Toby Guillette: Athlete, Adventurer, Social Media Expert

I wrapped up my 2009 racing season with The North Face Endurance Challenge 50K on Dec. 5 in San Francisco and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon on Dec. 6.

Some shots from Thursday and Friday in SF.

The North Face Endurance Challenge championship event hosted a competitive field that battled it out for the $10,000 cash prize -- the largest in all of ultra running. The 50-mile championship race started two hours before we started the 50K race. The winner would go on to finish in a course record of 6 hours, 33 minutes (a 7:53/mile average) which--for basis of comparison--is almost as long as it took me to run 31 miles. For a complete run down of the main event, visit Bryon Powell’s site.

My goal for the 50K race was to finish with enough left in the tank to enjoy the Vegas marathon the next morning. Despite my efforts to hold back for Sunday, the course elevation profile of 6,600 feet of gain and another 6,600 feet of loss still managed to thoroughly trash my legs.

The highlight of this race was the beautiful course. I was so impressed with the terrain, the views and the route that I had to take these photos with my iPhone to share with you:









Six hours and 18 minutes later, I finished my slowest 50K to date and just 30 minutes after finishing the race I was in a car to the airport for my flight to Vegas! I made it to my gate with 15 minutes to spare--just enough time to clean up and change out of my running gear in the airport bathroom.

I ate for what seemed like the entire flight and arrived in Vegas at 6 p.m. on Saturday. After checking in, showering and washing my gear, I was eating again by 8 p.m. and in bed by 10 p.m.

I was plenty tired, but never dosed off for longer than an hour that night before the alarm sounded at 4:15 a.m. on Sunday. After a hot shower, food and some stretching, I geared up and headed down to tackle the inaugural Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon.

This had to be the most extravagant race start I have ever seen. The sun was rising over the mountains on the horizon with a grand fireworks display overhead. A Blues Brothers tribute band performed live music on the stage set up over the start line while showgirls danced across the top and to both the right and left sides of the stage in front of caged white tigers. Yes, showgirls and tigers. No joke.

All the sensory overload, along with the 30-degree temperature, still couldn’t distract my legs from feeling dead. I suffered through the first 10K, stopping to stretch every few miles until the half marathon mark. My split at 13.1 was 2:08, which was when my legs started to feel better. I picked up the pace through the mile 20 turnaround and ran the final 10K at my fastest pace of the weekend for a 1:55 negative spilt and a 4:08 finish.

The back-to-back long distance races made the weekend a definite endurance challenge and the physiological effects were interesting. Most notably were:

•    How I subconsciously governed my output during Saturday’s race in order to leave enough for Sunday’s race

•    The uneasy sleep the night between races which was enough to still perform

•    The way my body, which had started to go into repair/recovery mode, came out of recovery mode after 13 miles to go back into race mode and finish strong

With that, my 2009 season has come to an end and I fly to the east coast on Thursday for Christmas with my family. I have so many people to thank for making this year so amazing. I plan to recap the season in another post before the end of the year, but I want to start by thanking you all for joining me on this adventure!

Happy Holidays!
~Toby