7 laps at antelope backyard ultra

Javelina 2025

🥇Napa Lapa 3 hour

Sunset & Cider 🥈

12th OA and 3rd AG at Berkeley 35k

Lemme do a quick review before I give the full report: 

Goal for today was: heat, eat, time on feet and finish feeling strong. 2nd place at the finish. Was like 10-15th at the first aid station. 

Performance: A 

Execution: B+. Could have taken it easier in the first 20 miles.  

Ate 87gram carbs / hour on avg.  

Cooling: A (btw. Ice in sleeves is miraculous) 

📚 Race report! 

As I’m scrolling YouTube shorts, Kelly tells me: “shouldn’t you start getting ready, it’s like 8:45”. Race starts at 10:00 and we need to walk for about 20 minutes to get there. So yes, I do need to get ready. 15 minutes later we’re out the door, and 20 minutes later we’re at the start.  

I collect my bib, we take a picture, and hang out a bit. At around 9:40 I do my warmup lunges, get my pre-race gel in, drink a bit more and walk into the starting corral. I’m fully iced up: ice bandana and ice in my sleeves. It’s not going to be as warm as last year, but the high for the day is still expected to be 85F. 

As the gun goes off, I’m not as far in the front as I’ve been in recent races. Better strategy, it makes it easier to find my pace group. This race starts with a nice downhill down to no hands bridge, nice and cruising. 

This downhill is going well. I keep it easy, and notice that my watch says “2 miles, 18 minutes”. Well, I missed the first mile it seems. Pace is faster than expected but I’m feeling good. I run most of the uphills and all of the flats and downs.  

By minute 35 I slurp on a gel, and at the first aid station I refill my ice bandana and put ice in my sleeves. Also refill one skratch bottle. As we rolled into the aid station I tried counting the runners in front of me. I wasn’t entirely sure how many I counted, but I estimate somewhere between 10 and 15. I lost count.  

We're on our way back to start now, and it’s still going well. I stay cool, try to keep the running easy, and I think I pass one lady on the way to the start. Pretty uneventful.  

Back at the start, I grab two extra empty flasks from my drop bag and a bunch of extra gels. I refill one skratch flask and add a bit of gu Roctane mix from the race to my electrolyte flask. Don’t want to put a full tab in the flask given it is half full, but I could use the extra fluid.  

We’re at mile 9.5 now and about 1:45 int the race. Next aid station is 3.5 miles and off we go. The fresh ice I took at the start cools me down nicely. I recognise all the trails from last year. It’s fun to be out here again.  

At the Oregon bar aid station it’s go time! There is a very hot and exposed section coming up, about 7 miles on rolling terrain. I refill 4 flasks (2 skratch, 2 pure electrolytes), and put ice in my bandana and sleeves. I should maybe also share that I carry one spare flask with plain water. It’s my spray bottle. It helps cool me down once the ice has melted. And believe me, on a day like today when it’s 85F out, ice melts within 40 minutes.  

Big downhill coming out of the aid station. Let’s take it easy. Don’t ruin the quads. We do not want a repeat of canyons. Let’s keep the legs feeling fresh.  

After the downhill, we start the rollers. We go up, and then we go down. This is about a 4 mile section of rollers. And we come across 2 creek crossings on this section. I skip the first one, and use the second to get my hat wet.  

I also pass a few runners here. If memory serves me right, I pass 2 outright, but one sticks with me. Must have been the cool Azul ice bandanas we were both wearing.  

After chasing me for 3 miles, the lady had enough of looking at my backside and decided to go out by herself. I’m glad she does, because I need to slow down. The running is feeling exceptionally good. I can run the ups and the downs, I can keep eating and drinking and I feel great. But my heart rate begs to differ. It’s often close to 160 or even higher on longer uphills; and doesn’t really dip below 150 on the flats and downhills.  

So, I let the lady go without chasing. I’m still running well, just trying to slow it down a bit to recover the HR.  

Before I really notice, we’re at the bridge which marks the end of the rollers. About 2 miles to the aid station. And, we have a little water basin coming up. At least it was there last year, I hope it’s there again.  

As I keep moving, I notice a runner in front of me. He’s wearing a white tshirt and belt. Sounds like my “nemesis” from Berkeley, although it’s a different guy. He stays in front of me till we hit the aid station. But, like me, he also uses the basin to cool down. I decide to wet my sleeves and my hat. And as I leave the basin, I conciously make the decision to take my time to cool down. Start walking a bit, reduce the effort, slam my first caffeine gel, and wait for the heart rate to drop.  

I am not timing it, but it feels like it takes 5 minutes for the HR to recover. And as soon as I start running again, I notice the trail that leads to the third aid station and turn around. Last year we had to do a 1 mile out and back to get to 31 miles for a full 50k; this year that little section got removed.  

As I enter the aid station, I have only seen 3 other runners come back at me. White vest guy, shirtless guy, and lady with the cool Azul ice bandana that was chasing me.  

But, there’s like 5 to 10 runners at the aid station. Can’t really tell who is running and who is crewing, but it’s busy. I need to fill ice and refill 3 flasks, 1 skratch, 1 electrolytes and my spray flask. I try to do it quick and get out of there. Due to the mass of people here it felt slow, but hey, it’s a training race! 

The next section is 7 miles back to aid station 2. In my mind, I realise that if I want to finish strong, I’ve got to take it easy. Maybe even easier than the way out here. And in my mind, I latch onto the word “purpose”. Every step, every gel, every decision to run or walk should be purposeful.  

And it helps. When I walk an uphill, I don’t see it as “not running”, I see it as “saving energy for a strong finish”.  

During this section, I pass white tshirt and belt guy. And then, at the first creek crossing I see shirtless guy hanging out trying to cool himself. I quickly dunk my hat and get out of there. I’m now in 2nd position for men, I think. HELL YEAH.  

We cross most of the other 50k runners who are still heading to Rattlesnake bar, the turnaround point. It’s fun to cheer them on. One lady confirms to me that I’m second place male. I enjoy the feeling, but keep reminding myself that even if I get passed by someone, the purpose is training, strong finish and javelina.  

And you know, all of a sudden, like 2 miles before the aid station, seemingly out of nowhere, I get passed by Speedland shoes guy. I stick with him for like 15 seconds, and as he starts walking I can keep running and reclaim my place. I didn’t intentionally follow him to immediately overtake, but it’s what happens. 

Soon though, it’s three runners together. Me, Speedland shoes and white tshirt and belt. We pass two more creek crossings. At the first, the three of us take our time to cool a bit. At the second, I’m a bit out front, just dunk my hat and get going. Speedland shoes stays for a little longer, and white tshirt and belt stays with me. “I’m gonna hit the river soon” he says and he passes me.  

We stay together, until he goes off trail and towards the river. I was debating in my head if I would follow him in there. But, we were only 0.95 miles from the aid station (all uphill though) and my hat was still wet. As he goes down, I start going up, and see Speedland close behind me.  

Purpose: “Finish strong”. And this is where the finish starts. I slam a final caffeine gel (should have taken it 15 min earlier but hey, lost track), and hike up to the aid. It’s warm, but I can still manage to run some of the hills, and arrive in the aid in no time.  

The volunteers refill 1 skratch and my spray bottle for me while I get ice in my sleeves and my ice bandana. I spray myself down with the spray bottle and top it off. As I leave the aid station, speedland comes in. Hot on my heels.  

3.5 miles to go. 1 climb, then rollers and flats. LETS GO.  

As I climb up from the aid, I suddenly see two runners come towards me. It’s a little weird. I recognise the lady with the cool Azul bandana.  I’m like “wtf??? Am I going the wrong way?”  I check my watch like 3 times and I’m correct. The lady shouts “I have been of course for 10 miles”, which is weird. But, afterwards as I type this race report, I’m not even 100% sure it was her. I was running to the finish line along the course, she never passed me again and finished ahead of me; so it’s weird. I’m not saying she cut the course at all, just that I witnessed something weird. 

Back in the moment: I didn’t see who was in front of her. Was that white vest guy? Was he also of course? Am I in the lead? Wtf, am I going to win this race? 

Purpose. Finish strong. Run like a champion. I pick up the pace a bit, I can’t let Speedland catch me now. Good thing it’s only 2 mile to the finish. And soon it’s 1 mile. I still have a full spray bottle, which I empty onto myself like it’s the finish line champagne bottle. Feels awesome to cool down. And then all of a sudden I see Kelly, who cheers me on and tells me I’m second male, 3rd overall.  

Of course I’m winded after my finish and my legs finally tell my brain that they hurt. They also thought they were a race winner for a minute. But it doesn’t matter, 2nd place is better than I was hoping for.  

After my race, Kelly starts her 5 miler. She’ll end up finishing 8th in her race, EPIC!!! 

Overall, I’m happy with today. The performance, no doubt. Super happy. The execution, mixed. On the plus side, I managed to finish strong, managed to keep eating and drinking, was able to pee shortly after the finish meaning I was hydrated fairly well. On the negative side though, I again ran this too hard. Like Berkeley again. I can’t seem to find the right mindset to really take a race as training. I didn’t go all out from the start, but I could have taken miles 10-20 significantly easier. 

And also… I could have worried less about positions? Why do I care so much about finishing 2nd or 3th? What would it have mattered in the end if Speedland and white t-shirt with belt had passed me and I had been 4th with the same time, or even a time of 6:01? Maybe I need a little bit of introspection here, I like the competition, and I am a type-A kinda guy; but I feel like today it took the upper hand while I should have been more focused on the goal: JAVELINA IN 4 WEEKS!!!

Top Sports

Nills Franssens

Sunset & Cider 🥈

1 Photo

12 Comments

Splits

Sign up to view more activities from Nills Franssens

7 laps at antelope backyard ultra

Javelina 2025

🥇Napa Lapa 3 hour

Sunset & Cider 🥈

12th OA and 3rd AG at Berkeley 35k

Want to see more?

The #1 app for runners and cyclists

Sign Up for Free. Track your progress and reach goals. Join 100 million active people on Strava.

See More from Nills