The North Face Endurance Challenge GORETEX 50 Mile Championship

Yes, you read that right, I think The North Face is attempting to win an award for the longest race name. From this point on, I'm going to refer to it as the NF50...

INTRO

Months ago, while trying to work out my race schedule for the remainder of 2012, I stumbled upon the NF50 in San Francisco. From the moment I laid my eyes on the description, maps, and pictures ...oh, those beautiful pictures... I was sold. It didn't take long before I was signed up; I couldn't pass up the chance to run in the beautiful Marin Headlands.

The course begins at Fort Barry in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, wanders northwest into the Muir woods, then into Mt. Tamalpais (that's Tam-ul-pie-us, or Mt. Tam) State Park and back to Fort Barry along a different route. The runners enjoy everything from low shrubs and grassy rolling hills to tall, stately trees and everything in between while enjoying an amazing view of the Golden Gate bridge, San Fran, and the Pacific ocean. At least that's what they advertised.

THE FIASCO

Frequent, almost obsessive checking of Weather Underground, WeatherChannel.com and other weather sites told me well in advance that I was going to have to pack wet weather gear, and lots of it. I was a little worried that my flight in to Oakland might be delayed, or worse, cancelled, which would mean I would have to drive to the race -- I wasn't going to let this one slip by.

Friday morning, TNF sent race participants a notice via email that, because of the rain and flood warnings, some of the trails that made up the 50 mile course would be closed. They said the course would be re-routed and that the new course would be communicated out to the participants before noon. Not good news. I had planned my drop bags for Cardiac AS and Tennessee Valley AS around the distance and my position on the course. They were packed and ready to go. The plan was to take the bags straight to packet pickup and leave them there. The course change could mean a complete change to my drop bag strategy. Oh well, I thought, this is a highly supported race, I'm sure I'll be fine.

Greg, my travel and running buddy, and I made our way to The North Face store at Union Square without hearing a peep about the course change. As we stood in line at packet pickup, there was speculation about possibly doing a double-marathon course. No one was excited about the prospect of doing a 26.2 mile loop, twice, but we were all happy that at least TNF wasn't canceling the race. After packet pickup it was off to The Cheesecake Factory for lunch and then across the the Golden Gate bridge to find our way to Sausalito.

LORD OF THE RINGS

We got there a little too early to check into the hotel, so we stayed in the car and wandered along CA-1, stopping many times along the way to get pictures of the amazing landscapes and some of the ocean views. Stopping at Muir Beach was difficult because the trails were right there in front of me. Driving through the Muir woods was also difficult, since I knew that we wouldn't get to run through the woods during the race, and that was one of the big draws to running in this area. There were more than a couple of times when a sweet trail came into view from the car and the words, "STOP! TRAIL! I'm running this!" slipped out. "Save it for the race," I kept telling myself. I'm glad Greg is more reserved, or I would have left the car on the road and disappeared down some unknown trail and may not have been seen for a couple of days.

DAY OF THE RACE

I slept well Friday night, at least as well I can be expected the night before a race. All night, I could hear rain and wind and when I woke up, what awaited me was low, grey clouds and fog, intermittent rain with long periods of torrential downpours, wind, temperatures in the 50s, almost no visibility and oh, did I mention it was wet? Yeah, there were over a hundred people at the starting line all with wet feet, shorts, etc all before the race even started.

As we were all standing there huddled around a charcoal/gas fire, with the elite runners already at the line and ready to go, a voice came over the PA to welcome everyone to the race. There was a short apology for the weather and I seem to remember a brief, nondescript mention of the course change. After that, Dean Karnazes, from somewhere in the crowd at the start line welcomed everyone. I couldn't see him, and I doubt anyone near me could either. Oh well.

THE START

Before long, the countdown was on. The runners all leaned into the start line and the race was on. I don't know why I expected to see a whole group of runners heading out at a sprinter's pace, but I was a little surprised at how reserved they all were at the start. Soon after they left, the second wave of runners started and then it was my wave toeing the line, and heading out into the dark.

START -> 5-MILE

The first mile or so took me out of Ft. Barry, along a paved road, across a wooden foot bridge and onto a hard packed groomed trail. My weakness has always been going out too hard, so I had told Greg that I would stick with him at a more reserved pace for as long as I could. Yeah, that lasted only a mile and a half. You see, after I hit the groomed path, it wasn't long before I came to a Y junction and followed the string of bobbing headlamps up a long hill. It's still very dark at this time, but I could tell by the long string of lights that the trail remained very exposed to the elements for quite a while. I am a power-hiker and the pace we were moving was just slow enough to prohibit power-hiking but just fast enough to make walking uncomfortable. Besides, I came here to RUN! ...right?

I started my mix of power-hiking and slow jogging, which I kept up clear to the top of the hill. I started worrying at that point that I was passing too many runners and I would likely see them again in a few miles as they breezed past me doing a bonk walk. But, I felt good and I wasn't going to let that moment pass. At the top of the hill is the Alta AS (it wasn't set up yet) where the trail loops back down a long hill to meet up with the 5-Mile AS by the foot bridge we had crossed just a few miles back.

The whole way down that hill my legs felt great. I sailed down the hill, passing more conservative (read smart) runners as I managed to keep myself contained to a pace in the low 8's. There were more than a few comments along the lines of, "Ha! Look at that guy! He thinks he's going to win this!" or, "See you in a few miles." Again, I didn't care, I felt good.

I think I grabbed just a cup of water at the 5-mile aid station, though I didn't really need it. Anyone who was there could testify to the fact that just opening your mouth while you ran would be enough to get a good drink. At this point, I also realized that my fueling strategy was in part driven from my experiences at runs in the Phoenix area and that I was going to be fine with much less water/electrolytes than I had planned. But, running in wet conditions can be deceiving; because the air is cold and moist, people don't take in enough fluids and electrolytes and end up fighting a deficit early on that can last the rest of the race. I had to make sure I didn't fall into that camp.

5-MILE -> TENNESSEE VALLEY

The run from 5-Mile aid to Tennessee Valley AS (TV) went pretty fast. Sometime between 5-Mile and TV, the sun came up to reveal (through the diffused light) a beautiful single track trail ...covered in a layer of mud and puddles. It was grand. I ran by myself during this section and again passed far more runners than were able to squeeze by me -- feeling pretty good still.

I cruised in to TV and grabbed some water, chips, and orange slices. Then it was over to the drop bag area where ...my drop bag was missing. Yeah, I spent 10 minutes or so looking for a bag that wasn't there. I even had two other AS volunteers looking through the piles of wet bags, to no avail. In retrospect, I don't know why I didn't just pack up and leave. Maybe it was the extra shirt, gloves and hat I had removed and didn't want to carry for the next many miles in my hands. After searching once more, I stuffed my extra gear into every available pocket in my jacket (which made me look like I had a nice little pot belly thing going on). Oh... this is where I decided to make a quick stop at the nice park bathroom and opened the door to find a female runner just getting up from the toilet -- awkward. I didn't see her again the rest of the race. Nothing like a creepy looking bald guy who just saw you with your pants down running behind you on the trail to get you moving a little faster.

TENNESSEE VALLEY -> MUIR BEACH

I don't know why, but I was a little upset about not being able to drop my extra gear at TV. The constant bouncing of my wet gear in my jacket pockets was more than a little annoying, but before long, I was almost able to put it out of my mind. The trail out to Muir Beach was amazing -- up to the point that the trail suddenly turned downhill and became a completely muddy mess. I'm not kidding. People all over the trail were sliding and falling downhill. At this point, I saw a guy in Hokas sliding around like he was on ice skates, which made me very glad I had decided to run in my Roclites.

MUIR BEACH -> TENNESSEE VALLEY

The stop at Muir Beach was very welcomed. I had gone through both flasks of my Fuel Belt and needed a drink bad. Two drinks of water and GU Brew, some pretzels (I never usually eat pretzels on a run) and it was off to the races (literally) again. The climb up the muddy hill was brutal, and I thought going down was difficult. After climbing up what I had just gone down, the trail made a left and continued up another long hill. Wait, didn't I just make it to the top of the hill? Nope, guess not, keep climbing.

After climbing into the clouds (they were well below 800 ft at this point) the trail wandered for a while along a ridge and into the trees. YES! TREES! I don't know what it is, but running through the trees is a whole lot more fun than running anywhere else. I found someone to run with during this section and ran with her until she completely left me in the dust ...er, mud... on a short uphill section where I resorted to power-hiking again while she ran. Yeah, I never saw here again. The trail leading into TV is phenomenal. Another beautiful, fast trail was very welcome at this point and I was feeling good again after that last long, tiring climb, and I was looking forward to spending time at TV looking for my non-existant drop bag so I could offload the gear that was making me look 20 lbs overweight.

So, I rolled in to TV and walked right to my bag. No looking. I walked right to it -- on the 50k TABLE!!! UGH! The 50k bags arrived well after I left TV the first time. At this point, I didn't care anymore that it wasn't there the first time. I emptied my pocket, lost 5 lbs of soaking wet gear, ate some food, had some drinks and got out of there all in around 5 minutes. I wasn't going to chance any bathroom awkwardness again at this stop.

TENNESSEE VALLEY -> ALTA

I left TV feeling great, up until the point that I realized the climb out of TV was a dirt road that never ended. This was a long climb, and I struggled to power hike and turned my my mix to a power hike/walk mix all the way to the top. At the top of the hill, it was back into the clouds with low visibility. I met a runner here, Nicole, who ran with me through the clouds and kept me distracted from the fact that this section was a muddy dirt road all the way to Alta. This is where I realized that I had gotten behind on my hydration and started feeling a little slow. I only spent a couple of minutes at Alta refueling, but it was long enough to loose site of Nicole.

ALTA -> FORT BARRY

The run from Alta to Ft. Barry follows the same trail I had managed to sail down on the first morning loop. I must have gotten into the zone again because I pulled of 8s almost all the way to Ft. Barry. The whole way I kept thinking about how I was going to handle the transition out to the second loop. It was going to be hard to turn around for the second half of the race when the finish line is 20 yards away. I decided I wouldn't look at the finish line and would focus on the task at hand until I was back out on the course.

FORT BARRY - AKA- GUT CHECK TIME

The stop at Ft. Barry went faster than expected. A quick stop at the buffet table for some water and electrolytes, a PB&J sandwich and some chicken broth. ***DISCLAIMER: This is probably the only time when PB&J tastes great with chicken broth.*** After the food, I changed into some semi-dry clothes, left my glorious Roclites right where they were, filled a bottle of Ultragen to take with me and got ready to run back out onto the course. This was when I realized that the chute back out to the course runs RIGHT PAST the finish line. Anyway, one quick left u-turn and I was back out for round #2.

ACT LOOP 2 - BRING IT ON!

FORT BARRY -> TENNESSEE VALLEY

I followed the same course out across the roads, the foot bridge and back to the Y junction. This is where I realized I didn't know where to go. Thank goodness there was a volunteer at the junction. I slowed to a walk and asked the volunteer which way I was supposed to go. After I told him that I was a 50 miler, he told me that I should only pass that junction twice and I needed to make a left. I thanked him and ran as much as I could all the way to TV. The same fast, beautiful course... nothing more to report. Oh yeah, did I mention it rained?

TENNESSEE VALLEY -> MUIR BEACH

Soon before I made it to TV, I came across Jon Roig again. We got in and out of TV and then leap frogged all the way to Muir Beach. I would pass him on the uphills and he'd fly by me on the downhills. This is also about the time my piriformis issues began to manifest again. There's nothing worse than seeing a beautiful downhill section and not being able to run it without excruciating pain down the sciatic nerve. OUCH! The muddy section down to Muir Beach AS was so much worse the second time I was almost sliding down it in my super grippy shoes. It was insane. The stop at Muir was great. More chicken broth, a refill of fluids and a handful of snacks.

MUIR BEACH -> TENNESSEE VALLEY

It was time again for the long slog up the muddy hill -- oh, joy. Near the top of the hill, I hit the wall. My legs felt like lead and I had a real pity party going on. There always seems to be at least one point during a race where I question my existence. Ok, maybe not that dramatic, but I do question the whole point to running, much less running 50 miles. I had my phone with me and did a little video therapy to take my mind off of things. It worked, but it still took me some time, salt tabs, water and snacks before I was able to push through it and start "running" again. Then, I was back on my way through the trees and the spectacular fast trail through the trees for the last time.

TV (and the awesome cowbell) was a welcome site again, and this time I made sure to refill with another salt tab, more fluids and more snacks. It's all about the calories, baby!

TENNESSEE VALLEY -> ALTA -> FORT BARRY

This time I was prepared for the long climb out of TV up to the Alta aid station I paced myself all the way up and was able to maintain a decent hike all the way to the top. At that point, my piriformis issues relented just enough to let me start a decent run to Alta. I was feeling good enough at Alta to bypass the aid station completely and start the descent into Fort Barry and the finish line. After only a quarter the way down the hill, something snapped (or, more accurately, released) in my piriformis and I was able to  run a controlled easy pace downhill (yippee!). I kept up that pace and added to it once the trail flattened out a little. That pace lasted past the foot bridge and then off and on up the paved road and the slight hill into Ft. Barry.

THE FINISH

There's something about being that close to the finish that lights a fire in me every time. I started running faster and could hear the cheers coming from the finish line. Spectators along the road offered their congratulations and I was energized again. I ran the remainder into Ft. Barry and across the finish line, letting out a whoop as I crossed. I not only finished, but felt pretty good the entire time. I hit the wall once and managed to push through miles of piriformis pain, but I made it.

The volunteer at the line told me my time and I just about fell over -- 9:18! WHAT? Really? I just ran 46.8 miles in 9 hours and 18 minutes? That was a good 42 minutes faster than my goal! Insane! I was on cloud nine!

REALITY SETS IN

So... here's the downer to the story. Nearly the whole race I either had my Garmin underneath my jacket where I couldn't see it, or intentionally didn't look at it. I have a thing with letting the mileage from my Garmin get to me. If I look at my Garmin and see that I'm at mile 30, I start thinking about how I have 20 more miles to go, and it takes the wind out of my sails. I'm sure someday I'll get over that, but for now, I have trained myself to keep my eyes off the Garmin.

Anyway, it wasn't until 1.5 hours or so after I crossed the line, when I was finally changing into some warm dry clothes, that I finally looked at the splits on my Garmin. The first thing I saw was my time, 9:18:29, followed by the number 41.99. I had to look again, but the number didn't change. 41.99 miles. I was blown away. WHAT? I just ran the 46.8 mile course, how could my Garmin be that far off? I thought about it for a bit, but I was tired and couldn't think enough to do the math, so I chalked it up to the cloud cover, bad points on switchbacks, etc... not going to worry about it now.

After I got home from SF, I loaded the data onto the computer and started analyzing my race, immediately looking for where the watch went wrong. It didn't. It was SPOT ON! The only explanation is that I somehow missed 5 miles. ... Let's see ... wait ... 5-Mile aid. The volunteer at the junction. AUGH!!! I downloaded the updated maps from the race site and jumped right to that point. Sure enough, the volunteer gave me bad directions and had just cost me 5 miles. My time is bogus. I didn't run the race as I should have. What a crappy feeling. I wanted to crawl into a hole.

I was having quite the pity party when I came across the coverage from irunfar.com where Bryon and Megan were talking about the four lead runners who missed the turn at Muir Beach that likely cost them a podium spot. It wasn't just me. Others had missed turns. I started thinking back to the race and the runners I had talked to who all reported having "issues" with their Garmin. At one point, there were three of us on walking together, one of the rare times when I did check my Garmin, and none of us had anything close to the same mileage. What a mess.

So, it's on. As soon as registration opens for next year, I'm in. I have a score to settle. I'm not leaving this race unrun. I'll be back.