Race Report: Tahoe Rim Trail Endurance Run 64k

2 weeks ago, I ran a 50k race in 6 hours and 32 minutes. Yesterday, I ran the Tahoe Rim Endurance Run 60k (watch says 64k) in 12hours and 30 minutes. This race was hard. It was hot. It was at elevation (ranging from 1500 to 2500m, 4900ft to 8900ft). There was snow. There was a lot of climbing, over 2000m (6000ft). And most of all: it was a lot of fun!!!

I’ll get in the details later, but I had a good run. Managed to pace myself fairly well. Kept it easy in the beginning, and had some power left near the end. Due to excellent help in aid stations with water dousing, hosing down and tons of ice, I managed to stay cool. The result doesn’t look good, hey, it’s slower than 5km/hour, but I am very glad with how I managed the race and how I finished.

Training

My training for this race actually wasn’t ideal. I had a good January to April, where I ran a 50k at Montana de oro. After that I took a vacation to Japan for three weeks that messed up training. After coming back I picked up training, but got sick for 1.5 weeks; which totally screwed things up. In the end, I had about 6-7 good training weeks for this race.

During those 6-7 weeks, all of the miles were easy. I typically aim to do a bit of tempo as well. This time around, I didn’t dare that as I was ramping up the miles significantly; and I wanted to stay healthy and injury free.

Typically, I do 1 or 2 trail runs a week; this time around I managed to run virtually all my training on trails. Things worked out with the work and home schedule. Key training sessions were windy hill climb in Portola valley at least once a week, managed to do a steep run in mount Diablo state park, and then did a race prep 50k at golden state trail run.

As I said, training wasn’t ideal, a bit too slow, not enough speed work, but by the of it, I actually felt ready for race day.

Pre-race prep

Leading up to the race, I did a few race simulation runs. All the race gear, race nutrition, and fully weighted pack. That helped to nail a few things down, like testing my gaiters I bought 4 years ago but never used before, and deciding to wear the rabbit shredders shorts which have a built in belt for stuffing stuff into.

Gear and supply wise, this is what I settled on (I am an over-prepper):

• Rabbit Shredders 2-1 shorts 5"
• Patagonia Capilene Cool Sun Hoodie
• Montbell hat I got in Japan
• Salomon Adv Skin 5
• Garmin Epix 2 watch, loaded with the course
• Black Diamond Distance FLZ poles
• Shokz headphones
• Darn Tough socks (spare dry pair in bad)
• Patagonia Patagonia windbreaker
• 1.5 liter in a bladder in the back with plain water
• 2x 600ml soft flasks with tailwind in the front (I love the HydraPak UltraFlask Speed, no need to unscrew the top)
• 500ml Salomon soft flask, to be used for spraying me down between aid stations
• Some nondescript buff (non-Buff branded)
• Food I carried:
  • 3 Gu stroopwafel - coffee flavored
  • 3 Gu gels - different flavors
  • 3 pouches of Clif Bloks - Margarita flavor (so glad these are back in stock)
  • 4x packets of Skratch - 2 for the water stop - 2 just in case
  • Spare Clif bar in the back (I always carry this, just for emergencies)
  • Couple of salt caps (no plan to use, just in case)

As stated before, I’m an over-prepper. If I were to do this all over again, I would not change a lot. Maybe carry a little less food and rely more on aid station refills - but then… I love my own food and I like the motto “don’t try anything new on race day”.

I got really nervous about the course and running on trails I’d never seen before. I got so crazy and stressed out, I built an excel sheet with aid stations, distances and elevation between, edited the gpx provided by the race to add the aid stations, and I think I read the course description 5 to 10 times. What worried me most: 9 mile initial climb with only a water station, and then in the final section there was another 9 miles without aid, which would happen in the heat of the day.

The day before the race I still had to work in Mountain View. I had a very fun day there, hosting two Belgian podcast hosts. Managed to leave work by 12, to get to Carson city by 5. A friend had picked up my race package and bib. Got a pizza with that friend and one other couple, and then went to bed by around 9PM.

Race morning alarm went off at 4AM. Got dressed, had some bread with strawberry jam, cup of coffee, electrolytes mix and finally left the hotel by 4:45. Drove to the start line, with a short stop for donuts for Kelly and more coffee for me, and got to the start by 5:05.

We got a tracker that did live tracking, and tracker pick-up went smoothly. Which meant, I had 54 minutes to kill. Mainly by sitting and standing around, drinking that coffee from the donut shop, taking some pictures, doing the lucky pre race poop, and before I knew it: 6:00 AM and off we went!

Start to snow valley peak

This was the section that sparked the most fear in me. 1200m (4500ft) over 14km (9 miles) with only a single water station along the way (grateful we had that!). Started out easy, lost my friends in the start frenzy, but found them a couple minutes later as they caught up with me. Although the thermometer read 16*C (60F), it was already a little warm in the sun.

After about less than half a mile, the climbing started and the running stopped. I grabbed my poles (damn, I used them a lot), and we climbed to the water stop as a group. Some people passed us, we passed some people, and had a couple nice chats along the course (trail friends!!!). I had programmed my watch with a HR alert at 148, and that went off a couple of times. Very glad I did this, because it helped conserve energy all throughout the race.

After 4.5 miles, we arrived at the water stop. On the way there, I think I finished a full pouch of Clif blocks. My goal to this point was to also finish my 2 soft flasks filled with tailwind, and I managed that well. Threw 1 Skratch packet in each soft flask, filled up with water, said thanks to the aid station crew (damn they were friendly, and that was just a teaser for the day to come) and was on my way out.

In the next section, we saw the first snow, and got a glimpse of snow valley peak. Had to also pass a pretty soggy section that made my shoe a little wet - but nothing too bad - no need to change socks. The final section of this climb was pretty steep, and my HR alert keep beeping. My friends went ahead (just a couple feet, not too far), and I reached the summit just a minute behind them.

This aid station was alive! Volunteers were amazing and super friendly. Filled up one soft flask with the local electrolyte mix, ate a PB&J and (life-time first) frozen pickle juice. Hung out at this aid station for a good 5-10 minutes to relax, talk to the volunteers, take pictures… And then we were off!

Snow Valley Peak to Hobart

This section was short, fun, and mostly uneventful. Flowing, mostly runnable, nice views of Lake Tahoe. We also saw a couple trail friends from the first section again. Also hit some snow for the first time. This is were I put on my buff and added some snow to the buff to help keep me cool!

I aimed to finish the rest of the skratch, which I did just before we hit Hobart aid station. Hobart was even more of a party than Snow Valley! Got sprayed down a little to cool down as we entered the aid station. Had a little bit of coffee, another PB&J, piece of orange, filled up on electrolyte mix, but this time no frozen pickle juice. Put more ice in the buff to stay cool, applied some facial sunscreen, went to the restroom (YAY for porta-potty!) and went off to Tunnel Creek aid station.

Hobart to Tunnel Creek

This looked like a fun section on the map. Little bit of up, with a lot of down! And it ended up that way. Started of with a little climb which ended in a snowfield. I was at the front of my friend group, and they were lagging by a few meters. Given they’re stronger climbers than me, I figured they’d catch up. I took it easy, but they didn’t catch up. I started the descent going easy, but didn’t hear nor see them. Debated what to do for a little minute, and in the end decided to keep going solo.

In this section - which is an out and back - you cross a lot of people on the way back. It was fun for me to cheer people on and share trail energy! And, I actually saw my friend Jen (who’s super fast) there and told her to apologize to my other friends who were a little behind.

It was getting warmer here, and by the time I got the Tunnel Creek aid station I managed to finish both the electrolyte mixes I had filled in the previous station. As I was refilling bottles and bladder, I also realized the bladder had gone ‘almost’ empty by the aid station (lucky me for just not running out). The aid station folks here were as friendly and cheery as previous aid stations. They took care of my bottles and bladder (filling them with ice and fluids for some extra cooling), while icing my buff. I almost felt like one of the pros in the YouTube videos with this treatment! At the aid station I applied some more sunscreen, and off I went.

Tunnel Creek back to Hobbart

As I left the aid station, I saw my other friends 2 minute later. Took a final group selfie, said goodbye and off I went.

I knew this was going to be the previous section but in reverse. And if you remember, there was a lot of down in the previous section. Which meant now: there was going to be a lot of up. I took out my poles as soon as I left the aid station and got into a nice hiking rhythm.

Since this was the same out-and-back and before, I saw a lot of other runners as well. You could see 55k, 50M and 100M runners all sharing the same trail. I did my darndest best to encourage every single runner to keep at it, and most of them cheered back! It was interesting to see how different the runners were looking from one another at similar points in the same race. I saw 100M runners that were struggling at this point, but I also saw others running that same distance that looked as if they just started the race.

Soon after I left the aid station, I realized I had forgotten to eat a bit more at the tunnel creek aid station. I had only had a handful of chips, and nothing more. As I’m writing this I don’t remember exactly what I had, but I remember I ate something at this point. Also focused on drinking the electrolytes and some water at this point.

I took this climb fairly easy, and I think I managed to not once trigger my heart rate alarm on the watch. It was slow going, but you gotta realize that by this point we had run about 17 miles already and were at an elevation of 2400m (8000ft). The ice around my neck was melting fast, and I filled up the gaiter with some extra snow when I passed the snow patches.

After some nice climbing miles, I got to the descent into Hobart aid station, jogged it in and was glad to be at this aid station. This aid station stop was the most critical in the race, as the next section was going to be a 14km (8.6 miles) section without any aid, with a lot of heat coming at me.

I used the porta-potty to pee before actually going through the aid station.

In the aid station itself, I filled up on my electrolytes, had some potato chips again, a piece of orange and a PB&J, grabbed a Honey Stinger waffle and gel for the road and got an amazing hosing down. I don’t know if they hosed me down extra for the video, but the video below captures perfectly how I managed to stay cool throughout the whole day. It also shows how the aid station volunteers take care of you: you have got to imagine, 1 volunteer was filming this, another was spraying me down and yet another was taking care of my bandana and hat. When I saw I felt like a pro running, I am not exaggerating, they took excellent care of the runners here.

And after that: off we went for the most dreaded section of the course:

Hobart to Waterfall

I left Hobart feeling pretty good. 35km (22 miles) done, and mostly downhill from here. Soon, that would change.

Leaving Hobart, the course took a trail we had come in on, but soon we switched to the new trail for this year. This started with a gradual descend, and has some minor climbs in there as well. There were some stream crossings and there were some snow fields. Overall: pretty lovely.

But only a couple kilometers after I left Hobart I started to feel like I was running out of energy. I had the sense that I had paced myself well up to this point, but all of a sudden I was out of gas. I ended up in a running - hiking mix (which I felt fine about), but was worried that there were another 25km (15 miles) to come.

Shortly after feeling out of gas, I also started feeling a little nauseous. This is something I barely deal with while running, I typically have a strong stomach and don’t have to watch what I eat and drink too closely. Just to ensure I didn’t run completely out of steam, I opened up the waffle I picked up at the aid station, and started eating it quarter by quarter (I think it took more than 1 hour to finish that waffle).

The one positive is that I felt relatively cool in the heat of the day. I remember that I took my hat off at one point to scratch my head, and felt the heat of the day falling down on me. Thank goodness for a cold water dunked hat. I managed to find a couple snow fields on the way down to fill up the buff with extra snow, and dunked my hat in every stream I could find. At some point, I also refilled my 500ml softflask used for spraying myself in a stream; just to have extra weapons to keep myself cool

I kept run-hiking downhill towards waterfall aid station, all the while trying to troubleshoot what was going on. At some point, I got an incredible urge to pee again. Which seemed weird, knowing I had just done so at the Hobart aid station. So my thinking at the time was that I might be slightly over-hydrated and/or running a little low on electrolytes.

While still moving, I chewed on a salt capsule, mixed that with a little bit of water and then focused on drinking a little bit less. I felt some relief from this a couple minutes later. I knew I couldn’t celebrate too quickly, so I kept it fairly easy, and kept run-hiking till I hit the Waterfall aid station.

When I got to Waterfall, I knew I would have to rest a bit. When I got there, the volunteers immediately wanted to take care of me. I told them I’d fill up in a second, but I needed a breather first. They got me some more potato chips and a ginger ale while I was sitting down. I was actually sitting down next to 2 people I had met on the initial climb. It was fun to see them again, and chat a little.

After about 5 minutes, they left for the finish and I got up to refill my ginger ale, bottles and bladder and get some more chips. Also applied some more sunscreen to my face, while a volunteer sprayed sunscreen on my legs. While the volunteers were still taking care of my bottles and bladder, I sat down again just enjoying a little break with my ginger ale and chips.

When I felt ready to go, I filled up my buff with ice, said thank you to the volunteers and went off; 11km (7miles) to the finish!

Waterfall to finish

I felt reborn.

I am not exaggerating here, while I came into Waterfall I felt a little down and out of energy; but either the rest, the ginger ale, the potato chips or a combination thereof helped me get over the lull. I knew I would have to take it easy in order to be able to finish strong, but I was feeling great.

While running downhill, I caught up with the trail friends I sat next to at Waterfall. They were hiking down to the finish line, and I was fine hiking with them for a little while. We chatted about life, work, races and the weather. I think I stayed with them for a good 5 to 10 minutes, but after a while I really felt the urge to finish. When we were getting passed by a pacer whose runner had dropped them (no joke), I followed said pacer and said bye to my friends. I couldn’t keep up with the pacer for long, but I was running towards the finish.

It was getting hotter and hotter the more I descended. The ice in my buff was melting quickly, and was going to be completely gone by the finish. I sprayed myself frequently with the soft flask, drank some more of the electrolyes and water I picked up at the waterfall aid station, and focused on calmly running towards the finish.

With about 6k (4miles) to go, I started ignoring the heart rate alarm of 148. I felt good, and at this point I didn’t mind going a little harder.

At some point, the trail followed Ash Canyon creek, which was flowing with nice cool water. Every chance I got, I dunked my hat and got my head wet. At some point I think the dunking options were only 100 meters apart, but I still did it at both occasions. You never know when it’s going to be your last opportunity.

In that final section, I think I managed to pass another 4 to 6 runners, not exactly sure how many.

But the finish was getting closer, and with about 1.5km (1 mile) to go, I could see the finish line! What I didn’t know, was that to finish, you had to run around the baseball stadium to get to the entrance. This felt a bit torturous, but I managed it and crossed the finish line with my wife standing there to cheer me on!

As I pressed the stop button on my Garmin, the watch time read 12:30:00. I promise, I did not do that on purpose!

Post-race

Kelly wanted to chat immediately after the race, but I needed to sit down a minute. There actually was a runners-only tent setup where I got some water, asked for another ginger ale and got my finish award. Sat there for a couple of minutes to cool down, and then went to see my wife.

My friend Jen was also still there. She finished the race a good 2 hours earlier, in 10:29 🤯. We sat there chatting about the race and how things went. My other friends Christine and Shannon were still out there, and I heard that they were having a rough time. I felt a little guilty about dropping them, but was glad to know they were still together and had each other for support.

I had a lot of craving for potato chips, so I had a couple servings of that. Also drank some water, electrolyte fluid, ginger ale and an alcohol free beer. Washed my legs and feet in one of the tubs that were at the finish line. After about a good hour at the finish, I also got a tri-tip sandwich from the food truck the event provided.

Slowly, we saw more and more runners finish. I also saw my trail friends from the start and Waterfall aid station again. We chatted a little bit after the race, while we were waiting for Christine and Shannon. They arrived about 90 minutes after me, and I think were happy to be done. One was feeling better than the other, but they both did an amazing job!

We left the stadium about 45 minutes after their finish, and called it a night. I was started to feel tired, got to the hotel, took a shower, drank some more water and called it a night and went to bed. Great race result under my belt!!!

Perspective

About my performance: On paper, running 12:30 over 64km isn’t too spectacular. But I am incredibly happy with that result, knowing it was hot and at elevation. I placed 65 out of 110 finishers and 8 DNFs. I paced myself well in the beginning, stayed cool throughout the race, managed to troubleshoot/fix my nausea and had a strong finish.

Could I have finished a bit faster? Sure I could, spending a bit less time at aid stations, maybe - just maybe - push a bit harder on some descends; but I am very happy with the result; which I achieved on essentially only 6-7 weeks of training.

About the event: Like nothing I’ve ever seen before. This event was next-level:

• Lot of goodies: T-shirt, socks, sunscreen, poster, a glass if you finish, a finisher award.
• Fantastic course, really nice mix of fire road and single track with fantastic views.
• Aid stations were out of this world, with phenomenal volunteers. I’ve never had this kind of support in any race I’ve done before, it was insane.

If you’re thinking about running this, just a few things that weren’t perfect for me:

• The fact that the 55k couldn’t access crew or a drop bag.
• Long distance between aid stations between Hobart and Waterfall. (which I understand, the terrain doesn’t allow for another aid station, I get it!)

But overall, this was a great event, and I would gladly run it again. I knew that this was going to be my hardest race yet, and I paced myself perfectly. Crossing that finish line was the most satisfying feeling in the world.