Pacifica 9.3k Sharpener Before WS100

Last proper run before WS yesterday, apart from a few light jogs. I was planning on running the half marathon at the PCTR Pacifica race, which I'd done back in January too, but opted instead for the shortest race of the day (9.3km) and to use it as a slightly harder effort but short enough to not cause much damage to the legs.

Perfect, sunny weather started us off and it just got warmer and brighter as the day progressed, which should have made the 50k runners struggle a little. But all I wanted was a confidence boost that my legs would be ok and that I can climb and descend well enough to run WS well a week later. +/-1,200ft in two hills with a quarter of a mile on the flat in between them, means it's a good speed test so I was happy to lead from start to finish and win by over three minutes in 39:47.

After the disappointment of Comrades this year I needed this and it's a good sign, especially how easy the downhills felt...WS is a downhill course after all. There's only so much a short race can tell you about ultra form but the important thing was to feel that the overtraining was over. It probably is, so now there's just the really easy part of the taper left and a load more sauna sessions.

It looks like most of the men at WS will be showing up fit and ready so anything could happen on the day and I'd say there's probably around eight guys who could plausibly win, but if I was putting money on it then I'd say the winner will be one of Kilian Journet, Geoff Roes or Nick Clark. One thing's for certain, that whoever wins will have to hold off very hot competition and probably do the best run of their life. I also think the top 10 will be much less spread out than last year.

The women's field is very strong too and there's several women who are dominant in the shorter ultras versus some 100 mile specialists. I won't make a prediction, although I think I could call the lead pack at Foresthill (62 miles). But that's not important unless they keep it up for another 38 miles.

irunfar has a great prediction contest for the race as well as interviews with a lot of the male (US and foreign) and female (interview 1 and 2) contenders.

Also, on race day the runners can be followed on the live webcast site here. Twitter will undoubtedly have a million updates too, with the tag #WS100 (I assume).

Other random ultra stuff:

It's certainly ultra season now with the San Diego 100 last weekend (nice work, everyone, especially fellow PCTR team-mate, Larissa Polischuck, with her first 100 mile finish). There's a lot of other races too, but today is the start of the longest one out there - the LANY race covering 3,200 miles coast to coast from LA to NYC. One of my friends from London, James Adams, is running this and the stages average 45 miles per day through to late August. He will be blogging about it in painfully graphic detail here (if you know him, you know what I mean). Good luck, mate!

Fundraising


All my major races this year are dedicated to helping the Starfish Greathearts Foundation, which includes Western States. They support children who have been orphaned or made vulnerable by the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Southern Africa.

Given the extremely high rates of infection in South Africa and around parts of the Comrades course plus the many orphans resulting from this, I thought it'd be a great idea to help out. Therefore I've set up a justgiving site for UK residents who wish to donate at: http://www.justgiving.com/sharmanian/ as well as a donation website for anyone wanting to donate in dollars at: http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/comradesTNF/comradesmarathon. Both these links also have more information about the work the charity does. Any donation is extremely welcome. Thanks.

PCTR Pacifica 21k

View of Pacifica from 1/3 of the way up

Pacifica and San Francisco in the background

Really lucky today with amazing weather again for a PCTR race. No rain in the preceding week and bright sun with temperatures up to around 70 degrees Fahrenheit by the finish (in January! I knew there was a reason I came to California).

I opted for the half marathon, not sure how I'd feel after racing hard last weekend, and felt surprisingly good. It's a fairly tough course, with over a 1,600ft climb up Mt Montara, then back, followed by two smaller climbs of about 400ft and 800ft. There were also 30k, 50k and 9k (without the mountain) options, but the other courses basically involved duplicating parts of the 21k route, so I got to see everything

My aim was to try to avoid walking at all and to hammer the downhills, given I've had a chance to start hill training, but still have a long way to go. And I'd been challenged to a race by Will Gotthardt, so expected him to lead on each climb, then to play catch-up on each downhill.

Instead, I was in a pack of four (including Will and Leigh Schmitt, and Leigh was running the 50k) to the top of the mountain then ran on my own for the last bit of the climb and back down. There were dust-free views for miles out to see and towards San Francisco, although I was starting to feel the climb by the point these got really spectacular. Luckily, I have some photos from hiking there a few weeks ago.

After that I really went for it on the downhill and felt good on the funnelled single track which was still full of people on the way up. After that the track got wider for a really fast running surface and I went about as fast as I ever have, comfortably running sub 5-minute mile pace (never thought I'd be able to say that...even if it was downhill) and getting closer to 4:30s nearer the bottom. This made it hard on the thighs for the switchbacks given each involved braking completely to do a 180, but I didn't have 50k to pace for, so it was worth the effort.

Then the 400ft climb came along, which I'd expected to be easier, yet I ended up walking several times even though it wasn't steep. The first climb had sapped my uphill fitness. I cruised down the other side to catch my breath and dreaded the final ascent ahead.

Luckily I could see a fair way back on the course when I started that last hill and couldn't see Will, so I thought I'd be safe as long as I didn't walk too much. In the end I did jog most of it at a crawl, but still had to walk many times for short sections. Not because it was steep, just because climbing is still feeling very hard, but hopefully runs like this will change that soon.

The last two hills didn't have the vistas for miles and miles, but were still in pretty sections of parkland. And the final downhill was wide enough track to race at a high intensity (10 minutes for the last two miles...technically a PB, especially given the switchbacks taking pace off every now and then), passing 9k runners, some of whom I'm sure I scared the crap out of  (especially the ones with earphones).

I'd hoped to get somewhere close to the CR of 1:32, which would have required some sensational downhilling to make up for the time I lose on each climb. So 1:34:52 was a real confidence booster. Will came in in 1:40 and Leigh won the 50k (I think...but haven't seen confirmation), with fellow PCTR Team member Caren Spore breaking yet another CR in the 30k.

I think my flat and downhill running is better than ever, so if I can just sort out the uphill stuff with a few months of intensive training then I reckon I could be in for a great season. It'll also make these races so much more enjoyable - currently I'm struggling so much uphill that it feels much less fun than it should...or did last summer.

But overall a great day out in the Bay Area and lots of people to meet at the finish. Michael Popov (PCTR management) was there looking ridiculously fresh for 1 week after the HURT 100 in Hawaii and he had nothing but good things to say about that race. So it just confirmed that I want to enter the lottery for that beast for 2012. It'll even keep my wife happy to have an excuse to go to Hawaii again :)