Psychedelic Climacteric 50k

Woah! What a name. Don't try looking it up online. It's a small run put on by Mike Palmer every year. Mike is a well-known figure in the Bay Area community who is also known for his in-the-know e-mail list.

12 of us gathered at the starting line on a small dirt track near (on?) the UC Berkeley campus. There were lots of hugs, smiles and laughter. A few speedsters were there. Mark Gilligan (1st TRT 50 mile), Joe Binder (3:47 at Skyline 50k) and Rob Silva (5th at Ruth Andersen 50mile). But no one was really there to race. We were all out to have a good time!

The PC is a tough course. 7000 feet of elevation will do that for ya. You get a course description, hope that there may be an aid station at mile 8 and perhaps a few ribbons and chalk arrows on the ground. Old school. And I like it that way. (It turned out that the course was pretty well marked actually.)

I settled in with Rob, who was returning from an injury. We got to Volmer Peak without any issues, passed the aid station and headed to one of my favorite spots in the area: Wildcat Peak. It usually has sweeping views of the entire Bay, but it was hazy that day. Bummer. We hung out for a bit anyways.

View towards the Bay on a clear day (with a bad camera).

Somewhere past the ensuing downhill things started to not go so well for Rob. We were slowing down considerably. Time to walk and see if I can get him out of the funk. But things were just getting worse and worse for Rob. After about two hours, Rob declared he was going to walk the whole way back to Lone Pine (another 2.5 miles or so). I decided it was time for me to move on. Rob had a cell phone, the next group of runners was going to happen upon us soon and we weren't too far from the Jewel Lake parking lot (to get picked up if necessary). We said our good-byes, and I took it up a notch.

I ran a couple of sub-8s without much effort. Bought some M&M's at Lake Anza and headed home. I was surprised at how relatively easy it felt going back up to Strawberry Canyon. Still running the uphills. Good stuff! I know the firetrail like the back of my hand and that energized me even further. In the end, I finished in 6:19. I ran the last 12 or 13 miles in 1:45 and felt very strong throughout the day. My summer training has definitely come together well. Now, it's time to take that into the fall.

My thanks to Mike, the aid station guy (sorry, didn't get your name) and whoever else helped in putting this event together. It was psychedelitastic!