From owner-ius-l@AMERICAN.EDU Tue Apr 30 11:27:45 1996 Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 10:00:58 -0700 From: Pat Wellington To: ius-l@american.edu Subject: Pulling Up The Rear, Again, at CAL50 The CAL50 on April 27 was a birthday run for me and my 6th 50-miler. I turned 48 on that day and was hoping to do well on what I thought would be a two 25-mile loop trail run in Annadale Park, Santa Rosa, CA. Well, yes, it was a trail run, but the trail was covered with ROCKS! I would respectfully like to request that the CAL50 be renamed. I would suggest maybe CAL50 Rock Road Supreme; or CAL50 Rocks Galore; or CAL50 Rocky Mountain High. It's true, past articles describe the run as rocky or "pretty" rocky, but a more accurate description would be 80% R O C K Y rolling ascents and descents with boulders, big rocks, little rocks, medium rocks, sharp pointy rocks, round rocks, flat rocks & pebbles in between covering the trail. Then add the sun reflecting off the rocks. How rocky was it? Well, we were alerted that we would be sharing the trails with horses and mountain bikers, but some of these trails were SOOOOO ROCKY that even masochistic mountain bikers wouldn't ride on them! And I didn't see any horses hooves slippen and slidden over them either. On the descent I was constantly breaking my quads to keep from tripping or twisting an ankle or falling head first and it's very "jarring" to the whole body. Then on the ascent I had to make a conscious effort not to jam my toes into or trip over the never-ending rocks. The run itself is extremely well-organized by Tom and Nancy Crawford with superb aid stations and knowledgeable aid station volunteers, not to mention the most outstanding trail markings I've ever seen! Annadale Park is actually a beautiful park with abundant wild flowers, a lake and a marsh with many waterfowl and birds and everything is lush and green. I even saw some deer. Now if they could just dump a load of dirt over all those rocks, it would be a wonderful place to run, especially since the 25-mile loop is quite varied and constantly changes trails, some just more rocky than others. I ran a bit the first 6 miles with Dave Combs and Lauren Lechner (who completed a stupendous first 50-miler!) and it appeared that Dave was trying to get all his pit stops out of the way in that first 6 miles as he kept jumping in the bushes. Then they took off at their faster pace. While the temperature must have been in the 80s, heat didn't seem to be a big problem I think because we started early enough to get a couple of hours of cool running, the extremely well-stocked aid stations, many parts of the trail are shaded by trees, and there was a nice breeze as the day wore on and on and on, for me anyway. All in all, I lost a lot of time--5 min here, 5 min there--doodling at the aid stations. I'm still learning how to keep it moving. And I was unfortunate enough to be heading for the aid station salivating about potatoes & salt just as the car for that aid station (along with the potatoe supply for that aid station) was headed up the road to pick up an injured runner! I really needed those potatoes, so I lost 10 minutes there waiting for the car with the potatoes to make its way back to the aid station. (Potatoes are the one thing I know for sure works for me.) The rocks and boulders just did me in. I think they even destroyed the insoles of my very well-cushioned Sauconies! I honestly believe that it would be easier for me to do a third round trip of the Quadruple Dipsea than it was to do that second 25-mile loop over those rocks! And on this day I was wearing my aqua Road Runners Bra for C&D cups, cobalt blue singlet, turquoise shorts with a turquoise neck scarf and additional blue hanky to blow my nose. Once again, even with all that bouncing/jarring motion over the rocks, the Road Runners Bra for C&D cups gets a 4**** rating! Hooray, no bra burn! As an addendum and to keep my pulling-up-the rear status in perspective, I would like to add that in a run such as CAL50 it's very intimidating for 50-mile newbies because you have mostly veteran ultrarunners (and you know this because all the vehicles in the parking lot are campers, vans, 4-wheel drive Broncos, etc. and you're the only one with a little Honda sports car). If you take a look at the names (especially the women), most of them have been doing 50-milers, not to mention 100-milers for the past 10 years and more. And sometimes these ultra veterans forget how many 50-milers they did before they acquired the skills they have now perfected. I know I'll never be fast, and I was pushing 45 when I did my first 50-miler in 1993, but I do have the comfort of years of marathoning results showing that if there werer 50 women runners, I would be #25; if there were 500 women runners, I would be #250; if there were 1,000 women runners, I would be #500, etc. etc. The difference in ultrarunning is the total number of women still lags way behind the # of men. And we need more women to push me back to the mid-pack! I know there were 6 people behind me at CAL50 (I keep track of these things), but they all dropped--and I don't know how many were women. I guess all I'm saying is I just need a little more seasoning and ask that experienced ultra veterans should sometimes relfect back on their initial attempts at ultra distances. Still on my way up the Ultra Ladder, Pat Wellington San Francisco wellingtonpm@cooley.com