Running, my second job and passion...

Wilder Ranch, border line Davenport

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 03:29:00 +0000

It has been more than 2 years since I visited this California State park, along the Ocean. Last time was when I was rebuilding after an annoying hamstring tendon injury at the end of 2018, with a nice 20K run to kick 2024 off. Little did I knew that I was going to tear/break a meniscus 2 months later...

On January 1 2024 the, 80% of the trails of that park were closed after some heavy rain the week before. Agnès was off this past week so that was a great way to kick start her staycation. March has been so dry this year, a 100-year embarrassing record actually from a precipitation standpoint, nearing zero, I intended to explore the trail on the North of Highway 1, this time. Yet, I put on my road shoes (Launch) instead of trail (Pure Grit).

Although my plan was to explore the hills, I would still not want to miss the amazing ocean views you get on Ohlone Bluff Trail (besides, I can't miss something with Ohlone in its name!). At the crossing of the farms, I discovered a newly paved bike path and couldn't resist hoping on to it, oops, change of plans and direction!

The asphalt wasn't smelling anymore so it might have been spread a few days earlier but I'd say no more than a week or two. The smoothness of the asphalt gave me an urge to push the pace. I even clocked 7:01 for mile 8 when I was trying to keep up with a group of 8 cyclists.

Back to the title: border line because I didn't go quite to Davenport as Agnès was waiting for me at the car. Border line because the trail and bike path wasn't officially open. At least I wasn't the only user going through a few fences and "closed trail" signs. Border coast line with magnificent views of the ocean and secluded beaches. Last but not least, border an abandoned train line with the track still there but overtaken by vegetation.

As you can see, there are still a few miles of dirt so probably a few more months of road work ahead.

When extended and completed, this bike path is going to be quite a playground for the Santa Cruz athletes and triathletes to run long, and bike. Well, I hope the cyclists will accept to share the road. I say this because I was running on the left side, against the (forbidden) traffic and a few cyclists showed me they were upset. I have to wonder what the rules will be when the path is marked, finalized and opened. For information and maybe to the surprise of some, here is what I believe makes the most sense, the signage on a bike path on the Bay Trail, at the Ravenswood Preserve, near the Dumbarton Bridge.

More sense to me because, if a bike can't pass you when you face it, maybe if can run over you coming from behind...

15 miles overall, at an 7:37 average pace. Next time, I may run to Davenport then. Or the other trails in Wilder Ranch which I still have to explore...

MUC 50 2025: a Marin Ultra Challenge indeed!

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 06:15:00 +0000

This was a new race for me, and first time we included it in our Pacific Association USA Track & Field Mountain, Ultra, Trail Running Grand Prix this year. But UltraSignup shows results since 2012 so this has definitely become a Bay Area classic at this point. The race has seen quite a few illustrious local speedsters winning the 50-mile: Leor Pantilat won the inaugural edition in 7:26, then Kevin Lunn in 7:17, Bob Shebest in 7:06, Ryan Neely in 6:39 (CR!), Chris Mocko in 6:47, Lon Freeman 7:08, Kevin Stewart 7:05, and Jonah Backstrom in 7:29 last year, at 51! Although the cumulative elevation is only given at 10,550', the course description included the mention of a few serious steep climbs, as I'm reading afterwards... Breaking 8 was out of question but I was hoping to break 9 at least.

55 miles away, I skipped the bib pickup at San Francisco Running Company on Friday. I had planned to drive early but ended up getting at Rodeo Beach at 5:30 am and let's say I wasn't the first one to park, but it wasn't too bad. And there were already quite a few 50K runners in line to get their bib but the volunteers ended up getting the 50-milers to go first as we only had 30 minutes before the start.

It was still quite dark when we started at 6:30, I'm glad the Park Rangers actually pushed the start which was originally scheduled for 6 am. I decided to take the risk of not using a headlamp. A bit border line in the steep downhill after Hill 88 but enough light had rose once we hit Miwok, 3 miles in. And this is where my first trouble of the day started, dang! I had hesitated running in Brooks Grit (trail shoes) but I had checked with Gary Gellin who was marking part of the course on Friday and confirmed the trails were dry. I had checked the course succinctly and assumed that was going to be the traditional fire roads or groomed trail, except for the short Dipsea section. So I opted for a pair of Brooks Launch instead (road shoes). Except that I grabbed quite an old pair which I've used for trail running at our IBM site (Silicon Valley Lab) for a couple of years, and also for my successful Cool Moon 100-mile last year. With more than 1,000 km logged in them, I knew they were mature, but I had forgotten about a key detail: a hole in the outer sole/plate under the heel. As I was hammering down Miwok, passing 3 runners who were chatting, I had to switch to a very unusual stride for me, landing on my toes to avoid the sharp pain after a large pebble lodged itself in that hole and was hurting every time I was landing on my heel. I thought of stopping at the next aid station to get rid of it but, of course, on the next miles up to Conzelman, I wasn't putting too much weight on my heel, and I forgot about the pain so I decided to skip the stop, not to loose precious minutes.

On the way down to Tennessee, same thing, the rock wouldn't move, Actually, a few additional smaller pebbles even found their way around, in the shoe. Again, I didn't want to lose time so I didn't stop at Tennessee Valley either, as I was carrying two bottles and a handful of gels. I didn't know at that time, but from the splits, I was in 15th overall at Conzelman and 13th at Tennessee.

I kept the good pace up Tennessee Valley Trail, along with two other younger runners, one with poles. When I read 2 days before the race that poles were allowed, I thought "pff, who needs poles on the runnable fire roads of the Marin Headlands?" Well, read on, I was going to change my mind before the mid point... Anyway, I carefully followed them going down Pirate Cove, avoiding two falls after tripping, phew!

I passed one of these runners before Muir Beach so I was now in 11th place (again, without knowing it). And the big pebble was still hurting my heel in all the downhill sections. After running all the switchbacks of Heather Cutoff (phew!), I arrived at the Cardiac aid station just behind two other runners. This time I took 3 minutes to get all the pebbles off my right shoe and that big hole. Well, with all the rocks and dust on the trail, that only worked for a couple of miles but the first mile on that section of the legendary Dipsea trail felt like a bliss, the pain was gone. If only for a few minutes.

Maybe I wasn't drinking enough, or it was about the changed stride, my left hamstring started cramping in Steep Ravine, how convenient at mile 21, with 29 to go! I took an extra S!Caps and resumed running; it worked, phew! And I even caught another runner just before Willow Camp. Another with poles and who told be: "that must be the start of the big climb." Again, I had quickly checked the course and didn't notice we were going back up on Mount Tamalpais on a trail that I didn't know, Willow Camp Fire Road, which is more of a single track than a fire road. But more importantly, steep, as I know read in the course description: "Depart Stinson Beach with the 1,800′ of vertical gain in 1.8 miles on Willow Camp and traverse Mt. Tam along the single-track Coastal Trail, back to the top of Cardiac." Ouch, I was not at all mentally prepared for this, and completely disoriented to run on a new trail, after these 2 decades of racing in Marin Headlands. Now the poles were making much more sense, this section had some Alpine flavors!

I had stopped for a few minutes at the bottom of the hill, at Willow Camp, to refill my bottles and take some calories in, so it took me almost 2 miles to catch Darren Partyka again. Darren shared that he was mostly training for his upcoming Cocodona 250-mile in May, then Bad Water in July, and quite a few other key races before and in between, wow! We traded places until our return to the Cardiac aid station, where I left ahead as he stopped by the porta-potty.

After this big climb up to Cardiac, I really enjoyed another new trail for me, the TCC Trail. Slightly downhill, smooth, under the shade of the redwoods, a bliss! And because it was a gentle downhill, the new rock in my sole wasn't hurting too much. Well, short respite before we turned onto Bootjack Trail: yikes, I felt transported to the tricky section of French Trail on the other side of the Bay and my tired legs, plus my fear of falling after a few accidents (not to mention age for a change), stopped me in my track. It was super nice to descend along a running creek but I had hard time negotiating the high and irregular rocky steps, in between roots. I was just thinking of how fast I used to be in such technical sections, 30 and 20 years ago, and imagined the leaders flying down there. This time, it was a painful and slow hike down.

I got passed twice in that section, and 3 times in the next climb on Ben Johnson Trail. So long for breaking 9 hours, and I started thinking that even 10 hours were now out of reach. Yet, I clocked 9 minutes on the mile down on Deer Park fire road, to the Deer Park aid station. I got some ice in my bottles, down there, and a few slices of water melon (yummy!). Before the next climb, I realized I hadn't taken care of the rock in my sole so I stopped at the next creek to remove it. I was border cramping, someone would have had a good laugh at seeing me trying to tie my shoes... It took a few minutes...

While it was cool to get back on Miwok Trail, for the souvenirs of my 11 Miwok races, the climb and subsequent downhill to Muir Beach wasn't pleasant at all; I forced myself to keep jogging what I could, and power walk the rest, as there were still 10 miles to go after that aid station, including the last two climbs. After Muir Beach, I caught up with Max Kam from Excelsior, who also had a rough patch, after keeping up with the leaders in the first part of the race.

I was disappointed that Tennessee didn't have any ice, but encouraged seeing the sign indicating 4.6 miles to the finish, when my GPS was only showing 44.4 miles. There was that good news to rekindle my motivation, to the point that I managed to jog even a few uphill sections, and hammer down the last mile to the finish, despite the sharp pain in my heel at every other step.

I crossed the finish line in a time of 9:20:56. 6 seconds behind Guillaume Tremintin who, being used to see me finish ahead normally, turned to me, thinking that I had gotten back on the course to pace someone else. I only wish, I was just happy to be done, once and for all! ;-) And, yes, finishing 22nd overall, I had a bad day, but all things considered, I was still the first among the older 60+ guys. Now, granted, age isn't a great excuse: after his overall win last year, Jonah had only placed 2nd this time, in 7:35:04. First place was Reed Breuer in 7:18 this time.

I very rarely make a shoe selection mistake, but that was a good one. Well, a bad one although that didn't completely derailed my race, at least. To back this whole report up, here are a few pictures of that hole. Actually, in addition to the puncture in the midsole which existed before the race, the one in the insole/sockliner was new. What 50 miles would do to your feet, and 800+ miles to your shoes...

When I was driving back home, I was thinking that I'll stop there with illustrations, that there will likely not be anything to show beyond these holes. Well, my heel got quite a free 9-hour deep massage, but bruised pretty bad too... With a visual mark and proof... (and, no, it's not a patch of dirt, this is after a shower!)

Would the expression "hitting rock bottom" be appropriate here? ;-) No, no, it could have been way worse. In addition to finishing, the thing I'm the most proud of is not falling. Probably the worst would have been in the stairs down to the road crossing at Pantoll. I was close behind Darren but I think I would have died before hitting and pushing him from behind. By chance, after tripping, I was able to recover and avoid falling on my face by speeding up my leg cadence and fly down these stairs like I had never ran these as fast before! There were about a handful of other tripping occurrences but that was the shortest call.

A day has passed and it has been years since I've experienced such painful soreness in my quads and hamstrings so maybe that was a great training run after all. I mean, maybe that workout is going to contribute to rebuilding some muscle mass and strength. And mental. Less than 2 months before Quicksilver 100K, no time to waste!

Pacific Association wise, there were a few individuals from Excelsior, SRA Elite, Quicksilver, but I'm afraid Pamakids may be the only club raking any point in the team competitions. On one of the few 1.5-factor events of the year, no less!

What a course that was, such a spread across the majestic and grandiose Marin Headlands, similar to the span of the Miwok course, crossing several park administrations and juridictions. And all the gorgeous views, I would have taken more than a hundred pictures if I had run with my phone! The ocean, the bay, the beaches, the sun rise, the conga line of headlamps at the start, the redwoods, the grassy hills, a couple of snakes, the flowers, ... Short of pictures, the post is drier than usual. To make up for the lack of race-related pictures, I drove up to Point Bonita to catch a few views of the City by the Bay, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the South part of the Marin Headlands overseeing SF.

Actually, as a bonus, here is a lone coyote which was completely unfazed by the crowd and traffic on his usually quiet playground, which I caught passing along the busy parking lot as I was leaving at 5 pm. (A Coyote in the Marin Headlands, that may trigger back memories of an interrupted 100-mile race in 2022 for some...)

Where the waters of the San Francisco Bay Area and Pacific Ocean meet, at Point Bonita (near the Potato Patch Shoal or, more officially, Four Fathom Bank)

The gorgeous green Marin Headlands

Cupertino Big Bunny 5K 2026: that one on Coros!

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 01:06:00 +0000

That was race #390 in my log, which includes 210 ultras like 85 50Ks, but it was only my 23rd 5K: I see some room for an aging runner! :-) That was also my 10th participation to this event since 2002, not counting 2 Cupertino Heroes 5K in 2016 and 2017. 2002, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13, 25 and 26. It's literally on the same block I live so the logistics is really easy for that one. It even allowed me to finish watching France-Scotland until the end at 8 am! (For those who don't follow, that would be the 4th round of the 6 Nations rugby tournament.) Last year I was back in shape after my meniscus issue which got me off running for 7 months in 2024 but at least I was uplifted by watching the French win their game. This year, they finally lost for the first time, so I had to revert back to my own spirit. And my GPS watch.

I still have to write my race report of the 100-mile Nationals in Vegas 2 weeks ago. The past 2 weeks haven't been so great for running. Last week I shared that I spent Saturday on mushy snow at Royal Gorge. Before that, I even hurt my lower back by carrying a 100-lb box. And I got an ear infection after Royal Gorge. With that, I had run only 51 miles since that 100-mile race and still felt quite tired. So much that I took Friday off, hoping that would freshen my legs enough for a faster pace.

I got to the start line at 8:25 and it was already packed with really young kids. Who, like every year, struggled for air before the first turn, 200 yards in. I got two scares approaching that first corner because, mind you, when these kids can't keep up, they typically change direction, or lane, yikes! Anyway, it was a good start overall, no fall, and I settled in 10th place, 400 yards in, phew!

On Blaney, I closed on a runner who had told me before the start that he wasn't 60 yet (that would Ahmet Gokcek, #1578). But we got passed by a runner (#1226) wearing noisy carbon plates and, more importantly, having grey hair, so I was worried about my age group. That led me to push harder and not let him go too far ahead. With that, my Coros watch gave me a 5:59 split for the first mile, not too bad (I PR'ed on the marathon with a 6:01 average pace but that was 23 years ago... With my focus on ultra running, even sub 7-minute miles are rare.)

I was able to close the small gap before the end of the second mile and kept pushing. I was now in 4th, only seeing 3rd place ahead. On the Suisun Drive stretch, passed 2.5 miles, I suddenly felt deep in the red zone and had to ease on the gas pedal, creating a bigger gap with 3rd. At the turn on Fallone Drive, I looked behind and saw a runner not too far behind but what still looked like a safe margin for the remaining third of a mile. Well, I finished 2 seconds ahead in the results, that was a close call. (Thank you for the pics on the course, Agnès!)

I crossed the finish with a time of 18:28, 4th overall, 2nd Masters, 1st M60. And why did I plug Coros in the title? Because, at the beginning of the week, I incidentally noticed that Coros was forecasting 18:47 for the distance. Pretty close, not to mention the course was on the short side, with 3.06 on my watch. Good news is that they also lowered their marathon forecast down to 3:01:27: still quite some work to keep rebuilding leg muscles but there is hope for getting back to my "law" of running a marathon in 2 hours plus my age in minutes (that would be 3:02...). Anyway, I like pushing to see if I can prove Coros wrong, nice physical and mental push!

The race was won by Raphael Serrano again, in 16:27. He won the 2024 edition in 16:43. Another Cupertino resident and quite a fixture of this race, Jonathan Kimura, 45, placed 2nd in 16:57 (2nd in 2025 in 16:31, 3rd in 2024 with 16:57, 2nd in 2023 with 16:33, and a win in 2022 with 16:47, amazing regularity!). 3rd place was Justin Pham, 28, in 17:48. Jon on the left, Raphael in yellow:

That 5th place runner, right behind me, was Everett Jou, 15, with a time of 18:30. He did beat me last year with a time of 18:51. He had just turned 14 at the end of March 2024 while already running under 20 minutes (19:58). I wouldn't bet too much on me beating him next year, the youths are phenomenal at this race!

Bib 1226 was Bo Li, 55, who finished in 6th place, 8 seconds behind Everett. Ahmet was mere 8 seconds behind for 8th overall. Competitive M50 age group this year!

All results were promptly posted by SVE Timing thanks to chip timing. Previous years' results are available on the Cupertino website, back to 2013.

Before the award ceremony, I went back on the course to run a second loop in 20:50 (6:42 pace). Then, after the awards, race an easy half marathon at 7:45 min/mile, in the neighborhood. And the bunny was finally tired... ;-)

I love this lowkey race on my block and my training backyard. Such a refreshing change of pace and emulation which keeps us on our toes. They were several years which conflicted with my 7 Boston marathons, less conflicts nowadays that the event got moved earlier in March, and before Easter. Special thanks to the city and Parks & Rec team which put this event up, year after year. Was great to see almost 600 entrants, with many smiles at the finish! Hope to see you all again next year then, you got this!

In Helen and Norm Klein's honor!

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 05:55:00 +0000

No, no, no, I didn't write in memoriam in the title, both are well alive! Agnès was attending and presenting at the California Language Teacher Association conference in Sacramento this week, so I had some time for myself to celebrate my birthday. My big goal was to finally do my first snowshoe race on Sunday morning in South Lake Tahoe. The Sierras got an amazing amount of snow last weekend but it then warmed up and it rained on Tuesday and Wednesday. The temperature kept raising for the rest of the week, jeopardizing much of that fresh snow. I contacted the race directors on Friday evening and they confirmed that a snowshoe version was unlikely, that they may have to switch back to a trail race instead. But 4 hours of driving for a 5K trail race didn't make it worth for me so, instead, I decided to drive to Royal Gorge on Saturday morning for some XC skiing instead. More on this later in this post. On the way back, I wanted to see if I could stop by Norm and Helen Klein's to see how they were doing.

After running ultra marathons since 2006, I still consider myself a newbie in that sport which had been going strong throughout the last century. And with that, I have a lot of respect for the athletes who preceded us on our local trails in particular. Some of them were actually done with competing but remained actively involved through volunteering or race directing (e.g., Norm Klein). Some even gave their names to key races (e.g., Ruth Anderson, Dick Collins and... Helen Klein!).

Helen was born in 1923 and, yes, this isn't a typo, that makes her 103 years old. She started running at 55 and she would end up putting her mark on the Long Distance Running Masters history by setting world records in the marathon for ages such as 80 and 85 (a whopping total of 75 national and world records). She ran 90 marathons and quite a few ultra marathons too (she shows 102 results on UltraSignup, including 11 100-mile races, but this article mentions 143 ultras). She has been inducted in the USA Track & Field Masters' Hall of Fame.

Norm has run many ultra marathons too (28 results on UltraSignup including Western States 1984) but, when I started, his main fame was to direct classics such as Last Chance 50-mile, Rio del Lago 100-mile, and the Helen Klein Classic 50-miler, all along the American River, close to their home in Rancho Cordova. The main memory I kept from these events was Norm's toughness toward the runners, but it was his friendly way to challenge us to test our limits. When I took 2nd at Rio del Lago 2008, I also remember him instructing I receive an IV right after the finish... And the awards at his races were also particularly memorable!

Long story short, the number I had for Helen and Norm was discontinued so I activated a few ultra connections, to no avail on Saturday evening. This Sunday morning, I decided to take my (Last...) chance and drive to Rancho Cordova. To my good surprise, I was delighted to see Norm opening his door, and wearing a Western States volunteer t-shirt like he was waiting for me! Unfortunately, we stay on his door step as he shared he was tied-up, taking care of Helen who had recently returned from yet another trip to the hospital. A couple of years ago, they were running together when she tripped on the trail and broke her hip. A few weeks ago, she fell again at home and broke 3 ribs. And fell again a few days ago. The challenge of aging at home... He offered I stop by again, but with more notice. Next time I also hope to get a tour of the backyard, and hear Norm share his passion for cactuses! The front yard is already so impressive! (See Gerhard Bock's extensive post.)

Needless to say, I didn't see Helen this time. She and Norm needs all our prayers, thoughts and best wishes!

Still, reassured that they were still at home, I parked at the nearby Sunrise Park area for an 8-mile run along the river. Not much of a distance to brag about but, including a couple of sub 7 min miles and a few stops for pictures, that's all the time I had before the hotel check-out time and attending the end of Agnès presentation.

Running this section along the American River brought back so many memories from the races I named above, plus American River 50 and Folsom Lake 100K. My 5:43 PR at Last Chance 50-mile, thanks to the friendly emulation with Victor (Ballesteros). Rio del Lago which was my 2nd 100-miler, after Western States in 2007. Miles run during the day or at night. In the sun or the rain. With Folsom Lake being dangerously low, or full like it is today. Ultra memories of all the crews and volunteers helping us along...

Quite a special day to celebrate! I missed the opportunity to finally do a snowshoe race, and on my special day but, global warming permitting, there will be other years.

Now, what's up with snowshoeing? 2 years ago, Jason Reed, after a couple of unsuccessful years, convinced me to buy a pair of racing snowshoes, hoping I will like it so I could join him at one of the world championships which he has attended himself for a few years. That was early 2024, a few weeks before I tore/cut one of my left meniscus... right on my 60th birthday! Needless to say, with 7 months off running after that, the snowshoes remained in the garage.

No more, they finally hit the snow. Not really fresh snow as temperatures were in the 50s on Saturday, but snow anyway. After 8 miles of XC skiing, I went back on the trails for a 5K in snowshoes. To be honest, I found it exhausting: not sure if it was the nature of the snow, heavy and wet slush, or the elevation (7,000 feet), or being tired because of the faded XC skiing skills, I had to alternate running and walking for a pace between 12 and 14 min/mile, yikes! Granted, the trail included a few climbs, but still. I'll have to practice more. At least I was really pleased with the stability of the snowshoes, I only hit my ankles a handful of times.

By the way, Carol, the Race Director of that Fresh Track 5K race, emailed me on Saturday evening that they had managed to mark a 5K course in deep, not groomed, snow. Advising to do it with poles and even a buddy to get you back on your feet in case of fall. That didn't seem as close as snowshoe racing as I had imagined so I did pass on the invite this time. It will be on February 28 next year.

74 people posted good wishes on my Facebook wall this weekend, I wanted to write this up as a reply to all, short of replying individually to all, tonight. Hoping Helen and Norm share many more of their own birthdays together, what an honor to know them, such an inspirational and legendary ultra couple!

PS: oh, and in our small and connected ultra world, see who was working at Royal Gorge, Diana Fitzpatrick!

Jed Smith 50K 2026: how much gas in the tank?

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 02:40:00 +0000

ARNOLPHE - Quelle nouvelle?
AGNÈS - Le petit chat est mort.
ARNOLPHE - C'est dommage : mais quoi !
Nous sommes tous mortels, et chacun est pour soi.

These are part of the first lines of Molière's L'école des femmes. For my non French-speaking buddies and readers, it basically means that, Agnès being asked how things are doing, what are the news, she mentions that the young cat has died. With Arnolphe then dismissing the importance of it because we are all mortals after all, and should first care of ourselves. Or, more exactly, our self.

Kiwi, our 18-year cat, died at home on Friday. She was incredibly perfect from the day we adopted her as she was one year old: affectionate, docile, sociable, playful. No drama, no scratching of our stuff, she always used her toys to sharpen her claws. I've known a few cats, all having a way to remind you who was in control. Not Kiwi. She leaves a big hole at home. I've been raised in a family where, in line with the above excerpt from Molière, pets were just animals and it was more important to care about our fellow humans, including ourselves. Confusing feelings about the deep love we grew for Kiwi...

Yes, she loved the Miwok fleece blanket!

And teasing me, here by bombing a post Fat Ox picture setup: way to capture attention! ;-)

Anyway, between this loss and insane negative stress at work, not to mention the country and world news, my tank was almost on empty on Friday afternoon. I still found the courage to carboload as usual before an ultra, but the mind wasn't there. And I managed to sleep for 7 hours before a 4am wake-up call, that helped refill with some gas.

As much as we advise not to try anything new on race day, and that was going to by my 387th race, I felt the urge to brew a mug of coffee for my ride, for some mental boost. I've started enjoying coffee only 2 years ago --it was about time, wasn't it?-- but not taking any before a race yet. In his detailed race analysis, elite 100-miler Zach Bitter details the calorie count of course, but also caffeine. Given the circumstances, I felt it wasn't going to kill me then.

I got to the start by 7:15a, just in time to get the last convenient parking spot, phew! The vibe was building up for the 50-mile start at 7:30. New this year, a 100K format was added to the already rich spectrum of distances, to give Billy Mertens an opportunity to improve the M55-59 American Record. From Colorado, Billy is a Jed Smith regular and 3 of his 4 current records were set here. In 2017, one year after Rich Hana and I improved the 32-old M50-54 record for 50K --for me, despite experiencing a mini-stroke 1 mile from the finish, at the Nationals on Long Island, NY-- I even helped put Billy onto orbit so he could decrease the record to 3:16:29 in 2017 (Michael Wardian lowered it to 3:13:32 last year).

With that, this year's distances were staged along 3 start times: 100K and 50M at 7:30, 50K and Marathon at 8:30, and 30K and Half-Marathon at 9:30. The design of our 50K course comes with a special perk, passing the marathon mark right at the end of the 5th of 6 laps. This way, the chip timing company can issue us an official and certified marathon time which can be used as a Boston Qualifier.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, at least over the past 6 months, you know that 2025 was a rebuild year after being 7 months off running with a torn/broken meniscus in 2024. Since coming back, I've always worked hard to prove Coros wrong about their prediction for my marathon time. Initially around 3:15, they lowered it to 3:09 a few weeks ago, phew! And I still felt I could beat that. For one thing, when I was focusing on marathons, I established my own law (not Moore's one about computer chip performance), stating that I should be able to run a marathon in 2 hours plus my age in minutes. At least before the hockey stick which physiology experts place around 70 years old, when you switch to another linear and much steeper degradation of performance and fitness with age. Now, granted, my law didn't take into account injuries, and the loss of muscle mass when stopping for a few months...

As I mentioned, we started with the marathon runners so I wasn't sure exactly who was running what, despite wearing different bibs and crossing everybody in the initial 1-mile out and back. Elite international marathoner Ian Sharman was at the top of the UltraSignup ranking in our entrant list. He was running really smooth and easy, in the lead on that first mile. I got chicked by Jessy Herring right off the bat and ran the first 3 miles in Victor Skorapa's footsteps (Excelsior), in 6th place.

In the 4th mile, I could feel my glutes well engaged and somehow them telling me to ease up but the breathing was good and I felt the urge to keep the pace as close to 7 min/mile as possible. It was exciting to clock a few miles as fast as 6:52 but each were a reminder to ease up a bit and not getting ahead of myself. I was running on my own by mile 5. As usual, I was carrying 2 bottles, one with water, one with GU Energy Brew so I didn't have to stop. I also had S!Caps (one every hour) and a couple of GU gels. My first stop was at the end of lap 3, mile 16.5, to ingest a serving of Vespa Power. I wasn't drinking much so I didn't even have to grab my other bottles, pre-filled at the car. (Photos credit: Joe McCladdie)

On the 4th lap, I was closing on Sergey Vasyliev (also Excelsior) and that helped remaining focused, although I was determined not to accelerate to chase him. Needless to say, the legs were feeling a bit tired at that average 7:00 min/mile pace, and I didn't need to crash that early. Certainly not before the marathon point since that had become my main goal for today given the perfect conditions and momentum. I did a brief stop at the end of that 4th loop to grab an extra gel, drop my hat, and I lost a few seconds and yards to Sergey.

But I was amazed at how fast I was still moving, when I had a hard time maintaining a 7:15 min/mile during two 25K track workouts in January; there is certainly something to say about the special excitement and motivation on race days! On the 5th loop, I could see Sergey in the distance, closing on Jessy, but I had just enough gas in the tank to still run miles under 7:15, not 7:00 anymore. Jessy must have slowed down because I almost caught up with her before we got to mile 26. As a matter of fact, as I was sprinting down the steep access road at the park entrance, I placed my left foot outside the asphalt and rolled my ankle, what a stupid move to try to save fractions of a second by getting too close to the turn... Thankfully it wasn't too bad, I barely felt it while running 15K this Sunday morning, one day after.

While I would have been delighted to break 3:02 right away to embarrass or challenge Coros' analytics, I was still super happy to clock 3:05:46 for that intermediary marathon. To be fair, I had run the 5th loop as if I was going to still run hard in the final loop, not like it was the marathon finish. So maybe I do have 3:02 in me for my 62 (in a month). For now, based on the myriad of metrics they capture with their watch, Coros lowered its prediction to 3:04:42 as I write this report, there is that to show some progress and improvement. And some hope!

In all fairness, my motivation to push hard decreased on that final lap and I started feeling some cramping coming too in my tired legs. While I'm super proud that my 21 first miles were under 7:15 (11 under 7 actually), the last ones were 7:33, 7:30, 7:37, 7:46, 7:49, 7:57, it was time to get to a close... I crossed the finish line in a time of 3:43:19, a 7:12 min/mile pace. With that, I didn't see Jessy finish, 1'25" ahead, and she was 53" behind Sergey. Upfront and far ahead, the race was won by Blake Furman of Pennsylvania (3:21:42), followed by Ian, now based in Oregon, in 3:26:35. Another Exclesior, Karl Schnaitter came in 5th in the Men, followed by Victor, respectively in 3:58 and 3:59.

At 59, Verity Breen took 2nd in 4:14:35!

I stayed for 2 more hours to see others finish their race, and also work on my tank again. I mean fluid and calorie wise. Indeed, as much as I'm still relying so much on Vespa and therefore, energy coming from my fat, I dangerously played with physiological limits that Saturday. On the fluid side, I didn't even drink all my GU Brew bottle, when I used to drink one every 15 miles. And same thing on the water side. I took 3 S!Caps as planned, but only 3 gels, which is on the low side. And I didn't stop at any aid station otherwise. Things could have gotten worse in the final laps...

I left by 2:15, seeing Billy stop at the portapotty then changing shoes. I saw later in the afternoon that he managed to clock 8:05:32, when the current record was set by another of our local runners, Thomas Reiss, at 8:28:11. That new mark should stand for some time!

In the 50 miles, two particularly remarkable marks on the men side with Anthony Fagundes winning in a blazing 5:24:00 (6:29 min/mile!), and Eric Neill in 5:46:56. And, on the women side, Bev Anderson-Abbs keeping doing her thing, winning overall in an impressive 7:01:30. At 61!

That was my 85th 50K race. After the 2024 incident, I'm so grateful to still be able to run and race again. Still missing the sub 3:20 times of 10 years ago, but we can't have everything, right? Since coming back from the meniscus injury it has been 4:04:17 at Jed Smith last year, 3:51:19 at the Mad City 50K Road Nationals, 3:46:35 at Ruth Anderson, then 3:43:19 today. Enough for me to be foolish again and dreaming of getting under 3:40, at least... But it's going to require a lot more work, again and always...

Speaking of work, I teased Ian that I likely worked harder than him. Just the way he appears to run effortless. He disagreed and, to his credit, he is also back from injury (Achilles). We'll see in 20 years. Fun fact: Ian is going to score points not only in our PA Grand Prix (sorry Sergey...) but also for our Quicksilver team (sorry Shiran!). Because he hasn't switched his membership and club affiliation since moving to Bend.

Also on our Quicksilver team, Liz too 7th in the women division (4:45), and Charles 22nd in the men (5:45).

Quick chat with Gary Towle, MD, who has been on the Western States Board of Directors since 1982 (44 years and counting)! I didn't know, Gary is a big fan and voted for my "older guys" performances in the UltraRunning Magazine rankings.

While I didn't have the time to stop at the intermediary aid station to thank them, that was quite a youthful crew which spent the day helping us out: thank you! Thank you to the course monitors spending hours at the key turns and intersections of the course, and the lead bikers. Thank you to the volunteers at the check-in table in the early morning.

Thank you to those manning the busy start/end area aid station. Thank you to all the volunteers working behind the scene to make this Buffalo Chips event another success. For 45 years and counting! And even without interruption through the pandemic, thanks to John Feeney, Race Director. John who we honored for his 10 years at the helm of this race, last week, at our Pacific Association MUT 2025 Volunteer of the Year (more on this award in my upcoming/next blog post, shortly).

Back to the title, I hesitated with "when impatience pays off" given the inconsiderate initial push of the pace, early in the race. Or "the fruits of hard work and persistence" to relate to the hard work at the track these past months, as well as the importance to keep showing up even when you don't feel good enough. But with the current events and societal changes when they aren't for the better, I see so many people leaving these so-called social media to recharge their empty tank, feeling exhausted and hopeless. So, yes, let's focus on what allows to recharge. And, for me, racing, a good test to feel better, and show that there may be more than what we are thinking is left on our tank.

PS: more pictures

No Hands Half 2025: good resolutions not always enough!

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 19:12:00 +0000

Attempting to write a same-day report on this Saturday evening, but not feeling confident it's going to work. After waking up at 3 am, after more than 5 hours of driving in relatively heavy traffic on the way back, after 3 hours catching up and chatting with other Pacific Association runners, and eventually some hilly running for a couple of hours, it has been a busy day and I wonder why I feel rather tired... Not helping is that I don't have much pictures yet to illustrate. But giving it a try anyway.

Today marked a return to our 2025 MUT season starter with the No Hands Trail Half in Auburn, aka the world capital of endurance. We had a reasonable success last year for a first inclusion in our Grand Prix with 41 individuals and 8 teams scoring. We'll see what the scoring shows this year: while Pamakids came in force again with 24 members, Excelsior should score 2 teams, Tamalpa and Lake Merritt, one each, I'm afraid we'll come short compared to last year.

Like last year, the weather was great, at least it wasn't raining. The way the start line is set provides an ideal perspective with the sunrise, at the time the 50K and 35K start (7:30, whereas the half starts at 8 am).

A few major differences from last year, weather wise. First, it was much colder this year, just a few degrees above freezing. But no wind at least. Second, it had rained a lot a week ago, with heavy wind in some canyons. Thanks to the dry week, there wasn't too much mud or water on the trail. A couple of fallen trees though.

As I was warming up on a nearby trail, I ran into the local 200+ miler legend, and Quicksilver teammate, Martin Sengo (I would see him again at the No Hands Bridge aid station on the way out).

I thought I was slightly better positioned for the start yet the first section felt slow as we formed a mini conga line through the first 1.5 mile. As I was picking up the pace on the first fire road, with two runners close behind, I badly twisted my right ankle, the foot twisting so much that the external malleolus touched the ground, yikes! It used to happen a lot when I was running more in the mountains and I found that the best treatment is to keep running while the ankle is warm so I kept going and pretending nothing happened. And it worked again, phew!

Sam Cooper, from the Pamakids, passed me before No Hands and we traded places up on the grueling K2. We caught up with another runner, and passed him, along with a dozen of 35K and 50K runners. After K2, we passed more runners on the flatter section and I could see the lead gal ahead but was unable to narrow the gap. I wasn't in the same combative spirit as last year when I was running that tough course for the first time --I've run these trails many times, but not as a half. Without a reference last year, I just wanted to finish under 2 hours. A goal I almost hit, if it wasn't to discover that the course is closer to 13.7 if not 13.8 miles... getting me to miss that mark by 6 minutes last year. I was still rebuilding after my 7-month meniscus tear break in 2024; this year, after a strong 2025, I was hoping to hit 2 hours then. It felt like a good and reasonable resolution, not a wild dream...

As I was carefully trying to navigate a tricky rocky section going down the Western States Trail after Cool, I got passed by a flying runner. I used to be really fast in technical downhills but I'm too scared now, not being as agile as I used to be, and having taken some bad falls, here and in the Alps. Besides, without the presence of Cliff (Lentz) and Brian (Sterling) this year, and no other M60 on the entrants list with high UltraSignup scores, I didn't feel the urge or need to kill myself to win my age group this year. Also, now knowing the difficult of the last miles, I already knew, before returning to No Hands Bridge, that I wouldn't break 2 hours for sure this year.

With the loss of motivation, I must have slowed down more and Sam passed me before the No Hands Bridge aid station. Then William Dai around mile 11 on the Riverview Trail, to his surprise to caught up with me. William is so caring for all of us, he got quite concerned for me, that something was really off. Out of gas, I struggled in the last climb and crossed the finish line in a time of 2:12:41, versus 2:06:25 last year. I was already disappointed last week, albeit less surprised given the lack of fitness, I was border upset this year. But again, with all the walking, it's a fair time. As a matter of facts, only 5 broke 2 hours this time with Excelsior sweeping the podium: David Tran, 1:46:45, Spencer Hoffman, 1:46:50 and Max Kam, 1:55:10! Plus Karl Schnaitter placing 6th.

Age group wise, I was quite surprised to discover I only took 2nd. I haven't met Drew Coughlin too often, congrats to him for a great run on his local trails, clocking 2:10:24. Ahh, these 6 minutes I didn't have in me this time... But great to have good age group competition right off the bat in 2026!

Last year, Shiran was taking pictures of all us as he was too much in pain with damaged knees. A year later I returned the favor as he is fully back with two bionic knees! Impressive and inspiring resilience!

As the sun was bathing the finish area, I spent 2.5 hours catching up with other Pacific Association members. And that allowed us to cheer other finishers coming in. With Shiran, and Charlene, our MUT 2024 Volunteer of the Year, just after her finish (she took second to Carol Preisig of Tamalpa in the W70 age group).

I didn't stop at any aid station but special thank you to the volunteers there, as well as the course monitors posted at several critical turns. Speaking of which, I have to apologize profusely to one 50K runner whom I thought had missed a turn as we were running on the Cool plateau, thinking they should have gotten on the blue ribbons after K2 (my bad for still not getting that blue ribbons mean "bad" with Inside Trails Racing, versus more classical stripped or dotted ribbons with other organizations). I hope I didn't derail his race...

Thank you to the other volunteers at the check-in table, and the finish, and those working behind the scene. And thank you to Race Director, Craig, for being everywhere and doing everything, including some cooking!

Excellent sunny way to start the season. As a reminder, we (USATrack&Field Pacific Association) have two distinct MUT (Mountain, Ultra, Trail) series this year: that was the first of 6 events in the SHORT one (6 sub-ultra trail races). In 3 weeks, we start the LONG one with Jed Smith 50K, first of 9 events. Details in my December blog announcement. See you at many of these races then!

Phidippides USATF Award: last call to claim some Masters fame!

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 05:46:00 +0000

This is only for the mature running audience, aka Masters, above 40, and members of the national USATF (Track & Field) association, in good standing.

If you've run a few races in the US in 2025, this January is the last month for you to claim your Phidippides award, aka Pheidippides. Assuming you are still collecting hardware, and I know not everybody is. Speaking of plaques, I was asked this week why I was still collecting them and, even more importantly, what I was going to do with all them? That got me to think of an idea: since that's wood, why not use them to build a coffin?!! LOL as they say... At least that could make for a cool addition and decorum. Because, granted, I don't see my kids interested in keeping these in a museum!

Anyway, to me this award is quite special: with its name, it feels like we are a small part of the famous Phidippides legend and legacy. And I also like the special attention and consideration for the older age.

As a procrastinator myself, I've waited until this thirteenth month in the past, only to miss the deadline three times over the past 17 years. And it's not that I even needed the points through the Fall to qualify, excess points don't make a difference.

If you run ultras, you'll quickly reach one of the requirements and there is really no gain in waiting for the year to end. As a matter of fact, once you turn 60, the requirements are even 20 to 25% lower. After 80, thresholds are 40 to 25% of the Masters level. But not an excuse to wait until you turn 80, thinking it might get easier...

This past year I submitted 6 races for a Gold plaque in April, to get it done early. Award #13.

Your call to apply but, if so, don't wait for February, just do it now!

A new year. A new starting line. A new track.

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 02:24:00 +0000

I have mixed feelings about switching years. I've gone through a lot of change, including living and working in several countries, and benefited a lot from it. But I don't like the change for the sake of change as I've seen some leaders over doing at work. I much prefer the "if it ain't broken, don't fix it!" principle and adage.

In sales, a new year means all the counters get reset and you have to start from scratch on a new quota. For me as a runner, it's also pretty much that game as, like many others, I keep track of a bunch of yearly statistics in my log. Distance, time, number of races, number of ultras, mileage for each pair of shoes, average pace, deltas with previous year's marks, number of log entries, race entry fees, ... Short of leveraging a coach, I'd better get organized to monitor myself...

With that, all the yearly counters got to zero on the morning of New Year's Day. For 8 of my top years, I was able to get to 3,100 miles, an average of 100 km a week, by early December, early enough to take a refreshing 3-week break, following an advice and habit I got from Scott Jurek upon getting into ultra running. Last year, still easing up after the meniscus injury of 2023, I finished with 4,600 kilometers (2,860 miles) but with only 4 days to spare. Hopefully the lower weekly mileage will count toward resting then...

It was supposed to rain all day on this first day of the year but we got some lucky and welcomed lull at the end of the morning. I wanted to start the year with a bang, running 50K, although I was a bit hesitant of holding on for 4 hours in the rain. A short sun shine did help with the motivation to toe a new start line for 2026.

Agnès loves that we start the year running our first mile together, this is a very sweet and lovely tradition indeed! And so we did!

With that start on the right foot, and only partial drizzle, I managed to run 50K indeed. A solid effort, below a 7:30 min/mile average for the first 20 miles, but slowing down for a marathon close to 3:15 and a 50K just under 3:59 (not counting a few stops to refuel). Jed Smith 50K is earlier than usual this year, on 1/31, so I'd better continue working toward this milestone. Well, the grueling No Hands Half marathon in Auburn will happen next week so that will be another fitness test for the quads and hamstrings in particular. And the glutes which ended up quite sore this Friday, on a 15K recovery run.

Back to the title, what's up about the new track? Kind of old news since I already announced the opening of the resurfaced track we got back in October. What I would add though is that it has become a new test, or proof, of how much civility our society lost since I moved to the US almost 30 years ago. When you can feel it even in a place like Cupertino, you know we are going backward. Over the past months, I feel I've been the Don Quixote of that track. Not that I even come every week, but the handful of times I've come for some track work.

Last weekend, more than 50 young adults came to play flag football. While it's heartwarming to see them exercise as a group this way, the closest door to the track was closed so we had to go around the bleaches to find the only open door. Despite me telling more than a dozen of them about the open gate, they all decided to climb over the fence. Plus 20 or so older adults playing soccer that Sunday.

Feeling like the fence has traces of a herd of bulls running over it...

I've had to tell families coming on the track with their bikes that no wheels were allowed on the track. Per the rules posted at multiple places around the track, and the entrance of the campus.

Then 2 ladies walking 3 dogs, not only on the campus, but who wanted to cut through the track to save 20 yards.

The worst was the day after Christmas with 2 teens riding a powerful ebike on the track with tires equipped with huge crampons, enough to compete with a motocross bike! I didn't have my camera with me to catch that, I regret. They hesitated to comply when I asked them to stop and leave, but they must have seen my resolve.

The point is that I would hate the district has to close that amazing track on weekends. I've traveled around the world, having visited 71 countries so far, and I can assure you there isn't another place on Earth where such top quality athletics facilities are freely open to the public this way, without even anyone monitoring.

And the rules are pretty clear and posted in multiple places...

Other than these disappointing incidents, I was super impressed with the number of people on the track during the 4 hours I was there. Great to see so many good resolutioners! :-) And let's make sure we keep the track as new as possible for the next 20 years (it was originally built in 2005 and this is the first resurfacing).

Yes, let's get to log a few more miles in 2026, while we can! (*)

(*) Special thoughts for Ann Trason, the queen of ultra running in the 90s, setting multiple world records, winning Western States 14 times, who managed to log more than 100 miles over 5 days, pushing her walker as she is battling an advanced form of rheumatoid arthritis. Much inspiration and respect, Ann! For us, no more excuses not to get out of the door and keep moving and pushing the limits! (Photo source: https://www.facebook.com/aravaiparunning)

Scena Performance awards: in the shadow of true legends

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 18:30:00 +0000

I'm very grateful to Adam (Ray) for his incredible passion into balancing tradition and innovation. As a commercial trail racing organization, he is under a lot of market and industry pressure to innovate and respond to the fast-evolving changes in our trail running landscape. But Adam was also born into trail running among the birth and raise of the trail and ultra running scene in the Bay Area and North California.

Dick Collins doesn't have a wikipedia page, that makes his legend even more mysterious, spreading in our local community by words of mouth, and with his name attached to a few local traditions, like Dick Collins Firetrails 50-mile. To the new comers, that may just be a name. To those running in the 80s and 90s, a friend, a mentor, a model. (Photo from Jane Byng, in the April 1997 edition of Ultra Running Magazine)

From a running standpoint, UltraSignup has 121 races for Dick. Only 1 trophy with a 3rd place at the 1990 6-day race at Gibson Ranch (the place where Jed Smith was still held when I got into ultra running in 2006). From what I heard, Dick was all about encouraging others, not fighting for the podium or recognitions. He still managed to finish Western States 10 times between 1979 and 1991, including two silver buckles (under 24-hour) at 48 and 51. Now, reading a few tributes after he passed away at 63, I'm astonished to see that Dick ran more than 1,000 races, in a span of about 22 years! There you are for some impressive running fame and statement.

Since I never met Dick, best for me is to use words from people who ran with him.

A few days ago for instance, Mike (Palmer) posted this a couple of weeks ago on Facebook, along that picture.

If you know, you know. Dick didn't have the oversized ego that many in the sport of ultrarunning have. He cared about the participants in the races he directed and he didn't put on races to make a profit or to draw attention to himself.
He was always encouraging. Even during a race when things were going south for him he'd provide encouragement for other runners.
I miss him.

What an ultra epitaph! And such a great and timely reminder about humility...

Then read what Ann Trason has to say about her debuts in trail and ultra running, in Adam's Born in the Bay Instagram series.

After Dick Collins passed his spirit was still everywhere in the hills, the wind, the rhythm of the trails. I had absorbed his wisdom like a sponge, without even realizing it at the time. I was so lucky, so grateful. Dick taught me that running long isn't about conquering miles; it's about listening - to the trail, to the weather, to yourself. His spirit still lives out there in the East Bay, woven into every climb and turn.
If you run on Dick's trails and open yourself to it, you'll feel him too - steady, strong, reminding you to see the good, to embrace what the day gives, and to keep moving forward.

When you hear a legend and elite runner paying tribute to Dick, this way, you can get a glimpse of the size of Dick's legend. And lasting impact. (Speaking of Ann, very special thought as she has so much trouble even walking, but is still aiming at covering 100 miles with her walker and has already reached 104 km after 3 of 6 days at Across the Years. What an inspiration, that tenacity and buckle fever!)

And what about another monument of our community, Tropical John Medinger, calling Dick a giant in this tribute in UltraRunning Magazine, his words followed by as many praises from other legends, Norm and Helen Klein. 4 must-read pages and pure ultra history gems (use the right arrow in the middle of the page to turn pages and keep reading; you might need an active subscription to access though).

In many ways, Dick invented the community spirit of our ultra running community, at least in the Bay Area and North California.

Nowadays, our model for giving back is a living legend of modesty and dedication, Stan Jensen. And Stan likes to remind us that he learned from nobody else than Dick. As a true ultra runner, Stan started giving back while still running races. At aid stations, through the management of his resourceful run100s.com website, 25 years at the Marine Mammal Center in the Marin Headlands, giving blood for decades, ... Since he ran along Dick, he has given back many more hours than he spent running races himself. An inspirational model. And living legend!

As I mentioned in my little blurb that evening of December in Berkeley, the word legend brings back memories of my experience at Spartathlon. Between Pheidippides' story which is already quite blurry after centuries --to a few locals, he would have been the Athenian messenger going to Sparta to ask for help before the battle of Marathon, then back to Athens, that is 12 marathons in about 4 days, without dying, while it would have been another messenger passing out after the battle, running from Marathon to Athens-- and the Greek mythology, you run everywhere there in the shadow of many legends.

And that's kind of the image forming in my head, thanks Nano Banana for putting it into pixel. Dick didn't have any reference or model, he was just doing what felt right to him. A few got inspired by his commitment and became legends for the next generation. As numbers now multiply in an exponentially growing sport, and overwhelming age of that so-called social media, it's less about standing out, more about replicating these legends' principles and discipline, to keep their spirit and best practices alive.

To Mike's point about Dick's lack of ego, and Stan's modesty, I should stop here... Shoot, when I was going to start a short account of that nice evening celebration put by Adam's Scena. And so, for record sake, since my two-decade blog was mentioned as having some value to our ultra and trail community, documenting many races, events and running places.

It was the 10th edition of that award celebration, another cool tradition in our community. Per my earlier point, there isn't someone new at Dick or Stan's level of generosity and commitment, every year, but the idea is to highlight and recognize good will in their honor.

Over time, Adam and his award team have come up with three categories.

The Carol LaPlant award, aka The GOAT (Greater Of All Time), recognizing an individual who created a running legacy and was part of the birth of ultra running in the Bay Area.
The Christine Chapon award, aka The Frenchie, to highlight a rising star in our trail and ultra running community.
The Stan Jensen award, aka The Legend, to recognize a long history of running and service.

This year, and actually 1st year since the award was awarded to Carol last year, the GOAT went to Charles Savage. A few weeks later, we could still be listening to Charles' stories and ultra anecdotes, around the fire pit, someone had to politely take the mic back... With 20 Western States finishes for instance, or 19 Skyline 50Ks, he surely has a wealth of tips in his pocket to share! (All pictures below from Pen Perez.)

The Frenchie rising star actually went to the leaders of an organization this year: Zagdaa Baatar and Tuvshin Surbaatar, from the Nomadic Adventure Club. With a tribute to a Mongolian heritage and spirit, that organization encourages participants to get healthier on local trails. And they also give a hand by volunteering at many of our trail races in particular.

Then, in that shadow of true legends, I received the Legend award from Stan Jensen himself. I still feel ashamed of receiving way more than I give back to this community, running more events than I volunteer at in particular. Adam and Stan pointed to the work I've been doing for keeping our 30+ year-old USATF Pacific Association MUT (Mountain, Ultra, Trail running) Grand Prix tradition alive, these past 10 years, as well as these quarter century of active trail and ultra running, and almost 2 decades of blog journaling.

Special thanks to Pen (Perez) for contributing her photography talent, passion and expertise to capturing shots of that special celebration (Facebook post). To Scena for the idea and execution of this recognition program. To those who contributed to the potluck. And Sports Basement for offering their community room to host us.

You can see previous awardees on Scena's Hall of Fame/Legends page. All legends in their own right, in the shade, and light, of other legends, all creating a supportive network of good will and spirits. Cheering to the upcoming ones then, long live this tradition and this growing web of legends of all sizes, all are encouraged to join and contribute!

Time to move to 2026: the PA USATF MUT GP schedule out of the bag!

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sat, 27 Dec 2025 17:45:00 +0000

Finally. At last. At long last. We've been waiting. Better late than ever. About blooming time. The wait is over. Where was Waldo? Before pigs fly. The eagle has landed. Long overdue. At the eleventh hour.

Sincerely, if you engage in our mouthful "Pacific Association USA Track & Field Mountain, Ultra, Trail Grand Prix" I don't blame you if one or more of these statements have crossed your mind several times through the Fall. I still find a bit insane to think that this schedule starts being expected in late August or early September, at a time popular ultras were opening lotteries and filling up at cyber time, within minutes. That being said, I had promised it for late October, then late November, and we are now almost at the end of December. Not too many of you have checked in or complained, I much appreciate your patience.

Ironically, one of the reasons of the delay is I sought for help, as part of some succession planning. It's less of a secret for many now, I plan on moving back to France in a year or so, and I'm super grateful to Shiran for accepting to continuing learning the ropes. When I took over from Bill (Dodson) and Hollis (Lenderking) in 2017, I gathered a ton of notes and scribbled them, and ideas, in multiple Google docs. While I see such documentation as super valuable and would have loved to find as much when I ramped up, I realize that it also takes time to read, for busy volunteers. Anyway, I'm still around, and I enjoyed the constructive interactions through the several months lapse it took us to design and finalize the 2026 schedule. Or rather, schedules, read on.

Now, another caveat: if there is something you don't like in the choices, it's on me! At some point, I had to make a few decisions, to balance my strong attachment to our 30+ year old Grand Prix, with the many conflicting options facing us. Back in the late 90s and early 2000s, the design was really simpler: mostly the same list of iconic races, year after year, before we got spoiled with amazing events every week, nowadays.

I wrote at length about the foundational principles (anatomy of a MUT Grand Prix, in 2016, , 2018 schedule, the 2019 season plans, the cat getting out of the bag for 2020, only for the season to get aborted with the pandemic, in August, the 2022 schedule, also released at the end of December, the return to the new normal in 2023, and 2025). I will just highlight the main concepts as comments to each race, below. (Photo credit: Google's Nano Banana. Image generation is still one of my favorite uses of AI...)

With that long preamble, what's in store for 2026? Here you are, with the official page already updated on the PA website.

Highlights:

First and foremost, we are going with two series again BUT, in 2026, the series will be distinct, like they are in the Road Grand Prix. We'll still have a sub-ultra trail-only series, aka SHORT, and an ultra series, mixing road and trail formats, aka LONG.
New in 2026, teams will also be scored in the SHORT series.
New in 2026, age group winners of the SHORT series will be eligible to awards, including following year discounts, and some prize money for the age group leads.
New in 2026: all scores will count in the SHORT series since the default MUT rule is "best of 7". In the LONG series, we'll stick with best of 7 then. Minima for awards and recognitions remain at 3 scores in both series.

And the corresponding shedule...s then:

LONG / Ultra Series (best 7 of…)

1/31: Jed Smith 50K (Sacramento) | The PA club-organized and ex MUT opening tradition. Flat and fast. Rain or shine. Easy access to our Sacramento area-based membership. Note the January date (first Saturday preceding the first Sunday of February, I suppose).
3/14: Marin 50M (Sausalito) | New on our calendar, by popular demand!
5/9: Quicksilver 100K (San Jose) | PA club-organized event. And Western States qualifier.
5/16: Silver State 50K (Reno) | A PA club-organized event.
6/13: SF Half Day (San Francisco) | This was the toughest choice. I'm a big proponent of exploring all MUT formats and, a few years ago, stated that we'll alternate a 100-miler with a 24-hour (timed event format), every other year. But we lost the SF One Day in Crissy Field, to a famous runner boasting an experience with a coyote in the Marin Headlands a few years ago... To make the matter worse, that weekend will see two major 100-milers run in parallel: the Cool Moon 100 which we had as factor 2 race the past 2 years, and the inaugural and already popular and over-subscribed Bay Area 100. I chose to invite you to test your limits on a 12-hour format.
8/2 (Sun): Skyline 50K (Castro Valley) | An anchor tradition where many new comers ventures into MUT.
8/15: Tamalpa Headlands 50K (Sausalito) | Another tradition. Besides, it was supposed to be a National again although the National committee changed their mind late in 2025, awarding that championship to Oregon instead.
9/26: Firetrails Dick Collins 50M (Castro Valley) | We already have another 50-miler but I couldn't NOT pay our respects to one founding spirit of this Grand Prix, Dick.
10/10: Ruth Anderson 50K / 50M (San Francisco)

SHORT / Sub ultra trail Series (all scores count)

1/10: No Hands Half (Auburn) | We are returning to the endurance capital of the world for a great warm-up of the season in early January.
3/21: Rattlesnake Dick 25K (Cool) | New on the calendar this year, and also to appeal to our North East Pacific Association membership, directed by the Cool Moon RD and active MUT running member, Martin Sengo.
4/4: Diablo Trails Half (Walnut Creek) | Also a return to a diabolic place, conveniently located between the two
4/18: Horseshoe Lake 30K (La Honda) | The longest of our shorter trail races, to give a taste of trail running, toward the ultra format.
9/12: Stevens Creek Reservoir Half (Cupertino) | PA club-organized race. Hint: not a flat half!
10/3: Star City San Bruno Mountain Half (San Bruno) | PA club-organized race. Hint: idem, not a flat half!

Again, special thanks to Shiran for his contribution and time spent diving into this tedious design and editing process. To our fellow scorers, Kendra and David, who accepted to add more scoring work for 2026 with such dual team scoring. And super grateful to all the Race Directors who are offering their event for our consideration in our Grand Prix, as well as generous discounts to the age group champions, not to mention the time and financial burden of sanctioning their event with USATF.

We had 155 of you scoring in the SHORT series in 2025 (73 women, 82 men), and 241 in the LONG one (97 and 144 respectively), we hope you'll join us again in 2026 and invite more and new teammates, to increase the fun of running together as a community, competing both individually and as teams/clubs!

And since I have your attention, PA members should receive an invitation to our upcoming LDR (Long Distance Running) award banquet, which will be held on Saturday January 24, from 3 to 8p, at quite a special and cool location. Be on the lookout of that mailing scheduled on January 3rd!

See many of you again on the trails or the roads, and, in the meantime cheers to you, your families and friends, for a healthy 2026! (Photo credit: Google's Nano Banana.)

Running in Atlanta: x * Pi miles around Georgia Tech

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sat, 20 Dec 2025 18:15:00 +0000

A running trail loop of 𝜋 miles, so close to 3.1 miles or 5K, how cool to find it while attending a graduation ceremony at Georgia Tech last week! I hadn't realized that 5K were 98.9% of 𝜋 miles, fair approximation.

This time I didn’t find a printed map like on my run on the Atlanta Beltline 2 days earlier, but the trail itself as signage, including a map, every mile or so, and markers on the sidewalks, at every turn. I wasn’t even going fast at all but missed a couple; to my defense, I can’t help to spot that turn on, guess what, Turner: would you have turned left with the alignment of these two arrows?

Tip: the university has a map online too.

Grateful to be visiting on the 20th year anniversary of this running landmark at GT. And learn about the history and background, which you can read on this picture. Although, talking about the 20 years, surprised that this course has been used for a 5K race for 35 years (16:08 time in 2022 for instance). Maybe the dedication is just for the plaque.

Anyway, kudos to the visionaries who built a well-spaced modern campus, with large arteries and inclusion of a few green areas, allowing to design and build such a 5K route.

Here is a flyover of my 3 loops around the campus (click on the image or this link).

If you are in Atlanta and in search of a safe loop to log a few miles, you can do a few 𝜋-peats on that course. I wanted to run a half but I had a flight to catch that Sunday morning. This time, with the temperature and windchill effect getting close to freezing, and the picture breaks, I really had a… slow-gish run. If I visit again, I'll try to make time for 10 laps, for 50K!

On a College campus with a Track team, I bet there must have many 4-minute miles being ran on that loop.

By the way, no, the graduation wasn't for one of my kids but 25 students of my alta mater in France, Arts et Métiers, which has a partnership with Georgia Tech. Go Gadz'Arts and Yellow Jackets!

PS: a few bonus pictures.

The official start point in front of the Campus Recreation Center (CRC):

A robot nest:

Running in Atlanta: buckle up on that extending belt!

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sat, 20 Dec 2025 16:58:00 +0000

When an urban trail makes paper maps freely available, you get a sense that the city and surrounding metropolitan area are serious about making biking and running easier for their residents! And visitors. I had visited Atlanta for work quite a few times but I was surprised not to find any “Running in Atlanta” post in my 800+ collection, so here is a first one, followed by another upcoming post about a run I did in the Big A Town.

When I started my blog 18 years ago, there weren’t too many on-line resources recommending running routes when visiting a new place. The best approach was to look at maps and spot trails when available as thin green lines, or canals or train tracks, hoping they would have some good and safe running path along. Fast forward almost 2 decades and a good set of options popped up in the search results, including a few which had the word belt in their name (see for instance this list from GreatRuns or Atlanta Track Club's recommendations).

Like Paris has its boulevard périphérique around its 20 arrondissements (districts), but for car, Atlanta is building a similar extensive belt all around the city, but for bikes and pedestrians. And, yes, I said bikes, not e-bikes which I consider being light motorcycles and not mixing well at all with the formers. Although I’m sure many commuters would disagree with this statement and want to use such a belt to go full speed in a car-free environment.

I hadn’t taken the time to look for a map of that belt before going out on Friday morning, before our noon visit at Georgia Tech. I found that map while running on the Eastern section. It does show two finalized sections, on the East and West sides, with major developments and plans to build connectors at the North and South.

For the section I used, it was really wide and I liked the smooth concrete. It was mid-morning on Friday morning, on a workday and, after the early morning commute time, the traffic was quite light. I’ve heard from locals that riding a bike on that trail on Saturdays or Sundays is epic.

Here is a Relive flyover of my out and back on that Eastern section (click on the image below or this link).

There you are for a great way to log a good number of miles away from cars, and without having to cross too many streets. From a city planning, it shows how harder it is to plan and build such green and pedestrian arteries after the fact, but super well done, Atlanta, keep up the great work and effort!

PS: a few vignettes along that trail.

Reynoldstown area.

A well-tagged tunnel!

Art and recycling!

Catching the eyes of mechanical engineers...

Views of Downtown and Midtown.

Back to Piedmont Park.

The ultra selfie!

A resisting rainbow crossing on Piedmont.

The back of the map/flier.

Hunter S Thompson Fear & Loathing: grateful to be included in that 40th celebration!

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 22:19:00 +0000

That was only my 2nd participation to this originally low-key and informal fat-ass which started with only a dozen of runners back in the 80s. I wasn’t born — to ultra running, that is — but read that the original course followed the 49-mile scenic drive across and around the City by the Bay. Keith in particular, more recently, extended the distance so the event could count in his multi-decade long streak of running at least one 50-miler every year. And it looks like a shorter 50K option, or shortcut, has been available for a while too.

Thanks to my log, and blog, I could confirm that I first participated in 2015. I don’t appear in the results on UltraSignup because I had a tough and cut it short to 36 miles, skipping the run around Lake Merced for instance then jogging straight back to Twin Peaks instead, as I was nursing a shin splits inflammation.

I didn’t even took the time to read my 2015 race report when preparing but did print the maps and turn-by-turn instructions as I remembered the difficulty of navigating the downtown area in particular. I also uploading Pierre-Yves’s 2016 GPX course trace which Keith has on his web page. This turned out to be super useful as I I had then to just follow the instructions of my Coros watch. (An anecdote to share how precise such guidance is: at some point at Spartathlon, in the middle of a long stretch, my watch was telling me to run right, when there was really no intersection for a few kilometers. It took me a while to realize that the recording was made on the right side of the 2-lane road while I was running on the left side, against the road traffic, and the watch was expecting me to be on the other side.)

I see that, in 2015, I mentioned that it was the largest field ever at 85. Well, fast-forward 10 years and Chihping had to close registration when the demand exceeded 150 this year! Hence my thanks for being included in the party despite missing the confirmation email back in August. Maybe because it was free, or because of injuries or later conflicts, 22 ended up not starting. Still a very large number taking on that tradition on the San Francisco streets last Sunday. Like Chihping put it a few days later, an overwhelming field for 18 brave volunteers. In addition to Keith and Chihping, unofficially organizing: the real legend, Stan, Steve, William, Christine, Noé, Marcus, Janice, Tom, Zagdaa, Hollis, Allan, Leandra, Andy, Judy, Nicholas, Miranda, Paul. And even Pen as photographer extraordinaire.

I carpooled to the start with Keith, who dropped my in the misty, windy and cold fog at the top of Twin Peaks around 6:25 am. I was already so cold after a quick stop by the restroom that I went for a 10-minute jog to try warming up. To no availability. I waited for the very last minute to remove my pre-race layers and was still working on my drop bag when Chihping sent the large field off. Pen took that shot as I eventually started at the very back. Two pictures, credit to Pen.

Quite a shot with Keith running on the right with the flag, and Chihping escaping on the left after sending the pack off!

Pen took this impromptu shot being surprised to see me at the end of the pack. I was so cold right after taking the extra layers off, I'm surprised I could smile...

Speeding through the pack helped gaining a bit of heat but we were shortly back to the windy top for the first out and back, then a long effort-less downhill to leave Twin Peaks. I passed and chatted a bit with Mark Tanaka — Western States lottery winner ! — and Bob Hearn. Not sure if my watch would provide accurate guidance, I settled behind Kevin Moore, who knows this course by heart. Our miles were oscillating between high 7s and low 8s. We would form a group of 5 for the first 13 miles or so to Japan Town.

Before the Coit Tower at mile 17 I started running ahead, just following my watch’s directions. Kevin and Connor passed me as I was trying to find a restroom at the bottom of the Coit Tower. Hint for next time: there is a very convenient bathroom stop on the subsequent downhill on Lombard Street, on the left, at the North Beach Pool/Joe DiMaggio Playground Park.

The stop was brief but I was still falling slightly behind. I could see Kevin leaving the Marin Green aid station when I was getting in, I’m not sure if he even stopped there. Connor was also a few hundreds yards ahead. Rebecca Heymann, lead gal, looked impressively strong. I even assumed she was on the 50K. The god had dissipated but the sky still cloudy and I was still feeling quite cold, unable to warm-up at this 8:15 min/mile pace, but also unable to really go faster as my muscles wouldn’t lose-up and unlock. Which made me work even harder.

William and another volunteer helped me refill my GU Energy Brew bottle at Marin Green. I wasn’t feeling that great when I saw Stan at Seacliff but still moving under 9 min/mile. Quick stop to grab a piece of brioche, and 2 potato chips. I was now running alone, and slower, yet resolute to go to the end this time.

Barely seeing the Golden Gate Bridge from Land's End:

By the end of circling around Lake Merced, I saw Kevin in the far distance, less than half a mile ahead, then Connor, a quarter mile behind. I spent a few minutes stopping at the water fountain of the Lake Merced parking lot, before getting on the long stretch on Sunset Boulevard. Half-way, someone yelled my name on the other side: that was William, from his aid station I had missed for running on the left side. I would have appreciate the care of an aid station as I was struggling through a low point, but didn’t feel the necessity to cross over.

I caught up with Connor in Golden Gate Park but he was still faster when not walking. After our loop around Bleu Heron Lake I mde a pit stop and lost sight of him for good. I chatted a bit with our legendary Rocket, who turned 76 2 days later.

Before the climb to Twin Peaks, Stan asked me if I needed anything, from his car. I passed on the offer as I was still carrying enough water and GU gels and chews. What I was missing was more stamina but I was pulled ahead by the eagerness to finish. I found the last miles excruciatingly long in particular because we were following such a detour around Twin Peaks. But 50 miles are 50 miles...

Smelling the barn, I jogged part of the last gasp and even caught up with, surprise, Rocket! Either the end of the 50K route is different and more direct than the 50-mile route, or he took a shortcut. Well, he deserved it! :-)

Chihping sent me back on the final figure 8 which we did at the start and that confused my watch as that wasn't part of the 2016 recorded track from Pierre-Yves. This time, it was sunny at the top but I was still feeling cold. And tired/exhausted after my muscles had to work twice as much in this context.

Given the circumstances, I was happy not just to finish, but to break 8 hours. Here is a Relive.cc flyover giving a great overview of the course around the City by the Bay. (Click on this link, or the picture below.)

Agnès and Greg arrived 5 minutes later to pick me up and I really enjoyed the heating seat of my car. I know, kind of ridiculous to complain about the temperature, compared to what runners in other states, and on the East Coast in particular, have to endure through their winter. Not to mention Kevin was running in a singlet!

At 30, Eduardo Morales won the 50-mile for the third year in a row and this time in a blazing 6:40. The next 3 finished within 3 minutes, 50 minutes behind Eduardo: Brian Wooden, Rebecca Heyman and Kevin. Then me, almost 30 minutes behind, and Connor, who had stopped for 20 minutes at a coffee shop after Golden Gate Park. All results on UltraSignup.

What an ultra party thrown by this small team of hard core volunteers. Again, very grateful for the opportunity they gave is to push the enveloppe on such a scenic route. I hope to be back to run that route again with my muscles more relaxed. I might also be tired of quite some racing through October and November. See you all next year then!

POST @ IBM: a green partnership in Coyote Valley

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 05:25:00 +0000

October is our Month of Giving at IBM. Among the local charities we are partnering with, it was my pleasure to see us hosting POST, the Peninsula Open Space Trust. And, even more satisfying, seeing IBMers stop by the booth to hear more about the amazing impact this organization have had on the preservation of our green hills and local wildlife for now almost 50 years (see my post about the 40th anniversary in 2017, and that IBM-supported conference along POST and the Ohlone tribe in 2022). IBM also matches donations employees make to POST!

Although I've been supporting POST for 2 decades, I still learned a big deal about their challenges and work thanks to a masterful presentation from their Director of Customer Engagement, Mark Medeiros. While there are many other trusts even in our area, no wonder why POST is regarded as a visionary and leading land trust across the country!

Coyote Valley represents a unique corridor between the two ranges forming our very own Silicon Valley, the Santa Cruz Mountains and Peninsula on the West side, and the Diablo range on the East. Living in a earthquake area, we can also named the corresponding faults: San Andrea and Hayward.

Now, corridor may be a more convoluted word than what it looks. I would have assumed that a straight line along Bailey Avenue for instance would be the easiest way to facilitate back and forth migrations and passage between both ranges. But that would make specialists gaggle as that would be way over simplifying Mother Nature, which likes to follow water sheds in particular. (Credit: illustration from Haley Grunloh, POST page.)

In addition to the water sheds winding through the valley, there are 3 major physical hurdles which have to be considered, a system called the triple barrier. Counter-intuitive is that, thanks to its numerous underpasses, the busy Highway 101 isn't the most challenging of the three but Monterey Highway with its surface concrete divider. Followed by the rail track. (Credit: illustration from Haley Grunloh, POST page.)

There has been decades of work to protect Coyote Valley between the key partners including the City of San Jose, the Santa Clara Country, the Open Space Authority. And POST.

At least we can celebrate and be grateful that the planned expansion of commercial development across Coyote Valley, in the 70s and 80s, turned to a flop and allowed farmers to stay around. Incidentally, as we tease ourselves, that left us, our IBM Silicon Valley Lab campus, in the middle of nowhere!

Here is a selection of great resources to learn more about the challenges and progress on that Coyote Valley matter:

Now, a burning question all IBMers had on their mind: as the decision has been made and publicly announced, to close the renowned Almaden IBM Research Center (ARC), relocating hundreds of eminent researchers to the site on the other side of the hill, Silicon Valley Lab (SVL), on Bailey Avenue, what is going to happen to this landmark site? Will that be an opportunity to transfer this major open area into the local pool of preserved lands? As opposed to selling it for tenths of millions of dollars of income and profit... A challenging dilemma... And a big unknown for non-insiders...

Bottom line, the protection of Coyote Valley, while in progress, will likely take several more decades to set a safe and sustainable corridor for wildlife to reclaim their original passage to roam between the two ranges. POST is close to turn 50 and is the perfect partner to think and act long term to restore nature's rights in and around our buzzing Silicon Valley. A model for the World!

Silicon Valley Turkey Trot: some speed for a change!

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sun, 30 Nov 2025 18:04:00 +0000

4 days after logging 105 miles at the Fat Ox 24-hour Road Nationals, it was time to lace my running shoes again. I didn't feel fully recovered but you can't control these back to back dates. With the souvenir of an injury on that course 7 years ago (fissure of hamstring tendon), my main goal this Thursday morning was to play it safe. Yet, if I felt recovered enough, see how close I could get to 40 minutes, short of approaching my best times, pre-injury.

With 17 consecutive participations, this has become my own personal 10K benchmark (that was my 63rd 10K race but I still have more 50K races in my log, at 84). Actually, my first participation was the elite 5K which was part of our USATF Pacific Association Road Grand Prix back then, and I clocked 16:34. I then ran the 10K distance every year: 35:05, 35:20, 35:06, 36:09, 35:41, 35:49, 36:10, 34:57, 35:51, 35:51, 41:34 (still suffering from the 2018 injury), 40:17 (2020 virtual edition on an improvised course in some French countryside), 38:51, 37:45, 39:55, 39:26 (post 7-month break after meniscus tear). Looking back at this series (all race reports under the Turkey Trot tag), it clearly shows that I never fully recovered from the 2018 injury. And now having to rebuild after last year, not to mention handle the years which pass...

As I mentioned, my legs still felt tired from last weekend's ultra distance. I went for a 1.5-mile warm-up on the course then found a spot 4 layers behind the start line. Among runners who seemed to be at the front mostly for the pictures and selfies so I paid extra attention not to trip when we were sent off.

With the joint start of the 5 and 10K, with all the competitive runners, the kids and the occasional runners who know less about pacing, the race starts really fast. I used to stick close to the front but not anymore and the hundreds of runners at the front felt a bit overwhelming. Two tenth of a mile after the start I glanced at my GPS to get a sense of the pace: dang, it was still on the mode "Wrist hear rate disabled, Start now?" Shoot, I had forgotten the switch that mode back after last weekend's 24-hour, when I switched it off to save the battery so the GPS battery and recording could last 24 hours. Dude, yes, please start!

With that, I missed my split time at the 1-mile mark but got a 6:27 shortly after. Not too bad but it wasn't going to get me under 40 minutes. Our friend Nathalie was volunteering again at the first aid station in Japan Town, around 1.5 mile, and got a couple of shots.

As you can see, I was still in a pack, in good company. The good news though was that my glutes, really tight in the first half mile, had now loosen up. Bring it on!

That good sensation allowed me to pick the pace up a bit, passing a few runners and still being passed by others. That got my second split down to 6:23. Shortly after I recall passing a young girl with a turkey hat and shoes which were making noise like carbon plates. Is that possible 12-year old kids have carbon plate shoes already? Maybe I need to give it a try...

Most of the runners turn left toward the 5K finish but there were still quite a few on the 10K. My third split was similar, at 6:24.

On the 4th mile, after turning around the SAP Center, there is a small did to pass under the rail track, that did cost me one second, for a 6:25 minute split. However, in that section, one runner caught up with me only to stay just behind, in my stride, something I don't really like. That got me to pick up the pace again, this time clocking 6:15 for the 5th mile, while navigating the Emory/Myrtle/University turnaround before returning on The Alameda, aka 82.

Breathing was good, legs felt good, plus the motivation of cross the rest of the pack, including getting some verbal encouragements from my friends (Tanguy then Igor), I went all in to the finish. I only discovered afterwards that I ran mile in 6:12, what a god surprise!

Then, approaching the finish line I saw the clock displaying seconds: 39:50, 51, 52, ... My recollection was that I crossed the finish line in 39:58 but I was awarded 39:56, I will take it! My last 10Ks were 40:36 last December at the DoDouble in Palo Alto, and 40:30 at Trailblazer in September, it feels good to break 40' again! Oh wait, 2 days later and I realize that I actually did better. I was so focused on 40 minutes, I misread the clock while at full speed, it was actually 38:56, even better! And maybe the course was on the short side, as some others reported, but still, that was the same distance for all.

That was good enough for 3rd in my age group this year again. Second was Raymond Rodriguez, 64, in 38:20. As for the first place in our age group, Thomas Tayeri won again in a blazing time of 36:23, this is really fast. This is actually a 90.01% age grade, or an equivalent of 29:19.7, World class/level! In comparison mine was 84.12% or 31:23, not too far from today's winning time of 31:13 (Brian Wyatt from La Jolla).

Proud of Agnès for finishing 5th of 363 in her age group!

But the most important measure for this event is the number of registrants and the money raised for local charities. In the spirit of the race founders, 21 years ago, Carl and Leslee Guardino.

23,000 registrants this year, for an event under the direction of Chris Weiler, Race Director at the Silicon Valley Leadership Group Foundation (in yellow jacket).

We were quite lucky with the weather again this year. It was chilly in the shade of the buildings but really nice in the sun, in the middle of the festival area. Perfect place to meet friends, at least for those making the effort to find others among thousands. Here with Tanguy, waiting for Rosalie and Virginie.

And one of the 50+ IBM colleagues who had signed up this year, Danny.

Having ran 10 or more editions, there was even a poster this year, with our names on it!

Can't wait for next year then, what a great Thanksgiving tradition, and a treat for our Silicon Valley communities!

Fat Ox 2025 24-hour Road Nationals: unscrewed in a rainy desert!

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sun, 30 Nov 2025 06:12:00 +0000

These past years, unsurprisingly for a desert area, we've had hot days at Fat Ox, even in November. Along with the companion cold nights. This year, the temperatures were going to remain mild but some rain was forecasted, with chance varying between 40 and 50%. We weren't in Vegas so let's see how luck played out in Phoenix...

To continue with my theme of ultra stars alignment after my last post and with 2 USATF championships within 2 weeks, I felt that many stars were aligning pretty well again this time. A huge one in particular: one of my College alumni and friends, Vincent, with whom I first worked on AI back in 1985 --yes, 40 years ago!-- drove from Las Vegas to crew for me, what a treat! It was his first exposure to ultra running and he picked a 24-hour event, quite a bold move! Oh, and did I mention potential rain too...?

Vincent really offered the full crew service, starting from pickup at the airport on Friday evening, to dropping me for a flight scheduled 3 hours after the race finish, even offering a shower on the way to the airport before he checked his room out! Also bringing a large tent which we set on Friday evening within our USATF-authorized aid station perimeter. Professional and masterclass crewing! After 2 decades of mostly racing in what we call screwed mode, that is without a crew, that was a huge change! Vincent enjoys hiking so the deal was that he was going to take a few hours during the day to explore the nearby Estrella mountain since the race was happening in the Estrella Mountain Regional Park, in Goodyear, Arizona.

The start time at 8 am was rather convenient to setup, get an okay night and absorb a 1-hour time difference. With a few clouds very high in the sky, the sunrise got spectacular and dissolved the worries of that rainy forecast for the evening. I felt chilly but, as usual, a few others were just wearing singlets.

Let's talk goals. My primary goal was to win my age group for a 25th National age group title but, with no other M60-64 registered, that wasn't a very aggressive objective: I just had to finish a 1-mile loop, that's it! Although, with a registration closing the previous Sunday, I was surprised to see other participants getting in on race day. I mean, there could have been someone else showing up in my age group then. But it didn't so I could peacefully focus on a much bigger goal, our age group American record, which my friend Roy Pirrung had set at 215,263 meters at the World championships in Korea in 2008. On his way, Roy even set the current 100-mile record at 15:29:44, a 9:18 min/mile pace! After my big miss at Tunnel Hill, I was resolute not to aim at anything faster than 10 min/mile.

10 min/mile, how slow this feel at the start... The solution, as I learned from Pam on the first 4 laps, a technique which she herself learned from Bob Hearn, alternate shuffling and walking. Pam (Smith) has been representing the US at almost 10 world championships, from 100K to 24-hour. She is currently the manager of the team, aka the boss! Running along her for the first 4 laps gave me 40-minute worth of personal coaching! And that included Pam rolling her eyes watching me carrying two bottles, in a 1-mile loop format race! She stated that it was 2 extra pounds to carry, damn my habit to have run 60,000 miles this way these past 25 years, as I like to sip water whenever I want, even on training runs! Call me old Ultimate Direction school, they don't even sponsor me anymore when, meanwhile, the world has switched to running vests...

More important was the pacing class. Pam had set her watch to get signals for a pattern I believe was jogging for 6 minutes followed by 4 minutes of power walking. Then rinse and repeat. For 24 hours! With this smart approach, we indeed ran the first 4 laps right on 40 minutes. Since the lap is certified at 0.988178 mile, a 10-minute pace actually corresponds to 9:53 minutes per lap. As Pam stopped at her table to get some fluid, I continued and jogged the next laps to get back right on the 10:00 pace. Oddly so, although I was following the pace sheet down to the second, my Coros watch kept indicating a 9:51 min/mile average pace, as it seemed to be missing some distance. Mere seconds didn't seem like a big deal.

I was really please by how relaxed I was at this lower pace, with a clear mind to fuel according to my plan: 1 S!Caps at the top of every hour, 1 GU Energy gel at the bottom of every hour, skipping the first hour to give my body a reason to switch to fat burning, 1 pouch of Vespa Power every 3 hours, 1 bottle of GU Energy Brew every 15-miles, along one bottle of water. And potentially more fluid in case it got hot, which didn't happen. Here is what I flew back home with, since I leverage GU Energy's recycling program with Terracycle. Needless to say, I didn't stick to that nutrition regimen the whole 24 hours, I also picked solid and warm food at the aid station.

And yet, I'd say around 20 miles, my adductors started feeling super tight. Dang, that was way too early and I blamed the shuffling which is a very different and unusually short stride for me. I kept focusing on staying as close as possible under the 10-minute pace and, eventually, I think around mile 40, the pain and tension in the adductors completely disappeared, I was super pleased. But, oh wait, now the glutes had something to say...

At the end of lap 57, mile 56.33, I was still right on that 10:00 min/mile average but Vincent had noticed I had starting to slow down on the past 5 laps. It was 5:37 pm. Around 4, I had asked a local runner what he thought about the rain forecast and he assured me, "nothing before the end of daylight." Well, the problem is the daylight was short and, sure enough, it actually started raining before 6 pm, yikes! Light rain but I still much appreciate stopping to put my light wind breaker on. Including the hood over my cap and visor.

Again, the rain wasn't too bad, yet puddles starting forming on this sleek and flat concrete. To make the matter worse, the mix of sweat and water accelerated the chaffing. One more worry spinning in my brain. The rainy weather conditions were another excuse for getting resigned and deciding it wasn't worth the effort anymore to chase a record. I was still pleased to pass the 100K mark this year in 11 hours and 4 minutes instead of last year's 12:18. The rain had stopped for a short while and Vincent told me it was going to pick up again between 9 and 10:30 pm. At that point I formed a plan of getting a few hours of sleep during the rain, thinking that the rain would then stopped and I would run the last 8 hours dry.

I stopped at the tent at 8:40 pm, with 70 laps in the bank. Vincent left for the hotel and I changed before getting in a comfortable sleeping bag. Just a problem: our tent was right in the middle of the super noisy area between the aid station crew on steroids to stay awake, the loud music and announces of the finish and timing tent and runners and crews chatting in the finish area. I'm sure I ended up sleeping a bit but I also recall finding super hard to fall asleep in this noise, and waking up several times. To the point that, around 10:40 pm, I realized that, if I had to walk them, it could actually take me more than 8 hours to cover the 32 laps I had left to get to the 100-mile mark, and the belt buckle, and that I'd better to get moving again then. Although it was still raining, yuck!

This time I put on my sturdy Ultimate Direction rain jacket, hoping that will keep me dry. After a 2.5-hour break, my legs felt much rested and I was able to clock the next 6 laps in a 10-13 minute-range. However, at that pace, and under the waterproof jacket, I got quite hot and sweaty to the point that, slowing down a bit to catch my breath, I got cold again... I still hold a good pace for the next 5 laps before having to walk most of the next 2 laps and stop at the tent, shivering, to change again. It was 2:35 am. Fortunately, the rain had now turned to a drizzle, I switched to a warmer but barely water-protecting jacket. That was lap 85.

I didn't have much stamina left and walked a lot in the following laps, until 94. But I was pleased by the ability to still do some power walking at least. At that point, Larry Orwin, in the M65 group, was still 4 laps behind but now back to running and clocking 12-minute laps. That gave me some kick to run again and I clocked laps 95 to 100 each under 14 minutes. That also got me to catchup with 5th place, Stephen Gnoza who was coached by elite marathoner and ultra marathoner, Sage Canaday.

Having spent all night just focused on getting to 100 miles, or 102 laps, I was mentally done when I reach that point at 6:54 am. But Vincent, back after 5 hours of sleep, wasn't having it, he wanted me to keep going! I jogged lap 103 and 104 at a 13 min/mile pace but painfully covered 105 and 106 in 16:05 and 18:05 respectively. And there were still 6 minutes remaining so Vincent pushed me to keep going to plant my extra distance mark/flag as far as possible. I complied but not before asking him to at least take his car and drive down along the course to pick me up. And I had recommended Sage to do the same to pick his runner whom I had seen in distress on the last lap, on his knees. I'm glad I did, that was worth the ride back, with Larry also stopping where Stephen and I ended and grateful for the ride back to the finish.

That extra 0.25 mile got me right above 105 miles, 105.0502167 to be very exact! In 24 hours, zero minute and zero second! ;-) Very far from my 133-mile PR, and almost 50K away from the age group record I was chasing, overall quite a big and disappointing miss although my family doesn't see it this way... By the way, Stephen and Larry were on the same lap and ended up being separated by about 10 meters (101.0997271 versus 101.0933518 miles). At least it made the work of the measurers even more worthy!

So, overall, still some good progress from last year, showing that the effort to rebuild pays off. It was my 11th 24-hour event, out of 207 ultra races including 190 finishes. Again, very grateful for the ability to keep running after last year's episode and scare.

Upfront the battle was raging and I could tell I was way behind given the dozens of times I had been lapped by the lead runners. Scott Munson was the most impressive, maintaining an impressive high and long stride à la Jim Wamsley and a sub-9 min/mile pace through the first 80 laps! He was the first one to reach 100 miles, in 15:05 but slowed down through the night, and ending up in 3rd with 122.5 miles. At the 100-mile mark, Scott Traer, 44, was just 1 minute behind but held on super well all night to claim the overall win with 138.3 miles. While Zachary Szablewski passed 100 miles an hour later, he finished 2nd overall with 131.5 miles. Sho Gray took 4th with 119.7 miles.

On the women side, a win for Polina Hodnette with 117.7 miles, then Stella Springer, 54, with 91.2 miles then Pam, 51, with 75.1 miles, all in the money!

For his first 24-hour race, my Pacific Association mate and elite M50, Jonah Backstrom, suffered from painful achilles and stop on lap short of 100K.

At the top of our age groups, in the M85-89, Ed Rousseau was hard at work again: he had started on Friday morning to chase a bunch of records from 48 hours to 100K. On Andy's USATF Record page, I don't see any new pending records for Ed, he might have missed due to the bad weather. Or the page hasn't been updated yet. And with the difference in size, the second picture could be appropriately captioned "When I grow-up, I want to be like Ed!" ;-)

Because, yes, that wasn't great conditions to set records, the weather gods, or stars, didn't align well this time. And years do pass, hence the big disappointment when missing on an opportunity... From a lesson perspective, I'd say that I definitely need to keep working on my glutes. And my mental. Always. TO explain my disappointment, I would also mention that I ran the hilly and hot Cool Moon 100, on trails, in 22 hours and change. And it took me one more hour to cover that distance on a flat course, here. Granted, this time, I stopped for 2.5 hours for a long nap...

Going 10 deep overall, plus the M86-89 age group, Lin, our USATF official, was generous with her medals: every participant got at least one, if not two, plus an age group champion patch! I'm still dumbfounded that so few USATF members show up at these championships, especially from local or close-by associations.

And with that, I indeed got my 25th patch. 4th this year, it certainly feels good to still be running after thinking my days were over with that meniscus tear last year. For many years I took running for granted. Not anymore, I now appreciate any new mile making it into my log.

In addition to thanking Aravaipa for setting this event up and investing into hosting this national championship (if you know, you know, it does cost a lot!), for the knowledgeable and helpful volunteers manning the aid station in particular, or literally sweeping the water off the course, those working the timing table, the awards, the registration, those setting up the nearby camping tents, my deepest gratitude goes to Vincent for even forfeiting the local hiking opportunity and assisting me every 10-15 minutes, throughout 24 hours. Welcome to the community, Vincent! As a bonus, Vincent also took a few clips throughout the day (YouTube picked the background tunes and took them out to address copyright infringement, hence the sound off...):

My flight ended up being delayed by 30 minutes first, then 40 at the end which wasn't too bad and diffused some of the stress of rushing out to the gate. The timing worked out quite well after all. As I was leaving, Sage asked me what was my next race... And he knows about my regimen so he wasn't too surprised when I replied: "A 10K Turkey Trot in 4 days..." That will be the next race report tomorrow then, stay tuned as they say...! ;-)

PS: this time my legs were quite sore on Monday, proving that was some work to shuffle through this challenging weather. Also a rare but abundant sweat during my 10-hour recovery sleep on Sunday night, my body was trying to say something! And I was still tired on Monday... Well, it's not getting easier with the years...

Tunnel Hill 50-mile Road Nationals 2025: so many stars aligned!

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 05:00:00 +0000

Stars, stars, stars, so many stars to align for the perfect ultra. I want to list all of them but it feels overwhelming, like looking at the sky in the desert of Namibia... I'm still getting lost with even the key constellations so I will start to pick a few themes, for the sake of developing that analogy and theme.

One of the most important constellation of stars to align must be on the physical side. If you can't run or walk, it's a moot point to aim at finishing... There was quite a few years during which I felt invincible and didn't have to think too much of getting in shape. I was even joking that extreme and tough racing were mere training opportunities for the next races. I averaged 62 miles a week for 8 consecutive years, until I fissured a hamstring tendon while over extending my stride during a fast 10K, sliding on a wet pedestrian crossing stripe, at the end of 2018. Then this cut of one of my left meniscus last year. Since then, there is not a single run during which I'm not thinking that it could be the last one. I was taking running for granted, I'm now overthinking it on the other edge. One year after resuming training after a 7-month hiatus, I feel better and more confident, so much that I resumed track workouts with Bob, as you might have read in two recent posts. So, yes, I felt good physically upon getting into this race,

The second set of stars contains a bunch of more elusive and less tangible aspects, around mental readiness. Not my forte. We had dinner with friends this weekend and I mentioned that, if I was given the chance to rewind and start my running career over, I would pay way more attention to mental preparedness and sport psychology. For several decades, I had such an intense work and passion for my job, I felt good about balancing with intensity in ultra running. Sadly, the job which is paying the bills isn't as good as it used to be... With that, while believing again in my physical ability to compete in ultras is a boost, the mental tank was rather low otherwise upon getting into Tunnel Hill. Did you say tunnel, with some light at the end of it? If you know you know...

In the third category, I'll include the pre-race logistics. Especially for out of state races, this can represent quite an endeavor, even after racing more than 200 ultras. Again, there was a time when work and running were intersecting, when I was traveling a lot for work and able to combine with a race, from time to time. Not anymore these days, both due to the pandemic and how it changed the workplace, but also different job roles. Flight booking, hotel reservations, car rental, and packing luggages, with the typical carry-on TSA constraints in terms of liquids and gels in particular. Then the meals while being away (hint: I do travel with my pre-race dinner). The race instructions. The ability to pickup bib on race day or not. Now, to illustrate that a star can get quickly off course: while driving from St Louis airport to Canondale on the highway, at dusk, I had the reflex to avoid a huge traffic drum which was rolling across my lane... Could have costed me my whole weekend, would have I hit it at 60 mph... (just took that picture on Sunday, to illustrate the size.)

Last but not least, we can mention the race-day logistics and whatever happens during the race, from the weather (temperature, wind, rain or sun), the aid station (location, frequency, who mans, what they offer), the course conditions. Parking. Porta-potties availability. Being crewed or screwed. The hydration, fueling. Not tripping/falling. The management of layers. The choice of shoes. Chaffing. Blisters. And the pacing discipline!

After setting up this general framework, let's dive into the race of last weekend (November 8). It was held in Vienna, in the very South of Illinois, so much South that I was told the name wasn't pronounced like the Austrian capital (ˌvēˈenə) but the Vi as in vial (ˈvī(ə)l). Surprisingly, there is a small airport nearby to which United is flying but of course not direct from the Bay Area. Looking at the map the closest larger airports were either St Louis, MO to the North West, or Nashville, TN, to the South East. I picked St Louis, direct from SFO, landed around 4:30, rented a car and got to my hotel in Carbondale by 7 pm. That was leaving another 40 minutes to get to the start in the morning. I got to bed around 8:30 and woke up around 3:10 am after an okay night (on top of the pre-race excitement, it's really hard getting a perfect night of sleep right before a race, especially when traveling across time zones).

I got to the start at 5:05 and I believe I was the first car parked in the morning. Great spot close to the start and the line of porta-potties. A few volunteers were setting up the bib pickup but our USATF Official, Lin, only showed up at 5:30. That gave me time to explore the start/finish area and seeing how the trail was crossing through, with two out and backs extending to the South and North ends.

I was so early I was able to take a 20-minute nap while a solid bathroom line was forming. The sky cleared as soon as the sun rose, it was going to be a perfect sunny day for a Californian! As usual when I travel East, I was surprised to see a few singlets while I felt a bit chilly at the start. I decided to wear my usual Brooks arm sleeves but not my beanie, just my UltimateDirection cap. Still, I opted for a pair of gloves, which I'm glad I had for the first 10 miles.

Being too late and far away, I had missed the pre-race dinner on Friday evening, including the presentation from ultra endurance star, Harvey Lewis. And I got to the start line just in time for the national anthem so I also missed his words of encouragement before the start.

Let's talk about my main goals for that race. First, win my age group which meant, short of any other competitors in my age group again, "just" finish. Second, but kind of my A goal given the lack of interest of the first one, improve our M60-64 American Age Group Record which was set by Rick Lee in 2021 at 6:27:30 , a 7:45 min/mile average. Compared to the 5:51 I've seen Rich Hana run in his 55-59s, then 5:48 by Billy Mertens last year, both at Jed Smith in Sacramento, I felt there was quite some margin and the goal should be more aggressive than improving our age group mark by a few seconds or even minutes. I had worked hard these past weeks at logging dozens of 7 min miles, I felt that I could aim at something around 7:20-7:30 min/mile. Knowing that I still feel like rebuilding and several percentage points of my pre-injury fitness level. So... all stars will have to align in a perfect straight line.

Given the few young stars lining up on the Championship but also other distances (there were a marathon, 50K, non-championship 50-mile, 100K, 100-mile), I didn't try to get too close to the front. I must say that I liked all distances started at the same time and there seemed to be some alignment between bib series and the various distances. That helped figuring out who was running what, in addition to the back bibs we had to wear for the championship, with our age group.

I got in a group of half a dozen runners which clocked 7:25 for the first mile. I felt it was a bit too slow already so I pushed the pace a little so much that I clocked 7:05 on the second mile, oops! I told you, I worked a lot around the 7 min/mile threshold, it felt good but I knew that wasn't going to be sustainable for 50 miles so I eased up a bit, letting a group of 3 runners ahead for a bigger gap. 7:15, 7:13, 7:16, 7:17, I was a bit "struggling" to tune to the 7:20 mark but getting closer, just a few seconds off of it. With my gloves, I lost a few seconds grabbing a gel so mile 7 ended up being 7:26, then 7:15, 7:21, 7:18, 7:15 and finally 7:20 for mile 12. While I had a great start, I was still wearing my pain mask early on, respectively on Belknap Bridge then at Heron Pond (photo credit: Colson Photography).

By mile 11 already, I had started crossing the front runners who were already 4 miles ahead, wow! I had studied the course but missed that the out and back were asymmetrical: the first out and back was exactly a marathon (26.2 miles), while the second was under 24 miles. That made the first turnaround slightly farther than I had expected, at 13.1.

On our way back to the start, it was exciting to cross the rest of the pack and I'm grateful for all the encouragements they provided. Then there were none for the last 6 miles of our first marathon. Around mile 23, I started to slow down a bit, and letting the average pace slide just above 7:20 at last. I crossed the marathon mark in a time of 3:13:53, which would still be a great Boston Qualifying time, well above my age group standard of 3:50! That corresponded to a pace of 7:24 and I also lost a few seconds getting to the stuff I had left near the start in the morning: I removed my arm sleeves, took a pouch of Vespa Power, 3 extra gels in my belt and went back on the course. (Photo credit: Colson Photography.)

As I was started running again, I got passed by a female runner in black. She was running at about 7:25-7:30 min/mile and that's what seemed reasonable for me to do at that point. Except that we were only at mile 26 and the effort didn't feel easy anymore. I stayed behind her for about a mile, then led for maybe another mile but she was leading when we got to the Shelby aid station, where I could see the efficiency of her dropping and picking up what her crew guy gave her on the fly: Formula 1 style, super impressive! I had asked her which distance she was on and I thought I had heard 100K. And asked her if she was on record pace, she replied it was a bit too early to say for sure. Well, that was Catriona Jennings, from Ireland, and she would end up setting a new World (!) record for the 100-mile distance, in 12:37:04, an average pace of 7:34!! We got to Shelby with an average of 7:26, and she almost maintained that for 70 more miles! Much respect... Courtesy of Colson Photography, here she is, cruising through 50-miles, all smile:

Not having enough energy to just stay with her was my first mental blow. I was still able to clock 7:32 for both miles 29 and 30 but 31 fell to 7:47, 32 to 7:49 then 33 just above 8 minutes, dang! Then... on my 34th mile, I saw the lead runner coming back, and that killed me, again, mentally. I had started thinking about issues at work, and lost a huge part of the remaining low stamina, to the point that I even started walking. While my average pace was still good for a record, at 7:30, I knew I was cooked and couldn't handle the pace pressure anymore. 9:16, 10:08, 11:14 (including a stop at the Tunnel Hill aid station to get some Coke and a piece of banana), at that point the record was off and I was almost relieved when I saw my average pace get to 7:45. As disappointing as that was, that freed up one huge weight from my head and I started focusing on just finishing.

Here is me pretending I was still running well, after crossing the famous tunnel for the first time (Photo credit: Colson Photography, Phil Weinzapfel.)

In some sense, it also helped seeing that I wasn't alone to struggle. After running a few 2:3x marathons these past weeks --at 50!-- Mike Wardian had a huge goal of breaking the 55-year old M50 record set by the legendary Ted Corbitt at 5:35, in 1970! But Mike faltered in the second half too and struggled getting back to the finish.

After a few terrible miles between 34 and 36, now with the only remaining goal of finishing, I was able to walk less and clock a series of 4 9-minute miles. With less pressure, I spent a few minutes at Tunnel Hill, this time taking the time to thank the volunteers, despite my cranky mood.

Finding a second wind, now running toward the finish as opposed to away from it (a huge difference mentally), my next 8 miles were all under 9 minutes and I even clocked 7:49 for the last one! Special thanks to Karen Dunn who passed me on mile 44 while I was walking and taking a GU Energy gel and reignited the remaining little fire in me to pick up the pace. (Photo credit: Colson Photography.)

I crossed the finish line in 6:44:33, 17 minutes off that M60 record, quite a disappointment and embarrassment for me, but good enough for my 24th patch, or National title. And with the limited field of 53 registered, even good enough for 16th overall, 11th men (2 minutes behind 10th), 5th Masters. But again, such a small field. Also, I finished 1 hour and 42 minutes behind Brogan Austin from Colorado, who won the championships in 5:02:54 (ending up in a 74.87% UltraSignup score for me, yikes...)! Note that it's on that course that Charlie Lawrence set the Men World Record for 50 miles at a blazing 4:48:21 2 years ago!

Speaking of records, the women were on fire: Ann Flower won the Nationals and set a World record too in 5:18:57. And I already mentioned Catriona World 100-mile record, above. On the 100K Courtney Olsen, set a new American mark at 6:59:55, breaking Ann Trason's 7:00:48 at the IAU World of 1995! Less than a minute, 30 years later... much respect to both! (Courtney owned the 50-mile world record which Ann broke by more than 12 minutes that time.) Age group wise, on the Men side, new records for M45 and M90!

By the way, about Courtney: she also scored in the 50-mile championships, 2 minutes off her previous World Record, then continued on toward this new American Record on 100K. Before the race, albeit not thinking of that speed at all, I had a secret goal of finishing the 50-mile well enough to also go on for the 100K, given the unique opportunity to get sanctioned and certified timing. Well, only in my wildest dreams...

Nice chat with Mike (Wardian) who still had a busy night ahead, crewing for his sister on the 100-mile (Mike also has a brother who is also an ultra runner).

On the California and Pacific Association side: Wally Hesseltine, 82, won his age group. Brooke Bray of the Impala passed me just before the 2nd turnaround, about mile 40, but then dropped at her second passage through the Tunnel Hill aid station.

And so... to those who told me not to worry about missing our record, that I will have other opportunities: maybe, but such a huge miss given so many stars being aligned this time. Just taking the weather for instance, it was PERFECT for me on that day and look at the temperature 2 days later in Vienna. (Hint, this is 2 degrees Celsius, not Farenheit fortunately!)

RD, Steve Durbin, told me to come back, but can he guaranteed such perfect weather conditions again next year, in the middle of November...? It's quite a risky proposition when flying so far away for just a race... Posing between Steve and Lin:

Speaking of Steve: it was my first time at Tunnel Hill and the experience definitely confirmed the top notch quality and professionalism of this event. Definitely worth and well-deserved the IAU Gold Label. To illustrate the level of professionalism, look at the race headquarter vans:

Great goodies too: first, an impressive belt for a 50-mile, quite unusual for a below-100-mile distance. And two super original and useful shoe and waterproof bags from sponsor SILO.

Shoe wise, some people might think that I finally fell for the carbon plates. But, nope, simple road racing shoes from Brooks, the Hyperion 2. And, yes, never mind the lack of fashion style, I could feel some pebbles jumping on my calves from time to time so I'm glad I followed the RD advice to wear gaiters.

Now, while I much regret starting too fast like a youthful newbie, it was still a very positive experience and I'm proud of having tried and even aimed a breaking a record again. What an improvement from last year when I didn't think I would be able to still run! Also grateful to this opportunity to participate in such a notable event which set new world marks again: Tunnel Hill lives up to its reputation! Overall, yes, if it's not too cold, I'll try to come back next year.

Statistics wise, that was ultra race #206, 189th ultra finish, 40th 50-mile race. One step at a time, still learning...

On Sunday, I was able to ride the internal tram of the Gateway Arch in St Louis, before my flight. This monument is celebrating 60 years and I was lucky that a few private donors had arranged for the National Park to remain open to visitors during the shutdown. Quite impressive to go to the top, see the views from up there, and also feel the whole arch oscillate by a few inches when it's windy, like it was last Sunday.

Track marathon benchmarking: the speed discipline

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 05:13:00 +0000

It has been 14 months since I resumed training after the 7-month hiatus last year due to this darn torn meniscus. I was missing running so much, so impatient to get back to my initial form... On September 22, 2024 I went to my local track to jog 26.2 miles in 3:42. A month later, in 3:31:47. 2 weeks later, 3:24:52. 1 week after, 3:17:11, then 3:09:24 one week later. And 3:12:37 on December 1st. From there, I looked like I had plateaued with Coros being stuck on a marathon prediction time of 3:10 +/- 30 seconds.

With the new year came the new Grand Prix and its variety of distances, terrains and course profiles so I had to retrain on hills in particular and let go of the focus on the track marathon benchmarking. With the Grand Prix successfully completed I'm now working on speed again and Coros finally noticed, lowering its marathon prediction time to 3:06:57. As I regain self-confidence and rebuilt some leg strength, I felt that I could even beat that. At least give it a try. This Sunday. And at the brand new track!

Cupertino High School got a new synthetic track and football field when our son Max was attending, 20 years ago, in 2005. Last June, work started for a major make over of the football fields. Construction engines were damaging the track so I was hoping they'd redo it too. Which they did indeed, starting on back to school week as a matter of fact. Fast forward 2 months and the track opened this past week! (Picture from last weekend.) What a treat!

I invited my running buddy, Bob, to pace me at the start. Bob ran the first 6 miles with me and put me on the 1'45"-lap rhythm, a 7 min/mile pace orbit. While I was hoping to cover the marathon distance at that pace, my overall goal was to see how long I could hold that pace, either shorter or longer.

In these first 25 laps, we only had one over 1:45, at 1:47, great metronomes we are! ;-)

Ironically, as it was about to show Coros what I was really capable of on the marathon, I had charged my watch the night before but misplaced it afterwards and couldn't find it as I was rushing out early on Sunday morning, duh! Instead, I used my old Garmin Forerunner 310XT which isn't the best for distance accuracy but has a great auto-lap counting mode. Keeping track of the number of distance-certified laps is the best way to get the actual mileage, as a mater of mathematical fact. 42,195 meters divided by 400 equals 105.4875 laps!

After 10 miles (40 laps), I stopped checking lap time at every lap and ran more by feel. I'm stunned to see in the log, afterwards, that lap 77 was the first one in that internal above 1:45, at 1:48. All other laps were in the [-3 , 0] seconds range, showing why doing speed workouts on a track is so important to maintain a stable pace, in a safe environment.

Lap 85 is when I started to show signs of fatigue, losing a few seconds at each lap, for a total of 36 seconds over the last 22 laps.

The glutes and hamstrings were getting stiffer so I decided to stop after the marathon mark, completing 106 laps in 3:04:51 (26.346 miles, 7:01 min/mile pace). Because I used my Garmin watch, Coros hasn't revised it's 3:06:57 prediction, even after I uploaded that activity which shows a distance of 27.52 miles. I will have to do it again with that Coros watch so it believes me...!

It was a lot of good work though, my legs are quite tired on this Sunday evening.

Short of all the Coros metrics (cadence, stride length, hearth rate, ...), I include the long list of lap stats (per the above note, distances and paces being slightly off with this old watch, especially on the track).

The experiment continues... and hard work too!

PAUSATF MUT Grand Prix 2024 Payouts: Finally!

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sun, 26 Oct 2025 00:25:00 +0000

Finally... at a time the recipients might have forgotten about this additional perk of our MUT Grand Prix. At least, they have been nice enough not to bug me every month...

Apologies to these winners, for the delay. And apologies to all the readers who aren't interested in our North California and Nevada trail and ultra running adventures... Although, locally, we are very proud of our MUT Grand Prix and believe there are very few such equivalents across the US and around the world, aligned with a national track & field body at least (quite a few private and commercial organizations run their own series in order to lock their most faithful participants in, like airlines, hotel chains or rental car companies do with their point and loyalty programs).

So... drum roll, the 2024 winners' awards are...

(You can click on the screen shot for a larger view.)

When I took over the Chair role and responsibilities in 2017 from Bill Dodson and the original wizard of our MUT Grand Prix, Hollis Lenderking, paired with scorer extraordinaire, Gary Wang, the determination of these payouts was a bit obscure, or let's say ad hoc. Yet, the total purse was double at $6,000 a year! The only real guideline included in our MUT rules was one of equality between genders.

Mastering Excel and aiming at something more deterministic and open and came up with the following rules and computations.

Rules:

Need at least 3 scores to be eligible for any award (plaque, monetary, title); if not, award goes to the next eligible.
For one age group, 1 award per 10 age group participants, rounded up (e.g., if 15 participants, 2 awards, if 22, 3).
Within each age group, eligible participants are sorted by number of points; their rank determine a potential award amount (see levels in attached table); same potential amount across genders.
If the sum of the awards is higher than the allotted pool of money, all awards are pro-rated by the ratio between the allotted pool of money (Pacific Association LDR MUT purse) divided by the sum of the computed/potential awards.
I.e., if sum of potential awards = $6,000 and the LDR-attributed pool = $3,000, then all awards are multiplied by a 0.5 ratio.
If the sum of the awards is lower than the allotted pool of money, we stick to the potential amounts (levels). (Typical of very low participation, like when we resumed after the pandemic.)
Finally, payouts are rounded to whole dollars.

Reference table:

Group ranking Level
1 $200
2 $150
3 $110
4 $80
5 $60
6 $50
7 $40
8 $30

Et voilà, as we say on familiar grounds on the other side of the pond, forgive my French! ;-)

The checks will be sent at the end of this month by another pair of extraordinary Pacific Association volunteers and executive officers of our association, John and Heike Mansoor.

In a few months, hopefully earlier in the year, we'll send the checks for the 2025 season which just completed with our Ruth Anderson Memorial Runs, 2 weeks ago. 'Till then, we'll all have run many more miles. Hopefully!

Ruth Anderson 2025: a key benchmark

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sun, 12 Oct 2025 05:23:00 +0000

Ruth Anderson, a local and international legend who specially contributed to recognition of Masters women in long distance running. Ultra historian, Davy Crockett, has a captivating story on Ruth, much worth reading, which I'm not going to try summarizing here (I did shared a few tidbits in previous posts about this race, that was my 16th participation since 2007, while the event had started 21 years before that already, per Stan Jensen's precious ws100.com website). Next year will mark the 40th anniversary then!

Through this long history, the format of the event has evolved, reflecting the demand of the community with regard to the plethora of ultra races now available, locally, nationally and abroad. When I joined our Pacific Association USA Track & Field MUT (Mountain, Ultra, Trail) Grand Prix 19 years ago, Ruth Anderson was a must. It offered three ultra distances (50K, 50 miles, 100K) and you could pick the distance on the go. With scoring done for Men, Women and Mixed teams, our club, Quicksilver, went to score up to 9 teams! Long are these days gone, this time we had 6 men signed up but not even a team strategy to split 3 on each of the two distances now available (50K and 50 miles). Besides, one of the six didn't show up.

With that, and the fact that I had already won my age group this year, plus the stress at work and the fatigue after coming back from a 6-day conference in Orlando, I picked the 50K with three key goals.

Use it as a test before potentially going to the 50-mile Nationals in November (Tunnel Hill).
Use it as an additional benchmark of the progression of my rebuild after last year's injury (meniscus).
Aim at lowering the M60 course record which Frank Bozanich had set 20 years ago at 3:55:57, an average of 7:36 min/mile pace.

I posted last night about my previous race, a 10K where I was disappointed not to break 40 minutes. And the conclusion that I'm still off top shape by 5 to 10%, I believe mostly because of weaker glutes and hamstrings. This longer race on a rolling course will be quite a key benchmark then.

I got to the parking lot at 5:50 am, there weren't too many runners yet. Well, there could have been many more registrants, it had been challenging to build interest in this crowded ultra racing market, despite such a quality event and a course which has seen several national records being set, a couple of international ones too, and even a world record on 50K in 2003 by CJ Albertson (which I heard will be shooting for another record at the Chicago Marathon tomorrow). Above us, a cloudless sky filled with stars and a half moon still shining.

I missed the pre-race briefing and ultra volunteer Stan Jensen had to tell me twice to get to the remote start line as I was still setting up my drop bag, passed 6:50 (with a start at 7). All good, I still had a few minutes to chat with others at the start line, and see half a dozen of carbon plate shoes among the runners at the front. I teased co-RD Anil, wondering what would Ruth think... At least it meant that this was going to be another fast edition! Here are a few pictures from Shiran, including me goofing around:

Sure enough, I quickly lost track of the first 5 runners, feeling hard enough to hold a 7:15 min/mile pace right off the bat (with age, and also after my first COVID in early 2020, I find that I now need at least one mile for the engine to fully come up to speed and roar). As I was trying to balance pushing and setting up a sustainable pace, Oliver Chan from the Excelsior team tagged along and I couldn't believe how loud his shoes were when ponding the asphalt. Must have been another pair of carbon plates. Thankfully, I was able to distance him just before the end of the first loop, so I could focus on my breathing and own rhythm.

Because of the ondulations of the course the first ten miles oscillated between 7:02 and 7:24 and I was able to keep the average pace under 7:15. Then I started getting too excited lapping the tail of the pack and clocked 6:52 on mile 11, oops!

I covered the first 3 loops in 1:37:30. I'm missing the days I was running loops in 30 minutes flat on the 50-mile but Agnès keeps reminding me to stop comparing to the past... The 4th loop felt slightly harder, yet I was such in great mood that I managed to cover it in 32:15 which would end up being the fastest of the 7 laps. I was still not ready to let go of that great pace, yet wondering when I was going to blow off.

At the end of that 4th lap, about mile 17.5, I made my first stop to drink a pouch of Vespa and grab my second GU2O/Brew bottle. I was drinking GU2O rather consistently, but didn't finish my other bottle of water over the 50K, which was on the low side of hydration.

Another action shot from Shiran:

I was still going strong on lap 5 and started wondering when the leaders will lap me. Lost 6 seconds over lap 4, with 32:21.

Lap 6 started strong, still but I felt a sharp pain under my feet, like my sock was sliding and folding. I first thought I was going to run through it until the finish but the pain was really annoying. I did a stop at the half-way aid station --which ended up not being a water station because someone stole the water jugs in the morning-- to untie my shoe, check the sock and super firmly retie the show. Time lost: 1 minute, a botched Formula 1 pit stop... Which led to the only mile above 8, at 8:07 (mile 25). Yet, it was worth it as I still had a 10K to run. But with these extra 60 seconds, I got passed and lapped by the 50K winner just before finishing my 6th lap. That lap was 33:12.

I started cramping a bit on mile 27 and eased a bit, running the final miles between 7:08 and 7:34. My average pace had increased to 7:14 min/mile although I've been credited 7:18 min/mile overall as my Coros GPS ended up with a distance of 31.33 miles.

Crossed the finish line in 3:46:35, happy to be done but needing some space and time to recover from the effort. Which I made even harder by only taking 2 GU Energy gels. As much as Vespa (and fat) does most of the fueling for me now --and I'm not sponsored anymore, this year-- that was on the very low and risky side of (under) strategic carbs. But I survived and was able to check all my goals this time. Improving the M60 course record by more than 9 minutes, and lowering my 50K time from the 3:51:19 at the Nationals in April and 4:04:17 at Jed Smith in February. Progress!

Shiran catching my 10-minute post-race personal retreat...

Anthony Fagundes, 35, won in 3:12:44. At 56, James Scanlan took 4th overall and 1st Masters in 3:35:44. Knowing James, he was probably after my M50 course record which I'll keep one more year at 3:25:19 (2017, I was 53). I ended up 6th overall and 3rd Masters, in a small field.

I got in time to see the first three women finishing within less than 10 minutes: Brook Bray (Impala, 49, 4:05), Zoe Ray (26, 4:12), and the tireless Verity Breen (Tamalpa, 58, 4:14).

All the results were made available online and live, thanks to Wendell's chip timing, plus the assistance of Stan and a few other volunteers.

Speaking of volunteers, quite a few behind the aid station table, serving drinks and fresh food. And I loved the fresh pizzas which co-RD Shiran brought us.

As for the third co-RD, Rajeev, among other race duties, he was busy handing out finisher medals, top finisher awards and age group plaques. And boosting an exciting vibe too!

I'm still mesmerized by the cool design of the t-shirt, thank you for that too, Shiran!

I stayed for 2.5 more hours, recovering first, and chatting with many; what a cool and knit community assembled in Ruth's memory, she must be delighted to see that! Oh, and I finally handed the 2024 Grand Prix M60 Age Group winner plaque to Charles, making him stop for 30 seconds on his way to another successful 60 miles. That was my new age group last year but I couldn't compete because of the torn meniscus.

I didn't mention the weather but you can see on the picture, the cloudy forecast we received from the race directors didn't materialize and the sky was blue all day! Better to get wrong in that direction! ;-) With that, it ended being a hot afternoon for the 50-milers especially.

Big tanks and kudos to Anil, Shiran and Rajeev for perpetuating this tradition, despite the diminishing enthusiasm and strong competition on the running circuit. Respect to the Pamakids for another impressive show with 19 runners! Was great to see other clubs also represented: Lake Merritt Joggers & Striders, Tamalpa, Excelsior, Impala and Quicksilver of course. Might miss a couple, we'll see in the scoring.

Here is Luciano at the finish (4:42). Steve completed the 50K too in 7:19. And Charles the 50-miler in 9:47.

Belated thanks to Ruth for gathering us in her memory; this is such a precious Bay Area ultra running tradition which I hope will live beyond its 40th anniversary! Long live Ruth's spirit then!

PS: all these running analytics in the Coros app... mind boggling!

Trailblazer 10K 2025: speed harder than distance...

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sat, 11 Oct 2025 02:34:00 +0000

2 weeks has passed and a new race tomorrow morning so better get this race report off my chest tonight! I've ran so much in Shoreline Park, quite a few 10K races there --that was life time number 62, and counting-- and hundreds of training runs when my company, ILOG, was based in Mountain View. Another connection is with the organizing Friends of the Stevens Creek Trail: you've seen dozens of posts on my blog relating trails along our local Stevens Creek and Stevens Creek Reservoir. Plus my previous and original running club, the Stevens Creek Striders.

To the risk of killing some of the suspense, I made it to the (age group) podium again and one of the organizers asked how many times I had run this race. I replied with 14, only to feel bad all the way back home knowing I had made this up and might have inflated this impressive number, out of the total 30 editions. Especially knowing that I had quite a few conflicts at the end of September, like the 150-mile Spartathlon in Greece 2 weeks ago, a few runs of Firetrails 50-mile that same weekend, and a couple of years missing because of injury, and a few business trip conflicts too. Well, I had not checked but 14 was the right answer, bingo!

What a series: 2002 (34:39), 2003 (34:52), 2006 (34:16), 2007 (33:57), 2009 (37:14), 2010 (34:25), 2011 (34:24), 2012 (35:21), 2013 (36:24, 1 day after the appropriately-named Stevens Creek 50K!), 2014 (35:59, 7 days after a podium at the 24-hour Nationals), 2015 (36:29, 7 days after Ohlone 50K), 2017 (36:07), 2018 (38:18, followed by a 50K training run right after the race), and 2025 then.

The RD briefing, mostly to invite us to participate to the raffle.

Oops, there was supposed to be an easy-to-detach ticket on the bib but it turned out to a paper-cutting workshop (and line, but there was still time before the start hopefully):

There was some construction on the traditional course, adding some a gravel section to get to the entrance of the park, on the way out. My last 10K was last December, as part of a DoDouble where you first race a 10K, then a 5K, with 90 minutes between both start times. Coming back from my meniscus injury (7 months off running), I had run 40:36 and 20:08, ending up winning a huge trophy for the best age-graded performance. This time, without having to save energy for a 5K afterwards, I was hoping to at least break 40 minutes.

As you can imagine with a flat race, it started very fast. I had heard two guys on the start line talking about a 5 minute/mile pace, which I used to hold but haven't for quite a few years now, even at the track. I covered the first mile in 6:27 which was already feeling way too fast based on my recent training.

Second mile was 6:42, included that new gravel section through the large parking lot at the entrance of Shoreline Park. I could hear a runner breathing in my neck through the third mile which we ran in 6:39, then 6:37 for the 4th mile during which he passed me. I couldn't hold his pace but still managed a faster 5th mile at 6:35.

The last mile is interesting as we get back on the bike path which is shared with the 5K loop, hence bumping into the pack of that other race, starting 15 minutes after the 10K. The challenge is not only to slalom to pass the slower runners, but also avoid those still on their out segment. Including a few strollers, not to forget trail users on their bikes. Despite all these obstacles, and in my red zone, I clocked 6:29 for mile 6. But the effort wasn't enough to make my goal, crossing the finish line in 40 minutes and... 30 embarrassing seconds.

I know, everything is relative, I still won my M60 age group by a good margin, and it wasn't a very competitive race. Speaking of relativity, albeit not light speed, I did check a few age-graded data points:

David Rogawski, 38, won the race in a time of 36:11.1. That's a 74.7% age-graded or equivalent of 35:20.
In the Masters, 6th place overall, Tipp Moseley, 44, ran 34:59. 75.45% age-graded, or 34:59.
The one who impressed me the most in the top 10 is 15-year old, Cody Nemec, who finished 4th overall in a time of 37:11. I would have expected a much higher age-grading as it only came as 76.14% or 34:10.
On the other end of the spectrum, the oldest finisher, Jun Amano, clocked 1:03:45.9, at 78! An age-grade of 63% or 41:54.
As for me, the age-grading came up with 80.82% and a normalized time of 32:40.6. I haven't checked the 190 finishers, that might be a top score, there is that!

All results on the chip timing company website.

I believe I'm still at 90 to 95% of my capacity and the missing gap has to see with glutes, mainly, and hamstring for the leg power, speed, kick. It has been a year since I resumed training consistently after the 7 months off last year (15 months since the knee arthroscopy).

Before the award ceremony, I went back on the course to run a 5K cool down 5K in 22:39.

Super cool to have a 5K participant, Sameer, introduce himself to share that he enjoys reading my blog.

Oh, and that other sweet tradition of the past 3 decades with Hobbie's contributing their delicious sheets of coffee cake, yummy!

Our M60 podium:

Another artistic design of the race t-shirt, and special thanks to the sponsors which help even more money to keep extending the Stevens Creek Trail from the Bay to the Cupertino hills.

Now on to our traditional Ruth Anderson Memorial Endurance Run tomorrow, running loops around Lake Merced in San Ferancisco. I'm still not sure if I'll stop at 50K or go on to the 50-mile (we can decide at the 50K mark). And I'm checking this time in case someone asks me again, this will be my 16th participation to that one.

See you next year, all Friends of the Stevens Creek Trail!

Running in San Benedetto del Trento, and around

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 21:34:00 +0000

It was my second visit to this seaside town on the Adriatic. Last time was for the wedding of close friends. This time, one of their daughters, 34 years later. 34 years ago, I was barely an occasional runner... This time, after not running much while zipping through Rome and the Vatican on my way, I managed to squeeze in two 25K runs between celebrations and social gatherings, not bad.

One of these was straightforward, literally and figuratively. Literally because the beach is a straight line of almost 10 miles. Figuratively because it's the safest place to run, on almost uninterrupted side walks. My other run was in the country side, on roads, and that was a completely different endeavor.

The nearby hills are amazing: at every turn, or rather every high point on ridges, you'll find a medieval village with castles, churches and houses in pristine conditions, 10 to 7 centuries after they were built! While there are so many ruins in Rome, this area has avoided most wars, hence the level of preservation. Way to transport you in the Middle Ages!

From a running standpoint, that means quite some climbing to go from one of these villages to the other, and to cross valleys. But the real challenge, security wise, is of course to avoid cars on the winding and narrow back roads. Many people live in these villages and commute to San Benedetto so the traffic is quite important. While I trust Italians for their driving address and agility, it's the blind curves which are dangerous. Even running on the left to see the incoming traffic. In many turns, the road is so narrow, there isn't even a shoulder to escape to. Just sayin', I decline any responsibility if you follow my track on these roads, chasing these worthy views, visits and hill training.

Here are the two fly overs, with pictures, to give you a sense and feel of these views (click on each image below, or the links. And there is a toggle to switch on the music if you want.).

Beachfront run:

Countryside run:

Cheers and long life to the newly weds, their families and friends. Arrivederci!

PS: so many hills filled with olive trees, that reminded me of my olive tree encounter on Black Mountain in August.

More pictures.

Running in Rome: sightseeing is another sport!

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 01:53:00 +0000

I spent 2 nights in Rome, on my way to a wedding on the Adriatic. I spent the second and full day at the Vatican, from 8 to 5, kind of a day at the tourist office! The museums and the Sistine Chapel of course, in the morning, a brief sighting of the Pope's car as he was leaving the public audience, the Saint Peter, with a climb to the very top of the its dome, by the stair case, the ultra way! (There is an elevator option.) I had planned on running through Rome to come back to my hotel but it was hot and I was toasted. It might be embarrassing to admit, I've always found easier to run for hours, than visiting a museum! The slow pace, the incessant stopping, not my sport! But, once in a while, you have to absorb such a wealth of history and culture, it would be a shame to miss that place.

It was also my 71th country visited to date. I have to say that this was a bit special. First, no border to cross, I was wondering and I was carrying my passports, in case. Second, I prefer when I stay at least one night in these countries, as an eligibility minimum. Like I'm not counting countries I just changed planes. But getting a room at the Vatican is something better suited to cardinals, occasionally!

So, no run on Wednesday but a short tour of Rome upon arrival on Tuesday afternoon, before work meetings through the evening.

It wasn't my first time in Rome but it had been years and for work meetings. I had seen on Google Maps that the Coliseum was open until 7:30 pm, that was my first target. I arrived there around 6:15 but they weren't taking any more visitors, just letting those in finish their tour.

From there, I hopped on the huge cobblestones of the Forum, then continued toward the Pantheon.

It was the first week of September: slightly less tourists than May-August but still quite a crowd to navigate through or around on the sidewalks. Plus locals as the weather was great and kids are still on their summer break. Hence the title, this is quite a sport which requires high focus and many stops to take the street traffic into account.

Enough words, a video fly over with pictures is worth a million, in a much more compact and convenient way, there you are (click on this link or the picture below).

As usual, that does not replace a real visit, I hope you have the opportunity if you haven't been to Rome and the Vatican already. As they say, all roads lead to Rome!

Laborious training on Labor Day weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 21:22:00 +0000

I know, it’s shocking, I’ve been calling my running hobby, my second job. Short of family genes when it comes to sport, of training at altitude like the Kenyans, but not short of being… short, which might help when running hills but isn’t the best trait to go fast on roads, I’ve had to work hard to move up from the middle of the pack where I started in my first road races in France. I was barely training, swamped into the startup life, an amazing mix of excitement, passion and workaholism. I started running seriously upon moving to the Bay Area at the end of 1998. We were coming to spend 2 years in the US and I had set the goal of running a marathon, before our return to France. Then that turned to 27 marathons and 203 ultra races, and counting. Oops! Got addicted to the thrill of testing and pushing the envelope. I didn’t even know about Boston (the marathon) when I ran my first marathon in San Francisco. 3:30 after quite some… work already. Then San Jose in 3:25, albeit the additional work put into it. I was quite disappointed by the small increment but went on persevering. Working harder. Even starting speed work at the track (De Anza College) thanks to Don Murdoch’s motivating coaching. Will never forget, how that gave me the discipline to work harder and also be curious about running tips from the other members of the Stevens Creek Striders club. While I’ve been hard enough on myself not to need much additional help, I’m super grateful to that group which got me on the right (single) track. And foot. Plus the connection to Western States by becoming the aid station captain at Last Chance, for a few years. More fun. And more work too!

Fast forward 20 years and I need to work even harder to rebuild muscles and mind after two annoying injuries: a fissured tendon at the end of 2018 and torn meniscus in 2024, the latter leading to 7 months off running. Hard physically, and even harder mentally. To most watching, I’m back. Yes, mostly. But, and although not measured scientifically of course, my guess or estimate is that my shape is still 10% lower than where it could have been without these injuries. Speaking if science, maybe I should listen more to my Coros watch because it surely has A LOT to say, most notably that I rarely wait to fully recover between training days, and that some of these runs end up concluding in an Exhausted mode. Plus more than a dozen of metrics that I haven’t delved into. One is intriguing me the most since I resumed training a year ago, though: the predicted marathon time. In almost a year of, to continue on the theme of this post, rather hard word, I only shaved a few minutes off it and it’s now plateauing between 3:09 and 3:10. Not bad compared to the 3:45 Boston Qualifier time for my age group but 8 minutes off the law I had established in my early Masters years of running road marathons in 2 hours plus my age in minutes. Would now place me at 3:01… In optimal racing conditions that is. I’m thinking I should try again.

Writing this I reflect on the contrast there is between just working harder, versus with more discipline. And, yes, I tend to slide toward the former, just logging more miles and aiming at pushing the pace. I should do more cross-training, more speed work (scoop, Cupertino High School is refreshing their track of 20 years!) Meanwhile, it has been closed since June…), more strength training, more stretching. More…

Back to the title, how much labor did I put in this weekend? I had big plans, I wanted to at least do a 50-mile run to Fremont and back, like I did so many while (over)training for Spartathlon in 2023, with a couple of 200-mile weeks. On Saturday morning, we had a small backyard maintenance project, so it was already getting hot when I was ready to go, around 10:30. And rather late anyway for an 8 to 9-hour training run. I went on to run 25K along the Cupertino rail track, down to Campbell.

I was resolute to leave early on Sunday, to take advantage of a cool morning. Woke up at 5:30, got some breakfast and was ready to go by 7:15, loaded with a few GU Energy gels and chews, 8 S!Caps and my two Ultimate Direction bottles. But with a problem right off the bat: just before leaving, Agnès asking me “do you really need to do a 50-mile, why?” Ahh, the why which is questioning all that hard work and mining the mind and motivation. She was right, my next ultras will be in October and November so, why training hard now. Well, just because training for an ultra is a long game. Just because, you’d better do these long runs way ahead rather than showing up tired on race day (hence the tapering). But, again, it’s not science, or it is rocket science as a matter of fact. As we say in our ultra community, we are experiments of one.

The first mile was the toughest. First, nowadays with the additional years, and running almost every day, my body takes more time to get to a comfortable pace. On one end, it was 65F and it felt really nice for running, before the peak of 90F expected in the afternoon on the other side of the Bay. And I was happy with the minimal soreness after yesterday’s 15 miles. On the other, that “but why” resonating in my head… I settled in the next 10 miles for a pace of 8 minutes/mile, plus or minus 2 seconds. The streets were so quiet on this Sunday morning that I didn’t have to even stop my watch to cross De Anza boulevard, then Homestead or even Fremont. By mile 5.5 I was done with the street part of the course and on for 40 miles on the bike path to Fremont and back.

Because I didn’t have to stop my watch to cross the large arteries of Cupertino and Sunnyvale, I decided it was an opportunity to run to Fremont without any stop. I was on track until mile 10.5 when I got into this major trail closure at Shoreline. It’s unclear what they are working on except that they are moving mountains, literally. Between the creation of a new pond for wildlife, or expanding the marsh, they are also raising the levée along the sailing lake of Shoreline. There I was with my goal of not stopping my watch, I did press the button while find a forbidden way to go around... At least it was Sunday before Labor Day so there was no soul working on the pharaonic thing.

While running through the Palo Alto Baylands, I crossed path with good friends walking their dog. Another good stop to catch-up. And talk about the why again. At that point, it was around 9:30 am and the temperature had already risen significantly. I decided I was going to cut this training run short, to only 50K, by turning around at the defunct Palo Alto yacht club. I contemplated adding the loop around the airport but the why had killed me. Well, not just that, it was also getting harder to maintain the 8:00 pace. I refilled my bottles at the parking lot, at mile 16, and retraced my route back. With the heat, I lost quite some sodium --this royal blue enhance the trace of salt-- as well as a few pounds of (body) water. In the why registry, not sure I need heat training anymore for the rest of the season...

This Monday, aka Labor Day, I was flying to Italy in the afternoon, for a wedding there, plus a visit of the Vatican. I rounded up this training weekend with another 15.5 miles (25K) by running loops in the neighborhood. It felt a bit less laborious, but still quite some labor to finish with an average pace of 7:57. For a total of 100K over the 3 days, and a 91-mile week, for a big change. The left knee is a bit sensitive, just enough to remind me that I can’t log as much as I used to…

Finishing this post after a good 6-hour sleep on my flight to Rome, thanks to an upgrade in Business. During my Monday run, the street traffic was pretty much inexistant, the neighborhood looked dead, except for some an interesting distraction: with so many people out of town, the Cupertino Fire brigade was dispatched to test all the fire hydrants. I stopped at one to thank one of the firefighters and teased him that this was work, on a Labor Day! He replied that, since there were on duty anyway, they may do something useful! At least I wasn't the only one working on our streets on Labor Day!

And you, did you work this Monday? At work or on your running?

800 blog posts and counting: should I, should we?

noreply@blogger.com (Jean Pommier) — Sun, 31 Aug 2025 02:02:00 +0000

I love the expression doing something, and counting! I like persistence and, to no surprise on this blog, endurance. I like to stick to it. I admit, border stubbornness at times... Hopefully not too much boringness though...

(Picture generated with Gemini 2.5 Flash)

When I started blogging in March 2007, I had no idea where that addition to my running journey, or addiction, would take me. Blogging was getting popular and shorten the delays of hearing about races in particular, compared to the monthly rhythm of UltraRunning Magazine for instance. It was also a great way to hear about tips and training techniques from some elite runners. I've fond memories of reading about the crazy mileage Anton Kupricka was putting into hilly training, in the 100-150 mile range, week after week. Anton also used Blogger and published 348 posts from 2007 to 2014 (Riding the wind), and a few beautiful stories recently on Substack.

But we can't talk about blogging persistence without mentioning Scott Dunlap's A trail runner's blog. I counted 1,029 posts to date and that doesn't tell the full story as Scott has continued to be at the forefront of social media, jumping and embracing other platforms, including Substack too.

I'm not going to invest days in an exhaustive survey of the whole blogosphere, there are so many blogs out there, most not showing any activity for 5 or 10 years. And there are the outliers; what about Jon Teisher's Pitt Brownie blog which has been active for 20 straight years (2005-2025) and 6,945 posts (including a peak year at 941 in 2009)! That has to be a record for a personal blog, that is not counting ultra trail running news platform such as I Run Far.

Back to my Farther Faster mantra, and blog name; I had settled for an average of 1 post a week, a cadence which I held for 12 years (2007-2018) before falling off pace after my first major running injury, a fissure of my hamstring tendon. If there is one thing which I find hard about injury is not running of course. And, this blog being about my personal running journey, no running means not much to share.

In the age of social media and instant news publishing, even live webcast and running tracking at some events, there is an abundance of content. Once in a while, like that happened on the first climb at Tamalpa Headlands 50K 2 weeks ago, a runner would tell me that they enjoyed reading a race report, and that makes my day! Plus comfort me in the crazy idea of persevering, although the engagement isn't as strong as 10 or 15 years ago. Back then, Mom was my most ardent reader, leveraging her mastery of English she gained while working in London then serving as Executive Assistant to Christian Dior's leadership team. But then she got hit by one of the many forms of dementia and left us last year.

In addition to race reports, I used to travel a lot for work, around the world, and really enjoyed discovering cities on foot, then sharing tips for other visitors. These posts are typically tagged as "Running in..." the respective continent. See in the right margin. Another friend who left us since enjoyed this way to travel virtually around the world as she couldn't fly herself anymore.

At 52 posts a year, it was going to take 20 years to get to 1,000 articles. With another major injury last year (torn/fractured meniscus), I had to be off running for 7 months, and another big break for the blog. Incidentally, the pandemic had its own toll too.

Meanwhile, it's cool to see that the most used search keyword getting people to my blog isn't my name but Micah True! He left us way too soon... Blogger has changed its analytics platform along the way so I'm missing the stats of the early days. Also, not clear how many of these views are from humans or machines...

As for the country origins, I certainly posted a few articles about my runs in Singapore but is that really the reason for 3rd place?

So, what's ahead? I'd like to keep going if for only one thing: to keep running memories easily accessible and organized. For me but also to contribute to the journaling of our local ultra running community in particular. UltraSignup has ingested race results from many events pre dating this platform. Some would actually say that they stole them, a few other registration platforms having fought back and recovered their own results. But these logs only tell part of the story. What about the weather, what about course conditions and changes, what about the volunteers, what about the perks? Short of covering the whole field in my reports, I try to capture these elements at least. Not to mention adding pictures.

That's for the coverage of races. As my IT career is winding down and kept me in the Bay Area these past 2 years, I hope to visit many more countries and sharing about some cool places to run. I've visited 70 countries so far, almost 130 to go, stay tuned! And if 70 looks like a big number, my friend Chuck has passed 130. In ultra, there is always someone who has done something bigger and more extravagant, that emulation and inspiration keeps us on our toes to keep moving ahead!

I always much appreciate reading comments so, if you did read to that point, thank you for letting me know what you think, including what you'd like to see, between some innovation or the good ol' classic...

And now, cheers to many more miles together around the blogosphere then!

PS: never resisting to pinpoint the strengths and flaws of generative AI these days... Granted, I used the free Gemini 2.5 Flash LLM for these pictures, surely the pro and paid models can and would do better.

That was the last of 4 prompts and I thought that, finally, it captured the sequence correctly (mind you, I had to state the three numbers in my prompt). Yet, as a mechanical engineer, that type of rotating counter, with multiple windows, each with scrolling digits, doesn't make any sense. A proof, if needed, that there is no understanding of how things work, in an LLM, just a bunch of pixels arranged to hopefully make some sense. Yet, the rendering as a potential real picture remains quite amazing, especially in a few seconds. It would have probably taken hours if not days in some Adobe software for an artist to create something like this.

The interesting trick of this image is that this is the downloaded high resolution picture of the one I used at the top of the post, which I took straight from the screen. The difference shows a kind of movement, which is even better. Except that the simulated movement doesn't make much sense, mechanically speaking. It's also odd to have 778 before 799, isn't it? But, again, for something free and quick, amazingly good enough!

And now, the cherry on the cake, the real hallucination!