Quicksilver 100k 2016 race report.

Quicksilver 100k,

May 14th, 2016

Almaden Quicksilver County Park,

San Jose

Finished in 14:14 hrs

From the set of posts around Quicksilver one can guess how excited I was for this day, this was my 'A' race of the year.

Race started at 4:30, after chatting with my ultra running friends, carried on towards the cemetery in the dark and eventually towards hick's road, where I dropped my headlights and extra layers .

once we pass Hick's road around dawn and I look fwd to climbing towards Bald mountain, sunrise from the summit, is a sight to strive for. From that point its a downhill back to Hicks Rd and climb up to el sombrero which is about 19 miles . This is a fun aid station manned by Loren Lewis and team. This is the point I like to get in the zone and run a good clip to Lexington dam, a 5 mile downhill section. I caught up with Franco he shared his stories from Mt charleston which encouraged me to run the race in 2017 to PR. Once I hit lexington dam, I got stuff from my drop bag, got some ensure and gels and started a good climb up priest rock and dog meat section. That's my favorite section of the race, a 1.4 mile climb with 1000 feet elevation gain. Top of dog meat leads to kennedy rollers back to wood rd AS, after a quick refill, its another good 6 mile downhill to Hick Rd AS.

Next 12 miles were quite easy section and went as planned, I hit Mockingbird in 9hrs and was helped by Duke and others. Duke was waiting to Pace Ramiro. After a quick re-fueling and cold coconut water, I started off to climb to Bull Run, its a gradual 4 mile climb, its a steady 1hr+ effort. In 2015 I had a hard day so was pretty keen to do better on that, Incidentally met up with WS legend John Trent after some sharing some stories he carried on. Eventually hit Bull run AS, which is manned by my running club Stevens Creek Striders. after a quick refueling carried on downhill towards Tina's den, this was much slower than what the terrain calls for, I would like to pick pace on this section next year. Though it was slower it was much better than 2015, where I bonked pretty bad and had multiple breaks.

Once I passed Tina's den, I usually start feeling the finish, though it is a good 9 miles away, but its just 1 climb and 3 mile downhill to finish. Rest of the finish was more of celebrating the run, I acheived my goal to run a strong race and was looking forward to seeing Ahana and Rashmi a finish and have a nice beer and burgers which Quicksilver is popular for.

It was a perfect day for a long day in Sierra Azul OSP and Quicksilver County park. my training for this year went very well, all races and long runs were as planned and got lot of good hill training. I came into this race well rested as well. my goal was to finish sub 14hrs, I ended up running 14:14 hrs. I will take that. Life has been kind and Thanks to my dear wife Rashmi, Ahana and Zoey.

I am thankful to quicksilver running club, John Brooks, Rajeev Patel, Greg Lanctot, Kristina Irivin, Paul Fick, QRC and many many volunteers at the race for a heck of a experience.

#8 Quicksilver in the books. I would like to hit #30 running of Quicksilver races in my life time.