Woke up before 4am, got myself ready and drove out to Lake Chabot in Oakland and at 6:30am I took off with several hundred other ultramarathoners for the Fire Trails 50 trail race.
7800 feet of climb. We were blessed with beautiful weather (got up into the 70s, not very hot), I met a lot of great people along the way, the race crew & volunteers did an outstanding job and I crossed the finish line just under 11 hours, a qualifying time for the Western States 100 mile endurance race.
Based on how I felt at the end I think 100 miles would be way out of reach but I’ll sleep on it.
Definitely had mental highs and lows. I was joined by a pacer at mile 37 and he did an awesome job keeping me motivated and getting me across the finish line at my goal time.
One really good blister on my heel where it seems a bit of debris slipped by my gaiter and I didn’t notice it. One shin rather sore. Pretty much every muscle from the hips on down hurts. Minimal chafing. Took a warm bath with epsom salts, then a nice hot shower (no ice bath). Time for dinner and then sleep like the dead. Tomorrow I have no intention of doing anything that involves walking farther than my kitchen.
This was my first ever organized race (of any distance). I am feeling pretty good right now; it wasn’t too many years ago that I couldn’t run a mile.
Thanks everyone! I’m not one to toot my own horn but in this case, toot toot.
I specifically told them to lower the hills but they seem to have missed my request
Off to breakfast. I’m eating anything I want. And yellow isn’t my color but I went through a lot for this silly finisher’s t-shirt and I’m gonna wear it all over the place.
Pretty much what you’d expect - run a lot, work out, crosstrain (I also ride my bike quite a bit), eat well. I live near those hills so I’ve spent a lot of time running there (one stretch from about mile 15 to mile 26 contains the majority of the elevation change so I’ve got a lot of practice on it).
My longest run prior to this was 40 miles and that was 6 months ago. I kept a decent base (6-8 mile runs 2-3 times during the week and get in a lot of long runs during the weekends, those were usually anywhere from 13-30 miles). The biggest thing is to stay focused on the long-term; everything has to be geared towards success many, many hours down the trail. You can put up with some minor chafing for a few miles, you can be a little inconsistent in your hydration on a 5K, you can try and run fast uphill on a short fun run, but those things can just slay you on longer runs. You identify problems in practice and learn how to fix them - that shirt has a seam that rubs, I don’t really like this flavor of energy gel, I always get a blister on this toe, etc. I learned to slow down, walk all the hills and try and keep a nice consistent pace that I can manage for 10-12 hours.
I didn’t see anyone who was actually barefoot but there were some folks in the Vibram “5 Finger” shoes. That’s a bit of a hot topic in running these days, some people love them, some people hate them. I’m on the fence and I like my trail running shoes (which are very light and have an incredible grip on slippery terrain). I just read about a study which found many of the same benefits attributed to “barefoot” running by simply having people increase their turnover (take shorter steps more often).
ETA - my awesome g/f just set a PR by 7 minutes at the Portland Marathon this morning despite running the whole thing in the rain.
Congrats man, that is just awesome. Hopefully you’ll decide to train for the 100mi race you qualified for. I’m currently training for a half in November, never been the type to really enjoy running but I got into it with Couch to 5k so I figured what the hell, now that I’m into the 5k range why not just keep going? I doubt I’ll be at the 50 mile range anytime soon though
That’s pretty much how I got to 50 miles - started running and going a little bit longer each week, then I hit double-digits, gave a half-marathon a shot, figured a full marathon was doable (it’s just a number), 30 miles was the next round number, then wanted to try 40 miles for my 40th birthday…at that point I registered for the 50 mile race. You’ll find what works for you.
Way to go! I’ve go my eyes on a marathon in the spring, then a 50K in the fall, so maybe a 50 miler before I turn 50 should be on my list. I’m just getting involved in the trail running and ultra community, they seem like a great group of people.
The longer distances definitely attract a different breed of person. There aren’t as many people who do them and the pace is generally slower (although the top runners are still beasts), so it seems to be more social. The larger trail ultras that I’ve heard of (like the JFK50 and the American River 50) have hundreds of participants (JFK50 was something like 600 or 700 people last time), contrast that to the thousands or tens of thousands that you get in big marathons, so it shouldn’t feel like a mob scene. There’s something about being out in the woods that is very meditative. I struck up several conversations along the way - you might be faster than somebody on the downhills but they pass you on the uphills and you’ll repeat that many times so it’s natural to talk to each other. For most people who aren’t competitive at those distances it’s all about seeing what you are capable of, the goal for a lot of people is simply “finish”. It doesn’t feel rushed which is nice.
I think you’ll also notice that the people are older - at 40 I’ve been the “young dude” more than once on fun runs. You have to have the right outlook to focus on the long term goal and really slow down so that you can push yourself for a long time, as opposed to rushing at the start and being burned out halfway into the event.
I’ve got several friends that are big in the east coast ultra community. They win 50 and 100 mile races, but they have come out of the woodwork to support me on my half marathon distance runs and my Pemi Loop (31.5 miles, 9000’ elevation gain). I was just at the Vermont 50 (run and bike race) and the people were very mellow and having a great time will suffering mightily. You have to admire that.
For my 50K next year I’ve already had two accomplished ultra runners say they’d do it with me, and pace me the whole way. No idea how I’ll react to having younger, fitter women running slowly with me so I can keep up, but I think by then I’ll be used to it.
So what was the high point and low points of the race for you? My first organized race (aside from a few 5Ks) was a half marathon. I can’t image the butterflies I would have before a 50M for my first race. Was it what you expected?
Yeah, that matches my experience - people really like seeing others get into it and they are very generous helping you out.
Do a lot of long, slow runs to get used to the distance, elevation and speed. I guarantee it will seem quite pokey at first but you’ll see the advantage when you are still chugging along at mile 30. If you’ve got friends who want to pace you or do the practice runs with you by all means take them up on it, there’s a lot of experience they can share.
My race went just about exactly the way I expected. I run for fun so I wasn’t too stressed about it. I was a bit jittery with excitement a week or so beforehand (in the “How will it go” sense, not “I wonder whether I can actually do this”) but around Weds I just told myself that while I’m not in the best shape I can possibly be, I’m not going to get any better in a few days so relax. I looked at it as “Here’s an adventure I’m going to do”.
I really didn’t have any nerves on Saturday. It was exciting at the start because everyone’s all jammed together before the aerobic filter sets in and the line stretches out, and it took me a few miles to get into my rhythm. That’s another advantage to taking it slow - you can’t be too fidgety moving at a slow jog and then having to hike uphill for mile after mile.
High points…people cheering me on at the aid stations, seeing my uncle/aunt/cousin at the turnaround point (mile 26) and then getting my second wind on the way back (the return starts with almost 4.5 miles of consistent uphill). Picking up my pacer at mile 37. A whole pack of girl scouts spontaneously forming a cheering section as we jogged by on some random section of trail. Coming around the last bend to see the finish line in front of me and realizing that I was indeed going to break 11 hours.
Low points…right after mile 15 my calves were pretty sore (climbing those hills does it to you) and for a few minutes I just kept thinking about how much farther I still had to go. That was about the lowest and it went away after a few more miles, you just have to dig down and keep going - I told my pacer that my mantra for this was going to be “Relentless Forward Progress” and I kept to it no matter what. At about 40+ miles the muscles started to get sore again and would randomly cramp up (part of this was use, part of it may have been suboptimal electrolyte intake, particularly salt) but when that happened I’d slow down to a walk, let them rest and then jog when I could. It got noticeably better and a mixture of being a little loopy and realizing that no matter what I was going to finish 50 miles really helped my mental outlook.
Most ultras have a significant amount of elevation gain. This one looks to have 7800’ and most folks will walk up the steeper hills. It’s also on trails where footing isn’t always the greatest. I’m sure there were stretches of good sustained running, and stretches of moderate walking, but I’ll let Valgard fill in the details.
The trick now is to wear the finisher’s shirt, and go watch a marathon, somewhere around mile 22. Then casually mention, “I remember being at mile 22 of my race, and I wasn’t even half way done.” I like going to marathons and stating loudly, “this seems a lot easier without having to bike first.”
Yup, that’s pretty much spot-on. There are a number of significant differences between a trail ultra and a regular flat run on pavement - elevation changes are far greater, footing ranges from nice flat fire trails to loose scree to gnarly rutted singletrack, and of course you have to keep going for a very long time. You have to pace yourself so that you can keep putting one foot in front of the other and that generally means running at a comfortable (not fast) pace on the flats and downhills and speed hiking all the uphills, with walk breaks to let muscles recover. You might be able to run up a mile of steep hill but if you strain your calf there’s no way that you’ll be able to keep going for 10, 20, 30 miles afterwards.
