Blue Canyon Trail Race 50K Race Report
Blue Canyon Trail Race 50K 6/6/09 Santa Barbara, CA
PART ONE OF ULTRADEVONS CALIFORNIA RUNNING ADVENTURE
Well I flew in from Hawaii at 2250 on Thursday and arrived in San Francisco, CA on Friday morning at 0700. I got about 10 minutes of sleep on the plane. My mom picked me up at the airport and we headed to Palo Alto to go see Zombie G at ZombieRunner. The zombies let me pick my stuff up before they opened. Give Thanks. We then proceeded to drive to Salinas to get together all my camping stuff and so I could head out to Rancho Oso (Santa Barbara) where the start/finish was. I left at 1330 from Salinas to make the 183 mile drive down. It took about 4 hours to get in the area and another hour to find Rancho Oso. I got to the campground to check in and set my tent up at 1830. I then headed to packet pick up. I got there picked up my packet met some great people and ate some pasta. I was wired from energy drinks that I drank to stay awake while driving 70 mph on 101. I got back to camp at around 2200 and crashed at 2300 waking up at 0300 to scratching at my tent. I got out of the tent and saw about 8 racoons clamoring and fighting with each other around my car. I went to get a shower and as I was getting my stuff out of the trunk I heard a noise and I looked with my head lamp to see 4 racoons ganging up on me they followed me to the bathroom and then left. I drove the 5 minutes to the start and talked for awhile, seeing the 100K runners start at 0500.
The start was cold everyone had jackets on but me. Was I missing something? Luckily I had my Moeben sleeves in my back pocket, they would come in handy later. The start was all single track we climbed and climbed. There was one section that was really over grown. I just barreled through the poison sumac, BTW I bought tecnu but didn’t use it until now:) We got to the top of the major first climb to mile 10 and then headed down to the Gibraltar Reservoir where the 50 K turnaround was. That 5 miles was all downhill and that is when my stomach said that it didn’t want to run anymore. I think it was lack of sleep and nerves. From 15 on I just drank water and electrolyte pills, a fastpack of shot bloks, a banana, some mints, and I kept getting stomach pains. My kidneys were hurting but I was peeing and it was only while climbing. I dunno. The views were spectacular. When we got to about mile 28 and we came off the single track I thought we would be going right back down to the finish. NOPE!! We went tleft and UP the freakin’ mountain to the top at about 3000′ were there was two awesome volunteers who were braving the cold, I could actually see my breath. Luckily I had my moeben sleeves, they kept me warm enough. I drank some ginger ale then I headed down the best part of the course, the FINAL 3.5 miles of downhill singletrack. SWEET!!!!
I finished in 10:02 and took about 50 pictures. Up next Holcomb Valley 33 Miler in Big Bear, CA June 14th. Give Thanks to the Race Directorate and volunteers. Also, my family in Hawaii for allowing me to come for my California Running Adventure. I would also like to thank my mom and step-dad for supporting me with the goods and financially without all the support it wouldn’t have been possible.
