Original Fatass 50K - Saratoga, CA
This race is the original fatass, as I described last year. I drove the ten miles from my house in the Santa Cruz mountains to the start at 7:30.
Fellow Ultraholic Sean Lang was there and, to my surprise, so was Flyin' Brian Robinson, all time record holder at The Barkley Marathons.
David Kamp, the race director, started us out at 8:00am sharp. We headed up the Skyline Trail to the Hickory Oaks Trail, retracing the route of both the Stevens Creek 50K and the Skyline Ridge 50K. We had a train going of myself (stopping every few minutes to take pictures) Brian Robinson, Whit Rambach, Sean Lang and Andy Benkert.
We made the turnoff to the left down Ward Road down to Portola State Park.
At the Park Headquarters, we stopped to refill water bottles and ran across some early starters.
We then made the creek crossing and got onto Old Haul Road. We made the turnoff onto the Portola Trail which connects to the Butano Trail. Its quite a climb but I was feeling good today. I led the charge up and only had Brian and Whit next to me at the top. We connected to the Big Basin Trail easement which let out onto China Grade Road. Once there we saw Winnie and Lee Jebian's car again this year. And I again dropped off some superfluous warm weather gear. We headed back out onto the Basin Trail. This connected to the Skyline to the Sea trail for the grind back up. Once we approached Waterman's Gap I started to bonk and cramp from running on just water for so long. We all hit Waterman's (the intersection of Routes 236 and 9) at 4 hours even. 4 hours for 22 miles of this amount of climbing was probably too aggressive for me and I doubt that I'll match this in coming years.
I had to take a rest and get more water from Paul Fick who had decided to run a few miles with us. Brian and Whit ran on ahead. I should have begged some electrolytes from him and fuel but I was too lightheaded to think of that. I took off at a slow trot. Eventually Andy Benkert caught back up as we approach the highway rest area. When we got there I finally thought of begging for crackers from one of the picnickers while Andy ran on ahead. I felt great almost immediately and took off back up the road. As with last year, I didn't find the trail crossing right away but was back on it in about half a mile. Apparently this was slightly ahead of Andy. I got back to the finish in 5:43 faster than I did last year.
Despite the bonk near the end, overall this was a great training run. It was fun running with Brian and Andy and getting to know them better.
Fellow Ultraholic Sean Lang was there and, to my surprise, so was Flyin' Brian Robinson, all time record holder at The Barkley Marathons.
David Kamp, the race director, started us out at 8:00am sharp. We headed up the Skyline Trail to the Hickory Oaks Trail, retracing the route of both the Stevens Creek 50K and the Skyline Ridge 50K. We had a train going of myself (stopping every few minutes to take pictures) Brian Robinson, Whit Rambach, Sean Lang and Andy Benkert.
We made the turnoff to the left down Ward Road down to Portola State Park.
At the Park Headquarters, we stopped to refill water bottles and ran across some early starters.
We then made the creek crossing and got onto Old Haul Road. We made the turnoff onto the Portola Trail which connects to the Butano Trail. Its quite a climb but I was feeling good today. I led the charge up and only had Brian and Whit next to me at the top. We connected to the Big Basin Trail easement which let out onto China Grade Road. Once there we saw Winnie and Lee Jebian's car again this year. And I again dropped off some superfluous warm weather gear. We headed back out onto the Basin Trail. This connected to the Skyline to the Sea trail for the grind back up. Once we approached Waterman's Gap I started to bonk and cramp from running on just water for so long. We all hit Waterman's (the intersection of Routes 236 and 9) at 4 hours even. 4 hours for 22 miles of this amount of climbing was probably too aggressive for me and I doubt that I'll match this in coming years.
I had to take a rest and get more water from Paul Fick who had decided to run a few miles with us. Brian and Whit ran on ahead. I should have begged some electrolytes from him and fuel but I was too lightheaded to think of that. I took off at a slow trot. Eventually Andy Benkert caught back up as we approach the highway rest area. When we got there I finally thought of begging for crackers from one of the picnickers while Andy ran on ahead. I felt great almost immediately and took off back up the road. As with last year, I didn't find the trail crossing right away but was back on it in about half a mile. Apparently this was slightly ahead of Andy. I got back to the finish in 5:43 faster than I did last year.
Despite the bonk near the end, overall this was a great training run. It was fun running with Brian and Andy and getting to know them better.
posted by Adam Blum at 3:25 PM
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