Today’s edition is a race report from the Miwok 100K in honor of it’s 27th running this Saturday, May 4th.
Miwok holds a special place in my heart. Every year in May some 400 runners traverse what I consider my home course in Marin County. Just over the Golden Gate Bridge, a collection of jurisdictions maintain a vast watershed and park system with well over 500 miles of trails. Deep ravines, majestic redwoods, views out to the Pacific and back over the San Francisco Bay stretch as far as one’s legs can go. The Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Mount Tamalpais State Park, Marin Municipal Water District, Audubon Society, and Point Rayes National Seashore link together for an endless variety of terrain. It is only thirty minutes from my home in the heart of San Francisco and it is where I love to train and hike. And every May we kick out the cobwebs of winter and spring with this glorious 62 mile run.
The race itself is one of the older ultras. In 2023 there were 2,487 Ultramarathons in the US, but in 1996, the year inaugural year of Miwok, there were only 1471. It was my first 100k when I ran it in 2008. The first few years I ran it, the start and finish were at Rodeo Beach, just on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge. The route has remained basically the same but the start has moved to other locations and today it begins and ends at Stinson Beach some twenty miles up the coast. I have five official starts and three finishes although I think there are a few DNFs that didn’t get captured for some reason in 2010, 2018 and 2022. Dylan and I also ran the 2021 virtual Miwok together in one day on the scheduled Saturday the year the race was cancelled due to Covid.
These are my official results:
2008: 12:26:08
2009: 12:56:28
2012: DNF
2017: DNF
2023: 14:20:06
Before the story of my 2009 race, however, here is an animation of my 2022 race, illustrating the views, the route and the fun:
In 2009 the race was well established and one of the outdoor magazines even ran an article about it being one of the premier destination races. People still come from all over the country to run it but then it drew from the whole world. The race began and ended at Rodeo Beach, much closer to the city back then. However, that location afforded few parking spaces so the race director reached out to all the runners asking if they could carpool to the start.
We owned a Toyota minivan and I responded by Facebook that I could take up to 6 additional runners. Within a day all the spots in my van were reserved. However, none of the six were staying at the same hotels. When race day rolled around I got up at 2:30 in the morning, commuting all over Marin and Sonoma counties to pick up my coterie. We pulled into the Rodeo Beach in the dark of morning a little before 5:00am to sign in, get our numbers, and prepare for the run.
What no one could have possibly known was the weather that day was going to be miserable. The cold penetrated our running gear as we stood around on the beach in the wind driven rain. The tents by the lot where the sign-in and the finish line were located, flapped constantly as the volunteers attempted to keep dry and warm. Tia, the race director, came out on the beach and drew the ceremonial starting line on the sand and we all huddled up to get moving, if for no other reason than to get warm. She counted down and all of us surged forward on the beach toward the far trail in the dark illuminated by headlamps.
The race quickly funneled off the beach onto Coastal Trail along the south edge of Rodeo Lagoon. The single track undulating trail was packed with runners and headlamps as we slowly moved single file through the scrub brush. We came out on the road near the NIKE missile display and had a chance to spread out while the dark slowly became a cloudy dawn and the San Francisco skyline and Golden Gate Bridge came into view.
Back when Ultras were still largely an unknown and underground events, runners got to know each other and soon I was running with a guy from Alaska with whom I had run the year prior. It was a fun reunion and we passed the time as he regaled me with his victory at the Little Su (a 50k held in Alaska each February). Apparently his parka puffed out in the wind early in the race and stayed out. His sweat coated the inside dome and froze just like the inside surface of an igloo. They needed to cut him out of the frozen garment at the finish line. By the time we split up at the Tennessee Valley aid station it was light and a gentle rain fell.
By the time I passed through Muir Beach about five miles later, I was soaked to the core. The rain wasn’t terrible but it just kept coming down. The rocky California coast was at its rugged best passing through Pirates Cove, which was great for photographers seeking that cliff coastal esthetic but rough on runners chafing and shivering on the log uphill slogs. Running along Redwood Creek trail, long stretches were ankle deep puddles with sucking mud underneath. It sapped our strength while soaking our feet (the course no longer follows the river bed anymore). By the time I ascended Red Deer and got to Pantoll aid station, roughly 40% done, my fingers were numb and my feet crumpled lumps of soggy skin.
I really felt the rain in the open fields above Stinson Beach where there was no protection from the driving rain. We had to pay attention crossing the many small rivulets running down the mountain as we made our way north toward the Bolinas Fairfax Road. Entering the forrest, the final mile before the road crossing was a blessing to get out of the wind but took far more attention to avoid tripping on the wet roots, rocks and leaves.
The fire road at the Bolinas / Fairfax was soaking wet. I cannot give the race volunteers enough thanks for braving the rain. By this point no one was trying to avoid stomping in puddles as they reached for food and beverages. The huge pine trees protected all of us from the wind but the rain just kept getting worse and worse.
I continued on to the Randel Trailhead at the bottom of the mountain some five miles away before hitting the turnaround for the scamper back to Rodeo Valley. My second cousin Rad was visiting from Thailand and he came out to see the spectacle. I hadn’t seen him in years and so he ran the last third with me back from Pantoll. The rain let up a bit but never ceased as we caught up on years of family history and travel stories. By this point I was power hiking more than running but everything still felt okay.
By the time we reached Tennessee Valley and began the last four mile leg to the finish I was only walking. I had gone relatively quickly and therefore was finishing well before nightfall but in truth the end couldn’t come fast enough.
I came down coastal and its endless stairs from the summit of Hill 88 into the Rodeo Beach parking area and the finish line race tents. The wind was really howling again and the rain had picked up. Many of the tents were straining against the wind and doing only a nominally decent job of keeping the huddled masses covered and dry. Normally the finish is a party and everyone hangs out to eat and congratulate each other and incoming runners. This year however, people grabbed their swag, thanked the race staff and volunteers, and got the hell out of there. It was impossible to get warm or dry save hanging out in the three stall public restroom.
And I wonder, do you see the flaw in my situation.
Rad and I piled my gear in the van. I quickly changed into some dry cloths in the restroom.
And then…
I hung out at the finish for four more hours getting soaked to the bone. You see, I finished in 12 hours and 55 minutes. Very respectable and three and a half hours before the cut off. But I had five additional people to drive home. I couldn’t strand them at the finish. And of the five, I was the first to cross, not that it mattered. It only mattered when the last runner would get home.
Oh wait, one other thing that commonly happens at trail races, is that people get lost. The race was only 62 miles long but there are 500 miles of trails in these hills. Every race director does there best to provide maps, trail markings and help, but invariably a few people take wrong turns. And it happens to EVERY ultra runner at some point - it has happened to me.
And this year it happened to one of my charge. He did finish before the cut off but was either the last finisher or penultimate finisher. He had gone down the Thompson trail to Route One rather than the Randall trail and added about six miles to his race. By the time he arrived everyone who had gotten into dry cloths were wet again. Our bodies couldn’t remain seated in the van getting stiff for the time we waited for him and there wasn’t room under the tents to stay there the entire time. So we cycled between the tents, the car and the restrooms until all the runners were there.
By the time I dropped everyone at their respective hotels and Rad and his friend’s house on Nob Hill, it was midnight. I finally got home to Mihaela around 12:30 and crawled into bed after a loooooooong hot shower close to one. I had run an epic race, on an epic course under epic conditions. What a day!
But the story is not quite done. Around 2 in the morning my body revolted. I was so hot and suddenly started sweating like I had never done before (or since). Mihaela turned on the bedside light and pulled the covers down. It was fascinating. We both just watched. I could actually see the sweat bubbling out of my body before it rolled down the sides of my chest on to the bed. We actually started laughing as honest to god rivulets formed on my sides. It lasted for about ten minutes before I cooled down and the outflow ceased. I got up, took a shower, we changed the sheets and flipped the mattress over before going back to sleep. And here the story finally ends some 24 hours after it starts.
Below is someone else’s video from that year showing the weather. It is in two parts, the second captures the rain but if you pay attention you will catch me for half a second toward the end of the first video (6:36 in the video, number 387).
To all the runners out there this Saturday, GOOD LUCK. I am volunteering at the Muir Beach aid station. Have a blast!
2009 Race video on Youtube (Part 1 - 7:38 long):
2009 Race video on Youtube (Part 2 - 4:37 long):
From the DUV ultra database. A cool database of ‘all’ the ultras in the world and all the official entrants and finishers. You can slice and dice the info in tons of ways (including by individual runner or country or year). https://statistik.d-u-v.org/index.php?Language=EN
Great story!
Just love your race report and thank you for sharing. Reading it is reminding me of some of those ultras I had. You vividly portray the experience of running an ultra.