Well being my second time at Mt. Tam it pretty much went the same way as the previous experience; started off really good, got really crappy in the middle, and ended on a somewhat good note. The field of runners at the starting line included people running the 7-miler, half-marathon, 30k, and insane-in-the-membrane 50k runners. As we took off down the road and started to hit the trails we all immediately had to bottleneck up the first set of stairs. Not even a quarter of a mile in and we were all walking up the stairs because there were too many people in one spot. Awesome!
This course was all uphill the first 4 miles, flattened out and then was all downhill from there. Sounds easy right??? Not even remotely. We were climbing up hills, under fallen trees, up never-ending stairs, climbed one ladder, enjoyed some very brief flats and finally made it to the top. It was a pretty intense workout. I had walked up this trail once and I thought it was tough. Unfortunately there were several times where walking was necessary and I didn't feel as bad walking when everyone else around me was doing the same thing. It was just not possible to run up all of the stairs!
If you can't see this map it is showing the elevation for the 7 mile course. It is uphill with a vertical elevation increase up to 1850 feet! Eventually the nausea passed and I got comfortable, I think my legs were even going numb at one point but I felt fine by the time I got to the top. Now I'm not sure if the course wasn't measured correctly or if my Garmin was off because when I got to the top it was just a bit over 3 miles and not 4 like I thought it would have been. This eventually came into play later as well. Either way a big group of us hit the top together and this is where the groups split up. The lowly 7 milers went to the left and all the hardcore runners went right and further up!
I hit up the aid station for some water and an orange slice and then headed off for the trails with this other guy. We ran together for a bit but then he took off as we went uphill for just a bit more...don't worry that didn't last. I had three people in my sights that I wanted to catch. That guy I was running with in a white shirt, a girl, and another dude in a blue shirt.
- "Are you ready for the fun part?"
- "Oh yeah."
- "Cause here comes the fun part!"
And this is when all of the fun began. It's when the last 45 mins of hell was easily swept out of my mind and it was all downhill from here. Now I was thinking about this on my drive up to the beach and I'm pretty sure I run like I drive; really slow uphill but fast and reckless downhill (sorry Mom!). There are a lot of runners that I have come across that have trouble running downhill. It was even a big topic once we were all finished. Not me though I really just let gravity take me down, let the course run the race for me, watch the path 3 steps ahead of me and hope I don't kill myself. With about 3 miles to go the trails and terrain turned from flat trails to roots, more stairs, low ceilings, fallen trees, some scenic waterfalls, and of course steep cliffs!!! This race was pretty badass, I gotta admit.
I saw the first guy pass the girl and eventually the guy in blue so I knew they were both tapering down. I eventually caught up with the girl and fought my way up what I think was the last incline. At this point I could have just given up because there really wasn't anyone close to catching me and I could have just thrown in the towel and finished comfortably, but what fun is that? I finally caught up with the guy in blue, told him to have fun with it and let gravity take him down. With two gone, only white shirt guy to catch up with now. He had taken a significant lead from the top of the mountain but I was right on his heels and eventually he conceded, giving the "my knees can't take it" excuse and I jumped in front of him.
He didn't fall off but stayed with me the rest of the way. The guy in blue eventually caught up with us too which was good for him. This is where my watch started confusing me. We came out of the trails, hit the cement and my watch was saying we still had about 6/10ths to go. Not so much...we got out of the trails, hit a straightaway on the street, took a left and SURPRISE there was the finish line, so no really strong finish this week. My time was 1:10 something averaging at least 10-11 mins going up and probably 7 min/miles coming down.
I had no idea where I was in the pack because I couldn't see anyone ahead of the guys I was running with. The results came out and lo and behold I got 1st place in my age group and 5th place overall!!! Holy crap I was not expecting that but I'll take it and may even try it again next year. Maybe...
Next up: Bay Breeze Half-Marathon 2/19/11 at 8:00am. Hope to see you there!
Nice Job! I say run it again next year! Now you know the course and what to expect, you can probably take top 3. I'm totally impressed. I was a little winded today going up a little 1/4 mile bridge out to the beach this morning.
ReplyDelete