Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day 50K: Feb. 29th, 2020

Nice views from Dogmeat

This race in the South Bay mountains takes mental and physical toughness to a whole new level, the term sadistic comes to mind as an accurate description.  Ram convinced Shaun and myself that it was a good idea to sign up.  The entry fee for the race is $0 and it's completely self supported.  In order to reach the start line for the race you have to do a two mile hike with 1,000 feet of climbing.  To add to that challenge you have to carry all your personal "aid station" supplies with you on this hike.  We were expecting full sun exposure today with temps in the 70s so I knew that I would need some cold beverages and water for what we were about to undertake.  I froze some water and gatorade which I would put in a cooler with some food to take to the race start area.  That was a heavy cooler to carry up there but I knew it would be worth it in the grand scheme of things and it definitely proved to be!  I met Shaun and Ram in the parking area and we carried all our stuff up that hike to the start line.  There was no official race start time, in fact, everyone knew the objective of the day and would have GPS watches to track our time etc.. so you could get out there at anytime of your choosing.  Looking back on it now I think I would of preferred to get out there super early and do part of the race in the dark cooler weather.

Such an appropriate message!

So, your probably wondering what the actual course of this race consists of.  Well, there is a climb in this area called Dogmeat, it's basically a 1.5 mile trip up with 1,000 feet of elevation gain.  The race starts at the base of Dogmeat and the concept is simple: go up the climb and come back down and keep doing that pattern 10 times!  The downhill was not easy either, it is an uneven fire road which is very steep at times, your body really takes a pounding when you run down this thing.  I knew this sounded horrible before I even signed up so I have no idea why I ended up trying it.  I guess the fact that it would test me mentally and physically was appealing and peer pressure also had something to do with it.  I met Shaun and Ram at the parking area around 6:00 am.  We hiked up to the base of Dogmeat with all our stuff and got started right away.  To my surprise there were already a few people up there who had started before we did.  The first trip I did without trekking poles and after that I knew I was in for a long day.  The second trip I started using my trekking poles as I needed the help on the steep parts of the climb and they also assisted on some of the steep downhill sections.  Shaun and Ram seemed to be climbing a lot stronger than I was.  The downhills were beating up my quads very badly and all the pressure from the pounding went straight there as I was nursing a sore knee.   

The pacifier is hilarious

I wanted to slow down and told them to go ahead and I would just do the day at my own comfortable pace.  They pretty much denied me of that request but they did slow down for me which I was thankful for.  Shaun was nursing an injured hamstring so he was about the pace as me after a few trips up and down.  On the 5th trip up, the sun was out in full force and it became quite hot which added to the discomfort of this thing we were embarking on.  I was really happy that I had frozen some gatorade and it really hit the spot after each trip down Dogmeat.  Some a-hole was drinking the water that Shaun carried all the way up Dogmeat and didn't even ask if it was ok.  Most people in the ultra community are top notch.  I don't think this guy was an ultra runner.  In fact, I think he only did like 2 out and backs.  It put us in a bad frame of mind but we didn't have enough energy to get worked up over it.  

The last steep part of Dogmeat

This was just a brutal race from start to finish.  There was one big tree on the climb about 3/4 of the way up and it provided just a tiny bit of shade however it was a great place to take a little break each time up Dogmeat.  We started calling it the Tree of Life!  There were maybe 30 other people out there doing either the full 50K or just doing a few trips up and down and it was fun to see these people over and over.  We would just look at eachother and smile because we all knew how brutal this really was.  I think the 8th time up about broke me and I didn't really have any desire to do two more trips.  Once that was done the 9th trip was motivating because we knew only one more after that.  The last trip was very satisfying as we knew that we were almost done.  On the way back down the 10th time Ram slowed down right at the end to wait for Shaun and I ran past him to finish, not because I wanted to finish ahead of them rather I just wanted to be done with this nonsense!  I still get teased about that to this day, I just had to be first and I saved my energy burst until right at the end etc..

So glad that nonsense is over!

We did the 10 out and backs on Dogmeat...30 miles and 10,000+ feet of climbing in under 8 hours which I thought was extremely good considering how tough it was.  After crossing the finish line I was so damn grateful to be done.  All we had to do was hike two miles back to our cars while carrying a bunch of crap..haha.  This race absolutely destroyed my quads.  I was signed up for the Marin Ultra Challenge (MUC) 50 miler which was only two weeks out and I had zero idea of how I could even do that race.  Within this time COVID-19 had started spreading more rapidly in the U.S. and they decided to cancel the MUC 50 just a few days before the race so the pandemic made my decision for me.  In fact, pretty much all the races in California ended up getting cancelled after this point in time so I was happy to get two races completed in 2020 before COVID mania swept the world.  I don't know if I will ever do this race again as it seems like a good thing to do once and then never again. However, I am easily swayed by peer pressure so if any of my friends wanted to do it then I would unfortunately follow along like an idiot!   

Sean O' Brien 100K: Feb. 8th, 2020

I signed up for this event because Shaun and Ram were doing it and I thought it would be cool to have a nice challenge to start 2020 off right.  This is one of the toughest races I have ever attempted for several reasons.  It takes place in Southern California (Malibu Creek St. Park) which is a hot and sunny climate even in early February.  There is over 13,000 feet of climbing in the 100K and very strict cutoffs.  I know my own abilities and figured that even with good training that it was going to be a toss up if I could finish this one.  We didn't get serious with training until December.  We got a few 30+ mile training runs in and then two weeks before the race we did a 40 mile training run.  It seemed as if training went pretty well and we were ready to tackle this beast.  I grew more confident in my ability to finish this race after feeling good on these longer training runs.  Although the 40 miler two weeks before may have been a little to ambitious as the recovery time from that training run was fairly limited.

The race started at 5:00 AM which meant we had to get up really early in order to arrive in time to check in and get our race packets.  All of us flew in on the day before the race.  I felt bad for Ram because his flight got delayed and he arrived really late.  I was able to get about 4 hours of sleep the night before the race which was not ideal but it could of been worse.  It was cold out at the start line and I was embracing it because I knew it was game over once the sun came out.  The run got started right on time and off into the dark hills we went.  The pace was steady at the beginning but about a mile or two in we came to the famous river crossing and there was a really long line leading up to it.  In fact we stood there for a few minutes waiting and I was getting nervous because I knew how strict the cutoffs were.  After we got through the river we were facing a fairly large climb.  Our pace was good up this climb and the views of the sunrise and surrounding areas were incredible.  I was not feeling bad in these first five or six miles but I was not really feeling great either.  I knew it was going to be a long day and I would need calories and it was probably best to get them in early before the heat came.

Flipping off the sun just angered it

After leaving the first aid station we had a bunch of rolling trails.  Another big climb and then a really nice long smooth downhill which we bombed down to the aid station at mile 23.  We had a really good pace going at this point.  It was really starting to get hot out as the sun moved overhead.  The course is completely exposed and the sun was blazing hard.  I think I ate too much food at this aid station because a sluggish feeling came over me.  We were facing a huge climb over the next 9 miles and I wanted to make sure I had enough calories.  As we started the climb my legs just gave out and all my energy was mysteriously zapped.  I could not keep up with Shaun and Ram and they were charging up the climb.  They got to mile 31 before I did and they had waited for me.  That was a long hot 9 miles with no aid stations in between.  The mile 31 aid station had run out of water!  That's not a good thing to happen in a race where the sun has been blazing on runners for a few hours and they desperately needed some water.  I was glad I had filled up my 3 liter bladder before that climb because I still had some water left.  They did have some bags of ice there so I filled up the rest of my bladder with ice.  It actually worked out pretty good for me  I was still hurting though leaving his aid station.  We shuffled to the next few aid stations and by the time we got to mile 40 I was pretty far gone and our pace had dropped off big time.  Those guys were telling me how badly people were hurting at that last aid station.  One guy decided to dropout of the race and called an Uber!  Very comical since we were in the middle of nowhere and I am surprised he had a cell signal!  We had a good laugh over that.

I was toying with the idea of dropping down to the 50 mile race, they give you that option at mile 44.  Shaun and Ram helped me get that negative thought out of my head.  I decided to give the rental car key to Shaun because I was hurting so bad that I couldn't keep up with them and I figured they would finish before me.  It was going to be dark and cold by the time we all finished so they would need to be able to get in the car to stay warm while waiting for me.  Over the next few rolling miles I fell further behind those guys as I just didn't have anything left and couldn't keep up with them.  I wanted them to go on because I didn't want to be the reason they would miss a cutoff and not finish the race.  I really gave it everything I had but did not make the cutoff at mile 44, in fact I missed it by 8 or 9 minutes.  I assumed that Shaun and Ram had made the cutoff and continued on with the 100K course.  The nice thing is they let you drop down to the 50 mile race if you fail to make the cutoff here.  So it was 6 miles to the finish, mostly downhill except for a climb out of the aid station.  I power hiked almost the whole way because I was so spent.  I was happy to cross the finish line and put this day behind me.  After I finished it became dark and the temperature dropped big time.  I then realized that Shaun had the rental car key..doH!  All I had to keep warm was a long sleeve t-shirt and thin pair of gloves.  There were no structures with heat at this park.  There was some warm soup which I would get a bowl every 45 minutes or so to try and warm up.  I basically just sat at a picnic table and shivered for a few hours.  I was really hoping Shaun and Ram were going to finish because I know that I held them up throughout the race.

I began to get worried when there was only 10 minutes to go before their cutoff and they had not come in yet.  Then 2 minutes later some headlamps came into sight and it was them!!  I was so happy they were able to finish and also excited to get the car started and get some heat turned on :)

This was an extremely challenging race for many reasons.  First, there was a ton of climbing, even with the 50 mile race I totaled over 11,000 feet of gain which is quite a bit.  Second, the sun in southern California is relentless and it's a very exposed course.  Finally, the cutoffs are very strict and hard to make.  It was extremely disappointing to not finish the 100K which I had set out to do however I have come to terms with it.  I am also please to finish the 50 mile course in about 13 hours which is pretty decent for myself.  After the race we hit up Chipotle and I ordered a bunch of food as I was starving.  The next morning I went to down to demolish the free hotel breakfast and I met another guy who ran the race.  Oddly enough he told me that he tried to call an Uber at mile 31 but he ended up cancelling it.  It was him!! I met the guy that called the Uber..haha.  He ended up continuing on and did the same thing as me, had to drop down to the 50 mile race.  

I am finishing this race report almost a year after the fact and little did I know that about a month later our lives would be turned upside down by a global pandemic.  I did get one more race in before the shit really hit the fan and I am about to complete that report as well.