Lynch Canyon round 3: The quest for sub 2 hours continues!

 For the past 2 years I have been trying to break the 2 hour mark on the Lynch Canyon Trail Run. There is nothing inherently odd about that goal. In fact, its probably the most common goal when it comes to road half marathons and that goes double for trail half's. When I first heard about "Solano County's toughest trail run" I just had to run it under 2 hours to prove it really wasn't all that tough. At that time I had just crushed my marathon  PR and my 50k PR and I was running half marathons routinely under 2 hours in my everyday training. When I came up short that first year I was stunned. I had about 4 or 5 good excuses as to why it didn't work out for me that year. When it didn't work out for me the second year around a quest was born. The Quest for Sub 2  Hours!!!!

Training for the Lynch Canyon Trail Run 2014

My comeback is a work in progress!

Me, running the 2013 Lynch Canyon Trail Run

I posted an article about a month ago stating that I wanted to gauge my fitness and whether or not I was improving by running the Lynch Canyon Trail Run for the 2nd time. If I beat last years time that would be a pretty strong indicator of improvement and give me confidence as I draw closer to the races I have planned this fall. Normally I seek out races I have never run before so I never really have a chance to compare this years race to last years race. Lynch Canyon is only a month away and I'm getting pumped about the comparison. In 2013 I was in pretty good shape. I wouldn't say top condition but I was logging a fair amount of miles and had set some PR's in the marathon and the 50k a few months earlier so I was certainly not "out of shape". This year is a completely different story.

This year's Lynch Canyon Trail Run will be the key to my success in 2014

 

 If you follow this blog then you know I am focusing in on the Ultra Half Series put on by Brazen Racing this year. Last year I did not run very many races in that series but I did run the Lynch Canyon Trail Run for the first time and it is very similar to the Ultra Half Series, in it's own way. (Click the link to read my race review) I challenged myself to run this race in under 2 1/2 hours last year and accomplished that goal in a big way, 2:16:30!!! I will run this race again this year and I will beat the 2 hour mark which is going to be monumental if I can pull it off. The end result will make me that much better in the Ultra Series and give me the reassurance that my training is on the right track.


The Lynch Canyon course has about 3000' of elevation gain and that (IMHO) makes it an "Ultra" half. Lynch Canyon is not technical single track on rock strewn and root covered trails, quite the opposite. This race is almost entirely on wide track trails cutting through pastoral grasslands with rolling hills for as far as the eyes can see. Sounds lovely doesn't it! It is a beautiful park but don't be fooled by its beauty. If it is a hot day you will need to have a strategy in place for that because this course is 99% exposed. If I were to describe it, I would say this course is the love child of the Contra Loma Regional Parks and the Marin Headlands with a sprinkling of Mt Diablo. Think steep, hot and super runnable with fast downhills. Chris Abess, the race director for this event described it perfectly to me last year when we were talking just before the start of the race, he said "This course is death by a thousand nicks" and that proved to be the perfect description!

Lynch Canyon Trail Run race review

June 1st 2013- If you have read my posts leading up to this race you know this race was presented to me as "the toughest trail run in Solano County" and I immediately signed up to see if it was just hype. I have run some really tough races over monster elevation gains and during tough weather conditions. Add that to the fact that I had never heard of this race before and I figured it was likely just hype.

Lynch Canyon Trail Run Part 2

So I signed up for "The toughest Trail Run in Solano County". Thats how it was first presented to me and I've been stuck on it ever since. If it's the toughest then I want to test myself against it. I searched the web to confirm this claim and found very little in the way of reviews on this race. I went to the website and one thing jumped out at me immediately, Dave Mackey was here. For those who aren't familiar with Mr Mackey he is a Boulder Colorado ultrarunning elite having won more races than I have ever entered. He is the current course record holder for the half marathon distance. Now I know why the race offers free New Balance shoes to anyone who can set a new course record. Good luck beating Dave's 1:31:28! For the ladies it is Penny Macphail that holds the record at 1:46:20. That too is smoking fast for a trail half no matter what gender you are.

Lynch Canyon Trail Run - June 1st

I received an email recently about this run and was instantly intrigued. The subject of the email read "Lynch Canyon Trail Run: The toughest trail run in Solano County". I like to search out tough runs on tough course and yet somehow this one has slipped by me over the years. The other reason for me to get out there and give it a go is the fact that I have never run in Lynch Canyon before. New trails that are challenging... who could refuse! So far my running in the North East area of the bay has been brutally difficult so to say that this is the toughest is hitting me in my sweet spot. I have recently drove I-80 on my way to the Vacaville Outlets and took a mental note of the beautiful rolling hills just outside of Vallejo. Just before you come into Fairfield you will see the sign for the Lynch Canyon Open Space Preserve. When I saw that I thought "Well that's a hell of a coincidence!" I took it as a sign that I was meant to run this race. If you are like me, looking for a challenge on trails you've never run, then read on my friend!