From stanj Mon Dec 30 11:37:28 1996 Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1996 11:37:27 -0800 From: stanj (Stan Jensen) To: ius-l@american.edu, ultra@caligari.dartmouth.edu Subject: Learn from our mistakes - long report/confession (XP) Saturday was the Nth running of the Fat Ass 50, Los Altos, CA version, un-organized by Dave Kamp and un-supported by David Kim. Due to the weather (major storm forecasted) or other factors, only six runners showed up for the 6am start at Foothill College in Los Altos: Dave Kamp, Joan Szarfinski, Herman Cohen, Ron Perkins, Allan Kaplan and myself. We were joined for the first few miles by Joe Oakes, founder of the Fat Asses(?), who was "saving his body fat for the Alcatraz swim on New Year's Day". The plan was to run to Waddell Beach on the coast north of Santa Cruz, a distance of about 46 miles (about 50 if you run the Castle Rock loop). Conditions were pretty good, with cool weather, no rain, ominously overcast skies and moderately muddy trails. We ran together, stopping at junctions to regroup, and reached Saratoga Gap (mile 15) around 10:30, where David Kim was waiting with a "Western States"-style aid station: Gatorade, sodas, water, pretzels, Doritos, cookies, M&Ms, etc. He said we were about a half-hour slower than last year's group at that point, but I didn't give that remark much significance, since we'd all stayed with the slowest runner so far. David was going on to Waterman Gap (about 23 miles from the finish), where he'd stay for as long as he could before he had to leave. Note: This is where I publicly acknowledge my mistakes (so that others may learn) and my abyssmally slow time (so that others can have a good chuckle). Yes, Allan knows I'm doing this. Allan and I wanted to make it a full 50m, so we decided we'd run the Castle Rock loop together and stay together for the remainder of the day. We both considered ourselves to be experienced trail runners, we had both run the Fat Ass 50 course before, and we both felt like we had enough "stuff" to continue on our own. However, we figured that we'd get some aid at Waterman Gap in another 12 miles, we figured that we'd catch the others before the finish, we figured we'd only need flashlights for the last hour, and we figured we had enough gear in case it rained harder. Several risky assumptions when you're trail running in winter, in wilderness, without "organization". The other four took off to the west, while Allan and I headed out to the south. Within an hour we realized that we'd missed a turn, adding extra distance and time, but at least we weren't lost. We got back on track and reached Waterman Gap to find that the mobile aid station wasn't there. Not a (big) problem, since we each had used only half our water and had enough to reach Big Basin, although it was starting to rain, so we both added some more warm clothing. We reached Big Basin around 5:30, still running without flashlights and using the twilight/moonlight. If we'd thought to bring money, we could have bought sodas, but we settled for water. If we'd thought about it, we would have used a pay phone to call Dave's house and leave a message about our location and plans. As it was, we each ate some food and rationalized that we "should" continue to the coast, since the others would be waiting for us and were probably not much more than an hour ahead of us. After climbing about a mile up to the ridge, using a light only when necessary, we reached the "last hill" and had just started down the other side when we encountered two hikers without flashlights! We told them how to get back to Big Basin and they said they'd seen the other runners about an hour ago, so we figured we were still only an hour and half behind them. On we went, slowly, slipping and sliding and trying not to go off the trail and into the creek. Most of the crossings had bridges, but we finally reached one that was about 15' wide and had a portion of the bridge on our side. Our flashlights weren't strong enough to see a trail on the opposite bank, but the bridge indicated that we were supposed to cross. We linked arms, vowed not to let go of our flashlights and carefully waded across. That was the moment when I realized if I'd been alone, I would have spent the night there. After another half hour, we reached the dirt road and knew we had less than four miles to go and that a ranger could reach us with a jeep. We jogged on using one flashlight until it died, then turning the other one back on for a few more minutes of light, and so on. It was so dark that I ran into a fallen tree at one point! After a while, we saw our first sign of civilization: lights in a farmhouse! We came around the final turn to the parking lot and found Dave and Joan in his car with the headlights on. It turns out that they had been waiting for over three hours(!) and were warming up the car in preparation to go call the sheriff. Yikes! Thank goodness for true friends!!! I hope this never happens to you, but if it does, I hope you're as fortunate as we were. What we did right was agree to stick together, refill our bottles whenever we had a chance, and conserve our flashlights. Next time (and there will be a next time) I will carry money, a second small flashlight, spare batteries, extra plastic bag/raingear, and more food ... and I'll try to be more sensible. Happy New Year! Unofficial results: Herman Cohen 11:30 Dave Kamp 11:30 Ron Perkins 11:30 Joan Szarfinski(F) 11:30 Stan Jensen 14:31 (we finished together, but this is one of Allan Kaplan 14:31 my few chances to beat a Grand Slammer:-) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stan Jensen, Systems Engineer for "SGI Direct" stanj@sgi.com Silicon Graphics Inc., M/S 120 Phone:(415)933-5822 P.O. Box 7311, 1401 No. Shoreline Blvd. FAX: (415)932-5822 Mt. View, CA 94039-7311 "I (heart) Tonks" "http://www.sgi.com" "http://reality.sgi.com/stanj" ------------------------------------------------------------------------