Tahoe 200

This a belated blog of the Tahoe 200 that took place way back in June (I'm writing this just before Christmas).  To cut a short story even shorter, it didn't go to plan.  The Tahoe 200 takes place in California, USA and involves the circumnavigation of Lake Tahoe that follows the ridge line of the lake itself.  This year, due to ongoing issues with some sections of the course that were out of bounds it was an out and back course rather than a proper loop.

The idea of entering was that I could combine it with a family holiday in the area and I had no aspirations other than to complete it, and I certainly didn't want to finish dead on my legs that would ruin the rest of the trip.  In the end I dropped out at the end of the first day, but I have no regrets for reasons that will become clear towards the end of this post.

Start

At the start I felt fine which from memory was already at elevation (c.6,000ft - 1,800m), which is not far off twice the height of the highest mountain in England.  Even at this altitude it was absolutely sweltering, as it got higher it cooled down, to the extent that we went above the receding snowline which at this point of the year in June had turned to ice.  There were various points were grip on my trail shoe was non-existent and I would slide down to the bottom of the patch of ice.

The max height was almost 11,000 feet (3,300 metres) and I was struggling to breath.  I had not acclimatised to this altitude before the event and I just felt a level of lethargy that didn't feel normal.  Whenever I went above 8,000 feet the feeling would return, but the problem was that when I went into the valleys the heat would return to the extent that I was struggling to keep heatstroke at bay.

My only video out on the course.  This was a fairly typical section.

Although I was reasonably well placed at the first checkpoint, I had pretty much decided that my heart was just not in it.  I could have continued, but I would probably be just delaying the inevitable and end up dropping out later in the event and by doing this there was a good chance it would wreck the rest of the holiday for the family.

I continued to the next checkpoint, but I just wanted it over.  I got there in the early evening on the first day and I called it there and then.  As it turned out it was the right decision.  The following day I developed one of the worst hacking colds I have had for a few years so it must have been brewing in me and probably explained the level of lethargy I was experiencing and also probably the effects that altitude was having on my body.  It just demonstrated that I had made the right call and listened to my body as something was clearly not right.

What makes my decision all the better was that it turned out my son quite badly went downhill that day, developing ongoing vomiting, but more concerningly he was unable to stand up and when he did walk a few paces he would stagger like a drunk and topple over.  In the end we took the decision to take him to A&E.  I wouldn't have liked to have left my wife to deal with this on her own whilst I was out on the course.

In the end, it was a great idea entering the Tahoe 200 but it was just not meant to be.