Tino Turkey Trot: first fast trot of the week

Thanksgiving already, unusually early because we have five Thursdays this month and the 4th one falls on the 22nd (can't get earlier than that). At 11:30 this morning, Agnès called from school to alert me about this fun event taking place in the afternoon, after school. I had run it 3 years ago when Max was a Senior, 2 days before running the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot one and 4 days before Quad Dipsea...

I had actually planned on tapering today to get my legs a short 2-day break before the upcoming Silicon Valley Turkey Trot on Thursday morning and to continue recovering from last Saturday's JFK 50-mile and my fast 100-mile the week before, not to mention last week's cold... Yet, and since I'm trying to take the week off, I couldn't resist the challenge of some speed work along with a a few fast and young XC runners! I jogged the mile between my house and the Cupertino High School track and barely made it before the start, therefore missing the "race" briefing and course instructions.

Not knowing where we were heading to, I followed the top 2 runners (students) and we started in the red zone, around 5:20 min/mile pace. I passed them in the second/smaller loop, which I thought was the last loop, but we went for another one of these small loops. As you can see on the map the course was quite convoluted, in the good Turkey Trot tradition (turkeys don't run straight... ;-). At the finish, my Garmin GPS indicated 1.88 miles (3.0 km) in 10:28 (5:35 min/mile). Here with Dusty:

And with Justin (red top, 2nd overall) and Willy (blue, 3rd), two fast runners of Tino's XC and T&F teams:

Thank you to Mr Morse and the ASB leaders for organizing this fun event and gathering numerous volunteers to show us the way throughout the school campus! To Coach Armstrong for lending us such rabbits ;-). And to Mr Lawson for helping perpetuating this nice tradition!

See some of you among a much larger flock (more than 20,000 participants!) in 2 days in San Jose for the 8th Silicon Valley Turkey Trot! IBM is one of the sponsors and I should be giving a few words on main stage before jumping to the starting line! ;-)

To but not through Crystal Springs

10 days ago, I took half a day off to go with the Cupertino cross-country teams at the League Finals at Crystal Springs. This is the course of many official cross-country high school and college meets. The course is just under 3 miles for high school competitions, and 5 miles for college ones. It is situated in the Hallmark Park in Belmont, just off 280 and 92. Great views of the Crystal Springs Reservoir on the other side of the highway (a place which I abundantly described in my 100th post, last January), and the City (San Francisco) and the Bay on the other side.

To Crystal Springs: a suburban marathon

It felt a bit like traveling the Silicon Valley on CalTrain this morning: Cupertino, Synnyvale, Los Altos, Palo Alto, Stanford, Menlo Park, Atherton, Woodside, Redwood City, San Carlos, Belmont: terminus! Yes, I wanted to log some miles this morning and decided to go to Max' competition by foot. 25 miles of running through a large part of Silicon Valley, between 280 and El Camino Real. I designed the itinerary on Google Maps last night. Of course, the default route was 280 and I had to enter some specific points to force the routing algorithm to use Foothill Expressway instead. Little did I know that Foothill was actually forbidden to pedestrians...I left home at 7 am so traffic was very light in the early morning and, despite the interdiction, I still ran a few miles on the expressway, against the traffic. However, this is a section which is highly patrolled by the Police and, after seeing two police cars, I decided I had better try to find a parallel route before being arrested. I crossed Foothill at Loyola Corners and got on Fremont Avenue, then First Street and Los Altos Avenue for a little detour through Los Altos.I was really happy to find a bike path leading to Palo Alto. Unfortunately it was just a quarter mile long.
Not for long but nice to find this sign after the many "Forbidden to Pedestrians" signs on Foothill Expressway...

After passing Gunn High School and Veterans Affairs' Palo Alto Hospital (one of our largest ILOG clients), I went back on Foothill Expressway for a quarter mile before reaching Junipero Serra Boulevard. This is the impressive 2-mile section where you cross Stanford and realize how much land the University owns. Crossed Sand Hill Road, the venture capital epicentre, to get on Santa Cruz Avenue for a few hundreds yards before branching off on the Alameda De Las Pulgas (see Menlo Park's history). I ran the whole 7 miles of the Alameda, from Santa Cruz Avenue to San Carlos Avenue, feeling more intimate with this rural artery after spending an hour on it. Alameda means tree-bordered avenue and this is much what the avenue is indeed. The city has even replaced many of the concrete sections of side walks with syntethic/rubber pads to let the tree roots growing more freely. Impressive care for trees and nature!

On my way, I was surprised to discover that cabins of fire trucks could rotate this way!

From San Carlos Avenue I got on Beverly Drive then Club Drive for the last 2.5 very steep miles up to Crestview Drive. In Hallmark Park, I ran part of the cross-crountry course, making the run 25 miles, not quite a marathon. Between the sun in the South Bay and the one we could see in the distance over San Francisco, Belmont was actually under misty clouds and I got cold as we were waiting for the boys' race.

Through Crystal Springs? Quite not

Now that Tino's boys varsity cross-country team made it to Crystal Springs for the CCS (Central Coast Section, one of the 9 sections of the California Interscholastic Federation) finals, it was time to race for a qualification to the next round: States (the challenging California State finals).

Max was not ready to really kill himself today. Between the fast pace of AP courses, the heavy homework, the applications to colleges and related interviews and the Fall play of his drama course (the premiere of For the Love of Three Oranges was last night!), cross-country is not Max's current focus but he trained diligently and fought hard though the season with a great team spirit and his team captain responsibility. His main goals for today were first to enjoy this potential last race with his Tino teammates and, second, to clock 16:40, 6 seconds better than his PR on this course.
Here off they are, amongst a competitive field!
Max, second of the team in the hill of the first loop:
Max finished 3rd of his team, behind the amazing Anthony twin brothers, Peter and Thomas (sophomore). He was happy to improve his PR by 3 seconds (16:43) and with the proof that the team is left with great elements for next year. And even more happy to conclude the season this way after putting 3 hours in daily training since August. So much free time to do other things now!

Here you are with our report from Crystal Springs, almost live... With Alex not running cross-country anymore, it is going to be several years before I come back on this course. To see Greg running hopefully!

Way to go (and run) Cupertino!

A quick post to tell you that I am very impressed with my fellow Cupertinians, at least some of them exercising. This Saturday morning, I went to Rancho San Antonio with Max and Alex. Max and Alex were joining their Cupertino High School cross-country teammates as part of the pre-season summer conditioning led by their coach, Paul Armstrong (Happy Birthday, Coach!). The team should be strong this year with the arrival of quite a few Freshmen, especially on the girls side (yes, Fresh(wo)men...). First competitions in September, last year in high school for Max, stay tuned!

While I was running on the PG&E loop, starting at 7 am, I was amazed by the number of people on the trail and not just near the parking lots and the farm, but all the way up to the top of the PG&E trail, this despite the early hour. The parking lots are full as early as 6:45 am on Saturdays! Most of the people I saw initially was walkers with more runners showing up around 8 am. I passed and crossed probably more than 100 persons on the trail, more than what I see on bank holidays. I did not do a formal census but I would say that 70 to 80% had Indian origins (not the Native Indian, I did not see any Tarahumara this weekend, or I missed them!), 10% from the rest of Asia, less than 10% Caucasian and 2% African-American. Of course, this reflects the fact that the majority of Cupertino originates from Asia, yet there are still more than 40% Caucasian in the Cupertino population according to the latest census. Maybe they exercise at home or at fitness clubs, not leveraging the amazing outdoors opportunities available around!
Here is for the good news, more people exercising. Now, and this is not specially related to Cupertino, here is one bad news, on the cover of Time magazine this week: Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin. The common belief is that we spend a lot of energy by exercising, which we need to compensate for by eating more (The Compensation Problem). Eating more, or eating food richer in sugar. It is interesting to note for instance that eating slow carb like pasta may make you hungry faster because of the short term drop in your blood sugar. Look at this photo story to see how our appetite is so sensitive to external factors such as time of day, sight, smell, type of carbs, food variety, ...

With that, all from Cupertino and elsewhere, exercise and... eat wisely!
PS: first picture is at the start of Cupertino's annual Big Bunny Fun Run 5K (April 2006)

Speed through other's dreams

As I am prevented from running for a couple of weeks after a surgery, and unable to properly train for the coming Quad Dipsea (November 29), that leaves me with more time to nurture my running passion through others' stories, and dreams. Three in particular this weekend: the CCS XC finals for Max, a realized dream for Tom, and the NCAA West Regional XC Championships at Stanford.

CCS cross-country finals

This Saturday we drove back to Toro County Park in Salinas for the 2008 Central Coast Section cross-country finals. The play-off event represents the last milestone of the cross-country season before State (i.e. the California championships). Led by Coach Armstrong, Tino (aka Cupertino High School) had qualified one varsity team (7 boys) and one girl, Shona. Several parents drove down (the usual suspects...!) as well as a few other teammates: Kristin, Daniele, Steven, Steven C, Michael, Dennis. The boys were: Max, Peter A, Ahmad, Nick, Daniel, Eric and Peter C.
Althoug temperatures are generally 10 degrees higher than the Bay Area, which is good for crops, it was unsually hot, in the mid-80Fs. After a blazing start by Peter, Max led the boys and finished in 17:25, albeit disappointed for not matching his 17:22 of the beginning of the season. Overall, everybody had a tough time fighting the heat and the team placed 12th among 18. The most impressive team was Mountain View High School, both the boys and the girls.

Also new this year, the team had moved from Division 3 to Division 2, just passing the school size threshold because of the addition of a few Freshmen this year. With only two Seniors in the team this year, these two facts may explain why this is the first year in many that no Pionners will participate to States. Below is a picture of the impressive start of the Division 2 boys race (click on the picture to enlarge):
The results are not published yet, but will be at the following page. In the meantime, more pictures of this warm day, on my Picasa album.

Tom's dream

If you read this blog regularly, you may be familiar with our friend Pierre-Yves and his fight against cancer at age 14. After 2 years and one bone marrow transplant, the battle has been successful so far and every day is a blessing for him, his family and friends. In the midst of such an uncertain outcome, we got the opportunity to become familiar with the Make-A-Wish asociation whose goal is to fulfill the dream of young people facing cancer. Pierre-Yves was given the opportunity to spend one day with his idol, French basketter Tony Parker (see a short paragraph on this memorable day).

In a manner similar to Make-A-Wish, Bill reached out to Tom's friends among the Stevens Creek Striders and San Jose Fitters to offer Tom something really unique and meaningful to him: a flight over the Bay Area and Pacific on board of a 1945 fighter jet. The aircraft is named Runner Ridge III which is rather appropriate given Tom's passion for running. This is a P-51 Mustang. For those who don't know, Tom is a pilot and has flown hours over the Bay Area. As a matter of fact he clocked 350 hours on a plane similar to the vintage ones displayed in the airport museum.

We stopped by the Hollister municipal airport on our way back from Salinas and gathered with other representatives of the Striders, to share Tom's joy, before and after his aerial experience: Peter, Bill, Penny, Lena, Andrew and Mike.
Here is a video of one of Dan's take-off on YouTube, as well as other pictures and short videos of Tom's realized wish on my Picasa album. As for our wish? That Tom heals quickly, please!!

Flying Oregon

With our trip down to the Monterey County, we could not attend the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) West Region championships held in Stanford this year. Like all the observers, I'm really impressed with the winning time of Galen Rupp: 27:41 for a 10K ran on a golf course, and a 50-second gap on the second runner. Granted, Galen is top class, a 2008 Olympian! Oregon is really a great source of distance elite runners, no wonder why they also excel in ultra (Hal Koerner, Todd Braje, Erik Skaggs, Dan Olmstead, Lewis Taylor, Jeff Browning, Ian Torrence, Sean Meissner, Susannah Beck, Kami Semick, Prudence L'Heureux, ...).

You can read more about the preformance of the locals on the Stanford Cardinal's web site. Good luck to all at the Nationals on November 24! Sweet speed dreams in the meantime...

Is that all?

Oh no! This weekend was also Javelina Jundred in Arizona and Ultracentric in Texas (Tony Mangan won the 48h race with 202 miles, or 202 laps...). And of course thousands of other running stories around the Planet... When hobbies and sport contribute to building a peaceful and more united World.

Ohlone 2008: two strikes!

Returning and defending champion... It was a very unusual situation for me, something unique which I tried to savor as much as possible. It certainly comes with some pressure although I had no goal to reedit last year's outcome, given some of the big names in the participant list this year. Although I knew through Will that Lon Freeman (2004 winner) and Steve Stowers (2nd at the US 100K Championships a month ago) were not going to run this year, there were still 8 former winners in (5 on the male side, 3 on the female one). What I found the most interesting from the experience is that it probably gave me some insight of what the elites are going through when showing up at a competition, with a lot of expectations from others. Of course, at a small scale in my case... ;-)

My lucky day started with Agnès finding a parking spot right on the parking lot next to the starting line. I was actually surprised with the number of hikers, some of them having started early to avoid the heat, many of them being upset with the annoyance of such a 200-runner group getting ready for a race.

While getting ready, here is a non-running but personal anecdote: a huge Saint Bernard passed by and I asked Agnès for a picture as a souvenir. The volunteer Ranger who was patrolling with his mountain bike told us that this dog was coming every year on race day to share some of the excitement.
So, especially for my sister Sophie and my parents, here is a similar picture of me with another Saint Bernard during a school ski camp, some 35 years ago... And, no, it's not my son Greg, it's me! And, yes, we both love dogs, but our backyard is too small to own one in.Anyway, I had checked in early then, before the buses unloaded the runners coming from the finish line. Many familiar faces for such a local race, actually more known faces since I joined the Running World forum and also as this was my second Ohlone.

It was in the low 60s at the start, not too bad for such a late time. For once I wished we would have started at 5 or 6 to get down before the peak of the heat as we were expecting temperature in the 90s. On Saturday I was actually in Gilroy and the temperature was just over 100F at the CCS championships of high school track and field where a few Pionneers (Tino) were representing Max and Alex' school. We went with Max to see Rio running the 300m-hurdles and Stephanie on the long jump. The pole vault competition was quite impressive: watching at the athletes in international meets, I had not realized how hard it must be to actually pass a bar that high (see some other pictures in my Picasa album).

Here is a very fast Eric Surprenant flying over his 300m-hurdles series:What a technique and a perfect jump:Oops, not this one (note that between the pole and the bar, everything is quite flexible in this sport)!

Back to Ohlone, Rob got us started around a few minutes after the hour and Ron (Gutierrez) took the initial lead. As usual, Mark (Tanaka) was telling the group stories, and Mark (Lantz) was just on my heels with Don (Hogue) on my side. After a few turns on this first steep hill up Mission Peak, I found myself leading and decided it was time to walk a bit in case I had started too fast. As a matter of fact, we were all surprised not to see Graham (Cooper) at the start and I told Mark (Lantz) we were going to miss him for leading us and setting the pace (I learnt at the finish that Graham was attending his son's triathlon competition). I had come to train on this side of Mission Peak last Sunday, so I was pretty comfortable. But that is not a good indication, I always feel comfortable at the beginning of a race...
Kept pushing the pace all the way to the top, followed by Mark (Lantz). I thought that it may be silly going out that fast but at least we would have put some miles before the inferno which was announced for mid-day. There was actually some breeze at the top and the way down to Laurel Loop aid station was a... breeze. It is there last year that I had passed Mark and Kevin to catch up with Graham just before Sunol (aid station at mile 9).

Last year, we caught-up with Lee (Jebian) just before the summit, as he had taken an early start in order to make the cut-off. This year, Lee started even earlier and I saw him before going down to the Sunol parking lot. There were about another dozen runners who had started early, whom I passed within a few miles after Sunol.

After Sunol it is about 10 straight miles up to the summit of Rose Peak so the strategy was the same as last year: "run when you can, power walk to catch your breath." The trail is very exposed in this section, but some breeze was still make the temperatures bearable. Was great to be welcomed by Carl (Andersen) and Ann (Trason) at the Backpack Area aid station, such an honor to be helped by two ultra legends! Ann proposed me some jelly-peanut butter sandwich and Carl was surprised when I said "oh yes!" He thought that was no proper food for a French guy, to which I replied that I was now almost American. With that it was time to continue up the hill although I had not seen any runner/pursuer since before reaching the top of Mission Peak.

Leaving Backpack Area is where Graham told me to take the lead last year, and when I wondered what I was doing, passing such an elite runner. Like I used Rob (Evans) as a virtual pacer at Miwok this year, I used Graham in my mind to estimate where he would walk in the steep hills or push. I'm getting into something with virtual pacing, that helps my mental...

A special thank to the volunteers at Billy Goat Road aid station. These guys have to camp the night before up there, as it is so remote and far from any road. In addition to carrying a big load to support 200 runners in such a heat. Needless to say, I was not expecting ice there, but it was great to get a sponge to cool my neck and back.

I kept running as much as I could in the uphill, still surprised not to see anyone behind. After more walking though I got to the loop at the top of Rose Peak. Completed the loop under 9 minutes and still no news of anyone (last year we were about 6 runners in the loop before I was done). Only Chihping (Fu) was enjoying his run up there (he started early too) and took a couple of pictures of me as I entered in the loop and after the Maggie's Half Acre aid station. Something new this year: to make sure everybody was actually going through the summit, we had to pick a nice "Ohlone Wilderness 50K - ZombieRunner" colorful bracelet from a box at the top. A nice souvenir, in addition to the great finisher RaceReady t-shirt. Photo courtesy of Chihping Fu, on my quest of the Ohlone 50K bracelet!
With a 15-minute lead, and no cramping (I started cramping last year around mile 20), I started believing this could be another win if I was not losing more than 1 minute per mile. I had eaten much more than last year but, despite carrying two bottles, felt a bit dehydrated. I paid attention on drinking more as the heat was really getting higher than last year. I had no idea of my splits from last year but could tell I was slower. For sure the course record was safe today, but I thought I had a shot at breaking 5 hours if I was not making mistake going down the last canyon. Photo courtesy of Chihping Fu:
I believe I missed the self-service aid station of Stewart's Camp. The volunteers at Schlieper Rock were helpful and great cheerleaders. One said I could see the lake, but I didn't even try. I remember the pain of getting through the last canyon and quickly left to get into the steep and technical subsequent down hill to the river. Stopped at the river down the canyon to fill my cap with cold water which helped in the last climb to the ridge.
I did a quick stop at the last aid station, Stromer Spring, which has plenty of water from the refreshing spring (splashed myself one last time!). Although I was flying in the downhill, I found the heat in these last two miles the most difficult of the day because of the lack of breeze. For sure the day must have turned to the announced inferno on Rose Peak for the rest of the pack.

Sprinted to the finish in a time of 4:57:36. 16:37 slower than last year, without Graham "pushing" me in the uphills, and a much hotter day, but good enough for another pole position.
The family (Agnès, Mom and Dad who are visiting from Paris, and Max and Greg) was at the finish this year but expecting me to get to the finish line from the other side. There were all surprised to see me sprinting from behind them, although they knew I was first from the radio reports.Kevin Sawchuck took second, about 22 minutes behind me, and was happy the heat preserved his 2002 course record for one more year! Mark Tanaka was third and will get his points to consolidate his first position in the Grand Prix. He was followed by Kevin Swisher, then came Beth Vitalis, sprinting for taking first of the female division and improving her own personal record on this course. A familiar race she also won in 2002, 2003 and 2006.
So, here I am, with another opportunity or obligation to defend my title, quite an expected outcome of the day for me! I was hoping to get this pressure off, but it's actually fun to finish first of course. Again, several serious runners did not show up, and some others had had many races lately. Mark (Lantz) had a great American River and Miwok, Mark (Tanaka) too, plus a win at Ruth Anderson 100K and a great Quicksilver 50-mile last week, and Ron ran Quicksilver 50K while I was just running a 10K (yet, a fast one), last weekend. Mark (Tanaka) is taking the Grand Prix very seriously and has quite a comfortable lead on Mark (Lantz) and I, and he was thrilled to finish 3rd overall and 2nd in our age group. I was impressed with the ease local Will (Gotthardt) finished 7th overall, what an improvement from last year, Will!
Great food at the finish with a fine barbecue and a real Chef! A very special thank to the volunteers who manned such remote aid stations, in this heat. Hope the runners did not give you too much hard time because of the conditions. I did certainly enjoyed seeing all of you!
Not to forget the amazing job of Race co-Directors, Rob Byrne (below) and Larry England. And the support of the sponsors: ZombieRunner, The North Face, Trail Runner magazine, GU (my favorite!) and Johnson (a lumber company, I believe having something to the nice awards).I really like the Indian spirit of these races named after the local Native American (Miwok in Marin County North of the Golden Gate, and Ohlone in San Francisco, the Peninsula and the East Bay). A great source of inspiration, connection with nature and endurance, and peaceful mind. That was my last race before Western States and I very much look forward to both the upcoming heat training and tapering. And I believe I will be back next year then!

PS: bonus tracks...

1. Google Earth map of the course;
2. The course on Google Maps;
3. A few pictures from Agnès, posted in my Picasa album (start and finish, with the top 18 finishers);
4. The elevation profile captured by my Garmin 205 (1st chart), quite close to the official one posted on the race website (2nd graph).
   

Last minute! As I write this blog on Sunday night, I just see on the RW forum that a runner fainted on Rose Peak and runners stopped to take care of him, and managed to call 911 which sent helicopters and the Park Police on site, followed by a medical unit from Stanford. That he got evacuated in critical conditions and I don't know more as of this Monday morning (he was reported as still unconscious last night). Our prayers to him and his family.

Dot, from the forum who was volunteering at the Billy Goat Road aid station (mile 15) reported that only 132 runners went through out of 183 registered runners (although not all of them actually took the start). An unusual drop rate.

Human Race 2008: a busy running weekend

A busy weekend, running-wise:

1. Max' PR on Friday night at Lost Gatos and the Pioneer's qualifications for ;
2. The Human Race on Saturday morning for Max, Alex, Greg and I, and numerous Pioneers from Tino, either running or volunteering, and also my colleagues from our new Running/Walking club at ILOG;
   
3. Volunteering at the Dam Overlook aid station at Quicksilver 50K/50M, with the Striders;
   
4. A get away in the hills with Agnès for Mothers' Day on Sunday.

Los Gatos track meet

I flew back from business meetings in Washington, D.C., just in time to have a quick dinner and drive with Agnès and Max to the Los Gatos Track & Field meet. Max was only going to run the fun mile at the end of the meet, hoping to improve his PR again and finally break 5 minutes.

It felt good to get back on this track, where I first met Leo, Bob, Daniel and some others, when we were training hard on the marathon. Our typical workout on Saturdays was a 4-mile tempo run in 21 or 22 minutes. I still remember the first time I join: I was impressed by all these guys and the coach advised me to stay with the second group, but it took only a couple of laps before I decided to join the top guys. That was in February 2005, 2 months before I got on the podium at Boston. You surely helped guys!

Anyway, we were here tonight to cheer up the local high schoolers as it was getting dark and chilly. We chatted with Craig (see my Miwok post) and his wife, her daughter running in the 4x400m with PALY. We saw a few of the Pioneers (from Tino, Max and Alex' high school) in their last races: Sumika, Abby and Stas in the 1,600m and the girls and the boys in their respective 4x400m series.

Overall, there were quite a few good news for the Pioneers and Coach Armstrong, with the following qualifying for the coming CCS Trials:

1. Michelle for the shotput,
2. Rio on the 300m hurdles
3. Peter, Roger, Rio and Terrence on the 4x400m
4. Stephanie for the triple jump and high jump.

And, for the last event of the meet, Max who finally broke 5 minutes, setting his new PR on the mile (1,600m to be exact) at 4:56. It was an informal event, yet a great one to setup a PR on a USA Track & Field certified event. Mrinal (from Max' team) and Kindu, from Santa Clara, supported Max in his quest by pacing him. Following Coach's plan, Max maintained a very even pace with 75, 73, 74, 74 laps. Kudos, Max, it is going to be tough for me to catchup on the mile, your are now the fastest on this distance in the family!

The Human Race

I already gave you a bit of background and history about this race in my Human Race '07 post, last year. It is the fifth time I ran it now (2003, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008) so it is really becoming a Mother's Day tradition. In addition to the fund-raising tradition of this 15th edition of this key event for the Volunteer Center of Silicon Valley: way to go, VCSV!

It was 42F in Cupertino at 6 am when I woke-up to get my breakfast, but the temperature was quickly rising with such a clear morning. Warming-up was easy on the closed roads and nearby trail and I ran through the campus once to get familiarized with the convoluted finish across the Google campus with even more tables in the patio than previous years. Yet I was still warming-up on the start line, or was I levitating after learning more about the Dalai Lama, whom Max is writing an essay on? Zoom and see for yourself, this is a good shot from Agnès:

I wish I would be that light... Isn't the picture hilarious?

Anyway, here off we go! Jose on the right, Daniel (PhillipsA race report for a flat and road 10K has to be much shorter than a multi-hour ultra marathon. Basically:

• After a few turns, the course changed from previous years and we hit a dirt trail;
• I must have missed the marking of the first mile and, as a result, was glad to have my Garmin 205 with me for distance and pace tracking;
• I quickly took the second position in the race, keeping Jose at sight, although I had really no intention to keep up with him after the hilly 100K I ran last week at Miwok;
• I was glad to get to the second mile in 10:55, yet surprised to find the official 2-mile sign as my GPS was indicating 2.20 miles;
• Shortly after we were getting back on the 5K course and it was a bit confusing to go through the back of this other pack, navigation during which I lost track of Jose;
• Grabbed a cup of water at mile 2.5 then found Jose again as the 5K and 10K courses were separating again near the Shoreline lake;
• The rest was pretty event less, just making sure to maintain the 5:30 pace all the way, until the exciting finish in the middle of the Google campus.

Finished in 15:10 which was 5-15 seconds slower than my three previous runs here. Yet, it was faster if you take into account the additional 0.2 miles, not counting that it was more dirt trails than usual on this race. Could actually have been a PR it was not for this extra 350 meters. Funny how 0.2 miles can make a difference when you usually run 5o or 100 miles on trails... 2nd overall and 1st of the masters (40 years and above), it helped not seeing the Kenyans this year!

Jose was again the first to reach the finish line:
And 20 seconds later...
As for the 5K, all the participants were amazed with their times because it turned out to be only 2.6 miles, a few volunteers inadvertently leading the runners on a shorter course.

A family business... Jose and Jose Pina, father and son, took home two gold medals. The Pommiers, two gold and one bronze. Max placed fifth overall on the 5K and 1st in the M13-19 age group, with Alex taking third. Greg completed the 2.6 miles in 25 minutes.

Once we were all back to the base, repleted with Hobee's delicious coffee cake and the organic essn drinks, Agnès could take off for some Nordic Walking on the 5K loop. She he training for a sprint triathlon in Fremont in June, yet cannot run because of her hip (arthritis) and the pounding on the road. She will replace the run with some fast Nordic Walking, an activity her hip has tolerated over the past year. She was back after 34 minutes, more time than needed to be able to attend the award ceremony.

My parents are visiting from Paris for two weeks, and my mother really enjoyed this big running party, nice company, great music, generous goal and perfect weather.
And with Tim, the Executive Director of VCSV:

Tino had an impressive representation, among the participants but also the volunteers. They were here to raise money for their 4-year Kenya Dream project, whose goal is to raise $100,000 to help a high school in Kenya. A special thank to you, the volunteers, for your encouragements. You guys and gals rock!

By the way, who is this colorful volunteer?
Oh, yes, that's Rio, our 300m hurdler!

This year also marked the first participation of our recently created Running/Walking club at ILOG, the company I have been working for over the past 20 years. It was nice to see even more familiar faces to such a running event. Our next goal is to have more people participating to the Trailblazer races in September. Standing from left to right: Jeanne, Kelly, Elie, Greg, Emilie, Stephanie, Michael (missing on the picture: Delphine, Nicolas' wife):
Last but not least, the spirit of National Semiconductors was reigning over the crowd. This year again the won the corporate and individual challenge of the most funds raised: $55,000 for one single company, wow! We, ILOGers, have a long way to go...

Quicksilver 50K/50-mile

Like last year, I had decided not to run Quicksilver. Last year it was more to heal after my asthma crisis at Miwok. This year, I could have done it but it was nicer to Agnès and the family that I participated in this family run (the Human Race) rather than "yet another" ultra. Besides, it's providing some sane and safe tapering before Ohlone, where I will be the returning champion (I just received my #1 bib, really cool!).

But I had promised my running club, the Stevens Creek Striders, that I will join us as soon as the award ceremony was done, at the aid station our club is manning at this local race. I arrived at the Dam Overlook station at 11:30, quite late to see the leaders or even the bulk of the pack, despite the station being crossed three times by the runners, making it very busy in the morning.

It was a good opportunity to sync up with my fellow club members and of course provide assistance to the last runners as they were getting into the rising heat of the afternoon. Several of these runners were surprised not to see me running today. I even accompanied Lee and Winnie (Jebian) half a mile up the hill, on their way back to the finish through English Town. Not that it was the first time before I volunteered on Western States before I was running ultras, but it felt really good to give a bit of all the support I usually receive from volunteers, now that I know what it feels on the other side.

Results are now posted, showing yet another impressive performance from Graham (Cooper) who improved again the course record he had set last year. Graham and I at the finish of Ohlone in 2007:Mark (Tanaka) did very well, consolidating his comfortable lead in the Grand Prix, while Ron (Guttierez) took first masters on the 50K. See you guys on the other side of the Bay next week!

Mission Peak tune-up

Busy Sunday for Mothers' Day, with Agnès and my mother at home. Breakfast prepared by the boys, cycling-related gifts for Agnès, church, a lunch at a nearby Chinese restaurant and... a quick getaway with Agnès on the other side of the Bay, direction Mission Peak, one week before my return to the Ohlone 50K race which I won last year.
We were parked at the entrance of the Ohlone Wilderness by 4pm, quite late to get out for a run, but good to be out there with Agnès nevertheless. Agnès went straight to the summit, Nordic walking, and I took the route of the race with one detour as I missed a left turn on Horseback trail. I was expecting some heat training but it was actually pretty chilly at the summit. Agnès had already summited when I got there after 5.5 miles and I found her hopping on the rocks below the summit as we were heading down. I climbed the straight route to the summit again for some additional hill training and to make the run a half marathon. Despite the late afternoon, there were quite a few hikers, who were wondering what this crazy guy was doing, going back and forth...
With that, looking forward to seeing some of you next week. I realize that being a returning champion is really a unique experience, it's really hard to win an ultra these days. Moreover, there will be 10 past Ohlone winners coming back and, apart from Dave Scott who dominated this race in the 90's with 8 wins, nobody else has won this race twice on the men side. Given the tough competition who is joining and is certainly eager to add a new name to the list, I'll make sure to remind myself that I am primarily running for fun...

More news next week then!