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Yesterday Patty and I ran the Dick Houston Woodminster XC race in Oakland and I feel my interest in running restored. Why? Was it because we got to drive to it in our brand new 2010 Prius? I think so. Maybe. A little.

The other reason was because this is really fun. It was our first Handicapped race, which means different age and gender groups leave at different times. It seems a slightly old fashioned notion, but I guess it’s grounded in some real differences. Anyway, the result for us was that Patty headed off with the 2nd group to leave, while I stood around and left with the 35-45 men in the second last group. That put her 12 minutes ahead on a 9M hilly course. The target was a go.

Woodminster Elevation Profile

By the time it came to our group there wasn’t too many people at the start. I chatted to Francisco for a while, but I knew he was going to take off and there was no chance of keeping up. When they counted down the last 5 seconds I really hoped I’d be okay. My legs were still a little rough since the half marathon two weeks early and it’s probably fair to say I hadn’t had a good run since then. Anyway, it was too late to worry about if my legs were going to have a good run, we were off and the all male crew headed down the trail at break neck pace. Ahead of us was most of the field with between 4 and 16 minutes head start on us, including Patty, and behind us were the fast young men in the final wave. It seemed like we were going pretty fast. When we hit the first uphill I looked at my watch: 7:20 min/mile pace. Yep, a little fast! But the first big hill (400ft in half a mile) took care of that problem as we first trotted up the bottom section and then settled in to a power walk to the top.

Once that was out of the way we pushed on with runners still close behind and in front of me, onto Sequoia Bayview (one of our favorite East Bay Trails). Around here the first of the super-fast group from behind caught me. Amazing! In here I probably could have moved a little faster, but wasn’t ready to commit to overtaking a bunch of people. We crossed over Skyline and was stopped for a moment to let a car go by. Several people charged pass me when it okay to continue, which didn’t seem entirely sporting. At any rate we ran up the Chabot driveway and back onto the trail. At this point the climbing was done for the moment and it was either rolling or downhill for some miles and people were more spread out so I focused on not twisting an ankle, maintaining fast turnover on the downhills and pushing on the uphills. I managed to maintain a 8:30 min/mile pace through all three miles of this section, which was somewhat of a break-through for me on trails. I was catching people, I was flying down hills with recklessness caution, powering up others and missing aid stations. It was great.

All that came to an end at the famous “Woodmonster” hill which rises 800ft in a mile. Needless to say I walked the whole way up. I wondered if maybe I’d been going to fast, but there wasn’t really anyone passing me. Good runners or not, everyone around me was walking and groaning. “I hate this hill with a passion” declared a runner behind me. I’ve blanked out most of the memory of this part of the course, but my GPS recorded some pretty slow progress in here that I’d rather not document.

At the top I was officially tired, but set off to see how fast I could get this finished. I couldn’t maintain the rate of the earlier miles as easily now, but I was still moving along, hitting 9:30 through the Redwood Bowl and Chabot area followed by 8:45 and around 9:00 paces for the last two miles. It wasn’t enough to catch Patty through, who crossed the finish line about a minute ahead of me. My actual time was just over 1 hr 30 minutes, a time I can’t really compare to anything, but that I’m proud of anyway.

We stayed around for the trophies to be handed out (none came our way), then headed back to the Prius to proudly initialize its floor mats with some hard earned trail dust.

Race reports prius, race, Trail Running, woodminster, xc

Two down, one to go. Yesterday we ran the Lake Chabot Trail Challenge, the 2nd race in the East bay triple crown.

This half marathon was written up in runner’s world a couple of years ago as the best off-road half marathon in the country. I’m not really sure about that, but it’s nice.

The course is a very demanding, hilly loop with some technical ascents and descents. You won’t set a personal record here, but that’s precisely the appeal. The dirt trails you’ll cover are part of 315 beautiful acres surrounding Lake Chabot, about 25 miles east of San Francisco. You’ll run among giant California redwoods and fragrant eucalyptus trees. And each torturous climb comes with its own reward: some of the best vistas in the Bay Area.

In a way this race was a home coming. We ran this on the way to our first marathon two years ago, and it was a our first real trail run. We were shocked at how hilly it was, and how brutally unprepared we were, but at the same time completely elated with our result. This time, much has changed. I finished about a minute per mile faster than that last time, and felt in much better shape afterwards. The course was beautiful as usual and the weather was cool enough this time. The new organizers of the race, the Castro Valley Track Club, added a new level of organization to the event too. Here’s a few random thoughts about what has improved since I ran this two years ago:

1. 13 miles is not a long run these days. I had plenty of endurance left at the end of this. Not enough to catch the guy who ran by me on the final hill, but enough to run the final mile in less that 9 minutes.
2. Hills: I almost love them! I ran or walked by a lot of people on uphills this time.
3. Downhills have gone from weakness to relative strength. You can make up a lot of ground on a steep downhill if you don’t crash, but you can’t be shaky legged from the previous uphill.
4. I passed two people with ironman gear on (really, isn’t that just showing off? see Rule 13), the woman with the purple singlet who taunted me the whole way through Tilden Tough Ten only to beat me, and the crazy woman with the fake tan running with a rat dog.
5. My HR was much lower than it has been in the past for most of this race. In fact, my HR data would tend to indicate I wasn’t actually that stressed running this.

Course Profile (+/- 2350ft)

I’ve been contemplating this race a lot over the past day, however, and here’s what I keep coming back to: the lack of elation. Crossing the finish line this time didn’t seem particularly noteworthy. There it was, its numbers ticking up, the time low enough to reflect two years of running and the effort of the past two hours. There were people clapping and someone yelling my name. How did I feel? Glad to not be running anymore, a little like throwing up, and generally wondering why I do this.

Patty didn’t have a very good run either, which is starting to become the norm rather than exception. I lost contact with her walking up the huge hill at mile 3-4.5. When I looked back she was nowhere to be seen. At the top of the hill was the first aid station where I waited for a bit, but she wasn’t coming, so I continued on even though I felt like I wanted to run this race with her. In the end she finished in basically the exact same time she did 2 years ago. Afterwards she declared that she’s given up running, though I might be able to talk her out of that. Even for me, with my list of things which have obviously improved in the last two years , shouldn’t there be some excitement associated with finishing a race? Perhaps those days are gone.

Anyway, while we ponder out motivation levels, we have another race in two weeks, the Woodminster race, then it’s on to try a tri in July.

Race reports lake chabot, Race reports, Trail Running

On the weekend we took part in the 2nd race of the XTerra Trail Running NorCal series. It sounds impressive, but we were really only taking part because Patty had won an entry at the LMJS volunteers dinner a few weeks ago. Despite Len trying to talk us out of taking it, the reality was it was in our local parks, Roberts and Redwood Regional Park, and we needed to get out and do a run anyway.

Going into this we felt like we were decently prepared. My two (non-running) injuries seems to be mostly healed and this year we’ve been concentrating our long runs on trails almost exclusively. Each weekend we’ve run between 2 and 3 hours, most around 3 hours. Plenty of time on the trails.

As the start time approached we realized there was one thing we weren’t prepared for yet: heat. We’d already discarded our top layer and it was getting warmer by the minute. Disturbingly warm for 8am. We walked over to the finish area and downed another cup of water for good measure.

The start was rather cramped with people crowded down a steep side trail the leads from the bottom of the Roberts parking lot onto the trail proper. The start line was a line of flour on the ground and a guy to yell “Go!” The next thing we knew we were off. Within the mile I’d lost Patty. I looked back and she was gone. At a mile I realized I was going a little fast (9:30ish for the mile). I guess that’s how I lost her. I kept going, slowing the pace a little to about 10 mins for the second mile as we headed over the west ridge and steeply down the Orchard Trail into the valley. Nobody really passed me here except for a guy who was just catching up to his girlfriend immediately in front of me. He pulled in and then slowed right down as she wasn’t moving very fast. After a few twists and turns I pulled back out and past him, never to be seen again. Patty later had an encounter with this couple: she was apparently not very happy later on.

Once in the valley there was some flat running as we headed into the first aid station. I filled my bottle up and then wandered back down the path to see if Patty was coming. No sign, so I set off again.

Immediately after the aid station was the first steep uphill, the canyon trail. We’d taken note of this in our practice run and decided to walk it from the beginning. A couple of enthusiastic guys ran by me here, only to stop defeated a dozen yards in front of me and start walking too. It was a rough hill and with the heat building it simply wasn’t worth running.

Onto the East Ridge I got back into a mostly running pattern. It was hot and exposed up there and my HR was pretty high as a result: over 190 on the uphills, which most of it was. There was a time when a HR of 190 would be a death blow. Now I seem to take it relatively well. At about 55 minutes into the race I started to walk in a shady section and took a shot of Gu and tried to get some fluid into me. I sensed dehydration had already set in. One woman passed me here and asked how I was doing. Fine I said. Me too she replied, then was gone. I was fine, but toasting quickly.

I worked my way up the East Ridge, walking more and more of the hills. I expected people to catch me, but it seemed the heat and the elevation gain was having the same effect on everyone. My pace stayed around 11:30ish through this section, which I was pleased with. Originally the course was supposed to drop off the East Ridge down to girl scouts camp and then back up to Skyline gate. I had mixed feelings about losing this part of the course, on one hand nobody was having fun on this exposed section of East Ridge, a drop down into the shaded depths would have been a welcome change. The downside, of course, would be the addition of another hill.

Finally I was at the top and running into the Skyline gate aid station. I wasn’t really feeling like much to drink (warning sign, I suppose), but took a cup, drank half of it, and poured the rest on my head. It might have been worth it to spend more time here, but I figured it wasn’t that long of a race. I’d just get it finished and rehydrate later.

From there we headed along the West Ridge, thankfully shady, and dropped down the French Trail into a gully filled with redwood trees and running streams. It was fun running downhill and I noticed in this race I wasn’t passed by anyone on the downhills, which is a change. On the other side of the downhill was the Big Uphill I’d been anticipating the whole race: the steep hiking trail up to Redwood Peak. I settled into a steady walk, working away at it. It was brutally hard going, but I passed two guys on the way up. One was slumped against a tree exhausted, the other I simply walked past. That mile took me over 25 minutes, to give you some idea!

From the other side it was mostly downhill to the finish. Kelly and her grandpa were waiting at the finish for me which gave me a little push up the final hill. Kelly ran through the parking lot, but didn’t go across the finish line with me. I think the finishing chute kind of freaked her out so she let me run across by myself. I vaguely remember the announcer yelling out my bib number and some people cheering. Patty came in about 4 minutes after me.

Finishing

In the end it was a pretty fun race. I could go on about how aspects weren’t really worth $50, but the venue was world class trail running and they got my time right. In the final results we were pretty far down the field but we’re both totally happy with our results. I crossed the finish line (according to my GPS almost 10 miles from the start, not 15K) in 2hrs 2min. Patty ended up not very far behind me, finishing in 2hrs 6min. As a bonus, she was 3rd in her age group!

The course route and info is here.

Race reports Race reports, Running, Trail Running

Last Saturday we finally made it to a group run. Now that they are back running trails we hope to join them more often. This time it was a new destination and another chance to use out EBMUD trail permit.

We were first to arrive except for Jim who was doing a pre-run run up some enormous hill on the road. This was his idea of tapering for Big Sur, logging a 70+ mile week.

The group gathered and most folks set off for a 6 miles out and back which took in some nice single track running. Six miles is a little small for our weekend runs these days, so we set off around the whole lake. Within the first few hundred meters Jim and Joe went by us. After that we didn’t see another sole until 10 miles later at the dam. This is not a very well traveled run!

Both of us didn’t have the best run, but we made it around eventually as we tried to take it easy. We are running the Xterra Redwood 15K race this weekend. That race is gratuitous hills, so we need our strength.

A page on this run, with a map and more photos can be found here.

Lake Merritt Joggers and Striders, Running Lake Merritt Joggers and Striders, Trail Running

This morning we headed to Lake Chabot for the so called Winter Challenge. Hosted by the Golden Bay runners this is a good event to get out on some trails and shake off some Christmas indulgence. In our case that would be a 3000 mile roadtrip and a lot of New Mexican food.

The Challenge wasn’t much of a ‘winter challenge’, as the day was spectacular and warm. But the long course around the lake is still a good solid run.

Gathering at the start area

There was at least twice as many people as last year! The good weather had everyone excited for a nice run in the woods!

Runners already stretched out in front of us

Most of the runners ran around to the jetty, a 6M round trip. Some took the 9M loop of the lake, which heads onto nice single track running, while others ran the official course of the Lake Chabot Trail Challenge half marathon (13.1M). We took the latter except chopped it short by skipping a couple of loops, making 11 miles.

The views of the lake were great. You could only wish for such nice weather even in the summer.

View of the Lake

Unfortunately the nice paved lakeside run lasts just 1.6 miles. After that there’s a giant steep hill. It’s a walker, for the most part. Here’s Patty striding up it:

Beginning of the big climb

View half way up the Big Hill around mile 2.5. You can see where the lake ends on the top right.

Patty powers up the big hill. The longest mile.

After the hill was done we stopped and took a shot, then headed down. A group of fast runners doing the full 13 mile run past us right before heading onto the second loop we planned to skip. About half and hour later they passed us a second time!

Here’s one more photo from the run, me headed up the hill beyond the stone bridge, the last decent hill. I ran 1 min, walked 1 min up this. At the top was a water fountain with nice cold water. Ah!

Running up the hill

Anyway, the run felt good though I was pretty glad to pull into the marina area and start picking at the nice pot luck that was laid out on the table.

Going forward from here we’re hoping to do a lot more trail running for the first half of the year. Not marathon (at least not a road one!) We’ll see how we feel after this run and gauge ourselves from there.

Events, Lake Merritt Joggers and Striders, Running, Trail Running Lake Merritt Joggers and Striders, Running, Trail Running