Wednesday, November 25, 2020

San Diego 200 Solo Recap

 













The inspiration for this route came from Ed Wang's fatass 100 miler around San Diego which he started putting on in 2016 called "Best of San Diego 100". Being born and raised in San Diego, a local Native and having spent a lot of the last 32 years becoming intimately familiar with San Diego, I naturally wanted to do his race and thought it would be an awesome idea to create a similar course for the 200 mile distance. I began plotting out a map for the 200 mile course I had in mind in 2019 and started course scouting to make sure everything was passable. I was familiar with most of what I mapped out but I needed to check out the areas I hadn't yet done. The goal was to make the first 35% mainly road and the 2nd 65% all or mostly trail, by connecting the city to the mountain trails of San Diego that we all love so much. The other goal was to commit the entire course to memory like I had done with the BoSD course, that way I wouldn't have to rely on technology to function properly for my run. After months of working on a bunch of different routes, including one that extended all the way to the border and out towards Japatul, I decided in November of 2020 to just pull the trigger on the most doable route as it currently stood. I would have to wrap up some loose trail ends by just taking some roads instead of finding trails in that area, but I no longer wanted to use that as an excuse for not getting this goal of mine done. 


I originally had wanted to start at Torrey Pines with the BoSD race but since a huge gap between Pamo Valley and Escondido still existed in my route I decided to start in Escondido so that way I could finish 3 miles short of a full loop, instead of having to run down the dangerous highway 78 (which was never really an option). This allowed me to essentially do the whole route without getting "stuck" at Pamo Valley with 50 miles to go.

I decided to start on Friday November 20, 2020 at 5am at the San Pasqual Staging area off Bandy Canyon Rd. My A-goal was to finish the 203 mile route in 60 hours. Some people might have considered this ambitious but I had 100% confidence in my fitness and training to be able to do that time comfortably. That is 2 and a half days for 200 miles. Most 200 milers allow for 4 days to complete the race, averaging 50 miles a day. I set a cutoff for myself of 3 days, 72 hours. I didn't just want to cover 200 miles, I wanted to run as much of it as I could and do it as fast as I could while still being able to enjoy it. 60 hours was an entirely achievable goal. My body knew this. My mind knew this. I intuited this from both my body and my mind after thousands of miles of running. Keep in mind that the furthest I had gone up to this point was 151 miles during a 48H flat-ish looped race. I had trouble during that race and didn't perform up to my potential but nevertheless that was the furthest I had gone. I had also been doing 230 mile weeks for 4 weeks in a row in October and my body has become a distance running machine that specialized in recovery.

So the idea was to hit the first 100 in sub-24 hours and give myself a big cushion to hit the next 100 miles in 36 to 48 hours. The way I had designed the course was the "easy" miles first and the hard trail miles in the 2nd 100. Stupid, I know. But I wouldn't have done this route any other way in retrospect. The timing of everything was just absolutely perfect in terms of hitting certain spots at beautiful times.

I woke up at 3:30am on Friday morning and worked with Whitney, my all weekend crew and love of my life, to square out some of the details for the day. George Greco joined me at the start and we started exactly on time at 5:00am on Friday morning, in the dark cold San Pasqual Valley area. I had planned to do 12 min miles all the way through downtown, 100k point, when George did a good job in talking me down to a slower 13 min pace. I didn't want to go much slower than 13 min pace but that was absolutely fine. With such a long race there's no point going any faster than you have to or any faster than is wise. We picked up Allen Su who was at mile 10 with aid. We all rolled on the Hodges trails through the beautiful morning. They were both great company. 

We reached mile 24 and George took a "swan dive" as he likes to call them and landed painfully on his hiking poles causing one of them to bend and break. We made sure he was alright and we continued on. At around mile 26 George and Allen were beginning to slow down and told me to continue on. I was moving comfortably at an 11:30 pace at that point and pulled into Del Mar and Torrey Pines (mile 35) with a huge smile on my face, as it was the most beautiful time of the day. Got some aid from Whitney and picked up my next pacer Heather for 15 miles she paced me through La Jolla and Pacific Beach. Around mile 47 we pulled onto the boardwalk right when Slomo was getting ready to start his rollerblading session. Talk about law of attraction. If you haven't seen the documentary on Slomo look it up, he's a local celebrity in PB and we are probably kindred spirits. Despite his name he actually was moving pretty quick, pulling ahead of us a good distance as people left and right were calling his name and exclaiming "there he is!" "SLOMO!" and other similar expressions of excitement. He finally stopped and sat down on the side of the Boardwalk to check something on his phone. As we passed him, I decided to double back and ask to take a selfie with him and told him I was running 200 miles around San Diego right now. He turned his head strongly in my direction, looking intently at my face trying hard to identify its features, and with a raised eyebrows extending over the top of his sunglasses he asked, "You're running 200 miles around San Diego?!"

"Yes," I responded and you could tell he recognized a person just like himself doing his own thing involving lateral movement as a form of meditation. I smiled at him and continued running down the boardwalk. Pretty cool synchronicity.


Hey! Its Becca and Ricky on beach cruisers, jumping in to pace me for a mile on this most beautiful afternoon. They were awesome to see and have join me and what a great idea with their cruisers! That looked like so much fun, but then again everything does when you do something like run 200 miles. I really enjoy their company and it was a great lift of spirits. Thank you so much for being such awesome, supportive and caring people.

 

Before Becca and Ricky and before Slomo, as I was on the boardwalk i have to say I was having the happiest moment of my entire run and probably the happiest running moment I've ever had. The boardwalk was full of people, music was playing, the sun was out, I was feeling fresh as a daisy nearly 50 miles into this run. As I was looking at people crossing paths with me and as I heard Sonny and Cher's "I got you babe" playing from one of the foodstands on the boardwalk, I had this moment of pure happiness and gratitude for being alive at that very moment. 



I felt a moment of bliss for being alive in this moment of time with other humans as we're all beautifully fumbling around trying to make sense of this all. A gratitude for all we have created in this sliver of existence of the last 100 years. A moment of clarity that we are all One and connected. The opposite of loneliness.

I loved the stupidity of humans, how often we get things wrong and think so highly of ourselves. I loved the creativity of humans to create so much music that we collectively connect through via shared memories and familiarity with the song. I loved that we are all here together being part of an infinitely growing organism yet acting like we are all separate units. I loved humanity in all its errs and stupidity, beauty and ugliness. It was pretty cool.

These are the moments we must savor. We may not understand why they happen or where they come from, but when you're than genuinely happy, no matter what it's about, make it last and be entirely there. Do not stifle it. Laugh loudly and smile till your cheeks hurt. There's absolutely no reason to be embarrassed at looking or sounding silly. Life is ending and those moments are the epitome of why we are here. Do not waste them on the silliness of needing to look good or sane to this world of weird expectations for social behavior. None of this need be taken too seriously, but be as sincere as you can possibly be.

Time to pick up Alex! Surprise guest of Cassandra! Cool! We leave Belmont Park and head towards Sunset Cliffs to try to catch the sunset in time. Great company makes the miles go by quick! As we pull into Sunset Cliffs I see another surprise as Jeff Miller is there on the sidewalk ready to run! How awesome. We continue onwards as I run up the aptly named Hill St. I can't believe how good I was feeling at this point in the run.

 



Jeff's friend Brian lives right off Talbot and was awesome enough to have a little aid station for us in front of his garage. I so appreciate him for doing this especially so last minute!

 

We continue into downtown as it gets dark. Cassandra has to leave and Alex Jeff and I continue on to Star of India where Alex now departs at mile 60. Jeff and I continue on towards Chula Vista, via the harbor bike path. Once we get to mile 65 I hear the train crossing noise and begin to wonder if it might be a freight train which could sometimes take 10 or more minutes to pass. As we got closer we begin to hear a heavy sounding train coming and sure enough it was a freight train. We wait there for maybe 10 minutes as it reversed directions and cleared a path in front of it enough to pass by. The train crossing arms were still down and lights flashing with the noise, but it didn't look like it was going anywhere so I told Jeff let's just go for it. We made it across fine and I thought to myself how this would never happen in any other race.


We kept meeting Whitney in the van every 5 or so miles and eventually Luke had shown up to help her crew. Thank you so much Luke, I had wanted someone to come help Whitney crew through the night mainly for safety and the person that I had asked to come out wasnt able to come for some reason. This actually was a bigger wrench in my plans than the freight train. I didn't want Whitney out here by herself crewing me, for safety reasons and because it would have allowed Whitney to take a break. No lie, I almost legitimately called the run off at this point as I cared more about putting Whitney in an compromised situation that I didn't want her to be in than I cared about the run. It really upset me that a friend would let me down so gigantically in such a big way that it almost caused this whole thing to stop. A friend I had selflessly been there for on multiple occasions when called upon for help. It was the story of my life, giving giving giving and the one time I need something back I get disappointment. Thankfully I'm used to disappointment so I was able to roll with it but this was an interesting wrench that was thrown in there as a unique spiritual challenge to my run. It wasnt about me, I'm used to disappointment. It was about Whitney and what I'm asking of her and to find that I couldn't accommodate her in the way that I believed to be necessary almost made it such that I was willing to take away things from myself, such as a finish of this run, just because I care that much more about her than something I'm trying to do for fun.

Whitney wouldn't have any of that though. She would press for me to go on and she would figure something out. Luckily, the universe put Luke and his friend out there at the time when he was needed but not called upon by me in the original plan. This allowed me the peace of mind to know that Whitney had company so thank you so much Luke. You saved the day and my mind!

Eli!!! Eli showed up ready to run with me over his Mt. Miguel trails that he knows like the back of his hand which I was completely unfamiliar with. This was the only spot on the course I was unfamiliar with and it was necessary to have someone along to guide me up and over to Rancho San Diego. Scott Crellin, RD of Cuyamaca 100k, also volunteered to meet me at 10pm and come along to show me the best way over. There are many gates and stuff blocking the way through those trails so together they gave me 100% confidence that we would be able to get through their just fine.

This part probably ended up being my least favorite part of the run, no offense Eli and Scott, if only because it was mile 80-90 after running an 11:30-12:00 pace all day and it was rocky technical at times steep trails in my Altra road shoes with no grip. We made it through to Rancho San Diego and crossed Steele Canyon Bridge to see some bright headlights at the end. Was that Whitney? No, the headlights were a lot different. Police? I hope not. We approach and it's a guy named Damon who was out there in a truck with aid and water and a massage gun. Man, talk about a hero!!! Absolute hero of the night and he was able to take Scott back home. Awesome. Thank you so much Damon!

Now it's just Eli and myself as we head towards El Cajon, and its gotten cold. Mile 90+ I started to slow down a bit because of the energy that Miguell took outta me. To be honest I hadn't done a lot of those kinds of trails during training so my body wasnt handling it well.

I drop off Eli at Chase and Jamacha Rd and continue on alone as Whitney leapfrogged me in the van, virtually a mile at a time to make sure I was alright. Some police came and asked her if she was alright, as she was pulled over on Jamacha at 2am. She told them I was running 200 miles and they said "God Bless him" lol.

We finally hit mile 100 off Lake Jennings Rd and it was about 4:43am on Saturday morning. I jump into the van and tell Whitney I need a break as I was starting to pull 20 min miles. Better to rest up and get back to 13-15min miles than to drudge out 20 min miles for 1 hour+. So I took a 1 hour nap in the van and woke up to someone honking their horn at us to get out of the way. Okay, time to get up and get out and start shuffling uphill towards Alpine and Viejas.

The break was a brilliant idea as I had started getting back to a normal 13-15 min pace and felt so much better. I continued on this gradual uphill towards Alpine and was walking on the opposite side of the street from an older man walking his 2 dogs. Boy I love dogs. They were keeping a pretty good pace and when I would fall behind I would start shuffling just to keep up with them. He must've went 3 miles from Tavern Rd to Willows Rd before he looked over my way as I was shuffling, smiled, waved and asked me where I was going and where I had come from. I told him I started in Escondido and told him my route. He asked if I was doing this for charity or something. I told him, "No, I just felt like running". He laughed, as he got the reference and told me good luck.

I'm at 112 miles in and it's about 9:30am I'm pulling into Viejas Rez. As I round the corner i see and hear bird singing and instantly feel pumped. How awesome, Ral and his boys greeted me by singing me in and singing me out. What a great reception and just the energy I needed. I was starting to feel pretty physically exhausted.

When planning the route I had told Ral I would be passing by his place at mile 113 and asked if we could stop by so Whitney might have a place to sleep. When we got there, Ral and Vanessa invited me in their home and had the most incredible layout of aid, fresh fruits Gatorade, everything really. I was so appreciative of their hospitality, and chatted with them a bit about where I was at mentally. I was telling Ral that "I know I make it look easy, and you might be tempted to think its Phillip, he can do this no problem, but honestly this might not happen". Ral responded, "You say that but I know you'll finish it". These remarks as expressed similarly by other friends throughout the weekend, really weighed on me. How do all these people have more confidence in me than I do in myself right now? They don't know the mental struggle inside my mind right now and they are fresh so it's easy to say and it's okay to not be superhuman, Phillip. When I drop at mile 138 or so its gonna disappoint everyone and they're gonna console me with "that's still pretty far" but i will know that they expected more and that i failed. People are only interested in me because they think I can do the impossible but if i don't then all that changes. What am I gonna do with the people expecting me at 6pm or so? Should I just tell Whitney to tell them not to come out? I dont wanna waste their time.

These are all the thoughts my mind tried to convince me of. And when it's coming from your own mind, you tend to believe it. But from last month's training I remember this phenomenon. Your mind will always try to fill in gaps and predict a future that is not certain in order to save you from some pain or discomfort later on. It anticipates the worst and convinces you that that's the guaranteed outcome. But I know when this happens you are best to tell yourself that you dont know shit about the future just like weathermen dont know shit about the future and it's at best a guess. You have to just keep moving forward and only be in the present moment or else your mind will sabotage the shit outta you!




So Gloria and Colleen show up and together with Ral we head up Viejas Grade towards Descanso. I'm glad they came along. Their fresh energy and badass experience was what I needed to get me to keep trudging along and take my mind off my struggles. We got to the top and I was pretty tired. Here's a pic:



We finally get to Merrigan Aid Station mile 120 and its gotta be 12pm noon on Saturday. I take a break to eat and put my trail shoes on and thank Ral for joining us this far. Gloria, Colleen and I head out towards Green Valley mile 125.


During this section I'm feeling so tired I take a 30 second nap on a rock. I tell myself as soon as we get to Green Valley I'm taking a nap again and hopping in the van.

Well surprise surprise as soon as we get there we pick up Jessica Deline and we see Whitney but no van. The campground was closed apparently and she couldn't bring the van in, which was 1 mile away on the main road. Gloria suggests I lay down on the dirt and nap which was a good idea. I didn't sleep just rested and got up shortly after to get going again. I wanted to take a sweater up to the top because I knew it would get cold at night and all I had on was my tank top (and shorts obviously you pervert) so I had whitney run to the van to get it while we waited. It was taking longer than it should have so Gloria decided to go look for her -- bad idea. Gloria doesnt have the best sense of where she's at ever really so it was like sending Dory to find Nemo. It took about 20 min before Whitney came back then an extra 5 min before Gloria showed up then we left. I was so distracted by the long wait that I failed to take a headlamp or any calories with me for this next 13 mile section before Paso Picacho. Great. I was moving a 25 min pace anyway and told Whitney its looking like 5 to 6 hours until I get there.

Because I know this section well (it follows the Cuyamaca 100k course to Paso) I had the hardest time dealing with how long this section would take. I visualized each part and dreaded the slow walk we would inevitably take to get through there. I had some short bursts of energy to start running again which helped but the trek up to the peak was for the most part a slow hike.

But man, was it a beautiful sunset as we hiked up to the peak. All of us noted how we never do this trail at this time of day so this was an awesome treat we've never had. This was a moment where I realized how glad I am I did this course this way and how smart I am for not paying $1500 to look for a beautiful 200 miler elsewhere -- BEAUTY IS LITERALLY IN OUR BACKYARD FOR FREE!




We start the switchbacks up to the peak and if you know those you know how they can be never ending sometimes. I was completely falling apart mentally at this point and I starting getting super anxious feeling and it was like my mind was replaying this nightmare scene where I'm on these neverending switchback trails up this mountain as we're getting colder and colder. I needed to play 3 little birds to calm me down. I started shedding tears at the thought of having someone remind you that everything is gonna be alright. Falling apart. It's okay, it's okay. It's literally going to be fine. I start playing and singing other music to help take my mind off of things, like I might do when I'm driving while tired to keep me awake. We get to the Peak finally and my God how beautiful to see all of San Diego at night from up here! Wow. What a gift.



Okay down towards Conejos, the most rocky technical downhill trail in San Diego at mile 135 on tired legs with no headlamp just a cell phone flashlight, how bad could this be. Well, luckily we survived without pulling a Zach Bitter.

We got down to Paso and it was FREEZING. I was still in my tank top and I think it must've hit mid 20s in some sections. Brr.. I made an agreement as I was coming down that I'm going to jump in the van and fall asleep. I started making compromised. I told myself I will just sleep until 5am and finish the remaining 65 miles in 24 hours to finish the 200 in 72 hours total, my cutoff. Yeah that sounds fine to me. Whitney will just have to tell people to go home. I don't care at this point I'm so miserable.

I get down there and EVERYONE is there, Ricky, Robert, Saul, Omeed, Gloria Colleen. Fuck. Well, regardless I still have to take my nap I've been wanting since Green Valley. I hop in the van and rest for 1 hour to Whitney waking me up and telling me "hey you've been asleep for an hour". "I've been what? Asleep? No... an hour? Feel like its been 15 min... I guess I could still go back to sleep like my plan... but these guys came out here and are still here late Saturday night expecting to run through the night. I can't let them down. They came here to support me and get on those trails. I can at least get up and walk with them to Chambers and see how I feel.

I get up and out of the van and feel instantly so much fresher than when I entered it. I had scarfed down 2 cup o noodles before sleeping and it helped bring me back to life with the sleep. So I tell Whitney to gather the guys and our Kogalla army marches forward through the night.

"When you break down
Make it a breakthrough
And do exactly what you're afraid to do
Day and night
Life is dark and bright
And together with your shadow
You'll get through"

What great company the guys were! Ricky, Omeed, Saul and Robert were all there to pace me through mile 161. And when I had fallen asleep it wasn't quite clear whether or not 161 would happen, but as we started climbing up Stonewall the mental fog started clearing and I began to see further than 161. My mind's eye starting being able to see myself running for a good while now. This could definitely happen, I just gotta keep the pace smart and conservative at 15 min pace.

As we approached Lake Cuyamaca and Chambers we walked over the wooden bridge that leads to the dike and Ricky stopped the guys to draw attention to something in the meadows of the lakebed about 100 feet away. "Hey, look, you guys see those deer?". They all stopped and looked while I continued on with Omeed, being too close to the next point to want to stop. All of a sudden I hear them stampede behind me saying "stay together as a group guys!" Thinking they were just being funny, I was surprised to hear Robert say "I can't believe that was a mtn lion that was my first time seeing one, pretty cool" "with a cub also" someone else chimed in. Oh wow, I think, but i remain unfazed. Robert jokes that at least he knows he could outrun me, to which I respond by busting a sub9 min pace across the dike telling him to think again and joked back that the reason I asked him along was that he was the one person I knew I could outrun even when ass tired.

We get to Chambers, get some stuff, Colleen and Gloria decided to stay and crew with Whitney which was so awesome thank you ladies. The guys are a little hesitant to go back out the way we came as they hear cat screams from that direction. So in the city it was a freight train now it's a mountain lion. We agree to just start walking slowly towards where we need to go and stick together. Picture 5 grown ass men huddling next to each other afraid to move lol. We eventually make it over and safely start to shuffle. Phew, what a close call.

**CHEAWWWW**

A mountain lion scream literally 5 feet from us.

fuckin Robert.

We approach Pedro Fages mile 150 at around 2am, 45 hours in. It's looking like I will get a 48hr PR pretty soon, on a pretty hilly course no less. Crazy.

These were fun and memorable times running with the boys through the night. I hallucinated a couple of times seeing Donald Duck toys after Ricky mentioned a duck while we all had a pee break. Turned out to be just leaves. I saw a boa constrictor too. I must've hallucinated about 10 times during this whole thing, nothing too crazy though. One of my favorite parts of the delirium of the early morning is when Ricky drew attention to Robert's sparkly looking dance pants lmfao! As soon as he pointed it out I couldn't help but see dance pants and wonder why Robert was wearing dance pants.

We get to mile 157 on Banner Grade and meet with Whitney and Colleen. By the time we leave it is over the 48hr mark. Incredible. We start marching up the side of the highway for what I remembered to have supposed to been only 0.25 miles at most but the map seemed to have called for 1.25 miles. Funny, I dont remember that, I think to myself. Seems kinda dangerous for that long. Luckily, there wasnt much if any traffic. There was however one car that came hauling around the corner as Robert yelled "CAR" we all jumped to what little shoulder we could as I heard someone behind me fall into the bushes on the side. "Ohp! Shit.." as he picked himself back up, "Not gonna lie, I freaked out, that guy sounded like he was coming in FAST". In retrospect it's a hilarious memory because it seemed kind of dramatic and I thought it was Robert who would've done something like that but he was right the guy was coming fast around the corner. Thankfully 2 of us had reflective vests, one in front and one in back of the pack, and we all had kogala lights so we were pretty visible.

We finally approach the trail we're supposed to go on and it's a little side trail instead of a wide road strewn with RVs and abandoned vehicles that I remember when scouting this area. Robert is confident that this is the way and guides us forward. We consult the map and oddly enough it does show we're on the right trail. But the trail is so overgrown its almost indiscernible. We bushwacked about 1.5 miles up until it connected to the main road. Bushwacking at mile 161 is not the business lemme tell you.

 


As we get to Whispering Pines, passing many cool mines along the way, Robert leans over to me and whispers in my ear "I'm a tree" and does so at least 3 more times before I get what he's trying to get at. Such a Robert joke.

The sun is coming up at this point and spirits coming up along with it. I feel so stoked! Time to bid the guys farewell and pick up my new pacers, Allen Su and Luke. I was going to take a nap again until i remembered that Nell was planning on meeting me at 7am or so Sunday morning with a group of friends. Crap, I don't wanna make them wait like I made the guys wait unless I absolutely had to. I take some time to regroup then finally head off towards and through the town of Julian.

I went to school in Julian so it was weird running by the high school, remembering my times as a fat kid in Jr. High who never ran. The fat kid who had a lot of heart but is fat so wasnt capable of athletic greatness according to one teacher at the high school. What great irony that I'm running past that school now, past the track, at 163 miles of my 200 mile run. It was also a recurring nightmare of mine to miss the school bus home and in my dream I would have to make this long arduous trip home on foot. Now, I would be making the trip from the school to home, at mile 185, on foot. Facing my childhood nightmare.

We approach Santa Ysabel East Preserve and see Nell with all of her friends there to meet me and run the trails towards Mesa Grande. What great energy to wake me up and keep me going strong. Mile 165 to 173. Could this really happen? I'm getting so close.


We pull up to mile 173 and Ral shows up like a hallucination but for real and he stays through mile 180, as Vanessa, his wife, comes out and joins in support as we run up Mesa Grande Rd towards Mesa Grande Store. I'm surprised I ran straight up the thing, felt pretty good the whole time. Poor Nell, doesn't like roads so I appreciated her for doing this part with me. I shared conversation with Keith and Lorenz and others as we pulled into Old Mesa Grande Store, my childhood bus stop at around 12:30pm Sunday.



I take a little break and say goodbye to the big group of trail friends, as well as Ral and Vanessa. In come Spring and Sonia to help pace me through to the finish. I told Nell as she was updating me on who was going to be coming to pace at 180 to tell Spring not to come because I would drop her. Apparently they thought I was joking lol. I was kind enough and chill enough to not stress about going too fast at this point.

Sarah showed up like I manifested her with my thoughts! I was totally thinking she should show up at mile 180 because I had actually wanted to take her out to the roads to run at home because I knew she would enjoy the beauty. So she followed Whitney down to the canyon, mile 185, while Spring, Sonia and I made our way down at a 13min pace. I was right, Sarah absolutely loved how beautiful it was.


We made it down to the canyon and I dropped by my dad's, my childhood home, but the door was locked and nobody home. Hm. I told him I might be coming by on Sunday. Weird. I see him pull up all of a sudden in his black Nissan. Apparently someone from off the rez was coming on the rez and causing trouble somehow so they thought the van and SUV were the troublemakers. No wonder we were met with questioning looks. Btw note the lack of reception from my tribe compared to Viejas. I thought that was interesting.

So now its time to get those final 15 miles! We start running towards Pamo Valley and as soon as we get towards Pamo Valley I hear whooping and hollering. It's my next pacers, Cassandra and Tom Cross! They pick me up and from this point on I tell them I'm gonna speed up because I want to make it as close to 60 hours and 5pmish as possible. It was currently 3:30pm and I (unknowingly) had 12 miles to go at that point. 


I started pulling away from the pacer group of 4 once we hit the flat Pamo Rd. Cassandra was the only one to hang out. I thought it's now or never to take advantage of this flat and haul ass as much as possible. We were pulling a low 8 minute pace and I was feeling strong as hell. I pulled an 8:46 mile and pulled into the final meetup point at Orosco Ridge trailhead. Sarah and Whitney were there thankfully. I wasnt sure if they'd be able to find it as it wasnt listed on my map really. I quickly grab some fuel and a headlamp as the rest of my pacers pull up out of breath "ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?" Tom says. Then Sonia and Spring pull up, all equally shook. They all agree they're not coming with for fear of me dropping them again, and arrange rides back. 

I dunno why people think I'm joking sometimes lol. I asked Spring if she is really surprised. The one thing you shouldn't expect is for me to slow down after being tired at the end of a long haul. Spring and I joked before this about me pulling a 7 min pace and dropping her and i said that might happen lol. Well, cant say I didn't warn people. 

Cassandra and I take off up the hill. We calculate I have 8 more miles to the finish. I think I have already hit 200 miles if not close. A lot more mileage than I expected and there's a short 4 mile way but no, that's not the course I signed up for. Up the hill we go.

 My climbing muscles are pretty zapped at this point but I'm still running up this dang thing all 3 miles up. We get up and start making our way towards the finish. My headlamp is getting dim so she has an extra one and let's me use it. As a pacer, she comes extra prepared with everything which was awesome. She was great help in getting me to the finish. 

We start to see the highway. This is really happening. 200 fuckin miles. I didn't think it would happen yet here it was happening. 

I run as hard as I can up the last little hill, grab the yellow gate and yell "KUMEYAAY STRONG MOTHERFUCKERS! HELL YEAH!"

"THIS IS FOR YOU LEO! FOR YOU!"

"HELL FUCKIN YEAH!" 

As I break down in emotion. I fuckin did it. And Leo would have been proud as hell. I did this because a year ago he got hit and killed by a car right around Thanksgiving. For the last year not a day went by that I didn't think about him and all the plans he had for himself. On his memorial cards for his services, we printed a picture of him with a quote along the lines of "don't leave for tomorrow what you could do today because who knows, you might not be here". And that is 100% why I grabbed myself by the balls and decided to finally just fuckin go for this goal that I had been planning for a while now. If I die pretty soon, let it be known that I left no fuckin stone unturned because that's the only way to truly honor the untimely death of my best friend. I hope you find it in you to do the same thing. 












Thursday, November 28, 2019

Best of San Diego 100 - All Guts, No Glory

The goal is simple: 100 miles around San Diego, on foot, in less than 24 hours. No markings, no real aid stations, no buckle, no fuss no frill. For $10-$20 you can sign up for this race and receive water and limited aid from the Race Director, Ed Wang, as he follows all the runners in his personal vehicle. This race with its tight cutoffs requires a seasoned ultraRUNNER and someone who is not afraid of hitting 50 miles of road. For me, the fact that there was no huge finish line with crowds screaming and celebrating your victory is what made this race exactly what I love about running these distances. This race celebrates the spirit of ultrarunning in its absolutely purest form. It was all guts and no glory.

I, along with approximately 30 other cheapasses or ultrarunning purists, started at Torrey Pines at 5am and ran along San Diego's beautiful coastline all the way down to Downtown San Diego. The 5am start allows for as much cool early morning running as is reasonable and it also allows us to be done before 5am the next day (so not too much sleep lost). I originally thought running a 9-10 minute pace would be a good goal until I was reminded by a friend also doing this race, Natalie, that maybe going her goal pace of 10-11 minutes might be a safer bet. Its a fine line with this race between going too fast and not going fast enough -- you definitely cannot slack if you want to make the cutoffs but you can't explode either. So I stuck with Natalie and a young friend we made along the way who was doing his first 100 miler. Blake is a pretty cool kid, at 22 years old, not many his age would consider doing this with their time. We stuck together all the way until South Park and kept each other company. Natalie ended up going a little faster than we had originally endeavored, around 9:30 pace, mainly based on the fact that it felt so easy effort wise (it always does early on haha). I did my part in keeping close to our original desired pace.


Mile 9ish with the squad


This race is so beautiful and it goes through all the beautiful coastal parts of San Diego. I cannot recommend this race enough just based on THAT alone. They have a 50 mile option for those just wanting to experience this part of San Diego. We went through La Jolla, Bird Rock, Pacific Beach, Mission Beach, Ocean Beach, Point Loma then Downtown SD. As we got to Ocean Beach mile 20, Elana and her husband Wayne were there with their surprise pop up aid station which was INCREDIBLY awesome of them. Elana came out to pace me for this race last year but like a jerk I ended up accidentally dropping her as we ran into Downtown. I forgot to share with her the pace I was wanting to run at. Nevertheless she decided to come back and help out this race and I'm glad she did. I must have seemed like the cool kid in town as running through San Diego I saw a good amount of people I knew, including Elana's husband filling up at a gas station in OB, and so it made it seem like I have a lot more friends than I actually do (I don't). So we say goodbye to everyone including RD Ed, who also had a surprise pop up station at La Jolla Cove at about mile 9.

We work our way into downtown and agree that if anyone wants to pick up the pace we shouldn't feel obligated to wait. I originally wanted to stick with Natalie, and now Blake, so I could guide them where exactly to go since I had memorized every turn of the course and knew for sure I wasn't going to get lost. Being a runner in San Diego combined with being a rideshare driver, I was extremely familiar with San Diego and is why this race was absolutely perfect for me. I knew at some point though that we might get split up so I agreed to this and also agreed to stick with them for as long as was reasonable.

We run along the harbor in San Diego, which at this point was already pretty busy at 9am, and all I could think was thank goodness for that early start! If it had started even one hour later like it did last year it would have definitely had been too crowded to reasonably run! So we catch up to some other runners after the Convention Center, including Mike Edwards with whom we did a training run on the course a month earlier. We pass them on our way up to Balboa Park where I see Trail Crasher Deb on her morning run! On we go to meet up with my first friend to run with me Mick! He's there with Pineapple by the Dog Park on Prado. I scarf down some Pineapple, which lemme tell you about the anti-inflammatory properties of Pineapple! Its really a thing! Really! I felt fresh enough to keep running a strong pace into mile 31 as we approached the first checkpoint in around 5 hours 30 minutes. I got what I needed to here and was ready to go, and checked to see if either Natalie or Blake were ready and it seems the heat of the morning had gotten to Natalie already and so she said she needed time to cool off. So with that I took off with Mick as we headed towards rocky as heck Switzer Canyon and the 4 foot tunnel that's about 100 feet long. We made it through and were on our way to City Heights.


If you aren't familiar with City Heights its the more "urban" spot of San Diego, which among other things means more stoplights. This was also part of the challenge of making the 11 hour 50 mile cutoff to continue for the race. We lucked out and most of the lights were in our favor, only causing us to occasionally pause in our running. I picked up some gatorade at a 711 (of which there are many on this street we run on until College area) and ran to SDSU. Mick told me he would turn off at Montezuma and so we parted ways and he wished me luck. I continued towards Cowles Mountain now, mile 42ish. I passed a runner and then caught up with another runner only to have him pass me up Cowles. I met Whitney at Cowles for the first time since the morning and she brought me my trail shoes (Altra Timps). I had originally decided to wear Escalantes for the first half because its mainly road, then planned to switch to Timps at around now. It was around 1pm and since Cowles is East County you really start to feel the heat. It was obviously a hike up to the top and there were many basic ass people climbing up and down Cowles at it is the most popular hiking trail in San Diego. I'm talking people with those elevation training masks that do nothing, people blasting their bluetooth speaker systems, people with 20 foot dog leashes. Ugh. Got up to the top and surprisingly saw my brother there. How weird... he also made a cameo appearance last year during this race as well but in Downtown. He has no idea I'm doing these races really. Just a weird coincidence. And I haven't seen him since the race last year. Anyways I make it down to Big Rock Rd where Whitney is waiting with my pacer Jeff Miller! He picks me up and we head towards the halfway point mile 50 at Santee Lakes.
Coming in to mile 50

We hit mile 50 at 9 hours 50 something minutes. That's good enough. The plan was 9-10 hours for the first half. The heat of the day was getting to me and you could see I was losing a ton of salt as per usual. I was doing an okay job but couldn't wait for the sun to go down! I took 5-8 minutes getting what I needed, some "Chinese surprises" from Ed, some pepsi from Whitney and filled up by handhelds with Tailwind and we took off. Shuffling at first we went into the trails that lead to Sycamore Canyon. Jeff really enjoyed this part since he had never been. I... on the other hand... I was kinda struggling, but I assured Jeff that this was really because I'm like Olaf and I was melting in the sun. I told him as soon as night came I would come back around. And sure enough like clockwork when the sun went down I started picking it up! We had a reasonable time getting to mile 62 where Robert was waiting to pace. Oh, but the mud that stuck to your shoes! Ugh!
Jeff catching me struggling

"Vert is not real" - Jeff

Beautiful but WHY WON'T THE SUN GO DOWN ALREADY?!

We approached mile 62 and it was already dark. It was maybe 6pm. I had estimated between 5 and 6pm. Okay, still doing good. Looking at lot better than last year, Ed affirms me, which is the point at which I dropped because of severe cramping and overall just going into all the deficits. Got what I needed from Whitney and HEY -- Tsehay came out and she was there too! Awesome Tsehay thank you soo much for being there! Jeff was gonna hand the baton to Robert but I convinced him to stay with for at least 5 more miles where Whitney and Tsehay were *guaranteed* to meet us. So we run and I'm keeping a strong pace and we see some lights ahead. I get tempted to try and catch up with them but Robert reminds me it's too early yet, only mile 65, and he says save it for later (the race starts at 75). So we inadvertently pass them anyway a little while later and it's 3 people. Robert's thinking 3 racers, but I tell him it's most likely 2 pacers 1 racer. It was. We keep moving strong and when we get to where Whitney and Tsehay are supposed to meet us they aren't there! Oh no. Okay, well Jeff, looks like you'll have to call your wife Elaine and tell her you're going just a little bit longer! Poor Jeff, this was only the 2nd time and not the last time he'd have to extend his stay with us. I tell Jeff to call them and meet us 1 mile further down the road, Whitney gave an "okay". We approach and they're not there! Turns out they're close to where Robert had picked me up originally! Sorry, Jeff. At this point I'm running low on stuff because I had planned for them to be there. Robert comes in to save the day with some CarboPro he had in his water bottle. The next checkpoint would be maybe 6 miles away. We continue on Old Coach Trail on towards Escondido when Whitney and Tsehay and Gloria meet us at Highland Valley Road! Oh thank GOODNESS! I restock at their beautiful little makeshift aid! Then, as I'm getting chilly, I take off with Robert and Jeff finally gets to go home. Thanks Jeff!
Mile 65ish with Robert and Jeff. Robert was srsly awesome all night. 


We approach Mule Hill Trail on Sunset Dr in Escondido. It was approximately 9:38pm. I asked my friend Leo who lives down the street and runs that trail all the time if he could meet me around 10pm at that trail. Wasn't sure if would be able to make it but he told me he would be there. Well, he wasn't, unfortunately, but to my huge surprise Omeed was there! Holy shit! I had helped this guy run this course last year on his own in December and he decided to return the favor and surprise me by showing up! Super stoked, I give Robert a much needed break and take Omeed for the next 14 miles. I'll be honest, these miles were pretty slow, but man oh man did Omeed make for AWESOME company! This guy is super awesome to have along. We talked and caught up on things and shared story.

As we get towards the end of the trails on the side of actual Lake Hodges, I knew there was a point where Ed had sent a last minute email saying the trail is closed at night and that we would have to run along the highway. I wasn't exactly sure at what point that would be but luckily there was a creeper out there in a car with a flashlight saying we couldn't go down a trail because it's closed and that we'd have to run along the highway. We ran along the highway for a little bit hoping not to get hit by a drunk driver, then luckily there was another creeper hanging out in the the trail far below with a headlamp. He informed us that we'd have to come down to where he was somehow. We managed to find an access road that led us down there and continued the way.

So we continued and as we hit the annoying switchbacks (if you're familiar you know what I'm talking about) I asked Omeed to let me know what time it was when we hit Artesian Road. It was 1:30am. I thought I had remembered the cutoff for mile 89 being at 2am. We were about 2 miles away so I told him we had to pick it up as there is a creek crossing and a steep hill right before the checkpoint. I ran through the creek, originally intending to find some way of not getting wet and freezing, but realized that wasn't going to be feasible. Boy was that cold but oh so good feeling afterwards! We ran into mile 89 like:



I told Ed, as I pulled in at 1:56am, "I'm so glad I made it, didn't think I was gonna make cutoff". He asked what do you mean? The cutoff is not at 2am! It's at 3am! UGH You're kidding! haha. Anways, enough with the dramatics, I bid Omeed goodbye and thanks and then I take off with Robert who is concerned that we might not make it. We had a buffer at the last checkpoint to get away with 18 minute miles but now we have to do 14 minute miles. I tell him no worries as we start running strong towards the finish. By strong I mean 12 minute pace. HEY this is a 100 miler here, that is a tough pace towards the end! haha.

So we finally make it towards the final little uphill trail and we built a nice 20 minute per mile buffer for the last couple of miles and so we feel good. The ETA on Robert's watch, as he kept needing to inform me, said around 4:42am. Great! We can do this! So we work our way towards the finish and lo and behold there it is! No finish line, no crowds, no nothing! Just Ed as he runs across the street to greet us with cheers and congratulations as his phone says my name.

YES! I did it, as I hug Whitney and Tsehay. I redeemed my DNF from last year. I set a challenge for myself and accomplished it. I did this entire course without the aid of navigation and I did all 100 miles in under 24 hours! Thanks so much to everyone who decided to help me in this effort and if you are thinking about doing this race, I cannot recommend it highly enough! I told Ed at the end that this is my favorite 100 mile race of the year, you know why? Because of the course, and the cheap cost, yeah, yeah, but most importantly because the person who runs it does it for the heart of it! He does it for the spirit of ultrarunning and recognizes the importance of fostering that ever so important element of the race. Everything is too fake these days, too glamorized, too sensationalized, too worried about rules and requirements. This, this is real. Thanks so much Ed and I hope if you're reading this you decide to do it next year. You get UTMB points by the way! haha
With Ed Wang the RD. One of us just ran 100 miles. 

100 miles. 23:43. 8700 ft. Harder than it sounds.


Wednesday, May 17, 2017

PCT 50 - 2017



I'm going to make these race reports a little shorter because I have a lot of races this month and I don't have the time to keep writing novels for each one. For those who don't like reading let me give you the highlights:

Highlights:
No Falls!!!
10:21 Finish :/ eh
Ultra Slam - COMPLETE
2 Rattle Snake sightings (yikes)
1 Asshole Runner (a Race Director no less!) who ran into me at the end when I was having trouble walking and yelled "GET OFF THE TRAIL, I SAID MOVE!"
1 Rubik's Cube Solve!
No snake bites!!
Hyponatremia and Dehydration 


I signed up for this race when it first opened up on New Year's Day 2017 for 2 reason: 1) It was the final race I needed to do to round out my SD "Ultra Slam", and 2) It sells out usually that same day. I don't ever sign up for races that far in advance, mainly because I can never be sure what my future will look like in the next 5 months. I could get injured, causing me to waste $150 by DNS-ing, or another race could pop up that I might want to do that is scheduled to happen the week or 2 before that race. Well, that happened with Lost Boys. I signed up for Lost Boys 50 knowing that I had PCT 50 two weeks after but I thought "fuck it", I'll just take one of the races easier. I was slightly concerned that it might not be enough recovery time but it turned out that, like last year, I recovered really REALLY well from Lost Boys so much so that I was able to knock out a 1:45-ish half marathon the Monday after. I feel like my recovery had a lot to do with how easily I approached the first half of the race and how relatively slow (10:00) my finishing time was. Also, the soft sand for the first 20 miles of the race helped ease the impact on my body. Combine all this with the Cryotherapy and Normatec I did the day before and the day after the race, I felt like Lost Boys was just another training run. So, going into PCT 50 I felt fresh, both physically and mentally ready. I could tell my recovery was going to be good because the day after Lost Boys I had already started fantasizing about PCT 50 and visualizing what that race would look like. Usually I don't want anything to do with running for the following week, but I knew mentally I guess, that my body would be okay. 

A good amount of the Trail Crashers were doing this race, even some (Julieanne) who had done Lost Boys with me 2 weeks ago, so I knew this would be a fun race. My concern with this race was just to finish out my Ultra Slam and whatever time that happened to be was okay with me. That being said, I figured a 9-hour or even sub-9-hour time would be possible to shoot for so I mentally hung that carrot in front of myself. Packet pickup was done last weekend at Milestone Running Store in North Park so Whitney and I, who I had convinced to sign up for the race the same time as I did because it would be a good training race for her SD100, were able to arrive a little closer to start time (6:00am) than we usually do. We arrived with about 15 minutes to the start which turned out to be barely enough time. It was approaching the mid-30's on the ride over so I was looking forward to how cold it would be. It was projected to be in the 40's in the morning and reach maybe a high of 65. It was a beautiful day with an inversion layer that we would rise up and over as we make our way towards the first Aid Station. I'd much prefer a high of 55 with lots of cloud coverage for performance sake but you cant beat how beautiful it was outside all day. Anything over 60 degrees F though, I melt. Today would turn out to be no different. 

As it got closer to 6am, we started gathering towards the start. I remembered my watch this time and was also going to run Strava on my phone simultaneously as a backup and put it in my pack. I asked the person behind me to kindly put my phone in the back pouch of my hydration pack, when I heard the RD counting down "5...4...3..." and I told the guy "Nevermind, thanks though" as I brought it forward to put into my handheld pouch. Ugh, I dropped it right on the blacktop face-down right before the dirt started. I picked it up, the screen was mainly black. "Great..." I thought. That turned out to be the last encounter I would have with that phone, unfortunately, as it turned out that the LCD had cracked and that would make repairs cost more than what the phone was worth to begin with. Regardless, time to go! Or... time to Conga... 

Mile 4.5-ish


I made the mistake of getting stuck in the middle of the pack when I know I'm a more.. audacious runner, even when I'm taking it easy. I was planning on doing 10 to 11-minute pace going uphill but because I got behind 55 people, it was looking to be more like 14-15-minute pace and walking. It probably did me better to walk a lot of that first half anyway but I should've been smarter and got at least in the top 20 if not top 10 at the start. Silly me. We got to Kitchen Creek Road and I started making moves to pass people and as we got to the first Aid Station I ran into "Boy Blue" Miguel Osuna who is planning on finishing SD 100 this year after getting swept last year. I pulled into the first Aid Station, took 3 salt pills, filled up on CarboPro and took off for the 7.8 mile climb up to Dale's Kitchen. I started catching some more people and eventually ran into Deb who was trucking along just fine. She always ends up catching me towards the end of races so I knew it wouldn't be the last time I would see her. Pulled into Dale's Kitchen and started to see some of the Early Starters who started the race at 5am. If you feel like you'll need more time than the 13.5 hour cutoff allows, you can start an hour earlier and relieve some of the pressure of having to chase cutoffs. I wasn't pushing too hard at this point and actually had the feeling that this could be a really easy finish if I keep it at this pace. I made my way through the woodsy Laguna single-track part of the PCT, my personal favorite, towards Todd's Cabin about 3.8 miles away.

As I was pulling towards Todd's Cabin, which I was familiar with because of SD 100, I saw someone run past the sign accidentally and hooted at them to come back as we had to go down to check-in to Todd's Cabin (about 0.10 miles down) and then come back up to continue. It seems like it would be easy to miss though as though there was a sign saying "Todd's Cabin", it wasn't readily apparent via flags or anything else that you had to turn there if you were running the race. Maybe some more runners missed this turn? Who knows. Anyways, I was in and out like a robbery at a California burger joint and onto the next Aid Station, Penny Pines, about 5.8 miles away. 

As I started the little 1-2 mile descent towards Penny Pines, I started running behind Tracy Dimino, who is a kickass runner. She kept saying I could pass but I was fine sticking with her at the pace she was doing downhill. We stuck together as we closed in towards Penny Pines and started seeing the front runners Igor Campos and the eventual winner Fern Blanco, who was having trouble with his hydration pack at that time. They were about 5.5 miles ahead of us at that point and they both seemed to be moving strong. I ended up losing Tracy at Penny Pines as she was literally in and out while I stayed and filled up some bottles and get some electrolyte pills. I saw Gloria (hi Gloria!), Matt Carol, Robert, Ricky, Becca, Anthony; it was a party! But, unfortunately couldn't stay long at that party so I took off toward the turnaround about 2.25 miles away. I asked Karen how many people had passed so far and she told me about 15, which put me in good position as I was feeling pretty strong. 

Heading towards Penny Pines 1

Headed towards turnaround


I took off towards the turn around and I swear to god, I saw this kid playing with a Rubik's Cube on the trail! He was hiking with some friends as they were backpacking and it seemed like he knew how to move it. I don't recommend cubing while on the trail as you could easily trip but it was pretty cool and random to see a cuber out there cubing on the trail. As I caught him on the way back, I was going to just pass him and keep going but I turned around and asked him if he could solve it, to which he replied "Yeah, in about 15 seconds or less," to which I was like "Can I see that cube?". I started walking with him and solving it, with my gloves still on from the morning, as he asked "Are you doing cross on left?" I knew at this point that this kid was actually a cuber and not just some kid with a Rubik's Cube and so I told him a little bit more about myself and as I finished it I handed it to him and continued to run on while also yelling back "I used to hold NAR (North American Record)" and he was like "What? Really? What's your name?" "Phillip Espinoza!" "I think I know that name". It's kinda funny that my two worlds happened to collide as they usually don't. It's funny, I used to be a name in the cubing world, kinda like a Sage Canaday, or Rob Krar, but these days I was more like a Timothy Olson or Anton Kupricka. My World Championship days of speedcubing were over and I had moved on, but I still try to incorporate it into my running occasionally. How funny that there just happened to be a cube on the trail for me to solve.

I continued on to Penny Pines as more people started making their way towards the turnaround. I had almost managed to catch up to Tracy when I saw her darting out of the Penny Pines Aid Station as I was coming in. I saw Eli, my buddy and pacer from SD 100, who was out there spectating and I had asked him on the way out if he wanted to pace me for the last 22 miles. He was tempted, really tempted I'm sure, but unfortunately he had other places to be that day. It was all good though as I quickly grabbed more CarboPro from my drop bags and tried to drink more and more water. I took off after a couple of minutes and made my way up the last little climb back towards Todd's Cabin.

Heading towards Todd's Cabin 2


This was mainly a walk, as the very, very beginnings of dehydration were starting to kick in and I started to feel a little tired. On the way back up I saw Julieann, Nartaya, then Whitney (who apparently wasn't have the best day) and then Nell, who looked like she was running with the sweeper (Jeri Ginsburg) behind her. As I topped the climb, I decided to pull over and finally pee, which took a good 60 seconds straight (boy, must've been holding back the whole day). I continued on, always saying hello and thank you to the many hikers we kept seeing throughout the day. I pulled into Todd's Cabin and at this point, people were starting to catch me for the first time of the day. I was starting to feel it and made attempts to keep drinking and took some electrolyte pills. Someone commented how much salt was on my clothes and asked if I was taking salt pills as it looked like I was losing a bunch of salt. "Yeah, it happens all the time to me, I'm a really salty sweater". I filled up some more and headed out, this time palpably drained as I started walking even the most gentle of climbs. Well, as soon as I made it to Dale's Kitchen, that would just be about 13 miles left until the finish. So I run-walked my way towards Dale's Kitchen as I pulled up to someone who I thought was Tracy. Was she having a bad day too? She said she didn't taper much for this race, could that be her? No, it was someone else, ah well. I pulled into Dale's, visible drained, but with only 13 miles to go, manly downhill, I knew I just had to get stuff in me and bite the bullet. I wasn't too responsive to the volunteers unfortunately, but I think they could tell I was having a hard time. Deb pulled into Dale's a little after I did, as I knew she would catch up to me. I grabbed some more stuff, a little caffeine from soda and the little coffee bars and headed out for the descent. She started out in front of me but then forgot to throw some stuff away so she turned around and ended up behind me, but only for a little while before I decided to let her pass. She was looking really strong at that point and I knew, if she stayed like that, she would finish really well.

As I was making the descent, people started passing me left and right. About 23 people would eventually pass me from Todd's Cabin to the finish. I started cramping up in my left hamstrings, but fortunately these cramps wouldn't stay for too long. It wasn't quite as bad as my Old Goat 50 experience but the cramps kept happening. As I made my way towards the final Aid Station at Fred's Canyon, I was relieved to know that there was only roughly 6 miles to the finish. I ate 2 hammer gels here and filled up on some Tailwind they had at the Aid Station and continued to drink water. More and more people were pulling up on me, but I continued on. A little after making the final tiny climb up to the ridgeline single-track, I started to run a little as it was gradually descending when all of a sudden I heard a large hiss and a loud rattle coming from the edge of the trail. Quicky, I slammed on the breaks almost inducing cramping all over my legs as I saw a rattle snake coiled up positioned to defend itself. "Shit-shit-shit!". I backed away, slowly. Rattle snakes aren't aggressive, but they will defend themselves, especially if you surprise them and catch them off-guard, as it seemed like I had. "Look, I don't want any trouble," I told the snake, backing away. There wasn't enough room for me to safely pass without coming within striking distance so I decided to wait a little. I looked at the right side of the trail and it seemed like there was enough embankment for me to climb up and over without disturbing the snake, who had all eyes on me like 2pac in the mid-90's. I also decided to wait until someone else pulled up as I remember hearing that it's the first person who wakes them up and the second person is the one that gets bit. Sean Nakamura was pulling up, running comfortably with a smile on his face when I tried to wave him down. He must've thought I was just waving for support like a spectator because he seemed to just keep smiling and running until he was just about in front of me. He took out a headphone (I think he had headphones) and I warned him of the rattle snake just ahead. We both climbed on the right side of the embankment as it still had all eyes on both of us now. We escaped and he thanked me for the warning as he ran ahead.

About a quarter mile further I was thinking, thank God that snake didn't bite me and thank God I still had enough energy to react appropriately instead of cramping up and falling over like a dweeb. Then, another loud rattle and a hiss as I saw another rattler on the side of the trail. "Fuck, are you serious?". I just decided to wait this one out, he didn't look too scared but I thought it best to just let him do his thangg. You do you, boo, I'll just be here chillin' until another runner comes along or until you move on like an Adele song. I waited 5 minutes, no runners were coming up. Meanwhile, Jake the Snake over here decides to cross the trail and go up the side of the embankment. I'm like cool, I'm just gonna... scootch... on... byy.... don't mind me... and I got away. Phew! 2 snake sightings is more than enough for me! I hope I don't see anymore before the finish. Onwards I go, as I make the mistake of trying the Muir Energy "Cashew Lemon" for the first time. Oh my god, I'm lucky I didn't puke everything up right then and there. Crikey, and that was only a taste!

I cross Kitchen Creek Road and make the final 3.7 mile descent towards the finish, at this point in a good amount of pain, barely walking it in. I thought, "Okay Phillip, this is going to be embarrassing, but you can walk this one in. You *might* be able to walk." At this point I was clearly struggling. This was supposed to be a fast finish as it was downhill from this point but I was barely able to walk without seizing up. Oh well, just, keep, walking. People kept passing me, as I stayed to the right of the trail as much as possible. Some people were nice and gave me pats on the back, telling me to keep going, some even stopped and asked if I needed anything. That's what I love about this sport; when someone is not having a good day, or is clearly in distress, we lend a helping hand when we can. The sportsmanship of the trail is one that is second to none in my opinion. As people kept pulling up and passing me, I would kindly let them. All was going okay, cramping was still happening, but I knew that barring a fall, I would be able to walk this one in at a 20-minute pace.
I hear a runner coming up behind me, running a decent pace, and I heard him mumbling something. I'm not sure if it was to himself or if I was supposed to hear. Either way, I knew he was coming so I moved to the right of the trail like I had for the other runners. Then, BOOM, he runs right into me, almost knocking me off the trail. "What the fuck!" I yell out of reaction "GET OFF THE TRAIL!" he yells back "I SAID MOVE!" as he continues to run on un-remorsefully. This was really upsetting and disappointing. This guy was part of the race. In trail running, especially on single track, the right of way is something that should be agreed upon. You do not assume someone else on the trail is supposed to give you the right of way, no matter what, that is my understanding. If there is a hiker in the way, you do NOT have the right to just plow through them. If there is a runner who is walking, you do NOT have the right to run over them. Race Directors always make a point to strongly encourage courteous attitudes towards everyone on the trail and to remember that we are SHARING the trail, that we do not own it just because we signed up for this race. This runner, seemed to have forgotten about that. He seemed to be unaware of how we're supposed to treat each other on the trail. And I get it, things happen on the trail, we might run into each other, I actually did on the way back, but we immediately apologized, asked if we were both good, and moved on. This guy was not apologetic in the least. You know the worst part about this? Apparently he's a race director himself. I can't imagine any of the Race Directors I know to EVER treat ANY one like this. Scott Mills? Scott Crellin? Brian Gonzales? Jennifer Henderson? Never. This guy is a race director. The extent to which I am disappointed is incredible. Regardless, I move on, hoping to catch him after I finish. He seemed to be nowhere in sight when I finished.

Shortly after that incident, my faith in the trail running community was restored when Jonathon Hunter came up behind me, stopped in front of me and asked if there was anything that I needed. I insisted that we were almost done and that I should be fine. I was really appreciative of him, and all the others who passed me up in that final mile who offered support or words of encouragement as they passed, or stopped to see if they could pull something out of their own pack that would help me. "I'm okay, thanks though, I really appreciate it", I would tell them.

As I pulled into the final 0.5 miles, I was just going to walk it in, and with the finish line in sight, I was going to do just that until Jamie Chatham pulled up behind me with his friends as they encouraged me to run it in. So I jogged it in, happy to have finished this race, in a time of 10:21. 

After the Finish. I was done son.


The cool part about these races is hanging out with the Trail Crashers and talking about the race as we wait for the rest of the Crashers and the rest of the finishers to pull in. I got some pizza, an ice cold pop, and relaxed. As I was talking to Tracy about how her race went, I started to get cramping in my abs, which is never a good sign. I went to go look for salt pills where they were serving pizza, and they didn't have any, but thought the EMT might have some. While they were getting the EMT over to where I was, my cramps were getting worse and starting to spread all over my body. I recognized this and knew what to do. I knew I needed to drink water and get salt pills in me. Someone who was serving food picked up a bottle of Endurolytes, unsure of what it was, as she tried to read the label, I said "Yes.. that's it..". The EMT however decided to withhold the pills from me and give me a full-length exam to make sure that giving me the pills wasn't going to make things worse. In between gasps of breaths, I tried to tell them I knew what I needed and that they needed to give me the salt pills, but they were still reluctant to give me them. When I get to this point, I'm hard to communicate with and not really that responsive, so it makes it seem as if there might be something more serious when in reality I'm just in a large amount of pain and trying to mitigate it. They finally gave me the salt pills as I snatched them and shoved 3 in my mouth washing it down with some water and coke. Within 30 seconds, I started breathing easier and "coming to". I proceeded to tell them how this happens to me usually and it's because I lose a great amount of salt in my sweat, which I really need to get checked out and have studies done on me. I thanked them for their help, and continued to relax as we waited for the rest of the Trail Crashers to come in. 

Salt Stains on Shirt

Not Normal, it was only in the 60's


Whitney came in just under the cutoff, and I was beyond happy to hear that she got the honorable DFL (Dead Fuckin' Last) spot. Most people wouldn't consider that a good thing but I consider the DFL person to be the most awesome as they were out there longer than anyone else that day, and they stuck with is, likely chasing cutoffs, to finish despite the challenges of the day.

All in all, it was another awesome day on the trails. Up next, Nanny Goat 24 hour in about 10 days!