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Race Recap: 2007 Bishop High Sierra 50m/50k

Posted June 6th, 2007 at 10:00 AM by Greg Hardesty

Section: News & Results, Marathons, Running & Training, Cross Training

bishop sierra 50 scenery They say that in chess, the best players think several moves ahead. As we drove into Bishop for the 14th annual 50-miler and 50k (actually, a 33-miler, but who’s counting?) on May 19, we were doing the same thing, inspired by the city’s name and thinking of our next move, as in:

When can we visit the world-famous Schat’s Bakkery, and why do they spell it that way? Did the master carb maker OD on yeast, or something? And if you eat too much of the bread, do you get a bad case of the schats?
Our past as pre-pubescent altar boys was making us nervous. Is this metropolis of 3,000-plus, located at the foot of the eastern Sierras, some sort of dumping ground for wayward bishops? Drop and give me 10 Hail Marys, and wash it down with gourmet bread – or go straight to hell. Do not pass go, do not collect the cell phone numbers of 7th-grade boys.
What’s the deal with fishermen and “fresh” jerky? There are roadway signs all along Highway 395 on the way to Bishop. Our vegetarian and vegan runners (we know many) almost ran straight back from whence they came.

But, alas, they stayed – and so did we. But boy, were we in for a tough day.

The Bishop High Sierra 50k may be beautiful – the shimmering mountain backdrop is so unreal, it looks like a Hollywood set — but it’s no walk in the park. In fact, during the early stages of the race, which basically is a gradual uphill that is deceivingly difficuly at this elevation (4,400 to 8,200, roughly), we were reminded of a game of chess we managed to play the night before the race at the local Carnivore Inn (complimentary sausage buffet in the morning): Specifically, we were reminded of our opponent’s final move in that chess match: Bishop to K4. Checkmate!

Read the rest of the race recap at: TheRunDown.Net