Chick'd Again at the 2011 El Moro 50K

The second annual El Moro 50k was something I was greatly looking forward to. I really enjoyed running the race last year, partly because I know the park so well and partly because I finished third overall in the race. My shot at a second straight podium finish in this race was in serious doubt due to the IT band issue I developed during the Leona Divide 50 two weeks prior. The weekend between the two races I tried running with a group in El Moro, but could only stand 6 miles before the pain in my knee was too great and had to give up.

I rested my leg the week leading up to the race and spent a lot of time on the foam roller trying to get this IT band back into shape. Just walking around didn’t bother it and neither did light jogging. I wouldn’t know if I was good to go or not unless I ran hard on it, so I was just going to have to wait until the race to find out how it was going to feel.

The weather the morning of the race was perfect – over cast and cool, just like last year. I was nervous about how my leg was going to hold up. Dean Dobberteen and I were talking about our injuries. He was kind of in the same boat as I was – we were either both going to do really well, or we would DNF if our injuries flared up, but we wouldn’t know until about an hour into the race.

Starting Line for the El Moro 50K. Mike Kennedy in his starting stance.

Molly the race director yelled go and we were off. Dean shot away from the starting line like he was running a 10K. Typical. Michelle Barton followed close behind trailed by another pack of runners. I loafed along in no real hurry. I was nervous of the IT band flaring up and wanted to really ease into it.

Once we got into the first big climb of the race up I Think I Can, most of that first chase pack died away. Once at the top I was following the 2nd and 3rd place women, Holly Anderton and Allison Wenster. They were fun to watch in an early race duel. Allison doesn’t charge the up hills very hard, but runs the flats and down hills really fast. Holly takes more of an even keel approach, more like myself, where you work a little harder on the up hills, but don’t run as hard downhill. Different strokes for different folks.

I put a pass on the two of them just before we turned off Moro Ridge for the Missing Link single track. At that point I was pretty much on my own. I waved to the people at the first aid station as I made the hard right to go down Slow and Easy and just cruised along. Thankfully my IT band wasn’t acting up and I was feeling pretty good, just running my own pace.

As I crested the top of the hill on Bommer Ridge Road, I could see a tiny person in black out in front of me, just getting to the Ridge Park aid station. That had to have been Michelle. Once I got to the aid station, I waved hi to my parents where were there to watch and had my friend, Dorene Nathan, refill my water bottle. That took all of 5 seconds and I was off again.

On the run from the Ridge Park aid station to the turn-around point, I was consistently gaining ground on Michelle, though once we started our decent down No Dogs, she put some time on me, again. Michelle’s another slow-up-fast-down kind of runner. Once we hit the turn around, we had to then run back up No Dogs. I made ground back up on Michelle rather quickly and passed her about 2/3rds the way back up the climb. When I caught her and said our hello’s, she didn’t seem like she was ready to run hard and I thought maybe this was the optimum time to put a push on and build a gap.

Behind Michelle running up No Dogs

 
The run back from the turn around to Ridge Park is the toughest part of the course and I worked it hard. My push worked in the sense that I put a gap on Michelle of, probably, two minutes, and was five minutes behind Dean at the aid station. Once I left the next aid station at West Cut Across, it looked like my push had backfired. Michelle was gaining ground on me and my legs felt pretty tired. I was still running hard, but I could start to feel my IT band get sore. Shit.

The IT band was causing some pain when I ran, but I found that hiking the steep ups made things worse. When I stopped running and started hiking the steep sections, my IT band would tighten up, like it was cramping up. The pain from my knee all the way up to my sciatic nerves in my hip made running again almost feel debilitating. After the steepest climb, I stopped to stretch my IT. I looked back and saw Michelle rounding the top of the hill and new she’d be on me in less than a quarter mile. I hobbled along as best as I could, but getting caught was inevitable. Besides the pain in my left leg, my legs were just pretty tired.

Michelle passed me a little before we started the Slow and Easy climb and when I saw that she wasn’t chugging up the hill very fast, I tried running again to try to keep with her, but the tightness in the IT band and pain shooting from the sciatica made me abandon that hope. I had to let her go. I was able to do some run/walking up the hill and noticed the IT loosening up when I forced myself to run. I was thankful for that because once I made it to the top of Slow and Easy, the climbing for this race was over.

I stopped at the aid station for water and to stretch. My friend, Michelle Mechem, told me Michelle only had two minutes on me and encouraged me to try to go after her, but I was done. I knew I had 3rd place locked up and resigned myself to that position. I was too tired and in too much discomfort to want to push the last five miles, which were mostly downhill, Michelle’s strength.

I was able to run a pretty decent pace the rest of the way and crossed the finish line happy that I could then stop running, as standing or walking didn’t hurt my IT. I was also happy that I didn’t feel like I had to throw up, which was an improvement over last year. I also improved my finishing time by 14 minutes over last year.

So all-in-all it was a pretty good race. Still having the IT pain was disappointing as I need it to go away before the San Diego 100, but I still ran a faster time than last year. Just maybe next year I won’t get chick’d.