SPASM Lake Chabot Trail Run

Event & Course Description: Coastal Trail Runs’ SPASM Lake Chabot is, as the race name indicates, run at Lake Chabot, near Castro Valley. Five distances are run, 8K, Half Marathon, 30K, Marathon, and 50K, of which I did the 8K distance. The 8K course is a “Lollipop”, a mile and a half along the lake, an uphill and downhill 2 mile loop, and then returning to the finish along the same lake shore. The other distances do most of the 8K course, but instead of returning along the lake circle around the lake, including some distance upstream along Grass Valley Creek. That is the half marathon course, and the longer distances do parts or all of that course again.

The section along the lake is rolling and paved. The loop in the 8K course is dirt trail, with a half mile long fairly steep uphill, and a steeper quarter mile downhill. The half marathon course adds two more fairly steep hills, is mostly dirt trail. And for the longer distances, rinse-and-repeat as required.

Spring time weather in the SF Bay Area is quite variable. Within a week or two it can go from sunny and in the low 90s F to rainy and in the 50s F. This year on race day it was the latter, with rain for at least my slow first 3 miles or so (possibly more, later, after I headed home). It was wet and muddy, and I was soaked and a slip-and-fall gave me a partial covering in mud. This, too, is trail running.

Organization & Production: Coastal Trail Runs’ events are register and run. Necessary information is on the website, check-in is race-day-only and smooth, courses are copiously marked, and recovery area goodies are good.

Bib: Coastal’s bibs are fairly plain, except that the background color is varies with distances. Yellow was 8K. Beyond that, the bibs have Coastal’s logo and motto, and the bib number.

T-Shirt: Coastal’s race T-shirts are always tech type, regardless of distance. Because the 2018 race tee was not a favorite, I forewent the 2022 shirt, for a $5 discount. As it turned out, the 2022 shirt was a new design and fairly nice.

Finisher’s Medal: Like many Coastal medals, the medallion artwork for this race is somewhat abstract, wavy parallel white and blue lines to represent the lake water and frequent foggy haze above the water. Along the top is the race name, and along the bottom the logo of the sports medicine clinic sponsor. The ribbon is purple, gives the year and has the race logo. All in all, it’s a pretty nice medal.

Finish & Recovery Area: In addition to recovery are goodies, this park has a good number of picnic tables (but no Yogi or Boo-Boo) at which one can munch and rest.

My Results & Opinion of the Race: Because I had to be extra careful on the steep and muddy downhill, I assumed my finish time was significantly affected. I was very happy to finish and not be totally coated with mud after multiple slip-and-falls. Looking back at my 2018 finish time, I was actually a few minutes less slow in 2022, to my surprise.

Coastal is one of the Bay Area’s best trail race organizers and produces a consistently excellent race experience at a very reasonable cost. I will definitely consider doing this event in 2023.

Event & Course Description: SPASM Lake Chabot Trail Run (LCTR) is pretty much eponymous. It’s a trail run at and around Lake Chabot, and the principal sponsor is South Bay Pain And Sports Medicine (SPASM … a wryly humorous and accurate acronym), an acupuncture and chiropractic clinic. The race is run in five distances: 5 miles, half marathon, 30Km, marathon, and 50Km. I did the 5 mile distance.

The 5 mile course looks like a balloon with a wavy string (or lollipop … pick your metaphor), and its entirety or almost all of the course is part of all the other distances’ courses. The “string” is paved trail, out (then do loop) and back, about 70% of the course. It’s lots of short rolling hills and mostly shaded, lots of trees with some lake views. The dirt trail “balloon” starts with a moderately steep, half mile uphill climb, followed by a shorter and steeper downhill, and then a rolling return to the “string”. It’s also mostly shaded with lots of trees. There’s a degree of beauty beyond which appreciation lies in the viewer’s preferences. This is a great course for folks who love lots of trees!

Summer weather in the SF Bay Area can vary considerably. It can get pretty hot on occasion. More often it’s moderately warm or even somewhat cool. Thankfully, LCTR 2018 was fairly cool, and for the time I was on the course, overcast. I brought two water bottles, anticipating warm weather, but seeing the degree of overcast, I left one in my car.

Organization & Production: Coastal Trail Runs marks its courses very thoroughly with color-coded flags every couple hundred yards. This was no exception. There was also a course marshal at a key junction to help runners of the various distances go the correct way. Aid stations – water, electrolyte drink, and salty & sweet snacks – were 4-5 miles apart. Because it is an out-and-back with a loop, there were no aid stations on the 5 mile course (this was the other reason I considered carrying two water bottles). Coastal does gun-time starts and timing mat finishes.

Like other Coastal Trail Runs races LCTR is register-and-run. The website information is very complete, registration is easy, and race day organization is a smooth-running machine. Runner just need to “worry” about getting there and running their race.

Bib: Coastal Trail Runs bibs are plain white, with organizer logos across the top, their, “Have Fun Out There,” slogan across the bottom, and the bib number in the middle. The numbers are distance-coded. For example, 1000 series numbers are for runners doing the 5 mile or 10K distance.

T-Shirt: Coastal includes tech-type T-shirts in registration for all distances. My race T-shirt for the SPASM Lake Chabot Trail Run is fluorescent lime green (I also saw some that were red). The front features an abstract representation of the lake water, with the race name, distances, and date across the top, and the logo of the principal sponsor, South Bay Pain And Sports Medicine (SPASM), at the bottom. The back has the logos of the race sponsors.

Finisher’s Medal: The medallion is rectangular, with the same abstract of the lake water used on the T-shirt. The dominant colors of the water ripples are black, purple, and silver, with some light yellow and white. Across the top with a purple background are the race name and distances. And across the bottom are the name and logo of the principal race sponsor. Molded into the back across the top in small raised characters is “Coastal Trail Runs”. The medallion is not dated. The ribbon is bright green, with “2018” on white in several places along it.

Finish & Recovery Area: The finish “arch” was formed by two curved poles with Coastal logo banners. This may have been due to park sound level restrictions. Volunteers handed people their medals as they finished. The recovery area was right next to the finish, an area with picnic tables, about half of it shaded. There were large jugs with water and electrolyte drink, an ice chest with bottled water, sodas, and beer. For recovery snacks there were several varieties of fruit, chips, pretzels, cookies and candies. I didn’t hang around long enough, but there were charcoal grills in the picnic area, and Coastal did have a couple of bags of charcoal ready for use. Later in the day they were going to have grilled recovery food (Hamburgers? Hot dogs? Bratwursts?) for finishers of the longer distances.

My Results & Opinion of the Race: This was another, “Can I even do this?” race for me. That one mid-course hill had me pretty intimidated. That’s a reflection of where I am, not the crazy-steepness of the hill (which it isn’t). I had three target goals in mind, the first being to finish upright and under my own power; the other two were time targets. I took much of the race pretty conservatively, especially the part before the hill and the hill itself. After that, I kept the same “easy” pace of the group of ladies I was with until we arrived at the return leg of pavement. At that point, about 3.5-3.75 miles in, I realized I felt I had much too energy “in the tank” for that stage of the course. So I picked up my pace and finished with a time close to my my second, more “aggressive”, time goal. I probably could have achieved that goal, but I enjoyed the company and the park scenery. And I answered my big question with, “Yes! I can!”

It feels too brief and simple, saying this, but Coastal is a consistently excellent race organizer. They literally pull into the park with a large cargo van at 5 or 6 AM on race day and unpack and set up their whole race (except for the trail marking flags and signs which are already in place). Race-in-a-Van! Coastal’s volunteers are usually experienced runners who know from the runner’s side of the aid station table what helps and encourages. My two wish list things with Coastal are that I wish they did mat-timed starts, and I wish they had race dates on their medallions. But Coastal’s races are some of the least expensive in the Bay Area – a great race experience-value – so these don’t bother me.

While this was my first Coastal Trail Runs race of 2018, I did a half dozen last year. I plan to do several more this year, and would consider this race or their November Lake Chabot race in the future.