The past few weeks weren't very interesting. I did lots of MAF runs, and one hill run. MAF runs have been slowly improving, but I'm sure the race I did today will knock it back to "damaged runner" state. I also got some new Hoka Valors which will serve as my daily (almost daily) road shoe for the next few hundred miles.
But there's a race report to tell, so let's cut to the chase, shall we?
One of the few races that I signed up for this year was the highly anticipated Dirty Dozen & Half Dozen that Brazen Racing hosts. Jon and I did it last year, and loved it so much that we gathered a larger crew and did it again.
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| Jon and Johan last year |
Like the name suggests, this run is a (dirty) trail run in Pinole, CA, and goes on for 6 hours and 12 hours for those that think 6 hours just doesn't cut it. I'm pretty set on 6 hours...but who knows what the future holds.
This race is great because everyone sort of sets up camp there. People bring tents, canopies, lawn chairs, coolers, dogs...you name it, and it's probably there. You can have a 2 person team for the 6 or 12 hour race, or a 3 person team for the 6 or 12 hour race, or run it individually. There's also a morning 5k/10k at 10:30, and an afternoon 10k/5k at 4:00. Pretty much everyone can run, from elite ultra marathoners to the casual 5k walk/runner.
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| Tents from last year |
Entry fees aren't too shabby either, considering you get a super sweet hoodie (for the 6/12 hour runs), tons of snacks and goodies at the 2 mile marker and the start, as well as a BBQ at the end with pulled pork and beef brisket. We registered our 2 person team at the last moment which was $160 total.
The course is relatively fast with rolling hills and partial shade. The trail is primarily soft dirt, and not technical at all. Our total elevation for the 3.37 mile loop was 180ft. The mini .67 mile loop which opens up in the last hour had a little hill that definitely serves as a good speed bump for the faster runners, but I would say that none of the hills would require walking as long as you were used to some moderate hill running. You get a decent breeze from the ocean, and the views range from oceans and mountains to beautiful forests.
Pinole tends to get pretty warm, so that's something that we were half expecting, but it still got uncomfortably warm for us and probably hit around an 80 degree high.
When Jon and I ran the race last year, we ended up snagging 2nd place even though we were just using it as a long run training for a marathon. That gave us some hope to winning it this year, so we organized some quick teams. Jon had our super fast friend Ko run with us, and they recruited a fellow PARC member, Charles, who was also quick footed. I was supposed to be on their team, but hopped over to a 2 person team with Rini since I wanted to get in more mileage and also really wanted Rini to join in on the fun and not sit out.
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| Jon, Johan and I, all winners in 2014! |
The farthest that I had ran was 13.7 miles at the Double Dipsea since the American River 50 in early April. I had no idea what I was capable of. Rini was in a similar boat, and had just came back from hiking the 220 mile John Muir Trail, and her farthest run since was 7 miles. Since I knew it was a slim chance of winning, I named our team Noot's wUnderdogs. Neutron is Rini and Brandon's Border Collie, and she just celebrated her 16th birthday this week.
THE RACE.
Jon and I rolled out of bed at 4:15am. It was rough. The first time I was up before the sunrise in many months. Charles, who is on Jon's team, carpooled with us.
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| Going over the Bay Bridge around 5:30am |
We got to the race a little before 6am and set up our tent. All of our other friends joined us shortly after. Our area was pretty pimped out, complete with a canopy, dog pen, ice bucket, cot, foam rollers, 3 chairs, 2 food coolers, a water cooler, and some blankets.
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| Rini at our setup. |
The race started a couple of minutes past 7am, which was great because it was already starting to get warm. I started the relay for our team.
It was a bit of an experiment for us, since we really had no idea what the best approach was. Do we swap every lap? Every 2 laps? We decided swapping every lap was the most ideal if we were going for a win.
The start was rough for me. I was very anxious, and after doing a hard effort 3.37 miler, my stomach was in my throat. I couldn't relax since I knew Rini would be back within 30 minutes. The A goal in my head was to do 20 miles each, but a more realistic goal was 36 miles, 18 miles each. I barely ever run under a 10 min mile now a days, so I knew doing that alone for 18 miles would be hard.
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| My first loop |
Rini has the leg speed between the two of us, and her first lap was around an 8 minute pace! Her 2nd lap was around an 8:10 average. SO FAST. That really helped us in the long run. (no pun intended).
The fastest I could get my little legs to go was an 8:35 pace average.
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| My 2nd loop |
Surprisingly, after the first two loops I started feeling a lot better. My anxiety subsided and I started to feel more stable and calm. I would still get little butterflies in my stomach the couple of minutes before running, but I guess that's to be expected. It was nice to have another group there to keep me company instead of just me being antisocial in a tent like last year.
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| Ko and Jon talking strategy |
Between the runs I would mix up dixie cups of water and unflavored Tailwind. I REALLY love Tailwind. It is by far my favorite sports drink, and I think I'm set on making that my primary nutrition for runs. The naked flavor had a bit of sweetness but was refreshing. I didn't take in any additional calories, and was completely fine. Seriously, if you have stomach issues with other drinks, I highly suggest giving this one a shot. Easy to drink, mixes really well, very simple and straight forward.
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| Random photo of Kali, Rini's dog, eating a celebratory cupcake for Neutron's birthday |
I didn't track my heart rate for this event because frankly, I knew it was going to be insane. I didn't need anything strapped to my chest to tell me that. I think it would have just been additional weight and stress. I will say that I pushed very hard in all of my loops, and wouldn't be surprised if my heart rate was between 170-180 the entire time I was running.
By the time I was on loops 5 and 6, the temperature REALLY started heating up. I was no longer finding relief in the shade, which is never a good sign. My pace slowed to a 9:20 average by lap 6.
After loop 6, we had under and hour left, and Rini started out on the shorter .67 mile loops. This little loop was different than last year, and not as painful as I was expecting.
I should mention that during all of this madness we had Jon's group of 3 people competing against this other super fast group. They were neck to neck almost the entire way, and it was thrilling to watch them catch up to them. Both teams gave a very hard effort that was inspiring to watch!
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| Ko was flying through the course! |
Rini and I finished with 40.67 miles overall. I had done around 22.6 miles I guess? And Rini did 18? I don't really know honestly, I am really bad at math at the moment and too careless to add up all my miles in Strava.
Jon's team finished with 51.01 miles! Only .6 miles ahead of the other team. The other team congratulated them very quickly, and everyone was extremely friendly and supportive of each other. They had some seriously quick folks on their team, and everyone was giving it their all in the final laps!
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| Team Ko Dependent chatting with Team Third Wheel |
Rini's husband, Brandon ran it with no training, and he managed to do over 27 miles! His farthest run in his life was a half marathon, so this was impressive to say the least. He is an amazing athlete, and does a lot of mountaineering, so I can't say I was exactly surprised that he did this super human feat. What an athletic pair!
Our other friend Johan ran 33.67 miles on his own, and got 4th for the men's category and second in his age group. He's a great ultra runner that is an inspiration to Jon and Me, that eats marathons for breakfast! High fat, low carb marathons.
Oh yeah, and both of our teams won first place! We were so excited about it, and really put in a lot of effort and energy. For sure we will be limping around tomorrow. Noot's wUnderdog's got 4th place of both the 2 and 3 person teams overall out of 32 teams, and 1st for the 2 person teams.
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| Team Neutron's wUnderdogs |
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| Team Ko-Dependent |
We celebrated with the BBQ food that they provided. Delicious pulled pork, and beef brisket! Sorry, no photos...ate it too fast! Can I just request though, that they don't put cilantro in their coleslaw next year? Pretty please?
The prizes were Brazen Racing hats that they had in a box. The most hard earned hats ever!
The medal was also great. I have to say that the artwork for Brazen Racing is impressive and some of the best. Oh, and the hoodie is one of our favorites. It is so warm and cozy that I don't ever want to take it off!
Would we do it again? YOU BET. We're going to be regulars! This race was well organized, had a great friendly vibe, wasn't too painful on the wallet, and has some of my favorite swag! My only complaint is that I found the course to be a little bit confusing. There was one moment where I ran off course (right at the start by the bridge) and I wasn't the only one to do that either. I also accidentally ran through the wrong funnel at the end of the big loop, and it was counted as a little loop. Luckily the customer service for Brazen is spot on, and it was resolved within minutes of me emailing them.
Congrats to all that competed this year, and a giant thank you to the wonderful hard working volunteers and race directors. I know it's not easy putting on such a large race with so many categories, but you pull it off well and we appreciate it.
One last note: splitting up the relay into swapping every lap was ideal for us. There's no way I would have been able to keep that pace running it in one go. I was able to recover pretty well within the 30 minutes, and went much farther than I was expecting.
