Subject: Leona Divide 50 Mile Run Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 00:29:13 -0700 Leona Divide 50 Mile Run April 17, 1999 The Summary An out-and-back with a loop at elevations from 3200' to 4900', and 9000' of climb, in the Angeles National Forest. There were 17 miles of jeep roads, and 33 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail. The race has a 13 hour limit, and pacers are not allowed. The jeep roads and the PCT provided a good, firm, surface, but I got a lot of grit in my shoes that resulted in huge blisters on the balls of both feet. There were very few places where loose rocks made the footing dicey. There was only one stream crossing, across which the RD provided a board. The views from the course varied from chaparral-covered hillsides to the desert floor in the distance. As the RD advised, there were probably only about 10 trees along the way, and the constant full sun became tiring. The aid station supplies were adequate, and the volunteers were great. I believe that every finisher "won" something in the raffle. Would I go back? You bet. The Race Everybody needs goals, even us back-of-the-pack, no natural ability runners. I felt that I was capable of running a "hundred" (100K, that is), but was cut at the 40 mile point in my first attempt at a 50 mile race (and only third race ever), Dick Collin's Firetrails 50 in October. Clearly I needed more experience. So I ran the High Desert 50K and had a great run, ran Las Trampas 50K in the freezing rainstorm and bailed at the end of the 30K loop (my bad weather option from the start, so no bad karma accrued), and ran Way Too Cool with an ill-conceived plan, bonked on the Ball Bearing climb and barely made it to the finish, and finished my training with a 38 mile, 13,000' of gain solo run to Rose Peak. For my next 50 mile attempt I originally choose Lost Boys ( a point-to-point run in the Anza-Borrego desert). But Lost Boys was cancelled, and I sent in an entry form for the Quicksilver race in May since it is run nearby. However Quicksilver is run only a week before the Ohlone Wilderness 50K, which I also wanted to do, and when I found out that the course was multiple loops (albeit sometimes different loops) in the tiny Alamaden Quicksilver Park, my enthusiasm waned even further. Then Jim Winne told me about the Leona Divide 50, which is run on jeep roads and the Pacific Crest Trail (17 miles jeep roads, 33 miles trail) in the mountains southwest of Palmdale. Torn between wanting to complete a 50 mile race, and not wanting to be cut, like last time, for being too slow, I studied the course description, topo maps, and anything else I could find. Once I became convinced that the course would not be that much harder than the High Desert 50K, just longer (well, OK, I was wrong...), and noticed that my pace from that race would get me to the 32 mile point with 7 hours to complete the final 18 miles, I was committed to try. It also helped to see that the final cutoff, at mile 42.6, was at the end of a 7 mile descent. The brochure said, variously, that this cutoff was 10.5 or 11 hours (turned out it was 11 hours), but I felt I would have to make the 10.5 hour cutoff because the final 7.4 miles was a climb over a 2000' ridge. So Saturday morning Jim Winne and I lined up with 175 other folk of dubious sanity, in the predawn chill at the Lake Hughes Community Center. At first I took my usual position at the rear of the queue, but then found that it was much warmer in the middle of the pack. Since the day promised to be hot, I wore only a short sleeve t-shirt and shorts. For fuel during the run I planned on using CLIP, and carried 5 packets with me, wrapped in a plastic bag so I could carry them without sweating them up. Jim offered to let me have a bottle of Hammer Gel. (I've tried the rasberry flavor and liked it.) But just before the start I tasted it and didn't much like the banana flavor. I decided that if I didn't like it then, I definably wouldn't like it after running for 8 hours, so I left it in the car, and took some GU for emergencies. I planned on eating potatoes at the aid stations, and supplant the CLIP with Coke after mile 42. I also planned to drink at least a quart of water, and take a SUCCEED! salt capsule, every hour, since I usually end a run dehydrated. I made up a table of times to reach each aid station, with 2 entries for each station - the pace I used at High Desert, and the pace needed to make the 10.5 hour cutoff. At 6 am the race began, and we started the 4 mile, 800' climb to the top of the ridge. As we mostly walked up, the sun came up, and at curves in the road that provided a desert overlook, a puff of hot air warmed us. While welcome at first, each puff brought a reminded that the day was going to be hot, and none of us was really acclimated to hot weather yet. And, in fact, by 8 am we were welcoming the cool air that could still be found in the folds of the ridge. After the first climb came another 4.5 miles of gentle descent, still on jeep roads. Preoccupied with meeting new friends through the connection of races run, it was easy to run too fast, and I found myself at aid station #1 in 1:22, 20 minutes ahead of my desired pace. (Let me make a quick observation about the aid station placement. It was pretty much perfect. There were only 3 aid stations in the first 20 miles, at 8.5, 13.4 and 20.2 miles. More than enough for the start of a race. After that, the aid stations were space every 3.5 to 4 miles.) From aid #1 to aid #2, we once again climbed a ridge of perhaps 1000' elevation over several miles. At aid station #2 we joined the Pacific Crest Trail, which we would follow for the next 33 miles. I was a little surprised that the trail was often simply a narrow ledge cut in the side of a sandy slope, with no room to pass. (Not that I was doing any passing.) I reached aid #2 in 2:31, 10 minutes faster than my desired pace. From aid #2 to aid #3 was 7 miles of short climbs and descents along the narrow PCT, as it gradually turning downhill. I reached aid #3 in 4:10, just a little slower than planned. Going out of aid #3, we faced another climb of perhaps 1500'; I contemplated this while I ate some potato and melon, and the aid station volunteer mixed some CLIP for me. From aid station #3, through #4, and on to #5 we completed the ascent and descent of a 800' ridge, so the trail was 4 miles of relentless uphill, followed by another 4 miles of endless downhill. I arrived at #5 in 5:50 ( I think). In addition to being the low point of the course, this point was the low point in my spirits. I wasn't overly tired, nothing hurt particularly, I was only about 20 minutes behind my target pace, but I just wanted to be done. I considered the 14 mile, 2000' climb out-and-back to the turn-around point with the same amount of enthusiasm normally reserved for an audit letter from the IRS. But this feeling was similar to what I experienced every time I did the Rose Peak training run and faced that 8-mile, 2000' climb over Mission Peak beginning at mile 30. A familiar emotion is less threatening, and so I set off, first to aid station #6, and finally reached the turn-around and aid station #7 at 8:35. While aid station #6 had taken seemingly forever to reach, and seemed like much more than the official 4 miles, this aid station at the turn-around showed up right on time - and then we had the bad news, as the trail, instead of heading directly for the aid station, first circled off to the left, then after heading back toward the station, turned off to the left again. It felt like we were spiraling around and around, never to actually reach the station. At this point I was developing some hot spots on my feet. But I also wanted to get to the 42.6 mile aid station in less than 2 hours to keep that cushion of time for the final segment, so I set off without doing anything with my feet. As I neared this aid station, and my time was just past 10:00, it became clear that I could finish under the 13 hour limit. However I have to confess that the strongest motivator was the thought that, if I finished this race, I never had to do another one, **unless I wanted to**. At aid #9 I ate some potatoes, melon, and a quarter of a peanut butter sandwich, and, at 10:24. carrying 2 cups of Coke, started the 3.5 mile climb back to the top of the ridge. I got there at 11:30, and had another 4 ounces of Coke. I had been convinced that the course from aid #10 was all downhill, and was discouraged to find out that there was a mile of gentle climb before the descent started. I trudged the uphill, then started running the downhill in earnest, since I was, amazingly, not exhausted. However my left achilles tendon, which had started feeling a little sore somewhere previously, protested more vehemently about this running motion. Well, I had more than an hour to go 3 miles; my time, whatever it turned out to be, would be my PR for a 50 mile distance. I walked. (Except for the final 100 yards...) Later Jim Winne recounted how he reached aid #10 at 9:30, and blew downhill, ignoring his blisters, to finish in under 10 hours. My time was 12:30, plus or minus a minute - I forgot to look - I just wanted to sit down. Dave Wright