November, 2014
This was very much a training run for the North Face Endurance Challenge for me, and many people who ran this also ran the NFEC three weeks later. But in itself it’s a gorgeous course. Once again, I crossed paths with DL, who would go on to win.
I upped the pace a bit for this 50k, compared to the last couple. I kept it up climbing Steep Ravine, dropping down Ben Johnson, climbing back up the Lost trail, following along Pantoll Road, and dropping down the Dipsea to Muir Woods Rd. Climbing Miwok up to Dias Ridge slowed me down a bit. After passing through the Muir Beach aid station, we made the long climb up Heather Cutoff and Coastal. This took more out of me than expected, and I slowed a fair amount on the last loop through Muir Woods.
The final climb really slowed me down; about 20 people passed me on this climb and the subsequent run down Dipsea to Stinson Beach. When there’s less than 100 runners, that’s fairly significant. After the fact, I realized I’d never had a climb of that size at the end of a 50k. I finished in 7:49:10, at 84/90.
Parting thoughts:
* This race was entirely strength bound; picking up the pace early cost me later. It’s seriously time to fix that.
* Lots of Strava PR’s on various segments, except that last loop.
* The faster pace was more than comfortable for about 20 miles.
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