Rain, Werewolves, and Whiskeytown 50K

It was supposed to be summer's last "hurrah". A fun, tough, low key course. The Whiskeytown 50K. With usually scorching hot weather, it would be a good bookend to the 2010 racing season. I had planned on running the race for a while and thought bringing the family down would be a great time in the sun. We were armed with bathing suits, printed coupons for the water parks, well, you get the idea. But, about a week before the race, it looked like the whole west coast was going to be blanketed in a cold, wet storm. Coupled with some challenges at work, I pretty much mentally bagged the event. I was bummed as a couple of friends were supposed to be down there (Todd Chester and Jace Ives) but it just wasn't looking good. Then, at the last minute, my co-worker Monkeyboy hazed me a little bit and I decided to head down and see what I had.
I had run the race one time before when I was pretty new at ultrarunning and remembered liking the course and low- key post race atmosphere and BBQ.
Anyway, we packed up the three kids and headed down to Redding and packet pickup at Fleet Feet. I checked out the entry list and found my true nemesis (in a good way!), Victor Ballesteros was going to be running as well as Jace Ives from Ashland. A little background on Victor. The guy is one of the best "closers" out there. Now, I'm the first to admit that I don't have a lot of "kick" but I think I hold my own pretty well in 100K and lower courses. Yet, just this year, Victor caught me at mile 27 at Way Too Cool and mile 48.5 at American River. Both races that I ran solid times at. Would it happen again or would I break the curse? Stay tuned...
The alarm set off at the hotel and I truly almost bagged it. It was rainy, dark, and having a coffee and all-you-can eat brunch at the Hilton wasn't sounding like a horrible job. My wife prodded me to get moving and I reluctantly did so complaining that I was going to run slow. She did a good job of pepping me up and questioning my manhood which got the juices slightly rolling. We drove to the start, I did a little warm up and said a few hellos to the Abbs and some friends and it was time to get moving.
The Whiskeytown Lake course is a pretty tough one. Hal Koerner had the course record with a time of 4:12. And, with the event being around 10+ years, I remembered some tough little sections in the race. Here is the course profile, which boasts over 5,100 feet of climbing.
The first mile of the course is road and a group of about 6 of us headed off. I was curious if there was going to be any serious competition other than myself, Victor, and Jace. One other dude looked the part for a little while and even took the lead. Some other dude also zoomed to the front but I wasn't worried about him at all. Within about 1.5 miles, there was a guy in the 30K in the lead followed by the three amigos. We traded positions a few times and the pace was pretty strong but felt manageable. At around 3 miles, I pulled away on a downhill and put on the gas a bit. I figured I would just go for it and if I blew up, so be it. As we started the first big climb of the course, I felt pretty darn good and kept chugging along and even started to gain on the first place 30K runner. I looked over my shoulder several times and soon realized that I had some breathing room. I worked hard up the long dirt road but I love grinding climbs and felt good. There were more dirt roads than I would have liked and I knew that would favor Victor as I run better on technical singletrack and that seems to be where I have caught him in races in the past.
The rain was persistent all dang day but a lot of the course was canopied which helped not get us too soggy. I ran through the 13 mile mark in 1:40 and felt good and continued to push myself at all times. There was a lot of aid stations so I only would stop at every other station which was nice as the focal points were close but I didn't necessarily need them other than something to look forward to. At mile 20, I felt the mileage a bit (shouldn't be a surprise as I haven't been doing big mileage) and I got a view of the competition behind me. I was sad to see that Victor was a lot closer than I would have liked (maybe 2 minutes) but I also saw that I had almost a mile lead on Jace which seemed like unless I fell apart, I should be able to hold him off. He's 26 and has lots of chances to kick my ass but I decided at this point in the race, it wasn't going to be today. The next few miles are the toughest of the course. They are uphill and follow a gulch trail where there are probably 10+ real stream crossing where the water was from mid calf to knee deep each time. I slipped and tripped and struggled a bit in here and I started looking back expecting to see Victor breathing down my neck. Amazingly, I didn't see or hear him and I struggled more.
It was a relief to get back on a dirt road and find my legs again. I climbed back up and then started bombing down a dirt road heading towards the finish. I was hurting but not horribly... just feeling a slight lack of "A" fitness. However, seeing that I went through the 26 mile mark at around 3:30, I thought that unless I was forgetting something, I would be able to break the 11 year old course record! I jammed past the last aid station at mile 27.5 and they said, "just 3.5 miles to go". Shit, was I going to pull this off and win? My legs felt like lead on some of the last hills and I got mad as I had to walk for a minute and figured I would prepare for the final section.
Then..... yep, it happened. I looked back and Victor was in his "wide receiver mode" and looked like he was running uphill at mile 2 of the race. "You suck!", I think I said or something. I was joking.... kind of...:) Victor jammed by me, told me good job and headed off. I gave him a little slap on the ass and that was the last I saw of him. I kept clawing away, not thinking that I would catch him but wondering if my pace had fallen off enough that Jace would reel me in too. I hammered down the last hill and hit the asphalt with 1 mile to go. I was smelling the barn but my legs were pretty fried, I ran at about 7 min/mile pace and that was all I had left. I hit the finish line, breaking the old course record by 7 minutes... and coming in second place. 2 1/2 minutes behind Victor. Hell, it was a great race. If I didn't know Victor was on my tail all day, I wouldn't have been able to keep that pace and I KNOW I pushed him to that course record as well. Again, that's what I love about running races. No excuses, you go your hardest and the fastest guy wins.
Post race was pretty lame. The rain was pouring down and my legs locked up quickly as I struggled to get warm in the car. I waited to see Jace pull in about 11 minutes later in third place and a stellar time. I had some soup said goodbyes and hit the road.
The rest of the day was the real endurance event. Turtle Bay Museum (highly recommended) and Chucky Cheese's made the day equivalent to a 50 miler.
Anyway, I'm stoked to have run a 4:05 on a tough course with lots of climbing. It was well marked and had it been sunny and warm, it would have been great.
Oh yeah, the Werewolf thing. Man, I'm not sure. Victor has the scariest Facebook picture I've ever seen. Seriously, it really creeps me out. Then, he told me he had a some dream involving a werewolf and that he needed to tell me about it. Man, I think Victor is my trail running Werewolf. Except I'd be one of those dumb ass, blonde girls that gets murdered near the end of the horror movie. Until next time....