Rio Del Lago 100 Miles, the last lottery ticket for WS100 of the year.
I can't believe this day finally come. It's been 10 years since I started to run my first 5k. I knew about marathons back then, but I've never heard of 100 mile races. At first I thought it was a driving distance for car race, then I realized it was actually a running race !!
I came across to a blog written by a Taiwanese (Chihping Fu, yes, we all know who he is now)
Here is the link : Ultrarunning Dad
I was shocked by his blog that he actually ran a lot of 100 mile races already !
After he and I became friends, Chihping opened a crazy door for me since then.
When you have crazy friend, his friends must be the same or even crazier.
No surprise, the word "100 Miles " started to pop up in my head, "maybe one day I can do it myself" and here it is !!
In runner's world, there are two unofficial goals, if you are a road marathon runner, you should at least qualify for Boston Marathon once. If you are a trail runner, you should at least enter WS100 once. For me, without a doubt, WS100 is my ultimate goal.
However, it's easier said then done, to get a WS100 lottery ticket, I need to finish some qualified races first. Being a lazy runner, my average weekly milage is about 20 ~ 30 miles which is just enough for me to finish some 100K before the cut-off, (ex: Miwok 100K I finished 3 mins before the cut-off) , therefore I hope to copy the same experience with minimal effort in every race, but I know it is going to eventually hit a wall.
It started to happen this year, first I struggled a lot in Canyon 100K and missed the cut-off at Rocky-Chucky, then I finished QuickSilver 100K before cut-off but I missed the WS100 qualified time by 24 mins. I could come up a lot of excuses , but the root cause was still my training was not enough.
These two failures struck me really hard, because it means if I didn't finish RDL 100M, I won't be able continue my lottery streak and my ticket count will reset . RDL is my last chance
Fortunately this year both Steven, and Yu-Yen also signed up for RDL, so I was able to ask Steven to bring my running gear for me because I had to be on a last minute business trip to Austin just 3 days before the race. It's hard to imagine how I could bring all my stuff to the race without carrying them to Austin.
I was supposed to focus my work, but instead, I worried more about not being able to toe on the starting line in time while I was in Austin. Thank God, my flights didn't get cancelled or something , we just had a change-airplane-tires delay ( I heard too many delay stories about the domestic flight ). Domestic flight was also notorious with its service, throughout the 4 hours flight time, all I got is one pack of pretzels, it was the smallest I've ever seen !! Finally, on Friday night, 9:00pm, tired and starving, I arrived in Sacramento airpot and took a uber to meet them . Steven and Yu-Yen even prepared some pizza for me, that was the best meal I had !!
Another unexpected surprise was the weather, RDL used to be warm during the day and cold in the night, but this year, we have 80% rain forecast. At first I thought I might be in big trouble, but after a second thought, it might be an advantage to me, after all, it will be cool all day and I only need to keep dry and warm.
To be well prepared, both Steven and I spent heart-breaking $250 to get the Northface Hyperair running rain jacket which is strongly recommended by Keh-Chiang. We both agreed that we shouldn't take any risk on the new gear but KC's recommendation is always golden. As it turned out, this jacket was just awesome !
The RDL course is actually part of AR50M + WTC 50K , you can enjoy the trial of these two famous races in one shot, it definitely saves me a trip to run WTC 50K in the future. We start from Beal's point and head south to Folsom Lake State Recreational area along the American River, and then back to Beal's point for about 18 miles.
Then we headed north into a rolling single track along the west shore of the Folsom lake until Auburn Overlook ( the AR50M finish). From here the course becomes technical and hilly, it will be the most difficult 30 miles loop in the race, and most of us are expected to battle in the dark.
With the basic outline of the course in mind, at 5:00am sharp on Saturday, the challenge began !!
With more than 400 runners gathering in starting line, we could still find Michael Li and William, and that was really amazing. Of course we had to photo bomb on Michael's selfie .
Both Yu-Yen and Steven's plan is to run sub-24 pace, I know William will be even faster, it will be a stupid move to run with them in the beginning.
To my expectation, when the race started, in a blink of eyes, they were all gone.
The rain was smaller than the weather channel has predicted , and the temperature was perfect. I followed the runners swarming forward with my own pace. My plan was to cruise through the first 18 miles with 11~12 min/mile pace to be as conservative as possible. Because I was warned that some runners ran too fast in the first loop and lose energy when they entered the single track. We had a long day, no need to hurry.
I've run AR50 three times, this loop really brought back a lot of memory. Everything looked so familiar, the trail, bridge, and all the turns. In a second , I felt like I was running AR50 again, and it is now a distance past ! Time really flies ! If Nor Cal hadn't changed the finisher jacket to sweater, I would have continued my AR50 streak until now.
Finally bright enough to take some pictures, the problem with smartphone was, I needed to worry about getting wet and used two hands to take a shot.
The aid station was on the far side of the parking lot. When I saw my dropbag exposed in the rain, I knew something was wrong, this was the only dropbag I forget to make it waterproof, because they said it's finish line dropbag, I "assume" they would put it under a tent or some cover. Instead, they just let it soaked in the rain. Fortunately my changed clothes was under my towel which was half wet, immediately, I decided to change it now when it was still dry.
To my surprise, someone called me from behind, it's Mia !! So great to see her, cause I didn't expect to see any familiar face here. She asked me how I felt, what I needed and started to help me refill water. "You look great" she said. "It's still too early" I replied. 18 miles was just a warm-up...
Yu-Yen once told me, " you need to feel relaxed when you hit 50 miles, if you feel tired, you might not be able to finish easily ! "
I had to watch my breathing very closely. I made sure that I was always in easy breathing mode.
It started to rain a bit harder, I grabbed a few gels, some cookies and took off. "keep eating, and drinking " That's what I should do !!
Approaching Granite beach, I don't have too much memory about this aid-station, it was only 4.5 miles to Beal's point, but the next one was 9.5 miles away, I tried to refill again and ate some more solid food. This long stretch might not be an issue now, but it will be a problem coming back.
In order to get my stomach under control, I brought beer, coffee, tums, ginger candy, and tailwind ,
just in case one of them was not working, I have another alternative to go to. That's why people always saw me drinking beer in the race, not because I liked it, because it just happened to work for me.
Mile 35.5, Rattlesnake Bar, this 9.5 miles stretch was a not easy, I was hungry already, and stomach was in level 3 uncomfortable level ( if I graded it 0~10) . Time for my first special beer treatment.
The crowds in Rattlesnake Bar gave me the most cheer ever, they stood on both side of the trail and high fiving every runners into the aid station. The air was full of energy !! I liked the feeling !!
Photo credit by Mia
Here is what I did, find a corner without anyone bothering me, take out my beer from dropbag , used the beer opener I carried, opened the beer and take a first sip ! Oh Yeah ! It's good ! My stomach was instantly relieved. Because the non-alcoholic beer tended to have lower calorie, the one I have is 75 Cal which was about half of one Gel's calories. If I could overcome the alcohol's side effect, next time I should try normal beer which had about 160~180 Cal. I checked, Heineken might be a good one to try.
I saw a lot of familiar faces here while I was looking for my dropbag.
Gees, who was this handsome guy ? It was Justin !! He grew beard to boost up his handsomeness, no wonder I can't recognize him at first if I didn't see Leah standing besides him.
Then I saw Emi, she helped me find my dropbag, and she was surprised to see I have beer and 5 hours energy together . It confused her a bit. "What kind of concept is this ?" She asked . Well, I have to explain to her, beer is for my stomach, and calories , 5 hours is to keep me awake. And because beer is non-alcoholic, it won't conflict with energy drink. I hoped that's clear to her. haha...
Photo Credit by Emi
Emi asked me to pose for energy drink, so I did.
Another important thing was, it was going to be dark soon. According to my plan, this was the last dropbag aid-station before sunset and next dropbag was 14.5 miles away. I needed get all the night gears here before the sun light was out. Being in the mountain, the temperature dropped significantly after dark, even we didn't feel it now, therefore bringing extra layer was very critical for the night run. I had one near hypothermia experience in Miwok last year, so I was well prepared this time. One extra layer, 1 thermal blanket, one big plastic bag, and three headlamps !!
Bring it on, night run !
Almost forget to mention about my wife's brilliant idea. She suggested I should bring a handheld with an insulated water bottle, so I could put beer during the day and hot chicken broth in the night !
Well, it did put on extra weight to my hand but imagine having hot soup to go for running all night, especially for those 10.5 miles and 8.5 miles stretch . What can be better than that !!
No Hand Bridge was in the front !!
Nice hat !!
and then it hit me. It was Loren !! Hey man, you looked different every time I saw you on the trail !! It was so nice to see you here !! Loren was waiting for his runner for the night run, looked like he was well prepared !!
I circled around again to make sure I have everything I needed, next aid station was 10.5 miles away, it was the longest stretch of the race. I took a deep breathe and marched forward !!
It was getting darker and darker, and I was surprised that there were always people on the trail. I could always heard people talking or laughing behind or in front of me. At least I won't be worried about getting lost alone. The worst thing was to miss a turn or overlooked a ribbon, it put you into a dilemma that you needed to decide on: either running a few more or tracing back to find the last ribbon you saw. Tough call !
I had to not only watched out the trail condition but also looked around to searched for ribbon reflection to ensure I was on the right track.
From time to time, I even needed to stop to make sure I didn't miss a turn.
14 hours into the race, about 7PM, Mile 59. I finally reached the ALT aid-station. Tired and exhausted, both of my socks were wet. I just wanted to get my dropbag and sit down. There was a resting tent on the far side of the aid station. I found a chair and sank myself into it, the soreness of my legs were mixing with pain and relief. The volunteer came to me right away " Can I get you anything ? " He asked. "No, thanks I am fine, I just need a break" I replied. The truth was, I could not eat anything, but I had to do something. I searched through my dropbag and decided I should change my socks and clothes first.
Every movement was painful, I did everything in slow motion, took a few deep breaths, got the socks and clothes changed, then started to feed myself with beer first, and then my new drink: starbucks double espresso. Again, my beer surprised the volunteers, and they thought drinking beer really made sense after I explained to them.
My stomach started to get better, and it was able to digest some solid food again. Good, at least no surprised here. But the heater in the tent made me really sleepy and I could not get my fat ass out of the chair. For a moment, I felt myself fall asleep for a minute or two .....
"We'll need to kick you out now " one of the volunteer finally broke out . Looked like I made myself too comfortable over there. "Yes, I know, it's time to go " I murmured, "only 40 miles to go , I can do this"
Next aid-station was 8.5 miles away, another big stretch. I waited at the trail entrance to make sure I ran with a group of people . Another problem of running in the dark was dizziness caused by the tunnel vision.
If I ran with no one in the front, the repeated scene was like a lullaby that I had to slap myself a few time to keep awake. It was the most painful experience and I felt I was like a zombie, stumbling, yawning with strange voice, walking in the dark forest for miles.
No sure how I got to Hwy 49 aid-station, 10PM, 17 hours into the race, Mile 67.5. I could announce that I broke my longest running distance record !! But wait a minute, the race was not over yet. It got really cold that once you stopped moving, the whole body started shivering. The good thing was, the rain stopped, and I could see a few stars from the little gap of the cloud.
From here, it was another 3 miles back to No Hand Bridge. A runner lied down on the side of the trail, covered with the thermal blanket, he was wearing tank top !! You were kidding me, he was putting himself a risk of hypothermia. Sometimes, it could be a life and death situation.
Back to No Hand Bridge again, Mile 70.5, the aid station was full of people. The music and light made the A/S looked like a night club ! Even though I was too tired to take a photo, I was still in a pretty good mood. Beer and coffee were not enough for the last 30 miles, whatever it took, I got to get some solid food into my stomach and quesadilla was the best choice for me. It was soft, warm, and cheesy, I used the paper to grab 4 big pieces as I walked out into the dark.
Each time, I took a small bite, chewed them up and swallowed it with water. That's how I forced feeding myself to get the energy. It was not a easy process, but it had to be done.
Reached Overlook A/S, Mile 74.5, it was really quiet with only a few runners and pacers. My brain was a little blank, and I forgot how I found a chair and then I sat down for a long while.
I didn't know what to do next.
Finally, I regained some senses and decided to order a hot chicken broth to go by filling up my bottle.
I drank another double espresso, had a couple sips of the 5-hours energy drink, that was pretty much it.
It was my lowest point ...
Walking toward next A/S, the route looked strangely different from when I came this morning despite I was sleepy and tired . A lot of people said they didn't remember seeing the buildings on the side , and neither did I . Some people even went further ahead, and it was actually the wrong way.
There was a volunteer sitting in the car passively, after we approached him then he pointed us to another way where we finally saw the ribbon again. We shouted to those who went further ahead, and apparently they found out something was not right either, and turned back .
It was really great to see Noe at Cardiac A/S, he said I looked great, and better than a lot of runners he had seen today. Haha, I liked his comment. As a super ultra veteran, he strongly suggested me to continue eating and drinking, no matter how hard it was. "You only have 22 miles left" he told me.
I smiled ! Oh, right, how could I forget about my tailwind !! I failed in Canyon 100K because I forgot to bring it with me, and this time I had 4 packs in my bag !!
It was tailwind time, Keh-Chiang taught me a trick to swallow the powder directly first, then took a sip of water. The goal was to get the highly concentrated intake with little water to avoid drinking too much.
The rest of the trails were slow rolling hills, according to my calculation, I should be able to meet the cutoff time, and therefore I dropped my guard about the time. I picked a small pack of people and followed them from Cardiac to Rattlesnake Bar slowly. When I looked at my watch again, something was not right. I had 17 miles to go and my pace was about 23 min/mile, If I kept the same pace, I'd be very close to 30 hours finish time, and it was based on non-stop scenario. All of sudden, I felt the danger of being cut again, and I told myself, it was time to start running.
Slowly, I picked up my pace again, 18 min/mile, 13 min/miles, 10 min/miles. I saw the sun came up from my left side and suddenly a stream of freshness flew through my body. I felt no soreness, no stomach issue and it was just like I woke up from an 8 hours sleep, full of energy. I began to run both uphills and downhills, and passed more and more runners. I was furious !
People started to shout at me "Are you serious ? where did you find the energy ? " or "Way to go , bro" !! I was surprised and curious myself, where did all this come from ?
I stormed into Granite Beach and was too excited to decide what to eat, then I saw a bottle of Scotch on the table. I pointed to that wine and asked : "Could I have that ?"
"Of Course". That's the only thing I took -- a full scotch shot !
Again, I didn't stop there, I kept on running and running, from my result split, my last 14 miles, I actually passed 32 people. I ran like a bull with tail on fire, and eventually missed the last turn to the finish because all I remembered was running straight. When I found out something was not right, I already overshoot the finish line by half mile. Fortunately some joggers noticed my confusion and showed me the way back and I was lucky that I was able to make it within 28 hours !!
Sub-28 !!! That was something ! What a finish !
My result split. I was 218 place at Mile 86.5 and 186 place when I finished.
Photo Credit by Matt
I guess I was drunk at the time. My face looked strange but I was so happy.
Me and Noe !! Noe said: Welcome to the 100 Miles club !!
What a small world !!
I called Patty right away and she happened to be in the parking lot as well !
Patty was so nice that she lead us to the warehouse to meet with the NorthCal people and retrieved their dropbags !! Unfortunately, Steven lost his most valuable dropbag that had a lot of shoes in there. Many thanks to Patty !!
Post race lunch in Marvell , it has become a tradition now !!
Many many thanks to all the friends, you guys gave me a lot of help along the course. It's the best crew I've ever had !
Why do I care so much about running 100 Miles ? What would I get or what would I become after I've done it? I don't know, maybe we really get something out of it, or feel a little bit difference about ourselves. But in the end, I think it's the love of trail running that attracted us to do it, to experience the pain, the low point, the second sunrise high and the joy of passing the finish line all in one day. It was magical !!
It's a milestone, a gate to another world of trail running.
