Race Report – Avalon 50K

Off the wind on this heading lie the Marquesas
We got eighty feet of the waterline nicely making way
In a noisy bar in Avalon I tried to call you
But on a midnight watch I realized why twice you ran away

From “Southern Cross” – Crosby, Stills & Nash

The sun was setting over Avalon
The last time we stood in the west

From the album “Avalon Sunset” by Van Morrison

I had never been to Avalon before although I have been interested in visiting for many years. The Avalon 50K seemed like a great reason to finally go, and of course a great way to see the island. 32 mile of a winding race course ensures that you see much more than the casual tourist.

We flew into LAX and took a Lyft down to Long Beach to catch the Catalina Express Ferry with a lot of other runners for the one hour and twenty minute sail over to Avalon. The harbor in Avalon is compact, filled with a variety of boats bobbing in the water. We were there in the offseason, so other than the runners and crew there wasn’t much going on. We made our way to the Edgewater Hotel, which true to its name was right on the main street facing the harbor. The location was perfect as the race start/finish were literally at the front door of the hotel. This would come in handy the next morning when it was raining at the start.

When we wandered through town to packet pickup, we noticed a flurry of unusual activity…sandbagging the doors of the shops in town in anticipation of a big storm rolling through. The race director called a special mandatory briefing to discuss the potential implications of the weather, course changes as a result and to generally discuss the character building nature of an endurance run in these conditions. Armed with that information we found a little family owned Italian restaurant that looked like it was unchanged from the 50’s, had a meal and went in to get prepped for the day ahead.

Race day dawned wet and windy, as expected, so we huddled under the awning about 10 feet from the start line bundled in rain jackets, headlamps on as it was still pitch dark. We took off through the streets of Avalon and started climbing right away, and very quickly the rain subsided so we peeled of the rain layer and went back to work. It wasn’t long before daylight started creeping in and we could see that the sky was clearing…so much for the deluge!

While this race is billed as a trail ultra, we were running on asphalt for a long ways, which then turned into dirt road. No single-track, and it was definitely a road open to traffic, not a fire road or a course that you would normally associate with a trail run. I definitely would have worn road shoes for this course had I known. There were some extremely muddy sections due to the overnight rain, a clay that stuck to the shoes in what felt like 10 pound chunks, but that was going to happen regardless of shoe type.

The scenery on course was spectacular, sweeping vistas of the ocean, waves crashing into rugged shoreline, small alcoves with homes, ships on the water. The course profile claimed a net gain of 6,000 feet, but possibly due to weather related course changes I only clocked 4,000 feet of vertical. After topping out on the backside of the course I thought I had a chance to do a little racing on the final 3 mile downhill into Avalon with a guy that had been passing me back and forth most of the day. Unfortunately he had an extra gear in his stride handy, and he buried me on the first stretch, so I settled into a good pace and enjoyed the views heading into town. Andi was there to greet me, and I felt pretty good about my finishing time and the day that I was fortunate enough to have, with the rain holding off for the entire time. Not 10 minutes after I finished the skies opened up and everyone got the drenching that we expected…except for me as I was already tucking into a celebratory Guinness while cheering the runners in and waiting for my other friends still on the course.

All in all a great small event, well organized, less than 300 runners and a fun visit to a really cool place. I’ll be back!