Outside Playing: San Juan Solstice 50 Mile Run

The Hats

On June 23, I competed in the San Juan Solstice 50 Mile Run for the third time in four years. It stands on its own as just a great event with a welcoming community, on a spectacularly beautiful and rugged course, but it also serves as great early summer prep for tough 100 milers later in the season. For me, having my ass whupped by this course at race intensity is perfect honing on my training 6 weeks out from the High Lonesome 100, coming in the first week of August.

Since my first run on this course, I had a goal of finishing with the fast guys by breaking 12 hours and earning a red finisher hat. I was pretty new to ultra running, so that was not much more than a shot in the dark and I finished in 13:07. Last year, I ran it in 12:40, but I had learned a lot about my strengths, my weaknesses and this particular course. This year, I knew where I had opportunities to make up the 40 minutes I needed to stop adding to my collection of white hats and go home with a red hat. The big question was if I could actually bring 40 minutes-worth of those theoretical improvements to reality.

This is how it played out for me from a data perspective (full results):

I knew in both previous years that I'd climbed well enough to stick with the back of the lead pack, but I'd always get crushed on the downhills and high up on the dozen or so miles of flat and rolling Continental Divide.

Course Profile and Aid Stations

The prep started months before with training and a couple 50k races in February and April. These shorter distances gave me the opportunity to experiment with pushing hard for the entire race. Things really came together in the Desert Rats 50k in April, where I was pleased with a 5:13 finish for 17th place overall. This gave me the confidence to push hard for longer than I had before. Adding 20 miles to that is a lot longer, though. I also focused a lot on my downhill form and downhill-specific muscular adaptations. I also wanted to move very quickly through aid stations. No sitting.

As always, Jenn laid out my overall training strategy, which would be to focus slightly less on mileage volume and more on climbing and descending hard, and spending as much time as possible training between 11,000' and 14,000'.

Fine by me, as we trained in places like these...

Tenmile Range Traverse

Mt Antero

Doing stuff like this...

Mt Antero

Tenmile Range Traverse

Descending Mt Antero

And hanging out with hardcore mountain beasts like him...he's got the downhills dialed...

Peak 9 - Tenmile Range

When the training had tapered and the day came close, Jenn got all the details ready, as always...

We did the four hour drive to Lake City, CO and got the best night-before sleep in our new camper. Immense improvement over sleeping in the back of the Jeep!

At 5am we were off...

In a blur of headlamps and reflective gear.

I couldn't have asked for a better day. Temps were comfortable, the 10 or so water crossings were very low and the snowfields were non-existent this year with the dry winter and spring and generally hot temps in the mountains. The winds were a-whippin' up above 11,500' though!

I saw Jenn at the Williams Aid station at mile 15.7, five minutes ahead of last year.

Jenn swapped out my bladder for a new one, refilled my food pockets, gave me my poles for the next big climb and sent me on my way, Formula1 pit-stop style - As Always!

Following The Leader

Then it was a couple miles on the road (elevation 9200') to the next big climb up, relentlessly waaaay up the Wager Gulch Jeep Road past the Carson Ghost Town to the high point of the course at 13,100' in 9 miles. This section is obviously a big physical challenge, but also mental. For me it's about 2.5 hrs straight of head down grinding and interestingly, it's a time that emotions well up in me. Several times, I had sudden updrafts of strong emotion that tightened my throat and brought me to tears. Reflecting on what this was, I think that when I get to that point of almost primal struggle, defenses come down and emotions just below the surface in normal life shoot outward. A complex brew of feelings joy, freedom, loss, love, pain, ego and insignificance came out in several unannounced, brief bursts. Except for the throat tightening, I think I was able to focus this emotional stew into positive energy that gave me strength and presence in the moment. Interesting stuff lies below the veneer of consciousness.

Now up on the Continental Divide, I knew it was this section, where the big, long climbs end, at least until mile 40, that I'd struggled in previous years. This year, I was able to keep moving well, focusing on short, efficient strides on the flattish stuff and when I was feeling fatigued, to lengthen my neck and push my shoulders back to open my chest and airway to get more air in.

By mile 31 at the Divide Aid, I was 41 minutes ahead of last year. In previous years, this had been the toughest section for me, but this year, I was able to run, not walk, where I needed to run. If I could hold this gap, I'd just make it under 12 hrs.

By the time I reached the Slumgullion Aid at mile 40 and saw Jenn again, I was 65 minutes ahead of 2017 and Jenn was shocked to see me coming down the hill, as she'd just arrived less than 15 minutes prior.

Runnin' with the Devil Coming into Slumgullion

At The Slum, I was so happy to see Jenn and friendly faces Char Ozanic and Lori Stone, who were waiting for their guys too. Jenn got right to work on me and actually read my mind that I was thinking some BCAAs and chilled pineapple chunks would be helpful on this hot afternoon for the 2000' climb up into the Vicker's Ranch section and down into the town for the finish. This fueled me for the remaining 10 miles and I actually added another 16 minutes to my cushion along the way.

Coming through town and into my Sub-12 Hour finish I was all smiles and proud of our teamwork. I finished 37th of 208 in the race.

Immediately afterward I'm usually a total wreck, but on this day, I felt mostly human pretty quickly. Enjoyed my Gnarly recovery supplements, a beer or two, some food and socializing with all of our friends.