, that meant I would have at least to keep moving...

My average pace was back to 9:05 min/mile. It had gone from 10:30 in the first climb at the start, down to 8:54 after Bald Mountain, up to 9:03 when leaving Kennedy AS for the first time, down to 8:39 at Lexington AS, up to 9:26 when reaching the Kennedy AS for the second time. Kind of a roller coaster reflecting the nature of the course.

Only 3 miles separate Hacienda and Mockingbird but they include a few steep hills especially on the challenging Hacienda Trail, fortunately followed by steep down hills on Viril O. Norton trail. It was great to see many familiar faces at that station which is also the finish for both the 100K and 50K. Mind you, Bree and Amy, I didn't stay long, mostly asking for an ice refill of my water bottle and Stan Jensen assured me I was doing great, when things were all black in my mind. I cried more on the next up hill to New Almaden trail but enjoyed this refreshing section under the trees on a trail which I did spend a few hours on to maintain, under the amazing leadership of our trail maintenance King, Paul Fick.

We don't run the whole trail now but veer left on Buena Vista trail. That section is basically a river of medium size rocks and I took the excuse of avoiding a fall at all cost to walk instead of trying to hop over the rocks. But the real excuse is that I was tired and needed a break to regroup physically and mentally. That proved beneficial as I was now passing the tail of the 50K race which had started at 7 am, 2.5 hours after us. I even got a few friendly Badass! encouragements on the way, either some people were taking notes of my mood, or it was for the aggressive person or tough guy meaning you find for this term in the dictionary. I want to think Tony meant the latter... ;-)

I had to walk some of the uphills to Bull Run #1 but I was moving when I saw John Medinger for a second time on April Trail. By the way, in the meantime I had my first experience of the tailings scramble, which I'm sorry to admit, I didn't really enjoy: going over a pile of lose rocks by mile 45 is no fun and even dangerous. That being said, if this is what got us the Western States and Ultra Trail du Mont-Blanc qualifying status, that's okay... And, with that, I want to congratulate the club members who designed such a course and such a beast which super-experience ultra runner Gary Wang even qualifies as a monster on FaceBook! Here is a series of great shots from teammate Shir Kochavi, of my struggle in the rock scramble.
Let's try with one hand...

Climbing above San Jose!
Looks like I'm done... Oh, no, wait, another wall ahead...


Thankfully, that was a short episode, I'm not sure I'm ready to move to Colorado, I certainly prefer our nice local trails such as the Great Eastern Trail where teammate Cecelia Chagoya was posted as course monitor and took this nice shot as I was getting at the intersection with the April trail loop:
At the top of Mine Hill trail, it was a delight to meet with the Stevens Creek Striders, my original running club for 14 years. As Striders we were used to man the Dam Overlook aid station but that aid station got moved up to Bull Run with the course redesign. I got more ice in my water bottle which was much needed to help me drink more. Chuck Wilson was the course monitor controlling we were getting in and out of the short Catherine Tunnel loop and then it was time to fly down to the second part of New Almaden.

Gary Saxton was monitoring the Mine Hill intersection and send me down toward Senador Mine Trail. The climb up Tina's Den aid station was now quite exposed and I had to alternate running and walking again. Great to see Pierre-Yves Couteau at the station for another refill of ice, and more watermelon and Coke (I was now avoiding bananas because they looked too green to me and I didn't want to repeat what happened at the 100K Road Nationals last month).

Half a mile of downhill was just what I needed at this point to recharge before the final long climb to Bull Run. Or what I thought was the final climb. Over the years, I learned to master this 2-mile climb on Mine Hill and, here I was, running most of it again. However what I hadn't really anticipated is the steep downhill detour down to the Enriquita aid station. I was glad to see more teammates at the bottom, like Frederic Garderes, but I couldn't take the risk to spend too much time, still not knowing if someone was on my heels or not. After more ice in my bottle (not sure what I'd do without iced water...), I ran and walk back up to Mine Hill, not seeing any 100K runners behind, phew!

That actually gave me a boost and, after a very short stop at Bull Run #2 for more ice, I rushed toward the finish, for the last 3 miles. I did pass quite a few 50K runners on the way and, although it was only 9:39 of running, my GPS battery was drained and it missed the last mile, the fastest one, dang! I crossed the finish line in 9:45:17, with so many mixed feelings, it was quite overwhelming. While it was an amazing time compared to the unique other edition, faster than Chikara's time from last year, and even faster than my time at Miwok last week, it was only good for 4th overall and I was 40 minutes slower than the winning time this year, Chikara had won in a blazing 9:05:48!!! Paul took second 10 minutes later, and Jesse 10 minutes behind. And, I hadn't realize that Jesse was also a Master, that made me third in this competitive class...




Short of winning such a nicely crafted pan, at least I had met all my goals today: winning my age group, setting a new age group course record (by 2 hours and 45 minutes) and even breaking 10 hours. Craig Steinmaus pulled a very serious performance as well with 10:28. My finish time is worth 93.25% on UltraSignup, not too bad given Chikara's kill. I'm very happy with the outcome and how I managed to balance some walking with a lot of running to maintain a good average pace. After Miwok, I slightly increased my GU intake to one gel an hour but it's still Vespa who allowed me to use body fat for most of the rest of the calories. After coining the expression "the Vespa maths," another concept coming to mind that I basically put myself on "Vespa auto-pilot" so I could focus on the running job (and GU2O, S!Caps and water for the proper hydration). Once all the stars are aligned, then comes the mental and the mixed emotions weren't helping especially when by myself on the trails all morning (seeing the 50K runners on the course from mile 42 to 62 brought some distraction). I was amazed not to get any cramp, it seems that my PG&E 3-peat of 2 weeks ago and Miwok last week provided some healthy hill training!

And who was behind me then? No less than my teammate Mark Tanaka who shaved 2 hours off his time of last year to take 5th in 10:08. John Wros from Seattle was 6th in 10:14 followed by Dominick Layfield from Park City, UT, 2 minutes behind. It has been a long time since we didn't have so many out of State visitors at our race! With a high UltraSignup score coming from the years he was at the top of the ultra scene, Thomas Reiss is now battling hip injury and very nicely stopped by the beer bar to say Hi and let me know why he was just happy to have finished today (11:42). I hope he finds a surgical way still compatible with his running passion and gift.

On the women side, age and experience prevailed again with the incredible Meghan Arbogast winning the race and placing 8th overall in 10:18!

Joelle Vaught of Boise, ID, took second (10:54), 2 minutes ahead of Darcy Piceu of Boulder, CO, that was close! They are respectively 54, 40 and 40, so the Masters race was quite a fight too: 3 of top 3 for female, 3 of top 4 for male!

And the six 100K champions!
Although I don't train much on these trails because I don't like driving for 30 minutes for a run when I have great hills closer to home, it felt great to be back in the area and see so many familiar faces, from runners to volunteers. Thank you all for your encouragements and the pictures some of you posted on Facebook!

Paul Fick did an amazing job gather family members, friends and volunteers to build and operate an entire kitchen and all you can eat buffet for more than 600 people! Not sure if everybody noticed but this party is also a celebration to honor Darcy, Paul's wife who left us so prematurely and suddenly after last year's race. It is so moving and inspiring to see Paul's faith and family support helping him cope with this loss. THANK YOU Paul! Here is Darcy working on her dessert table back in May 2013:
Now, time to bring up a touchy topic... For my volunteer shift, I got assigned to the beer bar which was very cool.
 Photo credit (next 2 pictures), Mark Tanaka, who had fun seeing me working! ;-)
 With Melissa, one of Darcy's 3 children:
 Picture from the back from Yujun Wang, who was in charge of the soft drink replenishment:

How cool is that indeed to hand out a beer to all the thirsty runners and volunteers, from a broad variety of brands and types, and for free! Well, cool except that, seeing the stock almost gone by 4 pm with about 200 runners still on the course, plus their crew, and potentially their pacer too, I decided to enforce the rule that the organizers had set and published this year, a change from the previous open bucket policy which we needed put in place to take into account the popularity and size of the event. To me, compared to most of other ultras, one beer is already a big deal, even more so when you can pick from a list of a dozen or so types, including a few good IPAs and international brands. But I'm not a beer drinker, beyond occasional social opportunities, so what do I know... Anyway, first, the ticket rule didn't seem to have been applied so far so that was an unpopular change for a few. Greg, our President, and Paul decided to restock around 6 so we could have at least beers for the remaining runners. I left around 7:30 pm, letting the key of the bar to Yujun, I hope he managed to save one bottle for Jim Magill at least! ;-) I'm sure that my enforcement will be discussed at one of the upcoming Board meetings. I realize it was a sensitive situation: on one hand, I was in the way of Paul's generosity who gives so much to support the club and make this event the best ultra party possible. On the other hand, our club leverages the time that hundred volunteers put into this event for free in order to distribute any proceeds to local non profit organizations. A fine balance in my opinion but I'll let the bosses rule.

Congrats to all the 182 finishers of this grueling 100K, you are amazing! Special thoughts for those of the remaining 42 entrants who either couldn't start because of injury or conflict, and those who couldn't finish. When I was hurting on the uphills I thought in particular of the slower runners who will have to walk hard to beat the cut-offs. It was a bummer to see the amazing Eldrith Gosney who, at 73, missed the cut-off at mile 42 by mere 6 minutes. And yet she was all smile when she brought me her ticket at the buffet. Such an inspiration and model of sustainable running!

Again, thank you for the volunteers who worked tirelessly to make this event a success, from the many months leading to it to the weeks to come. It's hard to imagine how we could be successful without Kristina for instance who leads all the aid station logistic behind the scene. Paul of course for the finish party, and his family and friends. Race directors Rajeev and John. Coach Marc who helps coordinate and recruit volunteers. The aid station captains. The Stevens Creek Striders. And hundreds of volunteers on race day working from 3 am to midnight.

From course design to marking and monitoring, aid station stocking, variety and placement, volunteer expertise and friendliness, professional organization, challenging course, qualifying opportunities, views over the Silicon Valley, mix of single, groomed or technical trails and fire roads, mix of sun exposure and shade, raising money for local non profits, expert logistic, on going and on-demand Uber-type shuttles between parking lots, great Patagonia swag, finisher belt buckle, multiple sweep teams, and the over the top finish BBQ party, this is to be by far the best ultra in the West, if not the continent! Ok, I'm part of the QuickSilver Club so I may be a little biased, but I let you voice your opinion in the comments! And not to influence your judgement more, but here is what Gary Wang the ultra connoisseur (RealEndurance.com) says about the QuickSilver ultras:

Finished my 19th Quicksilver today. The 100k course is a monster! 10 minutes faster than last year and I will take it! I love everything about this race. Quicksilver is one of oldest ultras in bay area. Great group of folks behind this special event over a few generations of RDs. What they give back to the community is truly impressive. Kudos to the RDs Rajeev Patel and John Brooks. Mahalos to the outstanding volunteers from the Quicksilver Running Club and Steven Creek Striders. So fun to see many familiar faces on these trails. Congrats to all the finishers and to boy wonder Chikara Omine and ageless Meghan Canfield Arbogast for the impressive wins.

And now you can cast your vote for the best ultra in the comment section below...! ;-)

PS: Agnes' mother made it through her 50th Mothers' Day this weekend, albeit not recognizing her daughter this morning. Painful wait for Agnes and questions about how we are going to make it to Alex's graduation at Georgetown on Friday. As for Ohlone for me next Sunday, that's going to be a stretch from a tele transportation stand point... For the moms and all those who still have their mom, hope you had a joyful celebration today!

After such a dry winter for the past 4 years, leading to a dramatic drought in California, it has been an interesting weather in May... It rained a few days before Miwok 100K and we ran the first half of the course in the fog. It rained a few days before QuickSilver 100K and we ran the first half of the course in the fog. And it rained last Thursday, 4 days before Ohlone 50K and I ran the first half of the course in the fog. Do you see any pattern?

Well, what does some --way not enough-- rain do on dirt trails? It softens the trail and help contain the dust which is typical at this period of the year. All good, right? Well, it can also create some sticky mud but nothing of a concern for us, ultra trail runners. But a concern for some Park Rangers apparently...

So, 4 days before Ohlone, the East Bay Regional Park administration pulled out the permit that we needed to run this race, damned, I was so so much looking forward to running Ohlone for the 8th time! Who am I to comment, I'm not a Ranger myself and I don't know all the rules they operate this amazing park under but I will say this: it would be a minimal etiquette to handle the situation very differently for the sake of the partnership required to have such Grand Prix events.

First, it would have been wiser to issue a warning to the Race Director, for instance stating that if the rain was going to keep coming, then there was a chance of making some sections of the course inaccessible to support and emergency vehicles. Who knows, the rain precipitation may not be as much and the trails may dry in the coming days.

Second, given the convoluted nature of the course, the park administration could have worked with the Race Director on some options, like Tia did for Miwok 60K 2 years ago.

Third, at least, if you are taking such a hard decision for people who have trained for so long for this event, registered months ahead or even flying from out of town, then you provide many details and use transparent communication.

We had a large team signed up for this event, with other teammates driving to Reno to run either Silver State 50K or 50-mile the day prior to Ohlone.

As for me, I was scheduled to fly back from D.C. on Saturday evening, after attending Alex's graduation at Georgetown on Friday and Saturday and client meetings in Delaware on Thursday. Then to Geneva this Monday to celebrate the life of Agnès' mother who passed away in Annecy on Saturday morning during Alex's graduation.

As a way to cope with all these events, to log some training miles after another tapering week and also by curiosity to see from my own eyes the reason of the cancellation, I decided to run from Fremont to the top of Rose Peak and back, a good 38-mile training run. Out of more than 200 registered runners, we were 8 to line up for this informal fat ass organized by Chihping Fu and Joe Swenson, both volunteering many hours for this event, for course marking (and un-marking in that case) for instance.

I had to park half  a mile from the parking lot and started running just after 8:30. I saw Chihping as I was reaching the parking lot, he was going to setup an aid station at Sunol (mile 9).

I passed Joe and two other runners in the first climb, before getting into the misty cloud at the top of Mission Peak.
The climb to Mission Peak had two patches of mud where cows enjoy getting some water, so really nothing unusual.




Great views of the South Bay while still being under the cloud/fog.
 Some traces of recent mud but completely dried on Sunday:


Getting in the cloud...

There was already a line at the top of hikers waiting to get their picture taken at the summit. Since I wasn't racing this year, I enjoyed a stop up there although I tried to make it short as I was already sweaty and it was chilly in the cloud.
On the way down to Sunol I missed a turn and almost climbed back to the top of Mission Peak on the other side, adding 0.8 miles. After getting back on course, I paid my homage to Rocky Ridge, one of Catra's dogs. Flying down this section on race day, I had not noticed this sign in 2013.


And, no, this tree and sign doesn't indicate that you are entering Catra and La Trail Diva's territory, the entire East Bay Park is her territory! ;-)

I was happy to see Chihping, Catra and 3 other runners at Sunol. I wanted to see how much I could do without support so I didn't use Chihping outstanding services, except for some water after I told him that I had refilled my bottle at the faucet of the horse table and he advised against drinking it.


And that's the end of the pictures for this post as, with the moisture, my camera stopped working...

I had so many great memories coming back from my 7 runs on the next climb that I was excited to run the whole way again. However, without much of a goal and no pressure at all, I started doing some walking and I must admit I never climbed to the top of Rose Peak so slowly... I stopped to chat with the aid station captain of Maggie's Half Acre (mile 19.7) who was hiking back to Sunol with his Boy Scout troupe since the race was cancelled.

As much as there was a few patches of dried mud between Mission Peak and Sunol and really nothing to prevent a vehicle to drive on them, the climb to Rose Peak was as dry as the past years, not a single trace of recent rain. I didn't check the last section down to Del Valle, but what a shame to have cancelled such an event as there was at least enough dry trails to organize a 50K race, if not the traditional course, at least from Fremont to Rose Peak and back to Sunol, which was very close to the 50K distance.

Anyway, like many others, I feel I got stolen from an opportunity to run Ohlone this year. Nothing comparable to when Western States was cancelled in 2008 and the forest was on fire (when I also ran a fat ass instead). I'm not arguing there was some mud on the fire roads on Thursday but the area is so dry, it dried very quickly. Anyway, the worst is for the Race Director, Larry, who has to deal with this Park Administration and is still struggling negotiating a potential reschedule of the event. Which is unlikely to fit all registered runners.

Still some good time running these 38 miles on the course before my long flights to DC then Geneva on Monday, but really not the same as racing and completing my "May triple" (Miwok 100K, QuickSilver 100K and Ohlone 50K). Looking forward to hearing from Larry then of there will be a Ohlone 2015, if I will be able to run it, or if I need to wait for next year...

I didn't post last week and I don't like falling behind my weekly pace... But I'll argue that I had three excuses: spending quality time with the family while grieving Agnes' mother, attending to my parents in Paris for a weekend and fighting a bad cold or the flu.

Right after my personal Ohlone, I flew to DC then Geneva and, between this time spent on planes and meeting people who recently went through a cold, I finally caught a bug, darn! Not to mention the fatigue from all these personal events and the stress at work.

Bottom line, it was hard to run but I felt it was necessary to hit the pavement and the trails to heal. However, in retrospective, it's hard to know for sure if that was the best thing to fight the cold as I'm still coughing and sneezing two weeks later... I wish I could say running helped me getting back to shape faster, but I'm not sure. Well, for one thing, I didn't really go for short runs either...

While in Sezanne in Champagne, I went for a 10-mile run through the vineyards and woods. The vines are all green now, many winemakers were out to take care of their vineyards.
In Paris, I worked on Friday and took an hour break to circumnavigate the Parc Montsouris 10 times, a nice 0.95-mile rolling lap right in the city.
On Saturday, I went long on a course which I feel could become an official event. From Stade Charlety, I ran toward the Coulée Verte (see my 2007 detailed description) which I hopped on at Porte de Chatillon, at the entrance of Malakoff. I already wrote several times on this blog about this amazing path linking Paris Montparnasse to the train station of Massy-Palaiseau, along one of the TGV lines.

Last year, I went on and discovered a continuation called ID35, another bike path and trail which prolongs La Coulée Verte down to Saclay-Bourg.
On my way back to Paris, I crossed hundreds of pilgrims between Clamart and Chatillon, on their way to Chartres. This is a yearly pilgrimage, 62-mile/100km long, which exists since the Middle Age but has been revived 100 years ago, just before WWI. Nowadays, it gathers about 15,000 pilgrims and I felt like a salmon swimming against the current as I was running against the flow!

While these runs didn't really take care of my bad cold, they helped releasing some stress so I'm glad I went out! And I hope you did too!

First, I have a question to Sara Spelt and all English majors out there: what would you say is the opposite of buckle-up? It can't be buckle down, this means "set to work with vigor." Of course, as a frequent flier, I'm familiar with the "unfasten your seat belt" but that's rather long. Buckle out? Unbuckle? In the meantime, I'm going with buckle off...

Anyway, still trying to catch up with my blog posting pace: 2 weeks ago, I participated for the first time to a monthly challenge set by one of our QuickSilver ultra racing team members, Jeff Clowers. This is a very cool idea and addition to the portfolio of our club activities.

Every month, Jeff selects a set of potential routes and propose them for a vote on the Quicksilver Trail Runners FaceBook group. So far, I had been too busy racing, or the routes required too much driving, but in May, the selected segment was too good to miss! First, it was at Rancho San Antonio in Cupertino, a park where I ran literally thousands of miles. Second, it was on the PG&E trail, which I've used many times for my toughest hill training. Third, the segment was the 4-mile downhill section of PG&E and I love speed and flying down this steep trail.

Yet, so much happened in May on my end, I couldn't enter the challenge before May 30. Miwok 100K, QuickSilver 100K, Ohlone 62K fat-ass to make up for the canceled race, and a trip to Europe for my mother in law's funeral, and several business trips to the East Coast. With all that, I had certainly not trained specifically for this, but I enjoyed the opportunity to get back to Rancho. It is so popular on weekends, it's almost impossible to find a parking spot after 6:45 am. And since speeding up on PG&E is dangerous anyway, I delayed my run to the middle of the afternoon, when there are less hikers on the trail.

It was actually cool to run to the top of the Park without rushing. It was quite hot and I had taken only one bottle, I had emptied it by the time I got to the top of PG&E and was still thirsty. But, with the speed, I knew I would have not been able to take a sip, so it was actually better to run with an empty bottle on the way down.

I walked the last wall before the top, to catch my breath, and here I was, down full speed, chasing the segment record which my running buddy, Jeremy Johnson, had set on the 9th to a blazing 22:09. I had never really timed myself on this segment, and Strava didn't exist when I started trail running at Rancho in 1998, so I didn't know how slower I was going to be.

The first section is actually one of the steepest downhill and, as soon as started, I thought "oh shoot, I should had checked my laces and knots..." but it was too late, the clock was ticking. Sure enough, with the extended strides and excessive pounding, the laces of my right shoe was the first to give up after about 1 mile, darn! Quick stop to re-tie it and I was rushing again. Probably 10 seconds lost.

1 mile later, it was the turn of the left shoe and I was so frustrated that it took me 3 times to re-tie that one. 15 or 20 more seconds lost? A few hikers could feel the rush and they must have wondered if I was trying to escape a mountain lion... ;-) At least I'm glad to report that I didn't touch or hurt anyone, that would have been bad!

Although the segment is mostly down, there is actually a nice up-hill 2/3 of the way. I pushed as much as I could to try to make up for the lost time. Ironically, in the very last down hill, a long snake was blocking 2/3 of the trail and I had to stop to see where its head was and if it was a rattle snake. Thankfully if wasn't, so I jumped over it and flew to the finish. 22:54, good enough for the second best time out of 45 or so attempts in May and all-time records on Strava, not too shabby! See all the results on Strava.

Anyway, if you live around (South Bay), everyone is welcomed to participate in the challenge. This month (June), the segment is "Yukon Cornerlius' Gold Rush", quite an intriguing title reflecting the rich mining history of our nearby hills. The Burtons, John and Amy, have the lead so far, will you drive down to Calero County Park to challenge them? It's free, and it keeps everyone on their toes, I highly recommend. You can also join our QuickSilver Club, or this Quicksilver Trail Runners group on Facebook. And, if you don't have the privilege to live in our dear Silicon Valley, maybe you can set your own local challenge?

See you on the trails then!

If you follow this blog regularly, you know this wasn't my first 24-hour event. As a matter of fact, I ran my very first one at this venue last year (and celebrating my 100th ultra race!), then 2 others in 2014, the US Nationals where I finished 3rd overall and 1st Masters, then the Invitational Desert Solstice in Phoenix. After running 127 miles in San Francisco then 133 miles in Cleveland, I was of course aiming at logging more miles this time, per my "Farther Faster" mantra.

What was in the plan for this year then? Well, ironically, a need to start slower and more conservatively. With the loop course certified at 1.061 mile, I was aiming at starting with 9:30 laps, which corresponds to a 8:57 min/mile pace. Even this was faster than needed to improve the American age group record (144 miles, right on 10:00 min/mile pace), but I still don't believe I can sustain an equalized pace through the night. And I also needed to factor in potential breaks after 12 hours.

Simple enough of a plan, right? Reasonable enough? Let's see and keep some suspense...

The first deviation from my plan actually occurred a week before. I had asked our local ultra fellow and star Jon Olsen for some 24-hour specific advice and he was kind enough to share a couple of tips. The first one was to indeed start and run slow, but break the rhythm with sprints from time to time in order to activate different muscles. The second advice was to change my training regimen by including days with 2 runs, to teach my body how to run on tired legs. To prepare for the loop format as I did last year, I went to the track on Saturday morning and ran 80 laps at an easy and comfortable 7:15 min/mile in the heat (~20 miles). Although I should have been tapering, I thought that I'll give a try to Jon's training tip and go for another long run in the afternoon. However, after 7 miles on the rubberized track, I could feel a blister forming under both my feet, yet kept going. The one under my right foot was 2-inch long and it even walking was an issue despite popping the blister, so I didn't go for another run that weekend. I ran 5 kilometers on Monday morning, and 5 in the afternoon, but that was still very painful, so a good excuse to taper for good. With that, I was really worried that the blister would fall apart at some point in that 24-hour race. I taped with Elastoplast, hoping the sticky bandage will stay in place.

And here we are on race day. Waking up at 4:45 to get breakfast 3 hours before the 8 am start, leaving the house at 6 am with Alex (my 2nd son) driving Greg (my 3rd son), my teammate Pierre-Yves and I, and getting to San Francisco's Crissy Field around 7:10. It was foggy and chilly but thankfully not as windy as last year when we got 20-25 mph wind gusts for 12 hours! With 3 different formats proposed by Race Director, John Brooks, 6, 12 and 24 hours, there was a mix of many "ultra" familiar faces, especially on the 24-hour, and others who wanted to test themselves on a timed event.

Like any ultra, it's important to decompose the race into segments. 1 hour is too short, who can think in 1/24th, but 2 hours make 1/12th, which is both meaningful and close enough to 10% increments.

8-10 am - As mentioned earlier, my main goal at the start was to start as slowly as possible, close to 9 min/mile. I let Chikara go, someone had told me that he was aiming at getting a Team USA qualifier, which meant at least 140 miles. Jon (Olsen) was taking it really easy for a 12-hour, he was shooting for a 75 to 80-mile training run. I try to shorten my stride as much as possible and felt like not moving, yet finished the first lap in 9:05, a 8:18 min/mile pace, darn! At least it was one minute slower than last year, progress... Despite my efforts, I ran only one lap at 9:30 and ended up running 13 laps in the first 2 hours, that is 3 minutes or 2% too fast. We were still running under the cloud which was covering the Golden Gate as well.

10-noon - Still cloudy, but the temperature had increased significantly. All my laps were now in the 9:15-9:30 range and I completed 13 more laps by 12:01. If I recall, Chikara and Jon lapped me just before the 3-hour mark, I was actually pleased by that.

Noon-2 pm - I was still running, or shuffling, smoothly and my slowest lap was 9:42. With that, the next 13 laps took me 2 hours and 3 minutes, for a total of 39 miles or 41.38 miles just over 6 hours. That was still too fast but at least I was slowing down a bit more. The top of the Golden Gate was still masked by the cloud but Crissy Field was all sunny now!

2-4 pm - The sun was hitting hard now but the breeze kept the temperature under control. For this reason, I didn't even think of stopping by my table to put some sun screen on. After 6 hours, it became easier to slow down with even a lap at 10:27 for another pit stop, another way to say I started feeling tired. Yet, by 4:02 pm, I had logged 12 more laps.

4-6 pm - 12 more laps got me to 6:05 pm, this time quite a few laps over 10 minutes, I was bummed by that. I was really disappointed that my legs felt so tired, in particular both adductors which never happened to me before. And this despite doing a few sprints here and then as recommended by Jon. I was still ahead of my plan and I didn't want to run 80 miles in the first 12 hours as I did last year, so I tried to remain positive, thinking that the slowness will be beneficial later.

6-8 pm - The pain in the adductors kept increasing, making even short strides hurt. My laps oscillated between 10:31 and 13:31 and I completed only 10 of them before 8 pm, the mid-race mark. Yet, I was now at 77.453 miles, so closer to my goal. But what I didn't like at all is that I was now in pain and my stride was ridiculously short and painful. I decided to make a deliberate long stop at 12 hours to eat some mashed potatoes and regroup.

8-10 pm - My crew, Alex and Greg, was more interested in getting their own dinner so I didn't find much motivation on that end. I left after 10 long minutes and was completely devastated when I realized that I couldn't even run anymore! My adductors were cramping so bad and were tetanized. Again, this had never happened to me so I had no clue how to handle this. After walking a few hundreds yards, for the first time, I finally thought of stretching them by splitting my legs as much as possible (and I don't have much flexibility, so that requires some effort... ;-). I was super relieved afterwards as the pain had gone completely, and this allowed me to complete the next few laps at around 12 minutes each. With the break and this incident, the count was now down to 9 laps in 2 hours, yikes!

10-Midnight - By just keeping moving despite the pain and the fatigue, I managed to log 9 more laps by 12:01 am. I was now done with 91 laps or 96.5 miles. Still not too bad, but now getting off track for an age group record unless a quick rebound. Speaking of rebound, Chikara was having some lows as well but I couldn't keep track as he kept lapping me back at some good/fast speed. And my crew went to bed after dinner so I was pretty much on my own. Our Club President, Greg Lanctot, had told us on Friday that he'd come around 9 pm, but he actually arrived after midnight. And I was badly missing and counting on his pep talk now...

Midnight-2 am - Our Team Captain, Loren Lewis, had arrived to support us through the night, which was super nice of him. As I was now crewless, he helped me by refilling 4 bottles. My legs were really tired but I kept moving and, with a lot of effort, logged 9 more laps in these 2 hours (splits ranging from 12:32 to 15:05 minutes). However, by 2 am, I had covered 106 miles (100 laps) but I had lost any appetite to push further. The record attempt was lost and I could feel that I could not even hold onto The Jester, Ed Ettinghausen, who is in my age group.

2-4 am - These two hours first started with my thinking of finishing. If it wasn't for Pierre-Yves, with whom we carpooled in the morning, I think I would have asked the boys to drive me back home, which would have been a mistake. But my right and left adductors were so trashed that I couldn't run anymore. I ate more mashed potatoes and asked Greg and Loren for their help to get changed, which was quite an adventure given the tightness of my muscles. After about 20 minutes, I left, decided to walk for a while. I tried to walk with Jeremy but even that was painful. Besides, I was 200 yards from the start area when I realized that I put tights on but forgot to put my shorts back on with my bib and timing chip. Between this long stop, this return to the start, and some slow walking, that 101st lap took me almost 53 minutes, ouch! So much that, on Sunday, John Brooks sent me an email to check if the computer had missed me during that hour... This time, only 4 laps in these 2 hours...

4-6 am - What I like the most in ultra running is the running part. And I hate walking... But I couldn't see what else I could be doing at this stage with my trashed adductors so I kept moving forward, albeit really slowly. I completed 5 laps in these 2 hours, about 20-21 minutes to walk 1.06 miles, and 2-3 minutes/lap to eat something and stretch more. The only positive thing is that the day light was slowly coming back and I wasn't the only struggling...

6-8 am - At the end of lap 109, I actually saw on the monitor that Karl Schnaitter had just completed in 109th lap as well and we left the aid station together, walking. After 300 yards, I told him "only 2 hours left, let's to this!" and started jogging. I actually thought he was following me but, to my own astonishment, the longer I was pushing my stride, the less pain in my adductors. I was so excited to have pleasure to run again that I started accelerating, and accelerating, and... Oh my god, my GPS was now showing a pace under 8 hours, how cool and refreshing! A couple of laps later, I lapped Karl, and took back one of the two laps Ed had put on me during my night walk. Although it didn't feel as easy as the first 2 hours, on the contrary, I gave it all but managed to clock laps as fast as 8:17 and no more than 9:24. With that, I lapped Ed a few times more, and also Chikara but I was convinced he was at least 10 or more laps ahead of me by that time. At this point, I started thinking that I could at least match the age group record I had set last year with 120 laps. After 120 laps, I actually had 20 minutes and 20 seconds to complete one more lap. Since I did lap 121 in 9:24, I even had more time to complete another one, for 122 laps or 129.44 miles. That was by far the most exciting finish of any ultra race I ran, I was the first surprised by how much I did rebound in these last 2 hours, and was so glad I decided to keep going when even Greg thought I had done enough with 210 laps. Bottom line: 2.1 miles more than last year, 3.9 miles less than my run at the Nationals last September, a so-so performance, but all I could give and get given the circumstances.

I took 2nd, with Chikara finishing with 125 laps, I had no idea we were so close! Ed was third with 120 laps, he is an amazing competitor at these long events (100-miles and beyond). Karl took 4th for his first 24-hour. On the women side, Sarah Lavender won with 109 laps. 22 of us covered more than 100 miles including my teammates Pierre-Yves Couteau, Jeremy Johnson and Charles Blakeney. Jim Magill, Keith Lubliner and Stephen Strauss gave it all too, one lap after another, one step after another...

With that, let me thank a few people. More than most of ultra races, organizing a 24-hour is an herculean task as race directors have to stay up not only for 24 hours but also hours before and after to setup and tear down all the installations. A HUGE thank to our teammate John Brooks, and his partner in crime, Maureen Brooks, for putting up such a perfectly organized and friendly event, and keeping smiling the whole way! And for the team of joyful and helpful volunteers they assemble for that very long day. Using Vespa, I didn't use too much from the aid station but chips, bananas and Coke were always welcome, and even more so the hot chocolate served at 5 am which seems to have put me back on track! Thank to my crew Alex and Greg for driving Pierre-Yves and I safely to the start and back home. Big thanks to Greg and Loren for spending part of the night to assist us. And to all the other runners and your crews for your encouragements on the course!

I was going to add a few lessons to be learned from this new experience but it is already way too long of a post, so I'll defer to another post, make sure to check it out. Back to the title, there is so much you can plan for such an event, sometimes you need to improvise, short of improv...ing...

Now, do you know what is harder than running a 24-hour? Running a 24-hour THEN having to get on an 11-hour flight 6 hours later with an unexpected 2-hour delay. I've flown a lot after or before races but this one was particularly painful. First, 36 hours without sleeping. I was hoping to sleep like a baby the entire flight but, between noisy passengers in coach, my tensed muscles and a presentation I had to work on for work, I slept for about 5 hours and was completely destroyed for the next 3 days of customer meetings. Not to mention that my face and lips were hurting quite bad after being sun burned, ouch! It was my 116th ultra race, you'd think I'd know better...

One week has passed and I resumed my running on Thursday with 54 miles over 4 days, I'm pleased to say that I'm back from the dead! ;-) Hope you are having a good come back too, and I wish a special and well-deserved recovery to all those who ran Western States 100 this weekend!

And a few pictures... (more to come from other runners, when I get a better connection)

Bill Dodson (80, running an easy marathon on the 6 hours) and teammate Jim Magill:
 Jim, Mike Nuttal (one of the founders of IDEO), Bill:
 Fitting in with the 'experienced' guys! ;-)
 Ed Ettinghausen, aka The Jester:
Maureen Brooks and some of her volunteer crew:
Race Director's briefing (John Brooks)
The start, all good (2014 World Champion, Jon Olsen, with the yellow cap, and Chikara Omine with the yellow top):
A sunny afternoon...
Running on the sandy trail:
Passing Mike Nuttal:

One more lap to go, let's do this!

 Pierre-Yves's strong finish:

 122 laps, done!

The Jester's hug, priceless!

With Mike (right) and another inspirational runner (and Brooks Fanatics), Shane James (left):
Watch Shane's story and how running helps him fight a rare disease:
Award ceremony (not at the 11th hour, but the 25th... kudos for staying up and alert, John!):

In French, GR stands for Chemin de Grande Randonnée, the top National label for hiking trails. GR 223 covers the entire border/littoral of the Cotentin and the department of the Manche. I already covered this section back in 2008 when I attempted to run a self-supported and solo 100K from Granville to Cancale, in Brittany, but stopped after 53 miles. 5 years later, in 2013, I logged 100K in a few days on that trail.

This time, I had only 4 hours before a family lunch so I just aimed at running a marathon. My favorite spot on this section is when you first see the ultra famous Mont Saint Michel when passing the Cabane Vauban after crossing the picturesque Vallée du Lude, just South of Carolles.

Then, if you keep going South, you'll get really close to Tomblaine and Mont St Michel, at Bec d'Andaine, where many people cross the Bay when the tide is low (you need a guide to avoid the famous quick sands, a real threat here).

Here are a few pictures of this segment of GR 223. Some sections are overgrown, some are quite technical (very irregular rocks), some sections have deep/soft sand slowing your progression, overall, as its name states, it is more a hiking trail than a running trail. While I had originally planned on going as far as the Pointe du Grouin, I turned back at the Bec d'Andaine, and used the road to come back to Kairon to meet the family. Only 25 miles this time, more next time...

A couple of miles South of Granville, the GR coming from La Crête:

 View toward Carolles, with the beaches of Granville-St Nicolas, Kairon and Jullouville:

 The Roc of Granville in the background (lighthouse):


 Granville from the beach of Jullouville:


Race horse training:
 Carolles-plage (Granville in the distance):





 Crossing the Lude Valley (Vallée du Lude):
 Climbing up to Cabane Vauban:

 Caban Vauban and Mont St Michel in the background:


 The view of Mont St Michel from St Jean-Le-Thomas:


Not everybody feels the urge of running...

I can't believe it has been almost 4 weeks already since my last post on this blog which I have been trying to keep on a weekly pace so diligently for 8 years... I have to admit that I lost a bit of life balance lately, trying to juggle some time-off, family time, a few real estate projects with work and running and, in the mix, the blogging fell behind. At least those following me on Strava knew that I was still alive and actually kept moving all this time... thankfully! For the 4 weeks I spent in France just following my 129 miles at the Summer Solstice 24-hour, I managed to log 500 kilometers (311 miles), most of them actually during the canicule which hit the country pretty hard this year, another unfortunate proof if needed that our planet is really getting warmer...

While some of my friends enjoyed Western States, Hard Rock, Tahoe Rim Trail and many more events which I followed on line, I ran

1. 103 miles in the Granville area in Normandy;
2. 148 miles in and around Paris;
3. and 60 miles in Haute-Savoie in the Alps (Annecy and Chamonix).

Not quite Le Tour de France, but a great mix of ocean beaches and mountains, not to forget a few days in Paris of course, can't complain!

I already wrote several times about my favorite runs in the Paris and Granville areas in case you have the opportunity to visit. I'll try to post something in August about the two places I ran in the Alps. But I wanted to let you know that, despite my silence, I was still "ultra alive" and I'm actually back to California just in time to race the inaugural Redwood Anvil 20-mile organized by Moongate Racing, in the hills over Oakland this Sunday. Looking forward to reconnecting with many of my Californian running buddies after this busy European trip and experience.

By the way, one note about the shoes I used for these 300 miles. One of my biggest sustainable running advice is to rotate through 2 to 3 different models during each week. Now, I travel with a carry-on, even for 4 weeks abroad, so there is no way I carry more than a pair of running shoes during these trips. I'm a big fan of the minimalist Brooks PureProject series, but the minimal cushioning would have been insufficient to run all these miles. So I packed a brand new pair of my favorite trainers, the Brooks Launch (which, as I found out at the Summer Solstice event, is also Jon Olsen's favorite training shoe. And for those who don't know, Jon won the World 24-hour in 2013 with 172 miles, also setting a new American Record).

When I discovered the Brooks brand upon settling in the US in 1998, I first bought a pair of Trance, then 9 more pairs, following all the updates between the original model to the Trance 8 one. Overall, I ran 9,952 miles in them and, back then, I couldn't imagine switching to something else. But then the Launch appeared and took off, and I was hooked right away. Still some great cushioning for recovery and long training runs, but much lighter and nimbler than the Trance. I'm at 5,400 miles in them and I'm so glad that, under the pressure of the Launch fan club, Brooks decided to continue this model 2 years ago.

Actually, many people ask me how far I run in my shoes, so here is a visual hint below, a lot... After all, it's not because Brooks was generous enough to sponsor me for 6 years (this ended in March) that I should not use them to the fullest, like most customers, right?
And that's what my pair of Launch looked after the 500 kilometers in France:
Compared to a brand new one:
Not too bad, I'm a few hundred miles away a tire rotation...! ;-)

As for 1,129 miles, that's clearly on the high side, yet this pair still provides great spring and cushioning on dusty trails. But I would concede these can be labelled as worn out.
Yes, I'm not as neutral as I would like to be (wear on the outside of the heel), but the asymmetrical wear mainly comes from my foot angle which I don't close even when running fast. Anyway, analysis of my gait wasn't the purpose of the discussion, the point I wanted to make is that you need a great model of training shoes when you can only pack one pair for several weeks. And the Brooks Launch does the perfect job for me!

Again, looking forward to seeing many of you in California over the coming weeks and races. And stay tuned for a few more posts of the coming days and weeks to catch-up!

PS: if you are up to, feel free to leave comments on your own shoe mileage, especially for training shoes (flats are different beasts).

It has been a few days already, but what a come-back weekend in California! I was really excited to run the inaugural Redwood Anvil 20-miler following an invitation from the 4 Race Directors. My Wednesday flight from Paris got cancelled but I made it on Thursday, leaving plenty of time before Sunday's race. I even decided to go for a run upon landing, and another one on Friday, planning on enjoying a 1-day taper on Saturday...

1. The very minimalist Jurek Essential belt in the Scott Jurek collection. It was designed before the reign of the iPhone6, yet a standard/smaller iPhone6 can be squeezed in the mesh pocket. And both pockets are large enough to carry a camera and/or of course, a few gels or candy/cereal bars. The smallest pocket is great to carry a small bag of S!Caps for instance, but be super careful about keeping the velcro closed, I happened to lose some money I had kept in this pocket on my Chamonix run last month, not paying enough attention. The other pockets have zipper which is better to keep valuables.
2. The vest in the same Scott Jurek collection (and 2nd version, that is the Royal Blue one which fits with our QuickSilver color scheme as a bonus!). An amazing piece of engineering but the vest concept makes it harder to fit well every torso shape and form. I ended up picking a Medium size, which is slightly too large, although the straps hidden in the size pockets do help (thanks Buzz for showing them to me after I missed that essential tuning feature initially). Personally, I still prefer to carry bottles rather than having my chest beaten by the bottles as I run. Yet, you need this approach if you want to use poles, so I'm trying to get more used to it in case I need to free up my hands.
3. To continue on the minimalist approach of the Scott Jurek collection, you can't get smaller or lighter than the new Jurek Grip bottle strap which is ideal for short runs or if you have something else to carry gels and keys, like a belt or a vest.

I like sharing pictures in my posts, especially race reports, as they are worth a thousand words, great time saving for me... and you! When I don't have any, I'd use my GPS track to illustrate the course and draw a few objective analytics about my run. Well, this time, I didn't take any picture and my GPS died at mile 24, darn! So much for running against an invisible clock, it became a whole mental game instead... As for the pictures, short of a crew, glad that a few volunteers posted some already on FaceBook, special thanks to Chihping Fu in particular!

I had a great training run 2 weeks ago on some of these trails at the Redwood Anvil 20-mile and was excited to come back on this fast course for my 9th consecutive run and this 34th edition of Skyline 50K. 3:48 in 2007, 4:17 in 2008 with a major quad injury, 3:54, 3:43, 3:46, 4:07 in 2012 while still recovering from my shoulder fracture, 3:57 and 3:52:30 last year, setting a new and hard to beat M50-59 course record. But, of course, improving it again was my goal this year.
We started right at 7am after the briefing of new Race Director, Brian Wyatt (photo credit, Chihping). Brian has taken over Adam Ray, making this race the first of a trail running series for his new organization Scena Performance. And Brian loves hilly trails, so this series is going to need good mental and quads!

Like every year, there were new faces with a few folks looking like really fast dudes. But, in ultra trail running, you never know, some may have hard time pacing themselves or they may get lost, as this is so different from flat road racing. Speaking of the latter, it was cool to see and chat with Devon Yanko. Devon only finished 2nd at the San Francisco marathon, but already won 3 other marathons this year (Oakland, Napa and Seattle, the Queen of the West marathons!). When chatting in the first 1/4 mile, there were already 10 other runners in front of us, that was definitely a fast start again this year! Devon told me she won't see much of me which I didn't really believe as I know she is so fast and that this fast course is a tough one not to be chicked... Yet, passing Jason Reed, by mile 5, I pushed a bit in the rolling section to see what was happening upfront and settled in 5th place, before loosing sight of the lead group of 4 runners by mile 2. I pushed a bit more in the first hills before the Grass Valley aid station. I didn't stop at this water-only aid station but got scared by two big dogs running toward me. No direct contact fortunately, but it took me a few strides to catch my breath after such an emotion, flying down Jackson Grade.

Carrying 2 bottles, I didn't stop at the Bort Meadow aid station either and kept pushing up the hill, finally breaking from 2 distant followers. With nobody in sight ahead and behind, I could finally release some pressure and run my own race, which I much prefer. With the cool and misty over cast weather, I hadn't drunk much so far and I also passed through Big Bear without stopping. I was looking forward to get on the steep 1/2 mile climb to the ridge, a section we had been descending twice for the Redwood Anvil 20-mile. Thinking of Hal Koerner's tip, switching to the Diesel mode and low gear, I'd say I climbed it in 2nd gear this year. I was also thinking of the first year I ran this race when Steve Stowers passed me in that hill. It's that time, 2007 and 2008, that Steve made the 100K USA Team, before experiencing a few injuries. This race has also seen great performances from Joe Binder (3:37 in 2010) who also made the team that year. Then, Chikara Omine of course who was watching us today as he is preparing for the World 100K Championships in Netherlands next month!

After this climb, it was time for keep going up Skyline Gate on the very runnable East Ridge. The temperature was perfect for running, with a sustain breeze we could feel running against it in the uphills. Chihping was at the Skyline Gate aid station too and took three pictures of my quick stop there to grab a piece of banana and cup of Coke while joking with the super entertaining Errol Rocket Jones! (Next 3 pictures, credit Chihping Fu.)

I asked how far ahead the lead runners were and he replied that I won't catch the youngsters, I have to forget about them. But that's exactly what I don't want to do, these guys keep me on my toes and help me fight the aging process... Now, we were at mile 14.4, I had run for 1:45 which I felt reasonably fast, but it's good nobody mentioned that the lead runner had already 15 minutes on me, wow! At least, not knowing, I kept believing and rushed down toward the torturous French Trail, while still feeling on cloud nine...
While paying extra attention to roots not to fall, I was thinking of what I will do in the next few miles in the redwoods, that is taking care of me (!), taking a third Vespa and an S!Caps. Hoping over roots on this dusty trail was certainly not the right time to get things out of my pockets.

As I was approaching the French and Madrone trails intersection, something exciting and interesting happened: I saw a dozen fast and tall guys from the Cal Berkeley XC team coming down the hill. I wasn't sure which way they'll go but I was first at the intersection and went on French trail, to only find them following me. I was faster than the group on the way down but I got into a frantic pace to stay in front on this winding section and, as I'd realize later, not only that wasn't so smart and sustainable, but I completely forgot about my fueling plan and strategy, yikes! We were now at mile 17 and I was just thinking this would give me a boost in my chase of the front runners, how presumptuous with a half marathon still remaining...

At some point, 4 of these runners passed me but they realized that they were getting in my way in the tricky downhills so they very kindly backed off. They turned right on West Ridge, where we take the left turn and I was glad to get into a more reasonable pace then, enjoying Toyon trail on my way back to Big Bear. I also took the opportunity to drink and finish my GU2O bottle, having barely drank from my water bottle in the first 20 miles... In retrospective, I should have taken that 3rd Vespa and S!Caps...

This time, I stopped at the aid station to refill mu GU2O bottle and take a 2nd GU gel. And asked for some ice in my water bottle, although there wasn't much room for that in it. I refrained myself to ask Karl Schnaitter about the front runners, and went on, realizing that I wasn't as fresh as the beginning. I didn't walk at all on the steep MacDonald Grade, yet I'd admit I had to switch down into 1st gear. Unconsciously for this whole race, I wasn't even checking on my average pace, I was only running by the feel of the effort and checking on the time and mileage from time to time, without even trying to compare to previous years, not having a plan at all except for the 3:52:30 age group record, and breaking 4 hours of course.

I didn't stop at the Bort Meadow aid station again, but thanked the volunteers while flying through, as I could sense I had to make up for some time to meet my goal. I kept moving at what I thought was a reasonable pace but it seemed the clock and time were flying faster, quite a strange feeling which I never experienced before. Then this odd and uneasy relativity experience became even more painful as my GPS died around mile 24, leaving me completely time-blinded... ouch! I was left with asking hikers "what time is it?" or "do you have the time?", that was a first for me. Long story short, when I reached the last aid station, Honker Bay, and asked that same question to ultra volunteer Stan Jensen, and when he replied 10:36, I knew that, even at 6 min/mile for the last 3 miles, 3:52 was out of question. As a matter of fact, I had now to push at 8 min/mile to break 4 hours... There is some mile markers on the last 1.75-mile section of asphalt, but I wasn't sure if they were from the same start/finish as the race. I asked one more time a hiker and got 10:49 with more than a mile to go... I was really relieved when I saw the clock at the finish line still showing 3:59...

Without a GPS track, nor my splits, it's hard to explain what happened, when I really lost time. I was excited to see on Strava what would have been my pace in the section after Skyline Gate, but I'll never know! Overall, I should be very happy to have broken 4 hours again, won my age group AND the Masters division again but here is the deal: the winning time this year was a record 202 minutes, yes, that's 3:22. That makes my performance worth 81% on UltraSignup; darn, so much for such an effort or for getting back so close to 90% this year again (89.86% before Skyline)... As a matter of fact, the top 3 runners ran under the previous course record, and the 3rd runner is only 19 year-old!! That was definitely not the year to run slow; I know, it's all relative, my overall average pace was 7:43 this year, not that bad but so pale in comparison to the winner's 6:30, on a hilly course...!! Not quite the cloud nine experience I was expecting, but let's say 8 on a 1-9 scale.

At least I didn't get chicked again this year! Poor Devon finished 2nd, getting to the finish line with a bloody elbow and knee. Unfortunately, that happened early in the race, around mile 3, and she got passed by a Strava/Brooks-sponsored athlete, Kimberly O'Donnel, who won in 4:05. As I was teasing Kimberly, she swore that she will got me next time. At 25 for her, and 51 for me, I'd say this would makes sense, you have to love this competitive spirit... ;-) Especially given her 100% UltraSignup ranking after 13 results (yes, that means 13 wins out of 13 races!).

Anyway, amazing 34th edition of this East Bay Area ultra classic, great job from Brian and his team of volunteers to keep such a tradition not only alive but with all the friendly and low key touch and atmosphere, quite something in the midst of all the changes our ultra trail running sport and community are going through these days. I had to leave around noon to hit some traffic on 880 and finish the day at the San Jose Jazz Summer Fest, staying up 21 hours for a very rich and full day (I'm sure many would have been worn out after doing only either one of these events... ;-).

Fortunately, I have 3 more weeks to keep training and/or taper before the next hilly 50K, Tamalpa, which is also the 50K Trail National Championship. There will surely be even more fast dudes, and not just twenty-something ones. I expect local elite Mark Richtman, 60, to kick my butt again, as well as a few Masters along the way!

With that, I already look forward to running my 10th Skyline 50K and seeing many familiar faces again and a few new fast dudes next year!

Often these days I'm dreaming Albert Einstein would still be with us and help us formulate a proof that global warming is real and man made! He had such a genius to make things way more complicated and way less tangible accessible to all, I'm wondering who is going to step up to the challenge, I mean be successful at solving this embarrassing sustainability question. Not that I have much doubt myself in what science has already proven, analytically and experimentally, but because I'm speechless when I see denial statements coming from people that are supposed to be smart enough to... think!

Will Bill Nye succeed where so many have failed:
("The Bill Nye" documentary project has already raised $850K on KickStarter, that's a great start!)

In the meantime... here we are, a weekend during which we experienced pretty much all the symptoms of this global warming in Silicon Valley, in this beautiful California which is set ablaze and is fighting a 5-year drought:

1. Smoke from wild fires raging hundreds of miles away,
2. Record temperatures above 100F, including in Santa Cruz right on the Pacific Ocean,
3. Lack of water in reservoirs,
4. Lack of groundwater,
5. High levels of pollen,
6. Dried vegetation,

For many people around the world, there is only one California, and that's a sunny one! And maybe too sunny these days which led us into this serious droughts and blazing wild fires. We are so much looking forward to the announced El Niño this winter, and even if it comes, it's going to take many (many) years to rebuild the underground water reserves as we are already tapping in some dated as back as 18,000 years!

With that, let me switch to the topic of this post, the Tamalpa 50K race which also served as the US National Trail 50K Championships this year. The Tamalpa Club had aleady hosted this championship for their even and I still remember how intimidated I was to particiapte to my first Nationals back in 2007, when the event was directed by Greg Nacco. If you follow this blog, you know these Nationals get more or less competitive depending on who shows up. So they are not like the Olympics where all the very best elites meet from around the globe. Some championships attract more rising stars though and it was the case this weekend according to UltraSignup's statistics and time predictions: for once at a local race, I was in 25th position, uh! So, while we were looking forward to seeing who was going to grab the title, the first big surprise of the day was that it was raining! In August, and in California, while, in contrast, the Ultra Tour du Mont Blanc had perfect conditions in the Alps, at last!

Agnès had asked me on Friday evening if I had checked the weather forecast and I replied I never do as I don't believe they can really predict much with all the micro climates around the Bay. But, now, I wished I had because I would have probably picked my Brooks PureGrit instead of my super comfy Launch. Anyway, too late to drive back home, comfort of road shoes will have to do over grip of trail shoes.

Race Director, Tim Fitzpatrick, gave his pre-race briefing to our 250-large group.

With all these youngsters and speedsters sponsored by Nike, Adidas and even Brooks, the start didn't disappoint: I joked with Scott Dunlap and Mark Richtman that this looked more like the start of a cross-country race, if not 5K, 10K at most!




I couldn't count the number of men in front of me after we took off, and estimated 5 or 6 women were already ahead, what a start! Even Errol 'Rocket' Jones added some fun to the situation, sprinting to get ahead of us. For one hundred yards... ;-)

The back of the pack had barely passed the start line when the front runners had almost reached the end of the meadow as you can see on the second picture below:

We went on Muir Woods Road for 1/4 of a mile before reaching a tricky switchback to get onto Miwok Trail. With so many fast runners ahead, it was actually very smooth, the pace remained blazing fast. As usual, that's the trail section I pass Jason Reed and I then made two other moves up the line while Mark Richtman remained very close behind. For the non locals, let me say a few words about Mark: he is an ex member of Team USA for 100K and, decades later, he is still at the top of the game, at least in our Masters division, and you would never imagine he just turned 60! Last year at this race I was looking at another duel with him in our M50-59 age group, but he wasn't in prime shape so he didn't toe the start line, and volunteered as course monitor instead. We had our last age group friendly fight at Quad Dipsea last November and I barely made it by 7 minutes despite the 9 years separating us, which says a lot about Mark's fitness level. So, here I am, not haunted by other M50-59 competitors but a M60-69 one, way to keep me on my toes and yet another good excuse to refuse to take aging as an excuse to slow down...!

On the first steep climb out of Muir Beach on Coastal Trail, I decided to not push too hard with all the other climbs ahead, get into my rhythm (Hal Koerner's diesel mode) and not look behind to avoid the pressure. Even with these precautions I caught up with a few runners ahead before the top, including 2 gals. I pushed the pace down to Pirate Coves, hoping to distance Mark. Running in the cloud, the visibility was very limited, maybe 2 or 300 hundred yards, so you couldn't see who was ahead or behind anyway. You could hear the Pacific roaring at the bottom of the cliff, but barely see it. Several times during the race I felt sorry about the folks coming from out of town as they missed the amazing views we usually experience on this course (Pacific Coast, Golden Gate, San Francisco, Rodeo, Stinson and Muir Beaches, Tennessee Valley, ...). Coastal Trail without the Ocean views in particular isn't as spectacular as it usually is.

On our way up to Wolf Ridge, I got passed by Ed Randolph, M45-49, and I was glad that I had moved to the upper age bracket because he looked very strong (he is 45). We ran close together for the next few miles, me being faster in the technical downhills, him faster in the uphills. I didn't stop at the Rodeo Beach aid station (mile 8) and was blown away to see Mark just behind me as we were now climbing up Miwok trail. I thought "wow, with all the coming climbing, that's going to be a tough battle, it's going to come down to, first, who doesn't walk on Cardiac, then who doesn't walk on the last killer climb, Steep Ravine!" Yet, I thought it was way too early to push more in the uphills. I did hammer down on the way down to the Tennessee Valley aid station though, where I had the surprise to see Agnès. I didn't stop there either, and was pleased to not see Mark behind anymore, at least not close behind...


From the time stamp of Agnès' pictures at Tennessee Valley, Mark was still just a minute behind me, still working on his prey... ;-)
Meanwhile, as I discovered from Agnès' pictures, the battle was raging in front. I was in 31st position at this point, 22 minutes behind the leaders (after just 11.5 miles!!), and the top 10 runners were within 10 minutes. Here are Andy Wacker (26, Adidas Team, from Boulder, CO), elbow to elbow with Patrick Smyth (29, Nike Team, from Salt Lake City, UT), fighting for the lead (yes, sprinting, with 20 miles to go!).
On the way up to Coyote Ridge, I could see in the fog a runner walking and holding his sides with his hands and I was blown away when, getting closer, I could read M50-54 on his back bib. Wow, I had no idea that I was even 2nd in my age group up to that point!
Alan Reynolds, another local and fast member of the Tamalpa running club, had gone out very fast and was struggling --we were only at mile 12-- but he had the guts to finish. With that I was wondering if I had missed other M50-54 in the 40 or so runners ahead at the start... One more reason to keep pushing...

After this climb I really enjoyed getting back to some speed on the way down to Hwy 1, on this smooth fire road section of the Miwok Trail. I looked back and couldn't see anyone behind but, again, the visibility was still barely a few hundreds yards. I enjoyed even more the last section of Miwok, a narrow and winding single track going down to Muir Woods Road. Before every race Agnès reminds me that the main goal of running is to enjoy it, so I thought of her (otherwise, most of the time, I'm more focused on pushing hard... ;-). We were at mile 17 and I was really feeling good but knew there was much ahead, starting with Cardiac, right at that stage, a 2.5-mile climb up to the Cardiac aid station. At least my mental was high and I was therefore resolute to not walk a step up that hill.

Apart for a few hikers, there was nobody to be seen in the fog all along, no distraction, just the focus on keeping moving forward on this runnable grade. Yet, in the last few yards before the aid station, there are high steps formed by roots, and I had to walk but managed to passed another runner who had stopped to take care of some bad cramping, then I caught up with Lon Freeman. When I first got into ultra racing, Lon was at the top of the game, having won for instance Miwok 100K in 2007, Skyline 50K in 2004, or, more recently, our Club QuickSilver 50-mile in 2012 as well as last year's Ohlone. So, it was intimidating to catch-up with him, especially as, very kindly, he told me that there were now only two Masters ahead of us. I didn't feel we were that fast compared to last year, and I was definitely not trying to win the Masters division in this competitive field, so it was great boost to know. Here we are, going through the Pantoll parking lot.

Going down Matt Davis Trail reminded me of the finish of Miwok 100K a few months ago except that the weather was so different. Despite paying extra attention in this section made even more treacherous and slippery with the wet conditions, I was moving quite fast, so much that I caught up with Emily Harisson. Emily is so fast on runnable terrain but she looked scared in these switchbacks and that was going to cost her the National title, I felt sorry for her.
I passed 2 other runners (Open Division) and surprised the volunteers of the Stinson Beach aid station when I rushed through it without stopping (thank you guys for being there anyway!). 7 miles to go and I was still feeling great, that's the way to enjoy running...!

In the first stairs up the famous Dipsea Trail I could feel a cramp nagging in my inner left hamstring so rushed to take 2 S!Caps and my 3rd Gu. As much as I wanted to slow down and walk in this climb, seeing one of the runners I had passed on Matt Davis following me kept me moving. I saw 2013 record holder Alex Varner again running with friends, just before the bridge where we leave the Dipsea Trail to continue on Steep Ravine.

Ah, Steep Ravine... What else do you expect from such a name other than a killer last climb at mile 26...? I have always struggled on this one and can't even imagine or comprehend how the top guys must go through this section still maintaining sub 7 min/mile pace! As a matter of fact, I was in this section while the first runners must have finished already, yikes! I admit I walked part of it then. I was particularly impressed this year with the crowd on the trail, I had never seen so many hikers especially on such a technical segment. The passage of the ladder was quite an attraction when I got there with a group of 20 or so kids trying to go down! Fortunately it's large enough that I could still manage to pass on the side without losing much time. I kept jogging everything else my legs and lungs would allow me to and, with that tough mental, passed a few more runners before seeing Agnès at the top, at Pantoll, enjoying a brief rift in the fog before plunging back into it 1/2 mile later.
On that only common section of the course, I crossed a few runners on their way out (Greg Nacco, George Rehmet, Errol Jones, ...) and didn't stop at the Cardiac Aid Station that time (my only aid station stop was on my way out, to refill my GU2O bottle). At this point I was still thinking that I had a slim chance of improving the age group course record which I had set last year in 4:27:30. But with my GPS showing 4:06 already with slightly more than 3 miles to go, I had to give it all. So I pushed as much as I could and, after a mile, even managed to pass Ed (M45-49) and Caitlin Smith. I kept pushing hard in the ultimate and endless switchbacks of Heather Cutoff Trail. We could hear the noise coming from the finish line but we could still not see a thing with the thick fog, what a suspense... I was bummed when I saw 4:27:30 while I was still dealing with the last switchbacks. I sprinted to the finish line for a finish time of 4:29:24 (8:31 pace) which was good enough this year for first M50-54 (or M50+ for that matter) and 2nd Masters! With all that, I still barely made the top 20 this time, 19th overall.  And, mind me (!), that's a poor 76% UltraSignup performance because it was a super fast year, with Adidas team's Andy Wacker, 26, from Boulder, CO, smashing Alex's record by almost 4 minutes! 3:37:20 on a trail course with technical sections and 7,400 ft of cumulative elevation, this is blazing or insanely fast! Compared to other sports, taking home $1,000 for that feat looks really cheap, but that's why our ultra running sport remains such a family and friendly business, which most of us love anyway!

As a matter of fact, Andy got an extra $500 for also breaking the overall course record.

Here are 8 of the top 9 runners, from right to left: Paddy O'Leary (9th), Chris Vizcaino (8th), Benjamin Stern (7th), Daniel Metzger (6th), Jared Bessett (5th), Mario Mendoza (4th), David Roche (3rd) and Andy.
Apart from Ivan Medina who dropped, UltraSignup had 9 of the top 10 runners right in its statistical prognostic, quite good Mark Gilligan! The top 10 UltraSignup list names finished respectively in that order: 3, 2, 1, 5, x, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10. Almost ready to bet real money!

Caitlin won the Women race and title, finishing 45 seconds behind me, so I ended up not being chicked again, phew!
Well, let's say I worked very hard to unchicked myself 5 times throughout this race! ;-) As I joked with TropicalJohn Medinger at the finish that it wasn't getting easier, he replied that he could easily predict the future for me on that one; thanks John... :-/

Co-race director and great XC and ultra runner herself, Diana Fitzpatrick was prompt to hand me my age group award, a superb Mountain HardWear jacket, a SFRC gift certificate and a few healthy food goodies. As for the USATF awards, it took more time while we were waiting for the various age categories to fill in (3 deep)...
Another local Tamalpa runner, Mark McManus, 41, won the Masters Division and got the $300 check. He ran a 4:27:54 and I was second, only 90 seconds behind, I had no idea we were that close!
The fog started dissipating finally over the finish area around 1 pm, and it was ideal conditions to catch-up with other runners, volunteers and family members.

Mark Richtman finished in 4:47:34, slashing the previous M60-69 course record by 20 minutes! He had trained hard, aiming at 4:30, but he got some cramping issues as well as some dehydration due to his water bottle breaking just after Stinson Beach. Without knowing how far behind he was all day, I owe him big time for keeping running hard in Steep Ravine in particular!

Jed Tukman's Firetrail on-site made pizzas were an absolute post-race delight and drinks were in abundance (yes, including beer, for those who run for that! ;-).
One note on nutrition: I would admit that I needed a couple of cokes to replenish my energy level after such a workout yet, this is still a testament to the value of Vespa: I was able to run a strong race just on 3 Gu gels, 2 cups of Coke and mini pieces of banana at mile 19, and 2 bottles of GU2O, or about 500 of calorie intake while Garmin estimates the overall effort at 3,500 calories, or 4,000 calories on Strava (I even doubt this fully takes into account the cumulative elevation but in any case, the Vespa Math still work and shows the energy had to come from some fat, eh eh).

We had 7 entrants from our team today and all finished, albeit in different times ranging from Rickey Russell's 4:27 to Kat Powell's 8:11. This allows to score a few points in the Men and Mixed divisions of our Grand Prix (although Excelsior and Tamalpa will likely be ahead of us for this race). Here we are, Keith, Marc, Jim and I, still fresh and dry, before the start:
What a professional event again produced by the Tamalpa running club under the direction of Tim and Diana Fitzpatrick. Short of spending much time at the aid stations, I was mostly impressed by the number of course monitors at key intersections. I was surprised to hear that a couple of the lead runners went off course as I thought the marking with the pink ribbons was very good. It must be due to speeding... Amazing crew of 80 volunteers, plus one USATF representative who came from Virginia to hand us the awards!

On the way back we stopped by the San Francisco Running Company to materialize the two gift cards I receive from them, one from winning my age group at Tamalpa, the other at Miwok if I recall. I had seen a few of their employees training on the course in the morning, it was cool to see elite Jorge Marvilla again, in what must be his working attire! ;-) Thank you SFRC for your generosity and support of our local ultra races and community!
Before closing, I want to advertise an upcoming local race which would welcome more participants: the Stevens Creek 50K, a great course in the hills above Palo Alto, Cupertino and Saratoga. Saturday September 26! I will not be running it this year, volunteering with Quicksilver to man the Saratoga Gap aid station and running the Trailblazer 10K that Sunday, but I very much recommend this event which actually includes three distances on groomed trails: half-marathon, 30K and 50K. You can register on UltraSignup or visit the Stevens Creek Striders' Club website. And thanks in advance for spreading the word out!


Run Happy on the road or in the woods!