Dick Collins FireTrails 50 mile Run

    This race last year was my second 50 mile race and I finished in 9hrs and 49min and I remember the hills being a real challenge for me late in the race. Having ran another 50 miler, a couple 50ks and a 100 miler I felt a bit more confident and knew what to expect this time around. I think I set myself up with some lofty goals before this race though. Not necessarily goals that can't be reached but goals where I definitely need to put in some work to achieve them. I don't know why I feel the need to improve so drastically from race to race but I always feel like it could be possible with hard work, which is good, I guess that means I have a bit of confidence in myself. So my lofty goal going into this race was to finish the 50 miles and almost 8000' of elevation gain in under 8 hours. So basically that boils down to averaging about 9:30's over the duration and I figured that was something definitely in my grasp.
    The race starts down at the Lake Chabot Marina in Castro Valley, Ca and travels through a few parks that are parallel to the bay up to about where Berkley is, then you turn around and travel almost the exact route back with the exception of rounding the lake on the other side from which you start. The course is pretty awesome because you get a good mix of paved road, fire trails and some beautiful single track. Going through all the parks is neat because they're all different, starting from the lake you see small shrubs and a few trees scattered around grassy picnic areas. Then as you leave the lake area you travel into a more forest like park that is really green with trees standing 30+ feet overhead and lots of ferns and moss growing everywhere, in that area there is some good single track that winds you up and around the hills then spits you out onto a road crossing. Once you cross the road you are  immediately thrown into a different terrain , where the hillsides have little to no shade from trees and its no longer as green. Upon hitting the turn around its starts getting warm and returning to the cool green forest area with its cool single track is definitely something to look forward to.
    So nothing really crazy happened to me along the course I took gels about every 45 min wore my nathan vest with a bottle in the front pouch and iphone in the other pouch with gels to balance it out. I talked and ran with a fellow ultra runner Rudy from Fresno most of the way out and we kept a pretty steady pace getting to the 26 mile turnaround in about 4:11. Once turning around you have to climb back the almost 1200' you just came flying down over 3 miles and I didn't quite fly back up. I started hiking a bit more and Rudy dropped me as he kept running. I still felt pretty good just couldn't change gears that well from descending to ascending but I ran when I could and got back up to the high point of the course.
    Coming into mile 40 I was feeling pretty good and started thinking to myself,"ok just 20 more miles and you'll be at mile 60, wait what!?" That's what the hundred miler did to my thought process and at this point it gave me a good laugh and pumped me up knowing I only had 10 more miles to the finish. Just after my good laugh I caught up to a guy that I had been following earlier on the single track and I figured he would be a good person to tag along with since we were about the same speed. I knew at this point I wasn't going to finish under 8 hours but for some reason I couldn't do the math for the last ten miles so I asked the guy, "what time are you expecting to finish in?" His reply, "oh about 9, 9 and 1/2 hrs". I kind of nodded my head then thought to myself, "wait 10 miles left, we're just under 8 hours, what the hell is this guy talking about?" I still didn't do the math but I knew I wasn't going to take over 2 hours to run 10 miles so I made a point of breaking stride with him and pushing my pace a bit. I was feeling really good at this point and started running up most of the climbs and keeping a good pace on the downhills. Then about mile 45ish I caught back up to Rudy, which really pumped me up because I thought he was long gone. It felt great coming into the finish and seeing that I beat my least years time by over an hour with an 8:31:40, definitely a great day overall.

At the finish with my wife and son

Lots great swag in that bag there

Finish Line!

Huntington Lake Hiking/Running Routes

If you ever happen to find yourself near Huntington Lake and are looking for some good routes to run or hike, I've got a couple you should check out. Both of these trails start at the end of Upper Deer Creek rd., where the D&F Pack Station is(there is a big sign that says parking for hikers). The first one takes you away from the normal switchback route to Kaiser, it spreads out the elevation gain over about 9-10 miles en route to the Peak. From the Peak you continue on down the trail about 5-5.5 miles back to where you began (last 5 is pretty steep, but a nice quick way down if you're running).

This route starts from the same place as the last one and takes you almost the same way, except about 4-4.5 miles in you will come to a wooden sign that points you to the left for Nellie Lake or you stay straight to get Kaiser Peak. The Lake is about 1.5 miles from this marker and relatively flat, well compared to continuing towards the Peak. The lake is beautiful and is open to camping, with a permit, you'll see a couple fire pits in the clearing once you happen upon the lake.

Montana de Oro State Park Run

 August 8th 2012
       My wife, son and I got a chance to get out of town for a couple days and headed out to San Luis Obispo to see my sister, hang out by the beach, oh and run of course. A few weeks back one of our local running stores Soul 2 Sole hosted a big group run out of town at the Montana de Oro state park, I didn't get the chance to go along but since I was going to be in the area I knew this would be a good place for a run. Otherwise I probably would have just hit up the Bob Jones trail, which is nice but its a short bike path that cuts through a golf course and ends at Avila beach, still a beautiful place to run but I wanted to check out some real trails.
    I drove out to the park, which was only about 15 mins from our hotel in San Luis and according to the small map I was looking at the night before on my phone I was going to park just inside the entrance of the park. I parked on some dirt off the side of the road and looked for the trailhead, hoping that my car wasn't parked illegally.

       Based off the small map I had (see above) I started on the trail near the northern part of the park where the cable trail and bloody nose meet. Well somehow this map was not completely accurate or I just didn't read it right. From the way I saw it where the trail started there should have been a fork one for cable trail and one for bloody nose, yet I was heading down cable which was equivalent to running on the beach since it was soft sand, and saw no turnout. I could see another trail at the bottom  of a steep embankment but with no clear way to get down there. So after about 15 min I just decided to bushwack it down to the lower trail which turned out to be bloody nose trail. Finally on the correct trail I was able to enjoy the journey which wound down around and back up a small hill to a camping area, from there the trail forked. One way headed back towards the beach and the other took you up a little higher to Hazard Peak, which is the way I went. The climb up to Hazard peak was mellow and once at the top there are some benches so you can hang out and enjoy the awesome views. I wanted to continue running on some of the other trails but was limited on time so I just headed back to my car using the same route.
      I definitely look forward to running the trails out there again, with the perfect weather and awesome view who wouldn't want to run out there.

Trail Markers

Views from Bloody Nose Trail

Bloody Nose Trail

Headed up towards Hazard Peak

Hazard Peak

Looking Inland

Trail Marker

My Garmin Map

 

SAR 10k Wild Run Shaver Lake, Ca

August 5th 2012
      I loaded up on carbs for this 10k, some Lagunitas, pasta and bread, definitely necessary for such a long distance race. This was a cool event put on to benefit the Fresno County Search and Rescue and took place just a few miles up Dinkey Creek Road on the perimeter trail of Shaver Lake, Ca.

Pre Race Carbs

SAR 10k Course route

The weather was perfect, with the sun out in clear skies, cool mountain air and nice areas of shade where the trail cut between the trees. With temperatures in the valley expected to be north of 100 degrees this race was the perfect excuse to make the hour long drive for a 6.2 & 3 mi. run.

   My expectations for these small local races in the mountains are to anticipate a small turnout, nothing to indicate a race occurring( no signs on the road or increase in traffic-due to small turnout) and maybe an aid station with water at the halfway/ turnaround point. Because that's what Baz's runs are pretty much like, not to say that it needs anymore than that becasue they are a blast, but thats just what I expect. So I was overly impressed when I saw 3'x3' signs on 168 that said "SAR WILD RUN" with an arrow pointing up Dinky Creek rd., professionally printed signs at that! When we pulled into the parking area it was a full on race, with parking staff and more signs! In the start/finish area they had some big inflatable arches, a big stage with music blasting, BBQ going and a beer garden off to the side. This was my kind of race, with BBQ and beer waiting at the finish it gives you a little extra incentive to get done faster so you don't have to wait in line. Now that this wasn't turning out to be such a small race anymore I figured there would be some good competition out there, then I saw Oswaldo Lopez and knew there would be no first place finish in my future or anyone else's for that matter

    At the start I took off really fast right behind Oswaldo and another younger guy, it was single track and there was a cluster at the beginning so this worked out quite well in getting me some space. Coming into the first uphill, the younger guy, almost to the top, started to walk and this almost made me laugh out loud. I almost laughed because I could tell he was a fast runner but when you throw some good hills into the mix it can break the best of them, except Oswaldo I think he started running faster. 

   On the next downhill I got passed by a few people and had to slow down to catch my breath as the hills were kicking my butt. After the turn around there were six people in front of me and I had one of them in my sites, as we approached a hill around the 4 mile mark I made a move and just powered up the hill and around the guy in front of me. As I was going up my wife was coming down and she gave me a "yeah! Sexy!" which made me laugh but was cool because I wondered if she saw me hauling ass up the hill. I asked her later and she just said, "you looked like you were trying really hard," not quite the response I thought I was going to get but I explained to her what was really going on, haha. 

      I finished in 45.12, 5th place overall and 1st in my age group, my garmin said the course was only 5.6 miles but I'll trust the RD's measurement of 6.2 mi. We hung around afterwards had some good food and beer and I got a cool engraved compass as an age group award.It was a glorious morning up in the mountains.

Garmin splits. Distance isn't accurate, I hope. 

My wife smiling into the finish.

Jill and I post race

Compass I received for 1st in my Age Group

Results are in!

    

Kaiser Peak Run

     With the 4th of July in the middle of the week this year, I thought it was a perfect opportunity to go for a run. I wanted to take advantage of my day off by running somewhere that I hadn't been before and Kaiser Peak was what I came up with. I was originally thinking of going towards the Yosemite area but I figured it was going to be way more crowded both on the roads and in the park. I had heard of people running to Kaiser Peak but I didn't know anything about the trail system or even where I should park my car. So I started looking on the internet and I actually found some info on a hiking website but even better I found a gps recorded route on the garmin connect site. On the garmin site there was a loop course that took a long route, about 16 miles, around the mountains to Kaiser Peak then back down, and with that I was set. My next task was to get a running partner but since I planned this, oh, the day prior it was a bit short notice for everyone but even without someone to run with I was undeterred.  

    I woke up at 4am got my running gear ready, ate some oatmeal, filled my water bladder and snagged some trail mix and gels. From my place I took 168 all the way up to Huntington Lake, there was little to almost no traffic on the whole route, the only thing that slowed me down were some deer crossing the road near China Peak. Once I got to the Huntington Lake area I made my second right onto upper Deer Creek rd drove all the way to the end where a sign read "TrailHead Parking for Hikers". From the small dirt parking area you walk up the road through past a horseback riding place and arrive at the trailhead. The trailhead  has a large map that shows both the loop trail (long way to Kaiser) and the direct trail, there are also many other places worth checking out marked on the map. So with a quick glance at the map I started my Garmin and took off up the trail thinking I had my route all figured out

After about 2.5 miles I already made a wrong turn, a left instead of a right which took me about 20 mins to figure out. Along the next 10.5 miles I went off the trail about 2 more times, one at a creek crossing where I kept going alongside it instead of crossing. The next was about 3 miles from the peak where there was tons of rock and I kept running for a few minutes before realizing the direction I was heading in led to a cliff. In spite of my wonderful navigation skills I managed to make it to the peak. At the peak there were absolutely amazing views in all directions, you truly have to see it for yourself. After getting a few pictures and eating a snack I continued on the 5 mile downhill portion completing the loop back to where I parked.
Considering this trail is only about 90 minutes from my door I'm planning on making a couple more trips before the summer months are gone. There are also a couple different directions I want to try for some long runs, maybe the 11 mile route to the peak and take that same route back or a reverse loop (where you get 5,000' of gain in 5 miles) and possibly a double loop. The double loop would be 32 miles with about 10,000' of gain, I might save that for my last trip before winter.

Shadow of the Giants 50k 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.

Small creek crossing at mile 10.5 (photo by Mark Haymond)

Jeff and I near the finish

2nd and 3rd in the under 29 age group with Big Baz in the middle

Just one of the many giant Sequoias out on the course, the picture doesn't do it justice

My son and I at the finish.

A little something for my effort

California Classic 1/2 Marathon Recap

         Last year I participated in the Cal. Classic challenge, which consisted of a 100 mile bike ride on Saturday followed by the 1/2 marathon on Sunday. The bike ride had a cool route through downtown Fresno then out on the 168 fwy. towards the hills and back. There were scattered aid stations on the bike course, for the first 50 miles they were spread out just right then on the last 50 there was only one aid station. At about mile 75, it was already warm and I was completely out of water so I actually stopped at a home along the road and asked if I could fill up my bottles. I ended up finishing the ride just fine but was disappointed by the lack of aid and organization for the race. The 1/2 the next day was a good experience and I ran a pretty decent time with a 1:31, my fastest 1/2 at that time.
         With all that happened on the century in 2011 I decided not to do the ride and just run the 1/2 on Sunday. Having ran the Shinzen 10 mile race a couple weeks prior with a 1:01, I had a good idea of where I might be able to finish in this race. I was going to shoot somewhere between 1:20 and 1:25, I figured somewhere in that range was a safe bet. Considering that the fastest I have ever ran was that 10 mile race, I had it in the back of my mind that maybe I wouldn't be able to repeat that performance, regardless though I was going to push myself in the half and find out if I could.
        In preparation for the race I took a couple days off from running and avoided any crappy food. The day before I ate some whole wheat pasta and some salad for dinner, not with intentions of carbo loading but just eating something I was familiar with. My wife was also very thoughtful and told me she would take 100% charge of our 3 week old baby that night, which was more than I would have asked for. I figured I was pushing my luck just going to the race but I suppose I shouldn't doubt her awesomeness.
      While I managed to get in a solid 3.5-4 hours sleep I definitely wasn't feeling rested the morning of the race. I went through my normal routine of grabbing some iced coffee, orange juice, half a bagel with nutella and a banana. I headed out and drove to Chuckchansi park with about an hour to spare, just so I would have time to park and use the restroom. I waited around in my car until I had about 15 min to start then made my way to the start line. I lined up right in front since last year I made the mistake of starting in the middle and had to weave in between tons of people in order to get to a place where I was with people running the same speed.
        So the race starts and I am thinking to myself that I want to start off a little bit slower but not so slow that I end up trying to make up for it with only a few miles to go. First few miles go by nice and smooth I'm feeling pretty good, legs are a bit tired and I can feel it's starting to warm up outside. By the time I hit the Zoo, which is about half way, the temperature has gone up at least 5 degrees and I am feeling hot. At this point I wanted to either turn up my speed a bit or at least hold a nice solid pace but as I check my Garmin every so often my pace keeps slowing. I'm getting a bit frustrated at this point I can see two people about a minute ahead of me and I'm thinking to myself I can catch them. Every time I feel like I am making a move though my pace has either slowed or is about the same. Mile 11 comes around and I feel like have tons of energy but for some reason I still can't get going so my new plan is to just make sure that no one passes me in the last 2 miles.
       The race finishes inside of Chuckchansi park, which is kind of cool for both spectators and runners since your family can see you finish and it's easier to meet up after the race. As I come down onto the stadium field I am still feeling full of energy but with tired legs, yet I find comfort in knowing that I have still met my goal of finishing under 1:25. I crossed the line in 1:24:24 and finished 15th overall and fourth in my age group. Had I finished 3rd I would have won a couple bucks which would have been sweet, maybe next time. As I made my out of the finish chute I saw Oswaldo Lopez who was helping pace the female overall winner, I introduced myself and let him know that I was big fan.
      Overall it was an ok race for me I wasn't stoked with my time or with the heat but I'll have plenty of time to get used the heat this summer. I am looking forward to my next run, Shadow of the Giants 50k which is June 2nd up in Fish Camp, Ca near Yosemite. That race is beautiful and is a bit more low key than most other races so it should be a great time.

Mile splits

Race route

A shitty run, literally!

       There has never been a point in my adult life where I really faced the possibility of shitting myself. However the poor choices, that I seem to make all too frequently with my diet, put me in these oh so delightful situations. I guess eating tons of sushi is never a good idea, or eating tons of fiber rich food the morning after eating tons of sushi. Having tons of any food in your system and then drinking a healthy amount of coffee usually helps to empty out said system within a good hour or so. After this hour has passed and bowel movements have been made I figure at that point I'm back at square one and I shouldn't encounter any problems for the rest of the day. Well I suppose that idea is a bunch of shit, pun intended.
       It's about 4 in the afternoon on Wednesday and a nice 90+ degrees out and I'm feeling pretty good, so I think to myself lets go for a little 10 mile run. First 4.5 miles I'm feeling great, not feeling to hot you know, sipping on some Cytomax along the way averaging about 7:15 min/mile pace, just cruising. At my turnaround there is a little pit stop with a gas station, Mcdonalds and Starbucks, I take a quick piss at johnny quick and then head back out on my way.
       At about oh 0.5 miles after I hit the turn around I get the overwhelming urge to push, like it's time to give birth to a massive dump. So, as I'm still running at a slowing pace, I weigh my options, do I go back to Johhny Quick and drop this bomb, do I continue on and hope it goes away or do I wait for another 2 miles before I hit the next pit stop. Oh no! it's coming now, so I turn the fuck around and pick up the pace with Johnny Quick in my sites. I get back there petty quick and I'm overwhelmed with relief that there is no one in the bathroom and I get straight to work. Wham bam and I'm done. I head across the parking lot and get back out to the trail feeling lighter on my feet and ready to get home to a nice cold shower.
       Now I'm about 5 minutes out and starting to feel like maybe I should have taken my time in the bathroom because it's starting all over. Nice poop cramps right in my lower gut, but this time it's no joke, this is the real deal, this is going to happen now. As I am trying to cope with these overwhelming feelings of shitting myself I see 3 older ladies walking the opposite direction on the trail. At this point I have stopped running because I am literally flexing my butthole so tight that I can't extend my legs enough to even power-walk. As the ladies get within feet of me I don't look in their direction because I'm thinking to myself that they are going to see a grown man in running shorts literally shit himself right now. They pass and I still haven't shit myself, now what, there isn't a tree, shrub or any scrap of cover for which I can use conceal this shitpocalypse that is about to take place. I look left, I look right, then down, a small trench maybe 6" deep with weeds growing in it, my shorts are at my knees, squatting just above the ground I feel the weeds poking my ass, ahhhhh relief. It's over, my shorts are up head down, weeds in my crack.
I get to the next pit stop and clean up, then head home. Garmin stopped as I am walking the last few feet to my door I am now thinking how I will retell this story to my wife, for some reason I don't think she will be too surprised.

New Shoes!

Oh snap got these bad boys off of Amazon for almost half price. I have the green and black ones but I've almost worn them through the sole. I love the Hattori's for running around town but definitely not on the trails. New shoes make you run faster, that's a fact. These look Usain fast, don't be scared when I pass you, lol.

Ultrarunning Magazine

    This past Christmas one of my gifts was a year long subscription to Ultrarunning magazine, freaking sweet gift. Well after receiving one issue in the mail for December I never got anything thereafter. So I emailed the magazine with my info and they said they would fix the problem and I would get the next issue in the mail. So the date for the next issue comes around and I get nothing, what the hell? I email the magazine again, still using a friendly tone, and explain to them that this is the second time I am contacting them about not receiving the magazine and I was assured they would fix the problem and get the next issue out to me. Well low and behold I checked the mail yesterday and guess what I received? Thats right, my Ultrarunning magazine the May/June issue, finally. Oh and guess what was inside, other than many awesome reports, my Rocky Road 100 results and also my buddy Eric's 50 mile results. This is the first of many times I hope to see my name in the magazine.

19th Place

Eric in 10th

27th Annual Shinzen Run & Walk 2012

    So Friday night I was scrolling through my newsfeed on facebook and saw that Sierra Running Company posted  a reminder about the Shinzen Run on Saturday morning over at Woodward Park. I was going to run anyways so I decided that I might as well go and run the 10 mile race and see how fast I could run it. I run by myself when I train throughout the week and I knew that the race component would help to make me push my pace. I'm trying to improve my PB in the 1/2 marathon this May and I knew this race would give me a good idea of how I might do. The race was scheduled for 6:45 in the morning, so I set my alarm for 4:55am and got in bed at about oh 12am. I had some serious doubts about whether or not I would actually wake up that early.
     5am seems to come around real quick no matter what time you actually go to sleep, regardless though I wanted to run. I put on some clothes real quick headed over to Starbucks to get my signature "Blackpower", aka Trenta black Iced coffee, and some Naked orange juice. My primary concern before any run, especially a race whether it be 5 miles or 100 miles, is making sure that I get all the shit out of my system. Yes I did say shit, as in all the crap I ate the days prior. There is no worse feeling than being in the middle of a race with tons of people around but not a single tree, bush, fence or port-a-potty and you feel like you are just one bad fart away from shitting yourself. So in order to avoid this I like to wake up with plenty of time before any race to make sure that I can take care of these personal matters at home. So anyways I track down my Garmin, hat, sunglasses and other running paraphernalia and head over to Woodward Park. After I payed my race fee got my bib and t-shirt I wired up my trusty Ipod and hung around the start area with a few minutes to spare. Now I don't normally ever warm up before a race, because the last few were ultras and you have plenty of miles to warm up in those, but since this was just 10 miles I decided to. As the race director called for all runners to the start I lined up behind the guys at the very front but not so far back that I would have to weave through slower runners. As we took off on the road I still had my sweatshirt in my hand that I planned on ditching wherever but the route took us by where I had parked. So as am I running I kind of veer off to the right toss my shirt onto my car then get back over to the course. As I cross back over I realize that I am in the lead and immediately think "oh great I'm that guy" the one who takes off super fast at the start of a race and bonks like 3 miles later. 10 seconds later these two younger runners come up next to me and I kind of drop back and get behind them so they can block some of the wind and see if I can hang with them for a while. At about 2.5 miles I'm still running with these guys at about a 6min/mil pace and I'm feeling good. As we head into a small hill I push the pace a little and they began to fall back. From that point on I just wanted to keep a steady pace and see how long I could hold it for. There was a guy on a bike who we were supposed to follow so we didn't take a wrong turn and I just figured if I ran like I was trying to catch him the whole time that I would be doing alright. Coming back from the turn around I was at the bottom of a hill and could see about a mile back up the trail and I didn't see second place until I almost got all the way back up the hill. Mile 8 comes up and I'm still feeling surprisingly well and holding almost the same pace. In the last couple miles to the finish I was just waiting for someone to come speeding past me but it never happened. I ended up winning the 10 mile race with a time of 1:01:38, it was very anti-climatic at the finish since there were 10 mile walkers who started earlier, coming into the finish at the same time. I was super stoked though since I didn't know I could run that fast for that long and I had never won a race so that was awesome. I was very pleased with my performance and look forward to setting a new personal best next month in the 1/2 marathon.

2012 Shinzen Run & Walk Results

Me and my sweet award

Close Up

My splits for the race

Shinzen 2012 10 mile route

Jill and I volunteering at the Sierra Kids Triathlon

    Then on Sunday my wife and I volunteered at the Sierra Kids Triathlon. I have never seen a kids triathlon and they had kids from about 5 to 17 years old. It would have been so cool if they had something like that when I was younger it looked like a blast and the kids were amazing. The kids were  fast out of the pool on the bike and in the run they were blazing fast. It was awesome being out there to watch and help out a little. So all in all I had a freaking fantastic weekend.