PUTTIN' ON THE RITZ (RACE)

The Mt Tam Trophy Race will be the third and final Selection Race for the 2007 Teva U.S. Mountain Running Team. Moreover, it's going to be a great race on a truly exceptional course. tamtrailrace.com/info

THE COURSE

This is the fun part of organizing a race. It's sort of like if you're opening a restaurant: you can probably cook, so thinking up a delicious menu is the easy part. Same with running: spend most of your life running on your favorite trails, get to know them like the back of your hand, then start thinking, "I could stage a race here. I could share this experience with my friends!"

Chris: "The impetus came a year and a half ago in Wellington, New Zealand. I was down there for the World Trophy Race, and Nancy told I was the first Californian ever to be on our National Team. That's odd I thought ... there are so many great runners here ... so many great trails ... we need a race.

Last year I didn't have time to work on it. But the same conversation resurfaced last year in Turkey, when I made the National Team for the second time. Nancy Hobbs asked me about it again, we both agreed there was a real need for a qualifying race on the west coast, so I said t myself, 'You really should do it'.

Nancy especially has been a big help from the start, and everyone has had a very positive response to this idea."

This is a beautiful course. During a preview on March 11, it was so pleasant, scenic, and interesting, it would have been totally worthwhile to hike this course just for the fun of it. It goes from fast cruising to steep ups and downs in a blink of an eye. Similarly, one moment you can be gawking at sweeping vistas of the Pacific Ocean sparkling in the morning sunshine, and a second later you are diving into dark and cool forests, the sun blocked out by Redwood trees towering 100' overhead. It goes up and down, but is entirely on soft, perfect single-track trail. Except for the 14-rung ladder you have to climb!

Chris: "Obviously it's a mountain race, so it's plenty steep. It has a mix of different components - on the Dipsea section you can really move out, while on the Bootjack descent you'll need to watch your footing. This course won't favor track runners or ultra runners; it's pretty much in the middle."

This is a true mountain course, in the European tradition. Good trail-running technique will be necessary to notch your best time, while the combination of beautiful single-track and killer views will keep people coming back year after year, regardless. The UK courses climb over stone walls, the Euro courses file through narrow bridges, and here we have a wood ladder to ascend a vertical waterfall. What about that ladder?

Chris: ""I don't think the ladder is going to be that important. Everyone will have to come to a stop, it will take 10 seconds to climb it, and then they'll start running again, so it's going to slow everyone down at the same rate. It's about 1.5 miles into the race, so people will be single file by that point."

Stats:

The course is about 7 miles long (11.26 km) with about 2,632' (802m) of elevation gain (5,264 total). There will be one station on the course plus one at the start/finish. This will be a one-lap race for both women and men.

This years World Trophy in Saillon, Switzerland has 326m (1,070') gain per 4.05 km (2.51 mi) lap. As standard for the World Trophy, Women (and Junior Men) will run two laps, and the Men three laps (8km and 12km).

If correct, that would be an average elevation change of 752'/mi on this course vs. 853'/mi in Switzerland. It's more useful to note the elevation gain however. The Saillon course gains all of its altitude in the first 2.5 km of the loop, for an average gain of 720' per mile or a 13% grade (stats courtesy Dave Dunham). The Mt Tam course is steep, but not that steep!

THE PERMITS

OK, fun time is over for the Race Organizer, now it's down to business. In many places of the West, obtaining the necessary permits is by far the hardest aspect of race management, and may even make staging a race literally impossible. (Competitive events are illegal on trails in the City of Boulder, Boulder County, and the Boulder Ranger District of the USFS). Chris obtained Permits from the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and Mount Tamalpais State Park.

Chris: "I started working on it in October, and ran into some dead ends. This last push for permits took 8 weeks after I worked out a suitable route. I just receive final confirmation today (3/18)""

LOGISTICS

This race has only a 60-person entry limit. Subsequent years should see the allowable entrees rise, as the permitting agencies become comfortable with the organization.

But the main intent this first year, besides staging a quality race, is to be an excellent qualifier for the Mountain Running Team. The top Woman and top Male both receive automatic berths on the Team. There are no age divisions - this is an Open race, staged this first year at least, for fast runners.

Registration opened March 17 on active.com, and eight people signed up the first day. Those 60 spots will fill easily. But Chris says,

Chris: "If someone has a legitimate chance of winning, I will see to it that they will be able to get into this race.""

She has also arranged for some home-stays for out of town runners.

OUTCOME

We'll find out on July 15! Chris will race herself, and it will be great to see some well-known outsiders (a vastly disproportional percentage of National Team members has always been from New England and Colorado) mix it up with the fast locals. In years to come, the Mt Tam Trophy Race should expand into one of the better trail races in the US.

Thank you Chris.