Last Sat, Dec 6, 2014, I ran The North Face Endurance Challenge 50 Mile Championships in the beautiful Marin Headlands in San Francisco. It sounded like a great idea at the beginning of the year when I decided to sign up.
Out of 537 runners, there were officially 148 elite runners (44F/104M) at the start. The women and men’s race previews were rather intimidating:
- http://www.irunfar.com/2014/11/2014-the-north-face-50-mile-championships-mens-preview.html
- http://www.irunfar.com/2014/11/2014-the-north-face-50-mile-championships-womens-preview.html
Essentially all the superstars were at the start.
I tried to set myself a realistic goal for my own little world. I thought I could probably get that course done in about 10min/mi at the very best. There are 10,000ft of elevation gain, but the course is very runnable and super fast overall. It clearly favors strong road runners and puts slow mountain runners, such as me, at a disadvantage.
The race started at 5am. I had to take a shuttle that left San Francisco at 3:30am. Thankfully, the rain stopped when we got to the start. It turned out to be a perfect day for running.
The original course was changed at the last minute because heavy rain the days leading up to the race destroyed a bridge and downed some trees.
As always, I went out too fast. I never learn. I stayed focused and watched, for the first time in a race, my pace carefully on my Ambit2. I usually just run by feel and simply give the best I can. Some parts of the course were slippery and muddy, but nothing that a runner from Oregon would have worried about. I had decided against the Salomon Fellcross 3 and opted for the Pearl Izumi N2 to have a bit more padding under my feet. I think it was a good choice.
Overall, things went pretty well and I had no major issues. I fueled and hydrated carefully. As was to be expected, I slowed down significantly toward the end and finished in 8:39:32. Not a time to be proud of, but decent for an old and slow goat among testosterone-driven young rabbits.
- Overall place: 93/537. Age group place: 8/71.
- Official results and splits: http://results.chronotrack.com/event/results/event/event-11125?entryID=12207062
- Strava: http://www.strava.com/activities/227268010
After the race, I waited more than 4 hours for my drop bag from the Cardiac aid station. It never arrived and I had to leave to catch the last shuttle back to San Francisco.
