Experienced Runners Forum Group

Twin Peaks 50 Mile Race Report

posted by jscarbro75 on 11:18 am

This race started out for us on Friday evening when Kara and I drove up to the start and slept in the back of our Honda Pilot. At 3am the alarm went off and it was time to get ready to get my bib and mingle around before the race. There were three different starting times for the race, depending on your ability level (supposedly), one at 4am, 5am, and 6am. I was placed in the 5am start. With me were many of the typical So Cal (Orange Country) runners. There were only a few of us from San Diego County. As you follow ultrarunning, you will see the usual groups of folks in every race up and down the state, so it was good to shoot the crap with them before the misery began.
The weather started out as expected, in the high 30s and overcast, and there was 7 miles to the first aid station, so as you can see on the pictures I posted on Livestrong and my Facebook, I was dressed for a cold morning.
The climbing started immediately with an ascent of about 5000ft in the first 7 miles. Much of that was powerwalking and running every chance I could, which wasn't much. Long about the 7-10 mile mark it began to mist and the wind got stronger and stronger as the climb continued. From the first to second aid station was still a climb, but mostly runnable, and in between came a short burst of rain thrown in. We were at roughly 6000ft of elevation at that point, then it came. The descent was steep and fast, so I tried to hold back a bit as to not destroy my quads that early in the race. Mile 14.6 was the third aid station, and Kara was there volunteering and waiting to pace me the final 22 miles. It was awesome to see her face.
Coming out of that aid station was huge climb up a trail called Holy Jim. It was actully my favorite portion of the race as it was mostly single track and had creek crossings, with awesome views on the way up and down. This trail dropped us off a a fire road call Main Divide, which was a 3 mile climb up to the highest point in the race called Santiago Peak. This is where the weather began to turn south, with winds gusting up to 40 mph, the rain turned to freezing rain, puddles were iced over. It was just brutal.
Descending from their took us down another beautiful single track trail, then back down the Holy Jim trail to the "28 mile" aid station. I quoted that because mine and another dude's Garmin both read 30 miles. Anyhow, this is where Kara picked me up to pace me the rest of the race. It was at that point where I had a low point in the race, just starting to feel like crap.
Now that brutal downhill I wrote about previously, we had to climb that, and that was by far the hardest portion of the course. We slowed to a crawl but still managed to catch and pass three other runners. On top of that climb, five miles later I was still not feeling too great. Kara gave me a couple extra strength tylonol and in about 5 minutes I felt like a champ and we starting running hard again, passing two more runners and their pacers.
The course took us once again to the top of Santiago Peak. Conditions had gotten so bad that we could not feel our hands, eyes would not focus, the wind was unreal, and the freezing rain was crazy. That was by far the most miserable 3 mile run of my life. I was still in shorts, t-shirt, Moebens, cotten gloves, a windbreaker, and a visor, that's it. To greet us at the top was XY Wiess, the owner of Dirty Girl Gaitors. Kara had to have XY remove her gloves for her so she could grab aid, then put them back on. I was running on adrenaline. I grabbed some food, shoved it in my pack, and we took off down the Mtn as fast as we could. I then took another Advil as I was beginning to feel pain in my ankle and legs. Again, about 5-10 minutes later, Kara and I were killing the course dropping 8-9 min miles down to the final aid station.
We were starting to lose daylight, and both Kara and I forgot our headlamps from our drop bag, so it looks as though we were going to run the last 5 miles in the dark, and we did. Kara and I hammered the final 7 miles, again dropping 8-10 min miles, even in the complete darkness, passing 4 runners down the mtn.
When I came across, I was told I was only the 8th runner to complete the entire 50 mile course! Then a friend of mine, Gina Armento, who started an our after me came across the line, putting me tentatively at 9th overall. I honest didn't even catch my time because I forgot to stop my Garmin. Kara later told me that it was 12:50ish. With those crazy conditions, on that brutal of a course, Im stoked about it. I am now completely confident that there is no 50 mile course in the country that I could not finish.
Thank you all for all of your encouragement, and I will leave you with this quote. "Whether or not you think you can do something, you are probably right." Endurance running is as much a mental game as a physical game.