From my log:
Light rain the first two hours and the last four, but mud not nearly as bad as last year. New start by CalExpo.
Wt=171. Ascent=2500 ft. 261/477 finishers, 46/96 M50-59. Some walking, including the final hill, but not much. Splits: 50:25 (8:33) Watt, 1:22:28 (9:09) William, 2:26:53 (10:23) Sunrise, 3:04:57 (11:12) Nimbus, 3:54:16 (10:58) Negro, 4:42:45 (12:26) Beals, 5:39:33 (13:51) Granite, 6:21:10 (13:52) Buzzard's, 7:13:21 (14:55) Horseshoe, 7:52:56 (14:40) Rattlesnake, 8:24:58 (12:49) Manhattan, 9:31:25 (15:06) Last Gasp, 10:06:22 (14:33) Finish. Ran remarkably well considering lack of training, but it obviously caught up with me on the last section.
Why the title of this report? I won't go into my physical issues over the winter, but my training was way down before this race. Every single long run I started, I had to cut short, or walk a good deal of. It was not an auspicious lead-in to the race. But clearly, the combination of a solid base of training over the years, plus the fact that this was a race, carried me through, allowing me to save face and achieve a decent place. I was only 3 minutes off last year's finish, and was actually ahead of it, and on track for my goal of a sub-10 hour finish, most of the way through the race (last year's splits: Splits: 49:42 (8:25) Watt, 1:21:08 (8:59) William, 2:28:09 (10:48) Sunrise, 3:06:11 (11:31) Nimbus, 3:57:54 (11:29) Negro, 4:44:43 (12:00) Beals, 5:42:13 (14:01) Granite, 6:29:10 (15:39) Buzzard's, 7:18:59 (14:14) Horseshoe, 7:56:29 Rattlesnake, 8:28:53 (13:26) Manhattan, 9:31:44 (14:17) Last Gasp, 10:03:44 (13:20) finish).
The pictures are deceptive; at a quick glance, it only looks like it was raining at the finish. In the first picture I'm clearly wet (and it's probably raining); that was the early part of the day. The second (at Beals Point) and third (further along) look ok, but if you look at my shorts in the third picture you'll see they're clinging to me, suggesting that it's raining there too, even though it's bright and you might think it's actually sunny.
Now take a look at my arms. See that thick shirt? Believe it or not, the inside surface of my arms (toward the body) erupted heavily in poison oak after this race. The trail, as usual, had plenty of poison oak, but frankly I don't think I came in contact with that much of it, if any. I think the rain was dripping off the trees (and poison oak vines and leaves), carrying the oil, permeating my shirt, and soaking though the shirt carrying the oil to the inside. It's the only explanation I can think of. Naturally I did not think to Tecnu my arms after the race, not thinking this was possible. It clearly was. A word to the wise!
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