Race Report: Angel Island 12k Trail Run
August 9, 2008
First, to get you in the proper mood, cue the tunes.
Alright, got that playing in the background? Good…very good
So Saturday. It was cold. It was early. It was Epic.
On this fateful day Savannah (sissy), Beth, and I made our way to Tiburon, where we got on a ferry with lots of other trail running fanatics.
Our destination: Angel Island.
Our mission: the Envirosports 12k Angel Island trail run of glory.
Beth’s mission: the Envirosports 25k Angel Island trail run of glory (+1)
(side note: I feel comfortable saying we were surrounded by “fanatics” because it was fairly obvious from the number of inside jokes and traditions thrown out by the race director that pretty much everybody there had done this race before. For instance, pause the music and check out one tradition in action: the “singing” of “America the beautiful” by a bunch of runners.)
Alright, turn the music back on. Good. I hope you’re feeling that shiat.
So, back to the story, funny thing… I had called and/or emailed and/or IM’ed sissy about a zillion times reminding her to bring water and some calories to this race because there would be no aid stations. And, let me tell you, running up and down hills for a little over seven miles without water sounds like a big dose of being in hell to me. So what happens race day morning? Savannah’s prepared. And me? Not only did I not eat breakfast, I also failed to bring water. But as luck would have it, Beth is one of those über prepared types (not surprising… she’s also an extreme-triathelete goddess who has successfully completed an Ironman! And we all know what type of personality is required to do that!) So Beth not only friggin baked and brought some delicious carrot cake (without frosting…sadly), she had extra water bottles in her trunk. So I happily ate said carrot cake and snatched said water. And again, all was good in the world.
Now, as many of you faithful blog readers know, this race was the encore to Savannah and my first trail run – which was a 10k. Since that one and this one I’ve been doing a lot of biking. Not so much running, but logging a lot of miles on the bike. As in, looking at my calendar, it’s got two runs marked. Two runs (each four miles) and ten rides (where the shortest [and most often ridden] rides are 43 miles). And, since the last race, Savannah had run somewhere between five to seven times. But with only two(ish) runs in the last week. So this race was going to be interesting!
And, after Beth zoomed off for her 25k race, Savannah and I got lined up and wanted to let you know how things were going so far…
So after that, we were off!
Now this run had what felt like a very different elevation profile from the previous run. Whereas Sequoia had some ridiculous “holy gods can I even run up/down this without going into cardiac arrest and/or tumbling to my doom (respectively)?!”, Angel Island was all about the gradual moderate uphill. Which I love love love. Your heart rate steadies and you get in the zone as you just cruise up. That and the views were gorgeous.
But of course, everyone is a bit different in their running preferences. For instance, we found out that Savannah in fact is a much bigger fan of the steep quick hills. And how did we find this out? Well, I kept accidentally speeding up and Savannah, bless her, would kindly remind me to “slow the hell down or go away”. So, after we calibrated ourselves to each other, things went a bit better for the sissy-team-spirit bit.
Here’s us after that first main climb (this, to note, was before sissy-calibration)
Savannah also had her first taste of mental games and fantasies one can play when racing. There were a few women who were doing the run hard then walk thing and Savannah was having none of it. We were running up this hill and I was totally in the zone when Savannah whispers “they are so annoying! I hate them!” So, to solve this issue, Savannah decides it’s high time we pick up the pace (much to my dismay, on this steeper bit) and get away from them. So me and my much shorter self picked up the pace and frantically tried and keep up with gazelle-sprinter Savannah. ‘Twas a success.
With Savannah leading the way, the pace was brought up again once I let her know all the uphill was over and it was downhill to the finish. A few others ended up behind us and I think this motivated Savannah to really kick it up. And so, we were zooming! Eventually we got stuck behind a lot of people and Savannah wasn’t exactly sure how to get around them so I took the lead and tried to pick up the pace again. We were making awesome time (and saw a few others sacrificed to the down-hill-tumble gods) all the way to the finish. And Savannah, with her iron will, really gave it 100%. At one point she gasped, “I’m going to cry. I just want to cry it’s so hard”. But I
a) knew how close we were to the finish at that point
b) thought, “well, she can still speak! So we’re ok!”
c) felt the pressure of the goal Savannah had set for us. When we first signed up for this race Savannah said “let’s do this 12k in the same time we did our previous 10k”. So that meant shaving off some serious time. I really wanted her to see it was possible and so, I really wanted to run her to her gazelle limits.
Here we are coming in to the finish (you can see she was a little feisty)
For our previous run we finished that 10k in about 1:31:06. And what was our time on this race?
drum roll please
1:29:19!!!! So that’s a huge improvement. To be fair, this course was much more runner friendly, but still! I was so so happy that we made it!
And it wasn’t long at all after our finish that I spotted Beth, running goddess, coming in for her own 25k kick ass finish! Here she is
Turns out she won for her age division! (now she of course didn’t tell me this, I had to do my own investigative reporting). I’m just bummed I didn’t get her autograph! 
So that was the race! I really loved it and highly recommend this course to those who are into the gradual continuous climbing style. But, I would not really recommend this as a first-time 25k course. The 25k course people run the 12k loop twice, which means they have to run right down to the finish line and then run right back up that hill – and I think that’s very mentally challenging. Especially for a first timer.
The best ending to this day was sitting on the ferry going back to Tiburon and watching as Beth took off her shoe and revealed a totally bloody sock (and, seconds later, foot). We aren’t quite sure where the blood is coming from (I voted nail-skin area), but I sure know all the other runners near us sure appreciated that special share!
After that I went home and went back to bed. The end!
To see all the pictures, go here.
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Yay! Second race of the sissys. That was really beautiful and fun. Beth was as fast as she was funny. It was a good day.