Sequoia 50K Race Report

The Race

I ran the Sequoia 50K at Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland yesterday. It was my first time to the park, which I must say was very impressive. I am training for the Miwok 100K in May, so I am using a couple of local 50Ks as long training runs.

I was worried about the weather all week, as it had been raining off and on. I knew the trails would be muddy, but after 2 weekends in a row of training runs in the pouring rain, I was looking forward to not being drenched for 6 or 7 hours. Well, the weather gods must have listened, because it was a pretty nice day yesterday. It was chilly and windy at the start, but nothing much to worry about.

The race also had 30K and 20K lengths for folks who didn't want to do the whole 31 miles, and the 50K course is comprised of the 30K course plus the 20K course. I felt good at the start, I packed a windbreaker in my hydration pack and was wearing a long sleeve shirt and gloves.

The course has about 5000 ft elevation gain, which is pretty decent for a 50K. Most of the hills were reasonable, but there were a couple of steep ones (luckily, they were toward the beginning of the course). I was doing fine on the first loop (30K course), and went a bit against my nature in that I tried (slowly) running some of the uphills. I normally walk all uphills and run if its flat or downhill. I felt fine at the time, but this came back to bite me later.

Anyhow, the first loop wasn't too eventful. I did see a guy with a badly sprained ankle being walked in by a volunteer. I stopped to see if he wanted me to try and find him a ride at the next aid station, but they had it covered. So, I continued on back to the start/finish area to start the 2nd loop.

There is something psychologically crushing about loop courses. I mean, I've just finished 18.5 miles. I'm at the finish line, with lots of food and drink and laughing people around. I'm a 2 minute walk from my car. But, I've got to go out and do another 12.5 mile loop. Sigh.

I could tell the 2nd loop was going to be bad right away. My hamstrings were really burnt, which never happens to me. Normally, if I'm going to have leg soreness, it will be calves or quads. I think this must be related to my running the uphills. At any rate, there was no way I could run the ups on the 2nd loop. My lungs & energy were fine, but my legs were pretty dead. So, I hung in and toughed it out. I was going so slow that I ran out of water between aid stations one time, which made things worse. I felt the beginning twinges of a calf cramp without about a mile to go, but I was close enough to the finish that it wasn't an issue.

So, I finished in 6:35. I am happy with this time - I was shooting for 6:30, but what are ya' gonna do. The sad thing is I did the 1st 30K in 3:40 and then the last 20K in 2:55. A pretty big blow up there. But, lesson learned. A funny thing to note is that I did this almost an hour faster than the Quad Dipsea last November, even though this race was about 3 miles longer. I am in a bit better shape now, but mostly the Quad Dipsea is just a damned hard race. It has about 4200ft more of elevation gain than the Sequoia race in 3 fewer miles.

Food & Drink

I stuck to my normal long race/run plan. I'm now using a hydration pack (like a Camelbak) instead of bottles or a waist pack. I drank just plain water, except for some Coke at the last aid station. Food came from Accel Gel (Vanilla flavor). I did 1 20 minutes before start, and then 1 about every 30 minutes or so. Altogether, I did 12 gels during the race. Since I've switched to drinking plain water, I've been using S Caps for electrolytes. I took one every 30 minutes. Given my bit of cramping toward the end, I might need to up this a bit, since I do sweat a lot. I also had about 2-3 pretzels at one aid station, and had a couple of handfuls of gummi bears at the last aid station.

Gear Check

Brooks Cascadia 3 - I'd only put about 6.5 miles on these, but they worked out well. I think they were tied a bit tight at the beginning, but everything worked out OK without retying.

Wright Sock Double Layer Socks - My first time in a really long run wearing these. They worked well. I added a bit of Body Glide Liquified Powder to keep the feet from friction/hot spots/blisters. Worked well.

Dirty Girl Gaiters - Good stuff. Kept the mud out.

Nathan 020 Hydration Vest - Worked well. Easy to fill, though it was a bit hard to drink when the water got low. This may be a normal thing with these types of things.

Patagonia 9 trails shorts and Capilene 2 long sleeve shirt.

My Brooks hat. I've worn this for all my races and long runs in the last 2 years. This thing is getting nasty, but rinsing it out makes it good as new!

Sugoi gloves. I like these, but I couldn't make up my mind about hand temperature. I put these on and took them off 3 times during the race. Even though the temperature was fine, I couldn't seem to keep my fingers warm.