Monday, January 21, 2008

Calico Trail Run

Kylie and I ran the Calico Trail Race yesterday with a number of friends from the Arroyo Trail Blazers (ATB). The race was held at the historic Calico Ghost Town between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Kylie has wanted to run an ultramarathon for a few years. Recently she was going to do the Ridgecrest 50km but switched to this Calico race, as a number of the ATB group she ran with on weekends were doing it. It was a great choice as there was over a dozen of us racing and it was always fun to spot a bright green shirt to cheer on.

We stayed with Jon and Sachico Pedder in their RV only a few minute walk to the race start. Which was really convenient and we enjoyed a pasta dinner and time around the campfire the night before the race with the whole group.

As I am not crazy like most of them I opted to run the 30km instead of the 50km ;-). the race started out pretty quick as we went downhill for the first mile or so before heading off road into the desert. Myself and another guy settled into the lead right away. We ran together for about six miles. As we started to climb a bit and get into some looser sandier areas he began to pull away from me. I am more of an efficient runner than a strength runner so the sand and the hills really slow me down. After that it was quite desolate and lonely as the only people I saw were at the couple of aid stations along the route. As the first half had been mostly climbing I expected it to be quite a bit faster. However, the terrain got rougher and rougher past this point. The footing became worse and worse, instead of the sandy terrain of the trail in the first half it became very rocky. At one point near the end we ran a couple miles down a slot canyon that I literally had to walk down as it was unrunnable. There would be all loose rocks of varying sizes, then deep sand, then gravel then drop offs into more loose rock, etc. It was quite beautiful but I probably would have enjoyed hiking it more than trying to run it ;-). As I left that canyon it fortunately became more runnable again for the last few miles.

I then noticed a runner a minute or so behind me, so despite being in a world of hurt I had to really dig down and push it to the finish. There was a loop above the campground where we had stayed, then we ran through the campground only meters from the RV. The final section was up a slight climb in the parking lot followed by a torturous steep climb at the end of the parking lot before running down mainstreet in the Calico Ghost Town to the finish. I had increased my lead on the next guy to over two minutes after I first spotted him coming out of the slot canyon.

It turns out that it was the guy I had been running with at the beginning and he had mistakenly done an extra out and back soon after I fell off his pace, so I won! I felt really bad, but since I had followed the proper route I'll take it. If I had run the course incorrectly I definately would have let him have the win. As a testament to the difficulty of the course, my time was 2:32 and I went in expecting to be close to two hours. At the half way point I was still well under 7:30 mile pace but despite the loss of elevation in the second half I ended up averaging 8:00 mile pace.

After the race, I went back to the RV, had a shower, some lunch and a beer or two with my feet propped up, watching a hockey game on TV (yeah we were roughing it alright) ;-)

Jon and I then headed out on our mountain bikes to ride the 50km route backwards and find Kylie, Sachi and the rest of the ATB'ers. It was tough to get my tired legs pedalling over some of the hills but I think it probably helped keep them loose. A few miles in we said OK we'll get to the top of that ridge, stop, open a couple beers and wait for them. As soon as we got there though, Kylie came running out of the canyon! Right behind her there was Sachi and a few more ATB'ers. So Jon and I headed back leapfrogging the runners, taking a bunch of pictures and cheering everyone on.

Here is a picture of Kylie coming out through some of the hills with about 3 miles to go.
Kylie ended up running 6:17 which is awesome! we expected her to be about six hours before realizing how difficult the terrain would be, AND her time included over a mile of extra running due to the extra out and back mistake that they had everyone run.

We cheered everyone into the finish and then headed to the RV where Jon BBQ'd a great steak dinner. We would have loved to stay and camp another night but unfortunately Kylie had school and I had to work today so we headed home after dinner.

All in all it was a GREAT weekend (although we are both limping around a lot today with very sore and tired legs) ;0)

2 comments:

Andrew said...

Congrats on the race! That terrain is amazing. How did your flexor hold up?

Michael S. Donia, D.C. said...

Thanks.

My leg held up great for the race. I should have taken a few days off when I first injured it though, then I wouldn't have had to take the ten days off prior to the race for it to heal.

It was pretty scenic, but after a while all that rock all starts to look the same ;-) I missed a lot of it anyway as much of the time was spent looking at the ground in front of me so I could keep my footing.