Avalon 50

Woot...I finally pulled the trigger, and signed up for my 1st ultra...I decided to be slightly prudent and do a 50 miler instead of starting off with a 100 miler.

In a case of perfect time and place, I found the Avalon Benefit 50.

It's on Catalina Island off the cost of Southern California.

We go to Catalina regularly to go scuba diving, but I have never been to the interior...they have wild buffalo there :)

Supposed to be very scenic, with views of ocean and coastline etc...pretty stoked.

http://avalon50.comimage.jpg image.jpg image.jpg
 
You gonna run it bf?

I'm gunna give it a shot, but be flexible and prepared about it.

I do my long runs with this really lightweight nylon bag that I carry water and snacks, super glue, and a lightweight running sandal in 'just in case'.

I'll start barefoot, and end barefoot, but if I am accumulating too many rock bruises based on the trail, or if the soles get too 'hot' after 30 or more miles then maybe I'll go with the sandals for a bit.

I would love to do the whole thing barefoot, and will give it a go, but if it gets to a point where it's not joyful, and is very uncomfortable, then I won't be a barefoot fanatic ;-)

50 miles of rocky trail is a long way if the trail has intermittent unavoidable sharp rocks.

The soil here is very rocky in places...running on gravel is okay barefoot, and obviously running on soil is okay...but there are lots of places out here where it's a kind of in between, where you have sharp rocks embedded in packed dirt with the rocks spread out several inches apart....too close together to avoid, but not close enough together to make a uniform surface to disperse the weight of your foot across....on that type of terrain, it's inevitable that you are going to get a small rock bruise every few miles...which is fine, unless a minor bruise every few miles equals 20 to 30 accumulated minor bruises over a 50 mile course.


So I guess we'll see what happens on race day with the terrain.

I intend to run it barefoot, but will have some sandals as backup, and some VFF's as backup to the sandals
 
Keep us in mind for your after race report! Good luck and have a good time!
 
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Keep us in mind for your after race report! Good luck and have a good time!


Will do TJ ;-)


I've been to Catalina Island many times, but never to the interior...I expect a very scenic run, but am curious to see how the trail surface fairs with skin to ground.

One thing that suprised me on my first overnight stay there, was that the wildlife has no fear of humans whatsoever, because there has been no hunting on the island for probably 80 years.

In a surreal moment, I walked outside the hotel room to get ice one night, and a deer was eating the berries on the bush out front, just a few feet away. I froze afraid to spook the deer, but he just went back to eating, after a bit, I went to get the ice and got close enough to touch him, and he never even looked up lol


The next night we were eating dinner at a busy sidewalk cafe, and here comes another deer, just strolling down the sidewalk, not a care in the world. That's 'in town'.....Am excited to run through the interior wild part of the island...many runners report interesting encounters with the Buffalo
 
In all the years I lived in California (I was born there too), I never got to Catalina Island. Bummer.
 
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Looks like a great race. Have fun.

A friend owns a hotel there and took us to the interior and to a secluded beach on the back side. It was really nice. Didn't see buffalo, but we did pass by the eagle sanctuary and Wrigley Garden. I'll have to put the race on my schedule. This year I'm doing the Carlsbad marathon, maybe the next year.
 
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Very cool Rick, and thanks!


They also do a couple of trail marathons a year, one in the November and one in March.

I've been reading race reports online, and there are many accounts of 'interesting' run-ins with the Buffalo....apparently they like to spook the humans that come running through a few times per year lol



Training is going well....I'm not even looking at my mileage, because frankly its discouraging, I am using the low heart rate Maf method....and its SLOW!


But I'm up to pretty easily doing a 3 to 4 hour run on the weekends, without it really feeling like I worked too hard.

I was concerned about making the time cutoff at the pace I'm running, but then I did the math, and it seems like I should make it just fine.


I found out something cool about this race...they have a set-in-stone time cutoff at 5pm...but they let you start early if you want to ....the normal start time is 5am, but they have early start options at 4am, 2am, and even one all the way back at 12am......so its really a perfect race for a first ultra....because they allow you to have plenty of time to finish by starting early if you feel you need to.


I'll see what pace I am running the last week before the race, and see when I'll start from that....the standard 12 hour limit should be fine, but I am more interested in finishing than I am in time and pace for my first ultra.
 
Home page article, please?
 
Still curious what happened here? Not really a good sign I suppose that Steve progressed faster than almost anyone would have guessed possible and then after his first ultra attempt hasn't even logged onto the forum once??? I hope nothing terrible happened. Does seem quite odd, good or bad I would think someone doing their first would surely let us know how it went.

Edit - just checked the results at http://results.active.com/events/av...7?search=steve&sort=finish_time&direction=asc and guessing based on county and age the last one is our Steve without a finish time.
 
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Feel free to PM him. The site will send him an email when you do.
 
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