Smell What I'm Stepping In: June 2012

My main motivation for running this race wasn't to improve upon my previous time but to run the real course and just be in the beautiful Sierras. Last years race was rainy and since there was still a lot of snow we didn't get to see the Giant sequoia trees, which is what the race is named for. Last year I waited until the last minute to leave for the race and got there with about 5 minutes to get my bib and hit up the bathroom. I repeated almost the same performance this year but I think I had about 10 minutes this time around. Definitely not my style, I hate showing up for things last minute I like to be at least an hour or so early. Since my wife and I have a wonderful new baby boy named Kilian, yes Kilian, it took a little longer to get into bed the night before and a few extra minutes to get out the door the morning of. Really though he was wonderful on the trip up to Fish Camp and was quite content the whole day.
Shadow of the Giants is an awesome race that takes place up in Fish Camp, Ca just outside of Yosemite. Big Baz the director of this race is the best director that I have encountered thus far in my running life. Most people would say that an RD is awesome because they host a race where nothing goes wrong and everything is picture perfect, well it's for almost the complete opposite that Baz is a kick ass RD. He'll let you know the day of the race that the course may be a completely different route from what was previously posted. Next he likes to ask who is wearing a gps watch and when everyone raises their hand, his reply, "Oh shit", because he knows the course isn't a full 50k. While he gives his pre race brief you might hear him tell people to "fuck off" for complaining, it's all in good fun though. The goal of the pre race brief for Baz is to make sure everyone knows what to expect on the course, markings, turns, wildlife, aid, etc, it's all of the runners goal to try and piss Baz off. How do the runners try to do this, well while he's mid sentence they'll yell "RAFFLE" or make sarcastic comments just to interrupt him. It may sound like a really uncomfortable situation but it really is all in good fun and quite entertaining. The race has been going on for 23 years and has a small of group racers that come back every year so everyone seems to know each other. He isn't all bad though and he does take the race very seriously, you will see him at multiple aid stations cheering you on so wildly that you think the finish line is just feet ahead. There is always good food and drink at all of the aid stations with awesome volunteers. He really makes an effort to ensure that everyone has a fun time and will work to accommodate most requests. So why waste so much time talking about the RD when this should be about the race? Well listening to him and the other long time runners go back and forth is half of the fun of race day.

Race route

Elevation Profile (via Garmin)

So after the pre race entertainment finished Baz directed us to the start, pointed to the north, then said "run that way!" I don't think there was an official ready set go, actually I think one of the runners in the back of the pack started us, lol. Immediately the route starts out uphill out of the Green Meadows parking lot then onto a dirt road continuing uphill. I started off slow but with a steady uphill running pace and I was upfront just behind the lead guys which consisted of Oswaldo Lopez, Jesus Campos and another guy. If you know of Oswaldo or Jesus and you can see them just ahead of you in a race, trust me you should slow down and thats what I did. I still kept a good moving pace up to the top of the first climb then bombed the downhill. That was pretty much my method for the first 15 miles, just charge up the hills and bomb down them on the way back down.
So mile 15 comes around and I was feeling like I was at mile 29, which is no bueno. All the while I had taken a couple gels along the way with a couple salt caps in between, since I knew the temperature was only going to rise and I would be sweating like a pig in no time. In spite of my efforts to stay hydrated and avoid cramping I get to about mile 22 or 23 and I'm not worrying about running anymore, just taking in the scenery and hiking with a sense of purpose. Only about 5 people passed me while I was walking and I ended up getting some company for the rest of the trip. A runner named Jeff was in the same boat as me and we chatted it up all the back to the finish which was really cool because I was hurting and talking kept me distracted. With about a 1/4 mile left in the race and no fuel in my tank I tripped over a small branch and slid face first a couple feet over a nice soft bed of pine needles. Definitely an indicator of my fatigue at that point, luckily no rocks were hiding under the pine needles. I came across the finish line with my buddy Jeff at about 5 hrs and 14 mins and immediately plopped down at the nearest table.
I learned a good lesson at this race and it goes something like,it doesn't matter how well you have done or how long of races you have ran in the past, if you haven't trained properly you won't perform well. Which is exactly what happened, since my 100 mile race in February I haven't done a training run of more than 18 miles and that was a one time thing, most of my runs were 10 miles and under. The long training runs and the back to back long ones are so valuable when training for any marathon or longer distance race. Running 10 miles fast doesn't translate to a fast 50k or even a good feeling 50k for that matter. Outside of my lesson learned I still had a really good time at this race, the scenery was beautiful, I met some awesome people and I plan on running it again next year.