Skip to main content

Ok, I'll tell you why.

By the time midnight rolled around on December 8th, 1,360 people had entered the lottery for the Way Too Cool 50k wanting one of 900 spots available...much better odds over last year when there were only 500 spots! Race lotteries generally turn me into a ball of anxiety because my life feels like it's hanging in suspended animation until I know for sure whether I'm in or out. Lucky for me, it was only about 24 hours until I'd learned I snagged an entry this year. Huzzah!

My infiltration into the California trail running scene has come along pretty recently. I have a couple years under my belt and only one ultramarathon (barely). It amazes me that I live somewhere that almost any weekend of the year I can drive an hour or two and find a trail race. I could be flying down switchbacks smelling Eucalyptus or climbing endlessly up a mountain and look back over my shoulder at the Golden Gate Bridge. I can be wading across rivers and stomping through streams beneath enormous Redwoods, or I could be running for miles along the western most edge of the country hundreds of feet above the Pacific Ocean. I am constantly in awe. I love that I get to do this.

And then there are these races that you hear about and read about and they are the races that in normal runner conversation the inevitable question comes up...so have you done Dipsea? Double Dipsea? Quad Dipsea? Miwok? Headlands 100? American River? I could go on. These are the races that have a reputation. They have history. As a new comer to the ultra scene, being included in these races is like experiencing a piece of California running legend.

Way Too Cool is one of these races for me because of a couple different reasons. It's got history. Part of the course is run on Western States trail, which could be the closest I ever get to it.  Ann Trason came in second overall and set a course record in 1995 while I was running cross country in high school in Indiana having never even heard of an ultra. Plus, the frog cupcakes.

My 13 week countdown started today. I've planned my way to the start line on March 9th with the bones of this training plan with some tweaks and a trail marathon or maybe two stuck in. My goal is to just get as much trail time in as possible and get there injury free. My goal is to experience the Way Too Cool 50k and run it strong because I do feel honored to be a part of it.

Cool.


Labels:

Comments

  1. Shatterday: Far AwayDecember 11, 2012 at 7:51 PM

    Yes! I am so excited for you! Way Too Cool is definitely on my list--it sounds like an excellent event. Your training plan looks great--I'm ready to watch you knock this out. Yahoo!

    ReplyDelete
  2. KarenDecember 11, 2012 at 8:05 PM

    Way Too Cool that you made it! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. notthatlucasJanuary 2, 2013 at 10:01 AM

    Congrats on getting in - it will be fun seeing you (for a short bit until you have left me in the dust, or mud as the case might be). It's a fun race that's really not all that hard compared to many of the 50Ks in the Bay Area. But all that climbing in the last third of the course is challenging. See you there!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Year's One Day 12 Hour (Uh, 7 Hour) Race Report

Here's the idea: You pay actual money to run around in a circle for either 6, 12, or 24 hours. This is how you choose to spend your New Year's Eve.  That's it. That's the course. Just keep turning right until midnight.  Each time you complete a lap, you pass under the finish arch, that is never actually the finish line, and over a timing mat that tracks the number of laps you've done and displays it on a screen. This should actually say, "KEEP GOING FOR MORE HOURS" You're looking at the same people lap after lap. It's the Golden Gate Bridge over and over again. You're not actually getting anywhere.  What is the point of what we are doing. That question is exactly why I love this race.  Here are hundreds of people, lap after lap, living entirely inside their own heads for hours and hours, each with a different answer to that question.  Last year I ran because I just wanted to find out if I could do it. I wan...
10 comments
Read more

Skyline to the Sea 50k, I lived.

To say the week preceding the race was an emotional roller coaster would be an understatement. What I didn't know, was that it would be nothing compared to my experience out on the trail. I had said going in my goal was a sub 6 hour finish, and, unknowingly foreshadowing my race, I added, "but you never know what can happen out there." My decision to run ultras came long before my actual ability to run them, so after collecting a couple years of trail running under my belt I finally felt ready to take the plunge. Skyline to the Sea came at just the right time providing a net downhill course with just over 3,000 ft of elevation gain. If you're not aware of the on again off again drama that ensued surrounding this race, refer to my previous post  here . Race morning, standing at the trail head with over 200 other runners, a collective feeling of gratitude hung in the warm air as Wendell counted us down to start. Spectators lined the street above us, and the runners e...
10 comments
Read more

Skyline to the Sea 50k. Here's what happened.

Five days before the fifth annual Skyline to the Sea 50k, entrants received an email from race director Sarah Spelt that knocked the wind out of us all: I am beyond sorry to announce that I am forced to close the doors at PCTR, effective immediately... It's been no secret to the Northern California trail running community that Pacific Coast Trail Runs has experienced quite a bit of turbulence, especially in the last year, resulting in some cancelled races and even a no show. 2012 boasted a handful of successful races, the most recent being the Diablo Marathon and 60k just three days prior. Things seemed to be on the upswing, especially with the upcoming Skyline to the Sea Marathon and 50k being completely sold out. I'd been through the disappointment over previously cancelled races, but this time was different. I'd carefully chosen this race to be my first ultra. I was brokenhearted and angry, but it didn't take long for a runner coming from Illinois specifically for t...
8 comments
Read more