What makes “a great run”? I’d say it boils down to four key ingredients, a recipe I cooked up during the May 31 Ohlone Wilderness 50K. I’m not going to write a regular race report because I did a full-blown narrative of last year’s Ohlone 50K (available here in PDF), which was and remains the hardest run I’ve ever done, and others have detailed reports on this year’s competition (see below for links). Suffice to say I had A Great Run, and here’s why:

The Ohlone 50K elevation profile. It climbs Mission Peak and Rose Peak -- 7800 feet total up, 7400 down.

1. The Course. It goes from Fremont to Lake Del Valle in South Livermore, through the Sunol Wilderness, and is considered among the toughest 50Ks.

The Ohlone course somewhere in between Mission and Rose peaks. I didn't take my camera; this is from runner Victoria Folk's facebook album.

It is so remote, so challenging, so sublime.

2. The People. To some degree I still feel like an outsider at these trail ultras, since I do “only 50Ks” and am not with any team, not on any ultra listserve, etc. By contrast, lots of people around me were training for the Western States 100 and tossing off details about their training weeks that involved triple-digit mileage book-ended by centuries on their bikes. Plus, this race attracts elite-level runners since it’s on some grand prix circuit (the official name escapes me since I don’t pay much attention to it). Nonetheless, my affection is growing for this tribe of warm, welcoming, fantastically funny (sometimes unintentionally so) people whom I’m getting to know. On the bus to the start, my old friend Adam Ray and newer friend Brian Wyatt entertained me with ego-puncturing impersonations of some of the quirkier, more obsessive runners on the scene (who shall remain nameless). At the start, it was a treat to see Beth Vitalis, Samantha Pinney, Jasper Halekas,  Roberta McGraw, Tom Riley, Dave Messman, Mark Tanaka … the list goes on. At the finish, Jim Hesson and Calvin Wong from the Contra Costa group showed up.

The people are part of a great run. I enjoyed hanging out post race with my friends from the other side of the Caldecott Tunnel: Dennis Hoagland, Dave Messman, Jim Hesson and Tom Riley. (Thanks to Calvin Wong for the pic.)

Cool people one and all.

3. The Head Trip. Any good run is a mental retreat — a chance to unplug, sort through big thoughts, gain fresh perspectives, and leave renewed by appreciation and motivation.  This happened for me at Ohlone in part due to a funny thing that surfaced out of the blue two days prior to the race: An old college housemate posted a photo on Facebook of Morgan and me in 1987, and it opened a mental door on those days 20-some years ago, which in turn prompted meditation on how far I’ve come and where I’m headed. The photo shows a fairly typical night back then — I’m smoking a Camel, drinking a 40-ouncer, wearing heavy eyeliner and goofing around with Morgan, who looks magnificent in shredded jeans and long hair with a headband. He’s holding a borrowed bass guitar held in a rather suggestive position, and wearing a blissfully intoxicated expression on his face (you can see the pic on my FB profile for proof). It served as a reminder that he and I have been through so many different phases in life. I never, ever would have imagined then that I would become a long-distance runner. Twenty years from now — even two years from now — who knows what we’ll be doing or where we will be? Anything can happen; health, for example, shouldn’t be taken for granted (e.g. the race was dedicated to the memory of ultrarunner Kris Graham, who died young of ALS). Life is not a dress rehearsal. The clock is ticking on our departure date in August, when we leave with the kids to travel the world during the school year. The Ohlone 50K provided a welcome opportunity to contemplate journeys past, present and future, and I consciously tried to run it as if it may be my last time out there.

4. The Run. Last but not least, the physical challenge makes a great run. I was out there running (in steep parts hiking) my own race, not caring where I was in relation to others (except at the end when I pushed to pass a couple of people). I just hoped to meet my two-tiered goal of breaking 6:15 or, if I felt good and the weather cooperated, then I’d try to get under 6 hours flat.

Way, way up front were two of the top female ultrarunners in the country: Caitlin Smith and Prudence L’Heureux (they ended up finishing about a minute apart and broke the course record by about 12 minutes). Then came Beth Vitalis. She has won the race in years past and holds an age-group course record, and she may have been the nicest, most gracious person out there — someone who is training for Western States as hard as many of the guys who talk about it in a mine-is-bigger-than-yours way, but you’d never know it from talking to her. And then — about a half hour behind her — came me!

Chihping Fu took this picture of me somewhere in the last 10K of the race.

I was among a handful of guys who ended up in the top 25 out of approximately 150 registered runners. I mostly ran solo but enjoyed trading barbs with Adam when we passed each other a few times (he told me my butt looked big when I was climbing Mission Peak; I told him he looked like a spaz flying down Rose Peak, as though he were channeling Charles Nelson Reilley).

Adam Ray on the trail (photo by Chihping Fu). Go, Adam, go!

I felt strong enough to keep the pace at their level and accomplished some of my best downhill running ever in the final miles. I did the math on my watch and decided I could break 6, so I pushed and squeaked under 5:55, good enough for 4th woman and the age group trophy. (I wasn’t actually the first fortysomething female to cross — Beth was, but she got one of the Overall awards that are handed out before the Age Group ones.) I was 23rd among 155 runners (see results).

I sprinted to the finish to break 5:55 by a few seconds. Thanks to the race directors for a great event -- and for giving me my age as my bib number!

So there you have it, the four factors for a great run. Add to it a dive into Lake Del Valle at the finish, and who could ask for a better start to summer? Thanks to Chihping Fu, Calvin Wong, and Jean Pommier for the use of their photos. Other reports worth reading: Samantha Pinney, Victoria Folk, and the super speedy Jean Pommier and Mark Tanaka.

Tags: Mission Peak, Ohlone 50K, Rose Peak, Sunol Wilderness, trail running, Ultrarunning

This entry was posted on Monday, June 1st, 2009 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.