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Streak To Mission Peak: my first Open Course race!
Enough hibernating, between COVID and a 2-year injury stint, it's time to get back on my toes and rebuild! On one hand, I can't believe how much fitness I lost, both physically and mentally. On the...
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Hum up Um: second Open Course and Peak #2/9
Humming up Umunhum. Mount Umunhum that is. Hard to believe I had never ran to this iconic top over our South Bay area, nor hike, ride or drive for that matter. The closest I've been to it was during...
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Jam on Tam: a classic I didn't know existed!
Does Jam on Tam resonate with you? Am I the only one who thought that was Greg or Todd's invention? I have to love that ultra running is so humbling, a never ending experiment in which you always learn...
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Bay Area 9 Peaks Challenge: what about 4 in one day?
These Bay Area 9 Peaks Challenge and Open Course Triple Crown got me on a roll, just the motivation I needed to get back on my toes, after a 2-year injury hibernation. I started to catchup a bit with...
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Cupertino-Fremont 50-mile: a blip back into ultra training
After 4 posts about PCTR's Bay Area 9 Peak Challenge, back to flat and many more miles. I attempted this run back in February, while ramping up my mileage after the aborted Jed Smith 50-mile where I...
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Jackpot 100-mile Nationals 2021: back to digging deeper, again.
One week has passed and quite a few asked how my race went, short of a same day race report, time to make time for an account of this major event...The build-up2 years and 5 months after that infamous...
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Mount Diablo: Peak #7 of 9
Sunday March 28, 8 days after our 4-peaks-in-day sub challenge, we were still actively working on our family Bay Area 9 peaks PCTR challenge. And it's now early May, time flies, late posting and...
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Quicksilver 50K Fat Ass: back to a bit of social life!
It was on race day but it was certainly not a race. Just stating this right away in case a Park Ranger wonders... Short of a permit, our official Club race got cancelled, first the 50K one in March's...
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Mount Saint Helena: peak #8 of 9
Another flashback to continue catching up with older running stories on this blog. It was on Saturday April 10, Agnès, Max and I picked Greg in San Francisco, on our way to Napa Valley first. As we had...
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Mount Vaca: one more discovery for peak #9 of 9!
After Napa County and it's highest point, Mount Saint Helena on Saturday, let's move South-East to the Solano County and Mount Vaca, the last of the PCTR Bay Area 9 Peaks Challenge summits for our...
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Skyline 50K 2021: so hard but good to be back!
Sorry if the title looks like containing an ounce or two of the sadomasochist nature of ultra running, I can't help not to as it captures my state of mind. And, from what I could see on social media,...
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Backs to Black Mountain: keeping moving forward. And up!
Not this weekend, but last Saturday, and the week before Skyline 50K, I went back up to Black Mountain. Technically three times as I also did the Bella Vista and Indian Creek trails loop on the other...
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PCTR Headlands Hundred 2021: not quite there yet, but trying. Hard.
It has been a week already, let's do a quick one before memories fade away and, scoop, before a business trip to Texas this week, the first since my last client meeting in March 2020! And it had to be...
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Back to square 2 or 4 maybe?
I always associated this expression to an algebraic form but, according to some web search, it comes from the time people were listening to the radio to follow football (yes, that American sport where...
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Quicksilver 50K 2021: could have I emerged from the dead farther?
Death is really no joke, especially as we advance in life and start losing more of our friends or relatives, and continuing on the realization journey that this is one of the most certain outcome of…...
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Silicon Valley Turkey Trot 2021: let's chase that bird, despite headwinds!
I can't believe I've yet to write my race report for... last year's Turkey Trot! I was hoping for this long weekend but that may still wait for a few days, or weeks. For the interest of catching up,...
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Quad Dipsea 2021: back to the ultra fun. And pain.
Oh my, how good it is to get back to running an ultra, to meet the ultra community, and push the envelope again! After screwing up my 2021 season with a weird calf injury after a casual 50K training...
View ArticlePAUSATF 2022 MUT Grand Prix schedule: finally!
I wasn't born to ultra running back in 1991 when this Grand Prix started, and even less so living in the Bay Area, but I am a collector so have a few records to retrace some history. Yet, I can't tell...
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PCTR Mount Diablo 10K: let's talk Mountain!
Mountain... Snow? Ski? Snowshoeing? Nope, I wish we could have driven up to Tahoe to enjoy some fresh snow for a change but between road closures and the COVID omicron variant frenzy, we didn't. But we...
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Jed Smith 2022: back to the tradition.
For as long as I can recall over the past 15 years, Buffalo Chips' Jed Smith 50K has been our season open in the MUT Pacific Association Grand Prix. And so it was in 2020 before we pulled the Grand...
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