The easiest Ohlone is still really hard.

Ohlone remains "pound for pound" (or mile by mile, in this case) the toughest race I have ever done.  I know of courses on Mt. Diablo or the new Canyons 50K that have more vert.  But since Ohlone is a point-to-point course, I am going to go ahead and call it the gnarliest 50K stretch of trail around.  When I finished my first, I knew I had just done something extremely difficult.  I have said repeatedly since that it was the toughest race that I have ever done.

Well, it took a full year, but I found a way to make Ohlone look a lot easier.  For one, I did not do Silver State this year, so doing Ohlone somewhat fresh seemed easy.  My Achilles not giving me any trouble makes it easier.  I ran Miwok 100K two weeks ago, which makes anything 50K seem easier.  Oh, and it was cool.  Sometimes cold.  This had to be one of the easiest Ohlones on record, and you better believe that was still a bitch.  The grind out of Sunol is notorious, especially after having already gone up and over Mission Peak.  Ohlone is relentless, and its rewards are steep, rocky downhills.  Good stuff.  I highly recommend it.

So with all of this easier Ohlone stuff, I could not wait.  I had the usual mix of anxiety and excitement, but with much heavier doses of excitement.  Compared to Miwok (and sort of because of Miwok), which I was basically scared to run, I had all the confidence I needed to go out there and really push it at Ohlone.  No running scared or tedious conservation, just haul ass to the car in Livermore.  If I come out too hard, even way too hard, I will be hours and hours ahead of the cutoffs and can just grind it on in a la my entire Ohlone 2013.  Just do not get injured.  All other worst case scenarios were not that bad at all.  Blowing up and practicing troubleshooting, crisis management, and adaptation had some definite appeal.  I honestly felt that, as long as I did not hurt myself, literally nothing bad could happen.  You can totally imagine how, after being scared of Miwok, this was going to be friggin fun.

Elisa's feet hit the floor before 0430 for I am not sure how many weekends in a row.  She took me and Jill to Lake Del Valle to drop my car.  I was going straight to her symphony show in Walnut Creek after the race.  Jill was going to carpool back to San Jose with the team.  It meant leaving my place at 5 to be at Del Valle shortly after they opened the gates at 6 to beat the buses back to the potty lines at Mission Peak.  Elisa could have slept in, and Jill and I could have taken the bus to the Start from Livermore.  I offered.  She was not having it.  She could not be at the Finish, because of her concert, so she wanted to be at the Start.  And she was available and knows I get peeanoia on buses (anxiety around not being able to get off and pee).  And she totally rocks.  So she got up early to chauffeur me and Jill.

We get back to Mission Peak, and Elisa drops us off.  There is only parking there for a handful of cars.  Even if she had found a spot, and we did not, it was best to keep the cars cycling through the main lot.  She did not want us waiting in the cold, so she drove off reluctantly.  The weather was mild, so Jill and I were fine.  We knew and were approached by more people at the Start than we could talk to at once, and it was pretty awesome -- the usual chatter of recognition within the tribe that was absent in the darkness of Miwok.  Ann Trason was overseeing runner check-in, and we had a brief exchange about her aching back and not being able to pace Kristin.  I caught up with Isak, who I met on the Ohlone course last year and have not seen since.  Gabriel was there for his first ultra, and I chatted with him and his mom who had come to see him off.  Gabe might have been a little embarrassed that his mom was there.  Gabe, you are never too old for it to be completely and undeniably 100% awesome that she came to see you off on your big race.  I was stoked to see her and your girlfriend at the Finish too.  Chatted with the Quicksilver team and a bunch of Mission Peak locals like Paul and Sophia.  It was foggy and cool, but I was not too cold in my sleeveless tank (which was being tried out for Western States -- I had not yet gone sleeveless with a pack).  Forecast was for highs in the low-70s, which is much better than you could expect for Ohlone.  Let's get this party started, and we did, promptly at 0800.

The plan was to push it up and over Mission Peak to Sunol, survive the dig out of Sunol, and then run like hell to the car.  The goal for the day was to make sure I was always pushing.  Always trying.  Such a fun race plan!  My legs were not feeling at all fresh from pushing my weekly runs a little too hard, so I knew pretty early I was not going to be as fast as I had hoped.  But that did not change the plan, push push push -- maybe slower but just as hard.  I made good time to the top but could really tell that I did not have my best legs on the downhills.  I adjusted and focused on being smooth and steady.  I was moving pretty well along the flatter, single track sections down into Sunol.  Too bad they do not last long, since that was definitely my sweet spot for the day.

As always during a race, I was practicing my Western States gear.  So in a 50K, I was way overpacked.  It allowed me to only slow long enough to snatch two PB&J quarters as I passed through the first aid station.  In Sunol, filled my handheld with electrolytes and grabbed food to go.  I was much faster through the aid stations at Ohlone this year, except for when I refilled my pack at the second to last one.  I was close enough to the Finish that I did not need to stop and refill my bladder, but I had never filled my pack on the fly.  I had at Miwok during a "full stop" at Muir, but I was going to try to do this much more quickly.  It fell apart when I got my sunglasses tangled in the cross straps.  Other than that, aid stations felt very fast.  Fill the bottle.  Food to go.

From Sunol, you climb seemingly forever, from 400' to 3,800' over the course of ten miles to Rose Peak.  It is relentless.  It is so remote that the aid stations seem totally out of place, cramped, slanted, and stuck to the side of the mountain.  It also provides some of the most awesome and breathtaking views back toward the Start and this fantastic "Wow I did that" feeling even just along the way.  Looking ahead, you see miles and miles of hiking runners, and you cannot see an end to it.  Doing the race a second time was great.  I knew that there was a top.  And I also knew that, once you got there, it is nowhere near all downhill from there.

I ran when I could, which did not seem like much.  But I was remembering to push, like the short flat sections within the otherwise impossibly steep climbs.  There was honestly not much remarkable about the race, except for the pushing and sightseeing.  The ponds I remember so prominently from last year were a little more dry, but the hills were a little more green and the wildflowers still in bloom.  The pond all the cool lily pads was not as bright.  I love the ponds, because I love asking the other runners, "Is that Lake Del Valle?" and then acting really disappointed to find it is not.  This is one of my favorite instances of cracking myself up.  Is that Lake Del Valle?  Is it over?  Did we win?  Oh.  Bummer.

I liked feeling familiar with the course.  I liked getting to Rose Peak and knowing it was NOT all downhill from the top.  I remembered two more significant but very manageable feeling climbs, and that helped make them feel shorter than last year.  The hills were more colorful this year.  Sweet.  I did not remember the trails being anywhere near as rocky as they were, which made me be even more careful on the downhills.  Still seemingly always pulling away on the uphills, even when hiking.  Oh, and have I mentioned enough that it was a very pretty, cool day?  It was like Ohlone Lite.  Delicious.

All day, my time and pace seemed reasonable.  Target time was right on target.  All but the most aggressive stretch goals seemed in reach most of the day.  I filled my pack at the second to last aid station just for practice, guessing correctly that it would not thwart my sub-7.  The more I think about it, the more great it is.  I had a great day.

I ran into Cesare's buddy and pacer from Miwok, Matt, on the final descent.  We chatted a little.  I told him I had to go push for my sub-7.  He started pushing too, right past me.  Cesare was way ahead of us.  The Finish was your typical awesome ultra BBQ with runners swapping stories and asking how others were feeling about their day.  Jill and Gabe came in about 10+ minutes ahead of me.  No beating Jill these days unless it is hot or she has a bad day.  I was happy to be so close behind her.  I had a great time hanging out and catching up after the race, until I had to head to Walnut Creek for Elisa's concert.

My feet hurt from the rocks but not much.  I still have some pain in the outside of both feet, but it has been manageable.  I wondered if I needed wider shoes, since some of the pain is actually on the top of my foot now.  But then I recall that the first instance of this was in roomy shoes.  Also, I need more practice with rapid pack/bladder refills.  The AS volunteer said she could refill without me removing my pack.  I will try that.  Putting it back on would not have been so bad, however, had I not gotten my sunglasses (hanging in the straps unused all day) tangled.  Lesson learned.  Even though I was pushing, I could have run a few more of the climbs.  But with WSER training camp this weekend and its 70 or so miles, I will be stoked to have whatever I have left.

40 days.