Subject: Silver State 50/50 report (long)
From: Runtrails@aol.com
Date: Mon, 27 May 2002 02:08:21 EDT

Silver State 50/50 Race Report
Race date:  May 18, 2002     Reno, NV area
by Sue Norwood

There are easier ways to "get Nevada" (on a quest to complete
ultras/marathons in all 50 states and D.C.) than runnng the Silver
State 50/50 near Reno, but the accomplishment probably wouldn't
be as satisfying on a milder course. That's what my husband, Jim
O'Neil, and I are telling ourselves after the race . . .

You know how you'll sometimes run a race and declare at the end
that you'll never, ever run that race again?  Then a couple days
later, you're making plans to run it the next year??  Not this one,
no siree!!  We're glad we did it, but doubt we'll do it again. We've
even had a week to think about it now.     [:-)] 

Not that it wasn't well-organized or scenic. It was. But it was one
of the tougher courses footing-wise that we've encountered in
our collective 15 years of running trail ultras. Fortunately, we had
time to enjoy the views from high up when we weren't carefully
picking our way around or through the rocks and snow on the
rougher portions of the course. I wish I could share the many
photos I took of people and scenery during the race, but they
turned out too poorly from the cheap disposable camera I used.
Rats!

I was particularly grateful for the generous time allowance for
the "50K" (officially 34.5 miles). I never could have entered it
with, say, an 8-hour cut-off.  But both races allow 13 hours for
completion. This can be a challenge for the 50-milers, as the
altitude (4,700 - 8,800 feet), rocks, slick snow, and two long
hauls up mountains are ingredients for DNF's in the longer race.
But for the 34.5-mile race, it allows a very generous 22.6 minutes-
per-mile pace for completion.

Jim is training for four western mountain 100s this year, and
chose the Silver State 50-miler as his last long run before the
Big Horn 100 in mid-June. Reno is "only" a 14-hour drive for us,
hauling the camper, and has the advantage of being Jim's eldest
son's new residence, so we could combine a race and family
get-together the same week.  Jim, Jr. shares his dad's love of
running on trails, and is real close to becoming the next ultra
runner in the family. This was his first time to "watch" an ultra.

I had trouble getting interested in Silver State while Jim talked
about it for the last several months. I love crewing for him in his
100-milers, but this race has only one crew point. Boring!!

I was also bummed that I hadn't been able to do any ultras since
last fall. I had surgery on one of my ankles to reconnect two
ruptured peroneal tendons in December, couldn't run for three
months, and only began running again in early March -- a scant ten
weeks before Silver State.  The first five weeks back were awful; my
my ankle was fine, but I'd lost a lot aerobically. Then I had a series
of three really good long runs, up to five hours at a time. I wasn't fast
(haven't been since the first tendon ruptured seven years ago), but
my endurance suddenly improved in mid- April and I was itching to
do a race.

Looking at that generous time limit in the 50K, I decided to send in
my entry a couple weeks before the race and just quit if anything
(particularly that ankle) started to hurt. I could easily drop out at
the Boomtown aid station at 14 miles -- our camper would be only
about 100 yards away!  My intention was to keep going if all systems
felt good, however.

We arrived in Reno with three days to socialize and find parts of the
course. Jim's son joined us for two of our three training runs near the
start and above Boomtown. The weather then and during the race
was ideal -- 60s and 70s during the day, 40s and 50s at night. It
was even drier and sunnier than at home in Billings, MT, which lies
at a little lower "high desert" elevation than Reno.

We got to socialize with some of our friends at the pre-race
briefing at Boomtown on Friday afternoon that we hadn't seen
since last year. We were happy to see Kathy Lang and Jim Ballard
from Klamath Falls, OR again (they are former Montanans), as well
as Melanie Johnson from Ashland, OR, who we met last year at
the Western States training weekend and race. I spent some time
going up the first mountain with Kathy, who was in the longer race,
and Jim got to run off and on with Jim B. and Melanie for 50 miles.
We recognized other runners then and during the race, but didn't
get much of a chance to talk with them (Kathryn Forshey, Claudia
Berryman Shafer, Lynn Yarnall, Gordie Ainsleigh, and others).

On race morning, about 44 runners gathered at the start for the
50-miler, about 77 for the 50K, plus 7 two-person 50K relay teams.
Most would finish their races.

The 34.5 mile course is a large, incomplete loop to the north, west,
and south of Reno, with beautiful views at the higher elevations of
the metro valley, Truckee Meadows, and the even taller, snow-capped
mountains around Lake Tahoe. The 50-mile course follows the same
route, but has an additional 16-mile loop that branches off the big loop
at 7.6 miles into the race and returns at the same point. The 50K has
12,000' of elevation change, the 50-miler, 20,000' of change -- some
good "hill training" early in our racing season.

Everyone got to enjoy the same grinding ascent up dirt jeep trails
on Peavine Mountain, from 4900 feet at the edge of town to the first
aid station at 6.3 miles (7870 feet). I walked that part in two hours.
I didn't want to get trashed right off the bat. I thought I was next to
last up the mountain, but apparently there were more behind me that
I couldn't see due to the the undulating landscape. The view was great,
with some snow nearby. The wind was howling near the top, but it
wasn't a problem the rest of the race. Nothing hurt; I was very happy
to be back "racing." (ha!)  And I was grateful to find all the aid stations
were well-stocked, even for back-of-the-packers, and run by cheerful,
helpful volunteers.

For the 50K folks, the next 8 miles were mostly down to the Boomtown
aid station at 4700 feet. I loved this part of the course because I could
RUN most of it!  Kathy introduced me to Linda Linton, a local runner
who had never run more than a half marathon but was used to hiking
25 and 30 miles at a time. She, too, had ankle problems that forced her
to maneuver slowly through the rocks. Linda and I would be within sight
of each other through the next ten miles, encouraging each other
forward.

At the higher elevations, pine and birch trees were prevalent. As we
descended the mountain, vast meadows with wildflowers were
dominant. Closer to the bottom, it was sandy and sage-type shrubs
grew thick. Although the race literature described this long single track
trail as "steep, narrow, and challenging," all I remember is that I could
run all of it fairly fast (for me) and not worry too much about trashing
my healing ankle. My quads didn't complain, either.

Meanwhile, the 50-milers were enjoying rolling hills (with an additional
8,000' elevation change) on their scenic 16-mile loop before they
re-joined the 50K course on the way down to Boomtown. (This is
a gaudy "destination" casino and hotel complex that makes a rather
odd packet-pickup venue for an ultra -- unless you like to smoke
and gamble and can tolerate the incessant noise and flashing lights
of hundreds of those machines!  Fortunately, during the race the
aid station was in a quiet location close to the campground.)

Linda and I crossed a couple rickety bridges over the Truckee River,
ran as fast as we could over some railroad tracks (where I'd seen
and heard lots of trains roll by), and hit the Boomtown aid station
at 3.5 hours into the race, well before Jim's son expected me to
arrive. He was waiting when Jim came in a couple hours later,
however.  That day Jim, Jr. learned several lessons about ultra
crewing as he patiently waited for us there and near the end of the
course.  The "cranky runner" part didn't materialize, but he learned
all about the "endless waiting" part of C-R-E-W.     [:-)] 

Since I felt so good at Boomtown, I didn't hesitate to keep going
even though I knew there was no easy way to drop for another
20.5 miles.  I'm glad I kept going.

The next nine miles were a mostly-gradual ascent to the top
of the snowy ridge at 8770 feet. This was about mile 23 in the
34.5-mile race and mile 39 in the 50-miler. For our amusement,
the race organizers threw in four or five "shortcuts" that we could
take to lessen the distance on the perfectly good jeep road we
used from mile 14 to 21.5, where we hit the Micro 1 aid station
near a microwave tower you could see for several miles as you
inched your way up the road.

I missed one of the shortcuts while blindly following the first three
men in the 50-miler race, who passed me on this stretch. I was
happy to see they had to walk some, too. The final shortcut up a
steep, slippery snow-covered bank required the use of both of my
hands to climb, and deposited me right behind the aid station table
with a volunteer who feigned surprise that'd I'd "come in the back
door."  Hey, I was just following the pink markers!  (The volunteers
loved watching us scramble up that hill.)

While refueling and getting my water vest filled for the next
long haul across the snowy ridge, the guys ahead of me took
off.  It would be an hour and forty minutes before I saw another
runner!  But I was too fascinated with the terrain to get lonely.
That was the most scenic part of the course, with views toward
Lake Tahoe's mountains, high meadows, and lots of snow in the
forests. It was also very "technical" in the snow, so I had to pay
close attention to my footing.

The snowdrifts stretched for about six miles. Reportedly, there
was less snow than in some years, but we still had to slide up,
across, and down what seemed like a couple hundred mounds
of widely varying distance that wore me out like dirt "tank traps"
do on race courses in the Eastern USA.  Searching for pink
ribbons also kept my attention in this part, because the footprints
through the snow didn't always follow the course. I did some
"bonus mileage" here by getting a bit off-course once and by going
around snowbanks when possible to run on dirt and pine needles.
I was concerned about torquing around too much on the healing
ankle, but the brace I wore held it pretty securely in place even on
the slick snow tracks. (Trekkiing poles were verboten in this race.)

My favorite aid station was located in a lovely high meadow by a
cold stream as we started our long descent to the finish. One lone
volunteer trudged several miles uphill on foot through rocks and
snow to supply us with food, fluids, and even hot soup. What a
guy!

The worst part of the course for Jim and me was shortly after this
when we both got bonus mileage on a very rocky downhill between
~ mile 26-8 for me and 42-4 for Jim. Before that, most of the
course markings were prolific, more frequent than in other races
we've run. Suddenly we got to this place with no markers for
about 1/2 mile. I was alone at that point, except for Betsy Nye
whizzing past me shortly before I realized I hadn't seen any pink
ribbons for a while. (She was first female in the 50-miler in 9:39.)
For all I knew, it may have been HER first time on the course, too.
I couldn't be sure she knew where she was going.

So I trudged back about 1/2 mile to where I'd seen the last marker.
I didn't see that the course deviated from the trail I was on. No other
runners were around, and they were spaced so far apart at that point
that I didn't want to wait for the next one. So I just headed back down
the way I'd gone originally and eventually saw more widely-spaced
markers. Jim did the same thing two hours later, with other runners
who were also new to the course. They backtracked, too, but not as
far as I did, luckily. They didn't have the cushion of time for route-
finding that I did.

Jim, Jr.'s 12-year-old son, tired of waiting for me to show up, was
running with Debbie Moss about a mile from the end of the race
when I caught up to them. He's an enthusiastic runner, too, and
loved following me on the final bit of trail and paved bike path to
the finish line at the plush Caughlin Club. What a beautiful facility
for the post-race activities!  We had access to hot showers, an
outdoor pool and whirlpool, free massages, great food, and
attractive finishers' buckles to complement the nice long-sleeve
shirts we'd received upon entering the race.

I couldn't have been happier with my "race," although my time of
10:38 wasn't anything to write home about. I figured I got in about
36 miles, with backtracking and going off-course. I was prepared to
take all 13 hours if needed.  I was delighted to feel great at the end --
tired but not "spent," and nothing hurt. No blisters even, despite all
the grit, snow, and torquing around on rocks and snow. (This was
the first time in years I did absolutely *nothing* to my feet before or
during the race -- no lubricants, no taping or bandaids, no sock or
shoe changes during the race. Hmmmm . . . .)  And I didn't hurt
my ankle, either. I dedicate that race to my fine orthopedic surgeon!

After enjoying the post-race amenities and walking back out on the
course to watch other runners come in, I was happy to see Linda
Linton finish her first ultra. Melanie Johnson finished in 12:38, then
Jim came along three minutes later, happy to be done. Jim Ballard
came in less than a minute after that. Unfortunately, Kathy Lang
missed the Boomtown cut-off, but got in about twelve more tough
miles doing an out-and-back at the steep, rocky end so she could
run in with her husband from the last aid station at Hunter Lake.

Jim and I both ended up fifth from the end in our respective races.
We're not used to being so far back, but we accomplished our goals
for that race and we're looking forward to doing Big Horn in three
weeks. Our quads and calves were a little sore the next two days
while we were driving home and unable to walk much, but overall we
are both very pleased with how we felt after the race.

The results aren't posted yet at the Silver State 50/50 website
("http://www.silverstatestriders.com/"), but Robert M.
has them at www.ultrarunner.net.

Kudos to Tom and Jackie Gallagher and all the volunteers for their
time and hard work to make the race safe and enjoyable. Tom even
gave me an extra shirt to give to my orthopedic surgeon as a
"thank you" for getting me back on the trails again. I'll probably
give him my buckle, too!

Happy to be back in the game,
Sue Norwood, Billings, Montana