PCTR: Stinson Beach 50K

Saturday, November 15th was a beautiful day to be at Stinson Beach! With temperatures in the mid 70's, and over 500 runners PCTR Stinson was the place to be. After letting us go, a snake of runners worked their way up the Dipsea Trail to the Steep Ravine Trail.

(Photo courtesy of our Banff Trail Trash)

As with most races, I had some ups and very painful downs. I caught a digger trying to negotiate around a hiker on the Matt Davis trail and skinned up my leg pretty good, but the blood running down my leg added to the perception that trail running is hardcore! I felt awesome for the 1st 36K, but after finding out that I wasn't finished with the race and I went the wrong direction, I was kicking myself in the ass all the way back up Steep Ravine :(. But it is usually the adversity that makes these races memorable, so cheers to adversity!!

My finishing time was 5:05, good for 3rd place. Congratulations to Cliff Lentz and Troy Howard who finished first and second respectively, and bested Troy's previous course record by 30 minutes! Way to lay one down!!

In all I feel pretty good in that I was considering this race a training run. This race came on the heels of a 105 mile training week, and my legs felt pretty strong throughout. The Quad Dipsea is in 2 weeks, and I feel that this race gave me a small preview of the fun that is awaiting on November 29th! In the meantime I am going to run the Dipsea course with Will Gotthart this weekend in preparation for the post Thanksgiving trail running feast!!

PCTR Stinson Beach results here!