Ashland, OR - An amazing achievement occurred this past Saturday in Ashland, Oregon. Spurred on by business travel and a GMM that encouraged the unthinkable, Gabriel Rodriguez lined up at a USATF Championship, most definitely unprepared for the course and conditions, but undeterred from pouring forth a great effort.
The day started cold. Low 20's and slight mists of snowfall. This would be an interesting run. Gabriel opted for his alternative USA jersey, although he knew he would not do it justice, but it just felt right. The field was stacked: Max King, World Trail Champion and owner of the course record (2:40) and a 2:15 Marathon PR. His training partner, 13:30 5000m runner Ryan Bak was a surprise addition, but his recent completion of the Gore-Tex TransRockies Run proved he was calloused to the distance. Local legend, Erik Skaggs, was healthy and ready for his debut on the loop. Defending bronze medalist, John Tribbia of Boulder had returned, and recently crowned USATF Master Ultra/Trail/Mountain Runner of the Year, Tim Van Orden lined up... amongst other familiars like Tim Olson and some young studs like Talent, OR, local Tyler Davis (23yrs old).
The course was no joke. 9,200 ft of elevation with the inital 8 miles straight uphill, followed by another 2.5 miles of climbing followed by 10+ miles of rolling climbs, until a rapid descent and a nasty technical trail named Caterpillar Trail (more to come).
The race started with 1.5 miles of asphalt, climbing to the trailhead (which was a dirt road). I settled into the Topt 10, knowing that only the Top 10 mattered at a USATF Championship. I passed the opening mile in 6:15, with King and Bak closer to 5:50s. As we hit the climb with full force, I kept pace, slowly eating up ground on John Tribbia and Van Order, keying of Tribbia as I knew he had success in previous years. However, I soon passed him and started working on Van Orden, who I caught by 3 miles in 19-min, which was amazing considering we were already climbing at an 8-10% grade. I then set my sights on the duo of Erik Skaggs and Tyler Davis (to me was unknown, but he had recently run a hilly 53-min 10M). I kept at work and finally breached the gap past 4 miles and immediately Skaggs tried to latch on, but Davis fell back. Soon enough I no longer heard Skaggs, and I ambitiously set sights on Max King and Ryan Bak (unknown to me at the time, but I should've guessed). I kept working and by 6 miles I was within earshot, but the effort started to cripple my left leg and I was resorted to stopping and stretching, upon which Skaggs immediately passed me up, asking if I was okay. I got in behind his strong rhythm (he's a strong runner) and let him carry me up the mountain, but soon enough I had to stretch again and was passed by Tribbia and Davis. We then finally hit some singletrack and I was able to get back up to third and Skaggs at 8 miles, but amazingly, once we hit rolling dirt road, which was now completely covered in snow and ice (did I mention the snowstorm we were running in?), my competitors left me in their wake. I am just not in 2h30' marathon shape like you need to be. These guys immediately got into tempo mode, 5:45's, and were gone.
I was now by myself, in 6th place of the US Championship and feeling misreable in the snow and altitude. My legs had nothing and I was at mile 10. I tried to turn around and run back, but I would have to descend. I could ask for a ride at the Mile 8 aid station. Or, I could play "repeat miles." See, on Wednesday, I knocked out 8 x 1M repeats with 60" rest in 5:20's, so I figured I could run 16 mile repeats with 60" rest all the way to the finish, if need be, and off I went. I would practice my form, go in and out of good patches of running, running tall, repeating "party, party like a rock star" (Cars.com commercial I had seen before leaving the hotel room).
And so, mile by mile, I got closer to the finish, but it took forever, as I would run maybe 1.5 miles and then stop and stretch. I managed to take 3 GU Roctanes the whole race and that probably helped a lot. All I was waiting for was the downhill, the descent. This was not my type of course. I thrive in singletrack and the was open, icy and snowy dirt road. It was more road race and less trail and that was killing my confidence. I wanted to hide my weaknesses (speed/strength right now). Van Orden passed me up at 12 miles and I then figured, "oh well, top seven, like cross country..." and figured it might be a matter of time before I was passed up by more runners, but soon enough I was running well and then I hit an aid station and the people were so encouraging, "man, you look like you have a lot of strength left".. and I did, I just had to tap into it.
The descent hurt. I suck at downhills, but I tried to go with it but my legs were rebelling. Finally, I had to stop and re-coup, but as I got going, I got my downhill legs and told a bunch of crows, "I'm not dead yet" and started rolling, and then we hit some singletrack and I kept the effort, now focused on running under 3-hours, manageable if I ran 7-min pace for the last 5 miles.
Finally, we hit Mile 23 and entered Caterpillar Trail. First of all, I am allergic to caterpillars, but this trail was absolutely nuts. It weaved like a rabbit's hole, like a roller coaster. It was fun but it was destroying my quads as I tried to maintain pace. Finally, I hit a photographer and he said something like "no one behind you," but it sounded like "one behind you," so I asked "no one behind me???" and within seconds I was passed by a Master. He was bombing the trail, and then I looked up the trail and there was another runner quickly catching me on this damn trail!!! We hit some flat between trails and I must've dropped to 5-min pace to get away from the 9th place runner and gain on 7th place and salvage some time.
Thankfully, although I was gapped by over 20-seconds, we hit the road to the finish and I saw Mile 25, and said, no way, I am getting back my 7th place and started a mad sprint down the hill to the finish. I caught 8th place 800m in and he gave some fight, but I was determined, powering and feeling great. I closed in 5:12 the final mile, if not faster, to place 7th in 2:55:20. I was flying, and I was destroyed, and I was pleased. A good day.
