Miwok 100K A Race Report by Jill Childers Saturday May 5, 2007 was the day I’ve been waiting for since I registered for Miwok 100K early this year. I being a logical person have always moved up in distances and difficulty of races gradually starting with short road runs and triathlons then on to ultramarathons. With a handful of 50K and 50 mile trail runs completed it was time to move it up a notch, but not quite a 100 mile run yet. I had some proven to do first. There is a really great distance right in between a 50 miler and a 100 miler, namely the 100K (62.10 miles or if you are a cyclist, a “metric century”…are you impressed?). This run distance is not easy to find and when I learned of Miwok from the co-race director, Stan Jensen, who I ran a race on/off with at Skyline Ridge 50K in 2006 I knew Miwok was right for me. Miwok has 9,500’ in climbs and 9,500’ in descents re: it’s “hilly”. Located just over the Golden Gate Bridge in beautiful Sausalito there lies our race start and finish over the 800’ tall mountain on Rodeo Beach. My running coach, Gordy and I worked together to prepare the perfect plan, lots of long runs, constant high mileage weeks, a double run commute day and best of all my personal “Slam” consisting of 2 50K’s on back to back weekends, a 50 miler 2 weeks later then Miwok 2 weeks after that. With 4 Ultras in 6 weeks and each one getting harder than the last I caught some flack but I knew 100K was going to be tough and these “prep” races would add calluses to my body, spirit and mind. I was building tolerance and resistance through repetition and adapting quick as recovery came easily. Case in point, I ran 4 miles the day after Leona Divide 50 mile without a problem. On to race day…we had perfect weather, sunny, 70’s, light winds. Two days prior it rained so the trails we compact and a little muddy especially in the Redwoods but ideal. At 5:30 a.m. 238 runners marched along the roadside, across a bridge to the beach for a deep sandy start at 5:40 a.m. At 5:40 sharp we were given the “Go!” yell and off we went. I had my Dirty Girl Gaiters on so no sand, dirt, rocks or anything else got in my shoes that day. Before I knew it we were on our first climb (900’ up and 800’ down) to the Bunker Road aid station, some single track but mostly a 5 mile paved road, the rest of the course was single track dirt, wider trails or fire roads. Bunker aid at mile 6.2 came and went, just got water and sped out for the next climb to 1,000’ and down to the Tennessee Valley aid station and drop bag spot at mile 11.9. Up to then everyone was chit chatting, swapping life stories, and race resumes, kind of a feel you out period to see if you can find that one runner you click with so you can pace & keep each other company helping the miles go by. I met a fairly new ultra runner but quite accomplished, Pete “Hippo” Nicholson from Seattle and today was his first 100K. Believe me he likes the name Hippo, so I am not insulting him. He and I were on pace for a 14 hour finish up to TN Valley then we split. I had one more Hippo encounter many miles later. At the TN Valley aid station, I reloaded my calorie drinks, Gu’s, replenished my water and had a few snacks. The next time I would be back at TN Valley to access my personal stash was mile 49.5. Next up, a long descent to Muir Beach at mile 16, this was tricky footing as we ran down wooden narrow steps for a good 200’. Being a cautious down hiller I stepped aside and let some speedsters behind me pass. It was too dang early to fall! Muir Beach was uneventful another quick aid station pit stop, just water for me. I was being excellent with my nutrition up to now and was self sufficient other than water which I needed at EACH aid station (more later on this!) Mile 20 was soon approaching, on the course profile this is the steepest climb of the day, 1,450’ up over 2 miles. To tell you the truth I was so geeked up and full of energy loving the beautiful scenery, wild flowers, my fellow runners and friendly hikers that I don’t remember that uphill at all! Granted, up hills are my strength, I love them! Frequently other runners will commend me on my up hill speed but when they fly pass me on steep technical down hills or stairs, I give them kudos. When I arrived at Pan Toll aid (mile 21.7) I was relieved knowing the steepest climb of the day was over! My second drop bag was here and it was time to really stock up. The next I’d see my drop bag was at the same spot but at mile 49.5! A full 27.80 miles later. So I packed in as many Gu’s as my shorts could handle, put 4 flasks of Cytomax in my Fuel Belt, ate some potatoes, watermelon and zipped out. As I left this aid station a volunteer holding up car traffic for the runners to cross the road said “I like Aquaphor!” She was commenting on my sponsors’ top I was wearing. Cool! Next up was a 4 mile stretch along a hill side in the wide open with many shaded switch backs with minor stream crossings and some nice bridges along the way. The open part on the hillside it was a knee high grassland and very narrow trail about 16” wide and if you stepped off it an ankle would twist. Along the left side going out to Bolinas, the next aid station, was the ocean and the winds started to pick up but were in my favor. As we encountered hikers they were all pleasant, wished us luck and stepped off the narrow trail. There were warnings from the Race Director about not touching hikers as that constitutes “assault” and is punishable by law but couldn’t image why we were warned, perhaps there was an evil runner wearing all black in the past who knocked over poor defenseless hikers off the cliff?!?! At about mile 25 we hit the most beautiful part of the course….the majestic Redwood forest! With the prior 2 days of rain, the wide and already super soft trails were even more pliable. The ferns were huge, the trees so big, it was much cooler in here and the air smelled fresh and clean! I saw the famous Scott Jurek who has won this race fly past me on his return to Pan Toll he was a good 16 miles ahead of me. How does he run so fast? At around mile 26 there was this huge redwood tree fallen across the trail, I really thought I missed a course marker and got lost, oh what a bad feeling but I back tracked a bit and saw a fellow runner behind me and we figured we had to make our way around the tree, God don’t ask me to scale up a 5’ foot tree trunk on it’s side! Sure enough a pink tape was just up ahead, still on track. The Bolinas aid station came and went at mile 28.4, at this point it was well stocked with water and Gu drinks, so I thought nothing of over stocking till the next time we got here at mile 42.8 (er..mistake). The descent down to Randall Ridge aid station at mile 35.6 was awesome! Sure my quads hurt just a bit but that is the nature of these long hilly runs you just deal with it and go on. Folks were coming out of Randall grasping their quads and some were not. I did pass my buddy Hippo going down to Randall, we slapped each others hand on the passing. He looked good, praised my perkiness and was about 10 minutes ahead of me. The fate of my new friend will be disclosed at the end of my story. At Randall aid this was the first official “cutoff” of the day, had to be here by 2:20 p.m. and I was well ahead of schedule so I refilled my drinks, ate some fruit, etc. said fair well to the timer and began the second steepest climb of the day back to Bolinas 7 miles away. I really enjoyed this uphill as we were still in the Redwoods and I saw folks coming down and was able to count enough bodies knowing that I was not in the rear of the pack. I bumped into Sandra who I met at Sunmart 50 mile run last December and caught up with Sarah of Pacific Coast Trail Runs on this uphill. Sandra took a nasty face down fall going down to Randall and had hurt her ankle pretty bad but she seem to be doing better so we caught up as we went up. Her husband was at Bolinas aid ready to pace her for the last 20 miles, you see pacers are allowed at Miwok at mile 42, most runners don’t take one. I never saw Sandra again. My energy level and attitude were in check and nothing could go wrong, right? When I got to Bolinas mile 42.8 my water was empty and my felt belt flasks were dry even though I restocked both at Randall. The kids working the aid station said “we are out of water but more is coming” HUH? What the heck? O.K. maybe another word was going through my mind. Quickly me and Sarah grabbed what ice they had and I gave a kid the stink eye and asked firmly for his water, he gave it to as if he never though to offer it in the first place. Sarah being a Race Director of over a dozen trail runs every year never heard of this before, she was disappointed, I was just stunned. They ran out of Gu2 drink too so I drank some freshly poured Coke which was a huge mistake and prayed that 12 oz of water would get me through the sunny 7 miles that lied ahead, this was bad. The Coke would have worked had it been de-fizzed but pretty quick it gave me stomach distress and running was hard. I took off my empty full belt rapped it around my left arm and held it like a back pack. My stomach was distended and I was trapped with air, adding to the stress of my stomach was the mental stress of rationing out my water supply. I flipped down the elastic on my run shorts alleviating the pressure on my gut and that helped. Rajeev Patel (UR cover dude last year) flew past me at mile 44 and asked how I was feeling, “horrible” I replied complaining about the stomach, he said his bubby had ginger up ahead at Pan Toll and he’d wait for me….what a God send, what a great guy! I ran in a mousy fashion, walking some & dry heaved once. I just wanted Pan Toll to arrive. It was a long 7 miles and I lost a lot of time. I arrived at Pan Toll mile 49.5 in 11:23 (my target pace at mile 50 was 11:39) so I was ahead of schedule even with the stomach problem. Sure enough Rajeev was waiting for me and we both waited a few moments for his buddy to show with the magic ginger. His friend immediately went to my aid and forgot himself, that I am forever grateful. I left my useless fuel belt here, got ice water, ate some potatoes/salt and started sucking on that ginger hard candy and it was working! Over the next 2 miles I was running well again and took a second ginger just for insurance. From here forward my run resumed to it’s happy pace and life was good again. Heading toward the Highway 1 aid station at mile 54.7 went off well except I believe it was here that there was a patch of poison oak that stood 10 feet tall and was overgrown on the trail, There was no avoiding it and to this day (Monday) I’m waiting for it to erupt. I have such bad luck with PO. I graciously passed on the pizza they offered me at Hwy 1 aid, hot cheese just sounded really bad! From Hwy 1 aid there was a very steep downhill to TN Valley at mile 58.4, woe! It was steep & my quads were long gone but I was singled minded by now, just finish! I was well ahead of the race cutoff of 16 ½ hours but I knew darkness would befall me by the time I got there. Stan was a gent at TN Valley and gave me a hot cup of homemade soup…yum! It felt so good in my stomach. He said it would be dark in 45 minutes and I had 3.8 miles to go, this meant a dark finish was eminent. I bought a cheapo $10 flashlight and left it in my drop bag, just in case. As I headed out of this last aid station full of piss and vinegar I turned right and ended up running around someone’s barn yard! I ended back at Stan’s aid station and asked for help to find the trail head. He jogged me to the trail head to make sure the trail makers were still there and told a seasoned 100 miler, Eric, who was just behind me “to watch out for her to the finish!” That was nice, Eric and I hammered up the 800’ climb up to mile 60 pretty quick, I was determined to get off that trail by dark, and Stan said the last mile was on pavement, now that I can run fast in the dark with a flashlight. Eric didn’t have a light so he stayed close, we swapped race stories and before you know it we were on an old paved narrow road! Yoo Hoo!! And there is the ocean, and the white tent with the BBQ party inside of it, I could hear people yelling…oh that was great! I shouted Halleluiah! The sight was really amazing, I started this race at 5:40 at civil twilight and now it was 8:40 p.m. at the civil sunset where it got darker each minute. I was fully charged and felt more alive than I have in a long time, Miwok brought out the best in me. Eric & I still had a bit more downhill sometimes rocky trail to go in the dark but my baby light got us through, he got to the finish line before I did and stood there waiting for me to finish…..only at an Ultra do you see this! We crossed the line at 15:08 at 8:48 p.m. A kind woman gave me my medal, I bowed my head down and wept. Relief, accomplishment and joy all at once. I made it. Next up, back to Ironman training for Hawaii, I have a 70.3 race in 6 weeks so that means back on my bike again. But to my ultra friends….I will be back by the end of the year, I love this sport so much, I feel like I just skimmed the surface of many great things to come. I am sort of sad but Ironman Hawaii is a once in a lifetime experience. Oh, I promised an update on Hippo, he got caught up with a gal and I guess the disadvantage of friendliness is missing trial markers…he and her missed the Miwok trail head which only had 10 ribbons on it (he was joking afterwards saying it should have had 50 on it) and they went back down to Muir Beach by accident adding 6 miles to their run! He finished at 15:38. Congrats Hippo on bypassing the 100K and going for 110K!