Dick Collins Firetrails 50 miles
+7800ft/-7800ft
I almost didn't make the race because I woke up momentarily and slept through my first alarm. I was really glad though that I had a second alarm though I realized I scheduled it too tight without any wiggle room. The 2nd alarm was set at 5:00am alarm and race was going to start at 6:30am. When I heard the 2nd one, I was shock and felt rushing through things I needed to do. Everything was a rush, rush, rush...prepping up, eating, making sure that brought everything I wanted to bring, and driving to Chabot regional park were rushed. By the time I arrived at the race check-in point, I only had 15 minutes left and the race will be starting in a few minutes after I was done with checking in, pinning my bib, and taking care of my drop bag.
It was dark but the race started very close to the break of dawn so there was a little bit of light and besides we have at least a mile of pavement to run on so there was very little chance of tripping.
Felt pretty good at the start. Just went with the flow of the crowd the first 2 or 3 miles. Sooner or later, the crowd would thin out and I will be running my own pace - running or walking comfortably all uphills, and bombing the downhills.
I was initially planning on improving my time last year of 10:53 and setting an optimistic goal of 10 hrs that is if everything works out as planned. My time last year included 7 visits to the restroom due to severe tummy discomfort which have easily added 20-30 minutes so I figured that with a little bit of improvement in nutrition/fueling that it may be possible to do or break 10 hrs. For the race, aside from 12 power bar gels, I brought my own food for fueling (2 sets of some food having 420 calories and an enery drink with 180 calories for a total 1200 calories) which I was hoping would work. One (1) set I carried in my backpack and the other set I left inside my drop bag at the turn-around point at the Lone Oak station (M26). My plan was to do 5 hrs for the first 26 miles and 5 hrs for the remaining 24 miles.
I made the turn-around (M26 - lone oak) point in 5:23 - 23 minutes past my original goal. Unfortunately, I got off-course following some runners somewhere past M20 for a total of 1 mile - descending half a mile 250 ft down and tracing my way back 250 ft up that hill for half a mile causing me to lose 15 minutes.
One memorable experience during that race happened past M10. I happened to see a runner just standing around a corner with a hanky over his face and heard him say something. I only heard the words "Be careful" or something like that. I didn't really knew what he meant as I was so engrossed with running. I thought he was cramping out or something which would explained why we was standing there. Several seconds later, I found out why but by then it was too late. He was standing there because he was trying to figure out how to run past the bees and their beehives. I got stung by 5 bees. Man, those stings really hurt, and they hurt a lot! I got stung at the back of my head, in my arm, on my hand, on my back, and on my left calf. Heard that many runners were stung and even heard though unconfirmed that a runner was brought to the hospital because of the bee stings. I continued running despite feeling some pain from the bites for 2 or 3 hrs. It took a while for the pain to numb out. It's a good thing that I didn't have bee sting allergies.
Race day was a good day with nice weather but even then at 11am, I felt the heat, too, even though it was cooler starting from M23/M24 where it was open and where there were not a lot of trees around.
I was demoralized to see runners I passed earlier now ahead of me due to being off-course for a mile while I was on my way to the turn-around point. Now, more than ever, I was banking on being able to eat that food that I brought in for fueling hoping that it would work.
Unfortunately, this plan was thrown out the door as I have discovered soon enough during the race. Just because you like certain foods off the race does not mean that you will have an easy time taking them in during the race. It plainly didn't work for me as I had hoped and had a hard time taking the solids in. The drink though worked fine as many liquids do. It seems to me that the only real solid food I can take in satisfactory amount is limited to soup based foods. :-( Unfortunately, I forgot to take any during the race.
From M26 onwards, it became a struggle. When the race started, I subsisted only on power bar gels for fuel. With the realization that the food/fuel I was hoping to work will not work, I knew that it will be a difficult second half - and that the best I could hope for is a sub-11. One thing I realized was that in the pursuit of making sub-11, I keep forgetting to supplement my gels with aid-station food and felt contented with just refilling for electrolyte and leaving right away to reduce aid station time - this was a terrible mistake. I even forgot to ask for soup in the later aid stations where it was available. The only things I remember taking in from the aid stations were M&Ms and salt pills.
2nd half of the race was really terrible for me as I was really low in energy. M27 to M50 took me 6 hrs (15 minutes per mile average). Added to this fueling problem, was toe pain I developed from running those downhills fast earlier during the first half. I will most likely lose a nail again in a week or so but will be good thing for my next 50 miler in December. It was a double whammy as it turned out. Firstly, I was low in energy, and secondly, I was unable to capitalize on the downhills when it mattered due to toe pain.
The only time I got my energy back was when I begun to see motivational signs 1 mile away from the finish line. Knowing the finish line is near, I began to run faster and managed to average 10 min-mile up from a slow 13-17 minute per mile, with the last 100 yards at a 6 minute mile pace.
I finished 145th out 225 starters, out of which 189 finished, with a time of 11:15:22. The time was 22 minutes slower than my last year's time. Nevertheless, I was very happy to have finally reached the finish considering I went off-course for a mile and was only 15 minutes past 11 hrs.
In retrospect, I couldn't help but think why I was slower this year and the things I could probably work on to improve. I listed some things below that may help in the future or that might have affected my performance.
- I was at least 6 lbs heavier compared to my weight at last year's Dick Collins. I gained 4 lbs after finishing Rio Del Lago a month ago and wasn't able to put the weight off in time. Part of the weight gain was I put on the brake a bit on training but did not on food intake, thus the weight gain.
- It's always a good idea to eat, eat, eat whenever you can during the race and not rely on gels.
- I can't help but think whether I was truly fully recovered for this 50 miler having finished back to back 100 milers these past August and September. Maybe this was a factor, too.
- I have to find better shoes perhaps for avoiding toe nail pushings against the front of the shoe or perhaps find a better way to tie the shoe laces.
