Verdugo 50K: Vert, Wind and Rain

       "I think I will sign up to run the Sean O Brien 50 miler this year", the words didn't sound right even coming out of my mouth. I have always had a hard time figuring out how to pace myself during a 50 mile race. So I thought, "Why not take a shot at something your not so good at?". Always challenge yourself and take yourself out of your comfort zone if you want to become a better runner, aka. practice what your not good at!
       I have run the Sean O Brien 50K the past two years as an early in the year gauge of fitness and to stoke the training up after my two "down" months for the holidays. This year I was going to step it up a notch and run the 50 mile! Then the Woosley fires destroyed most our local trails in Southern California including my favorite, the Backbone trail which was home to the Sean O Brien races. Sadly, but rightly, the decision was made to cancel the race and let the trails heal. Keira Henninger, the Race Director, was able to secure an alternative route for the race in the Verdugo Mountain range located between Burbank and La Canada. To my dismay, the change of venue forced a change to the distance to only a 50K. The new course offered tons of elevation gain on all non-technical fire road, sounds like fun to me, sign me up!
       After a relatively good training block put together in January I found myself excited to race until, the rain poured, and poured, and poured some more. Weather forecast showed buckets of rain accompanied with lots of wind for race day! I hate running in these conditions, I think I'm scared from wind and rain thanks to the 2018 Boston Marathon 2018, and now I was dreading running this race. The day before I kept hoping for an email from Keira telling the runners that the race had been cancelled due to severe weather, but that email never came. I seriously considered cancelling my registration and rolling my entry to next year. After some soul searching (or discovering some balls) and my wife dropping a truth bomb on me ("you will regret not running it, be in a bad mood and I don't want to hear your bitching"), I decided to just go for it.

PC: Paksit Photos

      4:00 AM alarm went off to get up and out to Brand Park on time. Traffic was fine on the way up and I got to the park early, so I sat in the car staying warm and while second guessing myself up to 10 minutes till start time. I go to use the bathroom and the port-o-potties line are ridiculous, no time to wait. Lined up toward the front, made some small talk with fellow runners. With not much fan fair, we were off into the dark making our way up a steep 4 mile fire road to the first peak of the race. I tucked in right behind the lead group of three as I used another runners head lamp to help guide my way. The rain was very light at this point, I felt really good and relaxed going up the first climb. The rain and wind picked up some as we hit the peak then made our way down to the first aid station. I ripped down the fire road making up ground as we hit the first aid station (mile 7), damn that was fun, maybe this race wont be so bad after all! We turned around and made our way back up the descent we just bombed down, where, unfortunately, everything took a turn for the worse..

PC: Paksit Photos

     Boom! Stomach bomb, maybe skipping the port-o-potty line at the start of the race was a bad idea? I desperately searched for a "good" place to relieve myself on this wide open fire road without the entire field of runners coming the other direction seeing me. I finally climbed a hill off to the side to relieve myself in privacy as I lost precious time. A couple runner passed me during my "episode" and I did my best to reign them back in on the climb. At the top of the climb I was in striking distance of a couple of runner and knew I could take them on the downhill, so I went full steam down to the next aid station only to be interrupted half way down the hill by another stomach emergency! Really? again? and on a downhill? I found a place to do my business while yet another runner passed me in the process. I got going again in enough time to pass the runner back up before getting to the next aid station at mile 14. As I headed out of the aid station I saw more runners hot on my tail including Jerry Garcia, a steep but shorter climb as I made it to the top, but not before the very strong climber Jerry passed me. I thought, "That's okay" as I got a ripping fast down hill to make another push in a last ditch effort to get into podium contention.

PC: David Wiskowski Photography 

        Mile 17,  I just started to head downhill and bam! there went my race as I roll my left ankle. I slowly started jogging downhill for the next mile to get my ankle working again, but at this point it was too late to do anything meaningful to recover. It was at this point I decided I will dial it down a notch and save my body for upcoming races, I still pushed some, just not hard, as I cruised through the rest of the 50K in an "easier" effort. I did my best to not be so hard on myself as we all have bad races, and instead decided to enjoy the rest of the race as I chocked it up as a good training run. I was actually smiling and having a good time, until about mile 26 when the heavens opened up and the wind turned into gail force and, conditions only got worse for the rest of the race. I looked forward to the final descent as I knew I could bomb down it for a fast finish, but as I hit the top of the last climb and started to descend, I was blown backwards as sideways rain stung my face in the process. It was hard to see, I was running against the wind and the rain chewed up the nicely groomed fire road into a technical descent with streams of water and rocks that fell loose from the side of the mountain. This made for a bad weather dance all the way to the bottom and into the finish line. Except (Due to the weather) there was no finish line, no arch, timing mat or even a line drawn across the road as I ran right passed where the "finish" line was, people were laughing thinking I was going for extra miles.
    Even with all that went wrong with the race I am glad I decided to run it! I got in a really good training run and had fun doing it! I still hate running in rain and even more so in the wind but, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. The field was very good this year with some fast times being laid down despite the difficulty of the course and weather. Congrats to the winner and to everyone who was brave enough to even toe the starting line of this race! I learned that I need to work on my pre-race nutrition and how to not let the weather affect my attitude so much. Plenty of races coming up this year so onward to the next one! Until then a beer to celebrate and another trail to run..

     Shout out to rabbit running for the clothes that keep me comfortable and stylish all run, seriously the best out there! My Altra Timp 1.5 handled the weather better than I did, super grippy and comfortable! Thank you to RD Keira Henninger for making this race happen despite the fires, you always put on a great race! Thank you to Desirae for holding down the fort while I raced and for having a hot cup of joe waiting for me when I got home, Love ya!