Tour de Chico 50K | A Solo 50k Featuring Chico CA's Finest Trails
Chico California is a hub of endurance sports. While the town isn’t quite big enough to gather the types of events that capture the interests of most, it is endowed with a municipal park that acts as a playground for anyone with an interest in hiking, mountain biking, and trail running. Annie Bidwell left the expanse of Bidwell park to the city, and without it, Chico would be nothing of the town it is today.
With all of my races being canceled due to the pandemic, I hadn’t run an ultramarathon since February. It’s difficult to explain, but I longed to experience the sort of discomfort that comes with running ultras. While pushing hard at mile 30 is, in the moment, not particularly fun, there is a certain satisfaction that comes along with facing a physical challenge head on. I feel very privileged to hail from a town with such easy access to trails, and I’ve always been perplexed by the lack of an ultramarathon within the park limits. It seems like the perfect setting for one. There are more than enough trails, and the town is packed with ultramarathoners who train here. With this craving in my head, I figured this would be a good opportunity to try something out: a 50k time trial on a route that highlighted the crown jewel of Chico California. It’s a route that I would someday love to share with others in a race format, but for now it would just be me.
One of the unique aspects of Chico is the park system that runs through the center of town and connects the downtown area to the more rugged trails in the foothills. I’ve always admired the way a lot of the European ultras start and finish in towns—a great spectacle, so I planned my route to begin and end downtown at the City Plaza. From the plaza, it would be just a half mile to reach the park, and another half mile until the makeshift course hits the dirt for the remaining 29 miles before the return to the city plaza. From there it would be 4 miles in the flat and fast “lower park” section before reaching the hilly, rocky, but breathtaking canyon trails of “upper park,” where the route would make a big loop on both the northern and southern sides of the canyon. I did my best to create a route that best showcased what Chico has to offer as if I was going to experience it for the first time.
On Sunday, December 6th, I made my way to the city plaza with my dad to start the “race” at around 8:30. I stand by the belief that starting and finishing at the city plaza, in a race format, would be epic. By myself, however, it was underwhelming. The plaza has a reputation for being a hub of homelessness, and as I stretched out to begin the run, a man shouted obscenities at my dad and I. It was time to get going. When the crosswalk at the corner gave me the go ahead, I took off toward lower park.
I made my way through lower park trying to conserve energy and remind myself that this would likely be a 5 hour endeavour. The first 5 miles of the run would be flat. This is where the road racers and the highly acclaimed Chico State cross country and track team spent most of their time. I was surprised to hit a couple splits in the ballpark of 7:30. I felt like I was running a lot slower, but the adrenaline of the effort must’ve been working in the background. I reached upper park and the beginning of the first climb of around 1400 feet, in good time. The next miles from here would be alongside the hundred foot cliffs that surround Big Chico Creek, followed by a grunty, kilometer-long climb up to the south rim of the park. I felt great. I ate a gel every 20 minutes, and occasionally made the extra effort to pull out my phone and take a short video without breaking stride. Back in April I attempted a solo 50k on a different route, but bailed on it after 20 miles. I had a feeling that would not be the fate of today’s run.
I finished the first climb with a short and steep offshoot that terminates at highway 32, and then headed down a steep dirt road to connect back to a portion of the trail I was previously on. This section of the trail was a lollypop style route. I headed back downhill at around mile 11 toward the completion of the first half of the route. My dad would be meeting me at mile 16 at the bridge that connects the south side of the canyon to the north. I reached that point a little beat up from the rocky, jarring descent, but otherwise feeling good. I swapped my 6 sticky gel wrappers for 6 fresh gels, guzzled some flat coke, and headed off to the northern section.
The next two miles took me past horseshoe lake, which, due to our unfortunately abysmal amount of rain at this point in the year, is essentially a big mud puddle. From there it was 4 miles on the North Rim trail, one of the most scenic trails in the park, but also the rockiest. It’s only about 250 feet of vertical gain per mile on this trail, but due to the constant shifting to find decent footing, it’s draining. Still, I knew this climb from mile 17-21 would be the crux of the run. Once I reached the top and began the second half of the loop, I could just focus on running back to the city plaza. I pushed hard to keep running up this section.
Right before I made the turn onto the descending trail (known as B trail), I heard a familiar voice shout my name. It was a fellow runner who, due to a number of passings on various trails, I knew pretty well at this point. “Are you doing 30 miles today?” He called out. How could he possibly know that? I thought. Then I realised that he was just joking. “31! I’m doing a 50k today.” He laughed at the coincidence. I started down B trail and began the 5 mile descent back to horseshoe lake. All I had to do was descend, and then do another 5 flat miles to the city plaza. I was starting to hurt, but it all sounded pretty manageable.
One would think this descent would be an opportunity to make up time, but the biggest challenge of running in Bidwell park is not the hills, but the rocks. On a normal day, the best I could hope for on this descent would be around 8:30 to 9 minute mile pace. After 22 miles, on compromised legs, I could only manage 10-11 minute miles. Any quicker and I would risk catching a toe and hitting the dirt.
I was now on a trail called middle trail, and the descent back to horseshoe lake was slower going than I had anticipated. Taunting me, only around 1/10th of a mile downhill was upper park road, a gravel road that runs parallel to some of these trails. I was tempted to just run the road, where the elevation profile and milage would be similar, but I’d be able to roll 7-8 minute miles downhill. I thought about it for a minute, but decided it would compromise the intent of the run: to develop and run a 50k route on Bidwell Park’s best trails. The road was nice, but middle trail was classic Bidwell.
Finally, after 26 miles, I approached horseshoe lake where my dad was waiting with a few final gels and some more coke. In my head I had imagined running the last 5 miles, back on the flat surfaces, at sub 7 pace, grunting hard, like Zach Miller at the end of one of his races, but any leg speed was now gone. A 7:30 pace from here on would get me under 5 hours, but that was now out of the question. I shuffled on, headed for the plaza.
I was in serious discomfort. My calves were searing. With 3.5 miles to go I slowed to a walk, but I couldn’t let myself walk for long. I reminded myself that this feeling was the reason I chose to do this run in the first place. I missed the challenge of pushing myself through a painful situation. Whatever it looked like, I had to run the remaining 3.5 miles back to the plaza as fast as I could, even if it wasn’t actually that fast. At one point, I felt certain that the pace of my shuffle couldn’t be much faster than the pace of a fast-walk, but I looked down at my watch and saw a pace of 8 minutes and 40 seconds per mile. It wasn’t fast, but it was a heck of a lot faster than I could walk. I shuffled on.
At this point in an ultra, it’s often easier to split an effort into smaller components. With 3 miles to go I told myself to just go a mile, then I could walk a little. At 2 miles to go, I would remind myself that 2 miles was just 8 laps of a standard track. I could do that in my sleep. With 1 mile to go, I knew the finish was near and I was back onto the pavement. Struggling to maintain an 8:30 pace, but pushing as hard as I could, I crossed the remaining few intersections to return to the city plaza. I was spent, but finished in 5 hours and 8 minutes, and accumulated 2990 feet of vert.
While I’m not sure I’d say this was my best 50k (my PR is 4:23 on a course with only slightly less vert), considering the rocky terrain I’m pleased with the effort. Despite the solo effort, and the lack of motivation drawn other runners, crews, and spectators, I pushed as hard as I could, and I’m as shattered as I would be after any legitimate race. It was a joy to complete my thought-experiment of a route, and I sincerely hope it is someday brought to fruition. Chico California is an amazing place to train, and hopefully someday race, and I dedicate my run to its beautiful scenery and kind people.
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