Distance: 62 mi (12,500 ft of elevation gain)
Finishing Time: 12 hours, 5 minutes
Place: 11th/ 205 (121 finishers, 84 DNF)
Note: I’m going to write this blog post a little different. Inspired by Rod Farvard’s site, I’m going to make this less narrative based and more reflection based, with the goal of learning from my mistakes.
Section 1 – Hacienda to Kennedy Road (mi 0-25.8)
Good start to the race. I felt like I was cruising, running my own race, taking advantage of the cooler temps with the 4:30am start before the temps really started warm up. There’s a 1,700ft climb from mi 7-10 that I mostly ran/hiked with another runner, Jacob. We chatted as we climbed and it made time go by faster. Nutrition was going down solid, I stopped to poop at mile 18 @ Lexington. There’s a really smooth fast downhill section from mi 23-mi 25 right before you see your crew, which my Strava has me running those three miles at around 7:30 min/mi pace.
I felt stoked to see my crew, Kevin and Allie at mile 25. I shoveled some white rice in that Kevin cooked for me the night before which was going down well. I tend to want to crunchy textures in these races, so having something crunchy and salty in the white rice next time could be good.
As I left the aid station, I made my first major error. The night before the race I decided that when it started to get hot, with a predicted high of 86 degrees, I would ditch my shirt and go for the shirtless run. Mid-80’s may not sound that brutal, but I’d say 80% of the course is completely exposed to the sun and this race is on the heels of a mild spring, meaning I haven’t had much heat adaption. As dumb as this sounds, I think I was inspired to ditch the shirt by clips earlier that week of Anton Krupicka running shirtless at the 2011 Western States. As my coach Jason Pohl would point out after, best heat practices are to PROTECT yourself from the sun, not expose your skin as much as possible. A much more effective option would have been to have soaking cold shirts ready for me to change in, as wet clothes can be an effective conductor of heat and evaporation. I remember thinking it was weird that for the last half of the race I didn’t have any sweat whatsoever on me (not a good thing!).
Section 2 – Kennedy Road to Hacienda (mi 25.8- mi 41)
As good as I felt seeing my crew, I felt TERRIBLE on the climb out of Kennedy Road. It’s a 2,000ft climb in 5 miles and I hiked every step. Once I got to the top, I remember crying a little because I was so relieved it was over. However, I didn’t get passed by anyone during this awfulness! Lesson learned that even if you feel terrible, other people may be struggling just as much.
Mile 31-41 is a crazy long descent back to the starting line to see your crew before the last 20 miles and I was descending well. Downhills felt good and Strava has me running these around 8:30 min/mi pace on the sections that were pure downhill. That’s solid for me being 35 or so miles into the race. A weird thing happened at mile 38, where I came into an aid station through a parking lot, when the official course has you come in via trail. The aid station chief made me retrace my steps and come in via the trail, which took about 3 minutes of backtracking. But you know what!? I felt great at this point and I wasn’t fazed in the least.
Section 3 – Hacienda to Finish (mi 41- mi 62)
I picked up my pacer (and coach) Jason Pohl at mile 41. Seeing my crew I was riding high- I thought I was going to have a badass finish. Kevin told me I was in 4th place at this point and based on those last 10 miles of feeling good, I though catching someone and ending up on the podium was in sight. Another lesson learned- shit can go south fast in an ultra.
Potential second mistake behind heat management… I did take in some caffeine around mile 27 when I was feeling bad and I came to regret this. I ended up not packing any caffeine from miles 40-62 when I totally died. Starting caffeine this early at mile 27 and then not having a source of it from mile 40-62, when the caffeine taken earlier wore off, seems like an error. In hindsight, I may have waited until mi 40 to start caffeine, and then stayed consistent with it until the end of the race.
I got my first signals that things may be going a little haywire around 46, when I got passed by Jacob (runner who I shared miles with early in the race) and didn’t have much fight as he and his pacer jogged by me on an uphill. I could still run downhill and my stomach wasn’t completely shot, so I figured I wasn’t in that bad of shape at this point.
It wasn’t long before I was in fact, in pretty rough shape. The exposure of the sun was wearing on me and every uphill was becoming a horrible death march. I just felt exhausted and I wasn’t running a step on anything with an incline. I genuinely believed if I just hung in there, things would turn at some point. Keep taking in fluids, as much food as I could, and it seems like at some point I would come out of this. And yet….. I never came out of it! I count my real lows as mi 51-mi 59, which ended up taking me 2 hours and 45 minutes.
The worst of it was mi 56- mi 58, where I logged min/mi Grade Adjusted Paces of 15:08, 14:25, 16:08. Jason made sure that I wasn’t stopping. At one point as I wobbled uphill, a runner who came up behind me said, “Hang in there man. This is a brutal part of the course. You’re almost to the top.” Bless that runner and Jason for being there and making sure I didn’t do something stupid like take a really long break at aid station.
I ran the last two miles downhill to the finish, edging out a runner who was coming up behind me by a mere 10 seconds. I ended up dropping from 4th place OA at mile 46 to finishing 11th place OA.
Reflection:
Despite a disappointing finish, there are good takeaways.
Takeaway #1: Progress! 13 months ago I finished Lake Sonoma 50 miler in 11 hours. My first 50 miles through this race took me 9 hours and 10 minute and that’s with the “pacing” of a 100k. I think it’s reasonable to say I could have gone at least an even 9 hours on this course if it was a 50 miler. The QS course through 50 miles has at least as much elevation gain as LS and both are smooth and non-technical. It’s not perfect to compare performances across different events in trail running, but this seems within reason in terms of elevation gain and surface type.
Takeaway #2: I was in the mix for a podium spot at mile 45 of Quicksilver 100k. Now that’s only 75% of the race complete meaning there is still A LOT of race left. It bodes the question- did I go out too hard? Maybe I’m delusional, but I believe the answer to that question is no. I felt conservative in opting to hike instead of run major climbs such as the one out of Kennedy Aid Station and my downhill did not feel like I was pushing. I think heat management is a big culprit of my eventual devise and it was my 100k debut, leading me to believe there is an element of having to go through the fire.
Takeaway #3: I have good homies crewing me! It was great to have Kevin, Allie, and Jason out there to support and they helped keep me in line to getting to the finish line as fast as possible.
Hey people!!!!!
Good mood and good luck to everyone!!!!!