Golden Gate 50k Ultra

6/Feb/2016 - 50k Ultra

I will make this one a picture blog (a.k.a shameless plagiarism). There was some deep Chautauqua on comparisons and on parenting that was brewing up. But it will have to wait for more inspiration.

I signed up for this trail run knowing that there was a 2200m elevation gain over the 50k distance. For the uninitiated, Nandi hills is a gain of 400m over 7.5k

Some steep 8-10% gradients, there was no running these. I just stuck to brisk walking using my arms a lot. (My trapezius ached the following morning more than my calves). I managed to even pass a few runners while on my walking breaks!

If were to explain the course, it would go like this...

But since I am being a lazy bum on this post, I pasted this from the "Best Bike Rides San Francisco" book.

You can also see this video taken by Phil Wright (he finished the half marathon in 1:45 or so)

As for myself, I ran the downhills quite strong, right till the very end. With spectacular views like these to behold, I totally enjoyed those downhill sections.
(This pic courtesy coastal runs - the organizers, from Sausalito, encountered once at about 24k and again at 44k or so.)

   

Some splits (for whatever it is worth) - 10km 1:05, 20km 2:10, 30km 3:09, 40km 4:27, 50km 5:28. Given that the course was run over 2 loops of 20k, with a 10k loop in between, the 20k-30k loop1 (59mins) is similar to 40k-50k loop2 (1:01). Not so bad, eh.

I finished in 5:28:33, coming in 10th overall and 3rd in my age category. This pic was taken by a teenager, Andrew, who hitched a ride from me from Stanford Univ and ended up winning the event.