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!