No Hot Tub Time Machine: It ain't 2004

The start, all photos by Brett Rivers
I hadn't been to the American River 50 Miler since 2004. Although faster times keep occurring in cycling, triathlons, and other events, probably one of the sharpest curves has been in ultrarunning. The pedigree of runners who are entering the events are faster, more experienced, and younger. Times, even in established events, are falling faster and harder then almost anyone would be able to believe. American River is a great example. The last time I went to "AR", the winning time (by Erik Skaden) was 6:31. By comparison, that time this year would have put you in 10th place and a staggering 40 minutes behind this years' winner, Geoff Roes. I may have my facts mixed up, but I think in 2004, Sean Meissner was 1st place through the marathon in a time around 3:08 (again, I'm going off memory on this). This year, I went through the marathon in 2:56 and believe I was in 16th or 17th place at that point. Anyway... what I'm getting at is, this was the deepest field that has ever toed the starting line at AR and I'm sure at some point, these times will look slow!
I decided to fly into Sacramento this year instead of driving so that I could go to a school event at my daughters' school. I was kind of bummed not to get in until fairly late on Friday night but as always, I need to keep my priorities straight. However, by luck, as I entered the airport after my first flight (and was ready for my 3.5 hour layover), I heard a "last boarding" for a much earlier flight to Sacramento. I ran over, got on, and got to Sacramento about 4 hours earlier. Awesome! Everything moved seamlessly as I stayed at my friends' Dusty and Staci's house in Sacramento. We both had a good Cool 50K race, so they duplicated our pre-race meal as they bbq'd Salmon, stir fried some veggies, and cooked up some cous cous. Another awesome meal with friends and I headed to bed.
As I laid in bed, though I tried to talk myself into getting ready for a great race, I was realistic about how much I have had on my plate the last two weeks. Most recently, the last few days were spent re-modeling my "Patagonia" store which involved lots of long hours, some stress, and a good amount of manual labor. My training was pretty much non existent for the last week so either I was going to be very fresh or sluggish. We'll see.
After an early wake up call, Dusty and I headed to the race start where we did a short warm up run and waited for the run to start. A lot of my anxiety was on exactly how quickly to run the first 26 miles of the race. The first "marathon" is primarily on a paved bike path with just a couple of miles on trail. After this point, you transition to single track trails for the majority of the race. And, while the trails aren't particularly hard, they are fairly technical and you need to be able to run quickly.
My coach had set up a plan for me to run the first marathon in a relaxed pace of 7 minute miles where I could feel fairly fresh once I hit the trails. I struggled being able to process this info. That seemed too slow to me and I worried I would get so behind that I would never be able to catch back up.
So, I just decided to run on feel for the first few miles and stay relaxed. I know myself well and felt like I could monitor myself okay by doing this. It was soon time to go and 600+ participants lined up in the dawn light. So, the pace at the start was quick. I quickly settled into about a 6:20-6:25 pace with friend, Rob Evans. Rob recently won the "Masters" division at the Napa Marathon and one of my goals was not to let his head explode by having him beat me here! After a couple miles, this pace felt a little too much when looking at having another 47 miles ahead of me. I backed it down a little bit to about 6:30-6:35 miles and that felt just right. After a while, Rob backed off a bit and I was passed by several runners including Andy Henshaw and Phil Shaw (winner of Cascade Crest 100 miler). Phil and I actually ran together and I really enjoyed getting to know him as we had battled hard against each other at Cascade Crest but never conversed for the entire event. The miles kept adding up and I hit the first real "hill" at mile 18 up to Nimbus. The trail briefly turns to single track and I got to the top (mile 18) at exactly 2 hours. Then, it was a mixture of gravel roads, single track trails, and more bike path leading to mile 26. I hit the 26.2 (marathon) mark in 2:56 and was happy with that time as I didn't feel too taxed and I also saw I was reeling in Erik Skaden. Erik is an amazing runner and maybe, just maybe, even a better trash talker so it was fun to pass him, even if I was worried that he would get me later on the course. I think I passed around 4-5 runners at this time and Phil Shaw seemed to back off as well and I was running alone. It seemed like a lot of carnage at once. I soon went by Mike Buchanan who was first at the marathon point (running the marathon portion in 2:40) and he had his hands on his knees and wasn't looking hot. I made sure he was okay and kept trucking.

Rod and Rob hammering the roads.
It felt great to be on the trail. My "fueling" was good. I was taking 2-3 GU's per hour and making sure I was having 2 SCAPS per hour as well as at least a bottle of GU20 between aid stations. In fact, I felt awesome and slowly started reeling in the elusive Victor Ballesteros. Victor passes me in the last 3 or 4 miles in every ultra we are together in. He's a great racer and at first I thought I should just stay behind him. But, I was definitely running quicker and I passed him.... though he let me know there was a lot of miles ahead :)

Heading uphill at mile 18
Having Victor behind me made me push hard and I worked all of those quick technical ascents and descents hard. I was working but I felt good. The miles were starting to drag a bit but I could start smelling the barn. I had sort of remembered the last few miles before the last climb being downhill but it didn't feel like it on this day. I kept grinding out the trails and was running scared as I didn't want Victor or Rob to catch me!

Back on the trails. Yee haw!
Finally, I could see where we were going to start climbing and I was shocked to run in to Lewis Taylor. He looked a little ragged but was still moving alright. I passed him but told him just to latch on to me and we would do the last climb together. That definitely (I think) seemed to perk him up and we set into the last climb. We certainly didn't "hammer it" but besides the very bottom portion, we ran that whole thing. I started telling him that I was ready to have Victor catch us and I looked behind me... and, of course, there was Victor hauling up the road and passed us right at mile 48. Actually, it didn't bother me at all. That guy is such an amazing closer. So, we let him go and just kind of enjoyed the last climb. The miles rolled along well since we made it a social event but then I did notice that we had a shot to run sub 6:20 if we ran the last mile in under 10 minutes. We both stepped it up a bit and ran every step of that last horrible hill, cruised around the corner and both were very pleased with our final time of 6:18 and a tie for 8th place overall It was a satisfying finish and cool to finish it with a good guy like Lewis.
Post race was fun. Hung out and watched others cross the line including my good buddy, Dusty who finished his first 50 miler in a very solid 8:38.

Rod and Lew Dog crossing the finish line. Must be the shoes
My only regret was that I didn't see another friend, Bryan Wilhelm finish his first 50 miler in 9:03. So congrats to them both!
All in all, it was a great run. I'm very satisfied with my effort out there and when I look in past results of people who have run times similar to mine, I'm humbled by the company that I am joining there. Big thanks to my coach, Paul Dewitt for putting together a great training schedule and I'm excited to have a day of rest and then start building up again for Miwok. Another huge thanks to race director, Julie Fingar. She was as cool as a cucumber all day even though she was putting on one of the biggest and most competitive ultramarathons in the country.
Here are the results.