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]
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] 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 6:30
ish. 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] 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]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!]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)]
Prelude: I've been off from running / racing for a few months due to a stress fracture in my left tibia. During that time, I hit the gym, ellipitical and even picked up road biking (my pal traded me a nice bike for my Garmin watch). While all of that was good and fine, I wanted to get back to running. Also my sister moved back into town as I was ending my running rehab and we started running together. We did a nice ten miler that didn't hurt me too much, so I suggested that we do a half-marathon race. It would be my first race after rehab and her first half marathon, so it just felt right!
Pre-race, ready to go!
Finish chute
Finishers!
Awesome Family and Friends!
Course along the Bay (Bridge is 92)
Pace (last mile is ~7:10, forgot to stop the watch)
