Dad's Visit - Bishop and JPL Open House!

A couple of weeks ago, Dad flew out to LA for a weekend visit. Originally, it was to go to JPL Open House, but then we realized that the Bishop High Sierra Ultramarathons (and more relevant to us, the 20 mile "fun run") were also that weekend. Dad planned on running the race, but ended up with a broken toe from running in five fingers and catching his foot on a rock. So it ended up just being me wanting to run the race. On Wednesday he flew in, then Thursday night was reserved for packing and other Bishop preparations. I went to work Friday morning, left early, we picked up Josh (and his climbing gear), and then were on our way to Bishop!

The race had a pre-race dinner on Friday night in Bishop. It ended up being pretty nice. We met lots of other "crazy" people, including a couple who did triple and double ironman races. A couple of friends showed up and we ate a TON of food. Fortunately, the dinner catered to people who run a lot of miles so the amount and type of food were perfect (or at least I thought so)! First, they gave us vegetarian lasagna, then covered THAT in pasta with an option of type of sauce, plus salad, lots of garlic bread, and carrot cake. :)

The pre-race dinner was also a pre-race briefing, so we got a good idea of what to expect the next day. We left the dinner on the early side though so we could get a campsite. The race starts at the Millpond Camground and since the gun went off at 6am, I wanted to stay as close to the start at possible. We set up tents, called Mom, and went to bed! Except our campsite neighbors left a huge floodlight on ALL NIGHT. Not cool.

Since the race started at 6am and we were required to check in at 5:45am, I got up at 5:30 (and wore racing clothes to bed). Basically, pre-race preparations meant grabbing a bagel and some juice and jogging over to the starting line. Here is me with 5 minutes to go. (My breakfast is on the ground, and remained largely uneaten. But it was okay because of the huge meal the night before.)

With four minutes to go, I mostly finished eating and ran over to Dad to give him the unfinished food and my non-racing clothes. Josh was wandering over to the start in the meantime. Somehow, I managed to get it together enough to be ready to start, including sunscreen and a hat. A couple of other runners were audibly laughing at me because it was about 50 degrees out and I was wearing a tank top, shorts, and putting on sunscreen while they were complaining about how cold it was. :)

The race ended up being pretty cool. The first 12 miles were more or less uphill, the last 7 miles of that was VERY uphill. This is good for me and I managed to keep up at 9:30 or so pace in spite of the very very annoying sand that I was not happy about. Another woman and I traded off the first woman spot for the beginning, but on the uphill I pulled away. She caught me at the turn around aid station at mile 12, and we took off down the hill together. I saw Sada running the 50 mile surprisingly close behind - yay! On the downhill, I kept up with the other woman for about 3 miles or so before the seven hour run Josh and I did just ended my downhill running ability. I went from 7:00 miles to more like 10min miles in about a half mile. Apparently running down Mt. Wilson at the end of a seven hour run only six days before the race was a bit too much for my legs. Actually, it was pretty amazing I could race at all since only two days before I couldn't walk very well. The rest of the race basically consisted of struggling through annoying sand until the end, where I came in at 3:01 and 2nd woman (6th overall). Any other year except one I would have won by about 15 minutes...but neither of us managed to run under the course record. Maybe next year!

More importantly, the course was beautiful and an awesome place for an early morning run (yay for being done with 20+ miles by 9:00am ish). I got back before it got too hot, but I am glad I wore my hat! Sun is very not happy in the desert when its getting to be summery. The aid station food looked amazing and I really wanted to try it but I didn't have enough time and I was running too fast a pace to really be able to eat that well. Fortunately, I had amino vital which is basically liquid everything you need to survive drink. My five fingers did pretty well too, no big problems. At the end, we met a friend of friends who had on her five fingers too and matching purple socks! Unfortunately, Dad didn't have his on due to the broken toe incident.

While I had been running, Dad and Josh went on an hour run along part of the course. They were laughing because my footprints looked like someone had run the race barefoot (not the case...hot sand would not be fun). Since we had some time after the race, we went back to the campground to check out. It took awhile to convince my body it really wanted to eat food, but milk sure tastes good! (To those people who try to tell me everyone is lactose intolerant to some degree, tell that to my body. Of all the foods post-race, milk was the only one that tasted good.) Showering made a huge difference in how I felt. I love how running definitely makes you appreciate things that get taken for granted every day. Then we went to a local mexican restaurant where I got more milk and ate parts of Dad's and Josh's meals.

The rest of the day was pretty open, but I wanted to see Sada finish the 50 mile. Josh wanted to climb, so the plan was to drop him off at the Buttermilks for some bouldering and then Dad could go for a hike, and I'd go see Sada finish then drive back and pick them up. Except just as we got to the Buttermilks the car overheated. But we saved it before noticeable permanent damage was done.

Oops. So much for that plan. Instead, Josh climbed, Dad went hiking, and I mostly sat in the car or tried to walk around the boulders. Except the longer I tried to walk around for the more my legs hurt so I gave up. Note to self: hanging out in the desert with no shade, running water, or real food at mid-day is not particularly good race recovery. Josh managed to send a couple of problems, rather easily, that he hadn't been able to do before. Dad just disappeared over the top of the hill for a hike to the highest point he could find nearby.

Also while driving out, we actually saw Sada running along the road with about 4 miles left, so we cheered her on. Considering the overheated car, I pretty much gave up on watching her finish.

Soon enough, I was going into "I really need food RIGHT NOW" mode, which to anyone who knows me, is very scary and requires immediate action. Josh finished climbing and we waited for Dad to return from mini hike #2. On the drive back out, we watched lots of runners making their way to the last aid station before the finish. Yay runners!

It turned out Sada and her training partner Todd were still at the race finish, so we drove over there to say hi. And get food from the Salvation Army truck which was awesome. Sada ended up winning the 50 mile for the women and also came in 6th overall...pretty awesome! Todd did well also and got an age group award. The finish area was great for hanging around...a grassy picnic area with lots of food. So I got soup and cookies and quiche. :) By then we decided not to drive back to LA that night so we got another campsite all the Millpond campground. This time, we were away from floodlight people but near the power lines. It was a good tradeoff though. The other nice benefit is we were very close (200ft or so) from the actual race course, so through the night we could cheer for people (yay 100k runners! we later found out another friend had a tough race but finished it anyway...nice job Diana!). Last minute, we decided to head over to hot springs near Bishop. The water was really nice, but our visit was cut short by an encounter with a strange Irish guy who wanted to hang out with us. We ended up just leaving as it got dark. After a late dinner in Denny's, we returned to the campground, did some cheering (and some directing of confused runners), and went to bed.

Sunday was just as packed. We left early (checked out by 7am) and drove all the way back to LA after a stop at Schat's Baakery which is much easier to enjoy the day after a race instead of 2 hours after (where we also saw Sada and Todd). Dad and I dropped Josh off at his house, said hi to his mom, got lunch, and went straight over to the JPL open house. Since we got there later than expected we didn't get to see as much as we would have liked, but it was still interested. Dad got to see the machine shop where I spend quite a bit of my time trying to order parts. We also toured some displays about earth science. By then, things were closing down, so dinner it was!

Monday, I went back to work after dropping Dad off at the metro station. It was quite the intense weekend and extremely worth it. Time to wait (and plan) for the next family visit in July!