Go slow to go fast.

Golden Gate Dirty Thirty 50K Race report

That race was incredibly cool and fun!  Pretty much blew the Bolder Boulder out of the water in fun and coolness...sorry Bolder Boulder, you're cool, just not 'that' cool.

Here's the short version of the race report:  This race lived up entirely to my prediction of "31 miles of pure gorgeous weather mountain running beat down".  Everything was absolutely perfect about the race and the day...so much fun.  I finished and felt great and I still feel surprisingly great and energetic and not very stiff.

And here's the long version of the report:

The night before

My buddy Jentry arrived with Nicole and his friend Matt, and then Adam arrived at about 10pm from AZ, he was also signed up to run with us.   We stocked up on a bunch of pasta and veggies and then just got our stuff together for the race.  My plan for the race was to just go out easy for the first 10 miles and try to stay with Jentry and Adam.  I tend to want to push it sometimes and I thought it would be best to really not push it at all at first considering I've never run longer than 21 miles before.  We got to bed about 11 and had to get up about 4 in order to head up to the race.

The Morning

We loaded up on Oatmeal and headed out to the race.  I drank a vespa on the way.  My plan was to drink a Vespa every 2 hours, and eat salt caps every hour minimum.  Then for food I was going to just eat at all the aid stations and make sure I had 2 gels with me to eat in between stations.   We got there about 25 minutes early, got all geared up and headed to the start line to sign in and give them our drop bags.

We were all complete newbies to the Ultra racing scene and so we felt like everyone there was a complete ultra rock-star all decked out in their gators and mountain gear.

I was originally just going to wear my waist strap with two 10 oz bottles for water.  But when I saw half the people there with 40-100 oz of water they were going to carry, my judgment got the better of me, and I ran to my drop bag and grabbed a hand held 20 oz. nathan water bottle.  VERY GLAD I DID THAT!  I would have been seriously suffering out there with only 20 oz. of water between aid stations, because the critical stations in the middle and end of the race were about an hour and a half apart with huge mountain climbs in between.  I finished off 40 ounces within 5 to 10 minutes of each aid station as it was.

The race is on

About 5 minutes after 6 they started the race.  We were in the VERY back of the pack to start.  After the start I kind of regretted that because we were stuck walking in the single file line on a lot of the initial single track...but really that only lasted the first mile or so and it probably didn't make any significant difference.  In fact it was probably good to force myself to go out really slow.

But my plan to stay with Jentry for 10 miles failed miserably after about 1.5 miles.  It turned out our comfortable paces were too different.  I didn't go out too hard at all, I was walking a lot of the uphills right from the beginning, but I still ended up ahead of Jentry and Adam after about two miles.  It was clear that we were going to need to do our own things, so I just proceeded forth and got into my own groove.

I clicked my lap button on my garmin at each aid station so I could see how long I was stopped and be able to see the progression of the race in the stats afterward.  Otherwise, I only used my garmin to see my running time so I could gauge when I should eat and take s-caps and vespa.

Section 1 -  1 hour - 4.75 miles - 2000 Feet ascent - 1324 Feet descent - 12:48/mile avg

This first lap was super easy, cool, shady, and just plain fun.  It was such amazing weather up there on the trails at 7-8000 feet.  Words can't describe how perfect the weather was.   And the trail just meandered up this valley crossing the stream on bridges about 11 times.  Simple gorgeous way to start the day.  I was so thrilled to be out there just soaking up the cool mountain air and cruising up the pristine single track.

First Aid station - 18 seconds, just stopped to top off my water bottle and eat an orange and I was on my way

Section 2 -   1:18:47 - 6.8 Miles - 2283 Feet ascent  -  1754 Feet descent - 11:35/mile avg

This section was equally as fun as the first.  I was surprised to notice afterward that this section is where we actually reached the highest point on the course, because I don't remember it being a very challenging climb.  I'm so accustomed to running the hills in Boulder that are much steeper, so these hills felt really moderate.  I'm glad I was training on the steeper terrain, because mentally it really helped a lot I think.  The view from the top of that peak was amazing though.

I had fallen into a pace with a dude named Mike Enger who was really nice and great to run with.  He had just done a 50K the previous weekend in Gunnison that runs in Hartman Rocks.  I was impressed he was out there on this steep 50K a week later.  We ran with each other for a few miles here and then I went off ahead of him at some point...because I kept running pretty solidly up most of the hills since it was pretty moderate.  At this point the pace was still so leisurely I was taking photos with my phone and some video...I video documented a lot of the run, we'll see how that comes out.  Much more at the beginning, not much at the end.  Here's a shot of Mike.

Nicole and Matt were taking pictures of us and there to provide support at the entrance to aid station 2.

(Adam coming into Aid station 2)

(Jentry approaching Aid station 2)

Aid station 2 - 2:30 - I stayed here a little longer this time because I wanted to eat peanut butter and jam, bananas, and more oranges.  Then I was off after filling up my bottles.

Section 3 -   1:08:26 - 5.23 Miles - 1524 Feet ascent  -  2064 Feet descent - 13:04/mile avg

Section 4 -   1:39:22- 6.61 Miles - 2532 Feet ascent  -  2551 Feet descent - 15:01/mile avg

My pace dropped a couple minutes per mile here.  I still felt great at the beginning of this section but it immediately started up a 2 mile climb right out of the aid station.

I passed a guy Chris from Louisville pretty quick who has years of Ultra experience and seemed to be struggling.  We had leap frogged a bit and we chatted for a while, then I kept charging up the hill.  But Chris commented that he would probably see me at the end, and I told him not to be so sure because I was in new territory from never having gone that far, so I had no idea how long I would stay ahead of him feeling great.

Sure enough, by the time we got to the top of the climb I was getting pretty tired and he and a lady from Boulder passed me as I stopped to dump the pebbles from my shoes.  I never saw them again until the turnaround at the top of windy peak on the next climb and we finished within 5-10 minutes of each other it turned out.

So at about mile 20 or so, I started noticing my legs getting pretty tired.  And I had the classic thoughts of 10 miles of pain to finish the race.  But I pushed those out and focused on the next steps and reminded myself how amazing it was out there, and it helped a lot.  I ran out of water with a mile to go to the aid station here.  Fortunately it was downhill so it wasn't as bad as a 15 minute climb with no water.

Aid station 4: 4:45 - I hung out here for a while just eating, drinking and not being in too big of a hurry to move on...felt the need to recover a bit here at mile 24.  7 miles to go with a big climb coming up and then down hill to the finish/start area.

Section 5 -   1:41:17- 7:16 Miles - 2079 Feet ascent  -  2770 Feet descent - 14:08/mile avg

This section was mentally tough to start, which is probably why I hung out at the aid station longer eating up.  At this point, starting to run again was slow and the bounce and smoothness in the step was not really there that much any more.

It was a mile or so down hill, then the final big climb started.  At this point I was just getting through the down hill, and then the uphill was more enjoyable...it was a great excuse to walk!  Also, it was a pretty steady steep climb and it was absolutely gorgeous.  With every switch back going up new panoramic valley views opened up.  It was beautiful and enjoyable to power hike up the mountain, I was able to just get lost in it and really enjoyed it despite being tired.  My overall energy level and legs were feeling great actually...tired, but plenty of strength.  Nobody passed me at all through to the very top of the climb.

The summit was a 3/4 mile out and back so we had to get our race number marked at the top.  On my way up I saw all the people just ahead of me in the race and we exchanged greetings.

When I started down the hill I felt pretty slow.  It was a 1200 Foot descent over 2 miles, and it hurt more than the uphill.  The steep descents at this point required a lot of strength and were a lot more jarring.  A couple people passed me on this section.  I didn't really care since I wasn't concerned at all about racing others...but I was interested in getting back to the finish in under 7 hours at this point.  So I pushed it as much as I could muster, but I didn't like going too hard going down hill here.  This course had 1 more little trick up its sleeve before the finish though, another steep 400 foot climb and then a fast 400 foot descent.  I hiked the uphill, but at the top there were several more moderate rollers of 50 to 100 yards in length.  I started passing a few people again here because I decided I was done walking any more uphill.  I powered through the final two or three little climbs and felt really good and had plenty of strength.  I seem to like pushing a lot harder on uphills than downhills.  But then I was feeling good from powering up those hills so I passed a couple more people on the descent.

FINISHED!

At the finish, my wife and kids were there to greet me which was really cool.  Nan timed it perfectly and arrived just minutes before I got there, which was pretty cool.  I was pushing hard to make it in under 7 hours at the end and I just made it by 2 or 3 minutes! (by my watch, I haven't seen the official results yet).

My kids were all running after me to the finish, which I only noticed later in the pictures...here are a bunch of pictures at the finish area of the race. It was such a fun run, but it was SO nice to be done after 7 hours.  I'm really happy about accomplishing my goal of running 30 miles finally.

(Abe laughing at me totally crashed out on the lawn)

(Ali putting flowers on the corpse)

(Adam finishing VERY strong on the home stretch)

(Jentry finishing, looking a bit tired, awesome finish for his first ultra also!)

(Mustering the energy to gallop his steed across the line...then his calf cramped up!)

(I'm still trying to figure out the meaning of that pose)

(My wife is amazing!  I was so glad she came up to the finish with the kids)

(Breanne and Abe climbing up and down a steep hill side by the finish, totally proud to declare themselves mountain climbers)

(Soaking off in the creek afterward was incredibly refreshing)

(And now its official, we've run an ultra.  Coincidentally all of us are 30 years old right now and we all just did our first 30 mile run in our 30th year...except Breanne, but she's a mountain climber now.)

This is what my garmin said at the end of the race.  I think I stopped it for a minute waiting for Adam near the beginning, otherwise I left it running including aid station stops and when I stopped to stretch and dump rocks out of my shoes one time.

30.61 Miles - Time: 6:57:15 - 13:33 per mile avg - Total Ascent: 10,571 FT  Total Descent: 10,590 FT