This is a very early season 50k but since I was running MUC 50 in March it fit nicely into my training schedule. This race is an out and back in the South Bay and takes place mostly on fire roads with a nice trail that goes up to Mt Umunhum. One thing with winter running in the Bay area is there's always a chance that it might be raining. It poured the night before and also on the way to the race and the forecast was not promising for the rest of the weekend. Only 13 brave souls toed the starting line for the 50k race although a lot of runners did the shorter distances. The rain had stopped before getting to the race and I was thankful to at least be starting in dry conditions. I felt that my training was good up to this point and I was excited to see if I could break 7 hours at this 50K. The race has about 6,300 feet of climbing and really just one technical section for a few miles which was the first climb and we had to go up and down it two more times before finishing the race. The temps were cool, in the 40s at the start but the humidity was high because of the lingering storms so it was a weird cold sweat situation. We started and the big group got thinned out on the first climb. There was a young kid that was doing the 5k and I asked him about 2.5 miles in what distance he was doing and when he told me I let him know that he missed the turnaround, bonus miles for that youngster!
I traversed the steep climbs up the fire roads on the way to Mt. Umunhum and ran with an older guy who shuffled at the same speed whether going up or down the hills. He would beat me up the climbs and I was amazed that he was able to run them and then I would pass him on the downhills. I eventually hit the nice smooth trail with switchbacks that to go up the mountain. Once we got to the aid station up there it was the half way point of the first out and back, about mile 13. Since it was higher in elevation it was windy and very cold up there. I hurried up and drank some coke and ate some chips and started my decent down the trail to try and get warm again. I was definitely on a great pace and sub 7 hours was looking great until coming down the trail and something stirred in my stomach. There was a course monitor at the bottom of that trail before turning onto the fire road and I asked him if there was a bathroom nearby. He said I would have to go on a different trail about .4 miles to a parking lot which was in the opposite direction of the course. Damn!
I really had no choice at this point so I went the extra .8 total miles (out and back) to the bathroom. I felt a lot better but had gone almost mile out of the way! The way back was pretty uneventful and I was wondering if we were going to get poured on because the sky looked really bad. Most of the aid station workers had left and we just helped ourselves at that point. I got back to the start finish aid station which was mile 26 and still had to climb 2.5 miles out and then drop back to the finish. I gave it everything I had in order to still finish under my goal time of 7 hours and I knew it was gonna be close. After the final descent was complete I sprinted across the grass field to the finish and missed it by 30 seconds! Argh, that poop cost me sub 7! I was still happy with my effort and also that the next round of atmospheric rivers had held out. The rain completely let loose about 15 minutes after I left the race. Pretty good timing as that was about the only 7 hours of the whole weekend where it wasn't raining. Next stop is my fourth running of MUC 50 miler! Can't wait.
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