San Lorenzo River 50K 21 June 2014

Last year I went to the bay area probably 15 times for work and not once stayed the weekend.  My co-worker and I were out there for a project and ended up having to stay into the next week.  What else is there to do besides find a local trail run?  After a quick search online the San Lorenzo River 50K made the most sense.  It was in Santa Cruz about 45 minutes away from San Jose where we were staying.  We drove out there and my buddy stayed for the start of the race, then decided it would be more fun to go down to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and ride the roller coasters while Florida boy learned what hills were, and these aren't even big hills, but much more than the old dumps and overpasses that we run in back home in South Florida.

My co-worker and chauffeur home before the race started.

The course was absolutely beautiful compared to anything I've run on before. 5100 feet of elevation gain in for the 50K and it was 60% single track, 40% dirt road.  The race was extremely well run, the race director was great, and everyone was friendly as is normal for the course for all the ultra runs I've done thus far.

From what people were telling me they filmed the old vampire movie "The Lost Boys" with Kiefer Sutherland all around there.  The humongous redwood trees were absolutely beautiful and I should have taken more pictures especially in the woods.  It started out in the 60 degree range and didn't get up past the 70's and the humidity was non existent compared to the muck we have in Florida around that time of year.

I was a little worried when the race started and was single track switch backs up the mountain for a while, but then it leveled out some.  You had to walk at first because there were so many people on the trail, then it opened up into some fields, then into the deep redwood forests.  There was a river the San Lorenzo River that you crossed 4 times during the 50K.  It was about 20 yards wide at the crossing and not too deep.  You definitely couldn't run through it, but you could walk across.  There were people who were taking off their shoes to cross, which I thought was a little bit of a waste of time especially after the wet running we've been doing back home.

After the crossing the trail went up and steep for what seemed like forever then back down a and around to the turn around for the half marathon.  The 50K folks had an additional little piece to do that went up to the top of another hill in the area.  After doing Wild Sebastian Marathon (and 50 and 75 and 100 Mile) back in the spring I thought I was done with the sugar sand.

You can tell by the look on my face I wasn't expecting to be running in sugar sand along with the almost mile of gain...

  

I felt like it was unfair and just mean that someone would bring the sand from Wild Sebastian and put it up on top of a mountain.  At the turnaround you had to grab a colored rubber band so they would know you made it up and back.

I think my only goal there was to not completely embarrass all the Florida Ultra Runners by falling apart in the hills.  The final result was 16th overall out of 40 something starters and 37 finishers.  The only bad part about the race was that I usually wear a compression shirt to avoid chafing, and didn't think to apply band aids, and I ruined my favorite shirt.  Yes, ouch!

If I happen to be in the area next year I will definitely try and stay the weekend again and do this race or any of the Coastal Trail Runs, it was a really fun day!

Lake 2 Ocean 100K 7 June 2014

In the last blog post about the JW Corbett 50 Miler that ended up being a DNF, I mentioned being on the waiting list for a 100K on the same course.  Well the race director sent me a note and I was able to gain an entry into the first annual Lake 2 Ocean 100K.  The trail run that started in Port Mayaka, Florida on the east side of Lake Okechobee and ran point to point to Hobe Sound Beach.  After the disaster that happened on the previous 50 mile event along the same course, I really wanted to make sure that I had run the entire course prior to the actual race.  Over a few weekends, a group of us went and ran different sections of the course to reduce the chance of getting lost like last time to familiarize ourselves with the entire course.

There was a requirement for each runner to have their own crew so one of my good ultra-friends crewed for the run.  The starting point was in a small parking lot by the lake, and the runners then crossed a road, went over a fence, and on to single track trail.  The crew access areas were between 6 and 14 miles apart for the runners, but because of the remote locations for Florida, it took the crew a good 45 minutes to caravan from one station to the next at times.  I honestly believe that the crew had more fun hanging out and waiting for the runners to come through than the runners had on the course!

Most of the people in the race are members of the Florida Ultra Runner (FUR) Facebook group, and the race turned into a little bit of an East Coast vs. West Coast (of Florida) competition complete with old school east and west coast rap references and perhaps a couple of mildly inappropriate pictures posted on the Facebook event page.  The West Coast folks even had t-shirts made so they definitely won the team spirit award!

The race was also stacked with talent.  There were 3 or 4 race directors of other Florida ultras and the only 3 folks who finished the 200 miles at the crazy Wickham Park Marathon run a week and a half prior where the prize for the 100 mile male and female winners are fake pebbles, and the 200 mile winner gets a fake rock...

The race was close enough to home that we could get there without having to get a hotel room the night before.  We rolled up to the packed parking at 5:30 in the morning to hear Snoop Dog and other various west coast rap artists being played loudly in the parking lot.  After greeting friends and meeting a few new ones it was time to get going.  The race director had a pre-race meeting to talk about the course and safety issues.  It was required that all the runners carry a whistle in case they got off course.  If you got lost, you were to blow your whistle 3 times.  Anyone within earshot was supposed to blow their whistle one time in response, and then you could find each other out on the trail.  There were rumors of a recent runner getting lost out there and then found at 11:00PM up in a tree in a deer stand he found and where he figured he would have to hunker down for the evening until the sun came up the next day.  I definitely understood after getting lost on the course the last time I ran it, and was relieved to have ran the entire course over the last month or so.

After the safety briefing, the race got started and we were off.  The plan was to push a little harder on the easier course sections, and take it easy on the wet and hard sections, which were mile 20-30 (wet) and 50-60 (sandy+hills).  The biggest areas of concern were mainly the wet section followed by the longer sections without aid due to the heat.  The temperature got up to the mid 90's and the heat index was even hotter.

The first section of the course was relatively easy running with conversation and groups together.  There was a spot that was a little confusing and you could make a left or right.  When a group of us got to that intersection, we actually heard someone sound their whistle 3 times.  A couple of us sounded back but no response.  I hung back for a few minutes, and then saw a couple of other runners headed my direction who had run the course before.  If the person sounded again, they could pick him or her up.  Turns out that one of the runners got off course and ended up back at the starting point.

 The first crew area was 14 miles in.  Aside from a whistle and a crew, there was a requirement to carry between 70 and 100 ounces of water due to the heat and distance between crew access.  After running out of water on the first section I was very happy to get to the crew spot.

The next 7 miles to the crew spot was relatively uneventful, no major issues except that it was getting hotter out. The biggest mistake of the race for me was not taking in enough water at the first and second aid stations because of the heat.

I rolled out of the second crew area for a 9 mile run which had some water, and it was the section that had me worried the most.  The water wasn't too horrible but it was there, and this time no water moccasins.

 About 2 miles before reaching the 30 mile mark and main crew area at JW Corbett Wildlife Management Area, I had to stop, stretch, and take a rest on the trail and about 5 people passed me.  Arriving at the crew area was a huge relief.  I took a long break there to rehydrate and gather myself.  A couple of people had gotten off course and ended up passing the spot all together, and others had dropped there.

After a good half hour at the crew area it was time to head out.  I was able to pick up the pace for a while to get to the next two stops.  15 miles later we passed through Riverbend Park and arrived at a crew stop.  It was time to bring out the headlamp, and get ready for the last section because it was starting to get dark.  A few people had recently left the crew area so I was going to try and catch them.

For a comparison, the my last 100K trail time was 12:37 and if not for a few minor fueling errors it could have been closer to a sub 12 hour 100K.  The finish time for this one was exactly 4 hours longer, 16:37.  It was about 65 degrees warmer and the heat and humidity took it's toll.

To sum it up it was the hardest race for me to date and I was lucky to be one of the 7 official finishers.  The East vs West Coast rivalry was not settled, but next year I'm sure it will be just as fun and we will finally have a winner, I'm calling East Coast as of right now!

Andrew Barret won the race, he's a super fast West Coast guy and here is his amazing report also!

http://www.a2ultra.blogspot.com/2014/06/lake-to-ocean-100k-june-7-2014.html