Training leading up to AC100 was good considering all that was going on in this full time working fathers life. We had just gotten back from a two week vacation and started to move into a new house during the peak training weeks leading up to race day. I did not get in as many miles (let alone vertical miles) as I would have liked, but I did however get in some quality long training runs and I made the miles I did run really count.
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| Pre Race Cheers for the Simi Valley Runners! photo credit- Sarita Shoemaker |
Ready or not, with a house full of boxes left to unpack, it was time to make our way towards Wrightwood. After almost drowning the car in puddles on the 14 freeway, I stayed out in Hesperia Thursday night with my crew consisting of my lovely wife Desirae and my awesome son Connor. Hesperia was a dump but the hotel room was nice and I got some much needed sleep (I don't sleep much the night before a big race). The pre-race weigh in and meeting Friday morning was uneventful, so we met up with Brett, Randy, Becca, Sarita, Debbie, Mark and the rest of the crew for a beer to quell the nerves. After killing time around Wrightwood for awhile, we headed to dinner at the Olive Garden to carb load before heading back to the hotel for an early nights sleep.
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| Brett and I just before the start Photo Credit- Rebecca Goldsmith |
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| "and go!" Photo Credit- Ulysses Chan |
1.5 miles up Acorn street was a easy jog with locals cheering us on from their patios, as we hit the trailhead everyone grinds to a halt for a slow hike up the trail. It was still dark at this time so I took out my headlamp but to my avail it did not turn on, so I just use the light from other runners and the moon to light my way. This first of eight climbs started to sort out the different paces and I was starting to get into a rhythm. The climb was over quickly and as I crest the hill the sun started to come up, what a view! As I ran along a mix of easy rolling terrain and rocky single track to the first aid station (Inspiration Point) I rolled my ankle on a technical descent. Already!? its not even 10 miles into the race yet. The crowd is thick at Inspiration Point and cheering is intense which helped perked up my twisted ankle spirits, I made a quick stop just let Des know I needed my ankle brace at Vincent Gap.
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| Coming into VG |
Big climb #2 Baden Powell the highest point on the course has 40 some switch backs to the top, mostly all hiking up here with a few areas of jogging. The air is getting real thin, its getting hot and I am getting dizzy as I make my way up to the 9500ft summit of Baden Powell, I never seem to do that great at altitude. Luckily though, what goes up must come down! As I make my way to Islip Saddle I am making great time down the rocky descent till almost the bottom where I twist my ankle yet again, this course is going to destroy me! I hobble my crippled ass into IS (mile 26), take a second to drink some CarboPro, refill my water and grab some more gels.
Up we go again, climb #3 Mt Williamson, I am starting to feel like I am on some sadistic roller coaster ride. Mt Williamson was a steep but short climb, I made my way up in good time and I got to the top before I knew it. I don't recall the next section very well, I just remember making good time and almost getting run over by a Porsche at a highway crossing. My memory must have been jostled but I don't remember Eagles Roost (mile 30) too well either, I believe I ate a Stinger Waffle, drank some more CarboPro, refilled on fluids as I headed out to highway 2.
Due to some endangered yellow frogs, we had to detour off of the PCT and onto a two mile stretch of pavement up highway 2. Most people bitched and moaned about it (yes the pavement sucks) but I took full advantage of it by hammering down and passed a few people along this stretch. The extra encouragement from cars and bikes as they passed by felt good, but the sun radiating off the asphalt did not.
Coming off the pavement I descended down into the populated Buckhardt Campground where everyone pretty much ignored the runners. If one was to think we would get some relief from the heat going down into Copper Canyon one would be mistaken, it was an oven going through there! Everyone warned of the brutality of this section, and in my opinion, while the heat was tough, the section was not as bad as it was made out to be (in all fairness i do tend to train in the heat quite often). Fortunately, the climb up to Cloudburst (climb #4) was a pretty gentle grade and before I know it I am at CB (mile 38). I cooled off and restocked here before my departure to Three Points (TP). Again I don't remember this section very well, I just remembered that it was an easier part of the course and I must have enjoyed it because I made really good time through here. As I ran by Glenwood Campground I passed some more people flying through some nice single track into TP (mile 43).
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| Cooling off at Chilao Photo Credit- Monica Morant |
I knew it would be awhile till I saw my crew again (Chilao mile 53) and there would be another climb up to Mt Hillyer in the process, so I made sure to stock up well before leaving TP. I continued to fly through some nice single track on my way to MH until I reached a paved road at the bottom of the descent. I was a little confused by this section because I did not realize it was a paved road climb all the way up to Mt Hillyer (climb #5). Confused or not I made my way up the road in good time with a combination of power hiking and jogging. Running into Mt Hillyer aid station (no crew access), I ate some bananas and a few other pieces of fruit before I headed off to Chilao.
As I made my way running through some cool rock formations, I passed the amazing Jorge Pacheco on the way down to Chilao. Jorge must have been having a tough race because he has won AC100 a bunch of times before and kicked my butt at Bandit 50K. I felt a little worn down coming into Chilao so I was glad to be picking up Ryan Rollins as a pacer. I ate a PB&J, part of an avocado and drank some CarboPro and off we went again.
Ryan is a FAST runner and I chose him to pace me through this next 22 mile section to Chantry because I knew he could push my pace on the net downhill in this section. So we did exactly that; we ran a good section down into the canyon before the climb into shortcut. Shortcut aid station was a quick stop and pretty uneventful, I had passed a few runners going down the long fire road out of Shortcut so i was feeling good.
From there, we ran hard down the long fire road into the canyon and power hiked all the way up to Newcomb Saddle. On the way up to Newcomb I had passed Moises who I had ran with at the same exact spot earlier this year during a training run. He told me he was having doubts of sub 24hr finish and expected a 25-26hr finish, I told him to stop that non sense and keep pushing (he would go on to finish sub 24hr!). Newcomb was welcome site at the top off a tough climb, I ate and drank a ton up there, including some delicious applesauce and fruit punch. Who knew that something as simple as applesauce could lift the spirits, you never know what your gonna crave during race day. As we departed from Newcomb, we turned on our headlamps and proceeded fly down the Sturdevant trail all the way to Chantry. Ryans headlight did not work so he turned on the flashlight from his phone and proceeded down the trail through the dark like a champ! I passed a few more runners going down Sturdevant including the ever so awesome runners Billy Yang and David Daley. All that was left was an asphalt climb up to Chantry to a booming aid station.
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| Ryan and I at Chantry |
Feeling a little euphoric and kind of goofy at the Chantry aid station, I made a few jokes, resupplied on food/water and headed out with my brother Keith who would pace me to the finish line. We ran and walked the two miles to the Upper Winter Creek trail where we would make a long painful hike all the way to the top, I think we might have past one or two runners on the way up to dead mans bench. After what seemed like forever we finally made it to dead man bench and took a Larry Gassan picture half dead on the bench. It was still another mile up to the Wilson toll road, so I took a breather while we got passed by another runner which we promptly passed again going down the toll road. We held a good clip all the way down to Idlehour aid station where we past 2nd place female finisher Jen Benna, went through the aid station quickly and headed down to Idle hour camp. All of a sudden in the middle of dense vegetation and low light, there were no course markings! Keith and I took a lot of time second guessing our path through the creek. Luckily I have run this section before during a training run in the daytime, and it was hard to navigate back then too, but it was a lot more confusing in the dark. By the time we successfully made our way through the canyon and started climbing Sam Merrill I was pissed off with the amount of time I lost trying to find our way out of the canyon and that people would put runners lives at risk by messing up course markings. I took the anger out on the trail as we climbed Sam Merrill fast, fast enough to close a half mile gap between the runner in front of us and arrived at Sam Merrill aid station together.
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| The view from Dead Man's Bench |
Fifth place at Sam Merrill (Pete Sercel?) left before us while I proceeded to chased down two Advil with some 5hr energy (shh.. my secret 10 miles to go concoction). We kept hammering away at their position going down the very technical rock strewn Sam Merrill trail until we passed them about a mile down. I was feeling really strong all the way down Sam Merrill through Mt Lowe and Sunrise trail all the way to Millard Campground our last aid station (mile 96). I was still feeling really strong and I told Keith I wanted to push to a strong finish, so up we went out of Millard and down El Prieto.
I remembered El Prieto as being a nice rolling downhill single track last time I had ran it, not so much this time, it was full of rocks, ruts and creek crossings (it sucked). But we kept pushing through knowing that we were almost to the finish line, I could smell the barn (or was that a skunk?). Next thing we know its out to civilization, it never felt so good to see houses, streets and lights. As I ran down the streets of Alta Dena I started to get a little emotional thinking of all the training and sacrifices I made to get here, and all the support from family and friends. The voice in my head began saying, "Suck it up, dry your eyes because I see the finish line and I need to push hard going through the banner".
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| My Finish (taken by Des) |
Through the finish line in 22:49:10 for a fifth place overall finish and a sub 24hr silver buckle! What a great feeling to cross the finish line with so much "leg" left in me, it was a different experience than any other hundred I had finished and I its addicting, I cant wait for another taste.
So many people played such a pivotal role in getting me across that finishing line for a silver buckle and I just want to take a moment to thank them. First and foremost I want to thank my beautiful wife Desirae for not only crewing me, but always being there for me throughout this entire journey, despite all the training and sacrifice making this race a reality you have supported me the entire way. Thanks to my son Connor for helping crew and putting a smile on my face at every aid station, your a real trooper. Thank you to both Ryan and Keith for pushing me when I needed it the most, it was fun having you guys share part of my journey with me and making sure I didn't fall off a cliff in the middle of the night. Thank you to all the family and friends following my progress and cheering for me along the way, it helps to know there are people out there who care so much about my crazy hobby. Thank you to all the volunteers and ham operators at the aid station for taking time out of their schedules to support all the runners out there.
However my journey did not stop here, after I went home for a much needed power nap, I raced back down to the finish line to watch Brett and Randy (sorry I just missed you Dave, your just too fast) finish. Training with Brett Goldsmith often and being at his Western States 100 attempt I knew Brett needed this finish more than anyone out there that day, Brett needed redemption to clear his mind and soul, to solidify his training and his love of trail running. So to watch Brett round that turn and cross the finish line was the highlight of the race for me. I am super proud of him for gutting it out and finishing this brutal course to redeem himself!
To top it off I got to watch a strong finish from a strong person and good friend Randy Shoemaker (I want to be like you when I grow up)! The award ceremony was long, but I got a silver buckle and a neat plaque with my name and finishing time, I also got to watch my friends get their buckles. Simi Valley definitely showed up and finished with a vengeance at AC100, what a way to represent a great town! I cant wait to go running and racing with you guys again soon, until then a beer to celebrate and a trail to run..
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| Finish line Photos Credit to Ulysses Chan |
