Headlands Endurance Run 100 Miler September 12-13, 2015Headlands Endurance Run 100 Miler September 12-13, 2015
Distance: 100 miles
Ascent: 20,068 feet
Descent: 20,068 feet
Min Elev: 0 feet
Max Elev: 998 feet
Four 25 mile loops in alternating directions (washing machine).
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This was my first 100 mile race and I had no idea what to expect. Kristin and I ran the Quicksilver 100k back in May and that was our longest race to date. It went exactly as planned, but this is 38 miles further! At the end, we thought a 100 miler would be harder than we thought, but with the prospect of being in the Western States lottery for 2016, we thought it would be a good idea to at least TRY a 100 miler. If we finished or not, it would be good experience and we would learn. The training for a 100k and a 100 mile is basically the same, so we just had to maintain another training cycle or two. In addition, Jim Magill of the Quicksilver Running Club had suggested during a training run that we should sign up for Headlands Hundred and thought we could do it. So we signed up. Why not!?
Since it was not our "A" race and was an afterthought, our training
was not as disciplined as for Quicksilver (our "A" race). Travel,
work, injury and general burn-out took its toll. Kristin had a
nagging knee injury. I had a lower ham string problem for a couple
weeks and a lingering over-use injury in my big toe joint. Not bad,
but we could've started in better shape. We only did one 50k race
(Headlands 50k) two weeks before the race and relied instead on a
lot of back-to-back runs. We met our weekly mileage goals 6 out of
the 13 weeks. We had some solid weekends of 38 to 50 miles of
running which would pull us through in retrospect. Three weeks
before the race, we did a loop of the course on both Saturday and
Sunday (25 miles + 25 miles). Here is our training plan and log:
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We were downright scared of the difficulty and decided to adjust our finish expectation to just "survive" rather than a specific time goal. This ended up being an awesome decision and made the whole race an extremely good time!
We started the race cautiously just trying to take everything extremely easy. We were in the very back and seemingly gave it very low effort. It was fun to see all the other people on the out and back sections. We ended up finishing the first 25 mile loop in exactly 6 hours. This was 45 minutes FASTER than our training runs on the loop and about 45 minute faster than our planned time. However, we were taking it easy so we didn't think too badly of it. We decided to slow down even more on the next loop since we still had a long ways to go.
The next loop was a reverse loop since the race is washing machine style. We headed back to Fort Baker and walked the entire Bobcat hill. We ended up running most of SCA and got to Fort Baker over an hour ahead of schedule. Wow. This was the 50k point and where we first saw Don and Kathy, Kristin's parents. They were checking into a nearby hotel and planning to see us at stops until late at night and then sleep a while for morning.
As usual with the longer ultras, I try to eat "real" food until 25 or 30 miles and then it becomes less appetizing. I then switch to some simpler sugars like Coke, Gu, candies. The entire time I have Tailwind in my pack so that the food is more of a supplement than my entire calories. However, every time I switch to simple carbohydrates, I get nauseous and this time was no different. By mile 35, I wanted to puke, but my body felt fine. I knew I'd get over it like I did back at American River earlier in the year.
We arrived at Tennessee Valley (mile 38) and were
surprised that not only were Don and Kathy there, but my college
roommate and long-time friend Matt Smart and his family. They were
in the city for a birthday party and drove over to Fort Baker to
meet us, but arrived just after us since we were so ahead of
schedule. I'm very glad that they ended up driving over to TV and I
got to see them after all. This perked up my mood and partially
fixed my nausea. We took some time for photos and chatting and then
were on our way. Nine hours of running down and only about 22 more
to go as can be seen on Kristin's face in this photo:
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Really, spirits were pretty good though.
My nausea came back climbing out of TV on Miwok trail. I was also upset that we took the full Miwok rather than the Miwok "short cut" that I thought the course map showed. It had an extra hill and about 1/4 mile. I was at a low and it just aggravated me. I ate some crystal ginger which was stronger than a previous ginger chew I had and also took some Tums. By the time we got over Coyote Ridge, my stomach was mostly better. We went down to Muir and back out along Pirates Cove. We still saw most of the people in front of us leaving Muir so we were making good time. However, we just wanted to get back to Rodeo Beach (via TV) to finally meet up with our pacers!
After we left TV for Rodeo, it was about 7:20pm. Over twelve hours of running. I was worried about the Night Sweats Marathon that was starting at 8pm and going to be coming at us head on. In particular, there are some single track areas and some stairs that would not be fun. We hit the top of Hill 88 around 7:45 and could see the crowds of lights gathering at the bottom. The 15k started first followed by the marathon and they both (I think) had a small out and back right at the start. This was just enough time to let us descend down into Rodeo past the single track and stairs. We ended up going up-stream in a sea of lights for about 1/2 mile, but the cheers and admiration from these runners along with the thoughts of meeting up with our pacers gave us energy.
We ended up getting back at Rodeo Beach (mile 50) about 25 minutes ahead of schedule. This gave us time to change socks, re-lube our feet and sensitive areas, eat some dinner, take a bathroom break, etc. We reset our systems and were ready to repeat the same 50 miles that we just did! However, this time, we had the company of Justin Galbraith and David Li for the first 25. Justin's wife, Leah, rode in a car crewing with Don and Kathy until they retired for the night.
Everything was fun heading back over to TV, Muir Beach and back in the dark. David brought a Bluetooth speaker and cranked some Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan while heading up the never-ending Coyote Ridge climb. This was probably Kristin's roughest part (~60 miles). Her knee hurt, she was tired, and a bit cranky. When we got back to TV, we both had some caffeine. I had almost an entire red bull. It must've been about midnight at this point. From here, David solo paced us over to Fort Baker so that Justin could rest up and pace us the final 25 miles. (He ended up pacing us for ~38 miles total! He's a champ.) Heading over SCA trail we got to running again. We passed probably 5 other runners and who were having a rough time in the fog and being sleepy. From behind, they were back lit and looked like Zombies while doing the ultra-runner shuffle. One runner asked our group "Is there a pacer here? I need help opening this." This is the mileage where ultra-brain takes over and simple tasks become hard. We gave some advice to a few others (Lisa and another guy) to hold their head lamps low to avoid the fog. They seemed hesitant, but we later learned they followed the advice and Lisa thanked us. We continued on hyper-active due to the rush of caffeine. I realize that I later apologized with "I just drank a full Red Bull!!" as we ran by. I should've been a little more conscientious of people in their low spots.
When we got to Fort Baker, another of our pacers, Jacob Massler was
ready to go. The pacers had some trail beers and our spirits were
kept high. It was about 2:28am at mile 68. We were slightly behind
schedule, but our goal was really just to finish. We had run further
than we ever had before, but both felt good. It was a trail party as
seen in these pictures:
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Climbing out of Fort Baker, Jacob asked us about our goal pace as a
good pacer should. We said to not worry about it, but keep us
moving. Onward! Survive!
From Fort Baker, we headed back to the start/finish at mile 75. After reaching there, we said goodbye to David and Justin re-joined us. Kristin, Jacob, Justin and I started the fourth and final loop. Jacob was going to return home from Fort Baker where he left his car and go look for a new house with his family all day -- he must've been tired! We took the climb up Bobcat fairly easy, but we were making solid hiking pace. Heading down to Fort Baker across Conzelman Rd, I actually started to cry a bit. We had 18 more miles to go, but I had decided that once we were down to 12 miles at TV, we were going to finish. We could even walk the entire thing and make cut-offs. The last 12 miles ended up being a lot harder than I thought.
It was full daylight by the time we reached TV at 9:16am. We had
missed Tony Nguyen's (Endorphin Dude) entire shift from 2am-9am and
were a bit disappointed not to see his Chewbacca costume. Luckily,
he showed up at the finish line later but sans costume. The climb up
Miwok was rough, but we took it slow. We ran parts of Coyote Ridge
and were mentally prepared for the hike out of Muir. Pirates Cove
was a disaster. Kristin's "good" knee was hurting and she was using
the hiking sticks David had borrowed from Meredith. She used them
almost as crutches hobbling down the decent and up the stairs. My
knee was starting to hurt on the uphill. It had warmed up a bit, so
I had grabbed ice for my pants, wrist and pack at Muir. Kristin
brought a flask of Coke that Ann Trason had suggested. We got back
to TV for the last time (mile 96), and morale was extremely high as shown
here:
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We also took a photo with Ann Trason whom we had seen all night long at every aid station:
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In the presence of greatness!
From TV, we power hiked up Old Springs. We went pretty quick and continued a fast ascent up to Hill 88. We were trying not to let anyone pass us and knew that the final downhill would be tough. In the end, Richard Hieronymus passed us, but we felt better when we learned he had a bunch of 100's under his belt (buckles, hah!). We descended the single-track stairs and could hear Richard finish with a roar of cowbells. At some point, the people at the finish could see us and started ringing the cowbells for us. It was at this point that we knew we couldn't walk at all -- we were about 1/4 mile from the finish! I joked with Kristin that it was like watching a "snail race" at this point in a 100 miler with us mere mortal runners.
We crossed the finish at 31 hours 10 minutes and 37 seconds. John
Brooks shook our hands, gave us our buckles, and then commented that
we finished within milliseconds of each other. That's the plan; we're a
team. The Partners in Crime (PIC) finished 100 miles!
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A Night Sweats
Marathoner was grilling and brought us some veggie burgers. Maureen
gave us our other swag (shirt, blanket, and a hand-made finisher
coaster). Pacific Coast Trail Racing is a class act and we will look
for future races they put on. Then we cracked open a Evil Twin by
Heretic Brewing. That was a damn tasty beer. Here we are with Justin
and Leah post-finish:
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And here is why we run 100 miles -- a belt buckle:
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Well, maybe not entirely for the buckle.
I look back and I was surprised that I didn't have any more low points after mile 35-38. Kristin had her only low point around mile 60. Both of us were in good spirits the rest of the time. People say running a 100 is mostly a mental challenge, but if that is the case, my mind must be in my knees, because my knees ached. Four days later, Kristin and I are still limping a bit but we are looking for another 100 miler to run in 2016. One 100 per year, but it will always be a doozie. Western States 100? Tahoe Rim Trail 100? Pine to Palm 100? We will see what the lottery gods bring us.
What I learned: