Brazen's (Almost) New Years Eve Half Marathon 2014 race review

Brazen always does 2 New Years events every year. One on New Years day and one just a few days earlier. This year I ran the (Almost) New Years Eve event on December 27th over the holiday break. I have ran this race before and this years event was a stark contrast to my last time running this event back in 2012 and in more ways than one.

 For starters the weather could not have been better. It was cold in the morning. Colder than I thought it would be but not as cold as 2012. I stepped outside at 6:30 in the morning in a pair of tights and a long sleeve shirt and knew within a second that I was way under dressed. I returned to the warmth of my house and emerged with a Nike Combat base layer shirt that is made for cold weather running and I put on an Asics 1/2 zip with thumb holes in the wrists so that my hands were mostly covered. This was much more appropriate for the 32º temperature outside. It warmed up within the first few miles and I eventually tied the 1/2 zip around my waist. For most of the race it was perfect running weather. This was not the case in 2012 when it was again cold but also misty/ rainy. I wore a rain jacket in 2012 and stayed fairly dry (except for the sweat sauna inside my jacket) but remained frozen to the core for the entire race. Keep that in mind when you sign up for this one!

Lon Freeman breaks down the Brazen Ultra Half Series

Aerobicmonster.com coach, top Brazen Ultra Half Series finisher and Western States 100 veteran Lon Freeman has put together an analysis of every race in the series and his interpretation of their relative difficulty. This is significant because Lon is always in the top 3 of all of the Ultra Half Races and always walks with a check at the end of the series championship. In other words, this dude knows what time it is.

Check it out here: http://aerobicmonster.com/news.php?s=ranking-the-brazen-ultra-half-series-races

Brazen's Ultra Half Series offers up more prize money in 2015.

New Prize Money in the 2015 Masters Division

Brazen Racing just recently wrapped up the 2014 Ultra Half Series and two weeks later started in on the 2015 series. In between those two events they announced a new sponsor for 2015, Aerobic Monster Coaching. With their support the prize purse has been increased to $10,500. That is $1000, $500 and $250 for both Male and Female overall winners. It also means a new Masters (40+) division and 1st, 2nd and 3rd in those categories will receive the same $1000, $500 and $250, just like the regular series.

 The series is growing in scope as well. In 2014 Brazen took over the management of the quad crushing Double Dipsea Race from the Dolphin South End Runners, the oldest Bay Area running group and one of the oldest running groups in the United States. The Double Dipsea is a perfect fit for the Ultra Half Series as it is a little longer than a half marathon and much more difficult than a regular race. Brazen also added a 2nd run at Mt Diablo called the Trail Adventure Half in November. The Tarantula Run, originally managed by the Contra Costa Water District, is now under Brazen's management and is also a part of the Ultra Half Series. 

 That brings the total to 16 races in the series but you only have to run 5 of them and the Championship race at Rocky Ridge to be a finisher. 

 For those who are unfamiliar with this series the scoring is based on your cumulative time back. The series winner will be that runner with the lowest "time back" for their five best races, plus the Rocky Ridge Half Marathon. "Time back" is the amount of time a runner is behind the overall male or female winner. The lower the total amount of time, the higher the runner will rank. The winner of each race will have the lowest "time back" for that race, which is 0.

Rocky Ridge Ultra Half Marathon Championship 2014 race report

Starting arch for the Rocky Ridge

Brazen Racing's Rocky Ridge Championship was held on Saturday, October 4th  at the Las Trampas Wilderness on the outskirts of San Ramon. Up for grabs was $1,000 for 1st Place, $500 for 2nd place and $250 for 3rd place. Rocky Ridge is also the Championship Race for the Ultra Half Marathon Series that has been taking place all year long. The podium in the series also has $1,000, $500 & $250 cash prizes and if you are lucky enough to take a podium on the day and in the final series standings you walk with both checks! That makes it a possible $2k payday for the top 4 guys in the series Nick Scalfone, Harlan Lopez (+3:43), Lon Freeman (+3:53) & Selvin Henriquez (+4:53). Three of these four will definitely walk with the Ultra Series money but they will most certainly be challenged for the regular championship money by the top talent that always shows up. Guys like Leor Pantilat, Galen Burrel, Alex Varner & Sergio Reyes show up on race day and set course records not to mention earning a nice payday!

Hilarious picture from Not THAT Lucas's blog

#45 rockin the devil horns

 One of the first articles I ever wrote (and it shows) was on the Rocky Ridge 2012, my first exposure to the race. The course is widely accepted as the most difficult half marathon in all of the Bay Area with 4,000 feet of climbing and a slightly longer 13.7 miles. When I ran this race I could not believe it was as difficult as it was. I distinctly remember being under educated on the course elevation profile so that when the third big climb of the day came late in the race I did an insane giggle as I walked up the massive incline ahead of me all the while thinking about the sadistic mind of the person who designed this route. Since writing that article I've written about a lot of tough courses on this blog because I have an affinity for them but this race stands in a league of it's own. This race is the mile for mile toughest race in the Bay Area.

 The course record is held by Team Nike Trail Elite runner Alex Varner at 1:33:27. My first and only time running this course yielded a 2:46:40 which was 9th in my age group. I'm hoping to beat that time but I have my doubts going into the race because of the extreme weather differences. In 2012 it was very cool, foggy, misty and almost rainy at the top of the ridge. Today is likely to break heat records at the forecasted 95°.

I arrived at the race at 7am. There is not a lot of parking available at Las Trampas so if you have kids like me you will want to get there early. If its all the same to you then park near the corner of Bollinger Canyon & Crow Canyon and take the shuttle. Bib pick up was quick & easy but the porto potty lines were long. For a race of this magnitude I would suggest a few more. My wife, toddler son and our tiny Maltese Billy all came along this morning to cheer me on. They got themselves set up with chairs and toys and such as I made my way over to the starting corral. After a roaring rendition of Happy Birthday for Frank the Tank on his 80th birthday we got a few race announcements of the usual sort from Sam and the countdown commenced.

I started in the mid pack with the goal of running very conservatively for the first flat section so that I could run the first big climb rather than walk it like I know most will. My plan worked and about half way up that first big beast runners started walking and I passed on by. It was a tough climb but not so bad that it wasn't worth the energy expense. On the other side you have a quick drop and a rise and then it is all down hill (sort of ) for the next 4 miles or so. My downhill seemed to be in good condition, lucky for me. Sometimes you can't take all that body weight loading up on your quad so you lean back and slow down. But if your legs feel solid like petrified tree stumps then you can mash downhill at wicked speeds so long as you don't out run your feet and eat rocks. I flew past aid station #1 around the 3 mile mark and kept up a fairly decent pace all the way to the bottom of this downhill stretch where aid station #2 was setup.

 I did a quick bottle refill and grabbed a GU since I had already eaten the Sports Beans I had brought. I did a slow jog out of that aid station as I tore the GU package open and took a taste. Immediately my stomach went sour so I put my refuel plans on hold. Some of the steepest sections of the course are here between miles 6 and 8.5. Most of it can not be run and as you climb higher and higher into the sky the trail turns steeper and steeper until forward motion becomes really tough. About half way up this climb I took a big squeeze of that GU pack I had been holding and my stomach protested even louder than before. I spit out the GU and tried like hell not to vomit. I didn't let loose but I did start weaving back and forth like a drunk and for a moment I thought I might pass out. The sun was blasting down on us by this point and I was in a bad place. This is where I started to see people standing and sitting on the side of the trail looking absolutely vacant and well overcooked. I was about to be one of them. Passers-by would ask the weary "you okay?" and inevitably they would half-heartedly murmur "all good" or something like that but I never saw them rejoin the hiking procession up the hill. Accept one particularly fit looking female who had been killing it all day long. She passed me by early in the race and was cranking out some energy the last time I saw her. Now she's on the side of the trail looking like death. I passed by and asked if her and the guy next to her were okay and she immediately fell in line behind me as the guy stayed put and answered "all good!" in a much to cheerful voice. This particular section has a double top summit that will break your spirit. When you finally break over what you think is the summit and start heading downhill it doesn't last much more than a quarter mile or so and then turns back uphill sharply. This is just heartbreaking but the upside is that the climb is only 1/2 mile long and then the real descent starts. I felt better in my stomach by the time I got to the top and I could not wait to get to a trash can to throw away that GU packet.

 The downhill between 8.5 miles and 9.5 miles is some of the steepest quad shredding descents of the day. Too bad I couldn't let my legs go like earlier.  They were just to beat up and so I had to do a shuffling hopping kind of gait to get down the hill. At the bottom is a short rolling hill section that ends at an aid station.

I quickly refilled my bottles at this aid station but decided not to grab any more sugar products. This aid station marks the beginning of the long paved path to the top of rocky ridge. From points all along the bottom of this very steep incline you can see your final destination way off in the distance with tiny little people marching along high into the sky. I was absolutely sure their was no way I was going to be able to walk up this hill. Nobody had the legs to run it and most people, myself included struggled just to slowly walk to the top of this ridge. One creative fellow walked a zig zag pattern back & forth on the paved path to lessen the steepness of the climb even though he increased his distance by a mile or more. When you finally reach that tiny place way up in the sky that you've been aiming at for the past half hour, the course levels off and you stay up on that ridge for about a mile and a half. This is the most welcome relief I have ever felt in a race. It is not exactly flat but the hills are manageable up there and around half way across the ridge, just after the 11 mile marker is the final aid station.

I came into this last aid station running on fumes. It is 2.7 miles to the finish and almost all downhill from here. I refilled my bottles and took a big sponge on the head and walked out of this aid station with another runner I had seen many times throughout the year, Jason Ngai. I met Jason at Wildcat and ever since then I have noticed that we always finish relatively close to one another. He has won a few and I have won a few. Now we are in the finale walking out of the last aid station together and neither of us look like we want to run up this little hill we were starting out on. Once we crested that hill the race was on. I opened up my stride on the downhill and gained ground on the few runners I could see up ahead of me. The course had another brief but steep uphill that most seemed to be walking. I didn't walk it. My strategy was to push hard and see who followed. Nobody ran up with me and I got right on the heels of two other guys in front of me. The course turned down sharply and I hammered it the best I could to gain some distance on the group behind me. When the course turned up again it was sharp and once again we were all forced to walk. I reached the top still holding my lead on the few guys I had just passed. It was all downhill from here but I was exhausted. I had nothing left. I tried running scared knowing that quite a few guys were just a few seconds behind but I couldn't do it. My quads couldn't take the massive pounding that would be required on a steep hill like this. I had to shuffle and break down the hill and yet try to go as fast as possible. Just as the hill began to bottom out I heard a runner say to me "Come on lets run it in!!!" Immediately I got hit with a surge of adrenaline that resulted in the fastest 50 yard sprint I have ever run and just edging out the mystery voice runner. We high five'd and both said "That was awesome!!!" as we came through the back end of the finish area. That surge of energy flipped my stomach and I aimed for the fence line immediately. I lost what little I had in me and then within a few minutes felt fine enough to go find my family.

 Just when I spun around my wife and son were coming up to congratulate me on such  a dramatic finish. I made my way over to a chair my wife had set up and within a few minutes I chatted with the mystery runner who turned out to be Steve Long. Steve said he had been tracking me for a while and "was able to pass all of those guys but you. I could have passed you at the finish but that didn't seem right so I warned you." That was super cool of him and I told him so. He certainly didn't have to warn me and I think it speaks volumes about the trail community when runners show each other some sportsmanship like this. My wife was kind enough to grab me an It's It ice cream sandwich and a water bottle refill. So I sat and regathered my marbles for a bit as I waited for the results pages to be updated on the display boards.

My finishing time was 3:00:22. Almost 14 minutes slower than my 2012 time. Overall I finished 72nd out of 198 finishers. That is 13th in my age group out of 33. The overall winner was David Roche at 1:39:51 which gave me a time back of 1:20:30. Even though I did not beat my 2012 time and I finished well behind the winner I somehow managed to move up in the Series Final Standings from 31st place to 24th out of 68 finishers. Not exactly the results I hoped for but given the effort I put into all of this I am happy just to have finished as well as I did. I don't know if I'm going to do this again in 2015 (the season starts this Saturday with the Tarantula Run) as I have my eyes set on a few road marathons and perhaps a step up to the 50 mile? Not sure about that one yet. 

Drag-N-Fly half marathon race report 2014

Brazen Racing has some interestingly named races that all tie into their respective event site in one way or another. Drag-N-Fly's connection to the event remains a mystery to me. I heard one person say it was meant to describe the course where you drag your ass up one side and fly down the other side. Over and over again. My wife saw a few Dragonfly's out on the course and thought that might be it. Perhaps. But I think they got creative with the initials D.N.F. because they knew the course was crazy.
 This race is said to have 3000' ft of elevation gain over 13.5 miles worth of very exposed trails during the bay areas warmest time of year. I know people who have attempted this race without really being aware of how tough it was and ended up dropping. In 2012, just a week before I started SFTrails.com, my wife and I ran this race unaware of it's difficult reputation. I remember finishing in 2:33:00 and being absolutely trashed. Ever since then I have spoke of  it as a"top 5 toughest races I have ever run" and that includes 50k's and marathons.

Race Report: Trail Hog Half Marathon 2014

Brazen Racing's Trail Hog Half Marathon was this past weekend on Saturday the 6th. This race is held at the Joseph D Grant County Park which is situated at the foot of Mt Hamilton in East San Jose. To get to this park you need to leave a little early because the drive is very curvy through narrow, hilly roads that tend to be foggy in the morning. GPS and Google will tell you to take Quimby Rd to get there. Don't do it, instead opt for Alum Rock Ave and Mt Hamilton Rd. It is a bit longer but it is more drive-able and more scenic.

 This race was #6 for me in the Brazen Racing Ultra Half Marathon Series. You only need to run 5 to get into the championship race but running more than 5 is to your advantage because Brazen is only calculating your 5 BEST times to determine your place in the standings. I ran this race for that very purpose, let me explain.

Bad Bass 2014 race recap

Race #5 for me in Brazen Racings Ultra Half Series was the Bad Bass at Lake Chabot in sunny Castro Valley this past Saturday. Up to this point I am in 41st place in the series with an average time back of 57:40. That means I am finishing these races, on average, 57 minutes behind the 1st place finisher. I would like to bring that down (obviously) and this race might be the one to do that with. I say that because of all of the races in the series so far I think this one is the most runnable with the least amount of steep vert. My goal for this race is sub 2 hour for 2 reasons. First of all that time will only be about 30 minutes behind the leader based on previous race results. My second reason is because I ran this course on New Years Eve 2012 and got a 2:03:00, just missing the highly coveted sub 2 hour mark. I want revenge on that shortcoming!

Trail Quake 2014 race review

My 4th race in the Brazen Racing Ultra Half Series was the Trail Quake in San Born County Park on June 14th. One more race to go and I will have completed the required 5 races and then it is on to the championship race at Rocky Ridge in October. I remember chatting with a guy at Rocky Ridge 2 years ago about how difficult the race was and he started listing off a few that might be just as hard if not even more difficult. The two I remember him mentioning were the Diablo Trails Challenge and the Trail Quake over in Saratoga.

Wildcat Half Marathon 2014 race review

 Looking back on last Saturday's race the one thought that dominates my recollection of this race is just how wrong I was about the level of difficulty this race represented. That seems to be happening a lot lately??? This course has 3 distinct climbs that are not to be taken lightly. Even though the elevation chart says 2200’ of gain, which is (for me) on the lower side of most trail half’s that I run, I soon realized that these climbs were really steep and long lasting.

Badger Cove race report 2014

Badger Cove is part of the "Ultra Series"

This is race number 4  out of 13 in Brazen Racing's Ultra Half Series. When I realized that 10 races' remained and 5 were required to qualify for the championship race I felt like I needed to get going on this 2014 goal. Ever since running the Drag-N-Fly half and  Rocky Ridge half in 2012 I have wanted to take a crack at the series. Not that I have a chance at a podium but just for the challenge of the runs and to find out how well I could do over a cumulative series. I'm hoping to finish in the top 10 of the series. What is an Ultra Half Marathon? According to the Brazen website its a little longer than 13.1 miles but according to the website "What really makes them "ultra", however is the serious ascents and descents and variety of tough trails you have to run to finish them." Sounds perfect to me!

Brazen Racing's New Years Eve Half Marathon Review

The Christmas Season has kept me fairly busy lately but not so much that I couldnt squeeze a last race in before the year's end. I didn't really need to train specifically for this race as the half marathon distance is not new to me anymore. I ran my first half in 2011 and have since ran at least a dozen more. I have routinely ran training runs beyond this distance and quite a few races have been beyond the half as well. My, my, my how the times have changed since 2011!!! 2012 had me off road way more than on road in both training and racing, so I did not have to train or get prepared for a trail run in the hills. Im used to the trails and the copius amounts of climbing that accompany these races. It's become the "norm" for me. All I had to do was sign up and show up ready to work hard. Thats a nice way to approach a race. Usually I choose races that expand my skill set somehow. Longer distance, more elevation gain or super flat 5k's for PR's etc etc. This leads me to have to train in the weeks leading up to the race in a very specific way to (hopefully) achieve a very specific goal. I had no real goal for this race. I wanted to run this as hard as I could and use it as a gauge against future performances. Whatever my best turned out to be for this race will become the bar with which my fitness level can be measured against in 2013.

Rocky Ridge ultra half trail race review

My race stats according to Suunto.

A view from North Eagle Peak

Brazen Racing really shows you what they are all about with this race, STEEP hills! I had never run in the Las Trampas Regional Wilderness before but I looked at the elevation profile of this 13.75 mile "ultra" half marathon and knew it was going to be very difficult. Just shy of 4000' of elevation gain. To put that in perspective you would have to run to the top of the Empire State building over 2 1/2 times to cover this much elevation gain. I've run much longer races with the same elevation gain so this shorter race is going to be very vertical.