Ray Miller 50 Miler

Alison

 2012 Photos HERE.

since i hate paying for hotels and do not sleep very well in them, i drove down to the race in the early morning. i figure i would rather sleep in my own bed with my chugs and get some sleep instead of laying awake in some hotel.

so after some pasta from joseph's, i played some poker and then tried to get some sleep. i ended up sleeping from 10pm to 130am and then i was ready to go. the trip over was quick probably since i didnt have any stops and there is little traffic out there.

i got to the race a little after 4am and immediately saw keira and was the first one to park on the pch. it was kind of funny when i finally got back to my car 16 hours later that the only two cars there were mine and the guy parked next to me. we were the first at the party and the last to leave.

i am terrible with names but my parking lot mate has run leona divide and is a mountain climber too. he agree with me that the ray miller was brutal. he also told me that the young guy who free climbs el capitain was pacing his girlfriend in the race. alex honnold is a beast!

so back to the pre-dawn, i got my bib and swag and then tried to rest a bit in my car. this didnt really work so i went to the start area to stand in the porta pottie line (even though i didnt need to go). there were three pps and only a line of 8 people or so and one guy like 5th in line was complaining about how few there were! dude chill out, i have stood in longer lines in the middle of a marathon to use the pp. anyways that guy was annoying and i was glad to get away from him and his banter.

before i knew it was almost 6am and jimmy dean gave a great pre-race pep talk and then it was time to go straight up hill in the dark.of course any race at point mugu comes to a screeching halt about a quarter mile in because of the gully but hey it is all good. gives everyone a chance to socialize a bit and not go out to hard

i am glad i have done races here because going up the first canyon is a bit tricky and you can really get gassed if you go out to hard. so i let everyone go ahead and was dfl for the first mile or so. in the first mile we climbed 505 feet and i start to catch a few people. one poor gal was already rebooting and said she had been throwing up since 3am. i passed her several times till the 6 mile aid station, where i believe she decided to call it a day. i hope she did.

the next 2 miles also had 500 feet of climbing and this is where i caught my friend alison (see photo). we played leaf frog for about 15 miles before she ran away from me. she plans to do the leona 50 miler and hopefully we can run it together (it will be her first).  after the climbs, it is always nice to hit that meadow (it reminds me of jurrasic park) and try to make up some time on the cut off.

• mile 1 at 1805
• 2 at 1348
• 3 at 1732
• 4 at 1212
• 5 at 1245
• 6 at 1257
• 7 at 1424

 there was a nice 300 foot climb to the aid station and i grabbed some soda and pretzels. there was a small climb out of the a.s.  and then we went down hill for a couple miles.

• mile 8 at 1241
• 9 at 1238
• 10 at 1312

 after the descent, we had a 602 foot climb back to the aid station, then we headed back down to another grass valley where there was a water fountain.

• mile 11 at 1930
• 12 at 1341
• 13 at 1329

too be continued ...