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The North Face Endurance Challenge – San Francisco 50 miles (Part 1)

This is Part 1 of my race report, which goes over the race itself. Part 2 (here) has thoughts and reflections about my training, nutrition and performance.

In the days before the race I had been feeling fairly good about the race. That’s mostly because I wasn’t having any pain in my achilles. Between the trip back east and the night in Vegas, I was a little tired and my stomach wasn’t doing great, but my legs were definitely rested. I got into San Francisco on Friday afternoon and went straight to the North Face Store to pick up my race packet and meet up with Aaron. After taking care of that, Aaron and I dropped off my suitcase and walked around his neighborhood a bit, then ate heaping bowls of pasta and settled in on his couch for the rest of the night. I got into bed around 10 and actually fell asleep pretty quickly.

My alarm went off at 3:10. That seems like a stupid time to get up for anything. But I popped right up and felt pretty alert. I made a big bowl of oatmeal with a banana and some peanut butter, chugged some water and started getting my stuff together. The morning was chilly, but not as cold as I had feared. Even at 3, it was at least in the high-40’s. I knew I’d wear my old Craft tri shorts (the ones that I pulled the pad out of a couple years ago), my Brooks Defyance and my pink Jackrabbit breast cancer hat. It was my top that was still up in the air. Short sleeve shirt? long sleeve shirt? both? gloves? arm warmers? I threw it all in my backpack. At around 3:45 Aaron and I headed out of his place.

I was a quick drive to Fort Barry in the Marin Headlands. Aaron dropped me off around 4:15 and went back home to get back in bed. His plan was to come see my at the aid station at mile 30.4. I told him I wouldn’t be there until at least 11:20 (6:20 into the race). The start/finish area was pretty busy with runners and volunteers, all milling around, making final preparations, eating some food (the breakfast spread was pretty decent) and trying to stay warm before the start.

I dropped off my “drop bags”, which would be put at two of the aid stations along the course. You could give them two bags, one would go to the Tennessee Valley aid station at miles 8.9 and 44.2 and the other went to the Pan Toll aid station at miles 18.4 and 30.4. The drop bags were a nice difference from the JFK50. It meant that I could get my nutrition along the course and have access to things like extra socks, another pair of shoes and a long sleeve shirt, just in case I needed them. And, unlike the Ironman special needs bags, you could get the drop bags back after the race, so there wasn’t any disadvantage to putting stuff in the bags. I put most of my extra stuff in the Pan Toll bag, figuring that if I needed anything it was more likely to happen in the middle of the race, rather than at the beginning or very end. My Tennessee Valley bag just had some Infinit and ginger chews. Also, I was told that the bags wouldn’t come back to the finish area until after the last runner had passed through there. Waiting for the last runner to pass through mile 44.2 meant a potentially long wait for the Tennessee Valley bag.

Looking around at what other people were wearing and feeling what the temperature was like, I decided that I would start with a short sleeve shirt, arm warmers and gloves. I expected to lose the arm warmers and the gloves within the first few hours. But knew that I could just stuff them in the waistband of my shorts until I got to the next drop bag. Since the race starts in the pitch black dark, all runners are required to wear a headlamp until after sunrise.

For nutrition, my handheld bottle had one serving (~250 calories) of Infinit. I also had two Accel gels in my pocket. Based on my success with Infinit in the triathlons and my training, my plan was to do as much of the race as possible on Infinit alone, supplementing with gels when needed. I set up the drop bags so I would have two ziplock baggies with one serving each at Tennesse Valley (miles 8.9 and 44.2)and two baggies with 1.5 servings each at miles 18.4 and 30.4. I expected to run out of Infinit between some of the drop bags, but since I wasn’t carrying plain water separately, didn’t want to concentrate it stronger than 1.5 servings in the bottle. When I ran out between drop bags, I would use gels and Nuun. The only other solution would be to carry more powdered Infinit and I hadn’t really figured out an efficient way to do that.

At around 4:45, they announced that the race start would be delayed 15 minutes in order to wait for some people getting the shuttle from the parking lot. I took this time to go to the bathroom and also to get this picture of myself:

I also took this one of everyone standing around with headlamps on and reflective clothing catching the camera flash:

At around 5:10, I stripped off my warm clothes and went to the start. At exactly 5:15, the race started; 269 headlamps bouncing along the start of the course. The start in the dark was fun. The headlamps (especially the cumulative effect of everyone’s) give plenty of light to see where you’re going, but around you is complete darkness.

I settled into a comfortable pace pretty quickly and starting running beside Otis. Otis was a talker, and a super friendly guy. His only other ultra was this same race in 2008 and he was back to get a PR. We ran together for the first 90-or-so minutes, when he stopped to use the facilities and I went ahead.

There are some gradual climbs right from the start, but I ran through all of those hills. The “real” hills start after the first aid station. I still mostly ran these hills, but walked anytime I felt like the hill was steep or long. I don’t remember many details about the next 13 miles. It was run, walk up hills, talk with this person or that one for a few minutes and repeat. Along the course there are big climbs and descents and small ones, sections with steps going up or down, but there are very few flat areas.

The one thing I do remember about this section was that as the sun started coming up, the views were incredible. We got a couple views of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco across the Bay. There’s a particularly beautiful section where you descend along this cliff overlooking Muir Beach, and the Pacific Ocean at Tennessee Cove and Pirates Cove. I would definitely spend time hiking (or running) in this area if I lived nearby.

At mile 21.3 you bottom out at Stinson Beach (somewhere around 40 feet above sea level) and then start the climb up the the Matt Davis Trail. On the profile, this is the massive, crazy-steep 1,800 foot climb. Some small sections of this climb are runnable, but in general, this was a long walk for me. Sections are steep hills, sections are friggin’ steps. I only saw one guy run up the entire thing (more on him in a bit). During this section I met up with Jake and ran/walked with him. After getting to the top of this climb, you turn off onto this out-and-back along Bolinas Ridge Road and the Coastal Trail. This is a much more runnable section than the Matt Davis Trail, but there are still some hills worth walking (especially on the way out). This section felt really long. I had this idea in my head that the out-and-back wasn’t very long and kept expecting to see the end around every turn. Each time it wasn’t there was a disappointment. There are no mile markers anywhere on the course. That’s mostly OK, but there were a few sections, including this one, where mile markers would have been a big psychological help. For the most part, the out-and-back is single-track, and since it’s two-way traffic, it got a little hairy at times where there were people passing in opposite directions. That made it difficult to get into a rhythm. By the time I started the out-and-back the men’s leaders were long gone. But there were still some fast runners passing by me on their way back, including the top two women. I was really impressed with how fast and smooth they were running. Both of them looked fresher (and faster) than any of the guys around them. The aid station is at the turn-around, mile 26. The way back is generally downhill and much faster.

One thing I noticed that I thought was strange was that some people were spending a lot of time at the aid stations. For me, it’s always a quick in-and-out. That’s my attitude at triathlons, too. No lollygagging. I don’t see the point. I understand that it’s a long race, but why waste any time – all I want to do is finish – and standing around just gives my legs time to tighten up.

After the out-and-back you descend back to Pan Toll for the 30.4 mile aid station and the drop bags. This is where I was supposed to meet Aaron at 11:20. Problem was I was running much faster than I’d expected and got there around 10:45. Oops! Of course, Aaron wasn’t there, but I knew he’d figure it out when he did get there and hoped I’d see him at a later aid station.

At the Pan Toll aid station, I caught up with the guy who ran up the Matt Davis Trail. He was still running well, but admitted that his quads were killing him. We ran together for a while, from about mile 30 until 35, but then I dropped him and he ended up finishing about an hour after I did. I don’t like to judge people’s races and his “slow down” at the end could have been caused by a lot of things, but I see this as a good example of why most of us shouldn’t run the steep hills in a long race.

The section right after Pan Toll is fun – more technical forest trails than the rest of the course, with obstacles like fallen trees, low branches and little streams, to jump over or scoot around. And it’s mostly either flat or downhill, which makes for some fun running. I was still running everything but the hills. At JFK, it was somewhere around mile 35 that I started run-walking. I imagined that I’d do the same at about the same point here. But this time, I realized that I could still run and decided that as long as I could, I would. (My mantra became “run when I can while I can”.) Somewhere in the high 30’s, the course gets unremarkable for a while, until the aid station at 44.2. 44.2? That means you’re done, right? Less than 10K to go, no sweat! Instead, this is where the course kicks you one final time square in the ass.

First, though, this is where Aaron caught up with me. He shouted to me as I approached the aid station, and got these pictures:

It was great to see Aaron!

Now back to that kick in the ass. Almost immediately after leaving this aid station, you start the final serious climb of the race. And it is serious! On the profile, it doesn’t look all that bad (relatively speaking, that is) and it’s only about 650 feet of elevation gain, but it felt about three times that much. It’s steep and long and painful. I walked and walked and it felt like it was taking forever. This is another section where mile markers would have come in really handy. I really wanted to finish in under 10 hours, but I couldn’t calculate my pace. I figured I would do it, but didn’t know if I was walking 13 minute miles or 20 minute miles. The hill finally does top out and you get to the final water stop where the volunteers told me it was just 2.7 downhill miles to go! Yes! I had plenty of time to make 10 hours and still felt pretty good.

The final downhill was pretty rough on my quads. It flattens out with about a mile to go, and unfortunately, I did walk a little bit of this. But I kept my walks really short and was generally running. There’s a final little bump of a hill right before the finish, but I got through that and could see and hear the finish. I crossed the finish line very happy. I was amazed at and very pleased with my time and how I felt.

Aaron and I hung out for a little while. I put on dry, warm clothes and ate a ton of food. They had these delicious turkey sandwiches, lentil soup and cookies and brownies. Yummy!

We were going to stick around for the awards ceremony, but it started getting cold and I was really tired. Pretty much as soon as they brought back the drop bags from Pan Toll, I got mine and we headed home.

Crossing back over the Golden Gate Bridge as the sun was setting, I took these pictures:

As you can hopefully tell, I’m really excited about how the race went. I’ve done a few “big” races this year, but I don’t feel like I had a “great” race – one that went as planned or better, where I felt good and matched or exceeded my potential. This race was that kind of race.

Check back later this week for some reflections and other thoughts about the race and my performance! Thanks!

North Face Endurance Challenge San Francisco 50 Miles
Time: 9:33:47
Overall place: 51/208
Gender place: 45/165
Age group place: 21/65
Average pace: 11:29