Tilden Park Trail Run 21k Race Report 2011

The course was hard. Really hard. Here's how hard it was:

The 35 and 50k started at 8:30, the 10k at 9:00, and the 21k...not until 10:30, which meant not having to wake up at the crack of dawn to drive to Berkeley. After getting a little lost in the Berkeley hills, we arrived at Lake Anza in Tilden Park with about an hour until the start. The weather was BEAUTIFUL.

At 10:30 about 80 or 90 of us gathered between some orange cones to listen to instructions about blue ribbons and striped ribbons and then we were off. Within 20 seconds we hit the mud. Big mud. And not only mud but the first climb along with mud. So one step sinks your foot down six inches and slides you another foot or so in a random direction. And a rushing river coming downhill. It made the start of the race especially interesting. 5 minutes in and my shoes weighed 50 lbs each. Pretty sure I was grinning through it all.

Once the trail dried out, the climb continued. I stayed steady and started to relax and enjoy the trail (climb).

At the first Aid station about 3 miles in, I had some Clif shot electrolyte drink. I didn't feel like eating anything yet (they had potatoes, candy, Clif bars, granola) and I had plenty of water and Gu with me. Speaking of water, I would like to announce that this was my first trail run with my Nathan Hydration Vest-

I moved on from the Aid station and here began the first REAL CLIMB. It felt like it lasted for hours. I plowed uphill about 600 ft in one mile and was rewarded with views of San Francisco, the Bay Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Richmond Bridge, the bay, the ocean....all of it at once.

The downhill included softball sized rocks, treacherous steep trail, and uneven ground. I got caught behind someone really taking it easy and decided to take it easy myself. No need to take a nosedive or twist an ankle. Then we rounded a corner and hit soft pine needly ground. I flew out around with big steps and the guy behind me followed. Then, into the woods...

there really wasn't a trail through here...just follow the ribbons.

The next few miles were a series of climbs then more big steep downhill. And then the final big steep uphill. And then I noticed my hands were swelling.

and my legs were toast. 

This last uphill was brutal. It was around mile 8 and I was pretty much spent. The Gu wasn't cutting it anymore, I was dying for some salt, and I had no idea how much further it was until I looped back to the aid station, so I trudged on. It was here that the uphill was trying to kill me.

I was having an out of body experience at this point. It was like, ok this sucks, keep moving...WHAT? MORE?! ok keep moving, this sucks, STILL MORE? WHAT?! I can't feel my legs.

My Nathan hydration vest became a friend to me. My friend's name was Nathan. Along the lonely trails when my legs and body wanted to give up, when I was out of energy and wanting to give up, I found comfort in the only thing that was here to experience every moment with me. Nathan.

I get the Wilson thing, Tom.

I really could've given up or at least crawled at this point. It was so steep and so never ending I was kind of losing my mind. I realized I was unprepared, nutritionally, for this distance. I needed some salt and some calories pretty bad. Oh, and did I mention a few miles back THE BLISTER began forming? I stepped aside at one point to take my shoe off and adjust my sock, but guess what, the blister had already formed AND EXPLODED. So....deal with it til the end.

I'd rather see beauty then dwell on the pain.

Finally I made it into the Aid station again and had some more Clif electrolyte drink. I knew there'd be pretzels so my plan was to grab a handful to take back out with me, because I wanted salt. so. bad. EXCEPT, I saw a bowl full of sliced boiled potatoes, and next to it a bowl of SALT. The guy there told me, 3 more miles, all downhill. I smiled and grabbed a potato slice....Is this....?.....Yeah, that's SALT....YESSS....I dipped the potato slice into the salt and came out with about a tablespoon on the potato. It was amazing.

So I took one more, again, digging the potato slice in the salt. It was SO GOOD. So I took off out of there, having survived death, knowing it was 3 more miles (which includes that mud again) to the finish.

AND THEN I TOOK A WRONG TURN. For the sake of argument, I reached an intersection and recognized all of the trail markings....and there were 2 directions that featured the blue ribbon that should tell me I've taken the right path. So I went about a quarter mile out of the way before I turned around. and backtracked. suck.

Then I recognized the trail and then I got back to the mud again...but downhill was way different than the initial uphill mud, so I just went balls out. I didn't care about slipping or sliding or falling, I ran down the rushing river, straight down through the mud, not giving a damn and a little euphoric.

My finish time goal was under 3 hours and I was running it in just at 3 hours and then some. If I hadn't taken that extra trail time I absolutely would've made it under 3 hours. But official time is 301.

Here's a link to the RESULTS

And here's how happy I am:

obligatory muddy legs/shoes photo

And in closing, there's no denying this is serious fun: