Thursday, May 31, 2012

Quicksilver 25km Race Report

On May 12, 2012 I ran the QUICKSILVER 25 km race near San Jose in the Almaden Quicksilver State Park. This race is a small part of the well known Quicksilver 50 Mile Race which is also held on the same day. The race was well organized. There were about 100 people in the 25km.

It starts out with some steep climbs for the first couple miles on fire trails. Note that this part of the trail is pretty exposed to the sun. After those first couple miles you start to hit some downhills and then a steep long drop to the turn off onto the single track. This portion of the trail is rolling hills covered with oak trees.  This was a welcome respite from the sun especially since it was a warm day. I think by 9am it was almost 70. Being a San Francisco runner warm weather always beats me up a bit so I pulled the already drenched shirt off once we got into the shade and it remained off for most of the race. I felt a little off on this race because I had a pretty soar throat during the few days before. On race morning it was still bugging me a bit but not enough to stop me from running. Nevertheless, I never felt 100% and think I was feeling the effects of the heat a little more than usual because of this.

I rambled on through the rolling hills and popped out to another fire road. This fire road featured a steady and unwelcome climb with some additional hot spots near the ridges. There is a major cross roads of the 50 miler, 50km and 25km at the Western States Aid Station which was extremely well stocked. This was sort of a cool junction to see the other runners out there on different races. A nice lady pointed me in the right direction and I was off again more fire roads. These next few miles were the hottest of the race and it really took its toll on me. My pace dropped significantly and I just flat out didn't feel very good. I finally popped out to another aid station 1 mile from the finish. I still took some time here and filled up the bottle again and noted to put some ice in this time. I took off on the last mile which is some very steep downhill straight to the finish. I finished slower than I expected in 2:40. After reviewing the race results from prior years it seemed like the warm weather took its toll on everyone.... that mad me feel a little better :) Here's me crossing the finish line, done but stoked to be there! It should be noted that my soar throat did not survive the race... when it doubt run it out.

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