Miwok 100K - May 1, 2004 It's about the People

Maybe it's about the scenery? No, it's definitely about the people. For the Miwok 100K this year, I felt I knew at least half of the 240 entrants. I expected to be able to say hi to all of them at the start. I forgot that the race begins at 5:40 am, which is barely sunrise, so we were all milling around in the dark. I would even have trouble finding my new friend Jim to give him the Succeed! Caps and Endurolytes that ZombieRunner had sold him. Why Miwok? Why not. It is a local run, the trails are beautiful, you get to stay out all day. Why not is that it's not really a good training run. 100K isn't training, it's beat yourself up and spend time recovering. After a 50K you can get right back into your daily routine of speed work or hills or whatever you do, but 100K means you need time off, whether you run it slow or fast. But the race is irresistible, so whatever is going on in the year, whatever Don and I are supposed to be training for, we still show up to run Miwok and know that we will have a great time. Another reason to run it this year was to be with friends who had never run a 100K and other friends who sometimes had trouble finishing a 100K. We would help all of them to go out slow. We wanted them all to have a great day. We were planning to run with Karen Guenther the whole way. George Miller said he would also go along with us. Both of them were first-timers. Then Steve Reagan and Dave Wright said they'd hang with us too, as much as they could. Steve was working on a foot issue and Dave was dealing with plantar fascitis. We took a lot of interest in how some other people were going to do, but their plans involved faster finishes: Sarah Spelt, Chuck Wilson, Christina Brownson, Steve Patt, Glen Martin, to name a few. We checked in, threw our boxes in the pile for Pantoll drop bags, got our stuff together, and gathered on the beach. It was a nice start. I heard mumblings of sand in shoes. We were suddenly off with everyone running through the squishy sand. And then we headed slowly uphill, in a train. There was no rush to pass people. We had all day. It is much better to pass people at the end than at the beginning. After a short trail section we were out on the road going uphill. The Golden Gate Bridge was in fog. But I still thought of Chris Rios who is usually there with us for that view. He decided to stay home and rest this year. As we went along I realized two of my guys were right in front of me. Jeffery and Philip! They were both running their first 100K. I was so happy to see them running together, having a good time. Philip is going to pace Jeffery at Western States. Crazy guys. Oh, I mean, well, you know. I guess we are all a little crazy. Steve Reagan caught up to us after a late start. I was worried already. So our little running party continued. We came through the first mini-aid station and Don hurried us along. I saw the three Rhodes running together. This was another sight that just made me smile. I asked if they were planning on running Western States one year as a threesome. Of course they were! They would keep trying for the lottery. I ran along with Karen on the trail toward the Tennessee Valley aid station. We would see people we knew there, for sure. The trail winds around on the hill with some flat wooden bridges and then descends to the valley. I like the descent. I think some people like it too much. It was too early to fly the downhills. I started to pick up speed but then a rabbit jumped out in front of me, ran in a circle and went back where it had come from. That was a surprise. Pretty soon we were refilling bottles and grabbing food. We headed off down the road. George had a piece of sushi in his mouth. I think the runner's high had finally kicked in for him as he gave a great, "Yeeehaa!" yell. Don was moving along at a good pace. Next stop: Muir Beach. This section was really neat. The weather was staying cool, but I had long ago tied off my jacket. Don was waiting for the temperature to go over 80 before he took his off. The trails become single track and go down through bushes and some poison oak and then back up. The coast was off to our left. Some of us remembered last year and how the mud on this section stopped people in their tracks. The best way to deal with mud on hilly trails is to just go for it. Don't stop! Eventually we got to wider trail and could see Muir Beach below. I found my friend again: Robert Josephs who I see at almost every race I run. He'd run Big Sur the weekend before. Maybe he was running even more races than Don and I?

We did another quick aid station stop and were off again. Our group had thinned out to just Don, Karen, and me. It's funny how sometimes it can feel like you are running this race by yourself. With so many people out there, you'd think you'd see people more often. Anyway, it was nice to be on our way to Pantoll, because that was the big aid station with our extra supplies. Don was ahead because it was all uphill. We were starting to see hikers. We knew to expect them--they were hikers on the Bay Area Ridge Trail, doing an organized hike from somewhere up north down to the Golden Gate Bridge. When a little group was paused at an intersection I could easily clear up their confusion about way to go. This was familiar ground! Most of the Miwok course sticks to the BART route. On the way to Pantoll we dipped down off the fire road onto trail again. It seemed a little odd to me, but there were the ribbons. For a second I thought maybe Ridge Trail people might have other ribbons that would take us down away from Pantoll instead of leading us there. But the section was short and we arrived to cheers from volunteers. Don got our sandwiches and asked if I wanted other things. Yes, I want my Sun Precautions hat. Yes, I'll drop my jacket. Karen wanted to rest a bit. I ate half my sandwich. Then we kept going. The next section was the Coastal Trail. The fog had cleared. Even Don had taken off his jacket by now. I think maybe this trail is magical. Most times when I run on it, especially on the return journey, it looks extremely uphill but feels downhill. The trail somehow sits on the side of a hill. How come people don't just fall off? And another reason it's magic: Baz Hawley was out there. He'd parked himself on a section near the road and was cheering us all on. I got a big hug and kiss. He says it's all magic too. The trail is mostly grassy hillsides but has moments of little woodsy sections, just to break it up. Then we cut inland more, and entered a gate to really go into the woods. We were getting closer to the Bolinas-Fairfax aid station. By this time the front runners had passed us, with Scott Jurek out in front. I picked some little food things at the aid station and then the next section was rolling fire roads all the way to the turnaround. I was thinking about the change in the course. Previously, you just stayed on the fire road which became the Bolinas Ridge trail. This year, the change was that we would head left on the Randall Trail at some point. As we went along the name finally clicked with me, and I could picture the gate where we would turn. Still, I had no idea how the trail would look, except that we'd been told it was downhill. I thought at least that might make it easier for some people to make the turnaround cutoff. That had been a problem for some people in previous years--it seems like the tightest cutoff of the race. I once again reminisced about the mud on this section last year. It moves along a lot faster without the mud. This is also the section where we get to see everyone coming back from the turnaround. I did know lots of them! There was one in particular I was hoping to see, and I did. Stephen Bell, whom I'd met a couple years ago at Western States training camp came flying by and said hi to me. I told him he looked really great, and he was doing so well. He was happy. We turned off to head down the Randall trail. It wasn't technical or anything, just more of the same but all downhill. All of it. I kind of liked that. It went by pretty fast, and we saw more of our friends on their way up, mostly smiling and not stopping for long. We were still in the woods. At the bottom we broke out of the trees to a grassy area and highway 1. It looked like a real picnic with everyone hanging around. The cookies looked so good, I just had to have one. I paused for a minute before taking one, because I wasn't sure it was the right thing to do. I'd felt bloated and uncomfortable since almost the start of the race. Must have made the wrong choice at dinner the night before. I guessed a cookie wasn't going to make much difference.

Maybe we went too slowly up the hill. I think Don waited a while at the top. We saw some people coming down. Not that many though! Marie Boyd looked like she was going to make it. Steve R. was at the top of the hill and said he would probably drop. Dave was just after him, and looked like he was moving well, with a smile. Then as we went along the fire road, we now knew that anyone we saw wasn't going to make the cutoff. Then we didn't see anyone else anyway. The return trip seemed to go pretty fast to the next aid station. My bloatedness was bothering me more and I was dragging a bit (maybe it was the cookie!) but I kept going. Karen went on ahead. I hung back at my own pace. She was excited about her friends and pacers meeting her at the next aid station, Bolinas-Fairfax. Don stopped for me to see what was wrong. I was fine. They continued to the aid station. Karen got her pacers and went with Don in front. I followed soon after. At first it looked like they might be slowing her down, but then they really got moving. I lost sight of them pretty quickly. No matter. I liked this section a lot--the coastal trail on the return journey. I often pass people on this part. Don slowed down for me, not wanting to keep up with the fast pace Karen was doing. I was feeling better and moving along pretty well. We talked. I guess I talked to much because I lost my concentration and took a dive on the trail. Well, it's not really a run unless I come up with some scrapes and bruises. The palms of my hands are already scarred from other falls. I got up quick and we moved on. Not too long til Pantoll anyway. We thought Karen would wait there, since she'd planned for longer breaks at that aid station. When we arrived, I focused on washing the dirt out of my hands and got a little Neosporin type stuff. The volunteers, as always, were very helpful, and very happy to help. The M&Ms looked so great that Don stopped for a picture. We got another sandwich from our drop cooler, traded out hats, picked up small flashlights (just in case). Steve Patt was there, resting. He said that maybe the heat had gotten to him. As we were ready to go, he felt like he could set off with us--safer than going out alone on the trail, because he was still a little dizzy. So we set off chatting a bit, and he seemed to improve. He told me things about the Dipsea, including the oldest man who had run it for years(Jack Kirk) and the different ways of getting into the race--I didn't know you could send extra money with your entry to sort of "bribe" your way in! I had this idea that after Pantoll, the race was all downhill. Well, it was, sort of. There just happened to be few large uphills in the way. The three of us went up the Miwok trail and then up and over the first big hill. At the top we started to move faster than Steve, but he was feeling good so we knew he'd be ok.

So then we were coming into Tennessee Valley and we saw a familiar face. It was Bob Akka out for a training run. He was going the other way, but he turned around to run with us. Cathy turned up too, and ran with me for a bit. Don was up ahead. They both paused to see if a runner lying on the ground was ok, and then continued on. Cathy talked about the Shadow of the Giants 50K, coming up in June. That seemed neat to me, since Baz is the RD and he was out there earlier. Like fate or something. As we came to the aid station, Bob got my bottle to run ahead and fill it for me. I think he understood that we were kind of hurrying along. That was cool. Cathy went up the hill with me. We knew Karen was up ahead and Don wanted to pass her on the uphill so I had to follow. After Tennessee Valley there is only 3.8 miles to go. We were almost done. You pretty much just go up and over. It's downhill to the finish. Don and I both were having flashbacks of some last hill that interrupted the final down, but it's really just a little bump. So he started flying downhill. I wondered what had bit him. Then I looked at my watch and it all became clear. He was headed for the sub-14 hour finish. I hurried up too, but I figured it didn't matter so much for me. I reached the bottom of the log and stone steps that are a little treacherous, and found Dave and Lisa Bliss, who were both smiling. I passed them and went on to just plain old running downhill. I heard yelling from the finish, "Hurry UP!" So I did. I wasn't surprised to see Don waiting, but then I realized he wasn't just waiting for me, he was waiting to cross the line so we could finish together. That's why everyone was yelling. So we grabbed hands and crossed the finish at 13:59. That was fun. My knees were disagreeing with that statement, but the rush quickly made that pain go away. We hung out for a while in the big tent with food and sodas. Lisa and Dave finished a couple minutes after us, still smiling. Karen finished too, and was overcome by it all. And Steve Patt came in and thanked us, which was very nice. I started to feel kind of spacey. It was hard to find the energy to talk to everyone, even though so many of my friends were there. I just kind of sat. Miwok is remarkable because it really does keep you out on great trails all day long. At the end of it all, it just seems amazing. We eventually got it together and headed home. I was disappointed for my friends who hadn't finished, but happy that they all turned the experience into a positive one. As I think about the race, most of the images are of people I know with big smiles on their faces. That includes the runners and the volunteers. And me, of course. See more pictures from Don