2011 Golden Gate Dirty Thirty

After four attempts at an ultra distance, I finally put together a race I can say I'm extremely happy with. By no means the fastest time out there, but I couldn't be more excited about the way the race unfolded for me.

Simply put the Dirty Thirty is a must do. Awesome course, great volunteers and just a well put together trail race.

Going into the race I had no idea what to expect. Would a goal of averaging 5 miles an hour for the duration be possible? Probably not with just under 8'000 feet of up and down. How about running steady for 4 hours and hanging on for dear life over the next 3 hours with the hope of finishing under 7 hours? Yeah, that sounded much more reasonable.

Aid Station #1 - 5.4 Miles, 54 minutes 48 seconds:
I started out slow and just stuck with the surrounding group. There were chunks of walking on the runnable hills and I was fine with that. Beautiful sunrise on some great single track. More importantly, not much effort made to get to Aid #1.

Aid Station #2 - 6.8 Miles, 1 Hour 25 minutes 25 seconds:
A mile out of Aid #1, all I could think about was taking a dump. Do I go in the woods? Do I hope to cross a camp site with some facilities? Luckily I came across a camp site. Unlikely there was a line. A line of 6 cub scout aged Korean kids. And no, I didn't feel bad for cutting them to get in the can. About a mile later I ran off course following someone. Lost time between the two events was easily 8 to 10 minutes. Oh well.

A bigger deal to me was how bad I felt. The flats and downhill just felt laboured and slow and I was getting smoked by others. Oddly though the uphill grind was something that didn't bother me one bit and allowed me to keep those cruising by me close. Mentally I was great but the thought of struggling thru another race started creeping into my head. Getting into Aid #2 felt like it took forever and for a moment wondered if breaking 7 hours would even be possible.

(Probably feeling my worst of the day heading to Aid #2. Thanks to MR2 for the pic)

Aid Station #3 - 16.9 Miles In, 1 Hour 9 minutes 33 seconds:
A steep climb greets you as you leave Aid #2. Then some downhill, rollers and another technical climb. It was during this second climb that things just felt different.

Nothing hurt, nothing felt laboured. 15 or so miles in and I was feeling great for the first time. Couldn't be possible. Was staying on top of fuel and hydration paying off? Or was it all the training I've put in year to date?

(Approaching Aid #3 excited about more miles in front of me. Great Pics by WA)

Aid Station #4 - 23.3 Miles In, 1 Hour 20 Minutes 32 Seconds:
Leaving Aid #3 starts out with a hot climb for a few miles and I was extremely pumped about this. There were easily a dozen plus folks who I had been running off and on with for the past 10 miles and I wanted to drop each one of them. I ran pretty much all the climb and pushing the pace even harder as I passed someone. I wouldn't see anyone one of those folks again.

I was feeling great and wondering if I could push it more, or should I just keep the new found stronger pace and not risk blowing up. About mile 20 I caught up to some gal who's conversation and positive energy I was really enjoying (gal in the red shorts who appears in Woody's pic portfolio). So without thinking about it, I stuck with her and had an extremely pleasant running partner for 3 to 4 miles as we passed another half a dozen folks.

Aid Station #5 - 28.5 Miles In, No split but I had a cum time of 5 Hours 58 Minutes at mile 29.9:
As I approached Aid #4, one guy I had literally just passed blew straight thru the aid station. I spent a few minutes loading up/chatting and once I started running again I noticed the guy had built an easy quarter mile lead on me. Not sure why but stepping up the pace even more felt like the right thing to do. Within a minute of the uphill I was caught up to him and at that point I pressed hard uphill for the next 5 minutes. Didn't see him again till the descent off Windy Peak and by then I had a mile plus lead on him. Now that felt satisfying.

The climb up to Windy was long and steep at times. I mixed in a good amount of running and powering hiking up to the high point. During the out and back section, I counted how many folks were heading down. Counted 7 and had that number as the amount of folks I wanted to pass till the finish. Once on the downhill and all the way to the finish, I easily ran my fastest and hardest of the day. Just cruising like I was on some type of tempo run. Passing 5 of the 7 folks just mentioned. I felt great here running everything hard except that last steep bitch leading to mile 29.9.

34th Place with a time of 6 Hours 10 Minutes and 9 Seconds:
Don't know my splits but pretty sure I ran a much faster second half of the race by a good 40 minutes or so. Threw down like 10 gels, 3 salt caps, a good 20 to 30 ounces of water between aid stations and a cup of soda at each of the last 3 aid stations. Never once did I feel a bonk or have a low point during the race.

Outside of the lethargic type of running early on, the only real issues I dealt with most of the race was whether I could have pushed it harder once I started feeling good. Good issues to have.

(Approaching the finish. Note the ladies on the right loving my style. Pic from WA.)

Afterwards:
I felt great upon finishing. Felt like I could have ran for a lot longer. Grabbed some food and enjoyed meeting/hanging out with of so many fine folks. Kieran and Brandon whom I rode up with. BFish, GZ, JT (thanks for the beer, for farting in my face and lying to me about breaking 6 hours), WA, MR2, NPedatella, NClark and like always, so many others whos name I didn't catch.

Sunday woke up a bit fatigued but no signs of muscle tightness or soreness. I went out for an easy 7 mile run around the hood and felt great. Pleasently shocked in all honesty. Really excited about summer time and using this postive race experience as a building block as Steamboat approaches.