Location:San Francisco Bay Are to The Woods around Truckee, CA
The Ruth Anderson Memorial Endurance Run took place in San Francisco this last weekend. There were multiple distances raced on the 4.5 mile, multi-loop course around Lake Merced. The men's winner for the 50K was CJ Albertson in a world record time of 2:38:43. He was followed (not closely) by Fermin Villagran in 2nd and Jeffrey Stern in 3rd. The womens 50K was won by Verity Breen in an Australian record time of 4:00:03. Second and third place in the women's category were Orly Liba and Louise Stephens, respectively. The 50 Mile men's race was won by perennial Bay Area favorite Chikara Omine and the women's 50 miler was won (and 4th overall) by Thia Angelo in a time of 6:36:47.
What's adventure racing you may ask? Well, it's a team ultra-distance
multi-sport offroad endurance competition that typically includes running, mtn. biking, kayaking, ropes work, and other evil things
depending on how mean the race director is. Teams must navigate during the whole race and the nature of the course isn't known
known until race day. Just to be clear this isn't a relay, the whole team does everything.
This particular race is a 30 hour event which is an estimate by the race director how long the fastest teams will take.
Another Double Dipsea is in the books and another great race by Brazen racing. This year's version of the out and back handicapped 13.7 mile race was won by Quinn Coyle, 26 of San Francisco, followed closely Jonah Backstrom, 48 of San Francisco. in the women's race the winner was Virginia Calkins, 34 of San Francisco, followed less than a minute later by 61 year old Vicky Bray-Johnson of Angels Camp.
The 40th running of the Skyline 50K took place this past weekend in the hills of the East Bay. This race is one of the longest continuously running ultras in the country ( barring COVID interruptions). And as always it didn't disappoint. The women's race was won by the ever dominant Kristina Randrup, winning wire to wire in a time of 4:34:11 and 11th overall. Randrup has reached legend status for the Skyline 50K having won three of the last five races and coming in second in the other two, including her first ultra ever in the 2017 version of the race. Second place in the women's was Isabel Diaz with a time of 5:11:26 and very quickly (in ultra terms ) followed by Verity Breen in 5:15:46.
The men's race was won by Chikara Omine in a time of 3:36:08. Omine, a well known and highly accomplished Bay Area ultra runner, first ran, and won, the Skyline 50k all the way back in 2005. Andrew Catanese came in second with a time of 3:53:14, repeating his results from 2021 and improving his time by 1:16. In third place was David Tran, also, like Omine, representing the Excelsior Track club, in a time of 3:59:21
It’s 3 AM, I’m laying in the back of the spotlessly clean rental car tormented by feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt, anxiously checking if the charged indicator on the bike light has turned green, as if the more I look the faster it will recharge — a watched pot and all that. I’m 15 hours into a solo 24 hour... ....
The Strathpuffer 24 hour mountain bike race took place over the weekend of the 24th. Keith Forsyth won the men's solo category for the 4th time, cementing him as the king of the 'Puffer. The women's event was won by Cat Hirst, who covered 165 freezing miles in 15 laps. The conditions were cold and snowy but clear for a good part of the time. Of special note Tom Seipp, 13 years old, finished 38th with 13 laps. read about his adventure ( with his Dad ) here: http://minipips.blogspot.co.uk/ ....
With a few weeks to go your mind may well start wandering and thinking about preparation for the big day. You training may have gone very well or training might just be a word that you’ve heard other people talk about. Either way, if you think about your options now then you’ll save yourself a lot of stress on the day. Here’s just a few things you might want to consider leading up to race day: ....
Racing Around the Bay is your key to endurance racing in the San Francisco Bay area and beyond ( if I feel like it ), upcoming races (no promises for completeness ), and, perhaps, any other random interesting thing I feel like adding.
Tamalpa Headlands 50K (running) Aug. 19th, 2023
Sea Trek Regatta (Kayaking) October 21st, 2023
Bay To Breakers May 21st, 2023
Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon June 10th, 2023