Race 11-130 New Years Day 24/12 Hour run

45.623mi. - 11:54:08 - 23rd/57
Garmin Tracking here.

I wanted to have an aggressive schedule to finish to the year so I entered the Coastal Trail Runs New Year’s Day 24 Hour race. There are 6 and 12 hour options in addition to the 24 hours option and I chose the 12 hour race. I watched part of this race last year and there were quite a few people there that I knew and I hoped that would be the case again this year. The course is a 1.061 mile loop at Crissy Field in San Francisco. It is 60% dirt and 40% pace with 2 feet of elevation gain per loop.

One thing I didn’t plan on was having a pair of shoes I’d be comfortable running in for this long so I packed several pairs thinking I may need to change every few hours. Since the race was almost directly across the street from Sports Basement I stopped to look around before the race. I immediately found a pair of Nike Air Pegasus which I’ve had very good success with recently so I bought those to run in.

My race started at noon but the 24 hour racers had already started at 9AM. I knew Chikara Omine was out there and found out the Amy Burton was as well. I saw Jean Pommier (who seems to get better with age) at the start of my race and tagged him as the eventual winner. I should be able to run 70-75 miles in 12 hours but given my recent races I was hoping to get at least 100k in.

I started with Jean and a couple other guys running mid 7 minute pace for a mile before backing off a little. "A little" turned into "quite a bit" which turned into "quite a lot". I was having a difficult time with my feet being sore probably from running too many long races recently. The excessively flat surface doesn't play to my strengths either for such a long race. I felt a bit lethargic due to my non-existant dinner the night before.

By mile 11 I had slowed down to 9:40 pace which was bad enough, but the next 2 miles were 11:05 and 10:34. As I had run abuot a half marathon I noted to Wendell Doman, the race director, that I was already running my Double Dipsea pace. He said "At least it's not my Quad (Dipsea) pace" to which I replied "Just wait a couple more hours". My overall pace went up to the mid to high teens per mile, but I maintained a moving pace in the 13's to 16's - the difference being that I stopped to eat frequently in order not to run out of energy.

I hit the marathon mark in 5:18:26 and was ready to be done with it. I pressed on keeping up the same moving pace but not making my normal effort to move out of the aid station quickly. A couple of times I took an extended rest up to 10 minutes. The "finish decent" goal of 50 miles went out the window and turned into a "don't get embarassed" goal of more than 44 miles, since 44 miles is my 6 hour PR.

Somewhere in there Chikara went from looking OK to struggling. Erika Kikuchi ran a couple laps with me for a couple of laps. She was in the 6 hour race and not doing so well herself. Barry Smith kept passing me as he had started a lap late but eventually won the 6 hour race. After lap 40 (42.44 miles) in 11:09 I figured I could do 2 more laps in about 18-20 minutes each. I ran a 20:49 but then was able to squeeze in 2 laps after that in 12:22 and then 11:24.

I was a bit concerned for Chikara as he was struggling mightily and had hardly moved along the final straightaway to the aid station from where I passed him on my 2nd to last lap to where I passed him on my last lap. At that point my race was just ending and his had another 9 hours. After midnight hit starting the New Year I went to go find him and carry him in but by that point he had just made it to the aid station. It turned out he just needed a 7 hour nap in order to get up and get some more miles in.

It was a clear night so we had watched the full moon rise all evening and after the race we could see the fireworks by looking over Fort Mason. I rested a little in a tent that I thought belonged to Noe Castanon who was working at the aid station. Then I went home with no intention of waking up in time for the morning DSE 5k at the same course location.

Dipsea Data (Initial Data)

In response to a thread I've been participating in on the Tamalpa Runners Message Board, I've begun a statistical analysis of Dipsea records. The thread started with the question of whether the boys age 8 handicap gave them a disadvantage over other runners. I don't know anything about the methods actually used and regretably have not had a chance to buy and read Dipsea expert Barry Spitz's book. This may be a benefit to this small project since I can consider a fresh approach.

I promised an analysis which would determine the ideal handicaps for every age/gender combination. As everyone in Marin County, CA and many people outside of Marin knows, the Dipsea is a 7.1 mile trail race, famous for allowing alternate routes and for giving runners head starts based on age and gender. I proposed that handicaps should be based on projected times for each age gender as determined by a best-fit line calculated using historical Dipsea times.

Barry provided me with all of the single age/gender records. There are 162 total records - women aged 5-77 and men aged 6-95, excluding men aged 91 as the record holder Jack Kirk's official time is unavailable. Using this data I've developed 3 graphs which plot each record. Each graph also has a best-fit line. A best fit line is one that best appromixates each Y-value (time) for every X-value (age). For this line I used a polynomial formula with an order of 6. The best-fit line is determined by calculating the minimum variances as determined by comparing the line with the various data points.

Here are the graphs with brief explanation:

This is the master graph. All data is reflected here. Women's data (red) and men's data (blue) are plotted. The women's best-fit line is in green and men's in orange. One thing I noticed is it appears that the women's best-fit line is not a U. The men's is a U - starting at a young age, times get faster to a certain point and then get slower. But the women's seem to bottom out around age 19, then rise a little, then bottom out again in the mid 40's. The data does this too - if you see on Barry's blog, women in their teens can run under an hour, women in their early 20's seem unable to, and women starting at age 26 seem to be able to again. There is possibly a confounding variable there as most of the sub 1 hour times were from the 1980's and the best times at other ages tend more toward recent years. I will talk to Barry about this as I speculate these are due to course differences.

You also can see which records are the most "impressive" and which records are "soft". The impressive records are ones where the plotted point is far below the best fit line and soft receords are ones considerably above the best fit line. The women seem to be less consistent - their points are generally farther from their best fit line than men's. One possible explanation for this is more men the race which would lead to the best men's times have been whittled down more.

A couple soft records seem to be:
Women age 65
Men age 84-86, 89
A few impressive records seem to be:
Women age 66 and 68
Men age 87, 88, 90
It also appears that there are some kind-of-soft records:
Women - around age 20. As I wrote above teens and late 20's women ran faster, maybe due to the faster women around age 20 being on college racing/training schedules?
Men - mid-30's, because men aged 38-41 ran faster with no reason to think that extra speed comes with the 38th birthday.


This 2nd graph works the same as the first except I cut off men at age 83. I did this because it's difficult to see the meat part of the graph due to the high ages causing the Y-axis to go so high. I arbitrarily picked age 83 because 84 is where the earliest occurance of the men's record being slower than the slowest women's record (which is women age 77) exists. If the graph has to go up to the women age 77, we might as well include all of the men's time up to that point.

Also on the 2nd graph the men's best fit line is not exactly the same as the 1st graph. This is because the men's age 84+ times are exllucded from the calculation. It's close but not the same. For handicapping purposes which I'll discuss in a post (hopefully next week) using the best-fit line on the 1st graph would be a better choice.


I further truncated the 2nd graph to develop the 3rd, in the same way I truncated the 1st to get the 2nd. Again, the best-fit line will not exactly match the above graphs because it considers only that graph's data. This graph shows the ages where the most competitive times are posted. I used ages 16 and 55 endpoints arbitrarily because that's where it appears the times start and stop being "real fast".

Race 11-25 U.S. Snowshoe Championship Relay 4x2.5k

Races 11-23,24 US Snowshoe Championship, Citizens 5k

March 12th, 2011
10k - 58:03- 67th/114
Garmin Tracking here.
5k (6k?)- 34:44 - 2nd/49
Garmin Tracking here.

This weekend I went to the United States Snowshoe National Championships for the 5th time. The previous events I went to were in Minnesota, Utah, Oregon, and New York. This year the site selected was Lakewoods Resort in Cable, Wisconsin. Cable isn’t easy to get to. The nearest airports are Duluth, MN which is 2.5 hours away and Minneapolis, MN which is a little more than 3 hours away. Flights from SFO to MSP were more than $700 so I used my Delta Frequent Flyer Miles for the flight. I arrived in Minneapolis around noon and immediately went to the Mall of America to eat lunch. The mall is by far the largest mall in the county, by number of stores. There are 2 food courts both on the 3rd floor and I got a Texas wrap from Healthy Express.

Then I left for Cable. I arrived after 7PM without a hotel reservation. I read some negative comments about the host resort online so I figured if it was nice I’d stay there and if not there were some cheap options a half hour away. After leaving Minneapolis there is a whole lot of nothing. The drive was mostly on a 2 lane road and was kind of tiring so I stopped for a 20 minute nap. I got there a little past 7PM, after the athlete reception had finished although I wasn’t especially looking forward to attending.

I immediately went to the registration table which was open until 8PM where I reacquainted with Mark Elmore. Mark is the president of the United States Snowshoe Association (USSSA) and even more importantly he is the guy who puts in (by far) the most work to keep the whole thing going. To say he does a lot of work is an understatement. Without him I don’t know if the Regional Qualifier system and Championship would keep going. Registering right after me was Tim van Orden. He looked familiar and I’d heard his name from keeping on top of the New England snowshoe races but I had definitely never met him. Tim was very friendly.

I went to the registration desk to ask about room and they offered me a condo onsite next to the main lodge for $125 a night. It was a little more than I wanted to spend but the resort looked decent and I didn’t want to drive any more. I was also disappointed that the quoted price was before taxes but didn’t’ care enough to get out of it. Tim was lingering around the area and introduced me to a couple of his friends – Jim Johnson and Kevin Tilton. I had read a bit about Jim I think from Dave Dunham’s blog and I’d heard of Kevin as well. All 3 are clearly out of my league but they were welcomed me into their New England group, which worked out because it turned out there were only 3 west coasters at the event and I didn’t know the other 2. They were all staying about a half hour down the road.

After chatting a while about some people we know (Jim knew Chris Mahoney who I knew from UMASS and had met Scott Dunlap who I know from SF Bay California) I went to the room I rented. It turned out to be a 2 bedroom condo with a double bed and a pair of twins, full kitchen and bath. Too bad it was just me there. The room was clean and decent – it had an automatic fireplace which turned itself on and off but I thought it weird that the TV had only 10 or so channels, some staticky, and was a small TV/VCR combo. It was good enough to be comfortable in.

I was awake and ready very early. The youth race started at 9AM followed by the men’s race at 10AM and the women’s race at 11:30AM. This was the first time I remember the men going first. The weather was colder than yesterday, low 30s. It was overcast and snow was blowing in the air but it didn’t look like any real precipitation. In fact it appeared several inches had fallen overnight and there were flurries in the air. The start/finish line was about 100 yards from where I was staying so I kept warm in my room.

At the start I tried to get to around the 3rd row. I wanted to start a little fast because the course looked easier than I had been running in California. It was a little tight at the beginning since everyone took off like it was a road 5k and it was downhill with some turns at the bottom. I heard after the race that Bob Dion, owner of Dion Snowshoes took a tumble. Dion Snowshoes is not only one of the major brands, but was also the title sponsor of the Championship. One great thing about his company is Bob’s (and wife Denise’s) participation in the sport. When something goes wrong or I have questions about products I use like New Balance shoes or my Ford car I have to go out of my way to get support. But I have seen Bob many times helping people with their snowshoes at races, answering questions, etc. At last year’s nationals I saw Bob giving advice mid-race to a runner who obviously did not strap his feet in tight enough.

Anyway, the course was two loops, a 6k outer loop and a 4k inner loop. The outer loop crossed under the road so this was the first snowshoe race I’ve ever done with a tunnel. I ran hard for a mile or two but settled in what in hindsight I think was too slow. I wasn’t sure which loop was first but I figured it out after 5-6k when we were nowhere near the start. I came through the start/finish at the 6k mark in about 36:27. From there I pushed again and caught a few people on the smaller loop. We were very strung out so there wasn’t much back and forth. I didn’t know anyone around me so I don’t have any idea how I was doing really. I finished strong in 58:03 feeling as I normally do, like I could have run farther but not faster.

After the race they had doughnut holes and bananas. I was disappointed to see the “real” food cost money. I didn’t buy any. Instead I decided to run the Citizens 5k. Actually I had a difficult time deciding on 5k or 10 but I figured I had already done the 10k course, although I considered the possibility the 5k might be part of that. I also thought I might have a better shot at placing well in the 5k. I thought about this as I waited for my friend Richard Busa, known as Mr. Snowshoe, to finish. Richard is a young 82 years old. Coming to watch him race is about half the reason anyone would need to come to the event. I just missed him finishing as it was getting so cold I needed to go back to my room for more clothes and in the 2 minutes I took to do that he came in. He graciously accepted a picture request (left), after all we’ve know each other for years, but you wouldn’t believe the number of people who come up asking for a hug and a photo op.







The women’s race happened as scheduled, they actually started before Richard came in. I took photos of the top 4 finishers but I didn’t know any of them. Eventually it became time for the Citizens race. I decided on the 5k because I’ve never run a snowshoe race under 4 miles. I wanted to go out very aggressively and see if I could hold it. The 5k turned out to be the 6k loop with a couple of the biggest hills removed, well we ran around them. I started in 1st but got caught less than half way in. He was pulling away and 3rd was gaining on me. 3rd turned out to be Peter Feeney from Bar Harbor (pronounced Bah Hahbah), Maine. Peter gained on me on the ups and I opened up on the downs. Near the end we came to one of the very steep hills and following race instructions I followed the flags around it. Some guys were on the course yelling “You can go up the hill if you want” so he did. I’m not sure if that was OK but he didn’t end up catching me. The guy in front of me, then me, then Peter all stopped at the 5k finish so I likely would have won the 10k if I had entered it (still waiting for my 1st snowshoe win, which will probably never happen).

There was an awards ceremony at 3:30PM. The awards were generally for the Championship race but I got an age group medal for the Citizens race without any fanfare after. I also won a raffle prize of a pair of hiking poles. Then at 6PM all athletes were welcome to dinner. At my table were Tim, Jim and Kevin, and they invited Peter over, and we also had Richard and a few older guys there I didn’t know. There were 3 choices of soups – I had cream of mushroom – and spaghetti with chicken and a brownie cake thing for dessert. I felt this made up for the charged food earlier. We ate there and went through another series of raffles. When the dinner was done the crowd dispersed, with half of our table going upstairs to the bar. There I learned that Jim Johnson knows more about music, specifically classic rock than anyone I know. I remember stuff really well but this guy is off the chart. Also, Richard told me he might have a spot on a relay team tomorrow if I wanted to run. So as I went back to my room I started planning my race and checkout schedule for Sunday.

Race 11-22 Montara Mountain Half Marathon

Race 11-21 Norcal 10 miler

March 5th, 2011
10mi. - 1:02:50 - 54th/250
Garmin Tracking here.

Race 11-20 Desert Map Trek 4hr. - Red Rocks Canyon State Park

February 27th, 2011
4 Hour Rogaine - 3:58:06 (680/760 pts.) - 4th/10
Garmin Tracking here.

It’s tomorrow. After another drive in to Red Rocks from Bakersfield I was ready to go. I only had 20 minutes before the start this time, but was much more prepared when I got there having already registered (yesterday) and having my watch ready and sun block on. Rex had already begun to give instructions so I listed in as I planned out my route. There were 15 controls and the overall terrain was more mountainous – it didn’t look like there were open basins like in yesterday’s event. 4 of them were worth 80 points, the rest were worth 40, and there was a 25 point penalty (per minute, or fraction thereof) for taking over 4 hours.

Everyone started one time and people left in 2 groups. Some went straight north and I led a group going northeast between 2 small rock hills. There were 5 easy controls in the flat land not far from the start and I got 3 of them before heading up into the hilly terrain. I made it to the first 2 and maybe all 3 before anyone else, but there I took a slower route to the 4th and some people beat me to it. From there I got separated and didn’t see anyone as I got my fifth. I temporarily lost my bearings looking for #6 before eventually finding them and running into Bud (from yesterday) as we got what was for me #6. He told me he missed getting what I called #5 but proceeded to go to the same one as me for #7. After that we split up with him going to the northeastern most control that I decided to skip. I figured since I didn’t have time to get them all skipping the farthest one out, which was worth 40 points, would be worth it.

So I was on my own again and got a couple easy ones. One was a water stop on the side of a trail and one was on a fairly open hillside with a half dozen people crowded around. From there I went north to get a double point in a hard section. It was hard because the terrain was flatter so not an many landmarks. Also the contours on that part of the maps increased from 20 feet to 40 feet so the map was less descript, and the land all looked the same. A bunch of people looked lost in this area so I wasn’t the only one. I ended up going east to a part of trail I was on before getting those 2 easy ones. This still didn’t work so I tried again from the northwest near an obvious hilltop. Just as I was about to give up on it I saw it just ahead. This was big since it was worth double points and I didn’t’ want to waste so much time and not get anything.

The next one was fairly easy but then I came to one that people had a really difficult time finding. Bud was already there and he and some other people give only a little more effort before moving on. The control was supposed to be in gully (called a re-entrant) and there were like a dozen of them. I crossed a bunch of re-entrants perpendicularly between the top of them and the dried waterway at the bottom. I turned around and went up the dried waterway looking up the re-entrants and still could find it. Then I climbed most of the hill (a couple hundred feet) and crossed the re-entrants perpendicularly again at a higher level. I decided I’d look but I had to get going back so I was prepared not to get it. As I thought I was on the boundary of where it could possibly be I looked right and saw it in the shae directly under a plant that was handing out over sidewall of the re-entrant.

From there I didn’t follow the waterway which was a mistake. Instead I climbed over he shoulder of the hill and went down an almost dangerous side. It was very rocky and steep – like bouldering. Any more so and I wouldn’t have been able to do it. I tried to get the 2 controls in the flat area I didn’t get at the beginning but only managed to get one. There was one not far from the trial that led to the finish and I could see it from a was away. The other was in an inlet that I saw Bud coming out of. There were 2 I knew he didn’t get and there was this one and the one I purposely skipped that I didn’t get. I could have easily made it back first from there, but I wasn’t competing directly with him so I thought I’d be better off getting that last control. I looked as long as I felt I could (about 5 minutes) and rushed back. I made it back with only slightly more than a minute to spare.

Results…to come soon.

Today’s course had more trails and not so many volcanic rocks but I covered less ground, I think due to the difficulty of the climbing. I saw 3 wild hares on Saturday and none Sunday but I saw a bunch of interesting pink cacti Sunday (and none Saturday).

Race 11-19 Desert Map Trek 4hr. - Red Rocks Canyon State Park

February 26th, 2011
4 hr Rogaine - 3:55:13 (760/960 pts.) - 2nd/6
Garmin Tracking here.

I spend the past weekend in Southern California to run the Desert Map Trek Rogaines on Saturday and Sunday. I drove down Friday night and stayed in Bakersfield, which was 84 miles west of the race location, Red Rocks Canyon State Park in Cantil, CA. The Saturday event started at noon so there was plenty of time to get a full night’s sleep before driving to the park in the morning.

On Saturday I got to the park about 45 minutes before the race, which is quite early for me. I had time to fill out forms for both days’events but I only paid for Saturday not knowing if my left hamstring which had been sore the previous week would be good to run on the 2nd day. There was a 4 hour event and a 2 hour event. I opted for the 4. There were 19 controls on the curse and I only planned on getting half of them. The event organizer, Rex Winterbottom, said I should be able to get more if I do well. I was easily the fastest runner there although I’m significantly worse at the navigation aspect that many of the regular orienteering participants. It was bright and sunny but only in the mid 40’s so I forgot to put on sun block. I passed on wearing a hat so I wouldn’t get too hot and since it was cool I made a last minute decision not to carry a water bottle which worked out well for me.

Only 3 of us were at the start on time, but I couldn’t leave immediately due to my Garmin watch data being full. I left 2:16 late, after I had deleted sufficient old records to allow for a new event. Several of us converged near the first control and took a few minutes to find it, reminding me of the difficulty I sometimes have at these where I’m really close but can’t quite find it. Eventually we all found it and in hindsight didn’t seem to be too hidden. There were several other people around on my way to the 2nd and third controls as well, and that made it a little easier to find them. At that point I began to go south along a ridge while it seemed most people headed east into a basin below the ridge I ran along. In this whole area there were volcanic rocks scattered about the land.

I was all alone at the 4th control and continued below an East/West road that divided the course into a top and bottom half. The bottom half didn’t have all the volcanic rocks but it was more desert-like. I lost my bearings temporarily because the terrain really flattened out but eventually found my way by following dried waterways. It was at this point that I ran into Bud, who covered ground a lot slower than my but seemingly in a more direct way. He seemed to get right to the controls, or within a close range and I spent a lot of time looking around. He and I went back and forth for the rest of the time. We talked a little at a couple different controls as we both were looking in the same vicinity. In the rest of the time I saw only 2 other participants and they were teamed together. I briefly talked with them as they were looking for a control that Bud and I were also looking for.

I headed through a canyon of deep red rocks on the east side, near the highway on the way bad. Bud caught up to me in the canyon (again) as I was looking for a control in the canyon that I didn’t end up finding. Bud bailed on it earlier because he knew he’d have less time to get back by the cutoff, but my spending an additional 10 minutes didn’t help. I got one other control on the way back that was right on the natural route and ran the rest of the way back. I caught Bud and got to the end before him which worked out because it seems ties in points go to whoever finishes earlier.

More to come tomorrow…

Race 11-18 President's Day Coyote Point 10k

February 21th, 2011
10k - 39:03 - 6th/48

There is only 1 race in the bay area on President's Day and it's the President's Day 10k/5k put on by Sky High Events. It's run by a guy known as "Big Al". Al is an older guy who is really into getting people fit. He puts on Bay Area races on holidays without much advertisement. There are usully around 50 participants and shirts available to all entrants.

The President's Day Race is at Coyote Point in San Mateo at 10AM. I took this day off the last 2 years, once for this race and once for a snowshoe race. This year I ran the race without taking the day off by running it during lunch since I work only a few miles north in Burlingame.

I got to the race with about 15-20 minutes to spare. I talked with several DSE members who were there (Greg Brown, Erika Kikuchi, and Barbara Robben to name a few). I was very sore from the races I had done the previous 2 days. I especially tried to stretch my hamstrings which were tight. The weather was mostly sunny and a little cool, with a decent wind blowing in from the south.

The 5k and 10k started simultaneously and I started the race around 9th place. After we made it over the initial hill I picked up some spots and took first place. I was caught by 2 guys after the mile mark.One was younger and the other looked 40+. i knew immediately that I wouldn't be able to stay with them. Shortly after, the first woman with a New Balance Silicon Valley singlet on passed me. My legs started to tighten up so I hoped that some of the 3 in front of me would turn around at the 5k turnaround. They all kept going so I prepared myself for 4th place.

The course is out and back heading south along the bay on the Out section. The 10k turnaround seemed far away, but probaby because I wasn't doing so well. After the turnaround a couple more guys caught me and I really started to feel slow. I finished as strong as I could in 39:03 (I think). Big Al isn't big on providing official race results so if you don't write your time and place down while you're there don't plan on ever finding out. I was surprised at my time because I had forgotten to bring my watch to work so I couldn[t run with it and I felt like I was moving slower than that. After Erika finished she said her GPS showed only 6 miles, not a full 10k and I remember thinking that I would have been over 40 minutes at the full distance. I plan on going back to measure the distance and elevation change in a training run soon.

This race isn't the best race but it's the only one on President's Day and it's not too expensive ($25 race day entry + $5 per car park entry fee). I don't like it enough to commit (even in my mind) to doing it the next year, but I guess I'd generally run it unless something different comes along.

Race 11-17 Hamilton YMCA TCRS 4.36mi.

February 20th, 2011
4.36mi. - 27:15 - 5th/113

Since the beginning of 2010 I’ve been making the effort to race in more of the monthly TCRS races which are put on by Tamalpa Runners in Marin. The cost is $3 for members and $5 for non-members and what you get is a 5k-12k course over varied terrain, usually it’s a cross country type course with at least one decent size hill in the middle. This month’s TCRS was no different. The course is a 4-ish mile loop that starts on the levee behind the Novato YMCA, runs on some dirt trails and through a neighborhood going up 2 short but steep hills before returning to the finish. I had never run this course before.

The weather today was mild and sunny and I arrived at the race quite early. I was a little sore from yesterday’s 50k but not too fatigued. I thought having done yesterday’s race might cost me a handful of places. The TCRS series has some competitive runners – I’ve never been within striking distance of the leader after the halfway mark. No one knew exactly how long the course was but for some reason we had to start a quarter mile down the levee and run toward the parking lot to make the course long enough.

I started out in about 9th place but 1st wasn’t too far ahead. Everyone was more or less running in back of the person in front of him (mostly hims with the exception of Valerie Young who was a couple places in front of me). As we got to the first hill I started picking off runners until I got to (I think) 2nd, maybe 3rd? As we crested that hill I lost a couple places but I kept running strong. Also, first place had pulled away from the pack.

We descended down into a neighborhood and ran toward a second hill. I passed 2 guys going up that hill and at least one passed me back as we were at the top. When we started the descent I was in 5th with first place being out of reach but the next 3 guys were all close. I thought I might be able to make up ground going downhill but no dice – it wasn’t happening. I ran as hard as I could to avoid getting caught by the guy in 6th and managed to hold him off. I had saved a little in the tank for the last 100 meters in case he caught me, which I used but didn’t have to.

After the race a bunch of us went to Peet’s down the road. I should be at or near the top of the TCRS standings having placed fairly well in both of the events so far this year, but I expect to miss the next one due to it being the same weekend as the National Snowshoe Championship in Wisconsin.

Race 11-16 Golden Gate 50k

February 19th, 2011
50k - 5:43:52 - 4th/11
Garmin Tracking here.

I had been planning on running the Buzz Half Marathon and considered the possibility of running the full marathon but made a last minute decision not to run it. I had run Buzz twice before and would have liked to again but it’s a long drive to San Miguel and it was supposed to rain. I didn’t want to go that far to run a rainy half marathon. Also, they hold it on a military base which and they require all visitors to go inside where they request licenses of everyone in the vehicle, car registration, and proof of insurance which is a pain to deal with before a race. So instead at 11PM Friday night I decided to run the Coastal Trail Runs Golden Gate 50k.

I arrived with plenty of time to register and get my stuff together. Ray Sanchez was the only person on the pre-entrants list I recognized as being faster than me, but as I got to the start line Leigh Schmitt came over to say hi and I knew I’d be quite a bit behind him. The weather was cool and cloudy. The first climb is a tough one but I hung with Leigh as we had started talking. I fell off his pace after a half mile and settled into my own race from there. There was a magnificent view of snow capped Mt. Tam ahead to our left as I descended toward Tennessee Valley. A couple other runners in who were in the shorter races passed me but I still felt fine.

As I was getting to Tennessee Valley we started to get hit with hail. It stopped briefly once and returned as I started climbing the Fox Trail to Coyote Ridge. I was glad I ran with a hat because the visor was keeping the hail out of my face. It continued as I ran along the ridge all the way to the Coastal Trail at the Pacific Ocean. The hail turned to rain by the time I hit Pirate’s Cove but and that’s when Ray passed me. I was feeling very cold. I struggled to get back to Tennessee Valley and looked forward to getting back to the start so I could get more clothes.

The rain mostly kept up on the way back and I kept my head down and just focused on what was in front of me. When I completed the first loop I replaced my wet shirt with my warm up jacket from the car. My hands were so cold I had a tough time opening the car door. I got some food and headed out for the 2nd loop. It was the same as the first, minus the 5 mile loop with the Fox trail climb and Coastal Trail back to Tennessee Valley. I was warm for a short time until I got to Tennessee Valley again. As I stared climbing Marincello out of Tennessee Valley my watch started to beep because it was out of memory. This was an annoyance. I started to walk a little too – I was having a less than fun time. I had no difficulty finishing the 2nd loop but could not get my legs to move fast. I finished in 5:43:52 which was easily over an hour slower than I had previous run on a very similar course. Leigh and Ray had already left but I stayed a while to eat some food and talk with the race director, Wendell. I was glad I ran this race instead of the Buzz marathon, but the cold rain ended up getting to me too much.

Race 11-15 Golden Gate Bridge Vista 10k

February 13th, 2010
10k - 40:32 - 5th/132
Garmin Tracking here.

By now I’ve run most of the DSE courses with the only ones I haven’t done being the ones created in the last 2 years. I’ve tried to attend different races to mix it up, but one of the DSE courses I’ll never get tired of is the Golden Gate Bridge Vista 10k. Since I like this course and there was nothing else I’ve been dying to do, I ran this race. Also, it’s only a $3 race cost which is better for my wallet than most any other race.

The course starts at Land’s End which is the northwestern most point of San Francisco – just north of the Cliff House. It heads south and does a quick hairpin turn to a trail that we follow for a little more than a mile before hitting the paved road just below the Legion of Honor. We follow the road from there almost all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge then turn around and come back. On the way back we follow the road to the western end of the Legion of Honor parking lot and take a short trail directly to the Land’s End parking lot, instead of following the windy trail by the water. There is a little concern for traffic, especially near the turnaround but the views for the first 2 miles are excellent if it’s a nice day. For today’s race the weather was perfect.

Winning a DSE race is sometimes a possibility for me although not as much recently because three crowds have gotten bigger and more competitive runners have been coming than several years ago. I immediately ruled this out when I saw Chikara Omine there, and shortly after Sloane Cook. I also saw Joe Weirheim before the race and mentally moved myself down to 4th. I finish in front of Joe at every Thursday night series and recently ran faster at the California International Marathon and Jed Smith 50k, but I generally have no hope of keeping up with him at the weekend DSE races.

I started the race a little fast, actually too fast, right next to Chikara for about as long as I could. Sloan was in front of us and I fell off of Chikara’s pace before the mile mark. Eventually Joe and DSE President Ky Faubion passed me before we hit the road. Ky has been running faster than me at DSE races as well. A younger guy I don’t know passed me as we hit the road. He didn’t know which way to go as we got to an island in the middle of the road. I shouted ahead that they both go to the same place so he took the lower road while I took the upper. The 2 choices meet up at what is rumored to be Robin Williams’ house, something I’ve been unable to verify. I was disappointed to see the vine shaped like a dinosaur in the front lawn that was overlooking the 8 foot wall at that house had been taken down.

The younger guy pulled away in the road section and I was solidly in 6th. I kept him in sight however hoping I could catch them on the hills we still had to run. It looked like I made some ground going up the winding hill to the turnaround and I was happy to see Vince French at the turnaround. Going down the winding road I made up more ground and I caught the young guy near the former dinosaur possible Robin Williams house. I tried to get by him before the climb to the Legion of Honor but he was able to stay with me. I surged a few times going up that hill and finally by the time we hit the top I opened some space. I was also well spent and aware he could catch me in the short trail section so I kept moving as fast as I could. It turned out he wasn’t going to close the gap and I had that figured out as I got to the parking lot. I ran as hard as I could at the end but was a little disappointing with my time.

After the race I had some snacks and got re-acquainted with Steve Stephens’ cat. Steve brings his cat to races and lets it roam around like a dog. A bunch of us all furthered our plans to hike up Mt. Whitney this summer – a trip of hopefully 15 DSE members mainly being organized by President Ky.

Race 11-14 Northstar Snowshoe Series 10k

February 12th, 2011
10k - -
Garmin Tracking here.

Race 11-13 Jazztrax Snowshoe Stomp 10k

Race 11-12 Jed Smith 50k

Race 11-11 Arts and Sciences 5k

Race 11-10 The Dam Run 10k

Race 11-09 Northstar at Tahoe Snowshoe Half Marathon

Race 11-08 Chabot College All Comers Meet

Race 11-07 Shell Ridge Orienteering

Race 11-06 Tennessee Valley 3.78mi.

Race 11-05 Castle to Coast 8.2mi.

Race 11-04 Oyster Bay Regional Shoreline Orienteering

Race 11-03 Crystal Springs Marathon

Race 11-02 Lake Merced 4.5mi.

Race 11-01 Los Gatos Resolution Run 5mi.