Ohlone Wilderness 50k

I really wanted to stay in bed when my alarm went off at 4:30am yesterday. Ugh! I've scheduled a race! The biggest motivator for getting out of bed was that I'd paid good money for the run, and damn it, I was going to participate, no matter how much it hurt.

All week I'd been suffering from pain in my right calf. It started during my Tuesday run and then got worse when I tried to run home from the office on Wednesday. Consequently, I didn't run again until Saturday, with my group at the San Jose Fit training. Even there, I ended up walking part of the last mile of the 7 mile run.

So, come Sunday morning, I wasn't sure that I'd be able to complete the 50k distance, or if I'd just get pulled at the 9 mile cut-off point for failing to progress.

I had everything laid out the night before, so I was ready to go. I chowed down on my breakfast; some Nature's Path Granola, a banana, and some Kefir. The Dean Karnazes recipe calls for Greek Yogurt, but the Kefir works just as well, I'm sure.

It was about an hour drive from my house in San Jose, up to Livermore and to the Del Valle Regional Park. The race organizers had arranged to have most of the runners park at the finish and then take a bus to the starting area in Fremont. That just happens to be half way back home for me, but this arrangement is easier for me, since I'll have a car at the end and not have to rely on a crew, or my family coming to collect me. I was expecting school buses, but we ended up with 3 party buses -- the ones with wavy cushioned seats, a wet bar, tv/dvd, radio, etc -- and two stretch hummer limos. That was a nice way to travel to the start of a race. ;-)

Once we all arrived at the start area, we had to checkin with the race volunteers, so that they knew how many runners actually started the race. Then we had about 40 minutes to wait inline for the bathrooms, before the race actually started.

Just before 8am we all gathered to hear the pre-race briefing. We were told about a course change, which really meant nothing to me as I'd never run this one before, and that the course might seem a little shorter than in previous years. Oh, big deal! Anyway, runners who were concerned about the shortened course were advised to run around the parking lot at the end of the run to make up as much distance as they wanted to. ;-)

Now, the race starts in the Mission Peak Regional Park, travels though along the Ohlone Wilderness Trail and finishes in the Lake Del Valle Regional Park. For those who don't know this area, it's pretty hilly. It looks like a bunch of ruffles in the landscape between the San Francisco Bay Area and the California Central Valley. Fortunately, we didn't have to run all the way to the Central Valley side of the hills. So, anyway, this kind of meant that we start the run and immediately begin to climb. Because of my calf problems, I decided to take things easy and start this race at a blistering walking pace.

The first 4 or 5 miles of the course wind up the hillside to the top of Mission Peak. There's a relatively easy path on a fire road, which is where most visitors travel. About 1/3 of the way up the hill, our course takes off on a less traveled single track and starts bouncing up and down, instead of continuing upwards. We passed through fields of cows, a couple of streams and lots of switchbacks before finally arriving at the top, where there is an observation post.I've been to this point before, so I know that the post contains about a dozen telescope type tubes that you can use to view various Bay Area landmarks. They're all labelled so you know what you're looking at. It's pretty neat. Anyway, on race day, we don't stop to take a look. We have to be satisfied with the fleeting glimpses of the spectacular panoramic vistas, and continue on our way. From this point we head downhill for a ways and lose sight of the Bay Area as we head into the trees.

Of course, the problem with downhill is that you have to watch your footing. About half-way down the single track coming off the top of the peak, I managed to plant both feet and have them slip from under me. Fortunately, I was able to spare my left hand any injury because I was holding a water bottle and it cushioned the impact. My right hand didn't fair as well, but was still OK. My butt got a little dirty, but I had instant visions of having ripped my shorts and having to run the rest of the race with my ass cheeks hanging out. Gee, if I'd wanted to do that all day, I'd have run the Bay to Breakers in San Francisco instead. Fortunately, all was fine and I could continue on.

The first aid station doesn't have much beyond the electrolyte drink and some Clif Shots, so I rinsed off the dirty bottle form my fall, refilled all of my water bottles, grab a Raspberry energy gel and head on to the bottom of the hill at the Sunol aid station.

The trails to Sunol were uneventful. They were a moderate downhill, which gave me an opportunity to test my leg muscles for running and I was pleasantly surprised that I was fine. There was still some sensation in the muscles, but not really any pain. So, I kept going at an easy relaxed pace.

They had strawberries at Sunol. Yum! Of course, they also had the usual PB&J sandwiches, but this group used whole wheat bread. Score! Awesome! ..and Grandma's cookies, too. I'm in heaven! Great aid station food, my legs are feeling pretty good. Onward!

On Wednesday, I took at seminar on race walking techniques. I tried to put these to good use over the remainder of the race. For the 10 miles after Sunol, the course was mostly uphill. I had thought that Mission Peak was the highest point on the course, until around mile 18, when I looked back to see that we'd climbed above the level of Mission Peak and still hadn't reached the top of the final climb. Ugh! It turned out that we hit close to 4000 feet of elevation at the highest point. So, 2/3 of the way through the run and now it's mostly downhill. Of course, the trouble is that the term "mostly" is used instead of "all". ;-)

Yes, there was still plenty of uphill left for us on this course. The rest is kind of blurry in my memory. I ended up running most of the last 10 miles with my friend Christina. I think the only reason I was able to stay with her was because she had run a 50 mile race the previous weekend and a 100k race a week or two before that. If I hadn't had calf problems I could have stayed ahead of her on this run, but satisfied myself with some company. We traveled up and down on both fire road and single track. Some of the single track trails were quite overgrown, too, making the progress difficult, even though about 150 people had come through there ahead of us.

During that last 10 miles, we also started passing people. Those who had started out too quickly and were beginning to fade. The race walking and my energy reserves were doing well for me in this one and I was able to run all the flat sections and a lot of the downhills. Some of the fire road downhills were still a bit too steep to be run comfortably, so I kept my speed in check. That's a bit tough on the quads, though, but at least I didn't fall again.

We started getting glimpses of the lake we'd left earlier in the morning. A positive sign that we were almost done. Just keep putting one foot infront of the other and we'll get there. Then I spotted a car, then the rest of the parking lot. It must be close now! Around a corner and things started to look familiar, then I spotted the finish shoot. The trail had been flat for about half a mile, so I was still running and I kicked it up a bit just to get things over with.

I finished in a little over 8hrs and 10 minutes. Considering the elevation change along the course, and my muscle issues from the start, I think that worked quite well. My calf didn't really hurt anymore, but I wasn't sure if that was because it was better, or because the pain from everywhere else was just masking it. ;-)

My rewards for running that distance, and surviving? A nicely carved wooden plaque, a commemorative pair of running shorts, and a fluorescent green running shirt!

They had a BBQ laid on, but most of it was picked over by the time I got there. I retrieved my sweat check back, my goodie bag, grabbed a drink and headed to my car. It was time to leave. My mother-in-law was minding my kids and I needed to rescue her from them. ;-)