2021 Ridge Route Ultra 50k Race Report

 

 

 

 

Date = July 10th

Time = 7:02:43

Place = 49/67

Garmin Stats = Garmin Connect

After 15 months without an in person running event due to the Covid Pandemic I finally received an email in late May inviting me to sign up for an actual race with people! This run was the Ridge Route Ultra which was offering distances of 50 miles, 50k, 40k, 20k and 5 miles. I signed up for the 50k as I was just starting my slow buildup for the Cirque Du Griffith Park 100 miler which also sent an email that same week saying that their event was also happening.

The Ridge Route Ultra takes place on the historic Old Ridge Route which was the first highway to connect the LA area to the Central Valley way back in 1915. The 50k would start about halfway up the road from its start at Castaic near the town of Gorman at the Ridge Route Ranch. Since it starts halfway, you are already up on top of the mountains so this would be a net downhill run and not only that, but most of it is also on an old road so on paper this looked like a possible fast course. So fast that mother nature decided to make things more even by sending a heat wave our way the week of the race. By the time race day arrived the temperature was forecasted to be over 100 which was not what I wanted to hear as I have not run further than a marathon distance in 15 months. To make it even more fun, the 50k would not start until 7am so that would mean we would get the full heat affect. Oh joy! Like many events this race was supposed to be earlier in the spring but got pushed back.

Billy the Bison

Since we would be taking a shuttle bus to the start, I had to get to the finish area which was located at Castaic Lake Recreational Park at o dark o’clock, so I left my place at 4am for the 1 hour drive up. When I arrived, it was already over 70 degrees which is not what you want at 5am. Slowly other runners started arriving including my new friend Nicole who prior to today I only knew from Instagram where we discovered that we signed up for both this run and the CDGP 100. While waiting for the shuttle bus to arrive one of the race staff informed us that there was an accident on the 5 fwy and that the busses were going to be late to wait for anyone stuck behind the accident. There is nothing worse than telling a bunch of runners, most of who have not run a real race in over a year that they would have to wait even longer on a day that was going to be hell hot.

Longhorn at the start line

The shuttle buses finally arrived a little after 6am to take us to the start. On the way up our bus passed the turn off where we were supposed to get off but luckily there was a runner from the area with us who guided the driver to an alternate exit, and we arrived at the start at around 6:45am. Right after 7am the race director told us to come up to the start and with a 10 second countdown we were on our way!

From Instagram to real life friend Nicole!

My plan was to run all the downhills and flats and walk all the up hills so that the heat would not destroy me later in the run. The Ridge Route Road basically follows the mountains the whole way, so it was a very rolling course, so the hills didn’t last too long, and you got some nice down hill breaks to run on. I have never been to these mountains before, so I was enjoying the new scenery. The road was very easy to run on, it was a mix of old roadway of both asphalt and cement with some dirt road also. Also, it looks like they are installing a bunch of historical markers along the road to point out the famous spots. Soon enough all of us runners were mostly spread out like in most Ultramarathons, so I put my headphones on and enjoyed some music as the miles went by. We also were blessed by some high clouds and the fact that the mountains made some shady areas, so the first 10 miles were nice.

Nice clouds at the beginning

Soon enough though the heat started to show up and the real run started. The aid stations were awesome as they had plenty of ice, so I made sure to fill up my water bladder, ice bandana and even my sun sleeves with ice at everyone of them. There was one gap between aid stations that was almost 10 miles and that is where it really started getting warm. Before this race I debated on only bringing 2 water bottles and leave the bladder at home since most times I can easily go 10 miles on 2 bottles. I am so glad I didn’t because a lot of folks ran out of water in this section.

so damn hot!

Miles 13-23 was more of the same, if this was a cooler day, I think I could have run this whole section. When I got to the Templin highway aid station is where my fun day ended. After this aid station we had a mile or so on the road and then it crossed over to the dirt road that would lead us to the finish. From this road you could start to see Castaic Lake and at this same road is where the heat showed up big time. I was able to keep my “run the downhills” strategy until mile 25 where I started to be affected by the heat, so I had to take more walk breaks. The last 4 miles felt like I was in an oven and the view of the nice cool lake the whole time just made it worse! After what seems like forever, I made it to the finish where my phone let me know that it was a wonderful 102 degrees, but another Ultramarathon was in the books!

Mucho Hot

 

After the race I “ran” into the race director who said next years race would be in the spring so it looks like I may have to step up to the 50 mile for that one. LOL

I Made It!

All in all, it was great to be back running real events again, as I write this 2 weeks later Covid restrictions are coming back so I hope they don’t shut us down again. SPOILER ALERT: Sadly on 8/2/2021 they cancelled the Cirque Du Griffith Park 100 miler due to the uptick in the Delta variant of Covid.

The Ridge Route Ultra was a nice race on a beautiful course on a horribly hot day. All of the staff and volunteers made sure we all got though it. Besides, what is an Ultramarathon without some sort of extra challenges for bonus points? You know who really deserves bonus points for this race though? The hardcore folks who did the 50 mile run along with all the rest of us crazies, that’s who.

Hopefully I will be back to writing regular race reports again (fingers Crossed), hope you enjoyed this brief recap. SEE YA!

So close yet so far