| Race Day: Morning arrived quickly. The alarm was set for 4:50AM.. Around 5:00 AM, Joe stopped by the cabin to make sure we were up and to see if Bill N from Missouri ever showed up (he did not). Philip and I left the cabin around 5:30AM to drive the short distance to the race start, without accidentally finding the boat ramp as we had done the night before. At the race start , we found several boxes of doughnuts, some hot coffee (yeah!) , other runners, Paul and Kathleen and volunteers. It was a small field: 27 Starters for the 100Mi event, 3 regular starters for the 50Mile event. I had some coffee, and drank down two cans of High Protein Boost. About 5-10minutes before start of race, Paul told me I was going to be too warm with all of my layers. I then gave Philip two of my outer layers... I was down to wearing a singlet, two long sleeve coolmax shirts, a light fleece sleeveless vest, tights, shorts, mittens and a hat. I felt comfortable. The race started at 6:02 AM. It was light enough that flashlights were not necessary. The skies were overcast with a low layer of clouds which would eventually burn-off before we reached the first aidstation. We took off and quickly became a train of runners. After about 20minutes into the race, I pulled out of train to take off the vest. I also felt I needed to back off on my pace, since this was a 100mi and not a 50mi or 50k race. Within the next mile , the field began to spread out. |
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| Photo #1 : Early sign of daylight... low layer of clouds present. |
| Photo #2 : Clouds are beginning to burn off . |
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| Photo #3 : Boulder Oaks Aid Station at 6.2 Mi |
| At Boulder Oaks Aidstation (BO), I arrived about 6 minutes ahead of the WBN Plan. My dutiful pacer Philip would crew for me the first 25miles of the race before returning to Lake Morena for an afternoon nap. Philip greeted me at BO with a can of Boost. A second can of Boost was dispensed into my water bottle and capped off with water. I removed my vest and one of the longsleeve Coolmax layers. Leaving BO, I fell into a comfortable pace. I would run the first couple miles of the next section with Linda McFadden and Catra Corbett-McNeeley. About a mile or so after crossing under I-8, Linda and Catra stopped alongside the trail to eat some food from their camelbaks, and I continued on. |
| The First 25 Miles: Lake Morena to Todd's Cabin |
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| Continuing on, there were nice views off to the left of the trail . The sun was reaching higher in the sky, and the ambient air temperature was warming up to a very comfortable level. I ran briefly with a runner named Gary in this section. We both agreed that we could not have asked for better raceday weather. Little did I know at that time the dramatic turn the weather would take after sunset. |
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| Photo #4 : Crossing under Interstate 8 |
| Photo #5 : Running with Catra CM and Linda M . |
| Photo #6 : Interesting view...I think the fuzziness lends to the photo. |
| Photo #7 : Looking back toward location of Boulder Oaks. |
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| Photo #8 : The section , just before Kitchen Creek Rd, reminded me of the hills on the Bandera 100Km course in Texas, particularly Ice Cream Hill. The hill in the photo below is an example. |
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| Around 9 or so miles into the race, the course crosses Kitchen Creek Road . I was surprised to find Philip waiting for me at the Kitchen Creek Rd crossing, to see if I needed any water or anything from the car . He is the Uberpacer and said he would see me again at Cibbetts! Crossing the road, I went through a gate and entered a single track trail and began about a two mile stretch along an exposed rocky ridge which offered spectacular views, especially to the south beyond the Mexican Border. To the right of the trail was a steep drop-off, and there were many interesting outcrops of rocks along the way. The view to the horizon was full of layered sinc-squared functions as far as the eye could see . It was about a 0.5Mi into this section that I heard my name being called. I stopped to look back, and it was Super Sammy Voltaggio---- one of my running buddies from Austin. Oh what fun to run with Sammy! I was telling him how this section seemed like a perfect place to film a western movie, and I was pretending to be an ultra-Bandito: a member of the Hole in The Wall Gang fleeing the law. I was running the short uphills in this section and having fun. Sammy called me a mountain goat and began curiously inquiring about my hillwork sessions at McKinney Roughs in Texas. I told him I'd been running with the escaped ultra cows (from Bill P.'s ranch) , and if he ever wanted to join me at McKinney Roughs that I'd be happy to share my counting rocks with him. We ran together for about the next 11-12miles. This ridge was somewhat windy even in the daytime (an omen), and therefore I named it the Windy Bandito Ridge. Sammy would later name it Hurricane Ridge. I would not be surprised if other runners came up with much less kinder names for the ridge in the second-half of race. |
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| Photo #9: Crossing Kitchen Creek Road and looking south toward Mexico |
| Photo #10 : Life is so harsh running through scenery like this! |
| Photo #11:: Looking forward (north?) along the trail. |
| Photo #12 : One of my friends from Austin: Sammy Voltaggio the Stealth Slammer.. |
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