This was the last of my usual races where I took off my shoes. Last year, after I had long been running barefoot/minimalist at all of my other races, I just wasn’t sure about all that mud. My feet had been soaked in my Vibram Five Fingers at the Angeles Crest 100 Mile Endurance Run in September 2008, and blistered in a way that I didn’t think happened to me in VFFs. So in February 2009 I decided to wear New Balance 790s, purchased for possible use in my 2009 100 miler that I eventually ran in VFFs, just to be safe. In the year since, however, my commitment to minimalist and barefoot running increased, and I had even toyed with running the race barefoot. Other events on my day’s calendar didn’t allow me the time to confidently set out barefoot though, and so I decided to wear my Trek KSOs. I figured the Treks would provide a little traction in all the mud this course is known for, but I also had my regular KSOs on hand with a new pair of socks if I needed to change because of any hot spots or blisters from wet feet. With that I set off on what five years earlier was my first ultramarathon, the Hagg Lake 50K.
The trail around the lake is a bit under 15 miles, so there is an out-and-back on road at the beginning. It’s mostly on gravel going up a big hill, just to make sure we don’t get the wrong idea about the race being too easy just because it’s mostly “flat”. As usual I was racing to the start when the cow bell sounded and sent the runners on their way. And so I started dead last without my number on or pins to put it on. It started in my hands, and then was shoved into my pocket with plans to get pins when we passed by the start again, and was only dug out of my pocket again for the finish.
A pleasant surprise early in the course was that instead of detouring onto the road early in the loop around the lake, as we had done for the last 5 years, we crossed a creek where the bridge had been out all the previous years. The bridge was still out, but we were given a way across and a volunteer was on hand to make sure we made it successfully. Then onward around the lake.
I was going at a chipper pace, but didn’t feel like I was overdoing it. About 15 miles into the race, however, I faded a little hard. It didn’t feel like I had run too hard, it felt more like I was just having a tough time making it past “the wall” to efficient fat metabolism. The group of runners I was leading all eventually passed me and I settled in with the cohort of runners behind us. I was also playing my nutrition a little fast and loose for this “short” race, having mostly “sports food” rather than focusing as much as possible on water and fruit and then spiking that with extra calories as needed. At the last aid station on the first loop I switched to my “cleaner” eating, made sure to get some electrolytes, and would drop my hat and gloves off by my car before starting the second loop.
Like an annual tradition, the winner of the 25K came charging up behind me as I ran the last bit of trail before starting the second loop. I seem to run about 30K of a casual muddy 50K almost exactly one hour slower than the fastest runners run 25K on the same course. After changing things up a bit I began to feel better, and was able to start pushing the pace again. Doing some math I saw that a sub-5 hour finish was in my reach, something I’d only done once in the 5 previous times I’d run this course, and that motivated me to keep my pace up. It was a bit tough at times with the mud bogs and slippery slopes. I was passing people again, and started catching glimpses of some of that cohort ahead of me that had left me behind. I’m not competitive in my running, but passing people still feels good. On my second loop through the muddiest part of the course, in the last 7 miles of the race, I stopped dodging the deep mud and puddles and just pushed through. I had a pace to keep up.
I managed to get in the middle of the now diffuse cohort I had been running with before, ahead of some and behind others, and really started charging in the last couple miles. I hadn’t started my watch for a few minutes after the race started, so I didn’t know exactly how much time I had left before 5 hours, but I knew it was close. It felt good to run fast, and to be able to run fast. I wondered what my time would have been like if I’d been able to run to exhaustion instead of spending some time in the middle in an extended “ultramarathon moment”. I crossed the finish at 5:02:23 on the official clock.
Running in something other than shoes still gets quite a bit of attention, but I noticed with this race people had heard of it. Many knew me, as my reputation as a barefoot runner has spread in our running community, and of course there has been much media attention to the topic. Instead of being outside the box I was a living breathing running example of something many had only read about, but at least most had that exposure. Some people thought my muddy Vibrams were bare feet under all that muck. Next time?
