Canyon Time

Last Saturday was the start to my "Real" WS100 training.It was Canyons 101 Initiation!!! The morning started off meeting Tony Overbay and Amy to carpool up to Michigan Bluff (a sleepy town that was bustling during the Gold Rush days). I had been through here once before last year for the Memorial Day run but needless to say a bit concerned as a rookie joining the Big Boys of WS for the first time.

We actually arrived first but quickly found out that everyone under the sun had arrived. Nearly 50 runners, many rooks like me, arrived and I felt a bit better that I was not the only new kid on the block. While waiting for everyone to gather a Rockstar local runner, Rob Evans, comes up and introduces himself to me and says you're Chris right? ......."Yeah!" (what's up with the local stud talking to me?)Come to find out James Barstad who organized the run got an email from Rob who thought I might be someone he could run with based off my recent showing at AR50. Such a nice dude but in my best day I might be able to challenge him if it were a recovery run for him and a speed day for me!!!!!

The run started in reverse direction of WS from MB down to the river for just over 2miles of steep decent. I started out near the front of the pack just by happen chance. When we arrived at the bridge at the rivers bottom Rob says "you ready to run this thing?" What am I going to say - NO? Besides I assume he is talking to the bunch of us that had gathered after a pee break. Next thing I know the climb begins and there is just Rob and I running up the trail(everyone else apparently wise enough to hike it). I have no clue how far this goes to the summit but Rob is passing advice out left and right about WS, Miwok and what he thinks I can do and how to do it so I'm trying to hold on!!!!

Come to find out it is over 4miles of climbing up to the top of Devils Thumb and I am about 1mile into it now and Rob is about 100ft ahead. I'm gasping and he is chatting!! It was at this point that I took one of his first points of advice to keep my HR around 155b/min. Well, that wasn't happening so I chose to drop back a bit and let him go on his way. I was so thankful for his tidbits but knew I could not implode this early in the canyons. About 3miles up the trail I waited at an intersection alone for all the other runners so as to not get lost on my first day. James and Tony got a good laugh out of my description of trying to hang on with Rob and the remainder of the climb to DT was far more casual in pace and more to my aerobic liking.

When we approached the top of DT I recalled the area from last year and we proceeded to traverse the very technical downhill to the Swinging Bridge about a mile below. This was the locale last year where Curt, Amy and I spent about 30min cooling off in the river. From here Tony and I both knew we needed to get back sooner than others due to family obligations so we thanked James for the organization and showing us the course. We turned around and began our power hike up DT. Devils Thumb is the most extreme climb in WS course, luckily today we only had about 10miles on our feet so we set off keeping an eye on the watch to see what we could do! The trail was crowded here as most of the other runners were coming down what we were now ascending. After much great conversation with my buddy Tony on the Ups we crested the top in about 35min. Pretty respectful for our first time!

The excitement of getting DT out of the way must have disturbed our sense of direction because it was here that the two of us together took a wrong turn and proceeded about 3miles off track. We were pretty confident we had made a wrong turn when the patches of snow had no foot prints and there were shotgun shells along the way but the occasional ribbons on the trees gave us a bit of hope we might reconnect. No such luck and a great rookie story to share but we retraced our steps and found our way back to the proper trailhead. From here it was 4miles of fast decent on single tracks that are meant to trash your quads and train you for what is to be expected in June.

I love downhills and have been preparing my quads with eccentric gym work as well as hills whenever possible. So Tony and I were off after a quick hello to some other local runners at The Pump(Derek S., Matt K, Karalee and others). I took off and did what I could to punish my legs with a really big smile on my face. Tony was just behind as we barreled down the hill. About half way down I came across Dr Marty Hoffman, WS Medical Director/Ultra Runner and introduced myself and thanked him for his recent advice on some bladder/hydration concerns I had. He congratulated me on a great AR50 last week and we were off again. Back at the bottom and the base of MB Tony was just over a minute behind me as we averaged sub 8min/miles there.

The two of us spent the last 2miles hiking out of the basin to our cars, basking in a great first day of running, sharing running tidbits and getting to know each other better. We both agreed if our quads could feel even remotely this fair come 6/26 we would have a good day!!!!!!

All in all it was the perfect initiation to the canyons. 5hours exactly to cover 22miles of the most challenging parts of Western States. The remainder of my day was spent cleaning the house with Natalie and dancing the night away with Caitlyn at the 12Bridges Daddy/Daughter Dance. A highlight for me and hopefully a memory she will cherish for years. Daddy in a tuxedo and rented dress shoes after beating himself up all day. What more could a little girl or Daddy ask for?