Way Too Cool 50K - 2012

“Pick up your feet, kick your heels back, pick up your feet!”…I figure if I just keep repeating this over and over in my head it’ll block out the other thoughts that are banging on the walls of my subconscious, demanding to be heard… “You need to walk! Those golf-ball size lumps in your quads are starting to throb, pull over to the side! Your calves are seizing with every step, don’t take another step!”… I force them out again with more of my running mantra “pick up your feet, kick your heels back, pick up your feet!”…It may sound stupid, but it works…I am 26 miles into the race and my brain focuses like a laser on this recurring chant. By focusing on just picking up my feet my overall foot turnover increases by a noticeable margin, I ignore the pain that is screaming from several parts of my lower body and on and on I run….

But maybe I’m getting ahead of myself here. It wasn’t all a bad run, in fact, overall I’d say it was a great run, with a few “learning experiences” mixed in along the way. For those of you that have never read our blog, or Facebook, or spoken to us (then what the hell are you doing reading this now???)…I’m referring to the Way Too Cool 50K that was run in Cool, CA last Saturday. This was to be my second ultra at the 50K distance (which is 31 miles to us Americans)…and while I had covered this distance before, I had never done so on dirt trails and in this case, a much MUCH more difficult course. This is all in preparation for my first attempt at a 50-mile race next month so while I did want to have a good race, my #1 goal was to not injure myself. I had been training for this race for the past 13 weeks and felt like I was in pretty good shape to come in with a time around 5 hours, 15 minutes. I was really hoping for a sub-5 hour run but wasn’t holding my breath on that with this being my first time doing this race.

As the race was about to start I lined up at the starting line with my good friend Melisa, knowing that she is a great runner and extremely consistent with hitting her goal times. As her goal times weren’t far off of my own I figured if I ran with her I’d be in good shape. As we stand around at the start with 700 other runners I look around and see friends everywhere…everyone has a smile on their face and an excited energy about them. It doesn’t hurt that they’re playing the song from Top Gun when the fighter jets are preparing for takeoff…maybe that’s just the movie nerd in me but it works and I am jacked up! The countdown begins and then we’re moving!

The first 8 miles are pretty flat with a few minor creek crossings, one or two really short climbs (although I’d argue that road-runners would call these “steep climbs”) and mostly single track trails. While my goal was to run with Melisa for a while my nerves/excitement get the best of me and before I know it she and I have been separated. I do run into my friends Andrea and Amy from our Ultrarunnerpodcast.com Racing Team and we chat for a few minutes as we move along. We hit the first creek crossing and the line forms to the right to walk across the bridge of rocks…well, I didn’t come all this way to stay clean and dry so I plow through the calf-high water and pass about 20 people in the process…as I think to myself “Enjoy the dry socks guys, see you at the finish line!”. The single track set up makes it rather difficult to pass people and if you end up getting stuck behind someone that’s running at a slower pace than you’re hoping for it can make for some frustration. There were several times that a few of us would

jump off the trail and run up the side to pass, offering our apologies along the way…it’s just the nature of the beast after all.

As we hit Mile 8 we experience our first aid station which is back at the start/finish line. Unfortunately I was so distracted by seeing friends and blowing Michaela a kiss that I sort of just skipped it. I did manage to grab a quick drink of GU Brew and a GU gel as I blew through it. My Uncle Brad was working as a sweeper that day (meaning he runs at the end of the race to make sure that no one is left on the course), but he popped into the race when I came through for a couple of “warm up” miles. However, I think I may have been running a little faster than he thought as I only got to see him for about a minute before I was gone again.

The way this race is set up, the first 19 miles or so are very runnable, with a few climbs mixed in to keep you honest, but my plan was to keep a steady 8:30ish pace up to this point. I’m happy to say I was pretty much dead-on, as I worked hard to fuel properly, taking in water, GU brew, GU gels, and salt. The real climbing starts around mile 18 as we get near Third Gate, and I had a healthy amount of walking/hiking mixed in with running when I could. I was still feeling pretty good overall and knew I had more running in the tank. It was nice to see our friends Daisie and Kuni up near the top of the climb, however it was also a little misleading as I somehow got it in my head that if they were there, then there was probably an aid station nearby…which would be welcome since I had depleted my drinks during the tough climb. Unfortunately that was just a mirage and as I made it to the top of the hill I realized I still had a solid 3 miles of running before I’d be able to refill. So I turned up the music in my headphones and started running again.

By the time I made it to the ALT aid station at mile 22 I was feeling the effects of being without water for 3 miles…it was starting to warm up quite a bit by then and I was feeling a little queasy. I scarfed a banana, some PB&J, a couple of brownie bites, and refilled all of my bottles. This was also where I ran into my buddy Scotty Sandow who would normally have been long gone by this point so I knew something was wrong. Apparently he had injured his foot and was debating whether or not to keep going. As I left the aid station he asked to run with me for a bit and since I’ve always enjoyed running with him I said “Yeah sure”….unfortunately it was evident in about 3 minutes that he was hurting pretty bad and wasn’t going to be able to maintain my pace so I wished him good luck and was back on my way.

As my coaches (Kirk, Anthony, and Jamie) have drilled into our heads over the past few months, this race is made from ALT to Goat Hill, so make sure you have something in the tank for that stretch. I had reminded myself of this earlier in the race and as I began to approach this point I made sure to fuel up as best I could. I am pleased to say that I ripped this section up, hitting roughly 8 minute miles for large chunks of it! The weather continued to heat up on us as the morning passed and by the time I made my way to Goat Hill I had worked up quite a sweat…between the sweating, the water intake, and the food, it’s really important to maintain a good balance and supplement with salt tabs as needed. I tried my best to do this but I still started to feel the beginnings of cramps as I made my way to my arch-nemisis…Goat Hill. Let’s just be frank, this hill sucks. Bad. I hate it.

It’s not a terribly long hill but it’s incredibly steep and is just cruel when it comes at 26 miles into the race. Anyhow, I basically made my way up this thing by pushing my hands on my knees and holding on to trees and roots whenever I could. About half way up the monster my quads started pulsing and every step became agony as my cramps took hold. There was absolutely no way I was going to quit after coming this far but by the time I made the top of the hill I was in bad shape. Luckily there was an aid station strategically placed at the top and I spent some time eating salty foods and refilling my bottles again.

This was where my running mantra really started to help me. As I left Goat Hill in my wake I knew that the hard part was over, that the next 5 miles were mostly very runnable with only one or two climbs left, and that I was absolutely going to finish this sucker. I also knew that any thoughts that I had of coming in under 5 hours were long gone…at that point, that was fine by me. The next 4 miles are a blur to me now as I was so focused on my running mantra and blocking out the pain in my legs that I really don’t remember much. As I got to the final aid station at Highway 49 I saw a few of my friends from URP and ran up to my buddy Jesse saying “Dude, my quads are totally shot right now!”…to which he replied “who cares, the next mile is all uphill so it doesn’t matter, get going!”… In hindsight I would like to tell him that it turns out it did still matter as uphill or downhill, my legs were completely thrashed and I was nowhere near as strong on that final hill as I wanted to be. But hey, it’s all good and he got me moving again which is all I needed. However, I would also like to point out that when Scotty made it through that aid station he was rewarded with a beer, to which I would like to say to them “Yo, where was mine at?”…maybe next time!

But I eventually got to the meadow and once I could smell the barn I knew it was over. On the last leg I could hear someone talking behind me and while I didn’t know who it was, I really didn’t want to get passed in the final half mile so I put on a last burst of speed and charged through the finish line to Michaela who was waiting for me. It turns out that the voice I heard was our friend Allyson, so she was spurring me on even if she didn’t know it!

My overall time for my first Way Too Cool was 5:17:07 (they adjusted it slightly after from 5:16) which was good enough for 221st place out of 702 runners…ha ha! Looking back on it now, there are definitely a few things that I’d have done differently, but I also feel like I learned a great deal about the race and about myself out there. After all, that’s why we do this to ourselves in the first place. To get down to the core of who we are and see what we’re made of.

Thanks to all who volunteered or came to cheer us on…it was a great day and a ton of fun!