Tuesday, June 10, 2014

DNFed the Big Basin 50K

My first adult DNF was this Sunday at the Big Basin 50K. This race starts at Castle Rock in the Santa Cruz mountains, and follows the Skyline to Sea trail. This is one of my favorite Bay Area trails. This trail is where I saw my first mountain lion, and have been covered in ticks. This is an epic trail, with foggy rolling hills, waterfalls, and redwood trees. However, on June 8, 2014, this trail was sun baked and 91 degrees. Around mile 16 I dropped out due to sunstroke, or heat exhaustion. I had sausage fingers and dizziness. I could not eat or fuel.


I felt great for the first ten miles. And my friends working the aid station at mile 8 said I looked better than many. But then everything fell apart. The sun baked my head, and I felt dizzy. I walked for miles and miles, until the mile 16 aid station. At that point I took a 30 minute break to see if the dizzy spell would go away. It did not. A volunteer gave me a lift to the finish line, where I met up with my crew, and joined the volunteers at the finish line, handing out awards. I hydrated and got rest, and felt pretty good three hours later. Yes, disappointing. But I run for fun, not for torture. If it ain't fun, why bother? And I got the Double Dipsea in two weeks. I don't need to fall off a cliff because I am dizzy and too stupid to stop running.

Apparently, I was not the only one who dropped this race. The aid stations ran out of water at some point and stopped allowing runners to do the 50K loop, forcing runners to only run the marathon. Too damn hot!

Sunday, June 1, 2014

H3 26.6

May 31, 2014 - the first San Francisco Hash Marathon. Here are some sober moments on trail:













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Location:SFO