Me and Ken Parnow. Photo courtesy of Cal http://callery.org/

Whew, took me long enough to get this post up.  I’ll keep this short but try to include some photos and links to other runners’ stories as Nathan’s recap does a great job describing Skyline to the Sea 50k from the front of the pack (front of pack being all runners who managed to finish only 18 mins behind Leor, hahha).

S2S was a great race to run and it will definitely be on my schedule in 2010.  Going into it I knew that it would be fast but I was surprised by some of the climbs that were scattered throughout.  Ken Parnow and I ran together for basically the first two hours.  It was great to chat it up with Ken as I really like to talk while on the trail as everyone seems to be full of interesting stories.  Ken and I knew that we were pushing the pace and I was somewhat concerned at how close we were to Will Gotthardt, Troy Howard, and Caitlin Smith miles into the run.  Troy ended up blowing past everyone except Leor; Will G pulled away from me about two miles after the first aid, and I think Caitlin may have had Miwok 100 completely on her mind and ended up getting lost costing her a chunk of time (although she still finished First Woman).

I had tunnel vision pretty much the entire run.  I got into my grove and never really came out of it although the long stretch between the Gazos Creek and Twin Redwoods aid stations seemed to go on forever.  The two times I did look up at the amazing redwoods I ended up clipping the trail and taking a fall, (me = dumbass!).  I completely missed all of the beautiful scenery including Berry Falls which everyone was raving about after the race.  I still have no idea where these waterfalls were or how I managed to run right by them.  I drove down with Nathan and Larissa and all three of us in the car ended up setting 50K PR’s!  Nathan PR’d in 3:59.33, me in 4:14.02, and Larissa in 5:02.41.

(Video courtesy of Rick Gaston)

Looking back on the race, it is amazing to see that 7 runners in their 20′s finished in the top 15.  This is absolutely awesome to see for the sport and the S2S results don’t even include some awesome local trail guys in their 20′s like Sean Lang, Chikara Omine, and Ryan Commons just to name a few (S2S and that list are by no means all-inclusive of talented Bay Area / Northern California trail runners, and furthermore, guys like Pantilat and Omine run at another level).  As a guy in his 20′s, I am stoked to hopefully run trail and compete with (run behind) all of these local guys and girls for many many years to come, hear their stories, and help to grow the community and bring new talented runners into the sport.  If Bay Area trail running was a stock, I would buy and invest in heavily right now.

Cal took some great photos from S2S50k 2009.  See them at: http://callery.org/callery.php?ALBUM=gallery/2009/20090426_Skyline_to_the_Sea

Here are a few from the day:

Troy Howard followed by Mark Tanaka and a train of runners at the start. Photo courtesy of Cal http://callery.org/

Greg Giusti - Photo Courtesy of Cal http://callery.org/

Todd Oesterman running his first ultra. My high school French teacher! Photo courtesy of Cal http://callery.org/

Brian Wyatt cruising along. Photo courtesy of Cal http://callery.org/

Joe Kelso running with a grin. Photo courtesy of Cal http://callery.org/

All smiles on the trail. Photo courtesy of Cal http://callery.org/

Nathan Yanko finshing strong to get in under 4 hours. Photo courtesy of Cal http://callery.org/

Ken Parnow setting pace for a 50K PR! Photo courtesy of Cal http://callery.org/

Crossing the finish as a team! Photo courtesy of Cal http://callery.org/

Having a laugh at the finsih line. Photo courtesy of Samantha http://spinneygirl.blogspot.com/

Greg and Edie after each setting 50K PRs! Photo courtesy of Samantha http://spinneygirl.blogspot.com/

Larissa, me, Nathan, and Samantha. The three of us that ran set 50K PRs and it was great to have Sam out to support

PCTR Skyline to the Sea 2009 Recaps:

PCTR S2S and 2009 Results

Leor Pantilat

Caitlin Smith

Nathan Yanko

Rick Gaston

Mark Tanaka

Samantha

Ken Parnow

Dave Schienberg

Addy

(let me know if there are any others to add)

See you on the trails!

-Brett