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Bishop High Sierra 50 Mile

8:32:27

Third overall.

I feel like I ran a “smart” race and mostly accomplished most of my goal of treating this of something of a hybrid between a training run and a race. I did not injure myself. I did not push so hard that I’ll have to spend a lot of time recovering. And I still found a place on the podium. It wasn’t a “perfect” race by any means, but I learned some lessons that will be helpful as I get ready for Angeles Crest, which is less than15 weeks away now! Enough patting myself on the back, here’s the long story:

Race morning started with a 4:15 a.m. alarm. I had slept for nearly six pretty solid hours and felt pretty good when the alarm went off. I had a little breakfast, finished putting my drop bags together and picked up Gabi just a few minutes after 5.

It was a beautiful clear morning, with temperatures in high 40’s or even low 50’s. This is a view of the mountains from the start. I didn’t know the area at all and had no idea where we were headed, but I did know that it was generally in “that” direction.

A few minutes before the start, we met up with Michael, Kista (not running, there to support Michael) and Sally.

A few minutes before 6, we lined up at the start and promptly at 6, someone said “Go!” If I haven’t said it before, this is one difference between triathlons and trail races that I really love. There is so much less anxiety at the start of most trail races than at the start of most triathlons. It is such a more relaxed way to start a long day. (That being said, there’s nothing more exciting than the five minutes before an in-water Ironman start. I still get shivers when I think about the electricity during the final countdown at each of my Ironmans!)

There were four different race distances on Saturday – 20 miles, 50k, 50 miles and 100k. And they all started at the same time. My goal at the start was to try to hang generally in sight of the 50 mile leaders. The bibs were color coded by distance, but obviously I couldn’t tell what distance the people in front of me were racing. The race started and a few people shot out like rockets. A half mile or so into the race, I counted nine or ten people in front of, or running right around, me. Two of them were quickly disappearing into the distance. Assuming that some of these people were running the shorter distances, my position seemed perfectly right. I settled into a nice pace and started running beside and talking with Phil Howard, the race director for the Santa Clarita Marathon, who was near the front of the 20 mile race (and ended up winning it).

Going into the race, I had looked at the profile and I had a mental image that went like this: four miles relatively flat, then run up for 17 miles, then flatish plateau for 17 miles, then downhill for 12 miles to the finish. My first thought was that the hills weren’t so bad. It was a steady, low-grade, run-able climb. So I hung with Phil. We were having a nice conversation and he was helping me push the pace just a little bit. We got to the Buttermilk Road aid station (11.27 miles) at around 1:46. This was where the 20 milers turned off to head home. Buttermilk Road was also the first drop bag location and I was planning on refilling my handheld with Infinit. Problem was, the drop bags weren’t there yet. Oops. (This was really the only f-up on the race directors for the day.) So I filled up with water, said goodbye and good luck to Phil and took off.

After Buttermilk Road, the climbs start getting more serious. At this point of the race, the 20 milers were gone and the course also got a little more “lonely”. I was running off-and-on with Brian Polley, another 50 miler (and an accomplished ultramarathoner). He was generally ahead of me by a little bit, but always in sight and definitely within reach. I knew there were some other runners ahead of us, but couldn’t tell how many and didn’t know who was running the 50 miler. After the McGee Creek aid station (mile 14.94) I had my first race water crossing, which I charged through full steam ahead. The water was freezing cold and I ended up with a ton of dirt and pebbles in my shoes, but it was fun to do!

The next aid station was Edison Loop (mile 17.40, about 2:52) and the drop bags were there. I dumped the dirt and rocks out of my shoes, refilled my bottle with Infinit and started up the Edison Loop portion, which includes the climb up to 9,385 feet. This was some tough, slow going. I started my power hiking on these hills. And for the last mile or so of this loop, there were snow and ice fields to trudge through. The snow was mostly pretty hard-packed, but between it and the steep hills we were climbing, I was not doing a whole lot of running through here. About seven or eight minutes before the top, Jeff Kozak came flying past me down the hill. Seeing him running down the snowy hill meant that (a) I could do it too and (b) I pretty much had to in order to not lose too much ground. The only other person in front of me was Brian, who got to the turnaround less than a minute ahead of me.

I got to the Overlook turnaround (mile 20.4, 3:37), punched my bib with the hole puncher as proof that I got there and started running down the hill. I knew I was in third place and was very interested to see how much of a lead I had. I was moving pretty quickly and confidently on the snow but did take a face-plant once when my left foot went through the surface ice. Fortunately, falling on snow was a lot easier on my body than falling on dirt or rocks. I passed the first guy on his way up after about two minutes (equals about a four minute lead) and there were another four or five within the ten minutes before the course split and I headed down a different route. So, I knew I was in third place, not too far behind second, with a couple minute lead on fourth.

Back at Edison Loop (mile 23.40, 4:04), I changed shoes and socks (from the MT100s to my Brooks Defyance). This was my plan all along and I’ve never been so happy to put on dry socks! To show how challenging the climb up to the Overlook turnaround was, it took me over 45 minutes to go the 3 miles up there but less than 27 to come back down!

The next six miles to Bishop Creek Lodge are tough going. You leave Edison Loop and climb up a nearly vertical hill. This is the part that I expected to be mostly flat, but it’s definitely not. And upon closer inspection of the profile, that’s pretty obvious! Oops.

There are a whole bunch of healthy, steep climbs in this section. They might not be 17 miles long like the initial climb, but they’re a lot steeper. Or felt that way at least. I passed the marathon point at about 4:30. There’s a turnaround at Bishop Creek Lodge (mile 29, 5:05). Jeff passed me going the other way about 15 minutes before I reached it. And he was booking. Brian was still less than a minute ahead. After the turnaround, I again tried to calculate my “lead” for third place and it seemed that I’d extended it a little bit. I knew that unless disaster struck, I would be in the top 5. But, I still did want to podium. There wasn’t much difference in my mind between second and third place, but fourth place…

During one of the longer climbs somewhere around mile 30, I power-hiked my way past Brian into second place. It looked like he was suffering a little bit and I saw this as my chance to make my move into second place. I was still feeling strong and was comfortably running low grade hills, flats and the few descents that we got. Sally and I passed by each other at around mile 31 and she was looking strong, leading the women in the 100k race and probably in 4th or 5th overall.

I missed the drop bags that were supposed to be at the Intake 2 aid station (mile 26.5 and 31.9), so again I didn’t have my Infinit. My nutrition plan was a little screwed up. I think that between the Infinit I did have, two gels I was carrying and the one I got at an aid station, I did get just about enough calories, but I’m fairly certain that I didn’t get enough electrolytes. I’m just so used to not having to supplement electrolytes that I didn’t think about it at the aid stations. Valuable lesson learned.

Now and again between miles 30 and 37.5, I could see Brian behind me, but I felt like I was maintaining my lead. Back at the Edison Loop aid station (mile 35), I refilled my Infinit and changed my t-shirt. It was getting hot out and there is almost no shade on the entire course. My shirt was heavy with sweat and since I had an extra one in the drop bag, I figured why not.