American River 50 Mile Endurance Run

AMERICAN RIVER 50 MILER- THE NIGHT BEFORE

Raj and I hit the road and arrived at Fleet Feet to pick up our race ribbons/racers packet. We saw quite a few familiar faces and managed to decrease the weight of our wallets thanks to a blow-out sale at the store.

Afterwards, Raj needed to call Norm Klein regarding some race directors material. Norm, as many of you know, is the race director of the Rio Del Lago 100 miler. He was for many many years the race director for Western States 100 and transformed that race into much of the present structure including aid stations, food for the racers, etc. He is also a 2 time finisher of the Hawaii Ironman race and one hell of a nice guy.

So we planned on a quick stop over at Norm’s place (he was helping Raj with the Ruth Anderson ultraraces as Raj is now the race director. YOU ALL SHOULD RUN RUTH ANDERSON – fast course, great format of a 50k/50mile/100k options and strong race support see: Ruth Anderson)

Anyway, we stopped by and were met by Norm and his wife Helen. For those who do not know Helen Klein, let me tell you we were greeted by a living legend. Helen is a finisher of multiple 100 mile events (100+ ultra finishes), the oldest person to ever finish the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning, a member of a top finishing team of the eco-challenge, top finisher and winner of Marathon des Sables, a finisher of almost ANY race that has ever been run and the holder of over 10 age group World Records! see: Helen Klein The walls of their home were as if an exhibit from the Endurance Hall of Fame.

We spoke with them for a bit and were invited to stay for supper. Helen made a great salad and pasta dinner. We were entertained with stories of Helen’s and Norm’s athletic accomplishments, their lives together and past race directing. Norm also showed us around his home which included his very impressive cactus gardens.

After dinner at the Klein’s house, Raj and I took a quick ride out to look at the finish line area and then checked into the motel. We set up our drop bags and turned in for an early morning wake-up.

The next morning we got our gear together. I taped the bottom of my feet as I was wearing relatively new shoes and I had felt some hot spots earlier in some training runs. Soon we headed to the finish line. We parked the car there and caught a shuttle to the start.

We met fellow Ultraholic Mark Nassi and rode to the start. On the shuttle I was chatting with a guy next to me named Martin. He was from Marin and it turns out he crewed Gillian (from Zombie Runner) at her Badwater 135 event. Really nice guy.

We arrived at the start and stayed in the bus to keep warm until the last possible moment. Then we dropped off our drop-bags. At the start we saw familiar faces and met up with fellow Ultraholic Mark Tanaka.

Soon it it was “3-2-1…GO!” and the race was off. I started mid-pack and began slowly mindful of my piriformis. This had caused my first ever DNF at Rocky Raccoon and limited my training since then. The race started on a footbridge and turned onto a bike path.

I was slowly passing people and around the 1 mile point saw Chihping. Chihping is training for the Grand Slam this year. We chatted for a bit and I headed off. I soon saw the back of the Western States legend Tim Twietmeyer in front of me.

I kept the same pace as Tim for the longest time – we were running between 7 and 7 1/2 minute miles. The bike path was flat with ups and downs here and there.

I was surprised to see a lot of wild/feral turkeys on the route.

I was right next to Tim Tweitmeyer of Western States 100 fame. Then I heard a voice in front say “that is the marathon” – he had some GPS device on. I looked at my watch and it was a 3:16:13. Not bad I thought. But my legs were really starting to feel sore from my new running shoes. I began to wish that I didn’t change shoes that close to a race.

Soon, Tim began to pull away from me. A few minutes later I came across Ray Sanchez. Ray, like me, will be running Badwater 135 this year. We chatted for quite a bit and came into the first drop bag zone together. This was at the 28 mile mark and our time was exactly 3 hours, 30 minutes.

I decided to change shoes and down an Ensure for energy. Ray however took off. He said he had a plane to catch for a southern California race (yeah..like I am the crazy one).

Soon I got up and started running. The first mile was tough, but I got a second wind and took off. The trail now was basically the morning part of the Rio Del Lago 100 mile run, so I knew it pretty well.

I ran/walked up the trails and after awhile I began to realize that the weather.com forecast of a 65 F degree high was WAY off. I was pouring water over my head. It wasn’t like it was 100 degrees, but there was little shade, canyon walls and a bald head to deal with.

Soon I went into a shady trail section and started running faster. Cruised past a carcass that I later found out was a deer that was killed by a mountain lion right along the route. The wildflowers were in full bloom and the course was beautiful.

Then it became a downhill towards Rattlesenake Bar – the 40 mile drop bag station. My legs were pretty thrashed by this point. I realized that I am no Dr. Tanaka or Michael Kanning – I can’t run my 50km pace for a 50 mile race. So I lotioned my feet with some Swiss sports balm that I swear by, slapped my shoes back on and took off.

I started the trail tired, but within 2 minutes realized that my feet/legs felt better. So I took off. Within the next 3 miles, I passed a half dozen people and felt great. I was having so much fun and feeling good, I forgot to make myself drink or take electrolytes.

Then around mile 42 I started feeling not so hot. Next thing I knew, I was bent over & throwing up. A runner whom I passed 10 minutes earlier came pass and slapped me on the back and said “This is a great place – I threw up here a year ago.” Despite being the funniest words I heard in awhile, I couldn’t run that fast. Still, I went off. I looked at my watch and thought that if I really tried, I might go sub 8:30 and get a new P.R.

Once I hit the final climb however, I knew my p.r. hunt was over. I was throwing-up/dry heaving about once every 800 to 1000 meters. By the time I hit the last aid station with just over 2 miles to go, I couldn’t keep anything down. I couldn’t run and even walking I had the dry heaves every 400 meters. God I love this sport!

Nevertheless, with a lot of runners giving me words of encouragement as the passed by, I finally made the final turn onto the road. I saw the Dam Overlook parking lot and walked toward the finishers line. I tried jogging across, but it was just a shuffle. My name was called out, but not by Norm Klein as I was expecting. I found out later Norm came down with laryngitis the morning of the race. Helen was probably very appreciative 🙂 I crossed the line at 8 hours 52 minute (my second fastest 50 miler).

At the finish line I sat on a chair and had my timing chip removed. When I went to stand up, I couldn’t. A volunteer finally helped me up and I barely remember being lead over to the medical area. The two people there were awesome. One was the lead medical coordinator at Western States. They took my vital signs and the next thing I knew, I had my first ever ultrarunning-induced I.V. My body sucked through it so fast – I was given a second one (you can see my IV hanging from the tree in the attached photo).

God I love this sport!

Chihping finished, going under 10 hours, and came to sit next to me. We chatted a bit. Anyway, about an hour later I was feeling much better. But, after two IV’s, water and 4 helpings of vegetable soup, I was still not peeing. In fact, it wasn’t until after driving all the way back to the bay area and being home for about 30 minutes did I finally need to go. This was actually a valuable lesson for me. With some hot races coming up such as Keys Ultra and Badwater, it reinforces in me the need to really monitor my electrolyte intake. I had some electrolyte pills on me, but I was concentrating so much on running, I only took one pill and that was in the first 10 miles.

After leaving medical, I strolled around and Chihping and I watched Yuki finish the race.

I then saw the ever colorful and fun Dirt Diva Catra Corbett come across the line. I congratulated her and Norm came over to congratulate her and snap some fun photos.

Then it was Raj’s turn. He approached the finish line but the announcers were talking about something else, so he just stopped and did a silly hula-like dance until the announcers saw him and called his name. Norm tried to state over the loudspeaker in his barely-audible voice, “Raj is the ugliest runner in the race today”. LOL

I looked at the results and saw that Mark Nassi did a great finish of around 9 1/2 hours. Michael Kanning, the Ultra wunderkid, did a low 7 hour finish and Mark Tanaka took 16th overall.

My next race was to be the Ruth Anderson Ultras. I had planned on racing the 100km as a final tune-up for Keys Ultra 100 miler, but dropped to the 50km and trying to get a new p.r. That report is posted here as well.