All the Elements in Play at Miwok

Horizontal rain I've experienced. The rain blasted from the Pacific across Bolinas ridge in Marin County today struck me from below. We were socked in by fog for the whole 100K. As we like to say in the ultra community, 'it was epoch.'

As with so many long ultras, this was another battle of attrition. Despite my foresworn testimony to run "from behind" (as practice for WS!) I found myself among the three leaders from early on. Geoff Roes took the front followed by Todd Braje and myself. Todd fell off first as a symptom, I believe, of an uncharacteristically bad day. Geoff charged powerfully up the "hills" (strongly resembling mountains) but took it relatively easy on the descents so that I caught up with him by the bottom. He didn't slow until the long climb up to Bolinas ridge on the way out. He was just in front of me when he stopped abruptly and emptied his stomach of substantial contents. Although he seemed to bounce back, at 42 miles in he found he couldn't hold anything down and called it a day. That left me to lead for the remaining return trip to Rodeo Beach. I was fading though, and fortunate to hold off late-charging Victor Ballesteros and Scott Jaime. My finishing time was 8:35.

The women's race looked to be very competitive, and was won by Kami Semick.

This event merits a complete post, that I will have to write at another time!