Smell What I'm Stepping In: Leona Divide 50 mile trail run 2013

This whole trip around the Leona Divide race was a fun one. I had my wife, son, friends and other family to hang out with and talk about running. My wife and friend both ran the 50k and I ran the 50 miler along with some other buddies, Kyle, David and Erik. It was cool that my in-laws live just about 20 mins from the start line and they let almost all of us crash at their house, it worked out perfect.

Race morning we all grab our gear and head out to the Lake Hughes Community Center to stage our drop bags and stretch out before the race. The parking lot was completely full and the small building used for check in was packed! Compared to 2011 when I ran this race, it seemed almost near small town marathon status instead of a trail ultra race, just way more people than before. With the countdown to the race at about 3 mins Jimmy Dean Freeman gets up in front of the eager crowd of runners to speak. He basically says its going to be hotter than we may have expected and that we need to stay up on our liquid and electrolyte intake, I didn’t think too much of it and figured he was just being overly cautious for some of the first timers. I had looked at the forecast for the race about a week prior and it said something like the high being around 78-80, so I didn’t think much of it.

And we’re off! As you start the fire road takes you up then up some more for about 3 miles on a rather gentle grade and from there you get some down hill then some rollers. I tried to remain conservative on the uphill and let my legs go a bit faster on the down. I hit the first aid station a bit faster than I expected and still had full bottles (I was wearing my Ultimate Direction AK vest) so I just kept on going. The next aid was only 3ish miles from there so I skipped that one as well, I had taken a gel by this point around mile 12, but not taken in much water as my stomach was kind of sloshy. After that aid station you drop onto to some nice single track on the Pacific Crest Trail, I love single track! I started hauling ass on the single track and got to the next aid station way faster than I should have. I still had a bottle and a half of water at mile 16 and knew the next aid was at the top of the next climb near mile 20ish. So once again I just flew through the aid station, crossed the road and began a nice 3-mile ascent. About 2m miles into the climb is when I realized that I hadn’t been taking enough electrolytes in, it was getting warm fast and on this completely exposed course I was sweating a lot. At the next aid station I was completely out of liquid, thirsty and hot. I topped off my bottles, one with ice water and the other with some sports drink they had, took a gel and ate some watermelon. My pace at this point was nearing a very slow trot, my legs were getting really tight and I was trying to play catch up with my loss of electrolytes. After hitting the mile 24 aid I was beginning to feel a bit better and knew that I had a nice 2ish mile of downhill leading into the 29-mile turnaround point. I took full advantage of the downhill and just let gravity take over. I passed a lot of people on the way down. I knew climbing out from the turnaround was going to be a bitch but tried not to think of it too much.

The climb out felt much longer than it did on the way down, it was a long uncovered fire road and by this time it was freaking hot. Once back on the single track I felt good for a few miles and it was like that for the next 10ish miles, feeling good then bad. At mile 42, which was the mile 16 aid as well, it’s basically in between two big climbs. At this point I just wanted to be done, I knew I wasn’t going to break 8 hours and the heat was killing me. Knowing that I had about 4.5 miles of uphill wasn’t getting me excited to get out of the aid station fast. I sat at the aid station for at least 10 minutes, just drinking water and some coconut water trying to cool off in the shade provided by the pop up tent. I finally got my ass up and started on the climb out, the next 3 miles sucked. I was hot as all hell and there was no shade, my legs were feeling tired and I was thinking, “I sure hope TRT isn’t this hot”. About 2 miles into the climb I just leaned against the steep hillside under a small bush that provided the most shade I had seen in a while. I sat there for about 30 seconds, then I saw someone winding up the single track about a minute or so back. It was a runner I had passed back around mile 28 on the downhill and I thought “I’m not getting passed, I’m going to finish these last couple miles strong!”. I used that as my motivation to get going, I ran all the way back, it was hard, but I really just wanted to be done, sitting in the shade with my feet up drinking something cold.

I crossed the finish line right around 9 hours, I say right around because I have a pic with the clock at 8:58:.. but my results say 9hrs, so ?. I was relieved to be done and even happier that both my wife and friend were both in good spirits after finishing their 50k race. I was worried that the heat would have thrown them off but they both did awesome and they looked great as well. Oh and my wife definitely beat my buddy by almost 20 minutes so that was pretty awesome to hear as well, haha. We hung out at the finish for a long time just talking about the run and watching runners from both races finish. Two runners that we saw were treated by medics at he finish line and taken away in an ambulance, for what looked like heat related issues. All things considered I was happy with my run, had it been cooler it may have gone a bit smoother, but it wasn’t so I did my best to adjust. My other friends had similar issues with the heat out on the course but everyone still managed to finish. Oh and the winner of the 50 mile race finished in 5:53! And when I saw him on the course he had no pack or handhelds, made me think I was real soft afterwards.
If you are considering running this race in the future, do it! The course is challenging but enjoyable, lots of single track, the best freaking aid stations and volunteers and a great RD. Next ultra is the Shadow of the Giants 50k near Yosemite, which my wife and friend will be having their rematch at. It will be interesting to see how my buddy takes getting beat again, hahaha.