San Diego 100 Predictions

Had a couple fun days of training last weekend on the course.  Thanks for letting me bum a ride out there with you Carl.  I was pleasantly surprised with how beautiful the area is, was also surprised with how many people were there on Sunday (60) and how organized all the aid stations were.

RD extraordinaire Scotty Mills leading the way

Conga line up to Stonewall Mtn.

View from the top

Ran the last 10 miles of the course on Monday w/ Elissa, here she is on the PCT

Penny Pines Aid Station

^^^^^^^^^^^^^ MEN'S FIELD PREDICTIONS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

1. Guillermo Medina: he's a machine
2. Ben Hian: hard not to put him at number one, but Guillermo runs with a little more honey badger like tenacity.
3. Yassine Diboun: solid Miwok performance recently
4. Rod Bien
5. Dylan Bowman: younger guy, did well at Leadville
6. Brian Polley
7. Dave James... but he's running WS 2 weeks later... can't run them both well, what'll he do?
8. Josh Brimhall
9. Tim Long
10. Chris Price:  It's my blog so I get to put my name on this list, I haven't run a 100, so I don't really belong on here though.
11. Harald Zundel: just ran across the country, he's ready to rock it

###################### WOMEN'S FIELD ###################

1. Krissy Moehl: will place very high overall and probably chick me
2. Julie Fingar
3. Jenny Capel: Is from Reno, I like Reno
4. Tracy Dimino
5. Betsy Nye:  Is from Truckee so she's tough

ADDENDUM:  

Forgot about Topher Gaylord, he'll finish top 5.  Word on the street is there are some other dudes that'll tear it up that I'm not to familiar with... Kinda like James Bonnet at Leona Divide.  And just like Leona there will be a handful of fast peeps that can't hang for 100, hopefully I won't be in this boat.

First DNF =(

Had a fun time yesterday up in Los Olivos at the Born to Run Ultramarathons.  Saw some familiar faces and met some nice people.  My wife was kind enough to drive myself, Chan & Hone at 3:30 in the morning.  Was signed up for the 100k but realized at mile 17 that I didn't feel up to running 60+ miles, so I ran about 30 and pulled the plug.  I ran 50 miles at Leona Divide two weeks prior and my body just wasn't ready to race that far again.  I've raced 50k's two weeks apart and been fine, but I learned that my body just can't handle doing that with these longer distances.  Friends have told me this, I'd I've read that I shouldn't race these distances this close together, but sometimes I like to learn the hard way I guess.

Hone, Chan - who PR'd in the 50k, and myself.

I really don't like the fact that I dropped because I like to think of myself as someone who follows through with what he says he's going to do.  I told people I was going to run 60 miles on Saturday, but now I have to say that I didn't.  No fun.  BUT, while I could have slowed down and pushed through some pain to finish the 100k race, doing so (while saving some pride) would have hurt me for running the SD 100 mile race 4 weeks from now.

RD Luis Escobar

So I learned from my mistake and now it's time to focus on training for San Diego 100.  Can't wait!

Jake about to tear up the 50k