I get to go belt shopping!

Sorry - that's a bit of a spoiler in the title. (Also, sorry for this being so long. REALLY long.)

Signing Up

Back in 2015, I took my first shot at the 100K distance at the Razorback race, where I had 36 hours to get it done.

I failed.

And that really bugged me later on. I was a bit of a trail snob back then, and once the weather turned the trail into soup, I quit rather than to continue on using the flat, paved two mile loop option. I was sure that I would go insane on such a short, boring loop.

I was an idiot.

Since then I've done a number of timed races on flat loops, including on a high school track, and have learned to really like that format. And I've yet to go insane. (At least by my standards.)

In the fall of 2018, Coastal Trail Runs announced that their annual New Year's One Day race was not going to be able to happen on New Year's Eve, as was the tradition, due to permit issues (the park decided that it no longer wanted events on holidays). So the race moved to the first weekend of January. I was never able to attend the New Year's Eve version of the race, but this new date fit perfectly.

What didn't fit perfectly was my fitness. I had done a six hour race at that same location earlier this year, and struggled towards the end of it. But I weirdly thought I could give the twelve hour version of this race a good shot. Maybe get my third 50 mile finish.

But I didn't sign up.

Then, on Black Friday, Coastal held a sale, and suddenly I needed to make the commitment. So I signed up for the 24 hour version. Naturally.

Pre-Race Musings

The thing about these kinds of races (and one of the things that makes them such a huge mental challenge), is that you can stop whenever you want. So I thought I could just see what happens:

• C Goal: Get to 50K - that would be my first ultra since (and this stunned me a bit) August of 2016 at Run-D-Vous (my second 50M run). 
• B Goal: Get to 50M - especially if I could do that in 12 hours (wildly unlikely though).
• A Goal: Get to 100K - this was really a stretch, but if I could keep from napping (which would be tough), 24 hours should be plenty of time to get to 62 miles, even if I had to crawl. 

But I don't like crawling.

As the race day approached, one of my worst fears started to look very likely - it was not only going to be rainy, but very windy. I generally don't mind rain since I normally sweat so much that a bit of rain doesn't make a huge difference.

But wind? I do not like fighting the wind.

I was born in southwestern Kansas. As a kid, I knew all about wind. You've heard how Eskimos have 200 words for snow? Kansans have 400 words for wind. We didn't use a cute little wind gauge - we tied a logging chain to a tree branch. When the links started snapping off, you knew there could be a real storm coming.

I've gotten soft though, and trying to run in a rainy, wet wind is not fun. The one thing in my favor was that a third of the course was paved and the rest was a fairly solid gravel, so footing wouldn't be an issue.

My jug, table, and pet Sun in the staging area.

The race started at the decent hour of 9AM, which meant I didn't have to get up crazy early. Once I arrived, I set up a table with a jug full of Tailwind and my pet Sun. (The Sun was created back in 2012 when Mrs Notthat ran a ridiculously wet CIM - I was her crew and the Sun became an easy way for her to find me along the course.)

My arch-nemesis is in the house! Or, well, at the race!

I knew quite a few people in the race, but the person I was really looking for was my arch-nemesis. She has had an unbelievably rough last couple of months, and nobody would have blamed her if she had decided that she needed this weekend off. But for people that sign up for these sorts of events, running them often is the best therapy when things are tough. So naturally, she showed up raring to go.

Trying to convince this awning that it wasn't a kite.

Race Start

It was not raining at the start, but the wind was quite enthusiastically making its presence known. Everything was wet due to earlier showers.

We're off! About two-thirds of the course is hard packed gravel like this.

All three times (6 hour, 12 hour, and 24 hour) started at the same time. Between the three times, there were 164 runners that started (including a runner from each of 6 teams). A fun thing about this race format is that, as long as you finish at least one lap, you're a finisher! You almost can't DNF.

Selrahc, not his real name, pausing to grab a picture.

The paved bit of the course. There is a pedestrian lane and two bicycle lanes running next to the road. 

A huge difference from when I ran this course in the summer was the almost complete lack of tourists. There were a few bikes, but for the most part, we had complete use of the whole paved bit.

Looking across the lagoon. I might get lapped on the first lap!

"Hi Liag! Not your real name!"

In the early part of the race, Liag showed up to take pictures of us as we looped around. This is normally not a tough gig - all the runners will go past you every 10-20 minutes and the backgrounds are amazing. The weather, however, made this much tougher.

Picture by Laig. Before the rain started. Sorry for blocking the view of the bridge.

Anrol, not her real name, flying down the trail. Sadly, a badly positioned rain drop on my lens kept this from being a great shot.

A fun thing about this race was that you could change your direction every time you finished a lap. There were two timing mats - just cross them both, turn around, then cross them again. With runners going both directions, you would end up seeing some twice per lap, while others going the same direction as you, you might never see.

There was some debate about which direction was the best. Early on, I felt like CW (clockwise) was the best - you got the inside track the whole way around. After the rain though, that inside track was often flooded with puddles. (In the dark, the CCW direction made it surprisingly easier for a sleep-deprived mind - like mine - to miss the turns.)

I decided that I would change direction every six laps (essentially, every 10K). I also posted a status update at those points. 

Mr Coastal taking his pet cone for a walk.

"Hey! Is that horse for rent?"

It was great fun seeing Eca (not his real name) out there patrolling the course (at least until the rain started in earnest). 

Alright - which wise guy took the bridge?

The rain came in from the north, and the bridge gave us early warning that a shower was coming. If it turned up missing (like above), that meant we were about to get wet.

We turned out to be mostly dry until about noon, when things got decidedly moist.

A giant slip-n-slide! (Actually, the footing was solid, even on this bit up the course's massive hill.)

Watch out for car splashes!

The very brave Bryan W Ting (his real name) risking his camera to capture amazing shots of us. Note my camera strap getting blown into the shot.

About 1 PM, the clouds opened up and we all got soaked. Anyone trying to keep their shoes dry were doomed at this point. Bryan Ting was out taking pictures, and I was amazed he didn't run away to protect his equipment during this downpour. Here's a typical shot of his during this period.

Picture by Bryan W Ting. So much rain!

Anyone up for a swim?

While the hard packed gravel trails didn't really get muddy or slippery, they also took forever to drain. This puddle would eventually get a bit smaller, but it (and its many cousins) had to be negotiated for the rest of the race.

The cavalry bringing the sunshine!

A bit before 3:00, Mrs Notthat and Not a Canadian showed up to give me moral support. It was not a coincidence that, at this point, the rain really tapered off. It was great fun having them there, although I suspect they were more than a bit surprised by how slow I was going. (By 3:00, I was averaging a bit over 17 minute miles.)

Proof that my arch-nemesis and I were actually quite civil to each other. At this point, we were pretty much tied. Picture by Not a Canadian.

As it edged to dusk, Mrs Notthat and Not a Canadian did two things: Convinced me to change into dry clothes and warned me that the night might not be kind, rain-wise.

I brought a lot of spare clothes in anticipation of getting wet. When it came down to it though, I was really hesitant to change, both because I didn't want to lose that time and because I guessed I was just going to get rained on again.

But it had rained little since about 3:30, so at 4:15 or so, I did a complete change of everything but my knee brace. This meant spending quality time in a porta-pottie doing things that porta-potties are not designed to let you do, namely, extract yourself from soaking wet stuff while not making the dry stuff you want to put on also soaking wet. Or worse. In the end, it took me 30 minutes to get changed.

But it was glorious to be in warm, dry clothes and shoes. This meant I had to become better at puddle avoidance to try and keep my shoes dry as long as possible, but it sounded like that was a short term issue due to the forecast.

When I looked at the weather forecast just before the race, it said there would be showers up until about 4 PM and then it would stay dry until late the next morning. They had nailed the 4 PM stoppage, so I was looking forward to the dry night. It was still windy, but since I had warm dry stuff on, the wind was just a nuisance, and not a real issue anymore.

However, looking at the updated forecast for the night showed an 80% chance rain at about midnight, with the chances remaining high for the rest of the night.

It was at this point I started making deals with myself - I would stay out and keep moving until the next serious rain hit, then I would sit in the car and wait it out. I was so over rain, and trying to deal with it and another change of clothes in the dark did not appeal to me.

Mrs Notthat and Not a Canadian stayed around for a bit more, but then said their goodbyes and headed home. For the first time, I started listening to podcasts and music. (At 3 PM, the 6 hour runners were done, which greatly reduced the number of runners on the course. At 9 PM, the 12 hour runners would be done, leaving around 45 of us on the course.)

The bridge was gorgeous all lit up at night, and even better, it was not being blocked by rain!

By about 6 PM I hit the 50K mark. (Yikes - a 9 hour 50K!) This was the halfway point of my A goal. At this point, I couldn't imagine doing all of that again, especially with the predicted rain on the way.

At the 12 hour point I was just under 40 miles, which depressed me a bit. But then I did the math; I had 12 hours to get 22 miles done. If I did 30 minute miles, I would get it done easy (well, ish). Since I was averaging 20 minute miles, this meant I could possibly be done in maybe 8 hours - I could take an hour nap, then come back out in daylight and get a few more laps done!

But all of this depended on the rain, and that 80% chance was looking grim. But this also meant, if I had to hole up for an hour or two while it rained, I could still get it done. The problem with that though, was that I was finding it really hard to get started again whenever I paused to eat something or make a bathroom stop. Could I get going after stopping for a couple of hours? My feet were very tender and my whole body ached. (Remember - I had not put it through this sort of effort for nearly two and a half years!)

I started drinking hot tea. The angel that is Htenaj (not her real name) convinced me to eat a cup of ramen noodles. My stomach was OK, but seemed on the verge of revolting, but her getting me to eat that soup, spread over several laps, seemed to really help.

The brave Racso (not his real name), with Jr watching, lubing my sore feet.

Around midnight, several things happened.

• Racso offered to put lube on my feet and handle any blisters that were there. My feet were painful, and I was sure they were covered in blisters, but there was actually not much blistering being done - they were mostly just tender.
• My Garmin died. I brought a brick to recharge it, so I walked a couple of laps while it charged. (Then I put it on and promptly forgot to start it, so I ended up missing out on probably 5 or 6 laps of data. Granted, the data was just me going around in ever slower circles.)
• Somewhere around here I hit 50 miles! At about 1:30 AM I had 13 laps to go!
• Shortly after getting my Garmin back, my Apple Watch died. So I put it on the charger for a couple of laps. (Fortunately it's smart enough to just start working again once I put it back on.)

But the truly interesting/great thing was that it was not raining. Even better, the wind was calming down. It was actually almost pleasant out there! There were few cars and normal people around. It felt like a number of the runners were off taking naps since the course did not have many people on it (although that was really hard to gauge since they could have been going my direction).

Keeping to my bargain, even though I was very tired and sleep sounded like an amazing idea, I kept going, knowing that the rain could start at any moment.

Rasco got me to eat some of his homemade pho, and that was great. It didn't seem to bother my stomach and gave me some energy. I was now mostly averaging 25-26 minute miles.

It continued to not rain, so I continued to keep moving. Then one of the most amazing things ever happened at about 3 AM - Mrs Notthat and Not a Canadian showed back up! I was totally stunned! It was such a huge lift having them there, although by that point I was pretty far gone, both mentally and physically. I had been starting to have trouble staying out of the puddles, and had actually come close a couple of times to missing a turn and actually getting off course! I wasn't great company for them, but they were great at warning me about puddles and tripping over cones.

Mrs Notthat and I getting flashed! 

Not a Canadian and I getting flashed!

Mrs Notthat and I following the white lines on the paved bit. Picture by Not a Canadian.

I kept on going, the rain kept holding off, and the miles, slowly, kept counting down.

Htenaj and Not a Canadian employing the strategy of staying on each side of me to keep me from wandering off the trail.

On the final lap, Htenaj joined us. It was dark at the start of it, but you could see some daylight nudging the horizon.

I'm about a third of the way through that last lap - daylight is really happening!

They wanted me to pose for one last shot by that stupid bridge.

When I got about two-thirds of the way done with that last lap, it started to rain again. Not a heavy rain - probably not heavy enough to have stopped me during the night, but, well, I was really looking for an excuse to stop, so maybe?

All done!

Here is a video that Not a Canadian took of my "strong" finish!

There was an amazing amount of discussion on that last loop over what that song was called. Sheesh. (And for the record, that did not break that bottle. I have no idea why I did that. Also for the record, that was the first time I had tried to run since about mile 10.)

Mrs and Mr Coastal were as amazed as I that this actually happened! (Note that by this time it was raining pretty steady.)

My support team! (Well, Eon, not his real name, and the Endorphin Dude were actually still in the race, but they couldn't turn down a group photo!) Missing from this shot is the amazing Racso!

From my Garmin. As you can tell, it's missing 5 or 6 laps.

A canvas backpack bag, a finisher medal, a personalized bib, and - wow - a buckle!

A very cool fleece lined hoodie with not one, but two drawstrings! (I haven't tried to figure out why yet. It did not come with instructions.)

The buckle up close. So pretty!

I have dreamed of earning a buckle for a few years now, but was afraid that my window had closed. My long run leading up to this race was a Half Marathon a few weeks earlier. But given enough time, just about anything is possible.

To be really detailed, 100K is 62.13712 miles. Each loop was 1.0275 miles. 60 loops worked out to 61.65 miles - about a half mile short of a 100K, so I did 61 loops for a total of 62.6775 miles (which doesn't count all the trips to the car or the bathroom, or the additional distance late at night when going in a straight line proved really challenging).

I finished at 7:26 AM, so I still had a bit over 90 minutes that I could have kept going. But I was so trashed by this point - after sitting for just a few minutes I started to shiver and needed to get in a warm car. I felt bad leaving early - there were still probably a bit under half the 24 hour runners on the course. (WAY TO GO YLOY, not your real name, not only nailing your first buckle a few minutes after me, but also for continuing and getting a few more laps in! YOU ARE AMAZING!)

Wrapping Up (Finally)

This was a great event. If you are staying away from these kinds of looping races because you are sure you will go mad, you may be right. But you may be wrong (like I was) - it's a very different challenge and just as satisfying to finish.

Health-wise, in addition to the normal stiffness and soreness, I ended up with very tender forefeet and a quite unhappy left ankle. 

• I was convinced my forefeet were nothing but one big blister (and I swear at one point near the end, one of them ruptured with a burst of pain), but in the end, that didn't seem to be true. I had taped and lubed my feet before the race, but the tape came off when I changed out of my waterlogged socks and shoes, and I hadn't thought to bring more. I did have Squirrel's Nut Butter, and put a bunch of that on them, and that worked fine for a while. It really seems like my feet just didn't like the pounding. (They are much better now.)
• Sometime during the middle of the night, my left ankle - specifically the front of it - started complaining. This was odd since I was pretty sure I had done nothing to twist it, and it felt like it was on the opposite side of where an Achilles issue would be. I ignored it (I had not thought to bring an ankle brace) as it steadily got worse. This issue is still dogging me a week later. 

I think the one thing I would do different is to bring a waterproof bin with the stuff in it that I'm likely to need during the race. I must have made 6 or 7 trips to the car to get things. (If there hadn't been the threat of rain, I would have just had everything there next to my pet Sun.)

I have to thank Coastal Trail Runs for putting on this event, and running it so smoothly. When I first signed up, it sounded like only 100M runners would get a buckle, which was a bit of a disappointment, but I was OK with that especially since I figured there was little chance of getting to 100K anyway. Later on, that changed and suddenly the buckle was there for the taking. (For the record, there were 6 runners that got 100 miles or more, and two of them were women, including the overall winner, Megan Arauzo, who managed 120 miles in those conditions! Stunning!)

Also a huge thanks to the volunteers that kept interesting food available (I couldn't resist a piece of pizza, which I fear didn't really help my tummy much, but it tasted great) and kept encouraging us to keep going. (And kept the awnings from blowing away! And raccoons from eating our food!)

A special thanks to Htenaj and Racso who were there most of the night with us, battling raccoons and getting stubborn runners like me to eat something once in a while. You two were amazing! Anyone willing to touch my feet in the middle of the night is a hero!

And then finally, Mrs Notthat and Not a Canadian! You had warned you might be coming down in the afternoon, but with the horrific weather we had had, I had my doubts. But you showed up and stuck it out for hours of slow walking and my whining. Later, when Racso was getting ready to leave at about 2:30 AM or so, he actually said you two were coming back up, but when I asked him to repeat that, he remembered that he wasn't supposed to tell me, and changed it to Htenaj was going to keep working with me to keep eating and such.

And I bought it.

There was no way in the world that those two would come back out, in the middle of the night, with me still having so many laps to do and the threat of rain lingering over us. But they did, and I was truly stunned. And they helped me stay on course and make that 61st lap. I probably could have done it without them, but it would have taken longer and I would have been WAY more miserable. Having them there made such a huge difference!

That's it - move along…

PS: Here's a link to Liag's pictures, Bryan's pictures, and my pictures.

PPS: There is a large part of me that knows this was a major accomplishment, but there is also a part of me that knows it really wasn't all that amazing, at least from a physical standpoint. For me though, the mental challenge was a really big deal - getting through that is what I will treasure.

PPPS: I was pretty sure I was the only person over 60 that got at least 100K until I checked the results, and a 74 year old guy that ended up with nearly 68 miles! Wow!

PPPPS: No, I have not signed up for a 100M race. Yet.

Western States and the Last Chance aid station 2018

For the eighth year in a row, I managed to worm my way into volunteering alongside the Stevens Creek Striders, at the Western States Endurance Run's Last Chance aid station.

A few basics about this aid station for those of you new to this:

• It's the best. Always gets great Yelp reviews.
• It's mile 43.3 - just long enough for the runners to get good and warmed up.
• It's the aid station before Deadwood Canyon and Devil's Thumb. If a runner has not warmed up, this will do the trick. (Or totally break that runner.)
• We have no crew access and no pacers at this point. As volunteers, we have the runner's full attention.
• Since part of the course is the "road" to Last Chance, you have to either get there Friday night (recommended since you get to run part of the trail if you'd like!) or by 9AM on Saturday. And you can't leave until the aid station closes, around 5:30.
• But if you leave before 6:00 or so, you can get to the finish line in time to see the winner come in. (Unless the winner sets a course record.)

This year, Bonnie and I hauled about 1200 pounds of ice to the aid station. This was way more than in previous years, but Superstar Lon at the WSER warehouse insisted we take more than we thought we needed, just to make sure. (He was wise - we went through almost all of it, and it was great to be super generous to the runners, who continue to find more places to shove ice.)

Breaking in the new minivan - I'm sleeping in style tonight!

600 pounds of ice in there, with room for a lot more!

There was one big change at the aid station - for the first time we had a water tank brought in. The spring that we have used for years has been declared to be in an environmentally sensitive area, so we are no longer allowed to use its icy cold water to cool the runners.

An amazingly large trailer for a relatively small 125 gallon water tank.

An advantage of the spring was that we didn't really have to know how much water we used for cooling the runners. A couple of years ago, just for fun, I tracked how many times we filled the four buckets we use. That data ended up being used to estimate how many gallons of water we would need, and we were all a bit nervous about whether we guessed right. (Spoiler alert - we guessed pretty well, but came closer than I would have liked.)

The trail of signs.

My first task was putting up all the signs. This is one of my favorite bits of volunteering here - being able to make signs for people I know, people that I don't know but was asked to make a sign for, and generic signs to try to make the runners smile a bit is a blast.

This is a lie. The dragons don't help at all with the mosquitos.

Eventually, it starts to get dark and the campfire is lit. It's not needed much for warmth, but it does seem to chase the mosquitos away. (Or at least slow them down a bit.)

Sleeping in the minivan was great, and left me fresh for race day.

Most of the Last Chance volunteers. It's amazing how many people come out to this remote location to spend a day helping the runners.

This race has 21 aid stations, which means there are 21 groups similar to ours (including 10 that allow crew access). There are about 1000 people along the course helping 369 runners. And that doesn't count all the people at the start and finish lines and doing other tasks. It always astonishes me how many people are involved in this event.

And, in case you missed it, Last Chance is the best aid station of them all.

Eventual winner with an amazing record setting time, Jim takes his shirt off to soak it good.

As has become the tradition, Jim Walmsley was the first runner in, well ahead of course record time and the other runners, but not as early as he had come in the previous two years. He was also a lot more relaxed and fresh - he is learning about the 100 mile distance and really seems to have the lessons down. Just about everyone I talked to hoped he could keep it together and get the win. (Spoiler alert - he did. And set a new course record.)

"Make me an ice burrito!"

Every year there seem to be new twists to the ice bandana, from the classic basic neckerchief to complicated things with multiple pockets/openings and space age material. (Those with one large opening were the easiest to refill. Anyone that has a way to fasten them without having to tie a knot is a genius.) One challenge is figuring out each one of them, and often involves trying to figure out the knot the last aid station used to tie it around the neck. Putting ice in neck buffs was not always easy, but was also fairly common.

Lucy smiling because her hat's full of ice.

One new trend was the use of top-loading hats with an enclosed ice pocket - these worked much better than just putting loose ice under your hat.

Speedgoat trying for an interesting tan.

Another trend that was started by Walmsley a few years ago was cutting many small holes in your shirt, allowing it to breath better. I don't remember seeing a woman do this, but many men did. Speedgoat Karl said it worked very well, although he said he made the holes too big and wasn't able to hold much ice inside his shirt.

Lon rocking the crop top and Popeye arms!

Another trend was that MANY more people were putting ice in their arm sleeves. It looked really uncomfortable, but it real life, the ice melted quickly and it worked extremely well to get your core cooled.

Brazen Sam getting the works.

Almost all the runners took the time to get soaked before heading out. Some wanted to keep their shoes dry, but most didn't care, and welcomed the drenching. (The water from the tank was cool, but not cold. So we added ice to the buckets, which worked well.)

Cory, true to his "Nowhere Near First" book, being nowhere near first, but looking strong.

Each aid station has a card that lists four important times (with their Last Chance values):

• Record pace: 11:17 (this will be updated next year)
• 24 hour pace: 2:05
• 30 hour pace: 4:20
• Aid station cutoff: 5:25

The race cutoff is 30 hours, so it might seem odd to keep the aid station open for a bit over an hour longer than that projected 30 hour pace, but a lot can happen in that last 57 miles, so it's wise to let more runners through than the historical projections predict will finish.

Cory Reese was a poster child for that. He came in at nearly 5:00 - well off the 30 hour pace and seemingly doomed. But Cory has great 100M skills. He didn't panic, got iced up and cooled off, then headed off to the canyon. (A number of other runners coming in at a similar time were a bit panicked, and didn't feel they could take the time to get iced and cooled off - I suspect most if not all of these didn't finish.)

Here's some stats:

• Runners in between 4:00-4:19 - 24, of which 18 finished (14 in the final hour).
• Runners in between 4:20-4:44 - 22, of which 14 finished (13 in the final hour).
• Runners in between 4:45-4:59 - 29, of which only 9 finished.
• Runners in between 5:00-closing - 11, of which none finished.

We had five runners drop at our aid station, most due to missing the cutoff.

Once the aid station was closed and packed up, I headed down to the finish line in Auburn, but was too late to see Jim finish. My intent was to hang out until the race was over at 11:00 on Sunday morning, but I was kind of a mess. I think the heat really beat me up at the aid station, plus a couple of friends that I wanted to see finish ended up missing cutoffs and had to drop. In the end, I took a bit of a nap, saw a few friends finish, then headed home early.

"There's a guy in a crop top on the track!" Lon makes it look good though.

Mandie was the official Last Chance runner (each aid station is given a race entry), and got her second finish in a row! 

While it was good to get home reasonably early, it was sad to miss that golden hour - those runners that come in in the last 60 minutes before the 30 hours is up. An astounding 66 runners finished this year in that last hour. All of them had been pushing the cutoffs for many hours and had to spend a second day in near record heat (this was the ninth hottest year ever, and the second hottest since I started showing up).

Looking back at the Last Chance stats, Cory was one of the nine in that 4:45-4:59 group that finished. With over four minutes to spare (YIKES)! He was the last runner to leave Last Chance to get a finish, and only one runner finished after him. That's truly impressive!

Volunteering at Last Chance is a lot of work, but it's so cool to get to interact with both the elites and the mortals, to play a small part in their races as they all try to score a buckle.

Or at least Popeye arms.

That's it - move along…

PS: One of the most horrifying things that can happen at an aid station is for a runner to leave something behind. But it happens, especially when we get really busy. We try hard to avoid that, but we did have a few times where we had to chase down a runner to get them their sunglasses or a water bottle. We only ended up with one item that we couldn't get to the runner because he was long gone - an ice buff that was likely sorely missed. That's the first time in my eight years there that I remember this happening, but I suspect it's a bit more common than that. I really hope that runner made it and was able to use a backup.

PPS: Here are links to more of my pictures: The Signs and The General Shots.

Loopiness has its place

There are several events that take advantage of the roughly one mile loop around the Crissy Field Marsh, creating timed events for runners to test their endurance with little risk of getting lost or being far from aid. I like timed events and the views of that area seemed like they would be perfect for breaking up the monotony of endlessly running around that loop, but I had never managed to make it to any of these events.


So I was happy that it worked out for me to attend the Pacific Coast Trail Runs San Francisco One Day event, even if only for their shorter six hour duration. I knew a fair number of people running the race and knew it would be a blast, no matter how badly it went for me.

Simplified and wildly not to scale course map.

There are a number of challenges to this simple course - the mix of pavement and gravel, some very sharp turns, and some potentially bad weather (being right on the bay by the Golden Gate Bridge can result in very cold strong winds). And fog - always with the fog.

One other big challenge is that this area is heavily infested with tourists - the views of the bridge and Alcatraz are pretty stunning, and if it's a nice day, the beaches are a blast. The RD managed to schedule amazing weather for this race, which meant the tourists (and many locals) were out in force. Dodging selfie takers, many with bikes left scattered all over the place, made this a bit of an obstacle course, although it did help break up the monotony, and I'll take selfie congestion over bad weather any day.

The event started at 6 PM on Friday and went to 6 PM on Saturday. I think the Friday evening start was a new thing, but I'm not sure. It certainly added to the challenge for those in the 24 hour event since they either had to try to nap during the day or else start the race and immediately head into sleep deprivation issues.

For the shorter time runners, there was a bit of flexibility for when to start. Basically, a new race could start every 6 hours (6 PM, midnight, 6 AM, and noon). I took advantage of the noon start on Saturday, which meant I could sleep in a bit and would be on the trail as the 24 hour runners were wrapping up their races, meaning I had a chance to look fast by comparison. (I didn't.)

Apparently I'm now the "Crazy Cat Guy" - the remarkable thing was that she was able to get the cats to sit still long enough to make those portraits!

The start/finish area looked a bit like a homeless encampment - there were tents, chairs, coolers and a wide variety of other things randomly strewn about. Since I was only there for six hours, I had little need for much space - just somewhere to sit my bag with my bottles. The Amazing Karen was having none of that, and made me a really fun sign - I'm now officially the "Crazy Cat Guy" (which I was asked about by one of the other runners).

All Day Ken's ironing board aid station. It really helps to have a high "table" like that! And it's made him famous in Sweden!

 RD Greg: "If you see any sleepwalking 24 hour runners, don't try to wake them by yelling SNAKE! Unless you are recording video at the time."

I think there were seven of us that started our six hour event an noon. RD Greg explained how the looping system worked - we had to run our first five laps in the clockwise direction, and after that, we could change direction any time we crossed the start/finish timing mat by immediately recrossing it at the end of a loop.

Being able to change directions like this is pretty novel, and I think a great idea. What it meant was that you ended up seeing runners coming at you as well as going in the same direction, which made for a lot more interaction than normal at these sorts of events.

Ed "The Jester" was there doing his amazingly consistent pacing around that loop - it's always a blast too see him at these events.

Pen upstaging the Golden Gate Bridge with her awesomeness, on her way to second place in the 24 hour!

Getting serenaded while looking out at Alcatraz.

The midpoint timing mat and one of our biggest cheerleaders!

It's not really possible to cut the course (you could cut a bit off, but it would be very obvious you were doing it), but it is pretty easy to falsely trigger the start/finish timing mat, potentially giving you credit for a lap you didn't actually do. With the ability to change directions, you had to try to remember which direction you were going if you stopped to rest, use the toilet, or eat at the buffet. Having a midpoint timing mat took a lot of the guesswork out of the process since it served as a "second opinion" on how many laps you did, and was not subject to the false triggers of the other mat.

Also, I'm not sure, but I think if you crossed this mat and had time expire before you crossed the finish mat, you would get credit for half a lap. (After my last lap, I was a sure I couldn't complete another lap in the remaining time, but I could have gotten to the halfway point. Granted, then I would have had to come back without credit for the return. But maybe I could have talked some tourist into giving me a ride on their bike.)

Yes, there were a few puddles you could splash in, but you had to wait your turn.

This is Chikara. He ended up with nearly 130 miles in the 24 hour event. His speed after 23 hours was still way faster than my speed with fresh legs.

Someone was pretty happy with her 100K buckle!

A nice thing about these timed events is that you really only have to complete one lap to be considered a finisher. This means runners can set their own goals, which don't necessarily have to be all that related to the time. Alina had her sights set on reaching the 100K distance, and it was so cool that she made it with hours to spare (which made her more than a bit thrilled!).

Loren looked like he could keep on going for another day.

Loren had as his goal to hit 100 miles in less than 24 hours for the first time. He really pushed himself as was able to get it done with enough time left over that he could make several cool-down laps. (Those laps pushed him to fourth place overall!)

"Which way do I go?"

A funny bit - on one of my laps, as soon as I hit the bit that goes along the road, I heard "Pick it up NotThatLucas" over a loudspeaker. I worked out that it came from a passing Park Police vehicle. Tourists stared at me and nervously gave me lots of room to go past them. Ace was on duty that day and was able to spend a bit of time encouraging us while answering tourist questions ("That can't be the Golden Gate Bridge - it's so red!").

Picture Ace took of me. Indeed, the Golden Gate Bridge is not gold.

Two pictures of me in a row - sorry for that. Once I drained the bottles I brought, I switched over to rocket fuel.

Shrina and Ed handing out at the food tent.

The food that was available was really great (regardless of what that chicken's expression might make you think). Shrina and Karen made sure nobody went hungry or thirsty.

The start/finish arch.

I may be the "Crazy Cat Guy," but I'm not wearing a chicken on my head! (Although I also didn't get nearly 83 miles out here either.)

Soon The Jester is going to need a bigger chair to hold all his race buckles!

The yellow wrist band made it easier to figure out which runners were doing which times out there - a nice touch!

I ended up with 21 laps and a tiny bit over 22 miles, which was the furthest I had run since way back in August of 2016. This was pretty encouraging, especially since I came out of it with only normal soreness. It was extremely sunny and warm, which made the afternoon breeze actually fairly welcome. (And the sunburn unexpectedly fierce.)

This is from my Garmin. The little handle on the right is not part of the course though.

That handle shows my two trips to the bathroom. (I like how it looks like I had trouble finding the toilet, or escaping it.)

The course is reasonably flat.

But if you work at it a bit, you can make that "reasonably flat" look much more challenging. (This shows the one time I decided to try the counter-clockwise direction. I was surprised at how many people in the race that I almost never saw just because they were going the same direction as me.) Clockwise worked better for me since I was able to hug the "inside lane" and it seemed a bit easier for tourist management.

The race was a blast! It was fun seeing so many friends hit their goals and other friends pushing their friends to hit those goals.

Even those wearing chicken hats.

That's it - move along…

PS: Here's a link to more of my pictures from the day.