Lake Chabot 30k Race Report by Gary Gellin

Pacific Coast Trail Runs - Lake Chabot 30k
February 20th, 2011
Place - 1st Master, 2nd Overall

After a week of heavy rain in the San Francisco Bay Area, the skies cleared for the inaugural Lake Chabot trail races in Castro Valley, California. This venue also hosts the classic Dick Collins Firetrails 50 mile race in October. The race is part of the popular Pacific Coast Trail Runs series, with distances ranging from 10k to 50k.


I chose this event as a stepping-stone to the uber-competitive Way Too Cool 50k race which is three weeks later. A 30k with a good mix of flat, dirt roads, steep climbs, and several miles of fast pavement fit the bill perfectly. The course had about 2500 ft of climbing. I chose the X-Talon 212's which worked well throughout, and especially well in the muddy, cow-grazed meadows.

As is typical in the early season, a few fast road/XC racers showed up to this trail event for some good training. From the mass start for the 10, 20, 30, and 50k races, a small group quickly formed at the front. We sped through the first mile in about 5:50 - pretty fast for a 30k trail race. I quickly ascertained that my competition in the 30k would be in Matt Laye, a 29yo former UC Davis and Transports Elite Team runner. Matt and I ran together for about 6.5 miles until I couldn't quite match his road speed. I was able to catch him on a steep climb at mile 10, but he pulled away again. I finished 2nd, about 2 minutes back, in 2:01:50 - not bad for this old guy. Third overall, about 12 minutes behind me, was Heather MacFalls, who recently qualified for the Olympic Marathon Trials.

I had a good time meeting new and old friends after the race, including a woman who ran her first ever trail race today and wants to find some Inov-8 shoes for her second ever trail race next month. I chatted for a while with Ian Sharman who was volunteering. Ian is the new buzz of the ultra world, having just shattered the Rocky Raccoon 100 mile record. I look forward to racing with him at Cool next month.

Next up after the March 12th Way Tool Cool is the similarly uber-competitive Chuckanut 50k one week later in Bellingham, Washington. I'm told by RD Krissy Moehl that "the double" has been done before, but it will be a new test for me to try to recover quickly from a 110% effort and then repeat it.