Angel Island 100 Miler, December 31, 2002

Whose idea was this anyway? I had a feeling it was mine. It was only my own damn fault that I was out on an island in San Francisco Bay running laps. Or something. For 100 miles. It all started with Don and me wanting to run 50Ks put on by Wendell and Sarah (Pacific Trail Runs). Their events typically include a 50K and shorter distances to encourage new runners. So after their Skyline to the Sea 50K, we were talking about upcoming events. What about Angel Island? Don and I said we wouldn't run it, because they weren't offering a 50K. The reason for this was the difficulty of organizing the race with the timing of the ferry leaving Angel Island. But as we talked, Wendell and Sarah started considering it. Don and I realized that the idea of running around Angel Island was more appealing than running around a track for 24 hours, which we had done for the past 2 years. So this new idea sort of stuck: if Wendell and Sarah would put on the 50K, we would not only sign up for it, but also run a hundred miler on Angel Island through the New Year, and finish it off with their 50K. So they took us up on it. They decided they could manage a 50K and charter the last ferry for 5:00 pm. With the race starting at 8:00 am, that would allow plenty of time for the runners to finish. The 50K would be 3 double loops of the island. People I work with who have been to Angel Island couldn't figure out how you would run 100 miles. "But the island is so small--it's only 5 miles around." They don't understand this idea of running in circles, over and over again. I told them it was nothing, the previous 2 years Don and I had run Across the Years, a 24-hour track run. The circles were even smaller for that event: a quarter of a mile. Mostly they just thought I was crazy anyway. Why would anyone go do that? Why indeed. Don asked that question while we were running. I realized it hadn't occurred to me to ask the question, so I didn't have an answer. I think it is simply, "Because I can." Don and I went to Angel Island 2 days before starting our run, to check out the trails. It was Sunday, Dec. 29th. The weather was good, and we were dressed not in running gear, but in trail clothes, you could say. It was a quiet little trip. On the weekend, the ferry leaves from Tiburon almost every hour. There were several people with us on the way over. The crossing only takes about 10 minutes. That's good, because I could imagine that combining post-race nausea with seasickness would be a bad thing. We started on the perimeter road. There are stairs to go from Ayala Cove (the start/finish area) to the road. Those stairs could be bad. Especially if we were going to climb them 20 times. The perimeter road goes around the island, past historical buildings. We saw the old hospital and military barracks. I thought all this would get pretty spooky late at night. We went up the fire road to find the campsite we had reserved. It turned out to be on a fire road while also circles the island, staying mostly on a ridge at 300 feet. The campsite was neat! I was disappointed that we wouldn't be camping. It was surrounded by trees, with a clearing on the side facing the Bay and San Francisco. We went around to the other side of the island and headed up the trails, which go toward the top of the island. These trails would also be used for the 50K. A separate spur of the trail goes up to Mount Livermore, the top of the island. Of course we had to go up there. We looked at the Christmas tree of lights at the top. Then, we came back down the trails around to the Cove and looked at the visitor center. A webcam looks out from the visitor center over the picnic area and the Cove: Angel Island Webcam The final ferry leaving was actually crowded, so even at this time of year, Angel Island gets visitors. During the summer it's absolutely packed with tourists and people who sail there. Our race preparation was somewhat casual. We watched the weather, and found that we were in luck. It wasn't going to be too cold or too rainy. In fact, there was going to be a break in the nasty weather we had been having, and it was supposed to be dry. We packed a bunch of running clothes in a backpack and running bag, and put together baggies of CLIP, Cytomax, GU2O, and Amino, flasks of Hammer Gel, baggies of pretzels, Fritos, and Life cereal, and I made 7 sandwiches: ham and cheese, and peanut butter and jelly. We had flashlights, hand warmers, gloves, and various pills. The food items all went into a cooler. So that was Monday night. We decided we were set and went to bed, happy that we only had to get up at 7:00 am and not any earlier.

Tuesday morning seemed a bit gloomy but we knew the weather was clearing. There had been a storm during the night, with wind and rain, but it was so short that I could almost immediately go back to sleep. I took extra time making sure I got my contacts into my eyes properly, showered, smeared bag balm on my feet, and was ready to go. When we got to the Tiburon ferry, Wendell, Sarah, and Aaron were already there. Aaron was spotting various seabirds and having a good time. The three of them were going to the island to mark the race course. We were taking the 10:00 am ferry. The last ferry off of the island was 2:30 pm. We loaded up our supplies and we were off. This part was fun. We stashed our stuff under some stairs behind the visitor building. The ranger said that at night raccoons would be able to get into our cooler (they would rip into it), so we couldn't leave it out. We had planned to have our supplies at the cove and run the 50K course or some variation of it, repeating. But, it turned out that those routes were supposed to be closed at sunset, and the only route open to us at night was the fire road where out campsite was. So, I thought maybe it would work out alright. We could move the stuff we needed for nighttime up to the campsite. There was a locking wooden box at the campsite that would keep out the raccoons. We figured we could just set off and decide what to do as we went along. Since the trails were still pretty wet from the previous rain, we decided to do at least a couple loops just on the perimeter road, rather than tramping through mud. Wendell had started marking the perimeter road for his race. We caught up to him after not too long, and found that his course actually went off the road at a few places and meandered along some trails. This added a mile to the 5.2 mile perimeter road loop. Wendell's job looked fun--at certain places on the trail he had to mark through fallen trees or go around them. Mostly the trail was in good shape though. After one loop we felt nicely warmed up. We got a little more food, switched around some clothes, and went out to run another loop. On an island it seems much easier to see approaching and departing weather. From Angel Island we saw dark clouds rolling off of Mount Tam, and the rain coming out of them was obvious. It was going to dump on us too. So for about 20 minutes of the end of the loop we got soaked. At the cooler, we put on rain pants and more layers up top. Of course, we knew the rain was going to stop, but at that moment we were pretty cold. Wendell, Sarah, and Aaron were done with their marking job and were waiting for the ferry. We stopped to talk with them and say, "See you next year." Then we were off again in the rain. It soon stopped, and before we were even half way around the island, we took off those rain pants again. I was glad not to be cold. We were careful to keep eating and drinking. I was drinking the CLIP/Cytomax mixture, which was good. We both had Hammer Gel pretty regularly, and sandwiches when we stopped at the cooler. The next job was to get the stuff to the campsite before dark. So, a little after 5:00 pm, we started gathering stuff together. The ranger offered us a ride over to the intersection of the road with the fire road. That would help because we had quite a bit to carry. We took the backpack and left the cooler for the park rangers to keep in the building for us. It was still a hike up the hill to the campsite. We dumped stuff in our lock box, and set off on our nighttime course loop, the fire road. This turned out to be muddy. It was more muddy than the trails above, mostly because water was running off, not because we were getting any more rain. The sky was clear. The distance we had for this loop was 3.1 miles. It sounded short. We ran it at a pace we could measure, and realized it must be longer than that. I was calculating what it would take to get to 70 miles if all we did was run on this little loop--I came up with 15 loops. Seeing each of those muddy little ruts and puddles that many times wasn't appealing. But you go on. It was not a thought to dwell on. The time between dark and midnight went on like a dream. It was very dark. I could see lots of stars, but didn't feel like looking up. I was feeling sort of zombie-ish. Just keep going. My legs were tired and my feet hurt. We would do two or three loops and then stop for food and water. Don was moving along better than I was, so he started going ahead of me to do the food and water and then I would catch up. He seemed so energetic to me, and I just felt, well, tired. As midnight approached, Don said he had a plan. We would want to be on the part of the island facing San Francisco to see the fireworks, so we should do out-and-backs on this short stretch to make sure we wouldn't miss it. It sounded fine to me. So we wandered up and down, and looked over at the lights, and then suddenly, near the Bay Bridge, the fireworks went off. It was 2003. No champagne, but we wished each other happy New Year and kept running (or walking) up and down to see all the lights. There were also boats cruising around celebrating. The booze cruises. So then what. Now we were running in the new year, but it was so dark, and seemed like a long time until morning. Don thought we should go down on the perimeter road in a little bit, because there probably wouldn't be anyone patrolling it that late. I think it was close to 1:00 am when we took the trail down to the road and started doing loops. These loops were better because they weren't muddy and they were 5 miles. I was walking a lot. When I ran it was an odd ultrarunner shuffle. I don't think it was funny to me at the time, but when I think about it now it makes me laugh.

Sunrise wasn't until 7:30 am. Sunset was around 5:00 pm. What a long night. Our timing was working out so that we would be one loop into the 50K course at the race start time of 8:00 am. That would leave us with almost 9 hours to do 25 miles. So, after a bunch of loops on the perimeter road, we went back up to the campsite to get our stuff to bring down. We didn't want to go back to the campsite after we were done with 100 miles, so this was the best way. We took the most direct route down to Ayala Cove, and sat on a bench to get everything together. While we were sitting there, I heard a noise and jumped up. On the hill right behind us was a big fat raccoon dragging away a large baggie of Amino/Cytomax powders and empty gel flasks. We yelled and he just sat there looking at us. Raccoons are just giant rats. I don't know why anyone would feed them. Apparently it's a bit of a problem on the island. Finally, we were ready to start the first loop of the race. Don kept the backpack on, because even with no food inside, the raccoons would probably still tear into it. On this loop it started getting light. It's amazing the difference it makes. I was feeling ok. Not great, but not bad. I thought I'd eaten reasonably well, and managed to drink more than just water. As we came around the island once more, we had a view of the cove and expected to see the ferry coming in any minute. We wanted to be down there before 8:00 am, so that we could see everyone before the race. Time seemed to be getting tight, but we still didn't see any ferry and it was past 7:20, which was when we would have expected it. We hurried down to the cove, and just as we got there the whole group of runners came walking over to the picnic area where the start and finish were going to be set up. I had a sudden feeling that I wasn't ready to see other people yet. Don and I had been so isolated for so long, and hadn't even talked much, that this crowd seemed very foreign and almost scary to me. They were noisy! But then I saw Aaron and Sarah and Wendell, and I was happy again. After everyone got somewhat organized, Wendell was ready to kick off the race. The ferry had been a little delayed with the time it took to load everything up, but he wanted to start the race close to on time. Wendell also decided to tell everyone that we had been out there all night running toward our goal of 100 miles. He asked Don how far along we were. Don said between 75 and 76. We still needed an additional mile besides what was left of the 50K course, but Don was going to throw that in somewhere. Anyway, everyone seemed pretty impressed. Sarah just kept giving us encouragement, which was great because I needed it. Well, she gave us more than that. She was offering whatever food she could open up fast enough for us. I think I was eating animal crackers. So the runners were off, and we waited a bit so we could fill our bottles and make sure we had everything. I also needed a bathroom stop. The bathroom was around the cove from the start/finish area. We felt relaxed on this loop. We were going on the route that took us up the North Ridge Trail and over to the Sunset trail. We hadn't been up this way since the day before. I liked the idea of seeing how these trails were holding up. They were a lot less muddy than the fire road we had run on. I told Don that we better add that extra mile soon or else I wouldn't do it. The last thing I wanted was to come in to the finish line and have to do an extra mile. So, when the trail crossed the fire road on the way down, we went a ways on the fire road, figuring 10 minutes out and 10 back had to be a mile. Then it was downhill back to the finish area. That meant we had gone just over 79 miles. Now the snacks were all opened up, and chili and soup were cooking. We sat and had some chicken noodle soup and some Coke. My calves were feeling a little crampy, so I was taking Endurolyte pills every so often. They contain 100 mg of sodium. We set off and had to go up those terrible stairs again. The stairs are part of the course on every single loop leaving the cove. Then, the road went downhill and it was easier to kind of shuffle again. I started talking with Don about the timing. On the way down from the last loop I had been (feebly) doing the math for the amount of miles left and the amount of time left to do them. At a pace of 3 miles an hour, we would barely make it by 5:00 pm, which was when the ferry would leave. It didn't take much for Don to realize that we were cutting it too close. He said, "Let's pick it up," and was off like a shot. Well, it seemed like it to me. On this loop we got to see other runners. Since we were hurrying up, they didn't fly past us. In fact some caught up to us but then we passed them (later to be passed again). I talked with a few guys on an uphill road section, since we were all going about the same pace. They asked what time we started and how the weather was overnight, and said how amazing it was. I was impressed with them though--quite a few people were doing their first 50K that day. Don was still way ahead of me. I was struggling. My mind was trying to come up with a way to get out of this thing. How could I just stop and let Don finish it all. Why should I run 100 miles anyway? And for that question, I had answers. Wendell had told everyone what we were doing, so I couldn't quit. And, a runner had gone past me earlier and said we were an inspiration to him. How could I not finish? There was no choice at this point. And the pain had sort of faded into some kind of numbness. True, I couldn't make my legs move all that fast, but there wasn't any stabbing pain stopping me. We made up a lot of time on this loop, but I was starting to feel bad. Since I was cramping, I kept taking salt, and then I was getting nauseous. But we made it to the finish area again. I kept saying just one more of the road loops and two more of those trail loops and then we would be done. The end was in sight. It was a manageable number of loops left. Anyone can count to three. I had more soup and we set off again. Now our calculations meant that with 3 miles an hour we'd be done closer to 4:00 pm. We went up on the trail loop, enjoying the scenery. We kept moving along, and still we could run the downhill part of the trail. Although, I wasn't feeling well. We then started on the last 10 miles--first the road loop, then the trail loop. I had told Don I was feeling sick. He thought maybe I was taking too much salt, since I was peeing a lot and it was really clear. I must have been flushing everything out and getting dehydrated. Cramping was from dehydration rather than lack of salt. I thought it was a logical idea, so I skipped the salt and just drank water, even stopping briefly at a water fountain on the other side of the island to get extra water. My stomach seemed to be going up and down, and I was in a gloomy place. I was back to trying to figure how to stop. 96 miles was good enough, wasn't it? As we got through the trails on the Camp Reynolds section, something happened. My stomach finally sorted itself out, and I suddenly realized it. Also, we were close to the end of the loop, which meant only 4 more miles to go. Don was a ways ahead, but I started yelling at him. "I'm back!" I had just passed a woman who was completing her first 50K. "Don I'm ok!" I was all happy with myself. I had gotten past the bad thing and I was going to finish. We went through the finish area one more time and up those bad stairs for the last time. The trails seemed even nicer than before, and we stopped to watch a bird in a tree that was acting curious and not flying away. It was a funny little round bird. After looking it up later, Don figured out it was a ruby crowned kinglet. By this time around I had almost memorized the trail from the point it headed down to the finish. It had long switchbacks, and then for the final part continued around past two places where water was flowing down the hill passing under the trail, then the water flowed down the middle of the trail. After hitting the road, there was a final path section and on to the cove. It was good to be finishing. About time. I was finally smiling really big and there were still other people besides Wendell and Sarah waiting for us at the finish. I think all I said was, "Thank God." It was nice to stop moving. Everyone was so kind to us, and we took a couple pictures. As Sarah and a couple 50K runners were giving us chili and sodas, Wendell and Sarah gave us a surprise. We got race t-shirts for the 50K, but also black fleece jackets for our 100 miler, with "Angel Island 100" stitched on it. I was overwhelmed. It's hard to know what to say when people go out of their way to make something even more special. We had time to sit a bit and get more food inside us while everyone was packing up. Then it was off to the ferry. It all seemed like just one long day, when actually it was the next year that we were coming home. We were looking forward to pizza (delivered of course) and being warm. And maybe a little champagne. It was a good New Year. See more photos from the Angel Island 100.