Monday, September 22, 2008

Zoom Zoom at Skyline to the Sea 50K

R2e.PCTR STTS Art.jpg


01 Race Report
02 Official Results
03 My Piddly Collection of Images
04 Better Images and a Great Report on Scott Dunlap's site
05 Additional Reports on Mike and Victoria's site
06 Specific Race Notes

QUICK AND DIRTY SUMMARY
Showed up ready to race. Pumped up and excited since I haven't raced since July, did a mini-taper and everything. This was a tune up race for the Firetrails 50-miler in October and staged in the mountains of Santa Cruz. You start in the mountains and make your way to the Pacific coast. Total elevation gain is 3000 ft. and total loss is 5580 ft. Beautiful, mostly downhill with very little climbing, lots of soft tree covered single track, not too technical and the last 10k+ is flat fire road, perfect for the road speedsters, excellent aid stations and great competition. This inaugural race sold out all 210 slots and had 178 finishers. Perfect race for beginners, perfect race for veterans seeking a personal best.

Yours truly ran as hard as he possibly could. I threw everything into it with the hopes of finishing in the top 10. I lined up with the front guys, started out too fast, wisely pulled back and recovered, dropped the hammer for good around the 15k mark and finished 8th overall and 4th in my age group with a 4:24:53. It's also a personal best for the 50k distance. I was in my element in those long downhills.

I put all of my heart into it but it was my stomach that suffered. I couldn't comfortably eat food until the next day. Must have been engaging that core extra hard:) Legs are fine. Minor stiffness but nothing I could whine about. I have one yellow jacket sting on my back that was so itchy it woke me up the next morning and stayed itchy all day but no whining about that either since folks like Fred Ecks got 20 or so stings!

I spoke to Scott Dunlap after the race and he felt he could have gone 20 mins faster. After hearing about the little small mishaps that he had on the race I believe him. I got to meet Chris Ratliff when we were using the facilities at the Nature Center, he too felt he could have gone faster than his 3:49:10. Boy not me, I felt like I gave it my all that day but if there is a next time you know I'll be gunning for another personal best. Almost there...not quite 100% but I'm getting there. It's only been a month since I restarted my training.

One caveat: Don't race this if you are allergic to yellow jacket or bee stings or hate downhills or beautiful tree covered trails or nice people or competition or great race directors or nice race shirt or the ocean. Okay I'm serious about the first two.

14 comments:

  1. Nice! Congratulations on the top 10 finish and on the new PR. I wish I could've run that with everybody. Sounds like a really good race.

    What's up with the yellow jackets? Have they always stung runners on that course or was this the first year they 'raced' with you?

    ReplyDelete
  2. They were there the last time I raced. I treat them like blisters an evil that may be avoided but if not well not. A small price to pay for playing there I think. I probably would think differently if I had 20 stings like Fred.

    It's a great fast race and I think next year will bring even more high caliber runners. I believe it. Maybe you, hint, hint:)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Shut up!!!! Ahhhhh homie that is awesome!! Absolutely amazing ;D And you say your "short" legs can only go so fast. Pffffttt ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Damn that's fast, congrats on a great race, I am loving that elevation loss/gain...well mostly loss right!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dude, your fast...smokin' like a cheap cigar!

    dave

    ReplyDelete
  7. Man, I think I gave out all the nice words to you this summer already, you exceeded my vocabulary:) Besides, I don't want to spoil you!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Great running on Saturday! It was really nice to meet you-- I'm sure I will see you at upcoming races-- either volunteering (soon) or racing (not as soon as I'd like!).

    That was a very thorough collection of posts documenting the race, by the way!

    AND I absolutely agree that we need to get GB onto the trails, speedster that she is.

    ReplyDelete
  9. marcy: ahhhhh I have to spin them real fast like a humming bird:) Only way I can keep with some of these runners.

    slb: it's mostly loss, it's nice. The uphills aren't too bad either.

    dave: well I try my best. I was definitely pumped, ready and excited for this race.

    olga: I don't get tired of your nice words so keep them coming! I'm hoping to get faster so I can ready for your race in 2009. I'm spreading the word for Hundred in the Hood. By the way the Drymax socks are super comfortable and no blisters.

    victoria: hey lady, liking the pink cast. Have people asked how you got those fractures? That must be an interesting conversation. Come out to the races anyway, hanging out or volunteering is the next best thing to racing. When GB gets further acclimated to trail running she's gonna be really fast.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Rick, you are awesome! Way to go on the PR! Wow, what a season you are having. All of your hard work is truly paying off. Keep it up, and continued success!

    And hey, your Niners are looking sharp, but my Vikings have one win now, so look out! :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. me impressed with you time rick! me think you very fast. me wonder if you win 50 mile faster than me win 50 k. me wonder what box wine i will make you buy. me congratulate you, rick! awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  12. jean: can you believe it, two wins for the niners, it's nice. Yeah even though I took a short break late in the summer I was able to jump right back into the hard running stuff. The difference is that I can't go hard long like I did earlier in the year. No more knee problems either which is very cool.

    samantha: me thank you. me think santa cruz nice place for run. me can't wait for tnf50. nice Jessica took my place as aid station captain.

    ReplyDelete
  13. So many options of where to comment, but this seems like the most popular place ...

    (BTW - you don't like the Niners?! What's up with that?)

    ANYway ... congrats on another great race, for conquering both the course and the bees. I don't think I'm going to be keeping up with you at these races for very much longer. Be sure to say hi to everyone at the front of the pack for me.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Awesome Rick!! Congrats on your finish and PR!!!

    ReplyDelete