Skyline 50k

Skyline 50k

Last year if you would have said that I would run a 50 kilometer race (EVER!) I would have laughed in your face. One year ago at this time, my longest run for the year was 9 miles and my longest run/race of all time was a half marathon. I had no idea how far (literally) I would come since then.

These feet haven't failed me yet. But I sure do run them to the ground.

So, how was it, you ask? Overall, in a word, I would say: good. I got to the site around 6:30 for a 7:00 start. The race director was very involved and cheerful and his wife and daughter were there, helping out (wearing a fashionable North Face sleeping bag -- I hear it's all the rage). The weather was about 50 degrees and overcast (typical Bay Area foggy morning), which was perfect for racing.

For my own memories, I am going to recap some of my gear as well. I wore my water belt with three bottles (2 with H2O; one with Nuun). I accidentally forgot the holster for the fourth one, but I would have worn four. I wore a hat, no sunglasses, a wrist band and my regular old Nike tempo shorts. I wore my "I survived 26.2 shirt" from the CIM. I also wore my old Asics, which have about 700 miles on them (and plenty of dirt). I carried two apple packets, a chocolate gu and a packet of Honey Stinger chews.

Now for the good stuff. I have to admit, much of the race was in a haze. I remember a lot of chugging along, some of it with other people, some of it alone. I remember the aid stations, because they have food!

The start went well. The first mile or two was on a paved loop around the lake (remember the Big Bass? Same lake!) After we went over the dam, we took a sharp right and headed uphill. One of many hills. Here is the elevation chart.


I felt good though. In fact, often during really hilly trail races, I walk up a lot of the hills, but for a while this time, I took them at a slow jog.

Mile 1: 8:03 -- Mile 2: 8:03  -- Mile 3: 8:41 -- Mile 4: 9:53 (350 ft ascent) -- Mile 5: 8:10 -- Mile 6: 8:39

There were a couple people I was pacing with at this point. One girl in a sport bra and a skort, a guy in a quicksilver running club shirt and a girl with a neon yellow shirt and a Solomon hydration pack. Again, like my last trail race, I would beat them on the uphills and they would pass me on the downhills. I guess I am more like a dump truck than a Ferrari. The next 6 miles were a little bit slower and a little bit more uphill than the last 6, as you can see from the chart. Also, at the hour mark (around mile 7) there was an aid station, and I stopped for a minute and had a couple of snacks. I was not super hungry, but I had a piece of banana and a chomp of some sort, as well as a swig of coke and then I refilled my water and was on my way. I had my first applesauce around the 1.5 hour mark.

Mile 7: 10:56 -- Mile 8: 8:58 -- Mile 9: 7:56 (455 ft descent) -- Mile 10: 10:13 (550 ft ascent) -- Mile 11: 12:24 (542 ft ascent) -- Mile 12: 9:32

At mile 14, there was THE Aid station, the Skyline aid station. I had predicted a total time for this race of about 6 hours. That would put me into Skyline around the 3 hour mark. My Dad was possibly going to try and catch me at one of the aid stations before meeting me at the end, so we had done some estimates and three hours seemed reasonable. I got to Skyline at 9:00, two hours after I had started! I ate some wonderful, gorgeous watermelon, got a water refill and a potato with salt and chugged two Gatorade type drinks.  I glanced around for Dad, chugged another coke and carried on. The guy right in front of me chugged his coke and then let out the largest burp I have heard, scaring an old couple and their dogs.

Mile 13: 9:27 -- Mile 14: 10:36 -- Mile 15: 10:03 -- Mile 16: 12:43 -- Mile 17: 11:31 -- Mile 18: 11:25

I am actually surprised that those miles were not faster, as they were a pretty good mix of downhill and up, with no huge hills that I can remember. But, like I said, this is where things get fuzzy. What I do remember? Looking at my Garmin right around mile 15. The thing is, I had set my Garmin onto metric to do the Run with Jess virtual Olympics (100 m etc) and I never set it back, so it was still on metric. So. Right around the 22 km mark, I started looking at my watch a lot. The problem with km is there are so many of them! Thinking, "I still have 30 km left" is A LOT worse than thinking, "I only have 18 miles left". To make it worse, my brain doesn't do math well when running and I kept getting confused about how long I really had left.

Mile 19: 10:25 -- Mile 20: 10:40 -- Mile 21: 10:21 -- Mile 22: 9:55 -- Mile 23: 8:59 -- Mile 24: 9:38

Needless to say, the km or miles or whatever they were, went pretty slow after about the 30k mark. This is also when my feet started hurting. First it was the ball. Then it was a blister on the sideways toe. Then my knees started to ache. I was hoping for more uphills and less downhills. Yes, I said LESS downhills. Downhill caused my soles to ache and my knees to throb. I was not in bad shape soreness wise; my energy levels were pretty good. I did eat my Gu somewhere around mile 25 maybe. Every time I looked at it, I was hoping that my Garmin had gotten messed up since we were going through so many trees and that it was 5 or 6 or 8 miles off and really I was almost there. Then I asked the bean counters and they said cheerfully, "ONLY 6 more miles!" Only? Grumble, grumble.

Mile 25: 11:16 -- Mile 26: 13:01 -- Mile 27: 13:04 -- Mile 28: 10:05 -- Mile 29: 9:49 -- Mile 30: 9:13 -- Mile 31: 8:19 (this is when Dean passed me )

There was one last aid station around mile 28. I got to it, stopped, got a water refill, ate some cantaloupe, got made fun of for wearing a marathon shirt, downed a coke and a Gatorade and asked how much farther I had (because at this point, I could not read miles or km or barely articulate anything for that matter). They said, "three easy miles, down this hill (ug) and on a rolling loop around the rest of the lake (rolling!? I almost cried)."

source

The last three miles were hot and dusty and everyone who was going the opposite way kept saying, "you are almost there".  I know they meant well but I my feet were crying, "let me out!" I had to go to the bathroom but there was a woman right behind me and gosh darn it, I was NOT going to let her pass me. And then Dean passed me. And then I crossed the finish line. And I was still alive. It was a miracle.

Total Time: 5:09:51 (10:21/mi average)
Overall: 46/213
Gender Group: 8/83
Rookie Prize: 1st place!
Total Ascent according to Garmin: 10,000 ft

After that I ate about 2000 calories in meat products (while the sports bra girl sat next to me and had a salad) and beer. In about 6.5 minutes. I can eat 3000 calories A LOT faster than I can burn them!

The verdict? I wore the wrong shoes. I shouldn't have worn my old, worn out shoes. I felt good except for my feet. I could have kept going if not for the blisters and rubbing and discomfort. I also had a way slower second half than first half, so I probably went out a bit too fast.

FYI: The winner of this race did it in 3:32:05. The oldest person to complete it was 77 and he did it in 6:32. The largest age group by far was the 40-49 group.

Are you where you thought you would be (in fitness or in life) at this time last year? If you had 3000 guilt free calories, what would you eat?

Don't forget to stop by Jills for other Fitness related goodness.
Just Call Me Baby

Just Call Me Baby

I have a confession to make. I eat baby food. It makes me run fast.

I was volunteering for a 50k a couple of months ago and in the process met some great guys who put up with my incessant questions about Ultra Racing. What do you eat? How often do you train? How many miles do you go for your long runs? Do you walk up all the hills? What is a good time for a __k? How much water do you carry? What shoes do you use? They were very patient with me. We ran 20 miles together; they had no choice.

I learned...they run runs by the hour, not the mile. For instance, on the weekend, they may go for a 4 hour run, regardless of the number of miles. I learned that they mostly use hydration VESTS, rather than belts. I learned that they use Montrail and Asics and Some Weird Shoe with a bigger heel. And, as far as fueling, I learned that some of them eat baby food.

So I tried it. I tried a few different kinds. Each were apple based and were in those squeezable packages. I know, it's landfill, but I am only using one a week at the most. Here are a few I tried.


Target Up and Up Brand Baby Food -- 1 x 3.5 oz $0.79 each  -- $0.23/oz
Trader Joes Crushers -- 4 x 3.17 oz packs for $2.99 ($0.75 each -- $0.24/oz)
Safeway Brand Squeeze Applesauce -- 4 x 3.17 oz packs for $2.50 ($0.63 each -- $0.20/oz)**

The results? I love it. It goes down MUCH easier than Gu (which I am not a huge fan of but will use if I need to). It's about 50 calories per pouch, so you may need to carry several, which could be a drawback. I used them in tangent with my other favorite fuel, honey stinger chews. I take a shot of applesauce around the 1 hour mark and a few chews about an hour afterward (2 hr mark) and probably about a half an hour after that (2.5 hr mark). I've never been big on fuel, and so far, this seems to work for me. I may start to carry two of them (hey, that's why I wear a bra, right?) and take them on the hours and the chews on the half hour. Who knows. I still have three 20+ mile runs ahead of me to test it out.

What kind is the best? Seriously, just go with **the cheapest one. They all taste the same to me. Just make sure there is no added sugar. They should be made from fruit, which is already naturally sweet!

Now that I mentioned this, you may wonder why I need to worry about all this stuff. It's because I got a wild hair and finally signed up for my first ultra (after hemming and hawing and watching the price rise and the number of available spots drop!) Which one!? It's the Skyline 50k which is right near my place in Oakland! Click the icon to go to the site!


The race is on August 12. That means I have about one month to complain, ask more questions, be nervous, get over my fear train! I have decided NOT to buy new shoes. I will probably wear my regular old Asics that I have been wearing on the street and trails for the last few months. I am still not sure about a hydration vest. I am not sure I need the water, but the added storage pockets may be nice. Also, for my marathon training, I still have 2 more 20 milers. I can decide whether to do one of them on trails in preparation for the 50k. Does anyone have any advice for these issues? 

Don't forget to stop by Jill's for more Fitness Friday posts!  Also, happy FRIDAY the 13th!


Have you ever eaten baby food? If people ask you lots of questions about something you are knowledgeable about, is it annoying or flattering?
Bay Area Ridge Trail

Bay Area Ridge Trail

Recently, I found out about a gem in my own back yard. Literally, it's about 3 miles from my house (in Oakland). In my book, that is walking distance (in case it's not, there is a bus). It's called the Bay Area Ridge Trail. It's 325 miles of trails around the San Francisco Bay, with a proposed future distance of 550 miles, as you can see from the map below. I think this is great, since I grew up living ON the Pacific Crest Trail (2,663 miles from Mexico to Canada, through CA, OR and WA) and hiking, hikers and trails have always been a big part of my life.


I decided then and there that I was going to try to hike, walk, or run as much of it as I can. I found a trail tracker, where you can track your miles.




So, right now, since I am was living in Oakland, I started out with a few sections near my house. It was beautiful. The first day, I went for a 17 mile out and back trail run, which included sections of redwood forests and open grassland and had views of the bay area, including San Francisco and the headlands beyond. It was great. The only downside was that I took a wrong turn around mile 4 and ended up running through a grassland area (for about 8 miles. Oops). I only realized I was lost when I wasn't arriving at my destination when I thought I was supposed to.  Day 1: Skyline Gate to Robert Sibley, including sections of Redwood Regional ParkHuckleberry Botanical Garden Preserve and Robert Sibley Volcanic Preserve. (4.3 miles)

Tilden Regional Park

The next day I took a walk with my friend and then ran back to the house via the trail I was supposed to have used the day before instead of getting a ride back with her. The walk was on a nice flat path and the run was a lot of ups and downs on a single track with some really good views of the Bay. I got lost once but followed, stalked was helped by an older gentleman with a 100 miler shirt on. Day 2: Nimitz Way to Robert Sibley, including sections of Robert Sibley and Tilden Regional Park. (5 miles)

Robert Sibley

On the third day, I was going to meet up with my friend for a walk at 9 a.m. I decided to run from my house to meet her. From what I could tell, it was about 9 miles. I left at 7, which should have given me plenty of time. However, you may have guessed this already, but I got lost. I ended up doing an extra 2 miles, rounding out this run at 11 miles (but only 9 of it was on the BA Ridge Trail) Day 3: MacDonald Staging Area to Procter Staging Area, including Redwood Regional Park and Anthony Chabot Regional Park. (9.1 miles)

Chabot Regional Park

Total to date: 18.4 miles**

**I will have to do a more through calculation later, because I have also been on some additional portions of this trail without even knowing it (see stars on map above).

So, the general theme of the Bay Area Ridge Trail Exploration Project (that is the official name and has been approved by the FDA and the USDA) is my getting lost. I am not sure if it's my map reading skills or my navigation skills, or their lack of signage/good maps. Or all four maybe? I have had a lot of fun finding out the routes and making a point to try a new route, rather than the same one that I always do and am comfortable with.

I think it's a great way to see new areas near my home as well as to push my boundaries a little bit. I also feel that it keeps running FUN (or hiking/walking). And the views have been fabulous! I also love the fact that within the city there are such beautiful green spaces. It's like you are all alone running along a trail. I barely saw any other people and there are rarely even commercial structures in view. I can't wait to try some of the other sections!

Do you have any hiking trails near your house? Have you ever done any hiking on the PCT, Appalachian or Continental Divide Trails? Do you like to try new running/hiking/walking routes or do you stick to the tried and true?