Lake Sonoma 50 Race Report: April 13, 2024

Lake Sonoma 50 popped onto my radar in 2022 when we stayed in Geyserville for a wedding and saw some posters in the Healdsburg Running Company store (because who can resist checking out the local running store?). My husband and I drove out to Lake Sonoma to hike and I knew I just had to come back some time to race the 50! Fast forward to this spring, where I was on a plane to San Francisco to experience everything the trail had to offer. 

 

Race website:  https://lakesonoma50.com

Registration: RunSignup

Location:  ★★★★☆

Lake Sonoma is scenic location settled in wine country. It's about 10-15 minutes outside the tiny town of Geyserville and 20-25 minutes from the small but "real" town of Healdsburg. The Santa Rosa airport is around 45 minutes away, and the much larger San Francisco airport is only 90 minutes from the race site. Cell reception at Lake Sonoma is patchy at best, with 1-2 bars at the visitor center where the start/finish line sits, but nothing as you wind around the small mountain that we skimmed for the majority of the course. Lake Sonoma itself is beautiful. It's a reservoir from the Warm Springs Dam, and the lake levels vary wildly. In April the levels are fairly high and the lake is a glassy blue-green that looks like a painting when you look down from the hills. 

Organization: ★★★☆☆

The course was well marked.With this being an out-and-back course it would have been pretty tough to get lost. There were very few road crossings or intersections and all had signage and frequent confidence marker tapes. There were arrows painted on the pavement during the few stretched with pavement. Confidence markers were well spaced, not so close that you zone them out but close enough that you never had to worry about whether or not you had gone off course.

Pre-race communication was adequate without being overwhelming. There weren't any obvious discussion groups on social media.   

Course:★★★☆☆

This was an out-and-back course shared partially with the marathoners, who had a loop course with about 2/3 of their course being shared with the 50 mile. This was fairly frustrating as the marathoners were coming out as the front of the pack 50 milers were running back. This lead to a lot of passing, and while the 4 miles leading up to the turnaround were wide enough for this to be a non-issue, the next 10 miles were a bit hairy as the single track was narrow and there was poison oak, squishy slippery mud that was liable to rip a shoe off, and wet slick foliage off to the sides. Many of the marathoners were willing to hop off to the side, but about 30% were not and held their ground in the middle of the trail. Something to be aware of if you are competitive and feel you would be frustrated by that. 

While we are talking about poison oak, I have never seen such tall and copious poison oak in my life. It was reaching over the trail to the level of my elbows! There was no way to avoid it, even staying dead in the center of the single track. I spent the next 2.5 weeks battling the worst poison oak of my life. So, if you're highly allergic to poison oak, beware.

The trail is not technical but it is absolutely relentless, as advertised. I mean, it's not easy packing in 11,000 ft of elevation gain in 52 miles! Running in the midwest, I am accustomed to short steep climbs and descents. I would estimate that we ran on "flat" ground for 2 of the 52 miles.  The hills were long and grindy, with very few short, steep efforts.

The trail was quite varied but generally the soil type was clay. Over the exposed ridges, this was a sloppy, slippery soup that was not runnable but was more of a slip-and-slide while praying your feet slid in an anatomically appropriate direction. In the woods, it wasn't so bad. There were somewhere around 10 water crossings, two of which had bridges but the rest where you could expect to get wet. It adds to the challenge but having soaking wet socks all day can be a bit of a drawback if you're really blister-prone.

There was minimal non-race traffic on the trail. There were all of about 3 hikers. Granted, it was cold and rainy so I don't think many folks in their right minds would elect to go for a hike at that time. 

Food: ★★★☆☆

Typical ultra fare at the aid stations, nothing overly noteworthy. The finish area had pizza, which you were given a voucher for along with your bib, and donuts, which ran out shortly after my finish. I feel bad for those who missed out on the donuts! 

The unique food aspect was the finisher's wine, courtesy of Wilson Winery. They had a red, white and sparkling (NA) option at the finish line. Five stars for the wine!

My race experience:

I loved and hated this race all at the same time. The day started with a 2.6 mile paved climb and I was cruising with the lead pack (minus the two men that split from the gun). When we turned onto the trail I stuck with them for another 2 miles but everyone was running the uphills and there were a few grades I wanted to walk bits of. I felt like I was breathing ok but the HR was on the higher side so I let them go and just tried to focus on keeping my heartrate under control. I realized early on why my coach programmed so much hill sprinting and squatting this winter! I was feeling the heaviness in my legs at mile 14 when I saw my sister and swapped out packs. I was a little worried because normally I’m still fresh and happy at mile 14, but it reminded me to just keep it conservative. After that when we cut around the cat track ridge lines it went from being wet and muddy with some deep creek crossings, to so slippery that I was really just hoping and praying my feet would slide in the right directions. Coming up to mile 18-22 was were I slid from 7th to 5th. I was descending quite a bit faster than 4th but she was out climbing me and she didn’t fade as much as I did in the second half. She had maybe a 3 minute lead on me at the halfway point (top 3 had a 15-18 min lead) and she extended that pretty heartily over the second half. I felt just so drained after mile 30 and the slippery climbs were really getting to me. I changed my socks at mile 30 which felt really nice for about 10 minutes, then they were soaked too. 

I was walking a lot more through the second half, as is to be expected. With the rain and wind, plus more walking and a lower heart rate, I got really really cold. My arms turned bright red and my hands were so swollen I didn’t have knuckle wrinkles! It was annoying, but nothing that I couldn’t compartmentalize, I told myself I’d worry about it at the finish. I had been hoping to be under 9 hours and could see that wasn’t going to happen so just kept reflecting on “humility and patience”. I stole my race mantra from this race itself: "relentless." Over and over and over.

Mechanically I felt like my descents were still actually pretty darn reasonable even towards the end, although I definitely wasn’t sending it like I had hoped just because my quads were feeling pretty wrecked. With about 4 to go I peeked back down a few switchbacks and noticed that 6th place had gained some time on me. That lit a fire under my butt to jog some of the climbs I wanted to walk. I was not about to lose 5th place in the last half hour! 

It was so much fun to watch some really strong runners execute their races (new course record but Francecso Puppi!) despite less-than-optimal conditions. I was proud of the steady gains I have made as an ultrarunner despite low-volume training and my current focus on work + school, so was incredibly happy that I ended the day as 5th place woman and 16th overall in the 50, with a finish time of 09:34:29!                                                                 

Nutrition: 

Nutrition was 100% Infinite go-far. There was Gu roctane hydration provided at the aid stations, which has worked for me in the past, but I really didn't feel that I needed more than my go-far given the cool temperatures. 

Gear: 

I was extremely underdressed for the day. Looking at the forecast for weekend, I expected a warm-ish, dry day and had my typical tech tee (Giordana) and loose lined Nike run shorts (Dri-FIT Tempo Luxe). I ended up using a cheap pair of knit gloves for the start, which I should have kept for the entire race. I utilized the Hoka Speedgoats for footwear and my smartwool tall run socks . I only brought one sock change and although ultimately it didn't make a difference, I think mentally I would have appreciated a second sock change. I absolutely would have loved a shoe change but my spare shoes were road shoes, which were absolutely inappropriate for the conditions. For hydration/nutrition, I alternated between my front-loading double 20oz Nathan (pinnacle) pack and a 2L back loaded Nathan (Vapor) hydration pack. I also had a 12oz handheld for my infinite.   

Recognition:

The biggest shoutout goes to my sister Summer, who leaned into her role as crew and cheerleader and took the best care of me on race weekend!

I am a proud member of Team Athletic Mentors. I don't have nutrition or gear sponsors and am not getting any kickbacks if you like my gear/nutrition, I'm just sharing what works for me!