San Francisco 50K, good times...

Retribution. The word summarizes my experience this weekend. I remember last year. Cold, humiliated, shaking and in pain from toe to my ribcage I came in 10 th with a time of 5:49. I knew at the end of last year I would come back here. A year later... Fourth overall, winning the age group. What happened and how it happened follows...
I would first like to thank all of my Team Rogue and Ultra Rogue :) mates and Steve & Ruth who prepped me by always being there through all these weeks and months by providing me with a consistent program and a group of people whose passion is running. I know this is not a famous race but this meant to as much as Boston.
The morning of the race I take a cab to the start. I am there early and I am shivering a bit but I know what is to come and I know a bit of cold will be the least of my problems.
As we all know people are really friedly in San Francisco and I have no problems congregating near the heat lamps North Face provided. However I am really glad to see Mer. Waving to me and I go by their lamp to chat and also talk to Paul. The friendly faces calm me further and puts me in a relaxed mood. The race starts at 7:15 am and there we go. A guy takes off like a bullet and we all follow. He quickly builds a 100 yard lead. According to my flexible race plan, as long as the lead group is not full of idiots who want to push the pace I will follow them and make my move somewhere between mile 20 and 25. As we talked with Mike before those of us in the Rogue running group have an advantage over the regular trail runners due to our high turnover on the flats. I will push just a bit whenever I see a little flat. The lead group is not full of idiots and we keep a fast but reasonable pace just to keep ourselves be seperated from the followers.
Around mile 3-5, I count the number of people who are in front of me. The leader who took off like a bullet is still going strong. A pair of guys are in his tail following 20 yards behind him then two more people right in front of me (I am 150 yards behind leader at this point). I decide to keep up with these two guys right in front of me for a while.
I notice how easy for the smaller people to climb the hills relative to me and make a note of it for Boston. I feel I have the advantage on the downhills for some reason. I enjoy finding a foot hold on the treacherous downhills and thinking very quickly where to put my next foot, not panicking when I slip.
Then I spot the runner right in front of me. He is a small frame guy who seems to be a fast road guy (assumption made on shoes, attire, frame). I see again, He has no problems pushing on the hills which are still runnable at this point.
From the looks of him I see that he has an easier time than me on the uphills, but on the flats he slows down relatively more than he should need for a recovery. At this time there is a 50 yard difference between me and him. I have no desire to burn myself trying to catch up to him then have others pass me by so I make a mental note of this and concentrate on just keeping him in attack range. The people behind me are actually quite close at this point.
Right after we make the downhill there is a guy, who sprints for the aid station by jumping over some logs. He fills out his water bottle (I am not sure how he emptied it in the 4.5 miles of the race, maybe started empty) and sprints right in front of me. I have an idea of what type of a runner he is so just to test him out I go half a step behind him staying in his peripheral vision and sure enough he speeds up. On a 50K trail race, knowing where this attitude would lead him, I smile within, do it a couple of times just for laughs then back off. I go by him in one of the uphills, dont see him till the end but he did not finish that far off me so we might see him wizened up next year just like I wizened up (running wise) in this last year.
Running down the most technical portion of this race (there are not that many but the ones that are there are quite technical) I turn the corner after the downhill and I see 10 runners right behind me so the mental aspect at this stage is to not get nervous about the people behind me while not trying to outrun the guy in front. Many, many uphills follow. The guy I am following has a white tech shirt on and the guy he is following has an orange shirt on (I cant see him clearly at this point) and he follows 3 in front.
Suddenly we enter the woods going downhill relatively technical with a lot of built-in steps. And here comes the white shirt and the orange shirt guy I catch up to this point.
The white shirt guy lets me know I can go by him on this single track technical portion if I choose to do so. I make a critical decision at this point, we are 10 miles into this thing right now and the pace feels very comfortable. I know I can easily push past the 2 guys but dont know where this would leave me. I sense the white and orange shirt guy does not feel as comfortable because of the way they now slow down on the uphills. They still pull away on the uphills but on the flat and downhills the pace feels too easy. I could push past them and stay on the 4th spot. Or I can count on one of the first 3 to fall off, especially the guy who took off like a bullet and make my move here later. At some point the white shirt guy starts falling off the orange shirt's pace and I take the 5th spot and we move on to what I would consider a comfortable 50K race pace rather than the relatively easy pace we been keeping. I want to take a sip of water from the bottle I just filled up before we went into the woods (mile 13), and with a shudder of horror I feel the slosh slosh sound that comes from the now-nearly empty bottle. What just happened? I bought a new handheld a day ago from the northface store (last year they gave a nice handheld I assumed they would do the same this year, I should have checked) and it was defective on the lid. This and the fact that I did not screw the thing shut real tight after the fill up emptied the whole thing on to the ground. Nice, I say 6 miles without water...

When we are closing to the aid station, the orange shirt guy tells me how pushing the pace at this stage of the race would help us, I was thinking we were keeping it comfortable in order to push after mile 20-25 I feel confident about the 4th place. I tell him I am not going to push till mile 25 and really mean what I say. Around mile 20 I fill the water bottle again, screw it shut this time and take the lead. We learn from the aid station workers that the leader is 11 minutes and the 2 guys in front is 4 minutes ahead. I tell the orange shirt guy, lets go and catch the 2nd and 3rd and encourage him but at this stage he can not keep up on the uphills. Now this is a shout-out to Mike. We all know there are certain sections on the trail that you need to walk. If you try to run the steep uphills, great, you run 1-2 but then we can put a fork in you. In any case, it is one thing to read this another thing to see and feel it in action. When we did our run in Bandera and walked the steep uphills, I really realized how much more advantageous it is to walk them so rather than just knowing that I should walk them but running them regardless, I walked the uphills. The orange shirt guy, just like I did last year, tried to run them, so by the time the hills started up again after mile 20, he still tried to run them but was spent.
So I sent a couple of encouragements and told him to walk the hills and was on my way. Now I knew I was in the 4th place. Around mile 23 or 24 I started feeling the first cramps of the day. I was walking the hills uphill and suddenly the quads started cramping... I knew I could not continue to walk the hill that way so I started running and the pain went away. However I could feel the calves hurting now. So I had to find a medium between pain in the calves versus, pain in the quads. Walking for a while then running just juggling the pain. At this point I could smell the end of the race. I pushed on the downhills looking for any easy kills from the top 3 but I do not think I ever spotted them at all.
The highlight of the day came at mile 28.5 when a bunch of pretty ladies who were out doing the 10K version, shouted out after me, hey we want to be like you. I was in my hunting to the finish zone at that point so I did not have a good comeback... Oh well...
This was the only race I know of that the guy who shut out of the gate like a bullet, actually won the race... I guess the jokes that we made when we started out is on us. The orange and the white shirt guys, if by some weird-chance thing
you read this, my respects and hope to see you guys next year...

Why we do what we do: Pain is a choice

I still have some lingering fatigue from my minor cold/flu but getting better. If I dont run a 10miler tonight (skipped on the morning run) call me a wuss. Need to make 50 miles at the end of the week and I did not run on Sunday, Monday, not even Tuesday so...

The 50K race is coming up and for those who do not understand why we do what we do maybe this resurrection of an old passage will help...

From the book by Iain Banks:

"with freedom from fear and wondering where your next meal was coming from or how many mouths you'd have to feed next year and whether you'd get sacked by your employer or thrown into jail for some minor indiscretion - with freedom from all that came choice, and you could choose a nice quiet, calm, peaceful, ordinary life and die with your nightshirt on and impatient relatives making lots of noises around you or ....... - however scared your body might feel - your brain really appreciated the experience...... A good death. Well, he thought, given that you had to die, why want a bad one"

Another week done more than 300 for the month

It is an 85 mile week (13.1, 0, 13.15, 10,15,9,25) 3 or 4 workouts. Tired... 1 week taper to race....

Elevation Chart, total elevation change totally does not make sense at all!

Elevation delta is a lot worse than it looks or says, I used to do 2000 feet of elevation change on a regular run, 10000 per week, in my long distance runs over the trails 6000 was not unusual at all, what that chart says does not do justice...
In any case this is it....

What it was like last year

It is 6:47 am at the airport in SFO and I am tired... This weekend was a lesson in humility, pain and learning about all my weaknesses. Well before going into my post race report I gotto say how beautiful San Francisco is. Right by the ocean, does not have the Istanbul/New York hectic life style, pedestrian and people friendly. Anyways.

I arrived to SF on Thursday afternoon. Did not do much that day except enjoy the ocean view as Super Shuttle drove us across the city, enjoyed some Nepalese food by the Super 8 which was nice but not really different that Indian (of course I only sampled 1 okra dish). On Friday I woke up at 5 am, and at 6:30 I was at IHOP. Having ordered my multi-grain no syrup pancakes which was a surprise for the waiter I was thinking about the day’s plans when a little girl 3-5 yrs old shouted across the room, “He looks like Obama”. Apparently she was referring to me. Now that put a smile on my face. Anyways I paid my bill and went on my way to commit my first mistake of the weekend.

I decided I would warm up and bring my weekly running mileage up to upper 50-60 miles and treat Saturday’s run as a good training run. I said to myself an easy 6 miler will not make any real difference in my performance. Well, I proceeded to run my scheduled 6 miles and actually ran across the Golden Gate Bridge to take a breather at the other side. On the other side I could see the area I was supposed to run the next day. I paused for a moment and said “…I am screwed”. The area consisted of a range of hills that I could see would disregard all of my planning and mental preparation. I decided that there was no mistake in the elevation chart, I was to be screwed royally the next day. Then I decided, what the heck if I am not gonna do it that well, I will just see the city on my feet. Looking for a bookstore itself took several hours and when I found one I was deeply disappointed with the selection (I was looking for a book by Bookchin.) It was 7pm when I came back to the super 8. I could not have walked/run less than 15-20 miles. I decided to carb load as is my custom before a long distance run and did my second mistake

In addition to a large Chinese lunch I proceeded to eat for dinner, 1 loaf of bread, 1 1pound pretz bag, 5 bananas, 1 apple, 2 food bars. Even for me this turned to be too much as events were to reveal.

Having gotten up at 3:30 in the morning I proceeded to wait for the cab. A homeless man approached me and said “whats the word”, my reply “nothing much”, his “just chilling eh?” yeah… This girl and 2 guy friends of hers walked by and having seen my Georgetown running company shirt she started chatting to me, her guy friend was “running, that’s weird dude, don’t do it”, the girl was more positive. Anyways we had a nice conversation and they went on their way. Friendly people the SanFran’ers.

6:am I was at the start location. It was still dark and we could barely see each other. People congregated under propane lamps. My group consisted of men only and we started chatting. I was given the beta that I might have needed the trail running shoes that I placed in aid station 3. Hah I said I will change my shoes if necessary. One of the guys asked, any one of you think of winning this thing? One of the guy’s answer was yeah sure..
In any case the race started at 7 am, I felt good but knew enough not to push. I was running by feeling my heart rate. I started passing by runners and caught up to the lead runner right after aid station 1. I passed him by about a mile later. We then hit the first real hill that went up to 1700 ft. I knew I should not push and I did not but I was passing the 50 milers that started 2hrs before but following a different route. This hill was not too bad, I just had to keep on going and not look up. If I looked up I would see the people walking at several hundred feet above me, in the snake like, winding road. Finally I hit the peak. I looked down and it came on me like a m. ….. . 2 miles of down hill running. This is when I started to feel my calves and quads. I was around mile 7. I heard the radio going in aid station 2 “403 in lead, you are leading”. Damn that did feel good. The steep downhills reminded me of many sections in the Rockcreek park area, and all the mountainbiking I did gave me confidence of my footing (how much this statement makes sense I don’t know but it did). All the trails we tried to navigate with Toros helped me look for and find the trail signs. Steep hills or not I was leading and feeling good. I came to the third station and again heard 403, you are in the lead. I was surprised there was nobody around me still but I did not slow down till the tightening on my calves. I pushed on and saw some fallen tree trunks I had to run under. Ahhh but then they started hitting me. The stairs. The stairs were there in all their glory 5 here, 10 there…, by this time I had to retie my shoe 2 times. Thoughts of glory crossed my mind but I knew I was far, far from finishing. Then came another steep, winding hill. Now I look back and see a runner coming up, not sure whether he was a 50 M or a K’er but assuming he was he looked real consistent and strong on these hills where I was hardly jogging he was running. I pressed on and entered the woods and it did feel good once again running downhill and fast. I could feel my quads tightening as well. But what killed me were these 80-100 steps right in front of me. I started walking them. There did not seem to be another way. I could hardly even run downhill on them but certainly I was not running up. Mile 16.5. A runner that I congregated together passes me by on these steps. He did not look that much better than me but he was climbing the stairs consistently and much faster than me where I was wobbling. I was wobbling bad. Doubts of being able to finish the race crossed my mind. I felt bad. Cramps in other places started to hit me. I stuck my feet under a root and the muscles left of the shins got their piece of strain on my jog/run. I cursed myself for walking and running for 15-20 miles the day before. In any case after I took my first walking break things did not look up, I had cramps in my calves and quads, tight hamstring and stomach cramps (probably the 5 bottles of water I drank during the run did their part). In my experience cramps do not leave, however taking long walking breaks allowed me to run on them again. I thought about quitting a lot. I thought about traveling thousands of miles without even a finisher medal and going back home with nothing but my relatively healthy body. I thought of my shame regardless of the support I knew I could receive. However my mind this time took over and diminished all the negative thought. I just needed to make it to the next aid station then the next… I remember being nauseated a little after mile 20 which was also the time when my Garmin gave up (low battery, yet another mistake). When I came up to aid station 6, I was definitely out of it and another hill awaited and I started walking it hoping not to hurl. I was alone in this climb and I desperately wanted to sit down. I heard steps behind me, it was another runner (50 M’er I think). He asked whether I was ok and I said I bonked and gently refused his help. I had gel in my possession which I knew I should eat but could not bear the thought. Don’t know how I made it to the top but I did. My prize was a downhill and flat run for several miles where the cramps most part had left but I was in a lot of pain. In another hill that came up I saw several runners who passed me by, I knew I had to keep up with them all hopes of glory already gone many miles before. So I started counting my walking steps 1,2,3…,25, now run 1,2,3…,25, switch counts to 30, 50, 25… Runners were cheering each other on… I remember one of the guys from morning’s propane lamp congregation caught up to me and said here we meet again after 4:30 hrs. I could only nod at this stage, my “run” reduced to a shuffle jog... Pain here, pain there, pain was everywhere. I kept up with a guy that was of slighter built but seemed to be in better shape then I. We hit the last aid station together. I gulped down 2 liquid aids (I still don’t know what exactly they were) and went steady but my brain was about to give up at this stage. It said, even if you walk nobody is going to leave you behind, you can still finish in a reasonable time… Well I don’t know how but I kept my shuffle and passed the finish line a little before 1 pm. I have logged 5 hours 49 minutes and some change… Great food and people were waiting for me…

Somewhat Better Week

A total of 76 miles (15, 0, 12, 0,14,10.5,25). Only 3 real workouts but they are of a much higher quality than last week. Tomorrow if I can manage to get my behind to the climbing gym, I might finally hit 10 this coming week. Today's 5hr trail run kicked my behind as well. Was supposed to go to lift or to this new raw food place but did not have the energy...

Weekly Update

Ahhhh, not a bad running week, total of 77.5 (13.5,0,12,5,12,15(7+8),20) but terrible workouts, only 3 and really weak ones. Took another step towards the pullup goal, 15 complete pullups... Should be careful with the mileage, not wishing to go over 80 this coming week. Definitely no real speedwork should be done. I would like to concentrate on a little bit more of gym climbing, feels good.