In 2013 I ran my first ultramarathon, and did 50 flat miles at a 24 hour even (Nanny Goat). In 2014 I ran my second ultra again at Nanny Goat. I ran 55 miles, took a nap, then woke up and ran to 62 miles. I'd been eyeing the Avalon 50 mile benefit run for a while. I have many friends who ran it and loved it, and convinced me it'd be a fun 50 to run, so many months ago I signed up. My mother, who is often my running partner, signed up too and we decided to make a vacation out of it. We had a training plan, a hotel booked, and were all set.
The 2015 Avalon 50 Mile Benefit run was on January 10, 2015. I made reservations for the 2pm Catalina Express to Avalon the Friday before the race. I met my Mom and Dad at the terminal around noon, luggage in hand. I had an IPA with my friend Daniel Guzman in the terminal. My friends Liz, Danny, and Jeff (Liu) were on the ship with us, and since the weather was nice we found a spot up top after we stowed our luggage.
The ride was about an hour long. We stayed at the Pavillion Hotel in Avalon, checked in, dropped our luggage, and went to Antonio's for some Italian food before the race. I had their Alfredo pasta and it was very good. So was the Guinness. From the restaurant I walked to the expo down the street.
The expo was no frills. You wait in line, sign a waiver, get your bib, get your shirt. You leave your drop bag there that night. I used a sharpie to write my name and bib number on my duffle bag before I left it in the pile. So much work went into planning what went into that bag.
At 6:30 the race director had a quick talk about the race. He went over the rules, the course, told us to check in before the start so they knew we were there (no frills). He also announced no early start. My heart sank.
I've read, to estimate your time for Avalon, double your LA (or other road race) Marathon time, and add two hours. For me, that would be around 14 hours. The cutoff for Avalon is 12. My friend Danny talked to a man who'd ran many Avalon runs before. This man was Kent Holder, and it was his 33rd time running Avalon. I laughed and told him I'm 32, so I better listen to his advice. He told me I'd make it, and if not before the cutoff I would be close enough that I would be fine. I appreciated all his advice, and went back to the hotel and sketched out a pace plan to get us in before the cutoffs.
Five A.M came too soon. I suppose that was better than the early start, though. I had coffee with Liz and Danny. Jeff came by to have coffee. We all moseyed to the start. I was chatting away with some other runners from LA and before I knew it the crowd started running! I quickly turned on my Garmin and off we went.
We spent the first mile or two with my friend Wilmer, who was running his first 50. It was pitch black out, and our Black Diamond headlamps were on guiding us. We started to climb, climb, climb. This was rough because our legs weren't warmed up yet, but I was happy with our steady pace. At mile 5 you reach the top of the hill. The sun was rising through the clouds at this point, and I had to stop and take some pictures.
So did Chris Frost, the Mayor of Malibu. Well, he said he's not really the mayor, but that's his nickname. We ran together for a mile or two talking about phones and the Santa Monica Mountains. At mile 6ish we reached the first aid station. I looked at my Garmin and saw we were making damn good time, but knew it was early in the game. We each grabbed a water, some pretzles, and kept going. It started drizzling on us, so we kept our Nike Cyclone rain jackets on, thinking it'd let up. HA.
The course is all fire road, with some patches of pavement. It kept raining on us off and on until about mile 10, when it really started and never let up. After a nice downhill We hit the Whacko Cafe Aid Station. We refilled our water, grabbed some oreos and a pb+j, and off we went.
Then we hit the mud. There was a nice uphill section that was not runable, because of the mud. It was sticking to our shoes, and we were sliding every which way on the course. At one point I did the splits from my legs sliding out from under me. I also pulled a muscle in my hip, trying to stabilize myself. Damn mud. I later heard one woman fell and dislocated her shoulder, and many others had some sliding issues. The worst part of the mud was the downhill portions. I love to fly downhill. I slid downhill like a penguin.
This was where I ran into my friend, and other gal who also trains with Keira Henninger's Dirt Divas, Miranda and her friend Adrian who were running together. It was so special sharing the course with such strong runners who are even stronger people. Congratulations Miranda on your first 50! After a while I embraced it, when I could, and just bombed down in the mud hoping and praying I didn't eat it with every step. There were parts where I couldn't run though, and I was really worried that would slow us down too much. Surprisingly, we made it to the halfway point in good time.
To get to the turnaround you run down to Two Harbors, across the Isthmus, and back up to the Sign. You're supposed to mark your bib with something special there, but that special something wasn't working in the rain. I took a picture of us there instead, as proof we made it!
On the way back we hit the Aid Station, and I downed a beer (thank you!) and took what little food they had left. We were getting to be the back of the pack, so it seemed, so off we went. Back up the hill. We were worried about our time so we ran everything we could - uphill and downhill. It was very difficult. Mud stuck to our shoes, we slid, we screamed and laughed. I'll admit, for as much as I love running with my mom, we didn't talk much during this run. It was very hard. We had to focus on not falling. The rain was pouring and we were drenched, so we kept our faces down to keep the rain off. I couldn't really see, either, as my glasses were wet and foggy. We trudged on.
We made it back to the Whacko Cafe well before the cutoff. We took some pb+j and more oreo cookies, quickly downed hot miso soup, and moved on again. It was so wet at this point the poor volunteers at the AS were using palm fronds as planks in the water. We gave up on dodging the puddles of water and streams. Every time we tried to dodge the water we'd get stuck in mud, so we decided to stop going around and just take the path of least resistance. this really mattered in the end.
From Whacko Cafe was my least favorite part of the course, where it seems flat, but is a gradual uphill. I didn't realize it was uphill, so we ran it as much as we could but we started getting sore around mile 35 from all the mud.
We made it to the Eagles Nest Aid Station before the cutoff. We were drenched, and starting to get cold. We just chugged some gingerale and kept moving. They let us know from this point it was 6 miles of flat, so we had to haul to get there in time. It hurt, but we ran. It wasn't much of a run. I've never spent so much time with my mom not talking to her. The mud was still bad, but it was runable. We were so tired we even ran up some hills, because we couldn't feel it anymore. At the pumphouse AS they were taking our numbers to let the finish line know we were 6 miles. They said "one more hill, then downhill." That trek was a pain. I don't even think we took any food. If we did, I don't remember. We just rolled through to finish.
When we got to the top of the hill, I looked at my mom, and we started running. We ran our hearts out. After about a mile I needed to walk for a minute to catch my breath. We were sprinting with all our might. I walked for about 10 seconds then we resumed the bombing downhill. We passed a ton of runners walking down the hill. It was paved, which made it easy to navigate. My glasses were fogged up and wet, though, so I couldn't see well. One runner asked how we could be running, and didn't it hurt? Well, yes I told them - everything hurt so we might as well run. We knew when we ran past the gate we had less than a mile. I was so excited. I was going to finish this! I told my mom I'd cry if I weren't so tired. We were at 12ish hours.
I saw a red blur, and it was our friend Danny, waiting for us. He ran us in to the finish line. I felt bad I couldn't see and puddlestomped next to him a few times. It was very nice of him to bring us in!
My dad was at the finish line, too. I didn't see him until after we finished, but it was a nice surprise. Success!
Reflecting back on why it went as well as it did, I ate really well the whole week leading up to the race. I got plenty of sleep, especially the Thursday night before. I drank lots of coconut water every day leading up to the event. The night before I had fettuccine Alfredo with artichokes for dinner, and a Guinness or two. I ate my inari for breakfast an hour before the race. I had my Hammer Endurolytes every 45 minutes to an hour, and honey stinger chews when I got snacky. I was very lucky I felt so good. It was a good day.
After the race I went with Liz to get a glass of wine, then I showered and we were off to Luau Larry's for buffalo burgers and some IPA! Good times with good friends. Results were we came in in 12:22 and change.
I want to break 12 hours next year.
After the race on Sunday I took an epsom salt bath with a lush bath bomb. I finally cleaned my shoes. yikes!
