Tahoe Rim Trail 50k Report I went up to Lake Tahoe’s northeast shore to run the Tahoe Rim Trail race last Saturday. It’s billed as “A Taste of Heaven, A Glimpse of Hell” but I found the heaven part to be much stronger than the hell part! Judging by where I usually finish in these races, I planned on a 14 hour day if I ran the 50 mile event or a 10 hour day if I ran the 50k “fun run” – I wisely chose the latter. The race has approximately 6900’ of elevation gain and it’s run between 6800’ and 9200’ altitude – a long way from my seaside home! I was purposely the very last person out of the gate when the race began at 0500 under a dark sky. I fast walked 75% of the first 9 mostly uphill miles and passed a number of people along the way. I did my best to take it easy on any short downhills to conserve energy for later use. The wildflowers were in full force in this first section. By mile 11, the sun was up and the temperature began to climb. The next 6 miles was called the Red House loop and was the beginning of the "Glimpse of Hell" part of the race. There was a bit of steepness (not as steep as the Dipsea trail though), a lot of sand (not as much as the beach though), and a bit more heat than normal (much more than the coastside though). Much of the race was run under a sparse covering of trees but I still felt a hat was necessary for sun protection from this point on. I had a neckerchief with a chamoix liner and at stream crossings, I’d get it wet and wrap it around my neck. I know for a fact that it cooled me down BIG time and I would have boiled over early on had I not used it. As I mentioned earlier, I originally signed up to run the 50 mile event but by mile 17 decided that 50k would be a smarter distance to run. I notified the race officials (as did others that made the same choice), changed into some dry socks and was directed to the 50k course. Remember this when you get to the end of this report. As for food intake, I did NOT prepare well at all. Early on I felt the effects of not getting a very good breakfast! I used Hammer Gel and drank Amino on a regular basis but by mile 17, it was all too sweet (can you imagine ME thinking something's too sweet?) and not very palatable. I had to force myself to eat it for the remainder of the race. The only food I packed was a bagel and a couple small Almond Joy bars to help settle my stomach a bit. I'll be looking into some types of energy bars for a better source of carb, protein and fat replacement. I forced myself to eat some pretzels and Saltines but I'm sorry, aid station food is lost on me. It's not what I would normally eat and who knows WHAT was on the last set of hands to dig into the bowl! Fortunately, I drank a lot of water and stayed well hydrated throughout the race. I waited until hour 2 before beginning my hourly SUCCEED cap and that seemed to be just right as I had zero cramping or bloating. While I missed seeing any bear or deer, the terrain was absolutely beautiful. Sure, when you run through a bunch of trees all you see are the trees and rocks and stuff but as the trail would open up around Marlett, Herlan and Snow Peaks, the vistas were unbelievably beautiful - FRICKIN INCREDIBLE!!! I packed my neckerchief with snow and with 9 miles left, 4-5 of us played leapfrog as we ran/walked. We climbed a wicked cool sub alpine Snow Peak (9200’) and were treated to a gorgeous view of Marlette Lake (7800’) sitting above Lake Tahoe (6200’) which was encircled by the snow capped mountains that create the Tahoe Basin. I could have sat there for hours figuring out the answers to all of the world’s problems! Way cool! But at the summit, we were still 7 downhill miles away from the finish line and the burrito bar so it was time to GO! Usually downhill sections are my favorites for making good time as I like to open up my stride and fly but today it was the altitude (not soreness) that took it's toll and held me back. It seemed awkward but every so often I had to take a walking break for a few hundred yards before running again. So I did what I had to do and made sure I was able to resume running ASAP. One of the other leap frog runners and I stayed together and weren't passed so I felt that at least we were making "progress". I’m normally fairly slow at long distance events but this altitude business slowed me down considerably. The good side was that I didn’t have any muscle soreness during or after the race because my pace was kept in check. I didn't discover until a few hours later that my toes were numb though. I must have pounded them pretty good on the descents. 3 days later, I'm missing two toe nails but they're feeling a bit better. As I came to the finish line, there was a blur of excitement. There were the standard people lining the course who were clapping, giving a thumbs up, smiling and shouting congratulations for finishing. But then I heard, "HERE HE COMES! HERE HE COMES!" I looked around for "him" but had no clue what was going on so I just kept running. As I crossed the line, people were excited to see ME. Someone congratulated ME and escorted ME to a chair, offered ME water, and asked ME if there was anything that I needed. "Hey, this is GREAT" I thought. They really know how to treat finishers at this race! Because I had originally entered the 50 mile event, I had a red number and not a black number like the other 50k runners. Well the glory lasted about 5 minutes when someone finally figured out that I was NOT the first 50 mile finisher but had changed to the 50k distance! I will probably NEVER get in the spotlight of the winner's circle so that was a hoot even if it was just for 5 minutes! I finished at 9:00:51 - about an hour sooner than my projected time. The nice thing is that, while it's the longest a 50k race has ever taken me, I actually finished further from the bottom of all the runners than usual. I'm normally a "middle of the back of the pack" type runner (I finish after 80% of the other runners) but after doing the math, I calculated that I finished this one in the "back of the MIDDLE of the pack" (after 65% of the other runners). So it's a PR for me even though my time was slower. Hey, I LOOK for my silver linings! The race volunteers were exceptional. The aid station crews were enthusiastic and genuinely happy to be there. They were having a lot of fun. But I noticed that the runners (of which I knew very few from previous races) were exceptionally friendly - maybe because we were all in the same boat trying to "survive" together. During the race, people exchanged thoughts and ideas. After the race as we were soaking our feet in buckets of cold water, we exchanged war stories. I think we were darn near bonding! I had a "recovery massage" by two massage school students. Made a KILLER meal at the burrito bar (no margaritas). I met Kathy D'Onofrio (past WS winner) and talked about her grandma's home here in Half Moon Bay. Spoke with both race directors about next year's 100 mile Tahoe Rim Trail run. Discussed my days ups and downs with my mentors, Zombierunners Don and Gillian. Chatted with Jim Winne, Karen, Guenther, Karen Hanke, Don James, Craig Heinselman, Bill Hunter, Wini & Lee Jebian, John Vonhof (congrats John!), Chris Rios, and a whole quiver of others who's names I never knew. It was an exceptional day. As I left, I picked up a small pizza to go in South Lake Tahoe and drove all the way home rockin’ to an old John Hammond Jr. CD - we were both high as a kite! There are only a few things I'd change for next year: I'd be more organized at the drop bag area so I could waste less time. I'd eat a better breakfast. I'd pack a better assortment of food to carry with me. I'd win BIG at the dollar machine at Harrah's. That's it. Oh sure, I'd get more training in but that's a "given" any time! Thanks for reading. No matter what the distance, I hope you can get out and have a run that was as fun as this one. (~: George From: George and Lezlee Miller Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2005 2:27 PM