2011 Old Goat 50 Mile

After finishing the 2010 Old Goat 50 Miler in just under 9:52 and placing 17^th overall, I said I’d never run that race again. It was too brutal. Well a year later and what was I doing - running the 2011 Old Goat 50 Miler. What better way to train for a 100 than do one of the toughest 50 mile races in the country?

Coming off a great San Juan Trail 50k three weeks earlier showed how much better shape I’m in this year than last year so I figured this Old Goat race shouldn’t be as hard on me this time around. At the 50k I went for an overall top 3 finish, and it hurt to run that hard, plus I finished 4^th, so for the Old Goat I wasn’t planning on running it “hard,” but just running it. If I improved my time from 2010 by a minute or two, that’d be just fine.

As we were lined up waiting for the start I was in a pretty relaxed state. I was even “LMAO” as the race started because about 10 seconds before we were told to go, one of my training buddies, Cale Stubbe, looked down and noticed he was wearing his shirt on inside-out! He tore his shirt off real quick, flipped it right-side out and threw it back over his head, all to my great amusement.

The Old Goat, Steve Harvey, yelled GO and we all took off. I trotted up the road through Blue Jay campground in no real hurry. I chatted with David Christof a bit and sort of loafed along. Just as we were leaving the campground, I picked up my pace for a few strides to run around a group of people before we hit the trail. Once on the rough single track, it’s hard to get around people.

The group of guys I fell in with ended up being a good group to run with. I made sure I wasn’t running very hard and never looked to get around any of them. When we got to a flat area, the guy in front of me asked if I wanted to get by him. I looked at my Garmin and said “no, we have 47 more miles to go, so I’m in no hurry.”

While our pace wasn’t real fast, it kind of felt faster than I wanted it to be and I didn’t think my legs felt as good as when I ran the 50k a couple of weeks ago, which uses many of the same trails. I still kept up with the guys, but was having a bad feeling about how strong I would be.

In no time we made it to the major water crossing. For the 50k race, I was able to jump this stream, but now it was much wider I was definitely going to have to get my feet wet. Thankfully not only had the Old Goat put a rope across the water to help with support, but Charlie Nichol was standing out in the water in a wetsuit helping people across. We got to cross this stream twice as this section of the course was mostly an out-and-back. When we had returned to the steam, we saw Charlie carrying someone across on his back. Apparently he did this for a few people. 

While I thought the run from Blue Jay to the Candy Store was a tad fast, our pace going back was just the opposite. It was excruciatingly slow. I knew one of the guys I was with, Todd Hiskey, was a pretty experienced ultra runner, and not slow, so it would probably pay off to be patient and stick back with him, as we all agreed, we needed to save our legs for the climb up to the top of Santiago Peak.

Learning to be patient in an ultra is one of the tougher things for people to learn. That, and keeping up with your calorie, hydration and electrolyte intake. I stayed pretty diligent with my intake of “stuff” for this race. When my watched clicked off 90 minutes into the race, I popped an electrolyte pill. From then on, every 15 minutes I was either popping a pill or sucking down a gel. I was also helping myself to generous rations of water from my hand-held and hydration pack once I switched to that. I figured with 12 aid stations out on the course, there’s no reason I should ever be thirsty, so drink up. At aid stations I never really take much of their food. I’ll drink a cup of Gatorade if they have it. I don’t touch Coke, even flat Coke. A lot people like it but that hurts my stomach. I have learned that I really like 1) oranges and 2) Cheez-its or Goldfish crackers. Neither have a lot of calories, but they both taste good to me and are easy on my stomach.

I think the easy pace for the second 10 miles of the race and my diligent “stuff” intake paid dividends for me later in the race when the course got tough. At 21 miles we were back in Blue Jay campground and the easy part of the race was behind us. Now it got hard. I stopped at my truck to drop off my water bottle and put on my hydration pack. Once leaving Blue Jay, we started one of the big climbs. I’ve done this climb up Main Divide (dirt) Road from Blue Jay several times and I always hate it. It’s steep and rocky and barren and it feels like it goes on forever, even though it’s only 3 miles. This time, however, my legs felt great. I don’t think I’ve ever done that climb so easily or fast. I even caught someone during the climb and I never catch anyone going up Main Divide.

At the top of the climb is an aid station with a lot of volunteers. Eric Kosters was there and as I came running down the road I heard him yell “is that Kurt?!” I made a pretty quick stop at this station as I didn’t need to refill my hydration pack. Molly Kussouf ran this aid station, and like a mom, she wants to feed you everything in the world. I don’t think they had Gatorade, so I think I just stuck a potato chip in my mouth and headed down Trabuco Trail into the canyon.

At the Holy Jim aid station I had them refill my hydration pack and I was off to start the climb – 4,000 feet in seven miles. Holy Jim trail is actually a very nice trail to hike or run on fresh legs. It’s pretty and never very steep, but when you’ve run 29 miles already, you don’t have a lot of energy to go uphill. This time, however, I seemed to have loads of energy! I ran almost all of Holy Jim. It was tough, but the faster I did it, the sooner I’d get it over with, right?

Towards the top of Holy Jim, you’ll round a corner and you can see across the ravine to Main Divide Rd. When I got to this point and looked across, I just happened to see 1^st place runner, Jorge Pacheco, as he was already coming down from the Peak and back. Never mind that he was at mile 38, but his stride looked like he was coming off the final turn running the 5,000 meters in the Olympics! He reset his own course record with his finish time this year.

In a few more moments I arrived at the Bear Springs aid station to a shout of “is that Kurt?” from Baz. He gave me a big hug, I grabbed some orange slices and Cheez-its and started the march up Main Divide to the Peak. This is a steep hike, but again I was surprised at how good my legs felt. A little less than a mile from the top and I found myself in snow, and a lot of it. It made the footing slick and hindered your progress trying to go uphill. With this section from Bear Springs to Santiago Peak being an out and back I could see who was in front of me. I’d already seen Pacheco with a commanding lead, but then only four other people were coming down the mountain as I was coming up.

Finally at the top and at the aid station, I again hear “is that Kurt?” Even though it was really cold, I took a little time at this aid station to get my hydration pack refilled and to snack a bit (Cheez-its!). My hands were so cold that I had trouble snapping one of the straps on my hydration pack, but with a little help from a volunteer, I was then on my way.

Running back down the mountain was much faster than going up, but it’s still tough on the legs. I was glad when the road leveled out, even though that slowed my pace. From there on out the Main Divide rolls along with only one major hike left on the course. Thankfully at the top of that hike is another aid station. Hiking up the trail I saw at the top, which is Trabuco Peak and the aid station, a woman sitting in a lawn chair in the road, all bundled up in a big coat and hat and reading a book. Eventually she looked up, saw me and goes “is that Kurt?” She then jumped up out of her chair and ran over to the side of the road were the aid station was. Brittney Brickweg and her soon-to-be husband, Matt Brabeck, were working the aid station there at Trabuco Peak. Matt made me up a big cup of Hammer Heed that I gulped down and I was off.

Quicker than I was expecting, I found myself coming up on the West Horse Thief aid station. Kristen Trujillo told me that the 4^th place runner was less than five minutes ahead of me, but I knew I wasn’t going to catch Angela Shartel, regardless of how good I felt. But now with only two and a half miles until the three mile downhill finish, I ran every flat part and downhill part of the trail pretty hard. Hiking up the little hill that brought me back to Molly’s aid station, San Diego 100 RD Scott Mills asked me if I needed anything. I responded that I just needed the finish line!

From there on out it was downhill to the finish line. When the trail went from steep downhill to just downhill I was able to drop my pace below a seven minute mile pace. My hydration pack was still pretty full of water, so I started sucking in big gulps of water and spitting it back out in an attempt to lighten my load and help me run faster. 

Coming off Falcon Trail and into the campground I wondered if my parents had shown up yet because I was so far ahead of schedule. Rounding the corner to the finish line I scanned the crowd for my parents and right before I crossed the line I heard my mom yell “is that Kurt?”

Finish Time: 9:05:46
6^th Overall

I don’t know what got into me. I didn’t plan on running that fast.