Skyline to Sea 50km

As I sit here writing up a brief race report, I have quite a few friendly reminders of last Saturday's race: My left pec, the back of my head and the inside of my right knee all itch with the 3 day remenants of a brutal yellowjacket attack. "Luckily" I've experienced this before and I think I'm building up an immunity to the pesky critter's venom :-) Needless to say races in Big Basin in August - September have never failed to pen ultrarunners against nature's yellow stinging beasts. I'm happy to annouce that the ultrarunners are 2-0!

Before going into the drama of the run, I must say the Skyline to Sea 50km was absolutely wonderful. Although this was only my 4th 50km race I set a personal record of 5:16:46 good for 36th place out of 181 runners. This will be a marque race for years to come and rightfully attracted a number of VERY fast runners. As one runner said, "This is like a mini Western States". I was satisfied with my time and place - but recognize room for future improvement.

My morning started at 4:30AM. I was at the Greyhound Rock bus stop at 6:15AM. I shared a bus seat with Georganna Quarles, a great ultrarunner and 3 time Ironman finisher, I met during last year's 3 step run. She'll be running next year's Western States and is planning on running 2010's Badwater. And... she's 54. Wow! We arrived at Saratoga Gap and settled in - holding onto our warm clothes until the last possible moment before stuffing them into a drop bag to be transported back to finish. I spend some time talking to Mike Weston about the great run over Black Mountain into Rancho San Antonio! We crossed highway 35 to start the run at 9:00AM. I caught a glimpse of one of the 1st place winners, Lon Freeman. Wow, dude has huge quads!

We were off at a brisk pace cutting through redwood forests shrouded in morning fog. Down the steep drop offs, which also skirted highway 9, there were old cars that had flown off the road and left to rust. I settled in behind 2 guys that I knew only from message boards: Steve and Craig. And, it wasn't long before the first attack happened. Craig got hit on his right wrist just before the first aid station. He was a bit shaken but okay.

We rolled into Waterman's gap aid station that was being worked by Stan Jenson. And guess what... he recognized our CRC shirt! He said, "Coastside Running Club, that's Ron Little's group isn't it?" I said it sure is! I introduced myself and thanked him for his volunteer work then sped off.

The next stretch between Waterman's Gap and China Grade was mostly uneventful aside from another small yellowjacket attack. I got hit 2x - others about the same.

Steve, Craig, and I hit the China Grade aid station and I was the last to leave, trailing them by about 10 seconds. About 1/4 mile out is when the big attack happened. Steve and Craig began flailing and screaming which turned into wind sprints mixed with random jumping and lots of self-slapping. I however heard them then immediately stopped, ran back 5 steps and stopped. I looked forward at the trail ahead and saw Steve and Craig on the other side of a 2 foot wide BALL of yellowjackets hoovering in the center of the trail. Within the span of 5 seconds I thought, "okay what am I going to do?" Well I could run back, but why? Where am I going to go? Ummm, this is a race. So, I pulled down my sunglasses and CHARGED right through the swarm. I got stung and bit numerous times. It hurt, yes, a lot. I too began the strange sprinting bee attack dance that involved self-slapping...

As most ultrarunners do, we helped each other by slapping bees off one another for the next 1/4 mile.... while continuing to run and traverse some moderately technical single track. It was quite a challenge! Steve gave my back one last check then sprinted ahead. It was then I spotted another bee on him, in a not so friendly place. I yelled, "Steve, there's a bee in you ass crack!" He didn't hear me... then both Craig and I yelled in unison... while laughing (we really couldn't help it). This time it registered with Steve and he cleared his derriere without incident :-)

Some miles went by as we joked about the attacks. Then we heard a scream up ahead. Craig and I braced for an attack. It stopped being funny really quick! To our relief the scream up ahead wasn't an attack, but Mike Nuttall taking a hard spill. There were 2 people helping him and he was up and walking by the time we arrived. All was good and there was HUGE relief that we were not going to be attacked again!

We rolled into Big Basin and hit the park loop (the only significant climb of the course). I used it to energy up and when we crested the hill I took off like wildfire. I bolted down the Meteor trail feeling great and passing runner after runner. I hit the aid station supplied up for the 8 mile stretch between aid stations and took off keeping my same quick pace. I burned down to Berry Creek falls really pushing my quads knowing that I was going into energy depletion. My legs were hinting at being sore and my energy was dropping signaling it was time to hit 2 GUs and increase my calorie intake and pull back my pace.

Well, to my HORRIBLE surprise I flipped my waist pack around and the zipper was completely open. I reached in and EVERYTHING had fallen out. 3 GUs, 2 packs of Cliff Shots... all gone. My mind immediately sunk! I did have my 30 oz. bottle with Perpetuem but that was almost done. To attempt to pull myself out of an impending energy null I drank everything. But, it didn't help. I soon ran out of water/perpetuem. The only variable I had to control was my pace. I ran on the borderline of bonking for a good 4 miles - speeding up when I could and slowing down or walking when needed. I shared my plight with Steve who caught up to me and he graciously shared a GU. He was awesome. The bonking was a good exercise in energy-pace management but not something I'd like to repeat.

Finally the last aid station, with 3km left to go to the finish. I had 2 cups of Coke, 1 GU, and filled my bottle with water. I was off and my energy slowly picked up. I brought in a strong finish of 5:16.

I'd do it again next year... I had a wonderful time!