I’m sitting at the airport in San Francisco at the moment and waiting for my flight back to Newark. The legs still work! What an epic adventure the last couple of days has been. I wasn’t sure how this race was going to go. First off, it was the inaugural year of the race and I had never done an event run by Spartan. It didn’t seem super organized, with the runners’ handbooks coming out very close to race date and almost daily updates on “mandatory equipment”, which they never checked for. I was pleasantly surprised at the organization and how the race was run. I never felt like I didn’t know where to go on the course and the volunteers were full of spunk. That said, it’s Monday and they still haven’t posted race results and the website seems to have been pulled down, so I dunno, maybe they lost all of our results??
Morning of the race, the alarm went off at around 4:15. I had scheduled a Lyft to pick us up at 5:10 from the Airbnb, thinking it would be plenty of time since the ride over to Crissy Field is only 10ish minutes. Weirdly, “scheduling” a Lyft is only approximate and they arrived 10 mins late, so as soon as Chris and I got there, we were in the bag check line, followed by a very long bathroom line. Imagine 8 porta-potties for a group of about 300 people. Anyway, I was happy to hear them announce that we would be going off in waves, so there was no rush to get out of the line. Good thing too, because I really needed the bathroom. Race day nerves always mess with my stomach. So, of course as I’m sitting in the porta-potty, I hear the “5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GOOOOOO!” for the first wave. After that successful bathroom break, I was amped and ready to go. Chris and I went into the corral, took a few photos in the dark and then we were off.
At the start
It felt surreal. After so many months of training, I felt ready. My legs were springy, the air was cool and I just generally felt great. There was a mist off in the distance and a fog horn blowing as we heading into the mist and onto the Golden Gate Bridge. As we crossed the bridge, I took a peek over the edge into the abyss. Couldn’t see anything but a foggy mist. Felt like we were running in a cloud. When we hit the first aid station at about 5K, I was warmed up. Took off my Houdini jacket and gloves and got the poles out. There was a 2 mile climb ahead of us. As far as ultras go, this was one I was the most prepared for, especially in terms of knowing the course. I had spent the last week memorizing the course, so that I would know when the up hills and down hills were. It definitely helped mentally to know when was getting close to the end of a climb.
As we heading up into the Marin Headlands, there was still quite a bottleneck of people ahead of us. I tried to hike fast, but got stuck behind a conga line of runners. It didn’t matter though because by the time we made it closer to the top of the climb, the sun started to rise and heck ya, it was an awesome sunrise. Probably one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. The clouds were unreal and the surrounding hills were spectacular. Several runners just stood there to take in the view.
This picture doesn't do justice to what was a spectacular sunrise
Happy to put the headlamp away and feel the sunshine
That’s what I love most about ultras. People like me, in the back half of the pack are out there just to enjoy an entire day outside. There’s no rush. At the end of the race, I ran into a woman I had met on the course. We were oohing and aahing over the beauty of the course. She told me that at one point, she realized that she had taken her phone out so many times to take photos that she just decided to hold her phone because she was taking so many pictures. I would say that the sunrise in the Headlands was probably the highlight of the race. Plus, at that point, my legs were still fresh and there was no reason to push because we weren’t that spread out yet. There was a fun 2-3 mile descent down to the 7ish mile aid station and at that point, I just refilled with Tailwind. I had eaten a Spring gel at mile 5. At that point, Chris noticed that his hydration bladder wasn’t working well. He couldn’t seem to get the water out of the bladder. We would later realize, not until the next day, that when Chris had cleaned out the bladder, he had placed a paper towel in the bladder to dry it out and forgot to take it out. I can’t believe the entire time he was trying to suck water through a paper towel. Thankfully, he was able to hydrate plenty at the aid stations because they had cups out. If he ever does another ultra, I think a hydration vest with soft flasks would be his preferred gear.
Next climb was about 2-3 miles long. It was pretty tough, but I felt good. Practicing power hiking with the poles was great training. I was able to hike very efficiently. Chris was hiking with me but had to run a little to catch up. Once we got over the hump, there was another long decent to the next aid at about mile 12. This aid station was at the parking lot where I had been dropped off the day before for my little shake out run out and back to Tennessee Beach. When we left the aid station, Chris went ahead of me for the next climb up to about mile 14. I eventually caught up to him and we took the descent together to the aid station at mile 15.8. There was a lot of energy at that aid station- thumping music that even had me dancing a little. Unfortunately, there was a steep descent down to Muir Beach (where the aid station was) and we could see the suffering as runners climbed back up the steep hill. One funny moment was seeing a woman hiking up the hill with a handful of Oreos. I was cheering her on and she was just so excited that all she could do was tell everyone that there were Oreos at the aid station.
At the Muir Beach aid station, smiling to try to psych myself up for the big climb back up
We took our time at the aid station. I had a Zbar at that point and drank some Coke. Also grabbed some chips. We headed out of there, knowing a big climb was ahead of us. The grade of the climb must’ve been between 20-30%. It was the kind of hill where if I didn’t have my poles and didn’t lean forward, I felt like I could’ve easily fallen backwards and just slid down the hill. I honestly don’t think I’ll ever do another hilly ultra without poles. There were so helpful.
When we got to the fork to turn off towards the next aid, we were behind a very pumped fella. One of the volunteers told us that were in for a gnarly climb, but legit views. The runner’s reaction was, “F*CK YEAH!” It was hilarious running behind him. The views just kept coming and he kept screaming, “F*CK YEAH!” I had to smile and it really energized me. The climbs were indeed heinous. We hit a downhill and a very pretty single track back where I had done my shake out run on the Tennessee Valley trail the day before. That was when my hamstrings started to cramp up. It was too early for my muscles to fail. When we finally arrived at the next aid, there was an awesome volunteer cheering for runners as we were coming down the hill. We spent the most time at this aid station. I took a salt tab and drank a ton of water. Hit the porta-potty too. Chris looked pretty beat up and told me he was suffering. This was mile 21.6. I think this was my lowest point of the race. This was the first aid station where I heard about runners dropping. I just hoped that the salt would ease my cramping. I had also started experiencing a weird ankle pain in the front of my right ankle and my feet were hurting. My abs were sore from all of the down hill pounding.
Down hill pounding
Shimmer of the Pacific Ocean amongst other legit views
Coming out of the aid station, I knew we had another long 3 mile climb to about mile 25. Thankfully, there was a pretty flat runnable section along the road leaving the aid station, so that got my spirits up. We crossed a road and then headed back into the Headlands. The climb was long, but it was definitely less steep. At that point, I was power hiking hard and passed a bunch of runners. Chris was behind me, but would occasionally run a little to catch up. That’s the crazy part about ultras- I was feeling so bad, but actually started to feel ok during the climb. I passed a couple of guys who looked like cross-fitters or military or both. They were suffering, big time. Cramping and swearing, but also still in great spirits. Up ahead, there was a very loud couple. I heard them tell another runner that they had come in from Connecticut just to run the race and that their family members, who also joined them for the trip, didn’t understand why they were doing what they were doing. It made me feel less crazy since my family also doesn’t understand why I do ultras. The woman had a very hearty laugh and I kept hearing her bust out laughing ahead of me. When Chris and I finally passed the couple on the descent to the last aid station, they shouted, “Go Team!” at us. They were super friendly and cheering us on. There was one runner in front of us and I chased him down a series of switch backs. By then, my quads were feeling pretty trashed and I didn’t have the control I normally would have. I almost went over the edge navigating a turn. I’m sure it was scary for Chris watching me almost tumble over a steep edge.
When we finally made it back down to the 26.5 mile aid station before the bridge, I knew we would both finish. At that point, I folded up my poles, knowing we just had the Golden Gate bridge to cross and a downhill to the finish. What I had not anticipated was the slight uphill on the first half of the bridge. Chris was moving at a good clip and I begged him to slow down since I didn’t want to push it just yet. I was pretty annoyed by the number of pedestrians we had to weave around and the traffic noise and debris coming off of the road. I was so happy I had my sunglasses with me, which really saved my eyes. When we finally got off of the bridge, I was pumped. I knew we only had about 2 miles to go. My legs were screaming, but I knew I could push it for the last couple of miles. We stopped to take a quick photo with the backdrop of the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge and then started our last push to the finish.
We eventually passed the guy we were chasing down the switchback, who yelled out some encouraging cheers. I was really surprised we caught him because on the bridge, he was so far away. When we hit the bike path, 2 runners came out of nowhere and passed us. They looked so strong. I could hear Chris behind me and he later told me he was cursing me, as his legs felt like they were going to fall off. There was a steep little hill going up to the finish chute and very uneven grassy ground to cover before the finish. I tried my best to push, but not to roll an ankle and fall over with a large audience at the end. When I finally crossed the finish, with Chris just seconds behind me, we were met with at least 10 volunteers high-fiving us. It was a little overwhelming, but cool to be greeted with such enthusiasm. Chris immediately had to lay down. Not far from the finish chute, I looked over and saw him on the ground. I was busy getting my race t-shirt and didn’t even see where he went.
The aftermath. Congrats to Chris on finishing his first ultra!
I felt awesome at the finish, better than I had ever felt after that distance. It’s a great feeling, knowing that I achieved about a 2.5 hour PR over my last official 50K (the North Face Endurance 50K back in 2019). I went into the race thinking that I wanted to finish in about 8 hours and ended up finishing in about 7 hours and 40 minutes. What’s crazy is that I had calculated that I would do the up hills at about a 20 min/mi pace and the downs at about a 10 min/mi and that gave me an estimate of 7 hours and 40 mins. I even have it written on the back of the course map that I had printed out. My watch auto-paused when I stopped and showed a moving time of a little over 7 hours.
I couldn’t have asked for a better race. I got exactly what I wanted: a race with a lot of vert, some experience using hiking poles and getting to see Chris finish his first ultra. After the race, he told me that I really pulled him through and that he probably wouldn’t have finished if I hadn’t been there. I’m almost 100% sure he would’ve finished no matter what since he’s tough, but I know based on what he felt like afterwards, that he could’ve trained better. I was so pumped full of adrenaline and caffeine at the end that I really felt like I could’ve kept going. Keeping with my “last mile, best mile” mentality, I ran my fastest mile at the end at a pace of 10:12 min/mi. On average, my moving pace was 14:10 min/mi which is better than I expected, considering I hiked every up hill. My average heart rate was only 133 bpm for the entire race. I always felt controlled, except for that short section where my hamstrings cramped up. It definitely helped that the temperatures started in the low 50s and only got to low 60s. There were also some very nice shaded sections and cool breezes along the way. Chris noticed that he had trouble regulating his body temperature and actually got cold in the shady sections. He’s still not sure why that is, but also noticed that his heart rate was super high on some of the climbs reaching the 170 bpms.
I think in the end, I consumed 4 Spring Energy AwesomeSauce gels, 2 chocolate chip Z bars, 5 bottles of tailwind, two cups of chips, two half cups of Coke and a small piece of banana, plus that salt tab and a lot of water. I think that the fueling and hydration all went very well. I got into a groove of always making more Tailwind at the aid stations. For the long stretch of about 7 miles between aid stations, I took 2 full bottles (1 Tailwind and 1 water) and I’m glad I did, because I drained both bottles before I got to the next aid.
At the low points, I was able to do a full body scan to check my form and also started running through a very short playlist in my head. For some reason, I just got stuck on 3 songs. “Northern Lights” (acoustic version) by Death Cab for Cutie, “Die, Die, Die” by the Avett Brothers and “Waving Through a Window” from Dear Evan Hansen. The trail running community was awesome as ever. I loved cheering people on and having people cheer back. Just being able to hoot and holler every once in awhile was energizing. It was definitely a race I’ll never forget. Post-race, I was able to sit and enjoy the scene. I changed into dry clothes, watched some more runners come in, was completely in awe of seeing some 100K runners come in, ate some of the gyro rice meal they had and talked to some runners I saw along the course. The highlight had to be the couple that I met from CT. We bonded over being from the “Beast Coast” and having a shared passion for running ultras in beautiful places. They were so full of energy. Vinnie and Kimmy from CT, you’re the best! I also chatted with a woman who I passed on the last straight-away to the finish. She PRed her 50K distance by 45 mins so she was super psyched. I watched 2 birthday girls finish, each wearing a silly birthday cake hat for the entire race. Once Chris was able to sit up, we sat for a bit more, chatted some about the race and the got an Uber back to the Airbnb. He took a long bath and I took a nice hot shower. Then we called the kids and went out for the most perfect post-race meal: Pho. The best part was that the restaurant was literally a 2 min walk from our Airbnb. With our COVID-19 vaccination cards, we were able to sit inside. We also ordered a vegan Vietnamese crepe but couldn’t finish that, so that became the next morning’s breakfast.
Veggie pho
Dinner and then breakfast
After dinner, we went back, watched “The Princess Bride” and went to bed. I love days like that. We packed in so much from that 4:15AM wake up to the 9PM lights out. Running an ultra just really makes me feel human. There are the low lows, but there are also the euphoric highs. I for sure need to rest the body for a bit, but I’m definitely going to be starting the search for my next ultra-adventure.
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