From owner-ius-l@AMERICAN.EDU Tue May 20 22:36:35 1997 From: TrailPatty@aol.com Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 00:07:16 -0400 (EDT) To: ius-l@AMERICAN.EDU Subject: Ohlone Wilderness 50K--HOT HOT HOT As the course description states: The Ohlone Wilderness Trail Run is a point-to-point run on a tough course on trails and fire roads. The trail goes through four East Bay Regional Park District's parklands in Southern Alameda County: Mission Peak Regional Preserve, Sunol Regional Wilderness, Ohlone Regional Wilderness, and Del Valle Regional Park connecting Fremont and Livermore. The course is not for the beginning runner, with over 7500 feet of elevation change, long steep up and downhills, and exposed ridges. Ya, well, that's putting it mildly... I was somewhat concerned about the heat since it was 95 in San Francisco the day before, and this area is always much warmer than SF. But I felt good and was prepared for the heat. Stan Jensen was there after running Silver State the day before and while he looked like he needed a nap at the start, I'm glad to see he finished well. Way to go Stan! Gene Thibeault proudly displayed duct tape on his nipples as the renowned Galen Rowell looked on. Not sure what Galen thought about Gene's display. So do we get a duct tape on the nipples report, Gene? Started out running with Lee and Wini Jebian, but Wini just seems to glide going uphill and she soon pulled away, leaving Lee and me in the dust. Soon Lee also left me in the dust, literally. I felt good through the mile 16 Billy Goat/Telles Rock aid station, was drinking a lot and have found Karl King's Succeed tablets to be close to magic for eliminating my past stomach problems. But from mile 16 to Maggie's Half Acre aid station where you climb, climb, climb and then climb some more over very exposed ridges with the sun beating down relentlessly and temps in the 90s, I just couldn't seem to hydrate enough no matter how much I drank. It wasn't my stomach that was the problem, it was my brain that wasn't getting what it needed in the heat; it was just like that "your brain on drugs" commercial. I couldn't focus and started to stumble and wasn't sure about my legs and couldn't run even when the ground finally evened out a little. I was all alone and of course started to feel sorry for myself, even had tears in my eyes because I didn't want another DNF. But I couldn't even run down the hill which leads into the Maggie's Half Acre 20 mile aid station. I think I inhaled about a bottle of coke at the aid station, so the sugar factor comes into play somehow. I sat down for a while and had goose bumps in the heat--not a good sign. There were 3 women behind me who finally came into the aid station and they, too, were experiencing various problems, but were determined to finish, and I started back out with them. But after running just a while, I knew that wasn't a good idea for me and went back to wait at the aid station. Due to inaccessability, it's understood that if you do the Ohlone Wilderness 50K, you will either get your caboose to the finish or go back to the start. But today I knew I could not go back nor could/or should I go forward so I joined the 20 mile aid station crew and gained a real appreciation for just what it takes to transport aid stations to the Ohlone Wilderness Kudos to Ruth Anderson and Louise Wholey for make the 20 mile aid station an oasis in the wilderness. Ruth volunteered for this station to honor Dick Collins who manned this station in the past. I hope runners realize that the lovely picnic table, complete with side chairs and umbrella out in the wilderness was Ruth's personal contribution. Otherwise there would have been a small table with stuff on it! They also went to great lengths to have ice available here! The aid stations are transported out to the various locations by a park ranger so we had to wait several hours for the ranger to come back out and pick us up. Ruth and I had plenty of time to discuss a wide range of topics and time flew by. Then she pulled out her stash of Bing cherries, which really hit the spot. We tossed a few cherry seeds in hopes of seeing a cherry tree in the Ohlone Wilderness marking this aid station next year!. After the trail sweeps, David Kim, Shirley Church and Bob Longwell came through, there was still plenty of food/refreshments, so several hikers were delighted to find this aid station out in the wilderness and they were very appreciative too, as Ruth offered ice cold Gatorade! We were glad to see the park ranger coming down the road along with Mary and Jim Weston, who were in charge of the Schlieper Rock aid station at mile 26. All the while we were waiting it had never occurred to me that we would actually have to drive back out that 20 miles in a pickup truck over the same NARROW, STEEP, RUTTED, POT-HOLED trail I had just traversed on foot. (So was I waiting for a helicopter?) Uh Oh, this could make me sick--they gave me the window seat up front, with Jim and Mary Weston hanging on precariously in the back with the aid station gear and Jim cheerfully yelling, "Yee Haa, Ride 'Um Cowboy!" as the truck bounced, shook and tipped from side to side along the trail. At one point there was a rock slide and the ranger suggested we all get out of the truck while she drove over the slide and I held my breath as the truck just about tipped completely over. But the ranger laughed and was having a good time as she has the good fortune to be working out here every day. At this point, I'm thinking, "Geez, Pat, you really shoulda walked out those last 11 miles!" But then I would have missed the magnificent views and real appreciation for the beauty of the Ohlone Wilderness. You get quite a different vantage point riding in a truck. Funny, I really didn't see the vastness of beauty with my head down trudging up these very same hills under the bloody hot sun. Considering the tremendous effort it takes to transport aid stations out to the Ohlone Wilderness and keep track of runners, and the number of park systems involved, John Vonhof must have some superb PR skills--not to mention organizational skills--to have made this such a wonderful challenging run for 10 years! Thanks John! What I don't understand is how my hands got sunburned! I've never had burned hands before. My shoulders are somewhat burned, but my hands are badly burned all the way up above the wrist and it actually looks like I was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, but I wasn't. Back in San Francisco and basking in the cool soothing FOG, Pat Wellington TrailPatty@aol.com