They say that Wendell and Sarah from PCT Running have made a pact with the devil.... years in
a row now a randomly selected weekend in April chosen by them have made temperatures spike into the stratosphere.... take three to five weekends in the mid seventies, then one in the 100s, and you got the weekend of the Mt Diablo 50 Miler... not any different this year....
It was a slow train wreck, and i was there beginning to start... having moved to the Bay Area for a fancy new job, working 50-60h/week and not training enough i did not want to cut my racing too, so i signed up for the 50M Mt Diablo and the 100M Headlands Hundred... bring it on!
The weeks leading up to the run i actually trained a lot, maybe a little to
o much, and got into decent race shape, and even though i have had issues with very high temps before (mainly the Mountians to Sound solo race in 06) i should have known to go out slow.
Temps were supposed to be in the high 80s, but ended up in the mid 90s, not counting the sky-high ones in the slot canyons we crossed. I started off with a good group and got my rythm very fast, and found myself at the top of Mt Diablo the first time around in no problem and way ahead of schedule. By 10AM the temps rose sharply, and by Mile 20 i was feeling it. I had to start walking some of the unbearable sunny sections, and spent almost 10 minutes at the 23 mile aid station, and even longer the ones following.
So I called it a day expectation wise and just slugged it out... walking, sitting, cursing, grasping for air. Finally I met this nice Canadian Ultrarunner Leslie, she made fun of my taped nipples (by then i had to take off my shirt, ridiculed or not), and we spent the next 10 miles frog leaping (in a very slow-frog kinda way) onwards....
The last 10 miles were pure hell, felt like hours... oh, wait, it was! I was cooked
and done for, but happy i finished in almost 13h.
Gorgeous course, great race organisation, would do it again in a heartbeat, though wouldnt mind doing it in Washington-like temperatures.
a row now a randomly selected weekend in April chosen by them have made temperatures spike into the stratosphere.... take three to five weekends in the mid seventies, then one in the 100s, and you got the weekend of the Mt Diablo 50 Miler... not any different this year....It was a slow train wreck, and i was there beginning to start... having moved to the Bay Area for a fancy new job, working 50-60h/week and not training enough i did not want to cut my racing too, so i signed up for the 50M Mt Diablo and the 100M Headlands Hundred... bring it on!
The weeks leading up to the run i actually trained a lot, maybe a little to
o much, and got into decent race shape, and even though i have had issues with very high temps before (mainly the Mountians to Sound solo race in 06) i should have known to go out slow.Temps were supposed to be in the high 80s, but ended up in the mid 90s, not counting the sky-high ones in the slot canyons we crossed. I started off with a good group and got my rythm very fast, and found myself at the top of Mt Diablo the first time around in no problem and way ahead of schedule. By 10AM the temps rose sharply, and by Mile 20 i was feeling it. I had to start walking some of the unbearable sunny sections, and spent almost 10 minutes at the 23 mile aid station, and even longer the ones following.
So I called it a day expectation wise and just slugged it out... walking, sitting, cursing, grasping for air. Finally I met this nice Canadian Ultrarunner Leslie, she made fun of my taped nipples (by then i had to take off my shirt, ridiculed or not), and we spent the next 10 miles frog leaping (in a very slow-frog kinda way) onwards....
The last 10 miles were pure hell, felt like hours... oh, wait, it was! I was cooked
and done for, but happy i finished in almost 13h.Gorgeous course, great race organisation, would do it again in a heartbeat, though wouldnt mind doing it in Washington-like temperatures.
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