Are You Tough Enough 2010

RUTE 10 Race Report (Team Beauty and the Beasts)

Intro (Dan reporting): 65 mile relay race, 5 team members, ten legs of varying difficulty and lots of fun climb and plunges. The route went from Summerland, south of Santa Barbara (Toro Canyon Park) along the mountain ridges of Camino Cielo, above Santa Barbara, up the coast past Santa Barbara to the valley beyond.

Team Roster (L to R): Vida Mia, Tom, Dan, Brian, David.

In our second running of RUTE, we changed up our team roster a little bit. Kary was recruited away by the local #1 female runner in SB to join their team to take a crack at the all women RUTE record and Drew was side lined by some injuries from the last RUTE. Looking around for new candidates proved a little tough, but then we thought of a couple (Vida Mia and Tom) who had taken up running again in the last few years and were doing great running a bunch of half marathons. Celine and I asked them over dinner at Flour and Water in SF and they jumped right in. Cool, team B&B was whole again!

They had some funny comments after they really looked into the elevation changes involved, but they were still gung-ho and we had a new team for 2010. ("We've been looking at the elevations. I can't speak for Vida Mia, but i know that I wet myself a little. It was when I realized that the top of San Bruno Mountain in South San Francisco is only 1200ft, that the reality hit. But, we're excited.") Wheee! Gut checks for Dan, David and Brian - all of us were running stronger , faster and lighter than last year. David and Dan split up the brutal Gibraltar hill climb and Brian again took on the longest total miles with some killer downhill throughout.

We updated our swanky race spreadsheet with some good goal paces and switching around the legs. We ended up with a 10:23 stretch goal, which would have put us at the very back of the pack according to last year's results, but that's ok, we were racing to push ourselves, not beat the field. Celine once again crafted some great t-shirts for the team and gave us cool team B&B beer mugs. Thanks babe! Sachi also filled up a huge cooler with drinks and custom made sandwiches to fuel the team in our mighty Ford Flex.

[Getting ready at the start]

Leg 1 (Vida Mia reporting): Frankly, I am shocked that I have the energy that I have when the alarm goes off at 5 am. The previous night showed me and Tom that even the best-laid plans can go comically awry, and after a series of motel mishaps we didn't know for sure where we'd be sleeping until about 10 pm. (Major thanks to David and Sachi, who graciously and warmly took their teammates in and gave us not one but two warm beds!) Dispensing with all my planned pre-race prep, I jumped right into the sack and passed out by 10:45; little more than six hours later, David, Tom and I were standing in the kitchen bleary-eyed, getting ready to meet back at Dan and Celine's. As the super-slow runner of the group, I was a little nervous--I didn't want to let anyone down or be the cause of a last-place finish--but was still pretty excited to see what the day had in store for us.

Race start: I'm glad I mentally prepared myself for the reality of being the LAST one in the pack (um, and by a long shot), bcs if I hadn't, I might have actually been a little bummed to see ~25 other people SHOOT OUT in front of me and leave me in the dust. But I was under no illusions about my speed relative to everyone else's, and so I saluted the fast folks, admired their speed, and reminded myself to "Run your own race."

The first 3.8 miles were smooth sailing, and I was running faster than my usual 11:30 pace (on flat terrain). When I turned right on San Ysidro, I steeled myself for the incline up to Mountain... and found that it wasn't nearly as bad, or as long, as I thought it would be. (Thanks, Noe Valley hill training!) The first part of Mountain wasn't bad either--but it got hairier after Pacheco, and I walked a couple of the short steep hills. I kept trying to compare the distance I knew I'd already run versus the elevation maps Tom had printed out, and I knew things were off--but I didn't know how or where. Sure enough, T drives back to inform me that the finish line is about a half-mile further than we thought--and that that final half mile is much hillier than I'd like. (The day before, when we drove the course, we stopped at what we thought was the handoff point, glanced up at the hill ahead, and murmured "Wow, poor Dan." Sigh. Nope.)

Ultimately finished the 6.5 mi in 1:17, which was faster than the 1:28 I'd predicted given the slowdown on the hills. I definitely broke into a grin each time I checked the Garmin during that final stretch. And I felt great bounding in to tag Dan, and commence the 7-8 hours of team support until rounding the race out with Leg 10!

[Vida Mia handing off to Dan at start of leg 2]

Leg 2 (Dan reporting): Leg 2 was a mix of low rolling road on East Mountain and then the big climb up Gibraltar to hand off to David. I held on two thoughts as I waited for Vida Mia at the little Cold Springs creek crossing hand off, David blazed this part of the course in tempo runs and we both thought the big climb was very runnable. Waiting with David, we saw the Hasher team do a handoff and the guy who handed off from the first leg promptly downed a beer (they would do this for the whole race...)

Shortly after, Vida Mia came into view looking very strong after the rolling hills and steep finish of leg 1. Quick hand slap, jump across the creek and I was chasing after the Hasher team. Really beautiful run on East Mountain, great views of the hills, ocean and homes that survived the Jesusita fire. I caught the Hasher pretty quickly (and of course their team was thrilled, they pride themselves on cruising in after all the other teams are done.) Checking lap times, I was little worried about running fast for doing later Gibraltar, but held on anyway (sub 7:40 miles for first few miles) and passed at least one more team.

At the start of the crux climb were Tom, David and Vida Mia. I dropped off my water bottle for a refill and tackled that damn Gibraltar hill. Nice to have support and a little cheering. I had run 12:30 min/mile on the climb in a previous race. I figured that was conservative since the previous race was longer. Let's see what I can do now!

[Dan starting up Gibraltar, David water handoff, RD Jim cheering for team B&B]

I started out fast, pushing up the slope, looking up the winding roads leading towards David and the hand off. The cars with David, Vida Mia and Tom quickly caught me, giving me back a full water bottle (errr with some dirt and leaves on the spout, but I guess that for electrolytes.) Pounded out 10:30 miles on the big steep, knowing I didn't have to do it for too long. David talked about doing a warm up with me for the last mile, I was looking for him and finally realized he decided it would better to not do the warm up. No prob, let's kick it up to meet him soon and give him a good start. Last mile felt good and strong. I see David, he's hot to go, I push it up to slap his hand, tell him to catch some folks to the cheers of David and Vida Mia and Leg 2 is done, done, done. No more uphills for me today! Go David!!!

[David racing up Gibraltar]

Leg 3 (David reporting): My plans for running Gibraltar were to start with a 1 mile warm-up helping bring Dan in for the last mile. This plan changed when I first got out of my car at the Gibraltar switchback were Dan was to handoff to me. I stepped out of my vehicle and it was freaking freezing. Mid April and near freezing, who would of guessed? So my plans changed quickly, I decided to kick it in my car and have a PB&J to fuel me up for Gib. Dan killed it on the first part of Gib, and I have to admit I was caught a little off guard. With a belly full of PB&J I had to hop out of my car and get ready for the handoff from Dan. Dan was nice enough to handoff to me with another runner just in sight ahead. There went my plans for starting off mellow. It is like a dog chasing a cat, I can’t help myself. Even if I swear I’ll take it easy if I catch another runner in my sights I want to catch em. I was able to catch the runner ahead, but there is always a price to pay. My heart rate spiked super quick. It took me another mile just to get my heart rate under control. Gibraltar is one mean climb and it is no easier an effort, even with temps at the top of the mountain at around 41 degrees. The views from Gibraltar can be inspiring, but unfortunately that day towards the top of the mountain there was a thick cold fog. The fog killed the scenery but at least it kept me cool as I charged the mountain, and kept me from obsessing over the steep climb ahead. Overall I felt good about my effort on Gibraltar, and with the exception of the beginning of the leg I maintained pretty good control. I passed a few runners on the way to the top, and that always feels good. I finished the leg popping out of the fog to Brian’s surprise. Boy was I glad that part of the race was over. Just 9 more miles to go, and one more crazy ass climb.

Leg 4 (Brian reporting): About a mile out to handoff #4, Dave is heading up to La Cumbre Peak with three (?) runners well ahead of him. As I get it together, out of nowhere Dave shows up ahead of the three runners! Takes me 15-20 seconds to get my watch on and go. How many runners did Dan and Dave pass?

I averaged 6:40s for the first three downhill miles passing a few runners. The weather was nice and cool. On the uphill climb (about 500'), I averaged close to 10:00s and passed a runner. Steep uphills suck. Still better to do one then three (like in 2009)! The peaks were covered in fog. So weird to climb and not know where the top is. Summiting is always sweet.

On the last four downhill miles I averaged 6:30s and passed another four runners. The grade on the last mile flattened a bit and though still greater than 5% felt like running uphill! When I crossed 154, I could swear that a southbound driver was gunning for me.

I handed off to Tom who held his own on the tough run up West Camino Cielo. Made sure David had plenty of liquid (inside joke) before Tom and I headed to the handoff on leg 8.

[Brian finished with leg 3]

Leg 5 (Tom reporting): I was itching to take off after seeing all the inspiring performances from the rest of the team. At that point, I knew that Vida Mia, Dan and David had already surprised us with paces that were far faster than we thought. I hoped I could deliver a similar performance. Brian showed up ahead of schedule too. He waved across the freeway and I was off. The first mile or so rolled gently downhill. This was really a mercy. At least going out fast didn't cost me as much. I threaded through the canopy of trees along the single lane. I was still taking in the difference of running a relay when I turned onto Cielo. That's when it got hard.

I know Camino Cielo is beautiful, but I didn't take much notice of it. I was aware of vistas, but they seemed distant and vague in contrast to the acute sense of humility. Hills are no joke. I had quite a bit of internal noise going on. And a bit of external as well. I was huffing a puffing. Fortunately, I was able to pass one (likely injured) guy and as I passed him, I had a sense of the teamwork involved in that, something so I so rarely experience while running.

Maybe a mile later a guy sped by me with a nice, even stride. At least he was the only one to get by me on that leg. David and Brian swung by a few times offering water and support. The views were amazing, but I wasn't quite able to enjoy them.

Despite the difficulty, it was over pretty quickly. The leg only seemed to be about 4 miles. And there must have been more downhill than I realized. By the time I heard the gun shots from the range, I was getting a second wind. Then, around a bend, the welcome sight of parked cars and David's out stretched hand. He was off and I was done with my first leg.

Leg 6 (David reporting): I started off leg six with a handoff from Tom. I was very impressed with how well Tom handled leg 5. Tom was worried about the elevation gain on leg five because he didn’t have a lot of experience running mountains. You would have never known, he handled leg 5 like a champ handing off to me looking strong. Leg 6 is a 9 mile Mountain ridge run on all fire road. Lucky for me the first mile is a long decent down the Mountain. Everything felt pretty good and I had a lot of fond memories of training on this trail in the past. The first mile decent was easy peasy, but then came the long 8 mile climb to the top of Broadcast Peak. It didn’t take long, maybe within the first mile of the ascent to Broadcast Peak, for me to realize that I had gone out way, way, way too hard on Gibraltar. I had nothing left. I tried to push but I had no gas, there was just no pep in my step. I’ve never been known to be “Mr. Positive”, but usually when I’m racing my mind is free of negative thoughts and I focus on finding my running groove. This wasn’t the case for the remainder of leg 6. All I could think about is how I pushed too hard on Gibraltar. I started obsessing over my pace on my Garmin (sometimes those pace watches can be a pain in the ass). The next seven miles to the base of Broadcast were miserable, it felt like I was running in a pair of concrete running shoes. But, eventually I made it to the base of Broadcast and I managed to pass a couple of people on the way. The last climb up Broadcast is insane but sometimes a crazy intense climb is just the motivation you need you keep charging. Overall the race was great, and I was super happy with how we finished up.

[David wrapping up Leg 6][Leg 6/7 handoff from David to Dan]

Leg 7 (Dan reporting): David came in hot from Leg 6, looking crazy! He crushed leg 6, even after powering up the top half of Gibraltar for his first leg. He gave me a hand slap and I was off! All down hill, I was going to run this fast, near the edge of blowing up, my last leg, so time to push it. I was a little disappointed with my last leg in 2009, this year I'd damn well do better. Bam, 6:21 first mile, uh pretty much fastest I've ever run a mile. Shit, can I really keep this up for another 5 miles, ok go for an average of 6:30ish. Another mile: 6:23, cruising down this hill and suddenly it flattens out with a very mild uphill and I feel like I'm going to stop and walk from this fast pace! Wow, back to 7:18 for that mile, wtf, push through this. Road starts to fall again and I'm back on pace, leave it all on the course like David does, the ridge run is sweet. Looking down from the SB mountains to the ocean and Solvang in the Santa Ynez valley, takes the edge off the pain. Bam, bam, bam sub-6:30's to finish it off, I see the cars through the trees at the hand off. Can't wait to finish. Brian's at hand off, ready to go slap and he's gone down the mountain. I'm huffing and puffing, Vida Mia drives us down the mountain on the gnarly dirt road, off -roading like a rally driver, while I'm still trying to catch my breath minutes after I had finished. Oooo that felt fast, 6:34 min/mile for 6 miles! We were well ahead of our projected time, can we break 9:30? Go get 'em Brian!

[Brian, racing the mighty Ford Flex down leg 8]

Leg 8 (Brian reporting): When Tom and I got to the top of Refugio, there were some really fast runners gunning for sub 8:30 finishes. Dan showed up about 25 minutes later. This time I was ready. Took off down Refugio. Very bumpy with a lot of technical footwork. I passed one runner on the fire road steeps. I heard some voices behind me and did not want to be passed. Kept pushing on averaging 6:50s for the fire road down hill.

When I reached the paved up and down, a couple of guys swilling beers in lounge chairs congratulated me for doing two down legs. After I passed, I swear he said I was an idiot. He had it right. Even the cows were giving me funny looks.

By mile 5 (14 for the day), I was pretty spent. I did spy one more opportunity. There was a Power Tough girl about a 1/8 of a mile ahead. In the last 1/2 mile I ran approx 7 min pace and caught her. This final push was actually the toughest battle. Very beautiful run.

All in all, extremely satisfying and exhausting. With the help of gravity averaged 7:10 on Leg 4 (9.2 miles) and 7:06 on Leg 8 (6 miles). I was so pumped, somehow made it through the moving Rach 3 Symphony concert without dozing. Ironically, we were late from Ruth Chris and I had to run (literally) to get to our seats before they closed the doors! A propos!

Leg 9 (Tom reporting): David sacrificed his Scion on the way down Leg 8. Shortly after Vida Mia showed up behind the wheel with Dan in the recovery seat. (Just a side note: Major props to David and Vida Mia for driving down that leg. There were some crazy grooves, rocks, rabble and other sharp, car-hating-hazards. Well done.)

Finally, at the base of the hill, for the first time all day, it was warm. It felt great, but I knew I'd pay for it once I started running. A few minutes later Brian bounded around the bend. He handed off and I started out. I was quickly overtaken by a woman with an easy stride. I was way ahead of my projected pace and had to force myself to slow down. There was no way I'd be able to keep up with her. I was still going too fast, but I was having so much fun cruising along the warm flat stretch after so much climbing earlier in the race. My body was telling me it could run like this forever. My head knew that my body has no sense of history, but it made little difference. I was able to slow myself down to a 8:45 pace, about a minute faster than I'd planned.

[Vida Mia supporting Tom]

Eventually I lost track of the woman who'd passed me. I got some much needed Gatorade and support from Vida Mia and the team and continued along Mission. Apparently Celine and the gang passed me and cheered at one point, but I didn't realize it was them. I must have been a bit spacey because I also missed my turn until I heard Dan shouting to me. Up until then I was feeling good. After Vida Mia and Dan drove down the route, I started to struggle. I think I was paying for going out faster on the front end. I'd also forgot about how far I had to go. I forgot to look at the map again before I left and imagined that I was really close to the end. I think I misjudged it by about a mile. That last mile sucked. I dragged. I started cursing the heat which was so pleasant 45 minutes earlier. I was hot, starting to run out of water. I took a GU, which was a mistake. I kept thinking I was seeing a cluster of parked cars. No such luck. By the time I saw Vida Mia waiting to take off, I was too wiped to pick up my pace much. Our extended team was making a wonderful ruckus and I finally handed off to Vida Mia. She shot out. I was finished.

Thanks to Dan for organizing all of this and David, Sachi for offering their house, and Miles and Parker who gave up their beds. It would have been a brutal race day without all that help.

Leg 10 (Vida Mia reporting):

I finished Leg 1 at 8:17 am. By 3:45 pm, I am dying to run again and get the thing done, especially after watching my teammates totally destroy themselves--in the best way--on the course. I wanna do that!

Tom runs in to huge cheers, as wives and kids and assorted family members have now assembled for finish line festivities. It's all I can do to stop myself from running over to to tag him and get going, but I don't know if there's an "official" stopping point that I shouldn't cross. Finally, the hand slap, and I take off.

Ive decided that I'm going to pull a David on this one, since it's only 3.75 miles (and the very end of the race, to boot!), and pull out all the stops. This is fairly easy in the beginning, since the road is flat with a little downhill, and I find myself doing a hard-comfortable pace of maybe 9:30.

Oh, but then the uphill. I knew there was one hill to beat on this leg, but it was much longer and much steeper than I'd imagined. Just up and up and winding up for what seemed like forever. Damn you, nature. You and your geological formations. I walked for a minute here and there, and was so happy to see Tom and Dan, in the mighty Ford Flex, parked at a couple of points to hand me Gatorade and cheer me on. Mostly I just kept pushing, aiming to make up for this stretch on the final flat section...

... which couldn't come soon enough! At last, I emerge from the trees and see a long flat stretch ahead of me, with--could it be??--cars and people in the distance. Holy crap, is that the finish??!? I'm ready to sprint this, and am so focused on (1) the end and (2) the pain that I am totally shocked to see Tom pop out from the side of the road, offering more water and support. He runs with me for a short bit, and then drops back so I can "cross" the "finish line" with everyone rallying behind. Whew! Average pace was sub-11:00, even with that crazy long stretch of humility! And now it's all over. Thanks, Dan, for inviting us to be a part of this awesome event!

[Family, kids at leg 10 hand off]

Results (Dan reporting): Original race goal 10:23, crushed with a 9:26! We finished before around 10 other teams, nice! Everyone performed great and pushed really hard. Awesome to see family and friends along the way, we were greeted by the wives, kids and friends at the end. At the last hand off we saw a poor dude throwing up and the kids were getting grossed out, but that's what pushing hard (and perhaps drinking a beer while in the race!) will do to ya.

Awesome day, crazy weather, off road driving (had to bring the rental Ford Flex in for a major car wash), fast runners, great friends and family support and great finish makes all the aches and pains and push, push, push worthwhile!

Our last year's Beauty, Kary was also heard from in the race. We saw her at the finish and found out that their team smashed the female course record and they did it with only four team members! Congrats to her and the rest of her team.

[Kary 2009 Beauty and Vida Mia 2010 Beauty]

After the race, we relaxed around the finish with the other teams, saw some more teams come in, played with the kids and then back into Santa Barbara. We had the now traditional yummy steak dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in their private room, told stories of the race and had a well deserved nice meal. Brain even brought a nice bottle of Seasmoke to round it all off. Way to go Team Beauty and the Beasts!

[Dinner w/ Full team B&B, racers and crew!]

Pace, etc.
Leg of Race, Runner's Name, Predicted clock (time of day to finish that leg), Actual clock (time of day actually finished the leg), Total Ahead (total minutes ahead of predicted time), Leg Ahead (minuted ahead of predicted time for that leg).

Full race results

[Leg 2 (Dan)]

[Leg 7 (Dan)]

Blue Canyon Trail Race Report

My first Ultramarathon, first 50K. Blue Canyon trail race in the hills behind Santa Barbara, 50k++, 8500'++ climb (more on the ++ later). I really really decided to run this race on the news that my family would be moving out of Santa Barbara for a year. I had signed up a while back, since it was in the bacyard of SB, but then started having doubts. The climb was listed as 11k', pretty much the most I've seen for any 50k, so I was thinking of backing out and trying something easier. When we decided to move, I decided to go for it again, a kind of last hurrah race for SB.

Of course, I started talking it up with my running buddy Dave who did Catalina and. RUTE with me. He wasn't sure but thought he would do it. We trained together and separate all over the SB mountain trails with pals Kary and Nancy. The tragedy of the Jesusita fire was pretty grim for a while, a bunch of homes lost and Dave and my families had to evacuate. Lots of running trails were lost too and another local Ultra was cancelled (SB 9 trails).

Dave crisis of faith, but I never gave up hope. Overheard him tell others.

Poison oak dance to plow on through.

Jen p solo rute, stretching on gib, saw at end.

Fashion tights gaiters ice skate blades of glory, chaz.

Nancy fashion police on kary, we'll pass your azzes later to 3 guys who passed, sure she did too.

50k turn around, Dave overhear me water tank here water tank there. Go on anyway, run same race as pals. Knew I was right on way back, got confirm. Worried didn't see any 50kers coming back knew there was prob. Didn't see return until GR. 123 (dave 3rd).

Top ramen?

Depresessed on MP return, turned out to be hunger, best gummi evah.

Time goal night before, joke!

Knew 4 miles more so survival mode, can push more.

Good to bring map. For turn around and other runners.

Chatty cathy, pass and talk or get passsed talk.

Weather.

Ran with nancy for 16, bio breaks, hang out at aid station, slower pace.

Last 12 miles was a machine no dnf, no shortcut, next time faster on downhill (was being protective), run more of the up, shave off an hour.

Nancy hoo goo before and after 16.

Time goal out the window but new goal to pass 50kers who did the right turn around (4 miles less).

Devon HI some story being awake many hours marathon in hi on lava.

Guilermo Ventura did an marathon last year was 50k sb marathon.

50 miler caught us at lower, coils tell because he looked fresher! Front leader.

Saw someone walking down on AB gave up? Shorter route confused. Wanted to yelll to not give up, but didn't know what was going on.

Bushwhacking.

Took time change socks bag drop, gab.

Great finish with family felt good fresh pain free can push more and will race walk vs race stroll.


Fam support training, next is speed work support Celine an marathon.


-- Post From My iPhone

Are You Tough Enough 2009

RUTE 2009 Race Report (Team Beauty and the Beasts)

Intro (Dan reporting): 65 mile relay race, 5 team members, ten legs of varying difficulty and lots of fun climb and plunges. The route went from Summerland, south of SB (Toro Canyon Park) along the mountain ridges of Camino Cielo, above SB, down to Solvang and finishing in Nojoqui Falls Park.

Team roster (L to R): Dave, Kary, Brian, Drew, Dan.

I saw some of the buzz around this race last year, I really wanted to do it, but didn't have enough time to form a team, I threw my hat in the ring as an alternate, but all the teams were full, I vowed that next year I'd make it happen.

Many months before this race I start floating the idea with various runner pals, from the start I wanted to have a mixed team, so I had both the guys and the gals on the list. I settled on Dave, Drew and myself pretty quickly and through some arm twisting got Brian on board. Finally rounded out the team with Kary (Celine had heard she was doing SB9T solo, a 35 mile race w/ 11,000'+ climb and I promptly snatched her up).

We had enough time (enough rope?) to get trained and we did - Drew starting from blank slate to 15 mile mountain training runs at the end. David going for his first trail running (and trail falls) in the mountains. I had a great time doing the group training runs, getting a feel for everyone's pace and strengths. Along the way I also decided to run the Catalina marathon (4,000' climb) and of course got Dave into that too. The marathon was a month before RUTE, but we figured we'd recover in time, or pretend it was just a nice loooong training run before the relay.

We did some pre-race logistics, figuring who was in what car, support along the way, etc. I threw together a geeky spreadsheet of the legs and runners. I thought we were all TOUGH ENOUGH, so no one was looking to just 'finish the distance', we wanted everyone to run hard and stretch for their personal best. We made some quick estimates of our push times for each leg and came up with a 9:53 stretch goal.

The day of the race rolled around very quickly and we were off...

Legs 1,2,3,4,4a (Brian & Kary, Brian reporting)
Kary was smart to draft a friend and marathon runner to SAG for us. We could focus on the race and not deal with car logistics.

We showed up a few minutes before the start with Dan, Dave and Drew welcoming us with surly grins. Wondering where we were, they were worried that one of them may have to run the first leg in jeans and regular shoes! It was great to see the team spirit at this early hour.

Assisted with a downhill start, I ran the first four miles at approx 7 min pace. The climbs up San Ysidro and Mountain were tough but managed to finish at 7:48am. Kary picked off runners up Gibraltar, finishing the 10.5 miles leg 2 and 3 with 2800' vertical at 8:33 pace!

I had two 500'+ climbs up La Cumbre and Cathedral peaks. I vowed not walk. On the second climb, the peak was covered in fog. I vaguely remembered the altitude and could track progress by my GPS. It was a relief to summit.

Cruised down to the Painted Cave hand off averaging 8:25. The slow uphills were offset by sub 7's on the downhills. Kary covered the last two miles in 11 minutes. The woman is a machine! We finished the first 28 miles at 3:49 approx 35 minutes ahead of goal.


Leg 2 (Kary reporting): I was ready to RUNNNNNNNNNN! Brian came in smokin' fast and off I went. I remember during my drive of Leg 2 with Dan earlier that week being saddened by all the fire damage and thinking it was going to be a somber run ... however, I was so excited and focused on running that I barely remember much of what I saw during that leg ... I am definitely grateful to the positive words shared by the man driving the gold-colored VW van and was incredibly surprised to see my good friend, Terra, and her daughter on the side of the road cheering me on ... Yeah! As I turned the corner to start leg 3, I did wonder whether running these legs back to back was such a good idea ... MMmmmm.

Leg 3 (Kary reporting): Ahhh, Gibraltar ... I could see my route ahead of me, along with several runners. I felt good and think I smiled the entire run ... I was elated to hear the cheers from other teams ... the words of my friend Lori played in my head "You are fit" "You are fast" ... Oh yeah! When I drove this leg I thought I would remember the different mile markers but did not ... I knew there was a good climb after Flores Flats and indeed, it was ... I was excited to see Brian and Nichol at the hand off ... Yahoooooooo!

Leg 4a (Kary reporting): I think I am really running fast, I am running fast, I am going to fall really hard, I better slow down, I am still running fast ... there is 154 ... there is Dave ... GO DAVE!

Quick interruption (Dan reporting): Through these first legs Dan, Dave and Drew started to get reports of how much our team was ahead of our stretch goal, we were getting pumped for our legs and to keep pushing the pace. It was great to stay in touch with the whole team txting and calling in race reports. Next year though, we'll do a big party van with a masseuse!

So, Dave went up to his spot ahead of his scheduled time and Dan and Drew headed over to their legs early too. We were all getting jittery and ready to race. (There was supposed to be a shuttle for Drew's leg hand off spot, but that was a trick on us newbies and we had to drive ourselves up to the spot, bringing along other newbies who were tricked too.)

Leg 5 (Dave reporting): Got to my hand off location early cause I didn't want to miss Kary, and the anticipation was killing me. Good thing cause Brian and Kary blazed legs 1 through 4. Way to go, about 35 minutes ahead of our goal. After seeing Brian off in the morning and then having to sit around made me super anxious to run, so when I got the hand off from Kary I was off and racing.

My first leg was 4.7 miles through a mountain community all on a paved road. The climb was pretty tough averaging about 250ft per mile. Brian and Kary's fast pace on the first four legs put me in position to pass some of the other teams. This really helped me because I really feed off picking off runners in front of me and I wasn't sure how many other runners I would see on the course. By mile 2.5 I caught up to two other teams at the steepest part of leg 5. It was great to see other runners because my lungs were already burning and I hadn't even completed mile 3. Things settled in after mile 3.5 when I was able to get my breathing under control and had picked up another runner in my sights. Even with my breathing under control I felt like I might be pushing too hard. Got to the end of my first leg in 37.5 minutes, under 8 minute miles. I was really happy with my time, but I knew I needed to back off if I was going to get through my next leg. Sachi helped me on my first leg providing aid and support. Thanks Sach, you're the best, luv you lots.

Leg 6 (Dave Reporting): Leg 6 is a long 9 mile trek from the Gun Club on West Camino Cielo to Broadcast Peak, all on a dirt fire road. The total elevation climb on this leg was about 1250ft, but lucky for me it starts out with a mile of downhill. The downhill gave me a great chance to rest up for the rest of my climb to Broadcast Peak. Unfortunately I didn't take the opportunity, because one of the teams I passed on my previous leg blew by me on the downhill. He was a fresh runner and he was really, really fast. I tried my best to keep up but by mile 2 of leg 7 my efforts on my previous leg were starting to catch up. I gave up the chase and started to settle into my own pace.

My mother's boyfriend Jim was kind enough to provide support for me on this leg. Because the leg was all dirt fire roads he rode his mountain bike to provide support. Unfortunately it was easier for me to climb the hills than Jim so I lost support for about 2 miles. I was starting to wonder what happened to Jim when all of a sudden a truck passed me, stopped in front of me and Jim popped out. Jim passed me my water bottle and told me I was on my own. I thanked him and I was off to tackle Broadcast Peak. Some people might have worried about getting aid, but I knew the Lord would provide. As I approached the last crazy, crazy climb to Broadcast Peak I had only checked my watch once and I knew I was making pretty good time.

After I passed the first set of TV towers and came around to the back of the mountain to see the last insane climb I notice another runner. I hadn't seen another runner in 6 miles and I was dead set on catching one more team. This was just the motivation I needed to get me over the hump. I passed the runner just before the 2nd set of TV towers and pushed my way to the end of my leg. Man was I happy to see Dan and Drew. You could see the pain on my face. I finished my two legs approximately 13.7 miles in 1 hour 58 minutes and 31 seconds (approximately 8min39sec miles). Congratulation to the team and their spectacular efforts, and a special thanks to Dan for making this all happen. Dan is my motivator.

Leg 7 (Drew reporting): In driving from the end of leg 7 to the start, we found out that this leg was about 6 miles (as opposed to the scheduled 7), so David was running an uphill mile at the end of his leg (ouch!). Once we got to the hand off spot, we could see the runners come into view about 1 to 2 minutes before their hand offs. Over a span of about 20 minutes, several teams completed their hand offs. Because of the great performance by our first 3 runners, I was pretty nervous while we waited. Sooner than expected, a runner appeared around the bend, and I asked Dan if it was David. Dan said it wasn’t and then as he got closer, we realized that it was David, and he was working HARD!! I quickly moved into the road for the handoff and as he slapped my hand (with a maniacal look on his face), I took off down the hill.

I ran on adrenaline for the first half-mile or so, neglecting to start my stopwatch. Dan and Dave drove by (they might have offered water) and then about a mile and a half out another car pulled up behind me. I moved to the outside shoulder to let them pass. They passed safely, my foot hit a root, and I quickly fell into the road. Luckily, I did a shoulder roll, so the only thing to be scraped was my right elbow, and I was none the worse for the wear. Pretty soon after, I felt a tightness in my right calf. I thought it was a cramp, but it ended up being a muscle pull/strain. Those don’t go away, but you get used to them. So, with my adrenaline gone, I settled into a steady pace. The view to the left was great, with the ocean visible most of the time.

Over the span of the first few of miles, I was passed by 3 relay runners, who quickly disappeared into the road ahead. On Dan's advice, I tried to run as the road presented itself, going more quickly on the steeper sections. Good advice. I chased a solo runner for a few miles and eventually passed him with about a mile to go. It was nice to get into the shade so I could shed the bandanna. I had no idea how far I had to go (since I didn’t start my stopwatch), then suddenly I came around a turn and saw people up ahead. People cheered, I hit Dan’s hand, and he took off. Felt good to be done with the leg, but I was still pretty worried about the calf.

Leg 8 (Dan reporting): Nice hand off from Drew, who came charging in looking fast and still pretty fresh. The race adrenaline and big downhill on this leg took me over and I ran fast, 6:44, 6:44, 7:07 for first three miles, 7:30 average for first leg and faster then my stretch goal. It sure was fun to fly the down hills - run the terrain. No one was going to pass me on this part of the race! When I hit the leg 9 hand off my calves were hurting (I strained them) the price to be paid for pushing hard down the hill. Seeing all the cars and fresh runners getting ready for hand offs at leg 9 and knowing that I was not stopping was a bit challenging, but I had no doubts about pushing on for team B&Bs.

Leg 9 (Dan reporting): This leg was tough for me, I had no problem with the distance, I can cruise a half marathon in my sleep, but the hard burn on leg 8 slowed me down. I banked some time with that leg, so overall I knew I would still do OK. A few of the fresh runners who started on leg 9 passed me, looking, well, 'fresh'. I did run out of water with about 2 miles to go, but luckily one of the support vans stopped and asked if I need anything I bravely waved him off then, said wait, I need water! He filled up one of my bottles, which gave me a nice mental and hydration level boost. I think this is the same gold VW that Kary saw, nice to get support from other teams.

I was soooo happy to see Drew and David at 10. After burning my legs on the downhill of 8 I had to put everything into 9 to get through it in decent time. I tagged Drew's hand for his turn on the last leg and he was off.

For the total of both legs, I hit my 'good' goal, but missed my 'stretch'. Likely if I went out slower, I could have gotten pretty close to the stretch - next time. Still it sure was fun to fly those downhills, that's hard to resist. Woohoo! I was done with my legs and now it was all up to Drew to finish us in style.












Leg 10 (Drew reporting):
After we sent off Dan, David drove me to the last hand off point, which was great, since he took me from the finish line to my starting point for leg 10. This was important because I got to see the wicked hill that made up more of leg 10 than I expected. While we waited for Dan, a female team served as entertainment with their dancing (Thank you shout out to them!). I just kept thinking, “I don’t want anyone to pass me this time.” Eventually Dan came in looking like he’d given EVERYTHING he had! [Nice Job!!]




I started off with a limp to my gait (trying to warm the calf) and knew the hills were coming. Dan and David offered water on the hill and then again at the top (which came not a moment too soon). When I came to the point where I could see the finish, I heard the encouraging shouts and tried to accelerate. I don’t know how well that went, but when I got close and was joined by the whole team and (especially!) all the kids for the last part, everything felt great!

Finish time: 9:02, we killed our stretch goal of 9:53!

What an event. Couldn’t ask for better teammates. Fast, tough and supportive. 15th place, top 50%. Next year faster and top 10?














Post race dinner (Dan reporting): we cleaned up and had an awesome meal at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse with the spouses. Ruth's had their recession special menu going, soooper yum, desserts on the house for the runners and awesome beer mugs inscribed with our RUTE 2009 team logo and roster from Celine!













Awesome supporters (Dan reporting): Families and friends, making race $hirts, race mugs, time for training, support during the race, refreshments afterward and gathering to celebrate with us at the finish line. They rawk and we LOOOOVE them!

Summary (Dan reporting): Now when I look up at the mountain ridges going from Summerland, above Santa Barbara, down to Solvang, I feel like we own those ridges. We ran them all, we ran them hard. Damn proud of our team. Looking ahead to next year and new PRs!

Overall RUTE 2009 Race Results

Rough Splits

I like the nice build up to beat the stretch goal, perhaps a little less sandbagging on the stretch goals next time :) Of course I love us beating it by 52 min for our first time, so it's fine. As Brian said, we hit the top 50% of the field which rawks, and this was a damn competitive field. Congrats to Beauty and the Beasts!

GPS / Elevation for legs 1, 4, 8&9

Catalina Island Marathon Report

I love trail runs and most of this race is all on dirt roads / trails. The family had also never been to Catalina and it sounded like fun for everyone!

I got my neighbor pal interested and he's not one to pass up a challenge like this. Next thing we know we were locked in and headed to Catalina, this would also be his first marathon, fun!

My parents who were at my first marathon, decide to join us, so it sounds like we are starting a little tradition here.

Training for this race went pretty well, I did some great training runs with some of our R.U.T.E. team, and then did my 18 and 20 milers by myself all in the mountains of Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez - some beautiful tranquil, runs exploring the backcountry. My wife and family were so great and supportive to let me do these long runs during precious our weekend time. As the runs got longer I pushed to get up and out earlier so as not to use up the entire day!

The trip to Catalina was fun, we took the ferry over to the island. Of course the kids loved the ferry, running all over the place. We got the 'mind the gap' speech from the Captain when the kids got too close to the gap between the massive ship and the dock, yikes! Once under way the rolling ship was great fun for the kids to bounce around like pinballs as they ran up and down the aisles. It was a little hazy so we didn't see the island until we got right up to Avalon, where we'd be staying, also the finish line for the race.

We checked into the Pavilion Lodge (great location across from the beach , near everything and nice rooms). We wandered around town the cool quaint little harbor town. After checking out the little beach and pier, we jumped into golf carts and toured around, of course the big kids loved riding up front like adults in these little putt-putt golf carts. We saw the 25 mile marker for the race on the road up to the hills, I thought then that we'd be happy to see that sometime the next day!

The Race
The race is a point to point race from Two Harbors to Avalon, 26.2 miles, 4000' of climbs and descent. I was looking at my hill training runs and the race course averages and I set myself a goal of 5:15 for the course. My last 20 mile training run, with 4000' climb, took me 4:43, but was at a more leisurely pace (13:46) and I thought I could do a better pace on race day.

My friend and I took a ferry to Two Harbors at 5:00AM, with kisses to the sleepy families before we left. We headed out with a boat full of excited runners and arrived in darkness.It was so dark I no idea where we were, where the start line was, even what general direction we were going to run in, spooooky! We did some wandering around at the start (crossing the island between the harbors twice looking for the bag drop off) and we saw the walkers / early starters head out at 6:30AM in the dim light of dawn. At the last second I decided to keep my iPhone on the race to take pictures and not put it in the drop bag. I like taking pix during my long training runs, but in that case I'm wearing a Camel Back pack which I can stuff it in. Here I was putting it in the mp3 pocket of my shorts. Always a good idea to try something new on race day! In my last marathon, I put so much crud in my shorts, they actually fell down while I was running! My pal laughed at me when I declared it felt OK after test running with the iPhone in my shorts for 50ft. Sure, it's OK for 50ft, but how about for 26.2! Hmm, we'll find out. We said if it started to bug me, I'd erase the data and throw the damn thing away at an aid station!

We lined up with around 600 other runners at 7am and with little preamble heard the horn and we were off.

The course doesn't mess around it immediately starts climbing from Two Harbors up into the hills. The first mile felt good running in the pack, getting warmed up. Typically in a race my partner would pull away from me in the first mile and I'd see him at the finish, but this time he held back and ran with me the entire race. It was really cool to run together for the whole 26.2. We talked and joked around while we ran at the start of the race devolving into grunts and short grim jokes toward the end of the race.

The race flowed from one hill to another with great wide dirt roads. The weather was great, a little cool, perfect for running. The view from the tops of the ridges were huge and sweeping out to the ocean, little harbors and beaches and nice valleys in the interior of the island. I took some pictures as we ran, stopping to fool around with the iPhone camera a few times along the way. Let's just say the iPhone camera is lacking when it comes to anything close to action shots, so I got plenty of pix that were distorted like fun house mirrors, and a few good ones on the run. I need to find a good small 'running' camera. In the end it didn't pull my shorts down and I didn't have to toss it. Here's a couple shots of us on the run, when we were both fairly fresh.

The first 10 miles were good, the pack stayed fairly tight, there were some hills which folks walked early on and we ran, so we started to spread out a little bit. On we went up to the ridges then down to valleys and harbors, it all felt nice and remote. At one camping spot, there was a bit of shouting and as we came up, we saw a few guys hanging out by a cooler w/ two full beers on top. They were encouraging runners to stop and kill a beer and continue on. One guy in front of us just finished one, but it felt a little early in the race to pound one down! A little bit after we passed, I heard another cheer, so I guess at least one more runner got a carbo boost from Bud!

At around mile 11 it started to get a little hard for me, just hit a stage with lower energy, nothing was really sore or hurt it was starting to feel like real effort. Thinking about the miles (and hills) ahead was a little daunting. The views helped and thinking of the family at the finish line made me run on. Eating my e-gels, sports beans and drinking water kept me going. The aid stations in the race were really great. There were lots of people staffing the stations, they came at just the right times, my pal went for the M&Ms. The stations had plenty of water, Gatorade and even Hammer gels. While runners probably do not need to bring water bottles or 'fuel' to run in the race, but I like having the water bottle and gels for a new race where I don't where all the stops are.

My pal kept pace with me throughout the race, until the end of the run, when we started hitting more hills. On my typical long run, I run up into the mountains and the second half of of the run is mostly down hill. Not so in this race, the longest climbs are toward the end, with one nice bit of downhill at the very end. The folks in our pace group started to the walk the hills and after a bit I realized they were walking as fast (or faster ) than I was 'running', so I fell into pace and power walked also. My buddy had the energy and power to run the last hills, so he'd pull ahead and was kind enough to wait at the top for me to catch him, so we could start running together again. It was cool for him to do that this time, but I expect he'll blaze ahead and do a nice PR if we do this race again!

We finally topped out at the microwave tower overlooking the town of Avalon and the finish line. It looked like we had a ways to go, but not too bad. Of course the race course didn't go towards Avalon, but in a little case of cruelty it both went away from it and into another series of up and down hills. At this point we started checking the time and I thought if I held pace I'd hit my sub 5:15 goal. We talked a little bit of sub 5:00, but anything below 5:15 without injury sounded good to me and I pushed hard for that. I told my pal to go ahead if he wanted to hit the sub 5:00, but he said not to worry about it, we'd finish together, nice.

We hit the last 3 miles headed down hill (it drops around 1600') and I took the lead setting a decent pace without tripping over rocks or careening off the trail. On the steep we had to govern our speed a little bit, we saw one of the youngsters trying to fly down the trail. Some of the old hands laughed a little at that, saying that he was going to flame out later. We did pass the youngin before the finish as he leaned over punching his legs trying to work out some cramps, but in the end he finished just a few minutes behind us, so it wasn't too bad.

The dirt roads gave way to the streets of Avalon and it was good to see the 25 mile marker we saw the day before. We picked up the pace, wanting to finish strong. We saw another runner stopping to stretch, I think the last big of downhill does something to you, she was doing a stretch we knew well. I said 'Oh, hello IT band!' to my pal and we both laughed, it seemed funny at the time...

Towards the end, I wasn't even really checking the time or looking for the clock, I was happy to be finishing strong. I even forgot to check for that last second 'pass' from another runner coming from behind, luckily we had pushed it enough in our run down the block, that no one was in place to do that.

We did a couple turns and then we saw a longish stretch and the actual finish line, what a great sight! We pushed it to the line, finishing together side by side with our kids running up to us as we finished, I saw my wife as I ran in, big smiles on both our faces. Hugs and congrats all around. The family took pictures at the end. Big kisses with the wife! We got our medals and stood around in a nice happy daze. My final time was 5:01:20 (11:29/mile). With the help of my pal, I crushed my 5:15 goal and I have a nice sub 5:00 target for next time. I think my buddy is going to target sub 4:30 next time, which I think he can do handily.

We did a little dip in the ocean to cool off our legs, nice ice bath temperature, it was cold, but I think my legs appreciated it. Of course the kids actually swam around in the chilly water, total polar bears.

After some nice hot showers at the hotel we wandered around town, seeing runners still coming in (7+ hours out on the course, wow, that's hard too!) We had a great meal (Ribeye steak, yum) at Steve's Steakhouse with a nice view of the harbor. We wore our medals around town like running geeks, luckily there were plenty just like us. There were even folks with these pins and bars for each year they had run the Catalina Marathon which made us look very understated in our celebratory fashion by comparison. Some had 26+ bars for running this marathon 26+ times! We were not too sure about the 'look' of these bars draping off their hats like metallic braids, but I'm sure we'll figure out the best way to wear them if we start accumulating more finishes! For now we each have a pin and one bar, it's a beginning.

We stayed in town for more one night, played mini-golf, did the undersea tour and the awesome Casino tour the next day, jumped on the ferry with the kids and grandparents and headed home. All in all a great race and trip which might become a tradition, even the kids want to race. The wives of course ran post race day, training for the Santa Barbara Wine Country Half Marathon, which we are all going to run together.

Woof woof!

My buddy and his wife and the kids waiting for us at the finish.

Finishing it up with some data from the race (nice elevation chart!)