Training Log Archive: Bash

Event: North Face Endurance Challenge 50M
 

The North Face Endurance Challenge 50-Mile Championship.

Warning: this report is way too long!

Six months ago, Cathy G. announced the plan - a group trip to France in 2013 for the 166-km Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc. She had me at "Alps" but we need to qualify by completing two other long distance trail runs with significant climb before attempting UTMB with its 9,500 m (31,000') of elevation gain.

If it seems inexplicable that anyone would want to do that, this video makes it clear. :)



So that's how I ended up in San Francisco for The North Face Endurance Challenge 50-Mile Trail Championship - one of the hilliest and most competitive races in North America at that distance. It's not the best place to run your first 50-miler but since I had no idea if I could complete UTMB within the 46-hour time limit, I wanted my qualifying events to push me way out of my comfort zone. It's OK if I find out that I'm not cut out for UTMB but if it's a hopeless cause, I don't want to spend two years working toward it.

I've run a couple of 50K trail races in southern Ontario. TNF50 would up the ante in two ways:

1) It would be my first-ever mountain run, with about 3100 m (10,100') of elevation gain, and
2) It would add almost 33 km to my previous longest run (The race course is actually 51.2 miles).

If I could finish TNF50 and follow up with a mountain race of 100+ km in 2012, I'd be eligible to enter the 2013 UTMB lottery next December.

Like most adventure racers, I tend to approach single sport events with a combination of respect, enthusiasm and inadequate specific training. This time I had 12 weeks to prepare - a ton of time by my standards. I'd be starting halfway through the 24-week 50-miler training plan, but I felt good that I'd have time to focus. This good feeling lasted exactly one week until I sprained my ankle. It improved after a few days and only affected my training a little, then I crunched it much harder in Week 5, and all my plans went out the window. Instead of long trail runs, quad-pounding downhill repeats and strength training, I did rehab exercises and shorter road runs, visited the chiropractor, tested ankle braces and held ice packs on my foot. My fitness had been better at the start of the 12 week period than it was right before the race - sigh. My ankle still hurt as I was packing, and just for good measure, I caught a cold the day before I left.

I was going to California regardless because:

1) I'd convinced Sally H. and Paul H. to come too. They'd both decided on the tough 50K event that has about 2000 m of elevation gain.
2) Audrey K. had agreed to pace me in the second half of my race so I was strongly motivated to get to the finish line. After she'd been generous enough to fly across the continent to help me, it would stink if I dropped out after an hour of running together.
3) I'm really lucky to be in a position to even attempt a cool adventure like this, regardless of how it turns out.

Sally and I flew to San Francisco on Thursday. My stuffed-up sinuses screamed as the plane descended. It took an hour to drive to our hotel in Marin County, including a rush hour trip across the Golden Gate Bridge.





By then, I had a crushing headache - the worst I can ever remember. I crawled into bed at 5 p.m. I'd been craving a wonderful dinner but the thought of food nauseated me so Sally was on her own. I felt horrible and worried that I might not be able to start the race. Luckily, a few hours of sleep and some ibuprofen did the trick. My GI system recovered more slowly than my head, which meant five porta-potty stops during the race. 'Nuff said.

On Friday, Sally and I drove along the coast on Hwy 1 and visited two aid station locations. Until this point, we'd been focused on race logistics but now we felt excited by the beautiful terrain.





The highlight of our day happened in the winery town of Sonoma where the server insisted on checking both our IDs, haha. :)





And I hugged a tree in the town square.



Paul arrived and the three of us had an early dinner. I Leukotaped my ankle and feet and set out breakfast, race clothes and two gear bags that would be transported to aid stations. Audrey arrived after I'd gone to bed. My alarm was set for 2:45 a.m. but I slept so poorly that I got up earlier.

It was a chilly morning as 360 of us gathered at the starting line in Fort Barry in Golden Gate Recreational Area. We huddled around heaters as we waited in the dark.





As a Salomon Flight Crew member, it's amazing how often I get mistaken for a top runner in spite of all evidence to the contrary. The photographer who was working with the international Salomon running team took a number of pictures as I prepared to drop off my bag.



The emcee at the start asked us to raise our hands if it was our first 50-miler. A few of us did. The woman beside me told her friend, "If this is their first 50-miler, they're f&*#ed." Then she saw me and hurriedly apologized. I laughed and told her she was probably right.

We started at 5 a.m. under black skies pierced with brilliant stars. People in my part of the pack walked uphills briskly unless the slope was extremely gradual, and I followed suit at first since they knew more than I did. It was cool to have so many people with me. I'd had visions of being alone in the dark at the back of the pack, listening intently for mountain lions rustling in the bushes, but there were always people around for the entire race. We all used small headlamps because we would have to carry them for awhile after sunrise, so I only had a 70-lumen Princeton Tec EOS that I'd normally never use for racing. Other runners commented on how bright it was! (That's me on the left.)



I was super careful for the first 90 minutes in the dark. From 5-10K, we ran a long downhill on an eroded fire road and it would have been easy to step in a rut and turn my ankle. The uphills were much easier than expected since most trails were in great condition and we often climbed on gentle switchbacks. It was very windy on the high ridges and I had to squint to keep the grit out of my eyes. I turned my headlamp off shortly before Tennessee Valley Aid Station at 14K.

I hadn't expected to see anyone I knew for the first 6 hours of the race so it was a treat when Kyle P. called out my name and ran beside me briefly to offer help. I went through the aid station fairly quickly but the boost from seeing a friendly face got me up the next big hill. Thanks, K! Sunrise over the ocean was spectacular.





We ran along a rolling trail overlooking the sea on our way to Muir Beach. I got some very welcome texts from Richard and friends, which I saved to read on the uphills when I was walking. My only goals for this first 50-miler were to finish, learn and have fun, so I took a bunch of photos on my phone, sent occasional texts with race updates and even e-mailed a couple of photos. I just wanted to learn how my body responded to this distance, then maybe I'd try "racing" it another time.





By the third big descent, my quads were talking back to me. We don't get long, pounding descents in southern Ontario and my ankle had prevented me from doing the downhill training that I'd planned.





The descent to Muir Beach was gorgeous. (The better pics are from my real camera the previous day.)







After Muir Beach came the long climb up to Cardiac aid station. The switchbacks were gentle enough that I did a lot of running in this section. If you look closely, you'll see runners in this pic.





I hadn't touched my first gear bag at Tennessee Valley but I stopped at Cardiac. Denise had advised buying brightly coloured bags from a dollar store so it was easy to find my hot pink bag with multi-coloured stripes!

The race travelled into Muir Woods National Monument after this and I wish I'd had a real camera since the forest was incredible.



We emerged onto the Bolinas Ridge to do a 9K out-and-back run with a turn-around point at McKennan Gulch aid station. It was a fairly narrow trail on a hillside. As we headed out, we stepped off the trail to let the returning (faster) runners go by, then as we came back, most of the slower runners returned the favour. The view was amazing and I felt great up here. I'd gone over 40K and I couldn't wipe the stupid smile off my face! A couple of oncoming runners commented on it.





Apparently, this place where we ran over a wrecked car is famous.



It went downhill from here, both literally and figuratively. I'd texted Audrey earlier with an optimistic estimate of my arrival time at Stinson Beach at 46K where pacers were allowed to join us. This was based on how good I felt on the way up the big hill to Cardiac. What I hadn't counted on was how completely crappy I would feel going downhill.

This 1800' descent was mostly in the forest with a bunch of hairpin switchback trails, tree roots, day hikers and wooden retaining steps in various states of repair. I slowed right down as I protected my ankle and tried not to blow out my quads. More people passed me here than in any section of the race - maybe a dozen.

Throughout the race, it seemed that I was faster on the uphills than most people in my part of the pack; this was mostly speed hiking with a little running in sections where the slope was more gradual. On the flats, I was about average but I often got passed on downhills, even though downhill running is one of my strengths in Ontario. I'll need to do downhill-specific training and work harder to strengthen my quads. (This is exactly what Audrey told me long before the race.)

I was excited to meet up with Audrey; it was perfect timing. In the early part of the race, I'd been entertained by the excitement, the scenery, brief conversations with fellow racers and texts from home. For an hour on the out-and-back section, I listened to tunes on my iPhone but otherwise I didn't feel like using it. After I met Audrey, we chatted for almost 6 hours straight, which was awesome. She is one of the most experienced ultrarunners I know so it was like getting Wayne Gretzky to coach a minor league hockey team.



If her pack looks large, it's because she had nowhere to leave her gear so she ran almost 40K in the mountains carrying a puffy jacket and a copy of Outside Magazine!!! We may never let her hear the end of that.

For a 50-mile race, a pacer is a luxury. The top international racers often work with pacers, and so do some of the local racers whose friends live nearby. Someone like me would normally never have a pacer for this distance. I thought it would be fun to have a friend there and useful to be able to draw on the experience of someone who had run these distances before. Also, in longer distances, it's more common to work with pacers, particularly in places with dangerous wildlife or at night when runners get sleepy, so I thought this was a good opportunity to learn how to work with a pacer.

The first thing we did was climb about 1400' on a different trail to Cardiac aid station, then we headed into Muir Woods National Monument.



As we were hiking uphill in Muir Woods at a good clip, the toe of my shoe caught in a tree root behind me as I took a long step. It yanked my toe into a pointed position, straining a tendon on top of my foot that had been part of my injury. I froze and Audrey grabbed my foot and passed it back to me. Bizarre and kinda funny. For the next 5 minutes, it hurt and I limped, then it settled down and I forgot about it.

For someone who has done so many long races, I'm bummed that I screwed up my nutrition. As usual, I carried a bladder so I could drink whenever I wanted. I planned to eat food at the aid stations, a technique that I apparently need to practise. I didn't eat enough during the brief stops, and the things I enjoyed most (boiled potatoes, PB&J sandwiches, Mountain Dew - who knew??) weren't easily portable. Around 60K, I got mentally foggy and started to worry that I'd hit my limit after running 10K farther then I'd ever gone before. I ate what I had and starved until the next aid station where I stuffed my face. I felt fine by 70K and kept eating till the end (about 83K). It would have been wise to carry a few more emergency snacks in my pack since I'm used to eating small amounts along the trail.

We returned to Muir Beach and climbed steeply up to a ridge. Here's part of that trail as seen from a lookout the day before.





We eventually caught glimpses of the city skyline and bits of the Golden Gate Bridge. In the morning, I'd seen all these city lights when we were running in the dark.





The evening light was beautiful as we left Tennessee Valley aid station for the final 9K climb and descent. There was a small chance of coming in under 12 hours so we pushed the pace a little harder. (Audrey could have gone much faster, of course, but she was an awesome teammate.)



The last half hour was the fastest running of the day. At 12:01:41 (chip time), we crossed the finish line.



It was awesome running with Audrey for the second half of the race. Thank you, thank you, thank you!



I finished about an hour faster than I'd predicted and 2 hours ahead of the cut-off time, so I was very happy. I've had a couple of DNFs in international races this year so I got a little teary-eyed around the finish. I ended up 55/80 women and 7 minutes behind the winner of my age group (who may not have sent texts nor taken photos, but I'll bet I had more fun).

Paul and Sally waited to cheer us in and got a little chilled since it was just after sunset. I can't believe I don't have a single photo of Paul from this trip but big thanks to them both. We all went out for really good burgers and shakes, then I had another crappy sleep since my legs were so sore that they kept waking me up!

The next day, Sally and I went for a post-race lunch on the San Francisco waterfront. Crab pasta for me - yum.



And a healthy dessert - a Ghirardelli banana hot fudge sundae.



In trying to learn from this, I would say that ultrarunning is *very* individual so my experience may not apply to anyone else. For me, the challenges of this mountain 50-miler were ranked in this order:

1) Muscles - Sore quads made downhills super painful. I don't think it was much worse than an Ontario 50K though, which is interesting. Maybe there is a limit?

2) Mind - Main problem was the 10K mental fog due to lack of food (I hope) which contributed to some physical bumbling for awhile. I'd expected to be bored but that never happened; I had fun. Obviously, Audrey's conversation was a big help!

3) Aerobic - Almost never the major factor.

So if all goes well, the next step will be the 2012 Canadian Death Race next August. I need to go 45 km farther and climb 8,000' more in 12 additional hours. I now have a better idea of how that might feel and I would hope to be better trained.

I will train differently for future mountain ultraruns - more multi-sport cross-training, more downhill running and a smaller number of longer long runs.

Thanks to everyone for your support. It's really helpful that when I do these crazy things, I never feel alone.

__________________________________

Note: Garmin worked fine during the race but now claims to have forgotten all about it. Kyle posted his track for the last 21.4 miles where pacers were permitted and his friend posted the entire race route.

Adam Campbell (top Canadian, 3rd overall, fellow Salomon Flight Crew member) posted this video of the race (taken by someone else!) on his blog.

Beautiful city.



Race course looks amazing. Hope I still think so tomorrow!



It doesn't sound like there will be live coverage. I'm sure it would be as interesting as watching paint dry anyway. In case you happen to like paint, 'Bent will post any updates that I am able to send him from the race course. Hoping for a few friendly texts to help me get up the big hills! :)

A little running to make a shoe choice for Saturday. Normally I'd always use my featherlight Salomon S-Lab XT Wings for a long trail race but when I need a security blanket, I go back to my XA Pros. I'm going to start in the S-Labs and put the XA Pros in a drop bag that I'll see a couple of times later on the course. If my injured foot is screaming, I'll switch to heavier shoes. My ankle brace will be in there too.

My foot has been feeling better without running this week but even this short jog tweaked it. Just in case my foot started to feel really good, my body decided to throw a light head cold in my direction. I'm full to bursting with tea and honey, zinc tablets and ColdFX. Oh, just remembered there is Oil of Oregano upstairs. Better try that too.

And that is that. Just about finished packing and should get to bed 4-5 hours earlier than I usually do before a trip. Funderstorm and I will get to San Francisco mid-afternoon tomorrow. We'll be tourists on Friday followed by an early bedtime and early race start (5 a.m. for me) on Saturday. Weather looks spectacular. I'm not in a great position going into my first 50-miler but I believe I've done all that I can under the circumstances, short of dropping out of the race - which is what I would do if I were afraid of DNFs. So what happens, happens. Thanks for the terrific support! :)

Just checked in for my flight. Air Canada now considers 1 checked bag to be "excess baggage" when flying to the U.S. Which reminds me...

American Airlines Now Charging Fees To Non-Passengers

FORT WORTH, TX—Cash-strapped American Airlines announced a new series of fees this week that will apply to all customers not currently flying, scheduled to fly, or even thinking about flying aboard the commercial carrier. The fees, the latest introduced by American Airlines in a continuing effort to combat its financial woes, will take effect on Monday. According to company officials, these charges will include a $25 tax on citizens traveling with any other airline, as well as a mandatory $30 surcharge for passengers who decide to just stay home for the holidays instead...

...Arpey went on to note that some additional charges would also apply, including a $15 fee for every piece of luggage customers have inside their bedroom closet, and a one-time payment of $40 for any American whose name is Greg.

..."Watching television last night cost me $250," said Baltimore resident Michael Peterson...

Heavy, heavy rain at the end of November when it should be snowing instead. Boo. Had a long lunch with Getawaystix and enjoyed a full ARWC play-by-play with maps and commentary. So interesting!

Happy Significant Birthday to 'Bent! :) Moab, here we come.

22 teams have entered the Jan. 22 Salomon Dontgetlost.ca Snowshoe Raid already. Earlybird deadline is midnight Wednesday, btw. All race categories are well represented with the exception of Open Males, who are widely known to be wusses. Either that or they just prefer to pay higher entry fees...

Endurance Challenge 50-Mile Championship Preview of the Men's field. Wow, if it weren't going to be so dark on Saturday at 5 a.m., I could enjoy a view of the rear ends of some of the best ultrarunners in the world - for a few seconds, anyway.

The Canadian trail 50-mile record holder, Adam Campbell, a member of the Salomon Flight Crew, is mentioned as one of many contenders. Philly Cheesesteak, our Flight Crew's fearless leader, will also be there to pace last year's female winner, Anna Frost of New Zealand.