Dipsea Summary

It went okay.

The Good:
I ran a bit faster than last year and moved up 20 spots (low 80s last year, low 60s this year). The Prince ran a lot faster than last year and moved up 200+ spots, from the high 300s last year to just inside the top 150 this year. (~1500 total runners)

[What were/are our goals? First off, to finish in the top 450 to retain our guaranteed entry into the invitational section next year. Check. Next, to finish in the top 100 to get our finishing place as our bib number. Check for me, the Prince missed by 90 seconds or so. Finish in the top 35 to win a coveted black shirt. No luck there - I need to move up 30 or so places, run about 3 minutes (5%) faster. Win the family trophy - add the finishing places of two family members, lowest score wins. I think we were fourth - getting closer.]

The Bad:
Neither of us ran up to our potential. We both went out too slow, in fact I ran the first 2/3 of the course slower than the other 2 times I’ve run the race. I wanted to break 40 minutes to the top of Cardiac (which I’ve done a number of times while training - see the map in a prior post below), but I was over 41. Race day was hot, and I was spooked a bit about blowing up (because I did last year), so I went out a bit conservative. Mistake. The Prince probably followed my bad advice as well, though he said the excessive dust this year made it tough for him to breathe in sections. I also wanted to have an actual running time of under an hour, but because of my too slow start, didn’t manage that either (and ran 61 something). The Prince thought he might be able to crack an hour for his clock time (actual time minus head start), but missed by 2 minutes. He did have a great run from the top of Cardiac to the finish (something he’s been terrible at in the past - so that was really good for him and a good sign for the future).

So I guess we both should be happy that we improved, but we were hoping for a bit more. We will be better prepared for next year. It was a mistake not to practice on the course this year - I wasn’t able to accurately judge my pace.

The Poison Oak:
I am pretty sensitive to poison oak, and have gotten it many times (I suspect more than 100). The Dipsea has a few sections where there are two options for the course - a sane, nice, but slower/longer way, and the insane, stupider but faster/shorter way which is usually straight down the side of a mountain through the bushes. Think overgrown bunny or deer trail. I always take the fast way and always know there is a good chance that my legs are being brushed or scraped by poison oak leaves. When I get to the finish at Stinson Beach (after training or racing), I head straight to the showers and wash my legs with Zanfel (for me it works better than anything else). If I follow this routine, I rarely get poison oak, or if I do, it is only a small spot or two on my legs which I ignore for a few days and then it is gone.

Race day it was the same thing - straight to the beach showers, wash thoroughly with Zanfel, done. The one thing I forgot was that on one of the short cuts, I was stuck behind a guy who was slower than me, but not by much. So it was tough for me to get by him. I would wait for the tiny path through the bushes to widen, then I’d try and zip by, but there was never enough room or time to make the pass. As the seconds ticked on and on and I couldn’t get past, I finally just plowed my way around him, scraping my left arm on who knows what. I rarely if ever get poison oak on my arms, only my legs, so it isn’t in my routine to wash anything above my thighs. As it turned out, I must have scraped my arm on poison oak, because Monday I could feel it coming, and by Wednesday my left arm had inflated from my biceps down to my hand and was oozing all sorts of nastiness (think arm of a 400 pound man on one who weighs 150). I wrapped my arm with gauze and proceeded with life. It was annoying, mostly because it was disgusting (it didn’t exactly itch, it was more like it buzzed - sort of like a low grade electrical current). A few times a day I’d go wash my arm with this black poison oak soap and re-wrap it up with new gauze. The black soap is good once I have poison oak at keeping the outbreak calm, making it go away sooner, and making the buzzing stop.

Wednesday night my wife saw my arm and ordered me to the doctor (she’s an exec at a hospital and a professor and knows most things medical). I was super busy on Thursday and didn’t call the doctor. Friday, my wife was still annoyed by my arm and once again suggested I got to the doctor. I told her if she called and could actually get me an appointment, I’d go. Turns out by 4pm on Friday my doctor is already gone for the weekend, but they said I should go to an urgent care clinic. I looked up where it was on google maps, realized it was next door to a Peets (I should disclose I’m a shareholder), and happily headed out. By then my arm had pretty much stopped oozing, so it wasn’t even really bugging me all that much, but it sure was bugging my wife. Got my coffee and went into the clinic. After lots of paperwork and what seemed like a lot of waiting (I was the only one in the waiting room), I was called in where a nurse asked me some questions that I’d already answered at least twice on the paperwork I’d just filled out. She went away, a minute or two later, the doctor came in. She asked why I was there and I told her my arm was making my wife cranky. The doctor looked at my arm and said - oooh, that is bad. Do I need to show you what poison oak looks like? I rolled my eyes and said no. “I was in the Dipsea race - when you’re running full speed down the side of mountain through the bushes, you don’t have time to look for it.” She told me she could give me some pills for it, but that it would take a couple days for them to take care of the arm which would mean my wife would still be cranky. So for her she’d give me a shot of steroids.

Doctor leaves, another nurse comes in. Says she’ll need my xxxxxxx (word I didn’t understand). I asked her, you need my what? “Your butt. This is too much to shoot in your arm, we need to shoot it into your butt. Just pull your pants down a little, I’ll lock the door.” I told her I wasn’t worried about a crowd of people trying to bust down the door to sneak a peek at my butt. I hate shots, but luckily for me this nurse was a pro and I barely felt a thing.

My arm deflated a couple days later and now looks 90+% normal.

Moral of the story - wash every bit of bare skin at the Stinson Beach showers.