Put it in the Books!

Part of my goal with this site is to highlight the importance of balance.  For many, the struggle between career, life, family and other elements leads to an unhealthy imbalance of happiness and responsibility.  By maintaining the balance necessary to successfully maintain professional expectations, personal obligations and lofty aspirations makes us better in all of life endeavors!  Some might disagree that running 50 miles is an example of balance.  However, we are all unique and what floats your boat, may sink mine!  With that being said, I kick off "Principal Endurance" with a race report from my first 50 mile event!

Quicksilver 50
April 30, 2011

"Standing on the starting line, we're all cowards" Alberto Salazar

Couldn't have agreed more with that one last Saturday morning.  Prior to that point, my longest run had been a touch above 50k and that occurred while getting lost running the "Run on the Sly 50k" several years back.  Yet despite the lack of a really really long run in the training log, I felt pretty good that I had done an ok job getting consistent training.  When the gun went off, I started forward with three goals in mind: One - Finish the thing Two - Finish under the 11hr Western States Qualifying mark Three - Finish in 9:30.

Quicksilver County Park is a really beautiful South Bay park set in the hills southwest of San Jose.  There are not a lot of flat trails in this park and the course was several circuitous loops giving us all a great vantage point of what this park has to offer.  The race advertises ~8500+ feet of climbing all of which came in classic steep Bay Area kickers that tend to knock my sock offs!  There was a real lack of long sustained gentle topography for good running, but I was willing to make the most of it!

The first 10 miles clicked along pretty well.  I took off at a pretty easy pace just wanting to maintain a "good" feeling as long as possible.  From about 5-15 I hooked up with my buddy Eric Dube and we ran together for a bit.  He eventually found a rhythm too quick for me and I lost contact with him just after the half marathon point.  From 15-25 I found a great rhythm and really enjoyed my time out on the trails, had a few conversations with fellow runners, caught up on a pod cast or two, ate and kept the hydration up and came across the half way point feeling pretty darn confident!  The weather was perfect, sunny with a cool breezy, temps hovering right around 70!  Not a bad day to be out for a long run...

The pain cave is full of unexpected caverns and tunnels.  You never know when your path is on a collision course with one of the dark recesses that lingers deep in the heart of the beast.  Apparently miles 26-31 took me down one of those unexpected turns.  This was actually a downhill section of trail back to the start finish area where April was waiting with some words of encouragement and treats.  The downhills were steep and hard and after about two miles of this the quads were shot, the pace was slow and I was beginning to wonder what I had gotten into.  At 50K runners come into the start/finish area and the 50 milers head out for an out and back to complete the distance.  Coming into this aid station I knew I had to keep the game face on, April was there with everything I had asked for, a few words were exchanged and then off I went.  I knew this needed to be a transition of few words and keep the focus on the next 20 miles.  I left the aid station in a slow walk, not really sure of what was ahead.  Soon after I came into territory unexplored by me before.  As the watch indicated my mileage was slowly creeping beyond any distance I had run before, I began to learn what 50 miles was all about.  Miles 32-40 were not great.  They were mostly uphill, slow, and the sun was starting to beat down.  It was hard to think back at how good I felt such a short time before and that I still had so many miles in front of me.  I practiced the ancient art of one foot in front of the other, repeat.  Around 40 I began to do the mental math of what I could salvage for the day.  Could I still beat the 11hr time slot, was I walking the rest of this thing, were there any spots to take a nap?

Shortly after 40 the trail eased a bit and I started to run again.  Key for me to this point was that I hadn't let up with the dedication to nutrition and hydration.  Slowly things started to pick up again.  By 42 I was running well and by 44 things actually felt good.  The last 10K was a blast.  I passed about six folks on the trail (two had passed me while I was struggling) and finished off with a few 7:30's to round out the day.  This type of recovery was something I had observed but never really experienced before.  I must say I shocked myself with what I was able to do with the last 10 miles.  Not only did I limit the losses of the down time, I finished a tad under goal at 9:23:59! My time was well within the Western States Qualifying time of 11hr.  Looks like I will be testing my luck at the WS lottery next year.

50 miles is a long way and the body paid a price.  I don't know if I was prepared for the mental euphoria that came along with the distance.  I am still having a hard time wrapping my mind around this but I am really happy I did it...when's the next race?