So I never thought I’d ride my bike for 11 hours and 45 minutes…at 4 miles per hour. As a human powered support vehicle for a buddy of mine, I rode next to him as he ran, yes ran, a 50-mile ultra trail marathon on Catalina Island last Saturday. What possess people to punish themselves like that, I’ll never know, but I’ve got a huge amount of respect for ultra-trail marathon runners. So put on your running shoes (not that any of this crowd has any) and sit back for a, “Three-hour tour…(well, maybe a 11-hour and 45-minute tour).”
We would board the Catalina Express from Long Beach around 2:00pm on Friday afternoon and arrive in Avalon around 3:00pm. After settling in, we’d grab some good seafood and a solid night’s rest (ironic to find Rainbow Trout as one of the specials for the night).
They would start the race at 5:00 am (similar to past VQ races, there was an early start time…at 3:00am. Come to find out most of those people were probably in the 50-65+ age class)
The runners would take a trail out of town to the top of the ridge overlooking Avalon and over to the airport. Instead of clobbering runners in the dark, I would take an alternate road and meet them about 6-miles into the run. Here’s Avalon at 5:30 and the sunrise was pretty spectacular..weird to look back at the OC to watch the sunrise.
After climbing the ridge and over to the airport, the runners dropped into a Valley headed towards the opposite side of the island..at about mile 15, my trusty steed needed a rest while I sat and shot some pics of the runners:
About 20-miles into the race, there was a drop bag zone where my buddy took on extra supplies (sort of like at the bottom of the Motorway on the VQ).
Here he is headed into the Gulag.
We emerged from the Gulag, only realizing that we’d have to run back through this dessert area in the heat of the day.
Literally, the runners ran up and over a ridge, probably similar to running from the gate at Blackstar, to Beeks place and back between miles 15 and 35…and they still had 15 miles to go after that portion of the race.
Finally, after about 45 miles, they have no more major climbs and start heading back to Avalon.
By the time my buddy finished, he was pretty spent and just wanted to get the race done with. Props to Don and the rest of the racers at the Avalon 50 Mile Ultra Trail Marathon. Headed back to the OC on Sunday afternoon.