Los Gatos Overgrown Fatass Trail Marathon Results

Despite the impending rain (which turned out to be not so bad and probably helped times overall), twenty runners gathered at Novitiate Park this morning to run the second annual Los Gatos Overgrown Fatass Trail Marathon, also known as the Overgrown Fatass. I was inspired to first hold this race last year based on the steepness of the overall course running over Mt. Sombroso. See the elevation profile below as captured by Baldwyn Chieh on his Garmin 405 on MotionBased.com. This year Sean Lang was my co-race director. This turned out to be quite a big help as his wife Heidi manned the 13 mile aid station on Hicks Road along with her colleagues from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

We set out promptly at 8am. I chatted going up the Jones Trail hill with my friends Cynthia Moore and David Dreyfuss. Eventually Sean came alongside with Gordy and Sean, Pierre Couteau and I bombed down Jones Trail to Alma Bridge Road. Turning left on Alma Bridge we ran the half mile over to the Overgrown (aka Limekiln Trail). On the climb we seemingly dropped Pierre. We went the two miles up to the Kennedy Intersection, reaching it at 39 minutes. This is probably my fastest time for this stretch. Carol Silvera was waiting for us up there with water, good cheer and a cowbell. She had shlepped a case of water and gels up there for all of us.

Sean and I kept going and got to the top of Mount Sombroso at 1:11. Again, this is a time that I won't be matching soon. We bombed down the other side on Woods Trail to Hicks Road. Pierre passed us on the descent moving at an incredible sub 7 minute clip. He came back out of Hicks Road and I passed him about half a mile out of the aid. I reached the Hicks Road aid at around 2:03 and got my bottles refilled. Sean came in shortly afterwards. I climbed back up Sombroso in 67 minutes, which also surprised me, making far better time than I expected.

My toes were really hurting on the descent and I didn't make great time. I was still in second when I passed Carol again at the Limekiln Kennedy intersection. But Sean and Mike Mahon passed me on the last part of Overgrown reaching Alma Bridge Road. Once they were past I loped out an even pace back to Novitiate Park, finishing in 4:22 which was far faster than I would have imagined. Here's the profile of the run as captured by my 405. According to Garmin its more than 10,000 feet of climbing. I think that's a bit exaggerated (as Garmins tend to. But its certainly at least 6000 - probably something like 7000 feet.

Pierre won in an incredible 3:59 a time that will stand for a while I predict. Sean was second in 4:17. Mike was third in 4:19, I was fourth, and Andy Benkert (who I had run with a couple weeks ago at the Saratoga Gap Fatass) was fifth in 4:32.

My good friend Max Petersen was giving free massages and stretching to all runners. Fantastic! It will certainly help me recover more quickly. We all hung around drinking Lagunitas, eating, and cheering other runners in. A great winter's day of running. Huge thanks to Wendy Bernal for checking everyone in and out, Carol Silvera for running the Overgrown-Kennedy aid station and Heidi Lang and friends for running the Hicks Road aid station.

Full results:
1. Pierre Couteau, 3:59.07
2. Sean Lang, 4:17.40
3. Mike Mahon, 4:19.21
4. Adam Blum, 4:22:38
5. Andy Benkert, 4:32.30
6. Jim Normile, 4:50
7. Haiming Yu, 4:52
8. Jim Magill, 5:09.20
9. Toshi Hosaka, 5:35.00
10. Doug Bloyd, 5:35.10
10. Baldwin Chieh, 5:35.10
12. Anil Rao, 5:36
13. Keith Lubliner, 5:38.30
14. James McDonald, 5:48.20
15. Cynthia Moore, 6:30
16. David Dreyfuss, 6:30

Half marathon:
1. Frank Kochinke, 1:54
2. Basty Kochinke, 1:54
3. Eleanor Normile, 2:14

Los Gatos Overgrown Fatass Trail Marathon- Los Gatos CA

This year's Overgrown Fatass will be held on February 8th at 8am at the Jones Trailhead in Novitiate Park in Los Gatos. It has been advertised on Facebook for a while but some attendees aren't Facebook subscribers so I'm doing this possibly redundant post. Here is what is posted on Facebook:

Los Gatos Overgrown Fatass Trail Marathon
Los Gatos to San Jose on the Overgrown Trail through Sierra Azul
Date: Sunday, February 8, 2009
Time: 8:00am - 1:00pm
Location:Novitiate Park (Jones trailhead)
Street: Jones Avenue
City/Town:Los Gatos, CA
Contact Info:a@adamblum.com.
Route:Jones Trail to dam, Alma Bridge Road over to Overgrown Trail. Overgrown Trail to top of Mount Sombroso. Wood Trail down to Hicks Road and return.

Description:
26.2 miles. 6000 feet of climbing. 95 percent trail. Scenic views of the whole Bay area from the top of Mount Sombroso. There will be aid at the intersection of Overgrown (Limekiln) and Kennedy (about four miles in) and at Hicks Road (13 miles in) and of course Overgrown and Kennedy again (22 miles). But PLEASE remember to bring your own water bottle.

Here's the run from the LG Roasting Company (which is about half a mile before the actual race morning start) to top of Mount Sombroso and back. Check out the burly elevation profile. Also here's the post on last year's run which has maps of the course and directions to get there.

Thanks to ZombieRunner for providing goodies to each of the runners! And a big thanks to the Mid-Peninsula Open Space District for the permit. Most importantly thanks to Carol Silvera for running the Overgrown/Kennedy intersection aid and to Heidi Lang and the Leukemia/Lymphoma society for running the Hicks Road aid station!