Race Report: 2012 Noble Canyon 50K

The short version:

The longer version:

My concerns leading up to the Noble Canyon 50K had more to do with very sore quads as a result of taking the steep 5700' descent off of Mount Baldy's 10,000' peak too hard last Sunday after running out of water midway through, along with weather forecasts that called for sunny skies and high temps in the mid-80s. I addressed the former by running little to no mileage in the week leading up to Noble and an emergency ART session on Thursday which had me writhing in intense pain.

Summiting Mt. Baldy via Bear Canyon a week prior.

Woke up around 4:30am from my brother's house in San Diego and made the ~1 hour drive east into the mountains of the Cleveland National Forest. After some meet and greets, we gathered at Al Bahr campgrounds for the 7am start. Had an arbitrary goal of A) sub-5:30 and B) sub-6 hours. But had a lot of confidence my 'A' goal was in the bag in spite of my ailing quads leading up to it.  

At the start, anxious to get started.

In an effort to rein in the adrenaline I tucked myself in the middle and started off at a comfortable pace running between 8:30-9:30 pace for the first fews miles as we wound our way out of the campgrounds and into the rolling single tracks of nearby meadows. I was a little worried about lack of conditioning from just being so sedentary these past few days but I think it was more mental than anything.

The first few miles went by real fast and before I knew it, we started down the long, rocky descent down Noble Canyon trail. There were several overzealous runners who past me that seemed to be running faster than they should be but I remained patient and ran it at a good, but restrained pace down the trail. The trails were certainly plenty rocky and somewhat technical as I kept catching a toe here and there almost stumbling. A little after mile 11 however the "almost" went to full-blown fall on my face as I let my gaze go up ahead and I ended up crashing, with my right hand and knee taking the full brunt of it. I popped right back up and kept going but I'd find out later that the gash on my bloody knee was pretty deep.

Thankfully my knee helped break my fall.

The course was laid out in a lollipop fashion with the 6.8 mile descent/ascent being the lone out and back. Therefore we got to see the leaders and frontrunners on the return and to see just where I was in the race, started counting off the runners in front of me. Was kind of surprised to see I was pretty far back by the time I reached the aid station at the bottom (about 45 runners ahead of me) but figured I'd make up some time back on the climb.

Unfortunately, shortly after we began ascending I felt some cramp twinges in my calves. Troubled but not overly worried yet, I pressed on. Thankfully large sections of this section was covered by shade. In spite of the help, I never felt strong on the climb and proceeded to hit a couple of low points mentally here. Low on water and energy, the next aid station seemingly took forever to get to. Mercifully after mile 19ish or so, it came into view just as I ran out of water. Although quaffing fluids lifted me temporarily, my legs would start failing and failing me miserably from here on out.

Over 4,000' of elevation gain.

I don't know what it was specifically since I'd been taking my Salt Stick on cue and calories via gels diligently but the knots in my calves started getting worse. That was soon followed by my hamstrings and eventually, my left quad. I alternated power hiking with some light shuffling but nothing seemed to help stave off the cramping. What was most frustrating by my failing legs was probably that mentally, I felt sharp, motivated and hungry. My legs just refused to follow tow. The only relief they felt was immediately after leaving the aid stations but only to lock up again shortly thereafter.

Leaving Penny Pines aid station (~22 mile) saying hey to my buddy Shacky.

Most of the climbing was over around the marathon mark but it was during this stretch to the finish when I was suffered even more and passed the most. At one point around mile 28.5, my right foot (yet again) caught a rock so instinctively my left leg swung around to catch myself only to have my left calf seize up fully in what was comparable or worse to the ART session a couple of days prior. There I stood in the middle of the woods so close but still so far from the finish, head thrust back in agony and unable to restrain myself from letting out a bloodcurdling, teeth-gritting scream. The pain lasted for about half a minute before I was able to point my toe back out and the pain subsided. I continued on my ridiculously pathetic shuffle, stopping to walk frequently when it felt my legs were filling up with cement while getting passed often.

I continued that way all the way to the finish completing my first real race back in a little over 5:56. After kissing the rat to complete my race, I immediately plopped down, put my feet up and pulled from a beer while cheering others in. Not happy about how my legs failed me in the last 1/3 of the race and how old injuries (left foot, knee) ended up revisiting me, but was very encouraged by my mental will to finish - DNF'ing never entered my mind. Most of all, I was just happy to be back out there mixing it up in the rock and dirt with like-minded folks in the mountains. I will definitely be back to get my revenge on this course but in the meantime, will lick my wounds and focus on recovery.

I leave you with some footage taken along the course:

Race Report: Dove Canyon Trail Marathon

It's been awhile since I've participated in a race as a registered runner and while I've been eyeing Noble Canyon 50K as my first one back from injury, I decided somewhat last minute to jump into a low-key one thrown by Charlie Alewine. It was near where I'd be staying for purposes of seeing the Dave Matthews Band the night before and I figured a good way to get in a supported long run.

Dave Matthews Band, now with extended encores just to fuck w/ Billy

I've been getting in some quality runs but nowhere near the volume I could/should be running due to the lingering foot injury that rears its ugly head anywhere from 8-15 miles into a given long run. This made me a tad apprehensive but I was probably more so about a late night on my feet preceding the race along with the forecasted weather showing it would hit a high of 90-degrees that day. Sure enough, I wouldn't get back to my hotel room in (somewhat) nearby Newport Beach until after midnight and it turned out to be a hot one as advertised.

Stumbling around our dark hotel room the morning of without trying to wake my sleeping girlfriend was a bit of a challenge as was trying to navigate the 30-40 minute drive to the race site. Add to it that I unknowingly ended up on a toll road on the last stretch and narrowly missed hitting a deer that decided to scamper across the highway as I was doing 85+ MPH trying to arrive on time. Thankfully, solid brakes spared the doe its life and I arrived at the start with just a couple of minutes to spare.

"Ok, here he comes. Warmer...warmer..."

The race field was tiny (10-15 runners?) and the course would be an exercise in patience and discipline as it would be an approximately ~3.25 mile out and ~3.25 mile back on rolling terrain running through Dove Canyon amidst a few homes and open fields. I ran into friends Rachel and Rachel (the former would drop after one out-and-back due to a foot injury), exchanged pleasantries and quickly gathered myself for the 7:15am start.

I'm not used to running out ahead but that's precisely how we started off that day along with a half-marathon runner and a young British whipper-snapper named Josh with whom I'd be running with/near all day (I dunno why I'm calling him that except that's the only description that ran through my head that morning). We started off at a pretty conservative pace but even that was enough to pull us in front. Eventually, we let the half-marathoner run up ahead and Josh and I took turns running with or just ahead of the other. I honestly couldn't have cared less about positioning and just focused on running a steady pace for the 26+ hot miles. Didn't exactly work out that way.

I'll spare most of the details. I had a drop bag and mini-cooler at the start/finish and kept adding ice to a bandana wrapped around my neck. The course while more scenic than I'd anticipated did eventually win out. While I ran pretty steadily for the first 3 out and backs, eventually the distance, rolling hills and the rising sun took its toll on me and I suffered to maintain a steady pace for the last couple of out and backs. I'll take long steady climbs/descents any day versus the unending, rocky rollers we had to battle all day.

I did pretty well on nutrition I suppose, taking in a gel at each turnaround point (~30-45 minutes) along with a Salt Stick at every completed turnaround. I stuck mostly with water although for the last lap I grabbed a 2nd handheld which I filled with Gatorade because I was so damn dehydrated (couldn't get myself to pee despite all the fluid I was taking in throughout the race until the last .5 mile or so...even then, it was golden yellow and just a few drops).

At the finish w/ Josh the young and quick Brit (no he didn't race BF)

I crossed a couple of minutes behind Josh in 2nd (after 4:35 of running and 3,500+ ft of elevation gain) and after receiving our medals/trophies and shooting the shit while I gathered myself sucking down water/coconut water/coke/gatorade then more water. After a few minutes I thanked Charlie the RD and said goodbye to Josh and a couple of other runners that were lingering there.

Surprisingly, the foot was a non-issue although I iced it as a precautionary measure. The legs while obviously sore didn't seem to take too much of a punishment and escaped injury-free which for me, is always a good thing. As I mentioned the point was to treat this as a supported long run and not beat me up to a point where I couldn't continue training (er, tapering?) for Noble Canyon. 2 more weeks!