Tuesday, June 14, 2011

San Diego 100 Race Report



·        Adventure began with a beautiful drive through Julian with pacer/photographer/videographer/crewer extraordinaire Andy Salinger.
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·         Toeing the line, let everyone take off at a pace much too fast for all but a couple of the people in this lead pack.  Beautiful meadows, lakes, pine forested rolling hills for the first 10 or so miles
·         cruised down into penny pines, felt good up until this point in the race – mile 23, but didn’t feel very good for the next 77 miles =)

·         Thought I could throw down some fast miles down to the pine creek aid station 7 miles down noble canyon, I was wrong, so wrong.  Trail was fun, but more rocky and technical than I thought and I had to take my sweet time, beautiful trail though.



·         Around the pine creek aid station it started to warm up and we were totally exposed to the sun… and horseflies that kept buzzing around my head and biting me for about 4 miles.  I was using a branch off a bush to swat them away, worked pretty well.  At the top of the only 2 miles of pavement on the whole course a couple volunteers were handing out popsicles, definitely hit the spot THANKS!

·         I was kind of excited when I got close to the Sunrise aid station, because I knew I was slightly more than half way done, but I felt soooooo bad, sick to my stomach and tired.  I really thought that there was absolutely no way I could run another mile or two, let alone 49.  Luckily, this is where I picked up my first pacer Andy, who reminded me that I’ll have up’s and down’s along the way, and that I’ll eventually get better.
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Felt better after this
            A couple weeks ago when we ran the training run up and down Stonewall Mtn. I thought to myself, this isn’t that steep, I’ll run this whole section on race day.  Haha.  I hiked the majority of it, then cramped up briefly on the way down on the rocky section.  Made it to Paso Picacho, the coke looked good so I had a gulp, stomach didn’t like it at all.  Put on my headlamp and started walking out of there.  Saw Chrissy Moehl arrive at the aid station when I was leaving, and she quickly caught me. 
Donning the headlamp
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      Saw her leaving sweetwater aid station when I arrived.  Was great seeing Aid Station captain Keira Henninger here.  Andy & I were both wearing race shirts from a couple of Keira’s races: Los Pinos and Leona Divide, she was stoked to see that.
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      Picked up my 2nd pacer Jimmy Dean Freeman at Sunrise 2, mile 81.  He was sporting argyle Giants pants, a Buster Posey Jersey and Brian Wilson beard… Hummmm baby.
Pacer #1 Andy Salinger, RD Scott Mills, myself, Pacer #2 Jimmy Dean Freeman
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      Jimmy helped keep me motivated, and lied about how well I looked and was running, I needed to hear that.
·         He jumped in front of me to pull me the last 4 miles into the finish.  He said we needed to run 12min miles to finish under 20hrs, so he was going to run 11min miles to play it safe.  He later told me we ran 9min miles, and it felt great.
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      My primary goal was always to run sub 20 hours.  Another goal, if I couldn’t obtain the first, was to finish quicker than a pathetic Dodger’s fan who ran the race last year in 20:18.



      No poison oak yet!
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            Saw many friends and familiar faces, helped make my first 100M experience a special one.

           6 out of top 10 were from out of state

·       I finished  7th out of 159 starters with a time of 19:44, 66% finished other third dropped.
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      Predictions:
  
      I wasn't too far off.  Yassine and Rod tore it up, as did Dylan.  Guillermo, Josh and Dave didn't show, and Ben dropped.  Chrissy chicked me as predicted... barely!  I'm gunning for you next time girl =)  Jenny Capel and Betsy Nye did well as well.

8 comments:

  1. great job out there Chris. love the pics, especially the one behind the bush. thanks for not turning the other way for that shot.

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  2. Well done Chris. You did an amazing job out there.

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  3. I bet you have a sub-19 in you. Way to go. Let's do it again next year!

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  4. Awesome race man. Congrats again Chris - that's a monster time on that course!

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  5. Well done man. You crushed it. Here's to a speedy recovery!

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  6. Perhaps the best 100 miler debut I've seen in a longgggg time. These races only get easier from here on out bro.. Unless you choose harder ones, but even still, they're awesome and your torrid love affair will only flourish from here on out ;)

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  7. Proud of you, and your "pathetic Dodgers fan" comment. GO GIANTS! LOL

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