The Board

Catalina Marathon at my other blog.
So after my epic race at the 2007 Catalina Marathon, and a respectable finish at the 2008 Catalina Marathon, I knew that I’d be back for a third try at the Catalina Marathon. Unlike 2008, this was no ill-conceived venture. Nope, this time I had trained hard, running 3 times over 22 miles including a truly epic run from San Pedro to El Segundo that went over the top of the peninsula. So I was confident, and estimated my race time at 4:20-4:40, although I would have been shocked to come in under 4:30. In retrospect, that was a pretty narrow range that really only took into account my fitness and not race tactics– my last 6 marathons were perfectly paced, but was it realistic to expect 7 in a row?

The course, as hilly as ever. Take a closer look.
Keep reading.

So now in my 3rd year, I’ve developed a little bit of a reputation for my race reports and my photography, especially those that I’ve snapped during the race. You can take a look back at photos from 2007 and 2008. As always, I carried a small Canon point & shoot with an old iPod armband for the in-race photos. This time, I carried along the Pentax K100D w/ 50mm f/1.4 to get pre-race photos, and my friend Vinay took some finish line photos w/ the Pentax K20D and 50-135mm f/2.8 before I snagged it from him to take way too many photos in the next few hours. Cause that’s what I do. But enough of that. If I’m not careful it’ll take me longer to write my race report than it did to run the race! Here are the links to this year’s in-race photos, and the pre- and post-race photos.
This year, for the first time, I wouldn’t be running alone. My friend & former co-worker Jake S. would be running alongside me this year. At least that was the plan. Sadly, his knee was bothering him and he decided it wouldn’t be wise to run the very hilly course on Catalina. At least not all 26.2 miles. We hatched a devious plan. Jake S. would start with the walkers at 6:30 AM, and walk until I caught up with him, then run with me for the next 10+ miles. So that’s what we had to look forward to that morning. Oh, and what a morning it turned out to be. The evening before was mellow, we ate an early pancake dinner and sat back to be inspired and lulled by Endurance, the tale of Haile Gebrsellasie. Then it was off to a night of typically restless sleep. We we prepared for the morning– with a 7 AM start time on an island 20+ miles away, we better be! The alarms were set for 3 AM, 5 in total. The first one woke me, and I just turned off the rest. With 4 solid hours of sleep under my belt, I was ready to take on the day. We dressed and ate (2 bananas and a bottle of Gatorade) real quick, and headed out the door. It took only 10 minutes to drive the 8 miles, unheard of in Los Angeles, but I suppose the roads are typically quiet at 3:30 AM. The boat left promptly at 4 AM, and while Jake S. might have been happy with a bit more sleep, it wasn’t going to happen. Some others on the boat did get some shut eye. Now, as many of you recall from last year’s report, the boat ride was very unpleasant. This time, the seas were calm with only a gentle side-to-side swaying. No one said a word, but once we arrived in Two Harbors at 5:30, all anyone could talk about was how much nice the boat ride was this year. No kidding!

The boat from Avalon arrives in Two Harbors
But hey, that’s the boring stuff. No one tunes in to read about lame breakfasts or smooth boat rides. We want to hear about the hills, the pain, the scenery, the runners and the finish line. So let’s get it on with then, m’kay? Before I knew it, Jake was heading down the road with the walkers and I had 30 minutes to kill before the start. As I noted above, my fitness was good, with one notable exception. I had somehow managed to gain about 5 pounds in the month before the race. Ugh. Would that haunt me? Well, soon the hundreds of fellow wing-nuts gathered near the start line, including a pair of very enthusiastic runners looking forward to their first Catalina Marathon. And at about 7:04, we were off. The first 4 miles are absolutely brutal, over 1000 feet of climbing with a “little” downhill mixed in. And on these early climbs, my legs were not happy. I trained hills, but these really hit me hard. My pace was a little better than last year, but it still took about 48 minutes to cover those first 4 miles.

The earliest of the brutal climbs
After mile 4, things get a little more reasonable for a while. I mean, 100-400 foot hills are no walk in the park, but at least I’ve been able to get in a good rhythm over these parts. Now, running with the camera for hundreds of miles now I’ve learned a few things. First, I have to at least pause for a split second to get a decent photo, even if the camera is still strapped to my arm. And no matter how well planned out, you can’t really run and photograph at the same time. Thus, there’s almost never any shots while I’m running downhill, and even shots on the flats are rare. So I take a lot of photos of the climbing. Like really, a lot. And one particular genre of photos has turned out to be my favorite– looking back at the hiking marathoners. Understand, a lot of these are people who normally run marathons in 3 1/2 to 4 hours. In other words, these folks are serious athletes. All of them walking. Take a look.



The climbing, the climbing, the climbing
You got it? Crazy climbing. So I cruised up another “little” hill (200 feet) before a big downhill, where I was reunited with Jake S. It was good to have a running companion for these lonely miles, actually one of the more scenic parts of the course. We ran along, a couple more ups and downs before we reached Middle Ranch. Since his knee was hurting him and I needed to bank minutes on the downhills, I usually ran ahead of Jake S. on the downs and let him slowly reel me in on the ups. Ah, and then Middle Ranch. At mile 11.5, we reached a recent low, only 200 feet above sea level. Then the long, slow climb. I described this part of the course as “the silly” before “the stupid.” We climbed 750 feet over the next 5.5 miles. There was still another 500 feet of climbing before the big drop. Jake had pulled me all through Middle Ranch, we kept plodding along at a nice pace, passing a lot of folks. The Middle Ranch stretch looks flat, and after the race a few people remarked to me that they were disappointed they had to walk on this “flat” section. As my friend Jim Vendlinski used to say, this was a “false flat.” Even the flattest section climbed 100 feet each mile.

So far to run
But that was just the warm up. Then 400 feet in the next mile! Pumphouse Hill is always a killer, but in a way it’s a relief, because I know once I get to the aid station atop, it’s mostly downhill from there– if still a long way to go. The signs littered the hill again, this year conservation was the theme, as the signs were apparently recycled. On Pumphouse Hill, everyone walks. I may have jogged for 2 minutes total, and the climb left me with some left in the tank– only took me 12:41 that mile, only my second slowest of the day! Of course, I snapped a few shots, and since I liked the video I took last year I took another this year. Take a look below.

After that, Jake S. stuck with me a few more miles until we hit a decent downhill. I was feeling great at this point, so I told Jake S. that his job was done, and I was all on my own from here on out. Now, at the aid station atop Pumphouse Hill, I saw the fruit there and I was compelled to eat one orange section. That was probably my first sign of troubles to come, but I didn’t know it at the time. I should’ve eaten a lot more. So I kept cruising along, passing folks on the hills with my slow jog as they quickly walked. But soon, my hands started tingling and I unwisely ignored it. I was making good time on the downhills, but I was a little slow. Soon, we crested the last climb and it was 1600 feet straight down into Avalon. There was an aid station, but I skipped that because, well, because I’m an idiot!

Running shoes, before & after
After running a mile in a decent 8:30 or so clip, my condition took a turn for the worse. I got really light headed, and after passing one runner on the descent, I joked to him that he should grab a medic if I passed out. A minute later, I realized that was a real possibility. In years past, my heart rate reaches about 170 near mile 20 and increases as high as 180 at the end of races. This time, my heart rate dropped to 145. I figured this could only mean one thing– my brain wasn’t getting enough energy and was shutting my body down. I walked for a minute, sucked down a GU and staggered on to mile 24.5 or so. At the aid station this time, I had 6 cups o Gatorade and my strength began to return. After a horrible 10:30 mile, I managed to run the last mile in about 10 minutes flat.

And then, just like that, I could see the finish line. Vinay was staking out the finish, and got several photos of me as I crossed the finish line in about 4:42:23. I figured I lost about 5-6 minutes in the last few miles after the brain tried to shut down the operation. Still, it was a few minutes better than 2008, but well off the epic time I had in 2007. Nevertheless, a tremendous race. Immediately upon crossing the finish line, I headed straight to the oranges and ate, no joking, between 4 and 6 oranges in 2 minutes. I wasn’t feeling good, but 10 minutes was all I needed to recover. Then I grabbed the camera and shot a few dozen finishers, and I identified many of the runners using the official results. These photos, I won’t finish uploading for a week, so check back for more! Check out ASI Photo for official shots from the race.


About 40 minutes later, Jake S. ran across the line, just behind his doppleganger. He had decided to run the last mile after getting caught up in the enthusiasm. After Jake S. finished, we took the traditional finish photo and went to Busy Bee’s for a Buffalo Burger post-race lunch.

And that was that. A few hours we were back on the boat to Marina del Rey, with arms, backs, shoulders and necks that would be sore for hours. And legs that would be sore for days. The boatride was nondescript, and I found plenty of interesting things to photograph on my way out. I’ll upload those over the next few weeks. I’m exhausted!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 1:33 am by Jake and is filed under Adventures & Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.