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.