Diablo Trails 50k

What a race! Starting at 6.30 under a full moon, I got to experience trail running at its best. With views overlooking the Bay Area, the course took us up Mount Diablo, accumulating more than two thousand meters of vertical gain, and passing through rapidly shifting landscapes. 

Wise from previous races, I prioritized running over taking photos but, on several occasions, I just had to stop and take out my phone. Having been to both the summit and the north peak, the trail went downhill around 35 km into the race with many sections being fairly technical. As always, safety first but if I am to draw any lessons from the race it is that I need to practice downhill running in general.

Then about 40 km into the race, the trail became less technical but I still struggled to speed up as my quads had taken quite a beating. Nevertheless, being able to finish as number 45 of 110 runners who completed the race still feels more than okay, especially considering that I had zero incidents and felt good throughout the entire race.

As for my shoes, I ran the race in a new pair of Hoka Speedgoat 5 in size 48 which gave me plenty of room when going downhill. Though I had only run about 10 km in the shoes, they perform admirably. One thing in particular that I appreciated was that they quickly dried up after passing through the many streams on the course.