North Face 50 Mile Endurance Run - Marin Headlands, San Francisco - December 3, 2011

TRAINING


I signed up for the North Face 50 miler even before I completed the Cascade Crest 100 mile race. It looked like the perfect distance and difficulty in a warm wonderful place during the relatively harsh winter months of Portland. Without any real races on my schedule for September through November, my training was hardly as serious as my skinny jeans are fashionable. Miles weren't counted, consistency was inconsistent, and the days grew short. And apparently I'm scared of the dark, since every ambitious weeknight solo run often changes from 15 miles to MAYBE 5 miles. Hmm...Anyone have a dog that I can borrow?


In short, the past few months have involved lots of trail race volunteering (Portland Trail Series, Forest Park Marathon, Autumn Leaves 50m/50K/10K) and some random adventure runs. One of the best parts of being an ultrarunner is being able to say "okay, let's run around Mt. St. Helens in a couple weeks"...or "Run the Grand Canyon with team USA, a Leadman, and the Yassine Machine? Sure, I'll join you guys!"...or "yeah, I'd enjoy a 5 hour 23-mile night run/slog up Larch Mountain on a Friday night in 6-12 inches of fresh snow from 7:30 pm to 12:30 am! Count me in!" It's been a crazy few months indeed, especially with the birth of my first nephew and niece in November. Family, Friends, and running adventures, oh my!

Mt. St. Helens: Randy, Me, Kathleen, Amy, Shane, and Ellen (taking the photo)

Grand Canyon video with Leadman, Yassine Machine, Chasing Amy, J-Bob, and The Queen

Yassine, about to punch me in the face because I wanted a photo (or 3).

Freezing at the top of Larch Mountain with Amy, Yassine, Shane, and Aaron.

Uncle J-Bob!

THE NORTH FACE 50 MILE ENDURANCE RUN

Onward to California! I was actually studying the course on my laptop as my airplane flew over the marin headlands and the Golden Gate Bridge. It didn't look so bad from up there! The worst part about the race was that it started at 5 AM on Saturday, which isn't the easiest time especially for out-of-towners. After about 4 hours of sleep, my alarm went off at 2:00 AM and I began the early drive from Santa Clara (Mum and Dad's house) to the Marin Headlands. I got there plenty early, sorted my GUs, shook Bryon Powell's hand, took care of business, and lined up for one of the most competitive races of the year.

3...2...1...RUN WHAT YO MAMA GAVE YA!

A river of headlamps led the way down the road and onto the trailhead, and the gradual climb up Bobcat trail began. For the first mile I could recognize some of the runners around me, like Karl Meltzer, Tim Olson, Ellie Greenwood, Dakota Jones, Tsuyoshi Kaburaki, and Ian Sharman. Is this a sign that I was starting out too fast? Naaah...Then the uphill started. My stomach started to feel empty, and my running effort was turning into a calf burner. 2 miles in, I eased back into a comfortable pace, and ate the dust of what seemed like 50 elite runners. The wind blew hard, making my spit fly the opposite direction from which I spat. After cresting the top of the climb, the downhill pounded the rust from my muscles and loosened things up...but my stomach was battling nausea for a few downhill miles. After downing a GU Roctane and some M&Ms at the first aid station, my stomach problems surprisingly went away. *Ahhh*.


The ups and downs early on felt good, but I was still amazed at how fast the lead pack was running. Oh well! Running down to the Muir Beach Aid station, I threw my headlamp at Devon C-H and briefly introduced myself as I kept running "HEY I'M JASON AMY'S FRIEND SHE SAID I COULD LEAVE MY HEADLAMP WITH YOU THANKS!!!" I even wrote her a thank you note on my headlamp. Thanks again, Devon! Lord knows the weight of my headlamp would have added priceless minutes to my finish time...right? Right.

The Elites early on,
Sunrise over the hills

The long climb to Pantol Ranger Station was extremely runnable, and it was hard not to just blast up the switchbacks. Heeding Jason Hill's advice and knowing I still had a long way to go, I kept a steady pace and survived the climb as efficiently as I could. It definitely seemed to go on forever.


Cardiac Aid Station (mile 18) marked the end of the long-ass climb, and was the gateway to the fabled out-and-back section. Before I got to the out-and-back, I ran by a group of spectators walking along the road. It was JB Benna, Tony Krupicka, and some other guy wearing a bini. Pleasantly surprised, I yelled OH HEY WHAT UP?! The guy in the bini cheered back, YOU'RE RUNNING STRONG, DUDE!...What can I say? My guns don't lie.


After some winding trail that reminded me of Wildwood, I reached the fabeled out-and-back. As I started down the trail, no one was running towards me...yet. Then through the trees I see Some Guy, Dakota Jones, and Mike Wolf (with his bloody head) making their move and trying to split away from the chase group, shortly followed by Geoff Roes and other fast mother f*ckers.


Me: "Hey Geoff, which wallet is yours?"
Geoff: "The one that says Fast Mother F*cker"


Since this was an out and back section on single track, I had to dramatically dive out of everyone's way as they were running by. At the time, there were about 50 people in front of me. It got tiresome after a while. After the turn around, though, it was MY turn to rule the trail. I felt like royalty as everyone cleared my path. Eventually getting back onto the one-way trail, I had to stop and fix a side ache. Krissy Moehl ran by and told me to cough it out. *A-HOUGHABLAH*. Holy shit...it worked! And thus, the halfway point in the race was celebrated with an exaggerated awful sounding cough.


The downhill leading to Stenson Beach was my favorite part of the course! It was technical (roots, rocks, stairs), rapidly downhill, and reminded me of Predator for some reason (like everything else does). I was having a grand ol' time! And then I reached the bottom and struggled to find my uphill gear. The climb out of Stenson Beach was gradual at first, but then the stairs ate me up. I tried to run the trail space between the sets of stairs, but I was getting worn out. ENTER: Power Hiking.


During my hiking, I decided to take a quick bathroom break. This may not be a fascinating subject to anybody reading this, but I finally tried "going on the go". During CCC, I became impressed by a runner's ability to pee on the run, and so this was my first attempt at making forward progress whilst peeing. It was more of a walk, but I almost made it far enough for a first down. And for those who accuse my blog posts of TMI, you're welcome.


The climbing ended sooner than I anticipated, and I made up a lot of ground on the downhill. It's an apparent strength of mine, as I passed other 50 milers who dusted me on the hills early on. Then there were a few climbs that forced me mostly to a hike. Maybe my nutrition was inadequate, or maybe I just didn't want to run. Either way, if I were able to run I could have made up a lot of ground on a lot of people. <--Noted for next year.


Coming down the homestretch to the Old Inn Aid Station (mile 38.9), I caught up with the Queen as she was pacing Kami Semick. What an honor to run with her majesty again! Meghan paced me for a couple minutes before I took off on the downhill. Sad to say, Kami eventually dropped for one reason or another.

Climbing Out of
Muir Beach

This next section was mostly downhill to Muir Beach (mile 42.6), and nobody passed me beyond this point. The hill leading out of Muir Beach was runnable, but my legs were lacking enthusiasm. I instigated a walk 25 steps, run 100-200 steps routine that was extremely manageable. Looking back, I wish I had just sucked it up and ran every bit of that uphill. It really wasn't that bad. Hill perseverance is something I still need to work on, especially with less than 8 miles to go. At the very least, I was still running strong. And at this point in time, the tag in my shorts was beginning to itch my upper butt. If that's the biggest thing that's bothering me at 5 miles to go in a 50 mile race, then I'm having a good day.


After Tennessee Valley, the gradual uphill went by quickly and I began to recognize the sections of the course where Ellie Greenwood passed me and I almost threw up (unrelated events). The final downhill felt surprisingly good on my quads, and I was passing everybody (mostly 50K runners). The final half mile was bittersweet, having spent a perfect day on a challenging course. Smelling the finish line, I rounded the corner with a sprint.

Results: 8:05:58 sec – 45^th out of  317 Finishers (360 started)

Pace: 9:44 min/mile

All Results 

Rock on.

Fellow Oregonians! Jim and John (Hagg Lake Buddy) after finishing their 50K.
John had a 50K PR on this freakin' course! Unbelievable! 

Finished, happy and proud. But for putting forth my best 50 mile effort, I'm still amazed at placing 45th. Being that this is the first real race I've run with so many elite runners, I'm glad I have a standard where I can compare myself to the best of the best. If I ever hope to reach that level, I've got a long way to go. It's weird to keep finishing these races, and never being truly satisfied. Maybe I'm not so much addicted to running as I am addicted to improvement. As I keep seeing myself improve, I want to keep going. At the same time, I Love meeting people who are striving for the same thing; to get stronger, faster, and to eventually reach some kind of Euphoria that always seems out of reach. For some people, it's a marathon. For others, it's every marathon...or ultramarathon.


Whatever, the beer in my hand says I'm a winner. Cheers!

Dinner at home: Hunter stew, Perogies, Sierra Nevada, and a Festive Snowman.
It's good to be home!

Here's a summary video of how the race looked from the front. It gives a great look at the course, too.