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Mt. Disappointment 50k

4:57:10.92

4th overall

The race starts with a long descent. The first 5.7 miles are down Mt. Wilson Road to the dirt road turn-off at Red Box.  Right from the start, the front guys (Pat, Dean, Jesse Bloom, Larry Goddard, Michelle and Shawn St. Sauveur) were flying down the hill.  Pat says they were doing between 6:00-6:30/mile. (You can read his race report here.)  I followed my race plan and let them run away.  I was still cruising down the hill, probably around a 6:45/mile pace, which was plenty fast for me.  After the first couple miles, I was in 7th place.  The top six runners were going out way faster than I wanted to go.  By the time I got to Red Box, the top six were long gone and I had a pretty comfortable lead on the runners behind me.  My bottles were still relatively full, so I ran right through the aid station, shouting hi to Andrea on my way.

Initial descent down Mt. Wilson Road.  Photo by “Badwater” Ben Jones

Running up the Shortcut climb. Photo by Charlie Nickell

Photo by Charlie Nickell

Starting short, but steep, climb to Shortcut aid station.  Mile 23.6.  Photo by Ben Jones

And here’s one Andrea took during my final steps up that climb.

Coming into Shortcut aid station.  Photo by Andrea Emmons.

At Shortcut, I grabbed my baggie of Infinit powder from my drop bag and was psyched to see Dominic Grossman take it from me and fill up my bottles – one with water and one with the Infinit and water.  I grabbed a couple more potato pieces dipped in salt.  I also said a quick hello to Andrea (again) and Jorge Pacheco (who was spending the weekend running the AC course with Dom – more on that below).  Gary was at Shortcut too.  He gave me a quick congrats and tried explaining some tricky parts about the next section.  I appreciated it, but really had no idea what he was saying!  Something about a landslide and some tall weeds.  Sorry Gary, I know you were trying to help!

I wouldn’t complain about the first 23.6 miles of the course, but it was in the last 9 miles where the race really got fun!  Out of the aid station, you hit a long technical single-track descent.  There are sections that are pretty overgrown, some loose footing, rocks to hop over and around and a nice stretch around the bottom of the descent where you have to hop back and forth over a stream, sorta blazing your own trail from course marker to course marker. It was hard to get into a rhythm, but that kind of terrain is one of the things I love most about running trails.

It was in this section, probably around mile 26, that I passed the guy in 4th place.  It looked like he was either injured, bonking or struggling with the technical terrain.  When I caught him, I asked if he was OK and when he said he was, I put the hammer down for a few minutes to put some distance between us. Fifth place would have been fine, but fourth was better!!

I got to the last aid station at Westfork (27.5 miles) and no one was in sight in front or behind me. I knew that it was just five miles to the finish. Five miles straight up the Kenyon Devore Trail. I filled both bottles, took some salt pills and a couple pieces of potato and off I went. They told me that the guy in front of me was about five minutes ahead. I thought for a few seconds about trying to catch him, but mostly decided against pushing too hard. This climb is a bitch. I still don’t think it’s as tough as some other recent climbs I’ve done, but it’s plenty hard, especially 27 miles in! At the time I wasn’t sure that I could make up five minutes without killing my legs.

I ran a little here and there, but I mostly hiked this climb. I left Westfork about 3:45 into the race. At that point I decided that regardless of where I placed, I really wanted to break 5 hours. Five miles in 75 minutes? No problem, right?

I hiked and hiked and hiked. For the last couple miles you can see the antennas on top of Mt. Wilson, but it’s obvious there’s still a long ways to go to get there. Up and around and up.  I couldn’t see or hear anyone behind me and felt very confident that only a mountain goat would catch me at this point. Sections of the trails were pretty tricky with really loose footing. There was a downed tree blocking the trails at one point that I had to climb over with my hands. I feel for the shorter people who had to get over that thing! Somewhere near the top I heard noises up above me. I couldn’t see what it was and figured it was either hikers or the road. It turns out it was Dean puking. He saw me, and worried that I saw him, motored on. & Had I known it was him, maybe I would have pushed harder to try to catch him. Maybe.

Anyway, the trail ends and it’s a short run around the Cosmic Cafe at the top of Mt. Wilson to the finish line. I got my medal and a handshake from Gary. Just what I was looking for!

It turns out that Pat was in third place at the last aid station and passed Dean fairly early an then passed Jesse in the last mile or so, including a bit of a sprint up the trail! Pat won in 4:40:46. Jesse finished a minute later and then Dean came in at 4:55. I was 85 seconds behind Dean.

I hung out at the finish for a while, talking with Dean, Jesse, Pat, Andrea, Michelle, Pete, Hal, Gary, Charlie and some others. Gary gave out the awards – all of us in the top four are in the 30-39 age group, but Pat got first overall and no age group award, so I got 3rd place in the age group. Then there was a “raffle” where all races got a prize! The best kind of raffle!

Sunday:

My plan all along had been to back up the 50k with another long run on Sunday. Saturday night I talked to Dominic and found out that he and Jorge and potentially some others would be meeting at Inspiration Point (mile 9.3) of the AC100 course and running from there for 20-30 miles. That would include the climbs up Baden-Powell and Mt. Williamson. So, Sunday morning I was up before sunrise (though definitely not at 2:45!) and off to Wrightwood. I had a great run. I didn’t feel Mt. Dis in my legs at all, which was precisely the goal. Baden-Powell and Mt. Williamson are tough climbs, but felt a little “easier” now that I’d done both of them once before. Running with Dom and Jorge was great. Jesus and Gil, two friends of Jorge’s wife who are racing AC, joined us. Sean and Mike came out as well, even though neither are doing AC. (Side note: in the past month, I’ve run with the winners of AC from 1994-1996 and 1998-2005. Ultrarunning’s pretty cool like that – those studs are accessible. They train sorta like the rest of us. Also, I was only running “with” them because they let me. When Jorge turned it on about 15 miles into Sunday’s run, he was gone and gone before I could even blink.) I ended up calling it quits after 20 miles (at Eagle’s Roost), but I definitely could have kept going. It was getting late, other people were bailing on the run and I didn’t feel like I needed the miles.

Here are a few pictures during a short rest break at the top of Mt. Baden-Powell on Sunday:

The toughest training is now over and done with. A slightly scaled back week this week, and then again next week. Then, a final, very easy taper week and it will be time to put it all to the test!!

p.s. wow that was long. kudos to anyone who made it this far. i wish i had a prize for you or something.