Notes
What a race. At 7:30 AM sharp I was at Dan's place to pick him up. According to my calculations it will take us 30 minutes to drive to the race allowing us 30 minutes to get ready. Sure enough, my calculations were way off and by 7:40 AM, when we started driving, my GPS showed 8:15 AM as arrival time.
Along the way we got a bit lost and we arrived there 8:26 AM, just 4 minutes short of the starting of the race. I parked the car, we grapped our stuff and ran to the starting area to pick up our bib number.
Sure enough I forgot my sunglasses, the item I never go without even running at night (weird, isn't it). So I had to run back about 100" to the car, take the glasses, run back to the starting line, put on my bib number, throw on my backpack and immediately start running. My heart already was racing without even starting the race yet.
But off we were anyways and it was a very nice day. At the beginning I fought a battle with the tiny bread pieces who got stucked on my throat and after a while I donated my bread to the wild because I keep coughing.
For the first 5 miles I felt great. Last month I ran 150 miles; the most miles I have ever ran in a single month. Dan, on the other hand, told me that he ran about a 50 miles and he indeed was out of shape.
For some reason my legs started to become really heavy after mile 7, which is kind of normal for me. That first low always comes at that milage and usually dissapears after mile 10. But not this time.
My mile 16, somewhere at the turn-around point, I was still tired and we're just about to go back up the mountain for at least 4 miles, which I would cover with 17 min/mile pace.
At the 2nd and 2nd last aid station, at mile 20, I was so tired that I had to sit down. There were 4 other people and we were the last ones at the course. I hated myself at that point and started eating random stuff. I cleaned my shoes and got ready to leave to make it to the 3:14 PM cut-off time on the next aid station on mile 26.2.
The run started down hill and I felt a bit better after eating. I started to run and caught on Dan pretty fast. He was running a bit faster but still slower than usual. I passed him and hoped to give him a reason to go faster. I always tried to be within his reach so he could push himself a bit more.
I keep feeling better and better. I believed that a blister on my large right toe bursted because it felt like that. Later that night, while showering, I indeed saw that open blister.
Dan told me to keep going strong to the next aid station. I took off and ran fairly good the levels and downhills and fast walked the uphills.
At 2:55 PM I arrived at the last aid station. 5 minutes later I took off a really steep street up the hill. On top suddenly 3 small and a big dog surrounded me sniffing me from top to bottom. Some of the dogs licked my hands; hmmm, salty!
There were 3 streets going in all directions but no markings. I got confused and ran back a bit down the steep hill. I'm sure that must be the right way so I ran up again just to be greeted by the dogs again. I knew they were friendly so I pet them while trying to figure out what to do.
I took the street going straight down the hill and ran it for about 200 feet to a dead end. I came back up and decided to go back to the aid station to ask for help. So I ran back down the steep street and just at the bottom I saw the marking pointing to the trail next to the street. Earlier I've missed that marking and I've lost 10 minutes.
I looked back at the aid station and didn't see Dan. I figured that he must have been in front of me now and started running to catch up on him.
About a half mile later I came to a 4-way interception. The running markings pointed to the left and straight! I had no clue where to go. While standing there puzzled a couple came walking and they said they've seen another runner down the trail ahead of them. They told me he was dressed all in black. That's Dan! Thanks folks.
So I went off and indeed saw him down the trail. He wasn't sure if that was the right way to go but we just kept going. I was feeling still strong so I pulled away again. About 1 mile down the trail I passed another runner and I asked him if we're on the right trail. He said yes because he recognized it from last year. Yeah, right on the right track and we figured that we have another 3 miles to go.
The trail went mostly downhill and I actually enjoyed it. I had my Ipod on and some random good music animated me to keep going. Along the way I passed a few people walking the trail and they looked at me weird because I ran pretty fast (about an 8:30 pace) and had my sunglasses on even thought the sun didn't come through the woods anymore.
When the running gets difficult I always put on my sun glasses; doesn't matter if the sun is out or not because it helps me to zone out and forget about the running; kinda being in an autopilot. On my first 100 mile race I even wear my glasses at night sometimes.
The last mile or so was on paved road and I started to feel how hard it was. The whole trail was so incredible soft and I really enjoyed it. My knees never hurt at any time because of the soft trail.
Then suddenly I came into the finish line and immediately saw my wife sitting there. I came into it pretty fast and heared my kids scream "daddy" behind me. Since I was running pretty hard for over 30 minutes I couldn't stop until I crossed the finish line.
My kids came over to me and hugged me. I was glad for this race to be over. Wendell and Sarah already started putting stuff away because they had to clear the park by 5 PM. 7 Minutes later Dan came in and also being greeted by his whole family. I was sure he was glad that this race was over too.
Not long after that the last 4 people came in. We chatted for a bit, ate some soup and drank. Not long after that we were in our cars driving home.
For about 3 hours in this race I was sure that I will quit running thinking why I am doing this stuff. In the car I was smiling thinking how great my American River 50 mile run will be :)