WESTERN STATES 100 Miler (WSER)
The Grandfather of Trail Races - June
29-30, 2019
Author and Runner: Doug Richardson
Part A : The Selection and Prep
Part B : Logistics and Days to the Gun
Part C : Race Day
Part A: The
Selection and Prep
It is fair to say that I was surprised to
the maximum to get selected to run this race.
Firstly, in Australia there were only 2 races each year to qualify for
WSER. Now that has been elevated to
3. I did UTA100 in 2017 and Blackall 100
last year. You have time cutoffs in
those qualifiers in order to gain your selection points or lottery tickets as
the WSER system goes. One lottery ticket
per person per year and you can only accumulate those tickets if you keep
running an eligible qualifier each year.
So, I had 2 tickets. 2 tickets competing
against 20,000 tickets in a barrel. Not
20,000 individuals, as people had multiple tickets in the draw. Some runners like good pal Tim Lyndon had 8
tickets and a few others in the close running circles were on their first
ticket. Other runners from around the
world may have had 64 tickets and still missed out.
Well the story goes I was hosting a beer
tasting night at my place on the night before the lottery draw in early Dec
last year and a few of us commented that the WSER draw was on tomorrow
morning. The subject lasted a minute as
we all basically wrote off our chances and were too busy drinking (taste
testing beer).
I awoke at some hour like 7:00am feeling a
little dusty the next morning only to see or hear these FB messages come
through on my phone. I had a quick
glance from my phone in bed and turned to my partner Sarah and half said
something along the lines of “oh &#%*, I just got into WSER." I immediately thought heat, cramp and that’s
about it.
Never did I think I would get into it and I
was banking on being in the lottery for a few years to boost my chances and
hopefully get a group of friends to run it with me if we were chosen
together. I think I went to the beach
that day and it was roasting hot and thought yep, try 100 miles in the USA
canyons in this heat and then some! I
began thinking what had just happened to me today.
The word got around that I was selected and
coach Gary Mullins from TRT and I sat down over a coffee and a Bourke Street
Bakery (looking for sponsors please) pastry or two of course and nutted out
some plans. This was all happening also
when my Achilles on my left leg had caused some major concerns in the past 8
weeks and I was not really running. I
had gone to see the physio (initially Cam Hanson then Chris Beckmans at Square
One Mosman). They identified the Achilles
tendonitis and had me on the straight and narrow early with no initial
running and simply strength drills like calf raises, heel drops with weights,
hopping, etc, until I could start some minor running. I had plenty of time (6 months) up my sleeve
so it was great to get the issues out of the way. Not sure what caused the injury – well
actually yes, I do, I ran a rock stair session (the famous Steve NRG Monday
night one down at Greenwich) in racing flats about a week after Blackall 100km
trail and once I cooled down the Achilles flared up – big time! Idiot!
I joked with Gary over our coffee that I
will need someone to fend off the potential bear, rattlesnake and mountain lion
attacks during the race as they have been sighted in the past on the trail and
race and although rare, are noted as risks to the runners. Then the joke became more serious when I
asked if Gary was available to pace me for the final 38 miles of the race as
per the rules. He jumped at the chance
and now all that was required was to do some training off the back of an injury
and then book the trip.
I looked at my Strava and it seems I did
only 77km in total over the 8-9 weeks since Blackall because of the Achilles. So, Gary and I got busy on the plan and fast
forward the time and the block of training I did looked like this for the
campaign into the race:
Weeks to Race
|
KMS
|
ELEVATION (m)
|
|
0
|
174
|
6,362
|
Includes the actual race
|
1
|
57
|
1,371
|
|
2
|
86
|
2,129
|
|
3
|
99
|
3,067
|
|
4
|
110
|
2,899
|
|
5
|
40
|
1,048
|
|
6
|
128
|
3,085
|
|
7
|
79
|
1,917
|
|
8
|
112
|
2,360
|
|
9
|
82
|
1,749
|
|
10
|
112
|
3,369
|
|
11
|
60
|
1,556
|
|
12
|
70
|
2,064
|
|
13
|
44
|
1,064
|
|
14
|
72
|
2,454
|
|
15
|
55
|
1,379
|
|
16
|
52
|
1,977
|
|
17
|
55
|
1,729
|
|
18
|
69
|
2,186
|
|
19
|
56
|
1,438
|
|
20
|
55
|
1,652
|
|
21
|
46
|
1,550
|
|
22
|
43
|
944
|
|
23
|
40
|
347
|
|
1,796
|
49,696
|
||
I did no sessions at all of pace/intervals
or tempos because: (a) coach said so and (b) coach said so. Fast running will not help with Achilles
injury recovery. You need to stay
disciplined. Overall though, you could
argue that I did not do an abundance of kms each week and I must say I really
liked that approach especially for us old times approaching mid-40’s! (No
comments Lu)
We gradually introduced hills as you can
see by the metres gained as the block went on.
I enjoyed the hills and seemed to go better uphill than down that is for
sure. Trail runs were long and easy paced. Trips to the Blue Mountains, Six Foot track
course, Kedumba and the usual St Ives Garigal National Park became my local
staple for trails. Kiwi Joe was a part
of these follies many times as we had races in the USA ahead of us. We both did a 58-60km run on the day of UTA
but on another route that suited us. Something
with elevation but mainly runnable and downhill. I was told WSER was runnable in many sections. It was simply the heat you needed to get
over.
I sought council from Geoff Evison, Richie
Bettles and Russ Evans whom have all experienced the race over the past 3 years
in different years. Brendan Davies even
offered to help with questions but I was no top 10 threat so I got the direct guidance
from the guys who would be spending the similar time on the course under the
same conditions as I intended to.
I was always worried about the heat and
hearing the word canyon repeated so many times, just made me think of the old
Road Runner cartoons, in the dry searing heat and suffering big time cramps on
the side of the trail pleading for help while cougars or bears were peeping
ready to pounce.
Other than the running, I attacked the preparation
with two other forms of arsenal, Altitude Training and Infa-Red dry saunas.
I signed up with Peak Altitude at the City
and Brookvale locations and thanks to Bec and Scotty, I was in there twice a
week. I adjusted to the altitude
chambers ok at first and was doing 45-50 mins each session at 3,500 to even
3,900m. But after about 8 sessions I
began struggling, heavy headed and blood oxygen count levels low and my body
was telling me something so in the end I stopped out of the that training. All up I did 10-11 sessions, but I think the
training did help somewhat. WSER’s
highest peak is 2,780m I was told and that is only for one climb so you do not
really need the altitude training but I though improving anyway I can would
help.
With 4-5 weeks to go, I read the section
from Jason Koop’s book on Ultrarunning in particularly the section on WSER and
he advised to get some dry sauna heat acclimatisation in. So, I booked a 10-session package over near
Waterloo at Koa and by the time I got into my 10th and final session
(it was sub 10 degrees outside but 61 degrees inside the sauna), my body became
adjusted to the heat and I felt ok for many of the 40-45 minutes sessions. I even lost 2 kgs I think in the process so
running the lightest as I have in a few years for sure with the added heat
conditioning benefit. My diet had not
changed though, red wine, dessert, cookies and cakes and repeat.
To counteract cramp, I tried some flavored
Tonic Water at the 30km mark on the 58km training run with no issues, so I was
planning on having some of this during the race. Only issue was the first crew station where I
could get some was 30 miles in. Hmmmmmm…. I also planned on carrying a small
spray bottle of magnesium oil to gentle rub into the adductors and legs.
Part B: Logistics
and Days to the Gun
The WSER website is quite detailed and gives
you tips on accommodation and logistics for crew etc, but I was lazy and did
not start booking things until a few months out. I nearly got caught out but managed to secure
some quality accommodation in Auburn, California for the first three nights of our
trip.
Gary and I fly out of Sydney to San Francisco
direct on the Monday afternoon before the race (Saturday). With the time difference we effectively
landed in their local time which was before the Sydney departure time, so it
felt like we used the flux capacitor.
Minimal sleep for me so Gary elected to drive to our destination of
Auburn, which is where the race finish is.
The drive is 2 hours normally with no traffic but getting out of SFO
airport during peak hours means the trip was close to 4 hours with freeway
gridlock in sections. Of course, I
upgraded the transport to include sat nav and thus they gave us a big a*se rig
Sleep was good for the first night and we
got used to the warm dry heat with a walk over to the Aid Station which is a
trail running shop in town with a bar with beer and Kombucha on tap, so
naturally we tasted the beverages with our host Paulo Medina making us feel
welcome after I name dropped our Aussie legend Geoff Evison.
Back to the hotel for a swim as it was warm
in that baking sun but before that we had some table tennis to attend to as
Gary piped up how good he was. Well
after knocking him off 3 matches to nil, we jumped in the pool but I realised
that table tennis bare feet was not a good idea on hot pavement. I could feel some little heat blisters on the
pad of the foot and under the big toe. Idiot!
The afternoon we had scheduled to be back
at the Aid Station as runners get together to run on the final few miles of the
course for an out and back and to meet and greet. At 6pm it was still 30 degrees (Celsius). I was getting nervous now of this heat, but
early forecasts did not have it above 32-34 for race day so I was OK with that
for now.
Wednesday was another great weather day maybe
a degree or three cooler. We drove out
past the town of Cool and parked the rig after tackling some 4WD roads, near
Green Gate which is mile 79.8 of the race.
We ran to the bottom of the track in reverse of the race direction and
reached Rucky Chucky (river crossing) and ran back up the hill. About 8% gradient so on race night I would be
walking that for sure with purpose. In
the evening, all international runners were hosted for a BBQ in a local Auburn
town park and we met some WSER legends including Gordy Ainsleigh who was the
first to run the course and has completed over 20 WSERs.
Thursday we left Auburn for the drive up to
Squaw Valley where the race hub and start line is. We had to cross the Stateline into Nevada
first though to pick up NRG’s very own Raki Suman from Reno airport who was on
my primary crew duties. A short back-track into Squaw saw us settle into our
ski chalet and check out the surrounds. It was a handy 400-500m walk to the
race epicentre and we attended the crew and race briefings over Thursday and
Friday. Luckily the forecast weather on
course was for a ‘cool’ year meaning temps probably maxed out at 30. We dodged a bullet there. But the downside, there was ample of snow
on course to make it slippery and slow for the first 15 miles or so.
I then packed my lightweight running vest
with my limited food and anything I planned for the run and had it all done
well before dinner on Friday night, so that meant I could relax and not worry
about missing anything during the early hours of race morning when I scheduled
to wake up at 4am.
Race plan or time goal? Well initially, Richie had me thinking for a
sub 24-hour silver buckle achievement but in all honesty, I simply wanted to
experience the event and finish with a buckle (bronze) which meant beating home
the 30-hour cut-off. 24 hours would be a
dream goal, but it was not really at the forefront for me. My plan though was taking it easy for the
first 80 miles and see what I had to give for the final 32km.
The guided splits for 24-hour pace and 30-hour
cut off pace are shown below in the official runner’s event guide.
Part C: Race
Day (get on with it!)
Usual sleep of race nerves but I got perhaps
5-5.5 hours which is a win for me. Awoke
at 3:30am and replied to some of my overnight messages then got the running
gear on and taped the feet and had some muesli and we strolled down to the
start rego area and got the race bib. It
was chilly, approximately 4-6 degrees so I had arm warmers, t-shirt, buff
around the neck and gloves on. I had my
hoodie on until about 5 minutes before race start. As Geoff showed a few years back, you can walk
up to the start line with 10 minutes to go and no-one is really interested in
lining up first. So, I loitered around
the archway, making sure I was not in the middle as some were taking photos
under the start arch. I stayed there
until eventually the big-name runners came in.
Jim Walmsley, Camille Herron, Clare Gallagher, Brittany Peterson, Tom
Evans and Ryan Sandes were all there on the front line, me to the far left,
Brittany next to me, and Jim a handshake away.
Courtney D was back amongst some other runners. Camille, I think had track spikes on… and she
was jumping up and down on the spot and I thought what the!! The rifle to start the race was closest to me
of course but it wasn’t that loud when the countdown from 10 seconds was complete.
Here are the Facebook video links to the
start, it was an amazing feeling seeing the shute full of crowd support. Simply
awesome and so lucky to get away running with these super athletes on the front
grid.
Above link is the start taken by
Coach G – see about 40 seconds in on the right
Above link is video from iRunFar.com .
Race start is about at 24mins 30 seconds. Far right for me on the start line. So much fun!
Start
to Lyon Ridge at Mile 10.3
Obviously, I was not going to do anything
stupid in the first massive climb of some 2,500 feet that lasted about 4
miles. I settled into a power hike up
the hill that averages 12% gradient. I
saw many people go by and I settled into a rhythm and then heard an Aussie
accent behind me and introduced myself to young Aleks from Manly and we
basically hiked the entire peak together.
Snow came into the equation soon and it was great to hike on the hard-packed
ice and get into a slow trot on the flatter sections. Clumps of crowd support were still lining the
pink flagged route and when we cleared a ski lift terminal it became steep and
rocky minus some snow and Majell an Aussie from team Salomon was taking
snaps. Great shot here of the climb.
The dry rocky section was soon over and
then it was pure hard packed snow all the way to the top. You had to follow the footstep marks in front
when in this snow otherwise you would have fallen over and made
some slides back down the hill. Now I
know why Camille had track spikes for this section! Reached the peak and the
Squaw Peak Monument and the sound of cow bells rang out galore from the support
at the top of the hill, the roar was amazing!
Then once you ticked over the climb, the
terrain suddenly changed to dry sub-rocky single track for the descend, but
with sweeping vistas of tall forest trees and rolling hills and valleys. It was game on now, but I kept thinking the
trail can’t be this good as we warned of a lot of snow until 30 miles in.
Well my thoughts proved correct as within a
matter of minutes we came to another long section of snow. You had to climb tiny snow walls or look for
the best footmarks to get you through. I
had run in minor snow before but nothing as extensive as this hard packed
stuff. I think I had about 5-6 spills over
the next 12 miles, but it was fun, but I was taking it easy, slowed the pace
and took small steps. You would just
complete a good section of snow, then be back on wet dirt and pine needles
before entering new snow sections again.
Throw in sections where the snow had melted and was streaming cold water
over rocks and there you have your trail folks for the next 3-8 miles
really. Wonderful trails though, a
couple of switch backs but all single trail.
The field was sort of spread out now, but you could easily be within
5-10 metres of the next runner.
I
arrived at the small first aid station of Lyon Ridge in 2hrs 31 mins. Apparently
the 24-hour time guide had runners arriving at 7:10am so already I was 21 mins
behind that pace, but I was not aware of
any of these splits as the only real time marker I took note of pre-race was to
be at Foresthill 62 miles by 7:30pm. The snow had certainly taken the pace off my
running, but I was feeling fine.
Lyon
Ridge to Red Star Ridge at Mile 15.8
Again, some more single track, that was
amazing winding through the peaks of the ridge with amazing views. Still in and out of snow with many
undulations. I was about 21-22km (13
miles) in and I started a normal small climb when suddenly, the adductor muscles
on both quads tightened sharply and was I in a great deal of pain and
trouble. I tried to stretch out and even
walk a bit, but no easing of the stabbing knife feeling was happening. Immediately I thought what is going on, this
is way too early for this. My goal of
sub 24 hours pretty much went out the window in my thoughts and now I was in a
semi-panic looking to just focus on sitting down relaxing and push on to the
next aid station and focus on just moving forward hoping to get a buckle and
beat the 30-hour cutoff. I had no tonic
water at this stage either, but I did spray magnesium oil on the adductors, but
nothing was helping. Eventually the
sharp pain went down, and I could walk again until I was comfortable enough to
get back into a slow trot.
This really took me by surprise so early
and as mentioned, I was more in caretaker mode now and just wanted to finish
what I started. I was not going to pull
the pin that is for sure, I had travelled way too far for something like that
and I had a mountain of support back home in Australia probably tracking my early
progress.
Arrived
at Red Star Ridge at 8:56am, 36 mins down on 24-hour pace. Clearly the cramps had the impact on losing
further ground.
Red
Star Ridge to Duncan Canyon at Mile 24.4
At Red Star I took some time to compose
myself and focus just on moving forward.
I asked the medic for any tonic water or something to alleviate
cramps. He offered some acid tablets (no
not the hallucination type) and asked if I had been driving electrolytes which
I positively replied but declined on the tablets. I had some fruit and took on a couple of gels
and Clif Chews at the aid station and moved forward to the next aid station but knew it would be a long stretch of 8.5 miles, so I made sure I had 1 litre of
electrolytes with me and enough food. My
progress again was slow as I was very mindful of getting the cramps back again
so soon, so I power hiked some inclines and took small steps on the runnable
sections. The trails were amazing again
through, all single track and all through broken forest and the pic below was
taken just before Duncan Canyon aid station for memory.
Arrived
at Duncan Canyon at 10:45am, now 45 mins down on 24-hour pace. Losing further
ground due to the easing back of the pace after suffering the cramps so early
in the race.
Duncan
Canyon to Robinson Flat at Mile 30.3
Duncan Canyon aid station was buzzing. Some music, some Elvis dress ups, plenty of
food and aid station crew that were on point like F1 asking me questions on
what I would like and getting them to fill water bottles and whatever. It was getting rather warm though and very
quickly, so I opted for clumps of ice to be stuffed down my left white arm
compression sleeve. I removed my right
arm one at the top of the first climb as it was feeling tight on me – something
similar that happened to me at Coast to Kosci in 2017, weird!
The ice on the arm was freezing but it kept
me cool for a few miles and didn’t melt that quickly. As the heat was building, we were lucky
enough to go across 3 creek crossings and one was at least knee deep. Unfortunately, the water crossing meant my
feet in my shoes (Hoka Torrents) moved around a little in the water so I knew
instantly I would be getting some blisters or friction further into the
race. My shoes were obviously heavy with
water now, but they would soon dry out as I ran the drier sections – first
world problems really but I did not want to stop to simply tighten up my
shoes. There were still some small snow
clumps heading into Robinson Flat as can bee seen below at Mile 30.
Here is where I met my crew for the first
time (Gary and Raki). I cramped up again
in the adductors when approaching them but then drank some tonic water, put
some additional stocks in my flask and grabbed some dry bars (the gels were
somehow forgotten!) and I ate a bit more fruit from the aid station. It was cloudy here, but I swapped hats and
put on my ice cap (white) that I bought a few days ago in Auburn where ice can
be put into the top of the hat to cool your head down. I also grabbed the ice buff that my wonderful
mother made where you put ice in the buff, and it has two snap buttons either
end to keep the ice in place. Both items
were filled with ice here and put on me, even though I noticed it was not at
all hot at this aid station, in fact I remember Raki wearing a hoodie at the
time!
I was still feeling good though with great
energy levels. Gary asked about my
mental state, and I said I was great it was just the leg cramps that were
causing the grief.
Arrived
at Robinson Flat at 12:16pm, now 46 mins down on 24-hour projected pace.
Robinson
Flat to Millers Defeat at Mile 34.4
The single track had ceased for now and we
were on running on dirt roads with a downward slope most of the way. Not overly pretty vistas but I could hear
hunting rifles go off in the far distance.
I can see how the elites would be nailing this, but I was not about to
burn the rockets or ruin my race. This
section was fine, and I had no issues with any further cramps here and made the
Millers Defeat aid station in good time and apparently, I made back 2 mins from
my 46-minute deficit.
Arrived
at Millers Defeat at 1:09pm, now 44 mins down on 24-hour pace.
Millers
Defeat to Dusty Corners at Mile 38
Again, this section was wider than single
track, more like fire trail and again with a downward bias. About a mile before the aid station I
suddenly lost the head drinking nipple off one of my flasks. That meant I would be down to one flask for a
while if I did not attend to the matter, so I looked on the trail desperately
and spent a good minute or more trying to find a tiny item on a large fire
trail.
Luckily the next runner behind me
eventually came past and he found it within seconds, so another set of eyes did
the trick. Thanks mate!
Upon approaching the aid station, I was moving well in
good spirits and I saw Paulo from the Aid Station so I high fived him and then
when I arrived at the aid station I refueled with gels and fruit. Fruit became my main source of fuel as it was
the only thing I could really get down my throat fast, so watermelon, rock
melon, bananas, mandarins, grapes and strawberries were my staple. I would put bits and pieces in a zip lock bag
and then put it in my running vest. I
also was stopping each time to have more ice put in my hat, arm sleeve and ice
buff around my neck. This worked an
absolute treat as I was not really suffering from the heat.
As I was about to leave the aid station an
older gent asked if I was ok as I was trying to stretch my quads. I said yeah just the usual adductor cramps
for me and then I looked up to see who I was talking to and it was the one and
only legend of WSER, Gordy A! He even
gave me some stretch tips, so I gave him a big thanks and a pat on the back
(the guy is huge) and off I went.
Arrived
at Dusty Corners at 1:48pm, now 38 mins down on 24-hour pace.
Dusty
Corners to Last Chance at Mile 43.3
Once again, this section was dominated by
overall declines and open running on mainly fire trails. I was needing an extended bathroom break here
so I was fortunate there were port a loo’s (port a potties as they called them)
here. As I was approaching the aid
station a guy yells out there are hot women here…I had to laugh (I’m sure Sarah
is too 😉) but I thought of when
Richie told me there were girls in bikinis ready to ice you down with sponges
as these sections are the warmest of the race.
Well I can report that it was all a mirage as the only service I got was
the usual filling up of my two water flasks with water and electrolytes, more
fruit in the zip bags and away I went but making sure to refill hat, sleeve and
neck buff with ice. A quick in and out
post loo stop and I knew the next section could be tough.
Arrived
at Last Chance at 2:42pm, now 37 mins down on 24-hour pace.
Last
Chance to Devils Thumb at Mile 47.8
I exited Last Chance and you see all the
support signs for certain runners giving encouragement telling them not to
worry about the upcoming canyons and heat.
I was certainly not feeling the heat at this stage but let’s be honest
it was only about 25-26 I would have thought.
The upcoming stage though had the fire trail section ceasing and it was
a big drop down with quad bashing and single-track switchbacks and then a
massive hike up. I was hoping just
hoping that I could get through this section cramp free!
The track is amazing to run here. The switchbacks I took easy but was running
slowly with light steps. Only a few
rocks here and there. Once at the bottom
you cross the famous swing bridge over the river and then immediately begin the
climb back up towards Devils Thumb. It
is certainly steep and forget running it, but I simply was power hiking as fast
as I could and putting my entire hands on each quad and getting the legs to
climb climb climb. I really was expecting
sharp pains and cramps, but what I was doing different, perhaps by chance was
using the thumbs of each hand and deeply massaging my quads as I was
climbing. Yes, it felt sore and
uncomfortable like a full-on massage, but I found that by doing this the actual
muscles were released a little and thus were not seizing up.
Sure, it was hard work on this climb, but I
felt comfortable, confident and I overtook perhaps 8-10 people on this
section. It was getting a bit warm and
obviously having an aid station at the top was welcomed where I had a popsicle
(ice block), woohoo that tasted awesome and bandied together more fruit and
more ice and away I went.
Arrived
at Devils Thumb at 4:02pm, now 32 mins down on 24-hour pace, so apparently, I
took a further 5 mins off!
Devils
Thumb to Eldorado Creek at Mile 52.9
The aid stations were now a bit closer
together and rightly so as this is the hottest part of the day. The next section I guess I will remember for
a very long time. I remember Richie’s
race report saying it is certainly hard on the quads down to Eldorado Creek and
it is the hottest part of the course.
Well he was right on both accounts, but I will have this section
particularly the first bit etched in memory.
I was about perhaps a mile out of the aid station where the trail was open
fire trail. On either side of the trail
tall pine trees had been cut down but there was plenty of bush and build up
either side of the trail.
I first heard a strange sound and thought
nothing of it. Then I heard perhaps the
same sound three or four more times in quick succession. The sound was not something you hear every
day, it was a roaring sound, like the old lion in the centre of the circle at
the start of those movie features. I
kept looking for anything on the trail up ahead. I could see a female runner ahead about 80
yards or so and then another guy way past her.
I quickly looked back, did not see a thing but again heard the sound
coming from the bushes on the left. I am
99% certain it was a sound of a lion (cougar/mountain lion) so there was no way
I was going to stop or slow down and in fact I sped up quite quickly to try and
catch the people in front just incase there was more to unfold. Luckily enough the sounds abated as I was travelling
further on this section. Maybe the
number of runners going through the area was enough to keep them off the track
for now.
I later chatted with the female runner when
we were running together about five miles further on and she was a local who
did not dismiss the idea that it was a mountain lion. Bring on Forest Hill and my pacer and lion
tamer Gary I thought and told her accordingly!
The track down to Eldorado was a bit like
the descent from Last Chance but hotter with more sun hitting you (the hottest
part of the race for me I think), a bit rockier, but not overly technical. The aid station at the bottom is well stocked
and more ice applied as the climb up Michigan’s Bluff was next.
Arrived
at Eldorado Creek at 5:10pm, now 30 mins down on 24-hour pace.
Eldorado
Creek to Michigan Bluff at Mile 55.7
Similar to the Devils Thumb climb put
perhaps not quite as steep and spaced out over a longer climbing distance, but
rest assured these two climbs are the toughest on course after 45 miles plus
under your belt. Again, based on the
stats and times it appears I made up another 10 places on the climbing. I put all the hill training down to that for
sure. I came out of the climb still
feeling very good and came around the corner to a large crowd at Michigan Bluff
aid station and met up with Gary and Raki here after I had consumed some more
fruit and picked at some minor foods and put more ice in the usual areas to
keep cool. It was just on 6pm and the temperature
was comfortable enough. The next aid
station was a good 11km away so certainly had to re-stock with food here.
Arrived
at Michigan Bluff at 6:01pm, now 21 mins down on 24-hour pace. Wow, must have
made up 9 minutes on that climb!
Michigan
Bluff to Foresthill at Mile 62
Michigan Bluff aid station is situated on a
paved road so both sides of the road were rather crowded with crew and general
onlookers giving out cheers. Some of the
Aussie crews were there supporting their runners and gave me a loud cheer as
did many locals saying I was looking strong as I began running uphill on my way
to the next aid station. I did feel good
actually and the next mile or three was dirt road with a bit of climbing before
getting back onto single track and a descent before a short climb back up to
Foresthill. This is the section where I
caught up again with the local female runner by the name of Kate and we chatted
quite a bit about how awesome the day has been and of course the topic of
mountain lions got a mention from the previous encounter. It was her first WSER also.
Arrived
at Foresthill at 7:28pm, now 13 mins down on 24-hour pace. Another 8 minutes
clawed back apparently.
Foresthill
to Peachstone (via Dardanelles) at Mile 70.7
I arrived at Foresthill about 7:20pm or
thereabouts. You can meet your crew on
the road section before the aid station within 100 yards either side of the
timing areas. I met Raki and Gary before
the school and changed shirt, got rid of excess baggage in my vest such as
gloves and arm compressions and any old food.
I had more tonic water, grabbed two new buffs, one to put on my head now
and then put my headlight over the top of that.
At this point, Gary could join me for pacing duties right until the end
of the race. It was still light, so we
had a good 90 mins ahead before the headlights needed to turn on.
I guess I spent a good 5-10 minutes getting
all new gear and restocking with food etc.
I had for some reason thought the 24-hour pace guide for Foresthill was
arrival by 7:30pm (instead of 7:15pm) so by my calcs I was actually 10 minutes ahead when I
arrived. But it turns out after the
race, once I began analysing and re-capping, I was 5 mins behind schedule. Given this time of 7:30pm was the only real
marker etched in my brain, I was working on the notion that I was just very
slightly ahead of 24-hour time, so I was pleased.
Gary and I took off from Foresthill through
the long wide street past the school and there were plenty of people cheering
on. We then turned left onto California
Street before we hit the trail, an initial fire trail. We began chatting and were following a runner
and his pacer about 100 yards ahead of us.
Time went by and then we hear a yell from behind us…"Hey runners, you are going the wrong way”! Yes, indeed it
appeared we were and missed the right-hand turn. Great, I managed to navigate 62 miles without
a hitch and now Gary gets me off course within in 5 mins……hahaha….to his defense
we were simply following the runners in front but that is a lesson to us all,
follow the course markings and not the runner in front. We tried to yell out ahead of us to alert the
runners we were following but we longer could see them, so I hope they found
out their mistake not long after.
The trail then descended now onto beautiful
single track and the pace was nice and we played leap frog with a few runners
and now with their respective pacers. No
need for the torch yet, we stopped briefly at Cal1 the Dardanelles and had some
ginger ale and I spotted some cheese quesadillas, yummo, just what I needed to
get off the fruit and as it was getting a little cooler now (perfect
conditions) I could stomach a bit more solid food.
During the next section to Peachstone
(Cal2), we finally turned on our headlamps.
The trail was amazing, single track, runnable and a few ups and
downs.
Arrived
at Peachstone at 9:21pm, now only 1 min down on 24-hour pace, but remembering I
was not aware of splits other than Foresthill where I thought I was just
slightly ahead.
Peachstone
(via Ford’s Bar - Cal3) to Rucky Chucky at Mile 78
The trails here were initially single track
under the headlamp and dark night sky where the stars were clearly shining
above. My eyesight is not that fantastic
at the best of times as some will know and under headlights and looking at
single trail with a few descents and rocks in the way, makes it tricky
going. I had a coupe of near misses where
I held composure and didn’t fall, but I did kick my big right toe on rocks
about 3 or 4 times and the toe was quite painful.
At the aid stations from here on in
including Ford’s Bar, I had a very quick sit down and Gary and I both tried to
massage the quads and calves to ease the tightness so that no cramps would come
back for the duration of the race. It
was painful having it done, but I think the practice worked so that is
something I will try and utilise for future races.
At this point Gary mentioned to me I was 30
mins ahead of 24-hour finishing pace.
Wow I made up good time I thought, and I was not to question someone who
had more alertness than me.
The section to Rucky Chucky had some stinging
little climbs which came as a surprise to me as I thought we were heading
nothing but down to the river. I could
hear the river and rapids to the left all the time but could not see them given
the darkness. When we ran an out and
back on the other side of the river on the Wednesday we saw a road heading down
to Rucky Chucky that we thought we would get to run on during the race but it
didn’t appear that way as our route was either taking us flat or slightly up,
at least it felt that way. We eventually
got to the aid station at Rucky Chucky.
Raki was there like a great crew would be and I had some soup on offer
from the aid station but they said it was hot, so they cooled it down with
water – probably watered the soup throughout but it was nice to have some
nutrients in the stomach at least.
Arrived
at Rucky Chucky at 11:06pm, 4 minutes ahead of 24-hour pace.
Rucky
Chucky to Greengate at Mile 79.8
We had to descend some stairs to get down
to the river’s edge – stairs, no way….I hate stairs in races. I got in the life raft (we were crossing the
river in boats this year) as the water level was too high as they could not dam
off the river given the snow that was melting and overflowing the dam. I sat in the raft and thought Gary was next
to me as we began being rowed by the race organisers across the river. But turns out Gary had not hopped into the
same boat as me and was still on the shore, but luckily another boat was empty,
and they rowed him over at the same time and in fact somehow beat me over by a
few seconds. We took off our life vests
(mandatory for the river crossing) and began the power hike up the hill to
Greengate.
Now Gary and I had done this section in
practice just days earlier, so we knew what involved the 8% gradient
climb. Hiking, and hiking with purpose. We did just that. We began seeing a runner ahead who was
actually running the hill and his pacer was pushing him hard. I felt sorry for the guy as here we were
hiking hard but gaining ground each step it seemed. In the end, we caught up to him just before
the aid station, but the difference was, I had not spent any fuel whereas the
runner was running on empty. I tracked
down his result and turns out he finished a good couple of hours after me, so I
guess we had the right formula there.
Arrived
at Greengate at 11:42pm, 3 minutes ahead of 24-hour pace.
Greengate
to Auburn Lake Trails at Mile 85.2
Gary had done a small section of this trail
on Wednesday and said it was like other sections, single track but runnable, so
we basically tried to run as much as possible.
I think we were moving ok here, again my sight causes me to slow down a
little especially on descents at night on slightly uneven terrain. I kept massaging my quads with my thumbs as I
put my hands on my legs when walking hard up some inclines. It kept the cramps at bay luckily. I sat down again at the chair in the aid
station for a deeper massage had some more cheese quesadillas and even some
tater tots (potato gems) with sauce, oh they were going down well with ginger
ale. I then had my first caffeine hit
via some Coke. I had intentionally
waited all this time for that injection of coke as I wanted the body full of
energy for the last sections and not experience the highs then lows earlier on as the caffeine went away.
Arrived
at Auburn Lake Trails at 1:05am, exactly on 24-hour pace.
Auburn
Lake Trails to Quarry Road at Mile 90.7
A similar section to the previous but with
a slight downward elevation into the Quarry Road aid station, but again single
track. I recall going pass a bench named
Betty’s Bench or something similar. It
was a memorial bench built for where a female runner was out on the trails
training by herself years ago and was sadly attacked and killed by a mountain
lion. I didn’t mention it at the time to
Gary, maybe he would have told me to run faster if I had.
The aid station was down ahead, the descent
burning my tight quad muscles and I could feel them giving way at any time. There was a loud band playing at 2:30am
here. I didn’t like this aid station
probably because of the noise, my quads were in agony and I guess I was getting
a bit grumpy. I probably needed more
food and Gary told me we lost a fair bit of time by potentially overstaying at
aid stations to get the legs right. I
had a lot more Coke here and cheese toasties and away we went.
Arrived
at Quarry Road at 2:30am, apparently now 5 minutes behind on 24-hour pace.
Quarry
Road to Pointed Rocks at Mile 94.3
We were trying to calculate the pace per km
needed here to be safe for sub 24 hours.
We budgeted on 9-minute kms as by Gary’s calcs we were still slightly
ahead of time but only just (even though retrospectively we appeared to be
behind now). Every time his watch chimed,
I asked what the last km was, 8:24 or 8:10 would be the answer sometimes and then I
was happy we could bank that time as it was less than the allotted 9
minutes. We got of the slightly inclined
dirt road and entered single track half technical climbing. Wow, I thought, here come some 11 or 12-minute
kms as I was not budgeting for this incline!
Well the kms were ticking over and yes there were some 11 or 12’s. We were now really pressed for time, but I
was going as fast as I could up those climbs.
I picked away at some fruit from the zip
lock bags as I did not want to stop anymore at aid stations for food as we did
not have time to waste. I would try and
scull a ginger ale or coke and that would be it now. We arrived at Pointed Rocks with 6 miles to
go (10km) and Raki was there to greet us saying you guys better start hustling
under 9 min per km pace until the finish.
Arrived
at Pointed Rocks at 3:32am, now only 2 minutes behind on 24-hour pace.
Pointed
Rocks to No Hands Bridge at Mile 96.8
A short 2.5 miles to No Hands but we get
the shuffle going along. You feel like
you are running faster than what the stats show after looking back at it. We arrived at No Hands again ticking off some
kms slightly banking more time. I did not
want to stop here. Gary was having
something here I can’t recall but I said to him come on let’s go. I began walking out of the aid station and
the station captain said just walk slowly until your pacer is ready. Gary caught up immediately as we began crossing
the famous bridge that was decked out in multi colored lights for the night and
we then began to work hard.
There
was no timing recording apparently there for me based on the website. We were still moving on the notion of beating
sub 9min per km. We were achieving this
banking seconds each time.
No
Hands Bridge to Robie Point at Mile 98.9
Who put that climb
in there post the Bridge and those stairs ?? Didn’t expect that but hey when
you are at a bridge crossing then surely you are near a river so you need to
climb back up. I did not think of that
so some more climbing but pushing my energy levels to the maximum here. No food since mile 90 so I was almost running
on empty other than coke and ginger ale. The
fact that many at home in Australia were probably tracking me and urging me on
got me going too to be honest. We
eventually saw the lights of Robie Point aid station, and I knew now we had 1.1
miles to go. Well actually I was told it
was 1.3 miles as the race is 100.2 miles…of course it is ! So now we worked out we had 1.3 miles or
2.1km in 22 minutes but the next mile was uphill and steep in areas as we had
done the social run on Tuesday night (luckily!).
The trail had now finished and it was all paved road so that gave me footing confidence and I ran
that hill. Slowly, but no walking now!
We passed houses decked out in lights that had been supporting the faster
runners but there were one or two houses still with people out the front giving
us applause. I reached the white bridge
and knew we had to turn left to get to the Placer County High School Athletics
track. I could see the WSER foot
markings on the road like below.
It was now
downhill a little to the school and I could hear Tropical John on the PA with
the track lights on. I was nearing the
home stretch and now knew I had this 24 hour covered. Gary and I entered the track gate, did a
u-turn around some traffic cones and then made our way clockwise around the
track (as the track was closed in the other direction this year due to
maintenance) for the final 250 metres. I
could make out John was telling the crowd a little about me and my journey here
and I gave Gary a big verbal thanks as we headed into the final 100m. Some Aussies gave me a cheer from the
grandstand even though it was nearing 5am and daylight again and I crossed the
line with arms in the air with pure joy of breaking that 24 hour mark with 5
minutes and 45 seconds to spare.
Making up that
ground after being behind all that time early was such a great thrill for me and
I was very proud. I gave Gary a big man
hug for his strong pacing and encouragement and drive to get me though. Hey, he may not be a mathematician, but he
got me on the pace I needed to be at and we did it mate. Thanks coach ! I am sure I have wet his appetite to enter
this beast.
I then thanked
Raki for his amazing all night effort driving from point to point and crewing so
well. Great work buddy and glad we got
to send some time in your hood of ‘Frisco for a couple of days after.
What an event. I
can see clearly now why Richie, Geoff and Russ raved about it. Within a few hours I wanted to come back
again. You don’t often say that after a
100 miler. Thank you WSER for putting on
a sensational trail running masterpiece where you make everyone feel special and
welcome. Thanks to everyone who
supported me throughout my training and of course the race. Two weeks off running now (race report took a
while!) and about to hit a short 5-6 week block before the 102km CCC in the
Italy/Swiss/French Alps. Looking forward
to the post wine and cheese with Sarah and an extended European vacation!
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| Figure 1: Gary at SFO with the 'rig' |
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| Figure 2 : Paulo at the Aid Station with WESR trophies |
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| Figure 3 : table tennis injuries - what a di**! |
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| Figure 4 : At the Tues night Aid Station Run |
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| Figure 5 : Scouting trail down to Rucky Chucky |
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| Figure 6 : Myself, Gordy and Gary |
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| Figure 7 : Ski chalet and surrounds at Squaw |
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| Figure 8 : The middle peak looks small but its far away. We had that to climb in the first 6km to the highest peak of ~2,800m. |
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| Figure 9 : Start line with 40 hrs to go, Raki, myself and Gary |
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| Figure 10 : Estimated Times for 24 hour and 30 hour cut off pace with Aid Station markers. Maps and features of the course are below. |
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| Figure 11 : Framed map in the Aid Station, Auburn CA. |
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| Figure 12: Elevation, Right to Left. ~6,000M ascent, a lot more descent, think quad bashing. |
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| Figure 13 : Got to love a point to point 100-miler |
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| Figure 14 : Jim, Bronko, Brittany and some imposter runner in a GNW shirt taking it all in at the start line |
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| Figure 15 : The first 6km climbing up, a break in the snow before there was plenty more! |
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| Figure 16 : think this was pre 24 miles, how good is the trail! |
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| Figure 17 : Mile 30 and Robinsons Flat, still snow around and first time meeting the crew on course. |
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| Figure 18 : Coming into Michigan Bluff after big climb, great support and crowds yelling and crew met me here |
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| Figure 19 : Gary and I at Foresthill, pacing duties start |
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| Figure 20 : The stretch of crowds at the Foresthill school then we enter onto the trails |
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| Figure 21 : The well lit aid stations appearing out of the middle of nowhere it seemed. Ford’s Bar at Mile 73 for memory. |
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| Figure 22 : Rucky Chucky Aid station before river crossing, first bit of watered soup |
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| Figure 23 : The road markings on that final mile - harder to see under torchlight! |
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| Figure 24 : You beauty, sub 24 and Silver buckle! |
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| Figure 25 : The tale of the tape and race against the 24-hour clock |
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| Figure 26 : The Prized Sub 24 Hour Silver Buckle |
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| Figure 27 : Yours truly, showing off the bling at a very warm presentation, the next (actually same) day. |
