The Road to the Bishop High Sierra Ultramarathon

The Road to the Bishop High Sierra Ultramarathon goes though Griffith Peak.

Griffith Peak, Mt. Chaleston Wilderness, NV

                The next target for me is a 100K trail race in the Sierra Mountains outside of Bishop, California.  A few months ago, while running the 50 mile Running form an Angel ultra at Lake Mead, NV (my first ultra) I was told Bishop was a race I just had to run.  So now, after I survived that first one, and did rather well with a big smile and a time of 8 hours 41 minute, I am signed up for and preparing for the Bishop 100k.  One hundred kilometers is sixty-two miles, so one might think that is only 12 more miles so really not that big a deal – just keep on going steady for a couple more hours and you got it, right? However, the Bishop race adds a few more degrees of difficulty. 

Race comparison chart

	Running from an Angel	100 K Bishop High Sierra Ultramarthon
Distance	50 miles	62 miles
Starting Elevation	1200 feet	4400 ft
Peak Elevation	1,876 feet	9,400 feet
Surface	Paved roads, rolling hills	Gravel roads, stream crossings, steep mountain trails
Total elevation gain/loss	+4277/-4277 feet	+9,800/-9,800 feet

In Bishop, we will be running up and down the east slope (the steep side) of the Sierra Mountains all day on forest service gravel road and mountain trails.  This plus the high altitude will make the overall challenge about double that of Running from an Angel.

 Fortunately I have plenty of mountains in the Las Vegas area to provide similar training opportunities; Mt. Charleston is only 30 minutes away.  Harris Springs road is a forest service road that leads to Griffith Peak an 11,000 foot mountain from which you can view Las Vegas Valley, 9000 feet and 30 miles away.  The first time I ran there I went 8 miles up the road to where the Griffith Peak trail head begins at 8000 feet and turned back.  I used hiking poles to assist me as I ran and hiked up the 8% incline – 16 miles in 3 ½ hours.  The second time I left in the afternoon after school and made it an additional 3 miles up the trailhead to 9,000 ft. It got dark on me this time and I was running back down the mountain with a head lamp.  These were good experiences and I feel I am starting to get in touch with this mountain and its solitude.  You don’t meet many people up this way.  So far I have only seen one hiker and less than a handful of ATV’s and other vehicles on the road.    

The third time I made it to the peak which turns out to be 13 miles each away and would make an awesome marathon I would love to stage some day; it took me 6 ½ hours.  Here is the profile; click on the image for more details.

 Here are some pictures from my run to Griffith Peak.

All geared up and carrying a little over 2 gallons of water - about 15 lbs.  Ready, set, go!

Looking back down the road

Griffith peak Trailhead

Looks close but it is still another 3 miles and we are over 9,000 ft. already

Mt. Charelston Village in the distance

Looking back from about 9,500 ft.  Starting to get real tired requiring a couple of short rest stops.

Approaching snow

Hard going over this thawed and frozen over snow.  Need to punch through and make steps to avoid sliding down the slope

The peak.  I'm looking down on it from the snow cap.

Peak view of Las Vegas valley

The Strip

North Las Vegas

The trail back down

Wierd little old tree growing out of the rocks

Mini Earthquake Tremors

Post work-out protein shake. - yum-yum

At first I wasn't sure if it was real or if it was my imagination, yet there it was again.  Yes, it was definitely real, but nothing to be alarmed about.  At least it wasn't more mind blowing cramps like the ones I was getting on the ride back from Griffith Peak last Saturday.  My right quadriceps was twitching ever so slightly but really fast like a  dog scratching a flea - mini earthquake tremors  was calling them.  Probably just a small little electrical disturbance in one of my nerves deep down in the muscle I figured, not that I would know since it was the first time I ever felt such a twitch.  Actually it was kind of neat; another one of those brand new experiences brought to you by the world of ultra-running. At first I only felt the twitch while standing still, but later I felt it while walking and tonight I even felt it come and go while running.  No big deal; just stuff getting settled after that major effort I put in on that Griffith Peak run last Saturday.  Today,  my first run since that 27 mile slugger, I put in 8 miles on the roads; the first couple were a little painful but I loosened up enough to put in a couple of faster miles (7:30 pace) around mile 6 and 7 before I coasted home for my protein shake.  I am attributing my milk, whey protein, strawberry, banana, honey and ginger post run recovery shakes for my fast recovery times of late.  The ginger is courtesy of a suggestion by my sister Dawn; she says it reduces muscle inflammation after a run so I have been giving it a shot.