Dad and the Quicksilver 100K run

Dad ran the Quicksilver 100K in New Almaden, CA, one week after running the Miwok 100K. Last year he took a wrong turn just before the last aid station in Quicksilver, ended up 10 miles from the finish line, and decided to drop from the race. He kept the shirt and wore it running all year. Every time he put it on he would think about how he still needed to finish that course. So early this year he signed up for the 2015 run. He was excited to try Quicksilver again, even though he wouldn't be fully recovered from Miwok the Saturday before.

The Quicksilver park is on the southwest side of San Jose. Dad sees the mountains in this run from the Intel shuttle several times a month when he goes to Santa Clara for work. The race goes around a prominent peak in the San Jose area called Mount Umunhum (or "Mount Um").

Mom and the kids went to the Tech Museum in San Jose while Dad ran. He was expecting to take about 12 hours, maybe 11 and half hours best case, because that's what his time would have been last year. But he felt good all day and was keeping about a 10 minute per mile pace overall. Once he got to mile 54, he realized he was going to finish much earlier than expected, so he texted Mom to head to the the finish line an hour and a half early.

Mom had some trouble finding where the finish line was (it's tucked away in a neighborhood) and they had to walk a long way because there weren't any available parking spots at the finish. So, unfortunately, they missed the actual crossing of the finish line. But James Player, one of Dad's pacers from the TRT 100 miler last year, was the person who finished just ahead of Dad. James got this picture with Dad's phone right after he finished.

Dad finished in 10 hours, 22 minutes, which is more than 40 minutes faster than he ran Miwok one week earlier. Dad thinks Quicksilver is a harder course than Miwok because there is about 2000 ft more climbing. Obviously, he didn't get a lot faster in one week (especially being not fully recovered from the last 100K). He thinks he ran it faster because he started out slower and he knew Mom was there to drive part of the way home (thanks Mom!).