l to r: Tom O'Hara, Katy Slater and Richard Gilmore
Avalon Benefit 50 Mile Trail Race.
2nd Saturday in January, Catalina Island, CA, 5 AM Start.
Avalon Weather, Metropole web cam, Catalina Island Inn web cam, Pavillion Lodge & Casino web cams
Race Director: Mike Bone, 909-399-3533, mike@spectrumsports.net
Great course for first trail 50 just to finish. Use the Ridgecrest 50K in December as a training run. If you like the Catalina Marathon, then you will love this 50 miler with some additional trail through Rancho Escondido down from the airport that the marathon doesn't have. The 50 also skips the steep section of the marathon between the 1st and 3rd aid stations.
Very scenic looking across at the lights of the mainland for the first 7 miles as the sun comes up, buffalo grazing on the hills, Catalina Channel and Pacific Ocean sides of the island as you run out to the Isthmus and back to Avalon in a modified figure 8 course.
The aid stations are fantastic. At Eagles Nest (mile 39) you can even get a beer and a buffalo burger. On the way back at mile 34, The Whacko Cafe, you can participate in the golf ball distance contest - even the best golfers loose a lot of coordination after 34 miles.
There is a 12 hour cutoff time but it is not enforced, you are just on your own after 5 PM (sunset). Those who go past 5 PM at the finish line need to give their finish time to the race director at the awards banquet (7 PM Saturday night) and keep their flash light with them or stashed at Haypress. However, you can start early at 4 AM or even 3 AM if you tell the finish line to add the early start time to your finish time. Estimate double your Catalina Marathon time or add 2 hours to two times your LA Marathon time. Best male finish time is 5:48 and female 7:22.
Aid stations are well stocked with water, 50-50 Gatorade, soda, fruit, pretzels, M & M's, Gummie Bears, and some have special stuff like potatoes, trail mix, beer, BBQ chicken, etc., but are 3 to 7 miles apart. You can pack a drop bag with lunch or special snax and drinks and leave it at packet pickup Friday evening. The Whacko Cafe aid station people will haul it out to Little Harbor and have it there for you. This is the only manned aid station you pass through twice - miles 22.7 and 34.0. I suggest a 2 bottle pack with energy foods you like to eat (I ate one mini Snickers Bar every hour), salt or succeed tablets (one per 3 pints of fluid), Ibuprofen (800 mg at the start and 400 every 3 hrs) and Tums (every 2 hrs or when I feel a cramp coming on). I put a thermos of chicken noodle soup in my drop bag. But after having worked the Whacko Cafe aid station, I have seen everything but the kitchen sink in the drop bags there.
Temperatures vary from 40 to 75 degrees. Most wear both a long and a short sleeve shirt plus a nylon shell if windy. If it gets too warm, you can peal off in layers and when you get to the Whacko Cafe aid station, stash them in your drop bag. The bags will be brought back to the finish about 3 PM. It is a tradition just after you finish to walk into the bay up to your waist - it really is good for your tired muscles, honest - and then have a Corona at Eric's on the Pier as you cheer other runners in. So pack an extra sweatshirt, small towel and a few bux in your drop bag for after you finish. Many also put 5 to 50 bux in their drop bag to put in the Wacko Cafe tip jar which goes to the Avalon Benefit charity.
The food at the awards banquet has been very good the last few years and is well worth going to, so don't crash soon as you get in and take a shower. Everyone gets a finishers medal and there are age group awards 3 deep. There are plaques given to those who finish a total of 5,10, 15 or 20 Avalon 50's (does not have to be consecutive years), special awards like the golf ball distance contest given by Pat the Capitana of the Whacko Cafe aid station, and to those who raise the most pledges. You might even go to Luau Larry's or El Galleon for a few celebratory mai-tai's and karaoke after. Sunday morning all the finishers gather near the pier for a group photo at 8 AM then go to breakfast at Joe's Place.
Renting one of the Bahia Vista Condo's with 1 or 2 other couples is a good deal and can be cheaper than a hotel room. A 6 person condo is about $172 total per couple for the two nights. There is a Jacuzzi. Check out Vacation Rentals . Telephone 310-510-2276. There are many other condos and homes to choose from.
Fastest boat ride - 1 hr - is from the Catalina Express terminal in Long Beach - 800-805-9201.
submitted by Tom O'Hara
Another view from Shar Anderson
5 am start, in the dark, on an out and back beginning at the green pier where the marlin are brought in. Then we begin a relentless climb that takes us past the Wrigley Memorial and onto a dirt road. We can see flashlights winding along the switch backs for miles ahead. Eventually, when we can look down behind us, it's nice to know we're not last 'cause we can see a long trail of flashlights behind us as well. Once morning dawns, we are about 7 miles into the 50 mile race and on a ridge. On the right we look down on Avalon Bay, and there on the left, is England. Well, what else could it be?!
Buffalo. "Here buffalo ... nice buffalo ... lemme get just a little closer so I can take your picture ... nice buffalo ... I won't hurt you ... Hey, Jan! I think this one is snorting at me!" "Yeah? I don't hear anything. Let me just lean my ear in here next to the big guy's face ... WHOA!!" Suddenly, he's charging us!! Jan turns and runs while I just stand there, too dumbfounded to move! I found myself putting my hands on my hips and stomping my foot like when neighborhood dogs come out of their yards barking and expecting a chase. Jan thought I was being brave (or maybe an idiot), but it was just an unconscious response to the charge. Fortunately, it worked! He pulled up abruptly just a few feet from me, snorted, and shook his head as if to say, "Enough, move along now!" We gladly complied!
Tom is right about the aid station at mile 22 and again at 34. It's a life saver! We handled the turn around at Twin Harbors okay. But then it's about a 2 mile climb out of there to begin the trek back. Jan had us playing "childish mind games" where we'd take turns picking where we'd start running and at what spot we could resume walking. "Okay, at the big bush on the left we'll run until we get to that right turn way up there by the palm tree." "That big bush right there?" "Yeah, until the palm tree." "Okay." We played that game for what seemed like forever and it worked! We climbed right out of that hole in pretty good time and headed into Tom and Mary Ann's haven! Leaving was the hard part. The next few miles got rough. The childish mind game didn't seem to be working anymore. Jan said we weren't suppose to have down times at the same time, but at different times so that we could pull each other along. But that's what happened at about mile 36. We just got sluggish!
If it hadn't been for another buffalo incident, we may have stayed sluggish even longer. But having been charged once, we were a little gun shy when a HUGE buffalo came around the corner, followed by a smaller buffalo, waltzing along the road like he owned it! We were heading right for each other! Jan said she wasn't going any farther and I said maybe we could stay way to the left, but the buffalo was coming up the hill zigzagging across the entire road. Maybe he didn't like us anymore that we liked him because just before we had to do SOMETHING, he did something. Just as calm as could be, he went straight up the embankment on the right and out of sight. We were astonished that the two of them could go up something so steep! The adrenaline rush kicked us into gear for the long, never ending stretch that Jan called "middle ranch". Brush and canyon walls on both sides obstruct any view so that every turn looks the same. When think we can't stand it any longer, there are the switch backs to climb out of middle ranch and back onto the ridge where at last the ocean can be seen again!
Last: the treacherous, quad burning, toe jamming, 3 mile screaming downhill eucalyptus lined tour bus road. Brutal!! Absolutely brutal! But when we pass the bell tower and wind by a few last residences, a right turn at the bottom and there we are on main street! A 100 yards from the finish line and a great welcome!! It's an incredible feeling of accomplishment!
Cover of Running Magazine, January 1992,
l to r: Tom O'Hara, Katy Slater and Richard Gilmore
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