Saturday 051609 Sunshine Canyon Hill Climb

• Got out today for the Sunshine Canyon Hill Climb.  Again, I did not have high expectations of results here – but wanted to get in a good climbing effort, get my arse kicked some, take stock of where I am at and “blow out some rust.”  In that regard, “mission accomplished.”  I got bit, chewed up, spit out and ground up.  :)
• Warmed up and felt a bit fatigued in the calves and ankles.  Saw a good number of the typical folks, including Andy A (who would take second), Lucho, Travis Macy ( winner I heard), Anna P (who is beyond a bad ass in the world of mountain running), Lisa G, various other blog-o-sphere lurkers, trail and mountain runners, co-workers, and lots of other fit people.  Saw Dave Mackey during the warm up – but he was not racing as he is readying for WS100.  The whole scene was a second fiddle to the bike race that was also going on up the canyon.  I watched the starts of these races with a bit of an awe – as I don’t know jack about cycling or racing (I can ride a bike to get to places but that is about it).  Even the concept of a “neutral start” was foreign to me.
• Weather was perfect.  The race field was small – maybe 80 people?  I don’t know and results are not posted yet.   We got out and I tried to take a little advantage of the downhill to get some momentum, and maybe shake out into feeling particularly stellar.  A pack of ten still quickly separated and I was not in it.  The slighter hills began about a quarter mile in and I tried to get into a groove.  I could tell it was going to be, as I expected a grind and not a great one.  I worked myself up to a guy in black who thought was Ted Kennedy and so I said “come on Ted.”  He glanced at me with a weird look and I realized it was not Ted and he upped the pace.  Oops.  Sorry.  He and I worked back and forth for a bit.  I got a bit tired of the game and put in a quick surge to move ahead and take the inside track of the road.  In retrospect, this is not the brightest thing in the first 1.5 miles of a near 10k race – particularly a hill climb where things are going to separate out anyway.  He swung wide and drove past me and stayed there … for a long time.
• At two miles, where the grade steepened, I was not making great progress and a small parade of racers made their way past me, including Anna P (who led this parade).  I tried to make some attempts at recovery in the flatter sections, but was not making up any places or ground.  Again, just tried to focus on grinding up, keeping the groove – even though I knew this was a mediocre outing.
• The elevation charts don’t show it but there is some significant downhill sections in this race in the second half.  Truly a key to this race is being able to run the ups, but then also transition the downhills into some quick stuff.  “Teddy K” had bridged about 200 yards on me by four miles, but he started to come back a bit with some of the downs.  In the last down, before the last three quarters of a mile up, I was able to come just about even with him.  Got the kick in the pants motivation not to get passed going into the chute.  Finished in 45:51 – probably 20th place.
• Seriously – I had been finished about a minute when Andy showed up and asked if I was ready to run down.  I was MOST CERTAINLY WAS NOT but I did not want to get cold, and I knew Andy had already been waiting like five minutes.  So we started – and holy crap we were moving.  We spotted John Tribbia and Mike Selig up ahead – and put in this crazy ass surge to catch them.  This was almost as hard as the race!  The GPS said we were moving at 4:20 pace!  John and Mike looked at as like we were insane (umm, yeah!) … still I guess good work to prep for the RT at PP.
• Andy showed me on the way down a few places where he does repeats to prep for Mt Washington, and some side roads.  It was good to catch up with him.  Once we got down, I changed into trainers and added on another very easy four miles.
• It was a good day.  Good to get out there and get beat up a bit … it is humbling, motivating, inspiring, grounding … good stuff.  I love it even when I don’t love the results. 
• Soo … jog down, come by the start tent and ask if they have results up yet.  Here’s the conversation.  ME:  “Hi, have you posted results yet?” RACE GUY WITH BRITISH-SOUTH AFRICAN-AUSSIE ACCENT (sorry, I am not smart enough to know the diff)”  “Yes, I have them hear in my hand.  I am using them to determine prize winners.”  ME:  “Oh, okay – well when you are done, can I look at them?”  HIM:  “What was your time?  Maybe you won a prize.”  ME:  “Umm, well, I don’t think so … I’d be surprised if that was the case.”  HIM:  “what was your time?”  ME:  “oh … 45 minutes or so.”  HIM (looking at the results) “Good, good … hold on, yup … well, hold on, well maybe … ah, sorry.  No.  No you did not win a prize.  Better start training for next year chap.”    ME:  “”  …. I mean, WTF was that?  Better start training for next year chap?  That was freaking brilliant!
• Lucho’s report … once I get results, I will post them up.
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• 1.2 mile warm up (11 min), 5.8 mile race (46 min), 6 miles down the canyon (42 min), 4 miles after (35 minutes).  17 miles, 134 minutes. 2500+ of climbing.
• Results ….

Place Name                Age Sex/Tot  S Div/Tot  Div       Time    Pace  
===== =================== === ======== = ======== ========= ======= ===== 
    1 MACY TRAVIS          26   1/49   M   1/27   M2039       39:37  6:50 
    2 AMES ANDY            46   2/49   M   1/19   M40+        40:17  6:57 
    3 TRIBBIA JOHN         27   3/49   M   2/27   M2039       40:36  7:00 
    4 RUDOLPH JOHANNES     43   4/49   M   2/19   M40+        40:57  7:04 
    5 SELIG MICHAEL        30   5/49   M   3/27   M2039       41:12  7:07 
    6 WAGGONER TIM         37   6/49   M   4/27   M2039       41:34  7:10 
    7 HOLA TIM             34   7/49   M   5/27   M2039       41:43  7:12 
    8 WILLIAMSON GEOFF     31   8/49   M   6/27   M2039       42:19  7:18 
    9 KOCHIK PHIL          27   9/49   M   7/27   M2039       43:29  7:30 
   10 RONNING BERNARD      23  10/49   M   8/27   M2039       43:39  7:32 
   11 SCOTT RYAN           19  11/49   M   1/3    M19&UNDER   43:45  7:33 
   12 PICHRTOVA ANNA       35   1/25   F   1/16   F2039       43:46  7:33 
   13 KOVACS JAMES         28  12/49   M   9/27   M2039       45:06  7:47 
   14 SALEEBY STEPHEN      34  13/49   M  10/27   M2039       45:15  7:48 
   15 RAMEY NICK           38  14/49   M  11/27   M2039       45:20  7:49 
   16 ANTONELLI FRANK      30  15/49   M  12/27   M2039       45:36  7:52 
   17 COLLINS ERIC         29  16/49   M  13/27   M2039       45:42  7:53 
   18 ZACK GEORGE          39  17/49   M  14/27   M2039       45:51  7:55 
   19 BEDFORD CHARLES      44  18/49   M   3/19   M40+        45:59  7:56 
   20 SLATER TIMOTHY       26  19/49   M  15/27   M2039       46:55  8:06 
   21 KEHOE THOMAS         47  20/49   M   4/19   M40+        47:02  8:07 
   22 LIMBERIS DEMETRIOS   23  21/49   M  16/27   M2039       47:16  8:09 
   23 CHAMBERLAIN STACEY   37   2/25   F   2/16   F2039       47:26  8:11 
   24 NABER GREG           43  22/49   M   5/19   M40+        47:54  8:16 
   25 FAIRCHILD MELODY     35   3/25   F   3/16   F2039       48:08  8:18 
   26 KOSKI KRAIG          43  23/49   M   6/19   M40+        48:45  8:25 
   27 DURRANT JESSICA      25   4/25   F   4/16   F2039       48:57  8:27 
   28 GOLDSMITH LISA       44   5/25   F   1/9    F40+        49:03  8:28 
   29 KUSHNER ERICH        27  24/49   M  17/27   M2039       49:07  8:29 
   30 GARTSIDE STEPHEN     43  25/49   M   7/19   M40+        49:17  8:30