The TRT100 has a 8 hour trail work requirement. On April 21, 2012 I went to the AC100 trail work since I live too far away from Lake Tahoe.
As usual I tend to over-plan for a tough race I haven't run yet. And frankly, even that's fun!
This elevation profile shows you the 50 mile course. We'll be running this twice.
Friday morning, July 20, 2012, at 4:44AM we start driving towards Carson City, NV where we'll be staying. Estimated arrival time: 12:44PM.
It's 6AM, the day is awakening, and Linda is fully awake and totally aware of everything - well, sort of...
Good morning! It's 6AM and in 23 hours I would start my 16th 100 mile race.
It's so nice to see a day wake up so nicely.
About half way to our destination we pump gas in Lone Pine. We tried to catch Dan Marinsik, which just has finished his 10th consecutive Badwater finish and it's on his way back to the starting line for his double.
We missed Dan but did find his wife Lily. We were there for about an hour chatting and relaxing, which felt nice after driving for almost 4 hours.
Yet another quick pit stop using the bathroom and stretching our legs.
The kids are eager to get there but it will take us another 2 hours 45 minutes to Carson City.
And this is the bus we'll rent next time!
Driving along Mono Lake. It's about 100 miles to go from here.
It's now 1:45PM and we finally we made it to the race check in.
I told them that I signed up for the TRT 5K and they looked at me funny. "Just kidding" I said and told them that I actually signed up for the 100 miler.
They took my weight - 169 pounds. At various points along the race they'll weight runners and if they loose/gain too much they'll be pulled from the race. For me I'll be always right on spot only loosing 2 pounds at one point. At the last weight in during the race I was exactly 169 pounds.
Picking some sandals given free to runners. They'll come in super handy after the race.
Kids are goofing around having fun.
And they're happy that we've made it up there. 2 days of fun ahead.
Dropping my drop bags. This one is for Tunnel Creek, an aid station we'll come by 6 times during the race. Because of that the bag is a bit bigger to hold more stuff including extra running shoes, warm clothes, socks and Ensure. I also packed some blister tools, just in case, but I would never use it.
Usually this is my kind of drop bag: a USPS mailing envelope. They're super convenient: water and rip prove and free to get. They hold my essential stuff, Ensure and GUs.
At 4PM sharp the mandatory pre-race meeting started. It's held inside the Nevada State Capitol legislative building. Pretty cool!
The room was full with runners so my family stood outside and waited there for me.
Afterward we went for dinner at Olive Garden. Then it was time to hit the bed at around 9PM.
Saturday morning 4:30AM. 30 minutes to race start. There's an exciting buzz in the air and I like it. I'm also excited and ready to do this thing.
Keith Swiatkowski and Thomas Kuerten are ready too. They both run this race for the first time and they both will finish!
A little "good-morning" bar with your choice of water or coffee. All distances (50K, 50 miler, and 100 miler) begin and end at the Spooner Lake State Park, which is at 7,000 feet.
Mylinh Nguyen and Chau (Joe) Pham let me drive with them from Carson City to the start. The both will run this race too. Mylinh has 13 100 mile finishes and already ran TRT100 twice before. Chau has 8 100 mile finishes and ran this race once before.
14 minutes before the start. The weather was actually pretty nice.
A pretty bad picture of me but I'm as relaxed as I can get. I did my homework for this race by reading about 15 race reports, looking at a lot of pictures, watching race clips on YouTube, watching the actual TRT100 movie on DVD, and working out my projected race schedule. All left to do for me is actually to run it :)
Race director David Cotter and assistant race director George "Squirrel" Ruiz are counting town from 10 to start the race.
And off we are. The first leg is a 6 mile mostly uphill section to Marlette Lake.
Janeth Siva from San Francisco is clearly happy to be out here.
First glimpse of Marlette Lake.
I didn't had the heart to tell Janeth that her socks didn't match :( LOL
What do you mean I am pretending to be fast! How rude...
This race had the best course markings ever. Whoever got lost truly deserved it.
Arriving at the first aid station Hobart. It took me 1 hour 47 minutes for those 6 miles. Well, the website claims it's 6 miles but my Garmin showed over 7 miles both times on the first and second loop. No big deal though.
Always be careful if you ask for a "taste of hell".
Hobard had the best food and drinks ever!! They even served a great smoothy containing Ensure. That stuff was super good and kept my stomach happy.
A mile out of the aid station we got our first glimpse of heaven! This race is crazy beautiful as you'll see in many pictures to come.
Running along the single tracks to the next aid station, Tunnel Creek, which is 5 miles away. It was a really sunny day but I was never hot due the nice breeze. I also did some good heat training leading up the race.
The beauty of this race takes you and never lets you go. You can't help yourself feeling great and tremendously blessed being a participant of this event.
We're about 5 minutes before arriving to Tunnel Creek. Most of the trail was very soft and sandy, like seen here, which I really liked.
Welcome to Tunnel Creek. We would come by this aid station on miles 11, 17, 35, 61, 67, and 85. I have my most important drop bag here which included an extra pair of old running shoes. I planned to wear them doing the 6 mile Red House loop since there were many creek crossings and I wanted to keep my newer shoes try and neat.
As promised there were some water crossing at the Red House loop but nothing really bad. In fact I never got my shoes wet so on my 2nd loop I was wearing my newer shoes on this loop too.
With a bit of a balance act runners were able to avoid the water and mud keeping their shoes try. This is at the bottom of the Red House loop after we dropped about 1,200 feet down to 6,800 feet, which is the lowest point in the whole race.
Those first aid guys and gals were awesome. They were on their bikes on the trail watching out for us during the whole race.
