The Miwok Bet

Rick Vs. Gundy: Miwok 100k

The Prize: Lunch post-race

Since I won’t be doing the San Diego 100 in June and Rick didn’t get into Western States 100, it’s time for a little head-to-head action at Miwok. There’s nothing like a little friendly competition to help spur oneself to better performances and this one should be good. The competition is simple; we each pick a goal for the race and the closest one to their goal wins. However, beating your goal is worth more than coming up short. Every minute you beat your goal is equal to one point while every minute you come up short of your goal is equal to two points. The lowest score wins.

While this is predicated on both of us picking goals that accurately fit our current abilities (and not sand bagging), we’re competitive enough people with ourselves that it shouldn’t be a problem. I want to pick a goal that’s going to stretch me on race day, but that I think I have a 50% shot of hitting.

Originally, I had targeted 9 hours as my goal for Miwok knowing that slightly more than doubling my time would give me a guestimate for Western States. With my good training run on the weekend of the 10th and feeling good despite some nagging PF and calf issues, I’m ready to shoot for sub-9 hours at Miwok.

Here are the approximate thresholds/gating points in this race in order to finish under 9 hours:

1) Pantoll Ranger Station (21.7 miles) in 3 hours (8:45 am)

2) Bolinas Ridge Rd. (28.4 miles) in 4 hours (9:45 am)

3) Randall Turnaround (35.6 miles) in 5 hours (10:45 am)

4) Bolinas Ridge Rd. (42.8 miles) in 6 hours (11:45 am)

5) Pantoll Ranger Station (49.5 miles) in 7 hours (12:45 pm)

6) Tennessee Valley (58.5 miles) in 8 hours, 20 minutes (2:05 pm)

I always seem to want to go out quickly to warm up the legs and then slow between miles 6-10 as I start to settle into a rythym. The rest of the day seems to work like clockwork. Rick is setting his bar at 10 hours. She's also stated that if Rick and I both don't meet our goals, then she should get taken out to lunch by both of us. The big winner will probably still be my wife no matter what since I'm taking to Napa for our anniversary. It’s going to be a great day to race and a great tune-up for Western States.

There will be a lot of elite runners there and you can follow the race live at www.ultralive.net.