Sunday, February 08, 2009

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

7 Comments:

Blogger Drs. Cynthia and David said...

Great course Adam. I think it should be called the "quad killer" though! My Garmin says it was over 11,000 ft ascent and descent, but it has been known to hallucinate.

I think our finishing time was 6:47. David was kind enough to babysit me today though I think he would have had fun running with you guys. It was not a good day for me (struggling with an injury), and I was happy to do as well as I did on that tough course. Thanks for putting up with a slowpoke!

Cynthia

1:05 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Adam, a nice way to spend a Sunday (in spite of a few not so great miles). The weather was great for running, though no so good for those at the aid stations, thanks to all of them for the support.
You dropped my time from the list, now my wife doesn't believe I was there. Can you fix that?

Keith

7:53 AM  
Blogger Anil Rao said...

Great race Adam. Thanks for the all the effort you and Sean have put behind it. can't believe it was marked as well :).
All vols were great. I am so happy to have made to this run.

looking fwd to running again next yr.

cheers
Anil

11:52 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for arranging the run. I started late and didn't know if I could finish by 1pm, but it was nice to see you guys at Novitiate Park when I finished at 2pm. Mai Tai at Hicks Road aid station helped ease the IT Band pain, but I don't think I drank enough. Dr. Peterson's active release technique and the laser treatment was a nice surprise. See you at Quicksilver!

7:30 PM  
Blogger Adam Blum said...

Keith,

Sorry about the oversight. You're on their now!

- Adam

4:05 AM  
Blogger Pierre-Yves said...

Hi Adam and Sean,
Great run with nice hill training (!), fantastic volunteers (thanks Wendy, Carol, Heidi and friends!) and great massage (thanks Max!) and beer at the end. More people should join next year. You organized it like pros. It's on my calendar for next year.
Cheers,
Pierre.

8:39 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Adam,
Thanks again for organizing this, great fun. Eleanor and I enjoyed it.
The beer was great also
Jim

11:24 AM  

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