Miwok 100K

May 3, 2008

Yes, Me Walk

or - At least some clouds have a silver lining

Prelude

Last summer I developed rather suddenly some problems in my knees (actually right above the knee in the front; I still don't really know what was going on). I was able to run, but not entirely pain-free. I had been pointing my training towards Rio Del Lago, and decided to go ahead with it despite the problems. That was, unfortunately, a mistake. I had to drop at 67M (my first real DNF ever) because of the pain in my knees, and clearly exacerbated the problem. After that, I couldn't run a step without pretty severe pain.

It turned out, though, that I could walk, and so I decided to keep up my aerobic fitness through walking. At first I experienced shin splints, but I pushed through that and, after a while, I found I could do a flat neighborhood 10K loop at 11:30/mile, and I could manage a hilly 10 or 12-miler on trails at around 12:15/mile, pretty much the speed I run.

By January I was running again, and working my way towards Western States 100 at the end of June. The race plan included American River 50 (race report in preparation) in the first week of April, the new Sonoma 50 (ditto) the second week of April (two 50's in two weeks not a good idea, but that's another story), and then the Miwok 100K the first week in May. I arrived at Miwok well-trained.

In 2003, in my first 100K at Miwok, I had a good race, but it rained and was quite muddy, and the best I could accomplish was a 14:18:03. In 2004 I returned and was having a pretty good race, but I fell apart at Pantoll on the return, sitting for a full 21 minutes regaining my composure, fighting a DNF, until Don Lundell and Gillian Robinson came along and offered to walk with me for a while until I pulled it together. I did, and finished in 14:12:58, better than the year before but still not the sub-14 I had been hoping for.

My plan for this year: start conservatively (not my normal style), walk the uphills (hard!) taking advantage of my new walking ability to its fullest, and use my latest mantra: "Steady as she goes." Even though my training runs had been generally slower than in previous years thanks to my recent problems, I was still hoping for sub-14.

Miwok 2008

Miwok expanded registration this year to 350 (318 started), which delayed the start by 20 minutes, and also made sure I wouldn't start too fast because after 100 yards of running down the beach (trotting, really, the sand was quite thick and hard to run on, not that I really wanted to), a major bottleneck occurs, and those of us who started near the back had to wait several minutes just to get onto the trail. In the past, this would have bothered me, but I was "taking it easy," not stressing, so I just went with the flow. Soon enough I was walking up the hill, and then onto the road which snakes around the Marin Headlands and eventually offers a magnificent view of the Golden Gate Bridge at sunrise. My walking here set the model for the day - hard walking, generally long strides with arms swinging, occasionally shifting to short strides with a more rapid cadence (particularly on the steeper bits), passing many people who would later pass me on the flats and downhills. Not once all day was I to be passed by someone walking, and only very rarely (I think only once or twice in 62 miles) passed by a runner on an uphill. Of course that's all with reference to the people in "my section" of the pack; I don't mean to imply there weren't many people who could beat me running or walking on the uphills, just that they were all in front of me from the start and I never saw them.

After the end of the uphill road section, the route hits the first trail back down to the valley where the race starts around mile 5. I was feeling fine, not pushing particularly hard on the downhill, keeping an eye out for poison oak, when wham! My foot caught on a rock, my body leaned way forward, I tried my best to move my legs at double-speed to get them back under my body, but to no avail, and down I went, unfortunately on a nasty rocky section. The good news was that, since it was still early and cold and I was wearing a long-sleeve shirt and gloves, the damage could have been worse. The bad news was that the damage was pretty bad. After another runner helped me up, and I regained my composure, I saw that my left leg was bleeding near the knee, and when I pulled up my left sleeve, I discovered that my left forearm was gouged from just below the elbow about 2/3 of the way to the wrist, and bleeding pretty badly. Road rash bleeding, not arterial bleeding, but pretty bad. I washed it off pretty well with my water bottle (the fact that my skin didn't actually contact the ground but rather the inside of my shirt sleeve meant the arm really wasn't dirty at all, although the leg was of course), and figured I'd do more serious repair at the aid station which was only a mile ahead. A little later I remembered I had some alcohol swabs in my trail kit, so I stopped and used them to clean out the deepest gouges.

The first aid station is a very simplified, water-only aid station, and the only help they could provide was more water for washing off the wound, and to tell me I could get "real" attention at Tennessee Valley, six miles ahead. If things felt bad (I was particularly worried about my left knee, which had taken a shot), I was prepared to drop out at any time, but as long as I felt like I was holding up, I was prepared to go on. A short way out of the aid station, starting up the next gradual climb, I remembered I had a bandana with me, and figured I'd use that as a tourniquet since the wound was oozing fairly significantly. A nearby runner helped me tie it tightly, and on I pressed, once again power-walking up the climb and passing many people on the way. Then it's down into Tennessee Valley and the aid station, where, after a brief confusion as to its location (naturally it hadn't been used yet), the first aid kit was located and a wonderful volunteer gauze-taped the arm up. I was a bit worried because he only tucked in the end, and didn't use any kind of clip or tape, but he assured me it would hold up. To my surprise and delight it did, for 50 more miles, and looked the same at the end as when he applied it. Good to go!

The weather had led me to believe we might have fog on the coast, but as the pictures above show, there was nothing of the sort - a beautiful day was in the offing, not too hot, not too cold, just perfect. And on I pressed, holding to my strategy, walking the uphills, running the flats and downhills in a measured way, enjoying the day. By the time I got to Muir Beach I was 11 minutes behind my 2004 time (I had my splits with me on a small piece of paper in my pocket for reference, not because I was worried about beating or not beating my previous time, but because knowing my own time from aid station to aid station in past years is a good way to know what to expect and to figure out my nutrition plan). Considering the time I had spent on medical issues, and my different strategy of starting more conservatively, I was perfectly happy with that.

On the next section, which includes a long climb up the Deer Park Fire Road to my old Dipsea friend Cardiac and then on to Pan Toll, I managed to regain most of that 11 minutes, though, using my newly improved power walking. I must have passed 15 people on that climb. I quickly discarded my long-sleeve shirt (which had been around my waist for many miles) and gloves in my drop bag and pressed on, enjoying as always the beautiful views from the Matt Davis trail as it passes above the beautiful crescent of Stinson Beach.

Well before the route re-enters a wooded section and arrives at the Bolinas Ridge aid station, here comes the first runner headed back already! In 2003 and 2004, when Scott Jurek was in the lead, I passed him in the woods. The record had been lowered since, but it was clear to me another one was about to be set (and was). Ten minutes later, along came the second, and shortly after the third runners. Later on, still before the woods, the fourth and fifth runners. Some impressive running indeed!

As for me, I was still "steady as she goes," through the Bolinas Ridge aid station, then on through the chaparal and the forest, now starting to see many of the runners ahead of me headed back, including Chihping Fu, who took the picture of me below (note the bandage on the left forarm), then down the long hill to the Randall turnaround, where Chuck Wilson took the picture of me, looking in fine spirits. I was keeping my self in fluids, in food, in check, and generally feeling good, and ready to start back.

Back up the hill and the crowds are thinner, but I still managed to pass a couple people on the uphill, and gain seriously on my previous years' times. Whereas I hit the turnaround in almost exactly the same time as in 2004, by the Bolinas Ridge aid station I was more than five minutes ahead, and by Pan Toll, as I continued my steady run the downhills and flats, power walk the uphills, I had put 13 minutes on 2004. I did take a much-needed pit stop at Pan Toll, but by the time I left the aid station having taken time to throw on a long-sleeve shirt for the late afternoon chill, I was 27 minutes ahead of 2004, feeling good, and confident I could break 14 hours barring a major collapse. Actually my biggest worry at this point was that I would miss the point at which the return route diverges from the outbound route, and indeed reading race reports I see that several people did that, but it was well-marked and I had no problems with it. I did have problems with the few miles of trail after that point, which seem to hold about 50% of the world's supply of poison oak. I swear at one point I was surrounded not on two, not on four, but on all six sides with poison oak. My problem was, perversely, that I was going great, really moving well (power-walking, of course) up the hill, at a rate so fast it's hard to see the poison oak before you're on it. My eyes and brain were on double-speed as I attempted to navigate the route without major contact with the dreaded poison oak. My arms and legs were coated with Ivy-Dry Defense, a combination 25 SPF and poison oak/ivy blocker, and I was planning on applying Tecnu Extreme when I finished, and that combination hadn't failed me yet, but with poison oak as plentiful as on this trail, all the defense in the world wouldn't help if you weren't also careful. Or not allergic. Which, unfortunately, I'm not. Not not allergic.

Anyway, eventually that long climb ends and you drop down to the Route 1 Crossing aid station, where I found I had gained an additional five minutes on my 2004 time. I was now starting to entertain vague thoughts of a 13:30 finish, but I knew that was unlikely. After the crossing there's more uphill, which was no problem; my energy level was still high. Only on the final downhill into Tennessee Valley did I encounter my first problem of the day (not counting losing a quart of blood - just kidding!), which was that the top of my right foot, right where the ankle becomes the foot, was starting to hurt (the tendon, I guess). I definitely lost time there (and indeed, in 2003, the splits below show I did that section six minutes faster, but soon enough I was at the bottom.

At the aid station I profusely thanked the volunteer who had taped me up more than ten hours earlier (the volunteers at that aid station put in yeoman service!), and showed him how well his handiwork had held up. Then it was time to hit the final ridge, which offered no particular problems. Amazingly, by the time I was ready for the final downhill my foot problem had gone away, and I was able to take the downhill at a reasonable clip, without any need to "baby" it as I had going into Tennessee Valley. As I started the descent I thought there was still the offest of off-chances I could beat 13:30, but it's a long way down, and the 13:36:32 which greeted me at the finish line was well beyond my wildest dreams anyway, so I was plenty happy. No doubt if I hadn't stopped to take pictures, or stopped for medical attention, I could have had an even faster time, but when you beat your previous best time by more than 36 minutes, you're not allowed to say "what if"! When I started in the morning, with the race starting 20 minutes late, I thought it would be a challenge to finish by dark, which in my previous finishes was arriving pretty much as I finished. As it turned out, even with starting 20 minutes late, it was lighter this year at the finish than ever before!

All in all it was a great day. And, as the sub-title says, some clouds (my injury which forced me to do several months of walking) do have a silver lining!

Birdwatching Report

Bird of the day was definitely Pacific-slope Flycatcher; ten or so heard at different locations on the trail. One Olive-sided Flycatcher heard; not near Muir Beach where I've hard it before. That was an "FOY" (First of the year) bird for me. Several Purple Finches, and one Black-headed Grosbeak, all heard. One Great-horned Owl heard (probable, it was distant) from the Fire Road just below Cardiac, further down a Northern Flicker briefly glimpsed and heard calling. Several Turkey Vultures, but not a single Hawk. And no Swainson's Thrush heard near Cardiac where I often hear them, so I still haven't got one of those on my list this year.

Equipment Report

I remain very happy with the Brooks Cascadia 3, of which I was wearing a second pair (just broken in with 9M last weekend). Got through the day mostly on GU (one every 30-45 minutes), supplemented with a few PB&J "sandwiches" (squares) and a couple cookies. The aid stations alternate between lemon-lime GU2O, which I can't tolerate, and raspberry, which I like, so I was drinking electrolyte between every other aid station, and just water otherwise (two bottles), supplemented with about 10 salt caps during the day, and I think six Advil (would have been ever fewer had it not been for the fall and injury). My iPod shuffle, clipped to the back of my hat with the cords wound up and only a few inches left loose to reach my ears (and hence, not get in my way), easily lasted the full 13 1/2 hours.

The Data

Times in the chart below are not perfectly comparable, because of minor course changes, and because some of them were taken as I entered the aid station, and others as I left it.

* Turnaround in 2003 was on Bolinas Ridge, as opposed to the 2004 and after
turnaround at Randall Trail, down (and then, on the way back, back up) a major hill

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