Folks, the Bay Area 100 is here. We’ll run on June 6. We distributed this press release today. More in this blog soon!
10/4/2025 Lots to report for the coming weeks. First, yesterday we announced that after consulting with the East Bay Regional Parks the date for the 2026 race will move back by a week to the weekend of June 13/14. There are lots of good reasons, but the best is the this is a better long term home for the race because of all of the end of the school year events that go on. I’ve gotten a fair number of ‘great!’ and a few ‘oh no’ responses. The latter have pointed out that we now conflict with the Tahoe 200. The ‘greats’ include folks like Brianna Santos and Patty O’Dea who have kids graduating from school the weekend of June 6.
We have also announced two things this last week. One big one will be the Launch Event on November 13. This will be a live-streamed event that will introduce the race and as many of the features as we can, including coaching and support. You can sign up to be in the live audience (click here to sign up) or you can watch it streamed. Or you can get the recording. More details on that shortly.
The other things we have talked about is Selection Sunday, which will be the rolling out of the first wave of runners in the Class of ’26 as we issue invitations from our waitlist. Right now we have about 200 people who have signaled interest.
10/10/2025 Ok, the word is out! Our 2025 Scena Award winners have been posted and it’s time to tell you who they are and start talking about how great they are. The 2025 Scena Laureates are:
The Christine Chapon Award: Tuvshin Sukbataar and Zagdaa Bataar who we recognized for their work nourishing athletes and events through the Nomadic Adventure Club.
The Stan Jensen Award: Jean Pommier. There is no better embodiment of great running, thoughtful reflection, and volunteering. In Jean’s case, the running part is well-known. Less well-known is the role he has played over the last many years in organizing the PA-USATF Grand Prix. Jean is a true steward and Legend.
The Carol LaPlant Award: Charles Savage. Like Carol, Charles is a GOAT. He continues to race to this day and is the most active athlete from the original field at the first Skyline 50k 45 years ago. Charles has 20 Western States finishes to his name, along with double digit finishes in many of the other classic ultras, like Skyline, Firetrails, Miwok, Quicksilver. A true GOAT.
We will be celebrating these folks at the Scena Awards Gathering on December 4. For all that information and to RSVP, visit the Scena Awards Page.
10/5/2025 Funny, I was getting ready to create blog for the Scena Awards when I realized that way back in the archive there was one that I created in 2018. So I thought I’d start by updating this just to keep some amount of history.
Amazingly, this is the 10th Scena Awards. I can’t believe it. We have grown the awards from the original one named for Christine to include the Legend for Stan Jensen. And last year we added a third in honor of Carol LaPlant. The GOAT!
More soon on the 2025 recipients and gathering!
< begin historical post>
It’s time for the Scena Awards again! I’ve been trying to think of a kind of silver-tongued way of describing what these are all about. When I started Scena the main motivation was to see the best in people. Running or any outdoor challenge for that matter brings out the best in people. They’re taking on some bigger goal, usually deeply involved in what they’re doing. And their joyous, by and large, whether you’re at the end of Skyline 50k, or at Girls on the Run Sonoma talking to a 6-year old.
In any event, the idea of the awards was to identify people that really give back to the support to make all that happiness and self-fulfillment happen. Something like ‘the best of us and the best among us.’ I don’t know.
What I do know is that there are two awards. The Frenchie is named after my good friend Christine Chapon, who is truly one of the best people in the sport. A great runner and a totally self-less one. A dogged volunteer and volunteer coordinator, but also you never know where you’re going to see her. Maybe she’ll be racing. Maybe she’ll be at that high school cross country track meet. Maybe she’ll be there with the megaphone directing the race, in the case of Woodmonster. Last year, we gave the Frenchie to Penny MacPhail, who, like Christine, seems to be everywhere.
In 2018, we’re giving the Frenchie to two people, a man and a woman. It’s a new thing, but we realized that it made sense. In 2018, those recipients are William Dai and Kelly Haston. Both William and Kelly are great runners, that’s important to point out. They’re in the thick of their running career. And yet, through Pamakids and on their own, they find a huge amount of time to support runners and events. They’ve certainly helped Scena out a lot. They have much more to do! But before they do, let’s take a moment to appreciate them!
The other award is The Legend, named for Stan Jensen. Stan recently said, ‘Wait, are you saying that this award is for old people?’ in a kind of despair. And it’s not exactly that, but it IS meant to recognize a long record of service to the community. Like Christine, Stan has a great record of running and volunteering. But if you asked Christine, she’d say, “Stan’s the one I go to learn from.” Stan is the one I’ve learned from. He’s supported Skyline 50k since I took the race over and always, ALWAYS patiently given me notes about how I can be better. Last year, we gave The Legend to Stan because that’s the deal. You have to receive it the first year, then you can victimize your friends by giving it to them.
In 2018, we’re giving The Legend to Bob Agazzi. As with Stan, not many runners in the East Bay don’t know Bob. The BARF run every weekend is a key jumping off points for almost every runner here at some point. And with that, it’s a community of runner, one that’s always there every weekend. Without a lot of fanfare, Bob goes on an on, because he loves running mostly. Always putting in more than he takes out of our running community. Bob, thank you!
We’re having a party for all of this at Sports Basement Berkeley on Thursday, December 6, starting at 6. If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by!
Time to get ready for 2026! Please note that we have made some exciting changes to the course this year, returning to the OG 50 mile course that runs to Lone Oak and back.
The 2026 Athlete Guide will be available mid-July. For planning purposes, here’s are links to the splits and aid stations.
10/1 And so it happened! Dick Collins Firetrails took place on Saturday on a very moderate day, weather-wise. A great racing day. This was definitely the toughest version of the Firetrails course, with 8,500ft of vertical and some dramatic climbing sequences.
9/16 Start time update! I’m moving the start to the Dinosaur Ridge 30k back 15 minutes to 7:30. I think we could all use a little extra time.
9/15 Thanks to everyone who joined us for the two training days. The last one was last weekend on Sunday. I’ve grown fond of these runs. It’s the one time I get to run for everyone for one thing. But also I’m keenly aware that they play a great role in community building, bringing together old and new friends. Every Firetrails and Skyline feels like a different high school class and by the end there are long term friendships formed.
This extends to the volunteers too. Last Sunday we had runners like Christine Chapon and George Manning — old friends and great volunteers.
9/8 I’ve been going over some of our old files and see that the race photos for the past years haven’t been collected in one spot, which is a real shame because Esther Ramos has taken so many good shots.
Here they are for the last few years. 2022 | 2023 | 2024
I’ve been using this one on Ultrasignup and on the 100k Athlete Guide this year. It’s the start from one of the years we ran from Cull Canyon.
8/27 I added GPX links to the descriptions of the training days below. Scroll down and click away!
8/21 Lots to start announcing. First, let me lead with the Training Runs for this year. There are two. I’ll host both the runs. Unfortunately, this year our good friends at Trail Sisters East Bay don’t have the bandwidth to host Saturday, so everyone will have to settle with running with stinky old me.
I’ve posted about them in Strava, but they are as follows:
August 31 Rancho Laguna (16 -20 miles). This will start at 8am from Skyline Gate in Oakland. (directions)
September 14 Dinosaur Ridge (15 – 20). This starts at 8am at Lake Chabot Marina. (Please note that this date has changed from September 7. Family conflict. Sorry!
I’ve said this — and it’s totally true — people seem to make lifelong friends at these training runs. If you want to come, let me know by joining the Strava events or by filling out this form. It helps me track on everyone.
6/19/2025 Start of the 2025 Blog! Dick Collins Firetrails registration is OPEN! New this year, we are a Trail Sisters approved race!
End 2024 blog —————————————–
10/1/2024 Official race photos from Esther Ramos are here.
9/25 here is the Digital Race Briefing. Thanks to everyone who could attend!
9/16 Digital Briefing: NEW DATE. The digital briefing will be on Friday, September 20 at 7pm. Registered runners will receive the links. Apologies for the change. We have a conflict on the original date (Thursday.)
9/14: The 100k and 50-mile Athlete Guides are now available.
9/12 Training Camp this weekend! The runs are both Saturday and Sunday and start at Lake Chabot. Saturday is with Trail Sisters East Bay and starts at 9am. Sunday is at 8am with The Beer Bucker Runners.
8/26 Course updates! We have made some revisions to the first part of the 100k and 50 mile courses. In Cull Canyon, the washouts between Bellhurst Aid and the lower park aren’t sufficiently prepared for the race. This impacts the 100k which was scheduled to run down there. To make up for this, the race will now start by heading clockwise around Lake Chabot and Anthony Chabot Parks, from the start, to Clyde Woolridge, then around to the Golf Course.
We will run this direction with both the 100k and 50 mile race. In the 50 mile race, this will mean that the course will only go to Valle Vista Staging Area in the Rancho Laguna section of the course. All these changes are made on the website already, including the Strava links, maps, and course maps. Go to the website and click on Courses.
6/12/2024 Training Runs with Trail Sisters East Bay and Beer Bucket Run. Here we go! It’s training run time. We have 4 runs for setup, starting Saturday, June 15 in Reinhartd Redwood. Consult our running group on Strava for routes, etc. These runs focus on the parts of Skyline that overlap with the Firetrails course so if you’re not running Skyline (you should), you can still get a taste for the trails with these runs.
Here’s the whole schedule
Saturday, June 15, 8am – Reinhard Redwood with Trail Sisters. Starts at Skyline Gate Sunday, June 16, 8:30am – Lake Chabot with Beer Bucket Run. Starts at Lake Chabot Marina Saturday, July 6, 8am – Lake Chabot with Trail Sisters. Starts at Lake Chabot Marina Sunday, July 7, 8:30am – Reinhard Redwood with Trail Sisters. Start at Skyline Gate
3/29/24 BIG NEWS! In my last post from Christmastime I wondered aloud whether we could be able to adopt the old course. The answer is ‘no.’ The section of Bay Area Ridge Trail between Sibley and Steam Trains is closed and there’s no opening time.
With that in mind, we have researched and created a new course. We will now add an out-and-back off the East Ridge Trail in Reinhard Redwood Regional Park to Rancho Laguna. I feel really strongly about this new course addition. In the same way that Firetails took so many of you to Dinosaur Ridge for the first time, the race will now take you out to Moraga through a gate we have all run by a million times and thought ‘I wonder where that goes?’
This adds more variety to the course and more places where you crew can access you conveniently that ever before. As a result of this addition, we can bring back returning through the West Shore of Lake Chabot, bringing back the Clyde Woolridge Aid Station. This returns the classic rhythm of the finishing few miles where once you get to the top of MacDonald Grade, you’re basically rolling down the Chabot watershed to the finish.
Check out the Firetails page and click on Course at the top to see each of the new courses. There are interactive maps from Strava along with all the information about where you can get crew, pacers. There are GPX files. The whole schlimazel.
12/26/2023 We are working to get versions of the 2024 courses online. Today, I published the 100k course for people to start planning. The aim is to use the classic Firetrails course as much as possible. Traditionally, the race ran to Lone Oak in Tilden Regional Park and back. This was part of the ‘original’ Skyline 50k course and when Dick Collins and a bunch of runners ran the course for the first time, they called it the Skyline 100k! The one accommodation I’m making for the 100k is to keep the portion of the race that goes to Dinosaur Ridge. It’s such a unique piece of trail that I think Dick would approve. Go to the Firetrails website and click on course to see course specific.
Again, all the course info has a bit of an asterisk next to it until we get through the winter storms. As of this writing the Skyline/Bay Area Ridge Trail isn’t open between Sibley Regional Park and Fish Ranch Road.
12/5 Ticking over to 2024. I’m going to keep the same blog and just add to it for this year’s race. Seems like it just makes sense to have one blog, not a bunch of annual ones.
– – 2023 Race is below —
10/2 What a race! Here’s the post race email I sent yesterday for all to see.
Hi Everyone,
Congratulations on a great race Saturday! We were treated to unusually cool temperatures and even a little rain which made for great racing. There are stories from the front to the back of the pack in each race. I’ve been getting pictures, notes, social posts since Saturday. You are all truly inspiring runners!
Here are the preliminary results. Congratulations to our 50 mile Champions Zach Speno and Katherine Song, our marathon Champs, Ryan Neely and the ever-mysterious Unknown Unknown (I know who you are), and Dinosaur Ridge’s overall champion Jon Bretan. An equal congratulations though to everyone who raced. I wish we had a podium big enough for all of you. Way to go Zoe and Julie Ray! I can’t fully say how proud I am of you. Not here anyway.
If you are missing from the results or believe your time is incorrect, feel free to email me and we will take care of it. Once I feel the results are largely clean, I will upload them to Ultrasignup and then to UTMB a bit after that, likely next week.
A few of you have asked about pictures. Those will be ready later in the week and I’ll email when I have them. In the meantime, I’ve setup this album with the first event shots from Esther Searcy. Because most of the best pictures come from YOU, this is setup so you can upload your shots. Please do.
I have promised at least one post-race meetup. Please join me this coming Saturday, October 7 at Humble Sea Brewing in Alameda (2350 Saratoga, directions.) We are going to gather with the East Bay Beer Runners at 10:30 for a run around Alameda Point. Then there will be relaxing after 11am, when the brewery is officially open. Please come for either part. If you left your drop bag, this is a great place to pick it up. I’ll bring all that stuff with me. I’ll also have things like leftover shirts and hoodies if you want to swap our yours or just didn’t get one.
Many thanks to the extended Dick Collins Firetrails family. It should be clear to you all who raced how many people there are for me to thank. Dick Collins Firetrails is blessed with so many volunteers, I can’t list them all. Special thanks to all the teams who lead aid stations, like Peach, Char and all of Pamakids, Leng from Coastal Trail Runs. How about Crispin and LMJS with their Candy Island Aid Station at Skyline Gate? I hope none of you cramped climbing onto the inflatable unicorn there.
Thanks to the teams at Redwood Road led by Karina Powell and Alisha Semplar, at Bellhurst Lane led by Brian Taylor, and at Sibley led by Michelle Lomelli. I always carve our a special thanks for Stan Jensen at Marciel Road, who this year was joined by Jim Richards. Thank you to these leaders and their teams.
Our course team was spectacular again marking, prerunning, sweeping and monitoring the course. Thanks to Jennifer and Chris O’Connor, Annemiek Hamelinck, Suzy Kisylia, Michael Li, George Manning, Tom Keenan, Arvind Venugopal, Mei, Yu-Yen Mo, and I-Tao Tsai and his children (who will soon forget the hats covered in pink ribbons!)
Thanks to the race team: Mark Hauber, Todd Glieden, Erxiong, Kendall Waddle, Chris Rogers, Norm La, Lisa Derby, Christine Chapon, Betsy Everett, Amy Wong, Vicki Lombardo, Edgar Maldonado, Michael Li (again), Karina Powell (again), Larry Loomer and his ham radio team, John Rabold and the Volunteer Safety Patrol. And all of the folks I’m forgetting.
No race is perfect and certainly there will small challenges here and there, but all those mistakes are mine. Our team is responsible for everything else.
And that’s it for today. I’ll email later in the week with the pictures and hopefully see a few of you at Humble Sea on Saturday. I hope your post race recovery is going well and that the alpenglow of your race has not yet dimmed.
9/27 Pacer Bib Pickup. Pacers, you can get your bibs at Packet Pickup (Sports Basement Berkeley – 2727 Milvia Street, Berkeley between 2pm and 5pm) or at the Start on race day (Lake Chabot Marina). If you’re coming on race day, you can come at any time and we’ll help you. Just a thought:youru runner can pick up your bib for you and give it to you at any time. They can even carry it with them during the race. Lots of options!
9/25 Thanks to all who joined the digital briefing last night. Here’s the edited version:
9/12 The wine glasses are back! After a year of hiatus producing them and after consulting with some of the legendary local ultrarunners like Mike Palmer and Carol LaPlant, we’ve brought back the finisher’s wine glasses for all events. The clincher was Carol talking about how Dick Collins himself would welcome home every runner and give them their glass personally. Hopefully, I can do this as well!
8/31 Digital Race Briefing and Packet Pickup location: The digital race briefing will take place on Sunday, September 24 a6 pmpm. We’ll send you the links. Don’t worry if you can’t make it. The recorded version will be here on the blog the next day.
Bib pickup will be at Sports Basement Berkeley (2424 Milvia) from 2-5 pm on Friday, September 29. You can get great discounts when you show your bib. Stock up on last-minute needs. Bring your credit card!
8/30 NEW! Announcing Scena Sessions! These are 20-minute, quick online bytes on key training subjects. Join us live on Zoom or watch live on Facebook. We’ll be covering topics like shoes with San Francisco Running Company, Nutrition with Dr. Izzie Brown, Bags and race prep with Victor Ballesteros, and Gear with Bryan Weathers of Sports Basement. Sign up now in the Scena Training Hub!
8/22 ICYMI: Did you know that this is the 44th running of Dick Collins Firetrails? Thanks to Julie Fingar from NorCal Ultras for sharing all the past results with us. It’s truly amazing to look at all the history. You can find that on Ultrasignup.
8/16 Introducing the Dinosaur Ridge 30k! We have had a lot of requests from runners who want to experience this part of the race. Et voila, here’s the chance. All course data is available under the Course section of the website.
8/15/2023 A small update on the big change to the course this year (running from Lake Chabot). We aim to add an out-and-back to Sibley Staging Area, instead of running to the bottom of Cull Canyon. Here is a Strava that reflects those changes. Turn-by-turns and maps are coming up!
6/22/2023 Greetings Everyone! News on the course. Due to trail closures in the East Bay Regional Parks, we are working on a revised course for 2023. This race will start at the Classic start area in Lake Chabot. Here’s a link to the proposed course with turn-by-turn instructions.
Also for those of you in the Golden Hills Marathon, the course will be an out-and-back, so no reason to take the bus (barf!). You’ll get the same sweet and delicious taste of Dinosaur Ridge that the 50 milers enjoy. Here’s a version on Strava.
The website currently reflects the 2022 course. Once the Parks greenlight the new course, I’ll update all the info there but I want to wait until they get their licks in.
Boy, I didn’t event get to the blog this year. I’m posting here my closing note to the race because it captures it all…
Hi Everyone, It’s taken me a day longer than usual to write because I was sorting through what I wanted to share about Sunday.
First, for those of you who don’t actually care about Deep Thoughts, and just want results and photos, here’s that update:
Preliminary results are here. Take a look. I’ll be uploading these to Ultrasignup later today but wanted you to get your licks in. It’s not uncommon for the system to miss chip reads on days when it’s hot or cold because your bibs can get wet or stuffed away in your pack or whatever. Not to worry: even after I put these on Ultrasignup we can still change them.
Photos. Esther Ramos (who is a genius) is finishing her edit on the race day photos. They should be available tonight and when they are, I will post a link on theSkyline/Scena website and on Ultrasignup.
Now for the reflections and thank you’s. This is the 15th year I’ve directed Skyline 50k. I have always felt like this was a special gathering, even in a world where the trail 50k has become a bit of a commodity locally. It’s a simple event that has never boasted a lot about itself, but has quietly brought everyone together each summer — often for folks’ first ultra. That happened again this year. We had over 50 first-time ultrarunners. In the half marathon, the overall winner was running her first trail race! Every Skyline is a story of new beginnings, achievements, and relationships. 2026 was no different in that way.
What was different, of course, was the passing of Ken, who was a friend to me and to many of you. For the first time in many years, Carola Gregorich came and spent the day at the finish. So did her kids and grandkids. For those of you who saw the hokey Skyline banner behind the podium, their family made that. So there was a lot of connection between past and present this year, at a time when I’ve been thinking a lot about our future as a running community. I don’t mean that in an ominous way — it’s mostly because of what a big experience the Bay Area 100 was for a lot of us.
Carola pointed out something that stuck with me: how much richer and more diverse this community is now than it was 20 years ago, when she and Ken were directing. That’s not an accident. It’s what happens when a sport grows in a place like this, and teams like Pamakids, Lake Merritt Run Club, and Dusty Bottoms have had a lot to do with it. It’s part of why I keep coming back to one idea this year, as Skyline opens onto Firetrails, our training camp and programs, and Bay Area 100. Call it a North Star: make real things. When we get together, we’re making something real — your race, maybe your first one, and new connections between people, in a year when more and more of what we do happens on a screen. Experiences matter.
So onto the thank you’s. Many of you commented on the support on the course, and I can’t thank these folks enough. To pick on Pamakids, Lake Merritt Run Club, and Dusty Bottoms again, they always show up in force and they did again. Thanks to the captains — Patty Shijo, Char Liebes, Dave Nicely, Edmundo Vitocruz, and Jeff Rowe — for organizing their groups. There are dozens of people on their volunteer lists. This is not to downplay the role that Steve Fields and Chihping Fu played at Clyde Woolridge, or the one that Stan Jensen, Bob Agazzi, Dawn Moses, and Dan Farrel played at Marciel. My deepest thanks to them. Thank you to the trail teams that marked and pre-ran the course: Alex Rodriguez, Chris O’Connor, Zoe Ray (the 3rd woman on race day — youth!), Brent Watts, Joe Morgan and the Bay Bandits, Jonathan Klaasen, Pen Perez, and Chuck Amital. Thank you to the networks of volunteers. Volunteer Safety Patrol, led by John Rabold, stood at many intersections pointing you the right way. And to the Diablo Hams, a volunteer group of ham radio operators — not a charcuterie shop — who guarantee your safety and let me know where you are. And of course, thank you to the event team: Todd Glieden, Mark Hauber, Lisa Derby, Cindy Young, Sara Kurth, Jen Watters, Wallis, Teito, Edgar, Kevin, Ricardo, Ice Cream Annette, ever-resourceful Michael Li, Livestream Jenny, Dylan, and Funky Gene, Data-center-with-a-smile Mr. T (Chris Thoburn). To Carola, Max, and the Gregorich family. The list goes on and on. Finally, thank you to the East Bay Regional Parks for their trust in letting us use the land they steward.
And that’s it. Thanks for reading this far. On to Firetrails, and of course, to Bay Area 100. Between running and supporting, I know I’ll see most of you again before our next Skyline on August 1, 2027.
See you soon,
end 2025
8/5/2025 Well that sure was amazing! I have lots of thoughts on the race, which warrants an actual blog post, not just this blurbby cropdusting I usually put here. First! Here are some pictures:
7/25 Getting ready for Race Week. I just updated the Hall of Legends. Thanks to Jeff Reed for pointing out that there weren’t revised last year. Check out the Hall of Legends!
6/17/2025: BIG NEWS! After close consultation with the East Bay Regional Parks, we have made a significant change to the 2025 course. Starting this year, we will bypass Skyline Gate to avoid congestion with day-trippers in the parking lot there. The course now will run to Moon Gate up Tres Sendas and then descend back down to French Trail on Madrone Trail after passing through Redwood Bowl. Check out the 50k Athlete Guide for more details!
This course revision also returns Skyline to its ‘Classic’ format which will start by heading out West Shore Trail to Clyde Woolridge. For the last few years, we have run counter-clockwise around Lake Chabot. This was a change that the rehabilitation of the Lake Chabot Dam brought about.
This ‘Back to the Future’ kicks off a succession of Skylines that celebrate traditional parts of the course while introducing new parts of Redwood, Anthony Chabot, and Lake Chabot. Each year, we will show you part or all of a course from the past — including running the point-to-point from Wildcat Canyon at some point when those trails are open.
Skyline remains not only the oldest ultramarathon, but also the only one to cover all these Oakland and Castro Valley parks.
6/16 Thank you to everyone who came out for the training runs this weekend! We have perfect weather and about 15 runners for each gathering!
6/4/25 Welcome to the 2025 Race!
Announcing the 2025 Training Run Series!
We are proud to offer 4 training days, including two women-only runs with our friends at Trail Sisters East Bay. Here’s the schedule:
• Saturday, June 14, 8am – Reinhard Redwood with Trail Sisters. Starts at Skyline Gate • Sunday, June 15, 8am – Reinhard Redwood with Scena. Starts at Skyline Gate • Saturday, July 5, 8am – Lake Chabot with Trail Sisters. Starts at Lake Chabot Marina • Sunday, July 6, 8am – Lake Chabot with Scena. Starts at Lake Chabot Marina
No need to sign up for these training runs. Just show up! To keep up to date on training runs, join the Scena Strava Club. Click here.
— 2024 from here on down —
7/31/2024Digital briefing: Here’s the recording from the session last night.
6/19 Recently I was running with a group and someone asked me why we didn’t run ‘the OG course’ at Skyline anymore. That caught me a little by surprise but I had, in fact, been thinking the exact same thing. When I asked the runner which OG course she meant, it struck me how little people know about all the different iterations of Skyline! And that led me back to this conversation I had in email with Mike Palmer, Carol LaPlant, and Dwight Hendricks about the original Skyline course. There’s all kind of great history and, miraculously, Dwight produced these amazing archival images on his phone.
6/12/2024 Training Runs with Trail Sisters East Bay and Beer Bucket Run. Here we go! It’s training run time. We have 4 runs for Skyline setup, starting Saturday June 15 in Reinhartd Redwood. Consult our running group on Strava for routes, etc. Here’s the whole schedule
Saturday, June 15, 8am – Reinhard Redwood with Trail Sisters. Starts at Skyline Gate Sunday, June 16, 8:30am – Lake Chabot with Beer Bucket Run. Starts at Lake Chabot Marina Saturday, July 6, 8am – Lake Chabot with Trail Sisters. Starts at Lake Chabot Marina Sunday, July 7, 8:30am – Reinhard Redwood with Trail Sisters. Start at Skyline Gate
3/29/2024 The 2024 Course! The race is set for this year. After waiting through the Winter to see what nature may bring us, it seems that we can return to the West Shore Trail so Skyline is once again a loop. Or loopish, I guess. Or a figure 8, kinda sorta. The one new thing will be in Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park. It seems that the West Ridge Trail/Toyon section of the old course is permanently gone. Instead, the course will come down Canyon, back to Bridal Trail. Go to the Skyline page and click on Course at the top of the page to see it all.
12/7/2023 We’re getting ready for 2024! I’ve usually created a new blog for each race but starting this year, I’ll just build on top of the 2023 race. A lot of the info is evergreen.
Here’s some immediate news, though. I’m working on the courses for 2024. Right now, we’re planning to return to a course that is similar to recent years. It will be a counterclockwise loop. The one change is that the race will drop back to the Stream Trail at Canyon. For those of you with Strava, here’s a link. I’m working to refresh the website COURSE info in the coming days.
End of 2023 Blog
8/4/2023 Belatedly, here’s the digital briefing from Wednesday night!
8/2 Some tiny changes in the position of the aid station in Redwood Regional Park. We are moving just about .25 miles up the Stream Trail to the Old Church Campground. This will make room for day trippers at Fern Dell Aid. This is shown on the revised turn-by-turn instructions and also in the Aid Station information on the website.
7/31 The RBO Challenge is back! Help us give to RBO. Our aim is to raise (at least) $1,000 to support this great organization that helps Oakland kids of all ages to improve their health, get out running and improve their community!
To learn more about RBO and the fundraiser, check out this blog post. Or simply give by clicking the button below.
[paypal_donation_button]
7/30 Race Week Schedule! It’s race time! Here are a few things to remember and plan for this race week:
August 2, 7pm Digital Briefing. This takes place on Zoom (we send the link if you’re registered) and on Facebook
August 5, 2pm – 5pm Bib pickup at Sport’s Basement Berkeley (2727 Milvia), presented by Almanac Brewing. Come pickup your bib and have a taste of Almanac Beer. Not a beer drinker? The first 50 runners receive a 4-pack of More Life Hopwater. It’s non-alcoholic and zero calorie.
August 6, 6am Race Day! Bib pickup and registration opens for all race. You can pickup until and through the start of the races.
7/24: Packet pickup/beer update! Great news. We will be serving tastes of beer from Almanac Brewing to registered runners. There will also be special onsite discounts to Beer City Alameda. Bring your friends!
7/3: Sponsor Update: We are happy to welcome some new faces to our sponsor-world for the race this year. The big one is the addition of Almanac Brewing, which comes to us by way of Beer City. We will be serving Almanac Beer and their non-alcoholic hop water, More Life, at the race and at packet pickup!
For packet pickup, we also have a new sponsor for 2023. Welcome back Sports Basement! We will host bib pickup on Saturday 8/5 from 2pm – 5pm at their Berkeley Store (2727 Milvia). Runners will receive discounts of up to 20% on all gear when they show their bib.
We welcome back Skratch as our hydration partner, Gu as our gel/nutrition partner, and Tecnu as our skin wellness partner!
6/21 Adding this info for the Half which will now be an out-and-back to Deer Canyon Trail on Brandon. This is a pretty cool run actually, if you put aside the out-and-backness of it. Here’s a link to the map and turn-by-turn. Here’s a link to the Strava chart. Updating the COURSE section of Skyline50k.com now.
Also today I updated content around the aid station splits (link) and published the elevation profile (link) You can also find this stuff by clicking on COURSE on the Skyline 50k page.
6/15 COURSE UPDATE: We have been biding our time for the West Shore Trail to open in Lake Chabot Regional Park. Now that we are 6 weeks from race day, we are publishing an alternate course. The course is an out-and-back on the Eastern side of Lake Chabot, following the course from the last few years. There will be an abbreviated loop in Redwood Regional, going up Tres Sendas to Starflower to French and then down Mill.
Here are some links to the course that’s currently being considered by the Park. Here’s a Strava chart. Also, here’s a pdf with turn-by-turn instructions. Once this information is approved — if not before — we will update all the information on our site with aid stations, distances, etc.
For those of you in the half-marathon, the course is also an out-and-back, with the turnaround on Brandon Trail.
A year ago I went looking for some detail about the actual start of Skyline 50k when it was a point-to-point race. The first running was in 1982.
I started by asking Mike Palmer and ended up in this rich recollection of East Bay ultrarunning history with Mike, Carol LaPlant, and Dwight Hendrix.
This was an email exchange so in its original form, it wasn’t linear. I’ve edited it for coherence.
Adam writes:
Hi Mike,
Do you happen to know the route of the original Skyline course? I was thinking of doing a one-time-only running of it.
I thought you might know.
Hope all is well!
Adam
Mike writes:
Adam-
I did it once with Carol LaPlant. It began in Wildcat Canyon, went over to Nimitz Way, up and down Seaview, then continued on the Skyline National Trail to Skyline Gate. It followed the Skyline National Trail to the golf course near Lake Chabot (whose name I can’t remember at the moment–I think it’s changed ownership). That’s quite a nice place to finish.
I believe we went down the French Trail over to MacDonald and continued on to Brandon Trail dropping down to the golf course.
When Carol ran it it was an AAU 50K championship–regional?
So, to get it right, I’d ask Carol. I remember when I did it with her she was adamant that it didn’t go up San Pablo Ridge from Wildcat Canyon but went on some of those cow paths to connect to Nimitz Way.
Dwight Hendrix probably remembers because he placed in the top five when he did it. I’ve copied him and Carol on this email.
mp
Dwight writes:
Hi Mike, Adam, and Carol,
Yes I did run the first Skyline 50k and Mike, your description fits my somewhat vague memory of the course. Yes, it started in Wildcat Canyon and you could drive to the starting area at that time (which is now marked by a picnic table roughly 3.5 or 3.75 miles from Tilden Nature Area) but the road is now closed to non-official vehicle traffic at Alvarado Park).
I think Carol is correct as I vaguely recall going up Havey Canyon and if I’m correct in this admittedly hazy recollection, it would have connected to Nimitz Way and not the San Pablo Ridge trail. I would be interested to hear if Carol remembers this part of the course and if my memory is correct.
I’m not sure if the first running of the Skyline 50k was a championship race but it definitely was the Pacific Division of the AAU 50k Cross Country Championship race the following year. That year it started at the Clark Gate in El Cerrito rather than Wildcat Canyon.
Sadly I don’t have race Director Steve Justice’s (RIP) course profile of the original course but here is the profile of the championship race from the following year which is similar except for the start and end points:
-Dwight
Sent from my iPhone
Carol writes:
Yes, that’s consistent with my recollection. I think that was the only time the race was point to point, and it was put on by the Zephyr running club. There was a different race director the next year, and it was just easier to change the course to a loop, although it seemed to me that the loop course was such a different experience that it shouldn’t have had the same name. The start of the original race was exciting because it went through a meadow with a bunch of horses that reared up and shied when the lead runners went through, knocking down or at least threatening them. Finishing at the golf course was nice but as the race grew we were disinvited by the golf course management because we were taking over their facilities.
Good luck!
Carol
Mike writes:
Wasn’t “Big Al” (a man who is about my size) the RD? Or he had some affiliation with Zephyr? I forget the name of the races he used to put on. He did some crazy thing like the Happy Valley Road marathon near Briones. He probably didn’t bother to get any permits for it.
Sam told me “Big Al” was his inspiration for Brazen Races although, IMHO, Sam and Jasmine are vastly superior RD’s compared to him. I remember when his race series fell apart when a participant in one of the triathlons he used to do in Marin was fatally struck by a car.
I haven’t seen Big Al since the early 90’s.
mp
Carol writes:
In those days the race directors were mostly flakey, typically with under-supplied aid stations and poor course markings. Dollar-a-mile Dave charged more than other race directors and put on races in beautiful locations with miserable support. That all changed when Dick Collins started putting on races – with good aid and course markings, charging just enough to cover expenses, he set a new standard.
Carol
Mike writes:
This will add to it: I definitely remember Big Al walking around wearing a golden “Skyline 50K” jacket, sorta like one of those SF 49er’s jackets you see fans wearing, when he was directling one of his races. So, I presume, he was the RD for Skyline when it was an AAU championship race. I think he was affiliated with that Zephyr running club–maybe the president of it.
I frankly don’t know if Big Al is still alive. He’d always do his trail races, that were about 10K or 7 miles thereabouts, on Saturdays. When I did one of his races and followed it with a 20 miler on Sunday I got into the best running condition I’ve ever been in.
mp
Adam writes:
Dollar-a-mile Dave, now THAT is funny.
Adam
Mike writes:
Dick’s races had aid stations staffed by ultrarunners who knew what a runner needed when they went through an aid station.
I’ll always remember this about Dick, it’s my fondest memory of him. At the end of Firetrails he’d stand at the finish line, smiling, holding a wine glass etched with the races’s name, that he’d place in your hand as soon as you finished. He wouldn’t say anything to you; that simple gesture of presenting you with a wine glass, smiling, was enough of an acknowledgement, and an appreciation, of your effort. You didn’t get a T shirt but so what?
And the race cost about $35. That’s a thing of the past.
mp
Dwight writes:
Steve Justice was the race director for at least the first two Skyline 50K’s. I always assumed he was the organizer of Zephyr Athletic Club but at least he had a strong affiliation with Zephyr. He also was the RD for the early Pinole Marathons. He was quite a nice guy IMHO.
And Mike, before I forget, the first Skyline 50 ended at the Lake Chabot golf course, the subsequent year though it ended at the Lake Chabot Marina.
I don’t remember Big Al but I do remember a large heavy runner who was affectionately known as Howard the Hulk. He ran in most of Steve’s races. Likewise I always assumed he was in the Zephyr AC. I don’t think this is the same person as Big AL as Howard was much larger than you. In any case, Howard was quite affable and you would usually see him with a sucker in his mouth after a race. I noticed he is listed in the race results of the second 50k as “The Hulk”.
And just for the record, I misnamed the governing body which authorized the 50K championship – it wasn’t AAU any longer at that point but rather the TAC (The Athletic Congress).
Lastly, I’m attaching an old trail description and map for the Skyline Trail. I assume Steve sent it out with registration material but I’m not sure. It’s an early publication by EBRPD. Adam, it may be more useful than the current map if you’re interested in running the original course. The map though, to my mind, is not very useful but I’m attaching it, just in case.
Those were the days…
-Dwight
P.S.: And Carol’s remark about the horses in the meadow shortly after the race started brought back a pleasant memory – I recall the fog was just lifting as the horses had started running parallel to us. I found it at the time pleasantly surreal in a connected sense. Shortly after, any surrealism ended for me when I approached a gate thinking it opened outward. Wrong! it opened inward and I was in the lead at that time and after I plowed into the gate, the several runners behind me plowed into me almost simultaneously in a three-stooges type fashion.
Carol writes:
I remember Steve Justice and the Zephyr club (I was even an honorary member), and I ran their Pinole Marathon several times. It was on roads, the highlight was pig farm hill, which was at the top of a hill where there was an actual stinky pig farm, memorable when you’re breathing hard from the hill. Pig farm hill is still there, but the pigs are now gone. Indeed, those were the days!
Pinned intro: I’m creating this blog of blogs here as a place to catch different things as they come up. In the past, I sent emails to the entire list of folks about each year, what happened and what I think about it. I’m not sure anyone reads email anymore (or blogs or websites for that matter), so I’ll just put all that stuff here.
12/11/2023
I’m getting into New Year reflections mode. It was a really good year of running this year. Not the least of which was that my daughters Zoe and Julie both completed the first 50k AND their first 50-mile races this year. Both of them finished Skyline and Firetrails and I got to train with them some, which was a blast. Julie was youngest finisher at Firetrails actually and might have been at Skyline too. During the Summer the girls marked a lot of the Western States course with their mom, Jennifer, and Zoe and I pre-ran from Green Gate to Hwy 49 on race day. It was the first time I’d been on the course since 2010. We found and cleared a downed tree on the trail too!
All of the family running made me more energized for the races and training camps, for sure. It also made me more appreciative 1. of how great these event are, mainly because of the tradition and the volunteers and, 2. how much more there is to running and training there is than the races. I mean, I already knew this because personally I’ve always liked training more than racing, but 2023 brought that into higher relief.
On that note, I clued into how much folks were using the whole sequence of Skyline camp > Skyline > Firetrails camp > Firetrails as a way to train for Fall 100’s — specifically Rio del Lago. I know that Brianna Santos and Gregg Fergot did. So did my friend Carlo, who I paced for the last 24.
Looking forward to 2024, I’m trying to connect the dots between the different events on the running calendar. I think people can use runs like the Beer City Half in Santa Rosa and Napa Valley Endurance Run as training points for Spring racing and I also know that I’m going to train some for MUC and for Zoe to run Miwok. We did something like this with Run Your First Ultra many years ago. It was cool. Let’s see if it works for this year.
On our races, I’m excited that the Bay Ridge 100k will be back at Firetrails. This is a great race and the rhino buckle is something to covet, I think. I say in registration that the course is a little fluid until we get through the wet season. Provisional courses are all published though.
12/7/2023
Scena Awards! We’re getting ready for the Scena Awards this week. We’re going to recognize Fred Liebes and Charlene Bayles with the award created for Christine Chapon. Originally, this award was meant to recognize younger runners who were just starting to be super active to encourage them to keep up the good work with Christine as a role model. But we felt like we had missed Fred and Charlene, and they’re super active. Christine said ‘We’ll get younger people next year.’ She’s right, though. There are more people to recognize than we have time and awards.
Steve Jaber is going to receive the Stan Jensen Award, which is meant to recognize people for a long history of relatively selfless work and giving to ultrarunning. I don’t want to call it a ‘lifetime achievement award’ because they it sounds like someone’s done or dying. The truth is for folks like Steve or Stan, the giving and volunteering long outlasts the amount of time that we give to running on its own. As Steve, Stan’s going to give some great thoughts and reflections, I’m sure, when we do the presentation (Sports Basement Presidio 12/8 @6pm.) My experience with him has largely been in his role as the keeper of the flame of Bay Area Ultrarunners (BAUR). I’m not sure that the younger runners even know what BAUR is and this is probably a bad way to describe it, but BAUR was a single organization that allowed folks to pool their resources to put on race. At one time all the local ultras and runners were members of BAUR and all the race equipment came out of the BAUR storage room, which for many years was just in John Medinger’s basement. Steve was the RD for Ruth Anderson and other races. I remember his being at the first Stan Jensen Award presentation.
I’m planning to return to this post with more thoughts about these folks.
SKYLINE STORY: Todd Gleiden remembers his first 50k at Skyline.
***
2013 was the year for my first marathon and 50k, so I thought. I broke my knee cap on the GoldenGate Bridge and deferred Skyline 50k until 2014. Well, a heart attack got in the way that year so I showed up ready to go in 2015. I remember Adam the race director saying, “Oh you’re finally going to do it” and I did. It was my first 50k and I hadn’t even done my first marathon yet.
It was a bit emotional for sure. I have completed Skyline 4 other times. Skyline hooked me and changed my life for sure. Now with 58 ultra marathons under my belt, I am looking forward to my first 100-miler soon.
Philip Dangler
SKYLINE STORY: Philip Dangler recalls in verse his first 50k in 2014:
Trained with my kid in a jogging stroller for it.
We did the Saturday morning trail runs with LMJS.
Knobby tires on the back of that sucker.
Was my 40th birthday present to myself,
Skyline was.
Carol LaPlant
SKYLINE STORIES: Carol LaPlant – a founding runner (11 finishes), inspiration, and East Bay Ultra Legend who joined us, again, in 2021 to run with another legend, Mama Lisa.
***
I first ran Skyline in 1981, when it was the Zephyr 50K, a point-to-point starting in Richmond and finishing at the golf course by Lake Chabot. Over the years, I ran Skyline twelve times, usually placing. I am now in my 70s and unable to run after a knee replacement in 2015, but I hike because I still love being out on the trails.
In 2021 Skyline included a half marathon option, which I happily entered with my old friend Mama Lisa Felder . We started early, and it was magic to pin on a race number again. The half marathon course was a truncated version of the Skyline course that I knew so well. I was thrilled to be hiking as fast as I could up the long climbs and getting cheered at the aid stations staffed by other Skyline veterans. How I’d missed this beautiful, timeless race and the community of ultra runners! Savor it.
Kristina Randrup
SKYLINE STORY!
EDITOR NOTE: This is the first installment of Skyline Stories, a series of anecdotes from athletes who have taken part in this classic race over the years. This Story comes from Kristina Randrup our 2022 F-1, returning to defend again her title. I have a long story about Kristina and her mom for another Skyline Stories – RD Outtake sometime soon. Now, Kristina (pictured with her dad in 2017 and in 2019):
****
In 2017 I ran my first ultra, my first Skyline 50k. I hadn’t planned on running an ultra that summer; honestly, I had never planned on running an ultra. I only signed up a week or two before the race, or rather my mom signed me up for it. I remember telling her that ultras are dumb and bad for you and I still wanted to get faster and running an ultra would ruin that. After a quick (very quick) deliberation with myself, I told her to sign me up – I wanted to go for it, because why not?
The night before the race my parents warned me that “it wouldn’t be like a cross country race” and I “wouldn’t be running the whole time”. With zero experience in racing anything more than 15k and no experience ever running over 20 miles (done the weekend before, definitely not the way to taper, but I didn’t know any better), I shook off their warnings and confidently told them I thought I could run 4:30. My reasoning was that I can comfortably run 7:30 pace but throw in some hills and more miles, 8:20ish pace sounded reasonable. Again, I knew nothing.
Then came actual race day. I still didn’t know what I was doing, but it was time to run whether I knew what I was doing or not. I don’t remember much of the race. I remember feeling pretty good most of the way, but also having no idea of how I should be pacing myself or fueling. I remember the last three miles of that race extremely well. I was climbing up to the final aid station, and after having consumed no calories throughout the previous 28 miles (would not recommend), I eagerly grabbed a cup of “sports drink”, downed it, and ran off. I remember the aid station volunteers asking if I was okay. I think I said yes, but I might have also been a bit wobbly at that point (again, would not recommend consuming no calories). As I had stopped to grab that cup, a guy I had been on and off with the previous few miles cheered me on and said something about how we’d hit sub-4:30. That got me moving again and I had that goal with me those last three miles. Those miles were hard. I don’t even want to know how slow I was moving. Lots of folks out there kept asking me questions about what event was happening or if there was a race and I think I just glared at all of them.
In the end, I crossed the line in 4:28:29 – 31 whole seconds to spare! And second to YiOu Wang! (My dad tried to tell me about her numerous accolades but I was unimpressed and didn’t know what any of her accomplishments meant. In hindsight, I am so honored to have raced with her.) In the few hours after the race, I didn’t think I’d run an ultra ever again, but something brought me back the next year. And the next. I feel so lucky that this race has been such an important part of my running career. This summer will be my 5th time at Skyline – I know so much more now than I did in 2017 and have a lot of big dreams for this sport, but the community, history, and personal story attached to Skyline is something I just can’t seem to give up.
For the last few months, I’ve been working on following the move of our friends at The North Face Endurance Challenge to go cupless. After a few false starts — and praying that the cups would get here in time for Skyline 50k– they’ve arrived!
Anyone who has directed an ultra or volunteered at an aid station has noticed the appalling amount of waste that these events create. It’s impossible to escape the irony that a sport which is meant to put people alone in nature also stuffs the same people with unnutritious food and creates a lot of garbage. I’ll never forget running up to my friend Sarah Lavender Smith at a North Face San Francisco Aid Station a few years ago as she dragged a bag of garbage with a sad face. I could never convince her to volunteer again.
In any event, the cups are here and we’ll be using them for Skyline 50k and also for Firetrails in October. Then if all goes well, they’ll be a permanent fixture. My intent is to not charge for them but to give them out with our entries. I guess other people are charging, which is fine. It just doesn’t make sense to me.
