Way Too Cool 50k

Race Information

• What? Way Too Cool 50k
• When? March 7th, 2026
• Distance: 50 km
• Where? Cool, CA, USA
• Website: Results
• Strava Activity: Strava
• Finish Time: 4 hours 20 minutes and 8 seconds

Goals

Preamble

After CIM, Patrick and I talked through a few racing options for the spring. One of his suggestions was to run a 50k trail race before Western States. The idea was simple: get some practice pushing a bit harder on trail, and keep dialing in nutrition and pacing over a longer effort. Way Too Cool felt like the obvious choice.

The only real downside was that making the timing and recovery work meant dropping out of Boston Marathon.

Still, there was a big upside. Way Too Cool is run on trails that are very similar to Western States. There is even an aid station in Cool during States itself, so this felt like an ideal chance to get specific training on terrain that closely matched the bigger goal.

Training

After SF Half Marathon, one thing had become pretty clear to me: my hill running was still weaker than I wanted it to be.

Over the previous year I had put a lot of focus into power hiking, and that had improved a lot. But I also wanted to be able to run more of the less steep uphill sections instead of defaulting to a hike quite so early.

After talking it through with Patrick, we adjusted the program a bit. We dialed back some of the power hiking and added more hill running.

It also helped that Michael started joining our usual training crew. He is a very strong trail runner and very much from the “no hike” school of thought. He absolutely smoked me on every hill, which turned out to be excellent motivation. By the end of the block I was running much more consistently on both the ups and downs, even on steeper terrain, without completely blowing myself up.

The other issue I had identified was hydration. I had only been drinking around 200 ml an hour, which is obviously not much. That was probably leaving me behind on both hydration and electrolytes, hurting performance, and maybe contributing to some of the cramping I had been dealing with.

So I started working on that much more deliberately in training, and it paid off. By the end of the block I was pretty comfortably drinking 500 ml an hour.

I do not usually mention gear much because so much of it comes down to personal preference, but I will make one exception here. I picked up the newer, larger Naked belt and really liked it. Instead of struggling to carry more than about 400 ml in the smaller one, I could now comfortably carry around 750 ml using one large flask and one smaller one.

Before the race

After wrapping up a busy week at work, I jumped in the car and drove up to Auburn. Friday traffic was predictably grim, so I arrived later than I had hoped.

The dinner plan had been simple: stop by Whole Foods and grab a few slices of pizza. Unfortunately by the time I got there, there was only one slice left. So dinner became one slice of pizza and two pots of noodles, which was a slightly odd combination but got the job done.

After a quick kit check and a shower, I got to sleep pretty quickly.

Race Day

Compared to some trail races, this start felt almost luxurious. We were not going off until 8am, and since I was only about fifteen minutes from the start, I could sleep until 6.

I had some breakfast, drank some coffee, and got ready to head out. Right before leaving, I remembered to check the distances between aid stations so I could work out how much water to carry. After a stretch of road races with water and gels every three miles, I had definitely become a bit complacent.

It was a good reminder. Trail aid stations are a different game. The spacing was perfectly reasonable, but a lot farther apart than I had recently been used to.

After that little correction, I drove over to the start. I am not sure whether it was nerves or just respect for the distance, but I had the sense that the day might feel hard. Still, everything around the race was very smooth. Parking was easy, bib pickup was straightforward, I did a few strides, and then it was time to get going.

Start to AS1 - 13ish kms

After briefly catching up with Alex, who I knew from SF Half Marathon and who was also running the 50k, we were off.

The race starts both the 50k and the 10 mile runners together, which makes the opening section a little chaotic. The pace is quick, but it is hard to tell who is actually racing your event and where you really sit in the field.

The conditions were close to perfect, around 12°C in the morning, and I had decided to run in a singlet. My hands were cold at first, but we passed my car early enough that I could toss my gloves there and carry on.

The opening stretch is mostly downhill on road, which does a good job of stringing things out before the course narrows onto single track. Once we hit trail, it immediately felt much more like a proper trail race.

After a short rise, we dropped down a fire road descent. I found myself running with one man and one woman and tried to stay with them. At the bottom, we hit the first river crossing. There was no way around it, no neat rock-hop option, just straight through. My shoes got soaked immediately, although the climb afterwards helped deal with that pretty quickly.

As the course moved into rolling terrain, I was reminded of another difference between road and trail racing. On the road, if there is a headwind, you can often tuck in behind someone. On trail, you are usually just out there on your own dealing with it.

This was a really scenic section, with very runnable rolling hills. After that first crossing I tried to keep my feet reasonably dry, not so much for comfort, but more to avoid carrying around extra water weight. That strategy worked fairly well until the final climb before the aid station, where there was another, larger river crossing waiting.

This time I just waded through it, threw a bit of water over my head, and ran into AS1.

AS1 to AS2 - 8ish kms

I moved through the aid station quickly, topped up water, grabbed more gels, and got going again.

By now I was running solo and trying to stay focused on the basics: keep eating, keep drinking, and keep the effort steady.

Not long after the aid station, we started a longer descent toward a road crossing. Somewhere through there, two runners came past me quite hard. I briefly tried to go with the second one, but then decided this was probably an ideal moment for a short tactical stop. That turned out to be exactly the right call. I felt much better afterwards, and before long I was gradually pulling that runner back in.

I went past them at the road crossing.

Around there I suddenly recognized where I was. This was the same lollipop loop I had run during Rio Del Lago 100, which meant there was a spicy climb coming up before too long.

The trail through this section was very runnable and I felt like I was moving well. I slowly worked my way back to the other runner who had overtaken me earlier, and by the time we reached AS2 I was on a roll!

AS2 to AS3 - 13ish kms

I topped up water again, grabbed a couple more gels, and headed out.

One small mistake here was that I forgot to check the distance to the next aid station.

This section started with a few steeper little climbs before building toward the main climb. My approach was pretty simple: run the more moderate gradients, power hike the steeper bits, and try to keep the effort controlled enough that I could really use the descents afterwards. It may not be the absolute fastest way to climb, but it worked well for me. I caught two more runners before reaching the longest climb of the day.

What was funny was how clearly I still remembered this section from Rio Del Lago, even three years later. Back then, I had arrived here absolutely cooked. I was cold, had to stop to add a layer, and wrote this in that race report:

I wish I could say I felt fantastic and was able to power through, but this section was a significant low point for me.

Thankfully, this day was a completely different story.

I felt strong going into the climb and kept moving well, alternating between power hiking the steeper parts and running everything else. The whole thing felt smooth and controlled. At one point I moved past another runner who sounded like he was working very hard, and I joked that I would see him at the next aid station. I think I may even have accidentally said the finish!

Near the top, I started to realize I was getting low on water. I had probably been a bit too generous using it to cool myself. At around the same time I felt the first small warning sign from my hamstring. Not a full cramp, just a little nibble. Enough to notice.

That left me with the obvious question: was this hydration, electrolytes, fatigue, or some combination of all three?

Either way, I backed off a touch and kept things steady. After what felt longer than expected, I finally arrived at AS3.

AS3 to AS4 - 9ish kms

By the time I reached the aid station, I was very thirsty.

I swallowed a couple of salt caps and drank a lot of water, probably a little too enthusiastically. Heading back out, I eased into the next section at a slightly more relaxed pace. Not long after, someone came by me, which was the first time in ages that I had been overtaken. Fair enough.

From there the focus shifted a little. I still wanted to keep the effort honest, but now I was balancing that against the little bit of cramping that had started to hover in the background.

Even with that, I really enjoyed this stretch. I had covered it during the night at Rio Del Lago and found it awkward and a bit frustrating then, so it was genuinely fun to be running through it in daylight and actually getting to enjoy it.

Eventually the course pitched up into a properly steep climb, very much hands-on-knees territory. Near the top, one volunteer was out there enthusiastically yelling encouragement, “Nearly there runners, nearly there!”

Whether or not that was technically true, it was appreciated.

AS4 to AS5 - 5ish kms

Coming into this aid station, someone told me I was 13th male. That was the first time all day that I had any real sense of my placing.

I did not need anything, so I ran straight through. Not long after, I went past another runner and moved into 12th.

That naturally got me wondering whether top 10 might be possible.

The loose plan in my head was to really press once I got to about 5 km to go and see if I could bring anyone back. In practice, I did not quite do that. I ended up choosing the more conservative option of keeping things steady and hoping someone ahead might come back to me.

Maybe if this had been an A race, or if I had not had the cramp lingering in the background, I would have found another gear mentally. But I did not, and that was fine.

The rest of this section passed pretty smoothly until the road crossing, where police escorted me over.

AS5 to Fisn - 2ish kms

At the final aid station they told me it was about 1.5 miles to go.

By now it was properly warm, so I poured water over myself and got moving again. I was not exactly flying, but I was still moving well enough that if anyone ahead was fading, there was a chance I might get them.

The final section includes a short technical climb, which slowed things a little. I kept glancing behind me to make sure I was not about to get caught myself.

Eventually we hit a longer straight and I could see enough of the trail behind to know that no one was coming.

Unfortunately, I also could not see anyone ahead.

So that settled it. I just kept pressing steadily to the line rather than trying to force some dramatic sprint that was not really there.

A final push, and that was it.

I crossed in 4:20, which was good enough for 11th male, 2nd in my age group, and 16th overall.

A very fun day out

Wrap, Reflections & What’s Next?

After the finish I collected a fun little frog trophy, ate and drank a bit, then got back in the car and drove home.

More than anything, this race felt like a good confidence boost heading toward Western States. I had held a steady effort, taken in 90g+ carbs an hour, and whenever water was available I had done a solid job staying close to that 500 ml an hour target.

It was also a useful reminder that once you start falling behind on hydration or nutrition, things can unravel pretty quickly. The pace drops, the body gets grumpy, and cramping is never far away.

Still, overall this was exactly the kind of day I had hoped for. Good training. Good practice. Good confidence.

Fifteen weeks to States.