Bulldog Trail Race 2019

If there’s anything I wanted to accomplish in October, it was to finish this recap of the Bulldog race that was in oh, back at the end of August. Considering, I wrote a course preview post of the race, I suppose it was only fitting I wrote something about the actual race, right? I sure didn’t want this to turn into that episode of Happy Days when Chuck disappeared.

If you happen to be old enough to have watched the very early seasons of Happy Days, you’d know there were three Cunningham children: Joanie, Richie, and Chuck. One day Chuck went upstairs and was never heard from ever again.  People were left wondering, what happened to Chuck? Are the Cunninghams not even remotely concerned they lost a kid upstairs?  Chuck’s disappearance was never explained. I didn’t want the same thing to happen here and have my four wonderful readers not know what happened at the race.

After my preview run, there were a few things that remained to be seen come race day:

1. Would I drop down from the more challenging longer 50K to the still kinda challenging, but shorter 25K?

2. Would I spend a good chunk of time crawling my way over the tree to get to the other side?

3. Would I be given an option to either cross the creek or run on the road trying not to get hit by the passing cars on Las Virgenes? (Pronounced Loss Virgin-ess or if you’re my maps app, Loss Vurr-hinn-knees)

Before the race, I met up with my friend Crystal because we’d be doing the race together and I should add there was a chance we wouldn’t be.

When you’re doing a race with someone, it’s always good to discuss what might happen during the race itself. For instance, at the beginning of August, my right hip was having some issues.

I never felt intense pain, but there was some level of discomfort after a few miles, and then afterward, it felt stiff, and was difficult to go from sitting to walking. It never hindered me when I ran but I was worried this would become an issue during the race.

I told her that if I needed to hang back she must go on, run her race, and I’d see her at the finish line. Of course, she said the same thing to me but I knew that wasn’t going to happen.

Besides having some anxiety over how my hip would feel, I had a lot of anxiety over this tree crossing.  If you read my last post I mentioned this tree, and I was nervous about the tree.

When we gathered around to hear the new race director Daniel give us his pre-race instructions, I distinctly heard there would be two creek crossings. One will be dry. The other will be wet.

Wait, what did he say?  What does this mean?  It meant I’d have to wait and see.

There was no waiting to see there wasn’t a cloud in sight and the sun shined brightly. I’ve had a couple of Bulldog experiences where it was cloudy and cool in the morning, but not this time around.

When we got to the washed-out bridge, I knew the moment of truth was coming upon us. We took the detour and made a right turn, and then we made a slight left turn and all of a sudden the area looked different. We never went this way before and before we knew it, we were on the other side of the tree! We didn’t have the cross the tree!! We didn’t have to cross the tree!! We rejoiced!

Just before the race I had seen a recent photo of the tree from the final course preview run that I didn’t attend, and the tree appeared to be sinking so this was a huge relief.

When we got past that hurdle and made it over to the other side, the rest of the race was business as usual.

Even though the race director had changed this year, the overall course did not. However, there was a wonderful addition this time around.

After the long climb up Bulldog Road, we were greeted by something magical – a cooling station!

I didn’t run Bulldog last year so I’m not sure if these cooling stations were a part of it, but they were magically magnificent. Only water and ice were available but they were just what you needed and wanted during a hot race.

Sooner after leaving the first cooling station, we arrived at the Corral Canyon aid station with none other than Bruce Springsteen singing to us! Well, it was “Born to Run” playing in the background, but I’ll take it.

We left Corral refreshed, refueled, and ran and hiked up and down the nicely cleaned-up trails and took in the beautiful views.

As we headed down the singletrack Backbone, I anticipated the creek crossing. One will be dry. The other will be wet. The tree crossing was the dry one so I guess this meant, the actual creek would be the wet one, or dry, depending on how your footing went.

I’m sure many people were able to get across it unscathed, but I wasn’t one of them. One foot slipped off a rock and dipped itself into the cold water, and my other foot got jealous and decided to follow it. There was no gentle and graceful creek crossing for me this time around so I plodded through to the other side and made it out with squishy socks and soggy shoes. Fortunately, there were only 2-ish miles remaining.

While we had every intention of completing the 50K, Crystal and I both knew it wasn’t going to be in the cards for us that day. We weren’t going to make the cutoff time for the first loop so when we finished it, we agreed to complete the 25K.

However, because we dropped down mid-race we weren’t given an official race result. We eventually received a medal in the mail, but no results to show for it. It’s okay though.

I should add, that no race is ever perfect, but here is what I liked:

• The aid stations were extremely well-stocked.
• Course markings were fantastic!
• The fact we didn’t have to cross that tree was truly magical!
• Cooling aid stations!
• Post-race food. Delicious!
• Awesome volunteers!
• Receiving a medal (even though you don’t get an official result)

While I didn’t receive an official 25K result there were a lot of great things to be had here, and I had a fun time! Yes, I wish my body was up for more miles and another loop, but not on this day.

Thank you to race director Daniel Weissauer, to all the volunteers, and to Crystal who is always up for a trail adventure, and thank you for reading! I’m happy this post didn’t turn into Chuck.

P.S. My hip feels much better now and in fact, felt much better the day after the race. Maybe I knocked some sense into it.