Last weekend I ran in my second WTC 50K race. This race will always hold a special place in my heart for various reasons! First, this was my initiation into Ultra Trail Races last year in 09'. Secondly, this is the most popular if not most competitive 50K Trail Race in North America. Finally, if not most importantly this course is gorgeous and nearly in my backyard just up the hill past Auburn in the tiny town of Cool nestled in the foothills surrounding the canyons of the American River. Simply put if you live anywhere around the Sacramento area and have never ventured onto these trails in any form (hiking,biking, horseback or otherwise) you need to get off the couch and do just that. This is the closest thing to Heaven on Earth if you ask me!
This year was the first year that WTC 50K was a lottery to enter vs the previous years of simply being fast on the keyboards to register, and when I mean fast try sellout in 6minutes!!! - that beats out most rock bands concerts. Getting into WTC was simply the luck of the draw this year and as I have said before my luck was outstanding this year as I got into WTC, Miwok 100K, and most importantly WSER100. To get in to any of these is fortunate, to get into all three (Trifecta) is saying Gods are with me this year!!!!!
So back to the purpose of this Blog..........
Race day started knowing a few things were going against me. First, this season has been a pretty wet one and the day before the race was no exception. We had a good storm come through Friday and even though race morning would be clear and cold the course was sure to be slick and muddy! Secondly, the day before the race it was determined that one of my training partners Amy would need to call it quits and not run the race. She was dealing with a bad shin and it was felt best she should not test it and risk her training for WSER. It was certain that we both would PR this day by large margins based off our stellar training since our freshman year on the trails. I promised we would have her out there on the course with us - pushing us along and she was there in spirit for sure.
Many of my friends were running this race: Curt, Antonio, Katy, Kuni, Ken and Bob to name a few. Impressively the the list of runners 575 strong included some the best such as: Leor Pantilat(last years winnner), Max King, Geoff Roes, Kami Semick, Karalee Morris and Tim Tweitmeyer. Although, my head was telling me remember only 80%, this is a build up to WS..... my heart was saying you know this course! You know what you can do and when you can unleash so run smart but run FAST and crush your PR (5hrs38min) from last year and in the process put the 5hr window in the bag!!!!
As the gun went off fist bumps were handed out amongst Antonio, Curt and I as well as a fellow Brooks ID runner we met at the line. The race starts out as an approximate 10K on the Olmstead loop before crossing Hwy 49 and heading into the single tracks. The first mile is actually on the pavement and starts flat until there is a good little climb to round out the mile and push you onto the trails. I started comfortably and found myself right behind Karalee Morris a much better and certainly more experienced runner than I. I thought who better to draft behind and learn something, but no sooner was I thinking this that I found myself surging ahead and running considerably faster. I look down to find that my first mile was at 7:10pace.
What? What the hell are you doing Chris? A 5hr finish is like a 10min pace. Time to re adjust but not before getting a great belly laugh from my friend Tony Overbay. Tony was not as lucky to get into WTC this year so he decided to get his volunteer hours in at this race for WS. I should have known he would not simply be filling water bottles! Nope he was dressed in a full head to toe Banana Man outfit and yelling "Don't slip on this!" as we entered the trail head and onto slower times. By the time we came flying down the technical downhill to HWy49 aid station there were familiar faces and happy shout outs from friends and RD Julie Fingar who has been very gracious in providing this newbie with points along the way with my training this year. At this point I rechecked my Garmin and found that with about 6miles in or a 5th of the way thru, my pace now was 8:10avg. Better but in all likelihood still too fast and certainly nothing I would expect to hold as the terrain shifts dramatically up ahead.
It was at this point that some of the effects of the storm started to show itself on the single tracks and some of the otherwise very fast downhills were muddy and filled with enough moisture that footing was marginal. I love the downhills and can usually make up sometime here for myself and on others but today found myself holding my own and occasionally getting past by a few Kamikaze runners who were willing to let it rip! By the time we were off the fire roads and climbing up our first big hiking hill my time was more reasonable and at about 8:45avg pace as we started above the canyons and on the beautiful single track, runnable parts of the course I love.
This middle half of the course has always been so kind to me. Fast, effortless and Nirvana where I can usually get lost in thought or lack thereof for miles only to occasionally look at my Garmin to see I'm running effortlessly at an 8min pace. Today, however it did not feel so effortless. Whether it was the fast start, the race atmosphere or the unsteady terrain I found myself running a similar pace on the flats and downhills but I was certainly working at it. Doubt started to creep in that I might pay for this somewhere down the line and again I told myself 80% but my legs weren't listening.
This course is known for a few things: great runnable single tracks, several creek crossings, waterfalls and Newts! Well today I did not see any Newts (thanks to the newt patrol) and the creeks were more like RIVER Crossings up to your knees and at times as high as your waist. The other thing this course is known for are a couple brutal hills that drop you to your knees. The first of which is Ballbearing, a nearly mile long technical uphill that gets your HR up to its max and that is while you're hiking it - not running it. It was here that you generally will lose considerable time but on a good day can often make up the time by the finish. This was a bittersweet climb as I passed several other runners that I was able to out hike including another local runner that I have followed and sort of privately eyed as one who I might match up with fairly well based on race results. As I basked in this awareness I also noticed that I was handily being passed by Karalee Morris only to never see her again on the course. She clearly knew what she was doing at the start and well me not sooo much!!!!
Along the next several miles I had the pleasure to run with and chat with Mark Gilligan who has done well with a relatively new website for such races UltraSign Up and we got to talking about the lotteries and the different takes on getting in to such races. At some point during this time we came across one of the more challenging creek crossings and being a local I made the wiser choice and managed to only get about up to my knees while Mark, I was certain by the noise made along side me, must clearly be floating down stream. Nope! Simply jumped into the deepest section up past his waist and he is well over 6ft tall. He too was a more experienced and talented runner than I and it showed as he left me behind in the last 10K or so.
Goat Hill was its usual beast to climb for about 0.4miles but I knew at the top times could be made up and it was a relatively fast finish with about 4-5miles left to go. I tried to turn it on here but the terrain was beat up more than ever and mud was more than ankle deep as you ran down otherwise fast technical downs. An ankle sprain or worse was not worth shaving off a few minutes now. I continued on strong but kept telling myself this was so not an 80% effort race(90-95%)! In the last two miles I passed two runners of note that surprised me. The first was a runner I did not know who was clearly washed out but working to persevere. He had passed me so fast in the first third of the race I thought I would never see this guy again. We exchanged sincere respect for each others efforts and I moved forward. The second runner was met climbing the final hill with a mile left. This runner is known across Northern California and clearly a guy that had a bad day because otherwise he should have been looking at a top 10 finish around 4hours. I tried to motivate him to get going along side me but he was done! Sad to see a guy so talented, so washed out but a bit of self confidence for me to even be around him considering just 9months ago I was happily filling his bottles at WSER as he was on his way to a sub 20hr WS race.
The finish concluded with me out kicking a guy in the last quarter mile by about 20seconds and almost catching an entirely new runner by less than a half a second. My time was a 43min PR from last year with a 4hr55min finish good for 69th overall!!!! Life was good and about to get a lot better because my buddy Curt was there waiting with a cooler full of Blue Moon beer and a nice 20th overall finish himself! We waited happily for the next few hours as the rest of the runners came in. As each passed by more beers were shared and another fun day on the trails and a few miles closer to WS preparation. Up next AR50 miler!!!!
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