Redwood Park 50K
The hills above Oakland, CA
Feb. 19, 2006
by Linda Dewees

Feb. 19, I ran the Redwood Park 50K in the hills above Oakland. The week before I had decided to drive up to Davis to visit my daughter Kelly for the weekend, so I scanned run100s.com site to see if there were any races.  This one worked out well with our schedule so I registered online.

The weekend fun really began on Saturday when Kelly and I took BART over to San Francisco.  We had a blast walking to the wharf, eating delicious clam chowder in bread bowls, walking down crooked Lombardy St., up to Coit Tower, down through Chinatown and ending up downtown at Union Square.  I was amazed at the number of joggers running around the city, weaving through all the pedestrians and traffic.  Actually, the Hunter S. Thompson Fear and Loathing 50K and 50mile was going on that day, but we didn't see any of the racers.  That run goes all over the city and the aid stations are out of car trunks.  You follow the "49 mile Scenic Drive" signs, and have to find your own restrooms.  I want to try that next year!  Anyway, we finished the day with Godiva Chocolate cheesecake on top of Macy's.  It was THE best dessert I've ever had in my 49 years!  Then we hopped back on BART, and drove back to Davis.  It was a fun day for a country mom and her college student daughter!

The next morning I got up early to drive over to Oakland to start the run at the luxurious time of 8:30am.  It was only 37 degrees, but my OTHTC buff kept my ears warm. I love that thing!  This run included 10, 20, and 30K races and each of these had about 80 runners.  For the 50K you did the 30K plus the 20K and there were only 27 finishers.  The course was hilly trails and dirt roads with an elevation gain of 5000 ft.  Being a desert rat I was looking forward to running through the forest, but I think the lack of view made the run seem twice as long, and it was kind of dark and gloomy, too!  It felt like the sun was going down when it was only noon.  Sunscreen and sunglasses were not necessary there!  I was frisky at first running down the steep hills, but pretty soon my knee started to hurt like it's been doing lately.  I took an Ibuprofen about mile 6 which nicely cured that problem and I took it easy on the down hills, but I was already feeling weary.  I hated the thought of having to repeat most of this loop again on the 20K portion.  Maybe I shouldn't have walked all day in SF the day before, but I figure it was good training.  The 50k-ers were spread out on that second loop and I didn't see any other racers the whole way.  It was lonely! I felt like I was the only racer out there.  There were lots of dog-walkers, though.  I stopped to pet a beautiful black and white collie.  After passing the Chabot Observatory the second time I knew I was almost done, thank goodness.  I finished in 7:04.  Not a great time, but not as slow as it felt!  For all I knew it could have been 9 hours.  This is the 3rd 50K in a row I haven't worn a watch.

The RD was at the finish line and his name was Wendell.  He puts on a whole collection of these races in pretty spots on California coast.  I asked if he was the Wendell who made the winter Western States crossing the week before and he was, so I had to shake his hand!  Then I went over to scarf two bowls of hot chicken soup and socialize with the volunteers.  As a "special" parting gift I received a canister of Cliff Recovery powder!!!  Very cool!!

The race was well run and the aid stations had all the goodies I love, especially chocolate chip cookies, salty chips, and soft pb&j sandwiches.  They had Conquest for their elyte drink and I liked it.  A few people took wrong loops and ended up doing longer runs than expected, but I managed to follow the different colored ribbons for different loops fine, and I'm not the most observant person.  For me this was the first time that turns at intersections were marked with striped ribbon on the side of the turn, and I liked that.  I recovered great with hardly any stiffness, so my muscles must have been playing a trick on my mind, telling me they were soooo tired during the race.  I'll try to ignore that in the future!  Even though I had a hard race, it was fun running in such a different place.  And as always, ultra-runners are a nice group of people.