It was so nice to toe a real-deal starting line, with a bib pinned to my shirt, and stand around to use a Honey Bucket — the whole shebang! — last Saturday. I can’t not smile when I think about it. I’m short on time (as always) to post before bedtime, so I’ll forgo the pics this week and will include them next week, instead.

Anyway. When I saw that Inside Trail Racing (ITR) was hosting a 35k race in the Oakland hills just a couple weeks before my 50k race, I couldn’t pass up the serendipitous timing. The race would boast about 4,600 of elevation, give me a welcomed change of scenery, and basically offer a supported long run, probably my last real long-long run before my 50k. Any one of those qualities is hard to pass up; that the race offered all of them would make me a fool for not taking advantage of it. 

Plus — big plus! the clincher! — I couldn’t discount the enormous bonus points status that the race would situate me nicely in the east bay and thus give me good reason — and ready access! — to meet up with friends there I hadn’t seen since before the pandemic. 

I treated “race week” (even though I wasn’t viewing it as a race, per se) as the soft beginning to my taper, so by the time Saturday rolled around, I only had about 20 or so miles in my legs and less than 2k of elevation. I had also probably run roads more often that week than I had in all of my training cycle, too, just to give my legs a break from climbs and to run for less time than usual. Otherwise, “race week” life was pretty normal, full of the normal life obligations with kids’ activities and school and such. Chill was the name of the game.

Temps on race morning in the woods were mild and wet, and I was pleasantly surprised that the rain gods and goddesses blessed us with their precipitative gifts for the entiiiiiiire morning in the form of fog, mist, rain, and the ever-popular sideways-rain. 50-60-or-so degree temps, alongside the rain, made for a pretty comfortable run in shorts and a LS, though I elected to remove the LS and stay in a short sleeve from about mile 3-onward. A visor kept both my hair and the rain out of my face, and I never really needed the sunnies that stayed atop my head for my 5:03 hour endeavor for the “35k.” (Trail races usually aren’t known for their precision; it’s all good). 

I felt, let’s call it, “cautiously optimistic” or “optimistically hopeful” about being able to cover the distance and the elevation without a lot of fanfare. More than anything, I appreciated the opportunity to yet again practice my nutrition strategy (but with the support of aid stations). As I have in my long runs of 16+ miles, I carried about 64 oz. of water on me (between two Ultimate Direction bottles, a backup floppy UD bottle, and two 10 oz. no-name bottles I bought from Uncle Bezos), enough SiS gels to take one every four miles (with a couple extra as back-ups), and a tube of SiS hydrate tabs. It made for a rather packed hydration vest, but everything fit. (Not an affiliate link or anything, but I’ve had this vest [in different colors] since 2014, when I was training for my other 50k, and it has really held up well).  

The night before the race, I finally received High-Performance Nutrition for Masters Athletes from the library, and from the very little I read before I went to bed, I decided that I probably needed to be drinking more of the SiS carbohydrate drink on the run than I had been using on my training runs. I know, I know, “nothing new on race day” and all of that, but again, “cautiously optimistic” or whatever. It felt right, so I went with it. Fortunately, my stomach fared well with this little last-minute experiment, and I honestly think it helped me feel really good pretty much all morning long. I wasn’t going for any land record speeds or anything, but when I finished, I felt like I could probably keep going for a bit longer. I attribute that to the better fueling.  

I didn’t even bother to do a warm-up or a cool-down — I don’t usually for training runs, so y’know, do more of the same — and I’m glad I didn’t because it allowed me to spend time with Connie before the race and Meredith afterward! I hadn’t seen Connie in years at that point and Meredith pretty much the same, save for our brief encounter in GGP a few weeks (months?) back for XC. It was wooooooooooonderful. 

Shortly after I finished, Meredith and I hauled out to Alameda to meet up with Connie and Meg, and Janet also hauled up from SJ for the morning’s fun… and of course, we have no pictures (except of passing around baby J). Seriously, for as much as I enjoyed the training run in the redwoods and ferns and all (so many ferns!), spending time with friends made my heart swell. 

It’s hard to believe that race day is almost here, but I’m excited and happy to report I’m feeling well! With not a lot of training left between now and race day, hay, please allow me to introduce you to barn.      

Happy November, ya’ll.