Not THAT Lucas

Saturday Morning Grab Bag

2012-02-04T11:25:00.000-08:00

Some odds and ends to get a bit caught up. This is an R-word–free weekend and there are lots of chores that have been piling up that I've promised to work on.

Instead, I've decided to do this post. (Warning: This is going to wander all over the place. Sorry.)

Speaking of wandering all over the place, which of these dogs does not like to get wet? It has been very dry around here this winter - the hills are still brown and the trails are mostly mud-free. But the day we took the dogs for a nice walk, it was threatening rain (turned out to be all threat, no action) so Dove the Wonder Dog begged to wear her slicker.

One of the lights went out in the kitchen. We replaced the bulbs but that didn't help. So I cleverly came up with this solution. After spending the night out on the deck, I replaced the ballast and the light is back to boring old normal. And I'm no longer sleeping out on the deck.

There's this fun running group up in San Francisco called the Dolphin South End Running Club (DSE for short). They put on a race nearly every Sunday at a variety of great locations up in the city. One of the coolest things is that the races generally cost $5 to enter - less if you join their club.

At the end of the year they have an awards ceremony, which Ultra Woof (on the left with her Mulan ~~costume~~ uniform, complete with Mushu the dragon) calls the DSE Prom. If you run a certain number of races and volunteer once or twice, you can get a trophy at the Prom. Both grandkids, Weird Haired Mom, and Mrs Notthat all qualified for trophies this year. (Mr Notthat's dislike of driving in the city precluded him from attending enough races to qualify.)

By the way, the guy on the right is The Endorphin Dude - a runner who you normally see wearing a cape and a huge smile. He announced at last year's Prom that he was starting a quest of running 52 marathons in 2011, which would qualify him for Titanium status in the Marathon Maniacs group. A bold statement from a guy that, a couple of years ago, couldn't locate his TV remote because of all the pizza boxes and Cheetos bags on his couch. Against a lot of odds and despite a number of crushing setbacks, he made it. The guy is amazing! And he's Grandkid Second Born's hero - GSB stayed close to him all night, in this case making himself useful as a table.

This event was long and included a lot of people talking. The grandkids were great though - both hung in there and behaved amazingly well. The promise of getting trophies had them on their best behavior.

The only bad part of the evening was that, due to a clerical error, Mrs Notthat did not actually get a trophy, and instead got a certificate. This was a pretty big bummer, but seeing how happy the grandkids were made up for that disappointment. I heard that they both wanted to sleep with their trophies, and couldn't wait to take them to school and show them off. They were vibrating with excitement over these things! And why not - it's really amazing that they earned these through a lot of work and early morning wake-ups.

Kaya has a LOT of energy. A LOT of energy. That energy can lead to some mischief (see below). So I have been trying to use up some of that energy each morning by teaching her to catch frisbees. She was getting pretty good at it, but has recently started having more fun just knocking them down.

On a day when I didn't play frisbee with her, we came home to find that Kaya had been trying to work out how to watch her favorite nature shows. So we are learning to carefully put things away when we leave (a couple of Mrs Notthat's favorite running jackets have also been targeted, and socks - that dog LOVES socks).

When I get up in the morning (I'm always up first), both dogs always come flying down the hallway to greet me. On Friday, Dove was conspicuous in her absence, which worried me a bit. I guessed that she had been accidentally locked in the garage or the spare bedroom again, but after a quick check of all the likely places she might be, I couldn't find her.

After showering, I got dressed expecting the worst - something very serious must have happened to cause her to not be around. A fight with a possum. Eating a poison apple. Something.

But when I headed out of the bedroom, she was standing there, wagging her tail, and acting very much like she hadn't come across any possums or poison apples. I was astounded - I REALLY had looked hard for her and hadn't seen her anywhere.

Then The Boy pointed out her new sleeping place.

Kaya destroyed her first dog bed (making an impressive mess) in her first few days here. We bought her a new bed and within minutes she had a hole in it and was furiously trying to empty it of its stuffing. (Biggest stuffed toy she had EVER seen!) We had these old patio furniture cushions out on the deck, so I brought one in as her next sacrificial bed while we tried to figure out what to do next. But she didn't destroy it. We're not sure if she's done destroying things (HA!) or if it is indestructible, but it has been hanging in there nicely.

And now as a bonus, Dove has decided to take advantage of it too.

It had never occurred to me to look in between the cushions for her, and apparently she didn't hear me get up (or, more likely, she was too warm to bother getting up), and failed to greet me.

But now I know better.

And now I'm mostly caught up on pictures. (As long as I don't look too hard.)

That's it - move along...

No coyotes, but glorious weather and lots of runners

2012-01-29T15:14:00.000-08:00

Brazen's Coyote Hills trail race is very close to home, which makes it irresistible. Apparently, it is irresistible to a lot of other runners too since the 5K and 10K distances both sold out - in the end there were 1205 total finishers.

We showed up a little over an hour before the start, but were not even close to getting a close parking spot. Not a Canadian wisely showed up a LOT before us (more than two hours before race start) and not only got a close parking spot, but also captured this great picture of the sun rising over the porta-potties.

346 runners finished the Half Marathon distance, and almost all of them are in front of me here, just before the start.

After a short bit on some pavement, we veered off onto the wooden trail across the wetlands.

A large part of the course follows the water's edge. It was calm, sunny, and really nice along the water, which is not normal - not in January. Those brown hills should be a bright green by now - we are really in need of our winter rain.

There were a LOT of water fowl to look at as you cruised along the largely paved trail.

Picture by Brazen volunteer Teddy

Mrs Notthat was well ahead of me and flying along.

Picture by Brazen volunteer Teddy

I wasn't in last place, but I wasn't far from it.

One of the fun things about this course is a fairly long out-and-back section where you get to see the runners that are ahead of and behind you. In this case, I had hit the turnaround and was heading back out when I saw Weird Haired Mom. She looked good, but it turned out she didn't feel good. Her legs were really hurting and she ended up cutting her half short, and wisely did the 10K instead.

Yrrek (not her real name), wisely chose to do the 10K from the start. She also looked good, although she was hard to spot with nearly normal hair.

To do the Half Marathon, you do two laps around the course. At this point I'm a little over a mile from finishing my first lap. Esoj (not his real name) has nearly caught up with me, except he is on his second lap! It was humbling to get passed by a number of Half runners that finished their two laps in less time than it took me to finish my first lap. But then, if I had been faster, I wouldn't have gotten this great picture of a smiling Esoj!

If you do the 5K or 10K courses, you end up with a few gentle hills, but other than some bits of gravel and the wooden trail, it's largely like a road course (without cars). But if you do the Half course, you get a bonus reminder that you're really doing a trail race. It's not long, but it's a blast.

At the end of my first lap, I could see and hear the finish line off to the right, but knew it wasn't for me. I refilled my bottle and headed out again.

Back out on the wooden bit of trail. There were a LOT of volunteer photographers along the course - I lost track of how many times my picture was taken (I started to get a bit tired of having to keep sucking in my gut so often!).

There were three aid stations, but two of them we hit twice, making for five aid stations altogether. They were all staffed with fun volunteers and lots of food and water and laughs and cheers.

When I hit the out-and-back bit again, I wasn't sure whether I would see Mrs Notthat or not - I figured there would be a good chance she was far enough ahead of me that she was already done with it. But to my surprise and joy, she hadn't finished it and was only about 20 minutes ahead of me. And looking awesome as usual.

The other aid station we hit twice was run by the Tri-Valley Tri Club, which had a number of clever signs as you approached them. Like this one (that sadly took me a while to get).

This was my favorite.

I declared them the best aid station ever. Then they told me I had to continue another 20 feet and go around the cone. Make that the second best aid station ever. Then they offered to pace me around that cone. OK, back to best aid station ever.

Heading back out from there I came across Einre (not his real name either), who was looking good and going very steady, as normal.

This is the point where the Half course splits up. The first time through I had to veer to the left and go do that second lap. The second time through you get to veer right and end up at the finish line. I thought it would be funny to pretend to decide to do a third lap, but the kid standing in the trail looked very serious about not letting me do that, plus the Brazen Rabbit was there and I knew she'd chase me down and force me to finish. So I headed to the right and finished the race.

Here's the other thing about this area - I knew the two photographers and their dog Harlow, but somehow never realized it was them taking the pictures. I'm not at my brightest towards the end of a race. Or at the beginning, for that matter.

Pictures by Brazen Volunteer Claudine RL Co

You should be able to click the above picture to see a bigger version of it - it shows Mrs Notthat flying, just barely under control, down the hill. (The second picture is the best, with her nearly a foot in the air!) The funny bit is that Mrs made Harlow the dog a bit nervous as she charged down that hill the second time - Harlow actually barked some advice along the lines of "WATCH OUT FOR THAT SHRUB!"

Pictures by Brazen Volunteer Claudine RL Co

And then there is me, carefully placing each foot and watching for hidden rocks and roots that I have a knack of tripping over. Harlow mooned me.

Mrs Notthat ended up setting a PR, which is amazing since this is not exactly a flat course, plus it's a bit long.

I ended up finishing in under three hours, but nearly twenty minutes slower than last year (and nearly twenty minutes after Mrs Notthat). They still gave me a finisher's medal, so I was happy.

A group picture with a very nervous NAC (#148), worrying that I am doing something embarrassing while standing behind her. Of course I was - it's funny that Sirhc (on the right, not his real name) had the same idea.

Chris Bliss, who did the Hiker start, walked the course and finished strong and perky (although with sore feet).

And that's about it. It was a great event with a great shirt and medal. The course could use a few more hills and a bit less pavement, but the water views are great and the wooden trail over the wetland bits is fun (although in places the water looked dodgy). The weather was spectacularly clear and nice.

I will likely be volunteering at the next two Brazen events (Bay Breeze and Hellyer) since they are both flatter than this one (which also makes them very popular).

Which means I should be early enough to get my own sunrise over the porta-potties pictures.

That's it - move along...

PS: Here is a link to a bunch more pictures I took.

It's not a sprint - it's a quarter marathon!

2012-01-16T19:39:00.000-08:00

Late last year we found out that, for family reasons, we were going to be making a weekend trip to Marysville (or is it Linda or Olivehurst - definitely not Yuba City, I think) in the middle of January. Mrs Notthat gave me that look and didn't have to say anything; I just started looking to see what races might be happening that weekend in that area.

I'd heard of Chico (is that where the Bad News Bears played? I remember them wearing "Chico Bail Bonds" uniforms) and was thrilled to find it was less than an hour from where we would be staying in the Quad City Metroplex, because I KNEW I had to run a race named Frost or Fog. Especially if that race had the unique distance of a Quarter Marathon!

I had run a tough trail Marathon out of Woodside the previous weekend, which also made this relatively easy distance attractive.

So Friday morning we headed north for the packet pickup.

Packet pickup at Fleet Feet in downtown Chico went great, although that poster in the background was a bit humbling. I had no idea how many people would be at this race, but if that was from last year's event, I was going to be in trouble.

We woke up to frost!

And on the way to Chico we saw fog (sort of)! Frost AND Fog!

Here's the bridge from the background picture at packet pickup - it's funny how things look different in person. We will finish by crossing this bridge.

Mrs Notthat and I with our game faces on. It was quite cool (the car said 32 when we left the Quad City Metroplex area, but I think by now it was nearly up to 40.)

Mrs Notthat is trying to tell me something with this pose, but I'm not sure what it was. This is all the Quarter Marathoners lined up at the start.

This picture, from the Frost or Fog Facebook site, shows Mrs Notthat charging out while, only ten feet beyond the starting line, I've already been passed.

The course is sort of an upside down lollipop - there's a loop at the start/finish with an out-and-back stick in the middle. I expected a lot of pavement, but was thrilled to find out at least half of the course was either on dirt single-track trails or gravel roads (that in some places became quite technical to try to run on due to the rocks and such sticking up). There were some mild hills - just enough to keep it interesting. And it was pretty.

Some time was spent on these paved trails. The "Stay Left" thing really threw me - every bone in my body screamed to get on the right, but I'll take it that there are good reasons to do this.

This is the first aid station and the 5K turnaround (about mile 2). I had only been passed by about 6 or so 5K runners by the time I got here - they started 10 minutes after us. The aid stations were filled with friendly volunteers cheering you on and making sure you were hydrated.

Yes, this was pavement, but running through these trees made it all worth it.

Once on the stick part of the lollipop, I started seeing the faster Quarter Marathon runners coming back from the turnaround. And then I saw this 7-year-old flying down the course! She was SO cool and even inspired me to pick up the pace (for a little bit anyway).

And then Mrs Notthat came back past me. Perky but oddly headphoneless. (It turns out that iPods are almost magical, but you still have to charge them once in a while.)

I finally reached the turnaround and the second aid station. (I swear the volunteers must think I'm a lunatic for stopping to take their pictures like this. But they truly are stars and deserve to have their picture taken! Plus I need the rest.)

Eventually I found my way to the bridge and the finish line. There was much rejoicing that they didn't have to go looking for me.

This was a great race and a lot of fun! It was a bit of a fluke that we ended up doing it, but we are going to try for another fluke or two this summer for more of the Under the Sun events.

The course was well marked and I loved that they had mile markers. The aid stations were friendly and it turned out we had three of them for what was really an ultra 10K. There were 435 finishers between the three races (5K walking, 5K running, and Quarter Marathon).

And unlike the guy in the logo with the pink earmuffs, we managed to stay plenty warm. And the raspberry granola cake at the finish line was amazing!

That's it - move along...

PS: Here is a link to more pictures that I took.

Wandering around the Bayfront Salt Ranch

2012-01-13T08:13:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, Mrs Notthat and I (minus the dogs, since Kaya was still under doctor's orders to "keep calm" - ha ha ha ha) took the grandkids out to the Bayfront Park Salt Ranch to do some poking around. Mrs Notthat had brought them here before and they were anxious to see the Tire Graveyard again.

You can park so that you can get to the Salt Ranch reasonably quickly and easily, or you can park so that you have to walk a bit to get there. Naturally, we chose the latter. You have to go up a hill out of the parking lot and Grandkid Second Born, showing some spunk, ran all the way up that hill.

From where we parked, there are some reasonably direct trails to the Salt Ranch, but Mrs Notthat used her skills to make sure some bonus distance and hills were added as we meandered through the park to the shore.

This place always amazes me - the salt-encrusted shoreline looks exactly like it is ice-encrusted.

This whole area is used to harvest sea salt, with canals to let in water, which is then allowed to evaporate, leaving behind the salt. Most of these salt evaporation areas are being eliminated since the land is too attractive to developers that feel we have too few strip malls, golf courses, and condos.

I had never wandered around out this far before, and it was pretty cool.

Grandkid Second Born found a dinosaur skeleton, likely some sort of meat eater that ended up with too much sodium in its diet.

In the background you can see the hills of Bayfront Park, which is a fun little park with a lot of trails and small hills to train on. It was somewhere about this point that, weirdly, the kids started finding golfballs.

Grandkid First Born staring into the majestic depths of a salt canyon. Looking for golfballs.

As we were headed back to the car, Second Born spotted a bench to rest on. So did I. It's not my fault the bench wasn't long enough for all of us.

The pain and suffering I have to go through.

They then tried to show me how to properly share the bench. I still don't get it.

It's not like First Born was willing to share this rock.

If you live on the mid-pennisula and have never been to Bayfront Park, you should give it a shot. It's not big, and it's all built over a landfill (the kids get a kick out of it randomly belching from the many gas relief valves scattered around). There are a lot of fun rock formations and nice trails.

But we will have to go back and try harder to find the Tire Graveyard - somehow we missed it this time.

That's it - move along...

Springing through the crystals?

2012-01-08T10:54:00.000-08:00

I'm a sucker for a race close to home. Last November, when Coastal had a sale on their various races, Mrs Notthat and I signed up for the Coastal Crystal Springs event, which was the weekend following my double Half Marathon.

Naturally, I needed to take it easy and sign up for a shorter distance at Crystal Springs. Naturally I didn't do that, and instead signed up for the Marathon (Mrs Notthat wisely chose the 11 mile distance). I had done a race on these trails before and was reasonably familiar with them. I knew that, while you spent most of the first five miles climbing, it was not tendon-snappingly steep. I knew that the trails were some of the best in the Bay Area - lots of single track and lots of trees.

And then I spent the week before the race fighting a cold. I even took a sick day at work (very rare). So the talk with Mrs Notthat during the week involved a lot of "If I'm feeling like excrement at this point, I can shorten the race by doing this" type scenarios.

That is the Marathon course elevation chart. Lots of climbing at the start, a cruel dip in the middle, and then the final insult - a small climb a few miles from the finish. Not an easy course at all, with 3790 feet of climbing. And a cutoff - you have to get to the second aid station (just before the cruel dip) in a little over three hours or you would not be allowed to do the rest of the Marathon course, and instead, would have to settle for the 22 mile race (which is what I did previously, and it's very challenging in its own right).

Tough course? Naturally, Einre (not his real name) would be there. He too was signed up for the Marathon. Note my running uniform - I wanted to make it as easy as possible to find my body.

Some of the running women friends in the race. From left to right, Weird Haired Mom, Arabrab (not her real name), Not a Canadian, and Mrs Notthat. WHM started the week dreaming of also doing the Marathon, but I talked her out of it, so she did the 11 mile race (barely). Arabrab joined me in the Marathon while NAC was the smartest of all and did the 5 mile race.

The race starts with a mad dash down a short hill to the first trail which quickly backs up as people squeeze onto the first bit of single track. Fast runners that have done this race before know to sprint that first two hundred yards or so just to avoid this. Experienced slow runners know there is no value in rushing from the start line, so we sauntered along, enjoying a bit of sunshine.

Much of the course was like this - lots of trees and dry dirt trails. Some of these had runners going both directions, so there could be a bit of congestion at times, but this was not much of an issue.

This was the first aid station, and the 11 mile turnaround point. It would have been easy to downgrade to the 11 mile here, but I was feeling fine, so I kept on going. (The aid stations were great, by the way. Lots of things to eat and encouraging words to help you along.)

I had as a minor goal to make it to this aid station before being passed by any of the 11 mile runners (they started 45 minutes after us) - I ended up being passed by only two of them.

The only mud on the course, which I chose to believe was caused by the race's namesake Crystal Springs.

From that first aid station to the next, you spend 5.7 miles running along the top of Skyline ridge. This is a stretch for strong runners (not me!) to make up some time, and most did. It was also a stretch for most runners (me!) to get really cold, as the stiff breeze brought the wind chill down to the teens. (I made that up, and I'm sure it was not nearly that cold. But it felt like it could have been.)

The second aid station was the critical one. For the Marathon runners, you had to get here in three hours, fifteen minutes or get turned around. I was sweating this a bit and wasn't sure I would make it. (The park closes at 5 PM, and the woods get really dark well before then, so the winter version of this race has pretty tight cutoffs.)

I made it with fifteen minutes to spare. As did Arabrab and her friend that showed up fashionably late, Ecarg (not her real name either). Ecarg was only going to do the 22 mile race, but Arabrab used her peer pressure skills to convince her to upgrade to the Marathon. Very weirdly, shortly after leaving this aid station and heading into that cruel dip, I got ahead of them.

At the bottom of the dip I caught up to Refinnej (not her real name either), who was doing just her third trail race. The two of us walked up out of the dip and back up to the second aid station together, saving several banana slugs from near certain death along the way.

Seriously, how can you not love these things?

A tree across the trail. There were lots of small branches on the trail along the ridge, but this was the only tree. We chose to take the risk and go over it rather than turn around and retrace our steps.

A rocky section of trail.

As I mentioned earlier, while there is a lot of climbing, it's reasonably gentle, with a LOT of switchbacks.

A few miles from being done and the unnaturally perky Arabrab and Ecarg finally caught up to me. Up to this point I had been dreaming that I might actually beat them, but I knew better.

The finish line! But first you have to cross a playground, where fortunately, there were no kids to hurdle (I had no energy left to hurdle anything in any case).

Mr Coastal was reading off the list of age group winners when he came across my name. "That can't be right" he said as he went back to recheck the results. (This was my first trail marathon finish with a sub-seven hour finish - I was just as shocked as he was.)

But it was true - I won third place in my age group! The really cool thing was that, for the first time, I actually beat someone to win this age group medal! (Granted, he was fighting bad cramps when I passed him earlier, and he certainly deserved it more than me for sticking it out and finishing while in lots of pain, but I'm going to keep it anyway.)

Speaking of finishing in pain, WHM reenacted her emotion-filled finish (maybe adding a dramatic touch or two). The 11 mile course had eaten her up and she really struggled to finish. But she did it, even though it would have been easy to drop or switch to the 5 mile race.

Mrs Notthat, meanwhile, got down with the number two. Her bib number was 222. Her finish time was an impressive 2:22:02.

It was a great race with good (if a bit chilly at times) weather and wonderful trails. Everything went smoothly and the race was a blast.

And a number of banana slugs lived to see another day.

That's it - move along...

PS: Here's a link to a bunch more pictures I took.

Running into the new year

2012-01-03T08:38:00.000-08:00

Mrs Notthat and I were really feeling the effects of the Brazen New Year's Eve Half Marathon the rest of that day, and when I got up on New Year's Day, things weren't much better. Due to other commitments, Mrs Notthat was not going to be able to reprise the Eve Half with the Day Half, but I had no excuses, so I taped up the feet and headed back to Lake Chabot for Brazen's New Year's Day Half Marathon.

Here was the big prize - complete both races and you get a bonus medal to tie the two together. Some points to make:

• No, I was not the model for that old man on the first medal. (I only wished I looked that spritely.)

• Yes, it is Mr Brazen's goal to have a beard as long as that old guy's (but maybe not as white). Mrs Brazen may have other thoughts though.

• In the middle medal, I love the subtle hour glass that the lake is pouring through. I had not noticed this until Mrs Notthat pointed it out - cool!

• That kid on the right has HUGE feet! I tried to get Brazen Second Born to show me his feet to see if he was the model for this, but he gave me a look that changed my mind and made me decide to go eat some pastries instead.

Actually, one of the coolest things about this race was the surprise appearance of Coach Luap, helping out at the sweat check area! I hadn't seen him at an event like this for ages, and seeing him there made me start walking more upright and stop moaning and whining quite as much (at least while he was looking).

Weird Haired Mom was also there, but was very tired after having finished her six hour run just a few hours earlier. And yes, it really was that cold at the start.

One of my favorite bathroom pictures - Nerak, Nerak, and Arabrab (not their real names) waiting in line, getting hydrated while hoping to get rid of some hydration soon.

Of course Not a Canadian Enirehtak (not her real name either) was there, starting her third consecutive Brazen streak (this time with a goal of doing 10Ks instead of her normal 5Ks - although that might be a secret). I reprised my billboard thing and added the arrow through the head thing to it. Note that it is a bit crooked - I don't understand why these trail races don't provide full-length mirrors for us to make sure we are really good to go.

I was determined to take it easy for this race, and I succeeded. For that reason, I felt better after it than before it. A really fun thing is that the Brazen Rabbit and Mas the Sweeper had remarked the Half course so we went in the reverse direction. There was lots of talk about whether it would be easier - the same amount of climbing, but it's in different areas and with different slopes - and I think it was a bit easier, although there were a LOT of uphill sections that I had not remembered as being downhill sections the day before.

This banana slug offered to pace me in, but I was not up to going that fast.

"I've got a splitting headache" was what I would tell people that looked at me with concern (or fear). By the end of the race, that arrow thing was really starting to dig into my head and indeed, I had a splitting headache.

After the race, WHM showed off her age group medal from the six hour race (over 20 miles for the first time!). You can tell how tired she is though - note that she is holding it sideways for the picture.

The shirt was great and of course the medals were stunning. There were not as many people at this race as the day before, but there were still a LOT. Brazen ended up running out of the middle medals since more people did both races than anticipated (doesn't anyone go out and get blasted on New Year's Eve anymore?).

I loved these and hope it works out that they can do this again next year.

When Mr Brazen's beard will surely have caught up to that old man's.

That's it - move along...

PS: I put up some more pictures here.

PPS: I'm always amazed at people I don't know (and thus have no obligation) that read these things. People come up to me and say "You're that Notthat guy, right?" or recognize Mrs Notthat and spend time sympathizing with her. Enirehtak had some guy she didn't know walk past her yesterday and say "Hi Canadian!" She must hate me something fierce! (BTW, she is actually German, but does this New Zealand accent just for effect.) If she didn't hate me before, she does now.

The other thing that happened was that Mrs Notthat and I had lunch with Etep, Nire, Llib, and Eilsel (not their real names) yesterday before heading to Zombie Runner. I was given this calendar:

How did they know?

Running away from the old year

2012-01-02T21:59:00.000-08:00

Mrs Notthat surprised me by agreeing to run the Half Marathon distance in Brazen's New Year's Eve race at Lake Chabot. She has done numerous events here, but has never actually circled the lake before.

Apparently a LOT of other people also found this race attractive - It completely sold out several days early, which is the first time I can remember this happening with a Brazen race (maybe Coyote Hills last year?).

In any case, there were a LOT of people that showed up for this race (there were more than 1000 finishers). Since it was the last race of the year, Brazen used it to recognize their streakers - no, not that kind of streaker; these were runners that made it to every race this year.

The streakers got a number of perks:

• A great shadow box with medals from all of the year's races (as Nivek, not his real name, is showing above - I love the guy hiding behind him while he gets his picture taken).

• A great shirt proclaiming their coolness and streaker number.

• A GU flavor of their choice is named after them. (OK, I made that up, but how cool would that be!)

Shortly after we took off, I saw Canadian Enirehtak (not her real name or nationality) waving me over to the side. Here I am on what could be a world record pace (HA HA HA) and she wants me to stop. To give me this billboard to wear:

Amazingly, I did wear it and it stayed on my head the whole race (although I had to duck under a lot of branches).

Weird Haired Mom was hanging out at the top of The Hill, snapping pictures of the runners. Even better...

Grandkid First Born was stationed just before the 10K turnaround, reminding the 10K runners to turn around. And...

Grandkid Second Born was at the 10K aid station telling the Half runners to cross the street and keep going. I grabbed a handful of what I called Skittles. He firmly corrected me - "Those aren't Skittles grandpa. You call yourself a trail runner?" (He was right. I think they were actually Mike and Ike's. Or maybe chocolate covered raisins.)

The course was great - I've been on most of it many times before. I figured this new stretch that was added for Bad Bass, that requires you to run through a creek bed, would end up having to be detoured around for the winter races (and last year it would have been), but we've had no rain for a month so it was dry and we were able to enjoy it.

It's a great feeling to see Lake Chabot again after wandering around the eucalyptus groves and being serenaded with a 21,000 gun salute as you pass the shooting range.

This is Mrs Notthat just after the start. It was pretty cool at the start but cleared up nicely later. (Not that it got hot or anything, just a bit warmer.)

Here she is crossing the finish line. She did great at this race, handily beating me.

And here I am getting near the finish line - thrilled to have made it this far without falling or getting lost. Brave but kind Enirehtak met me about a half mile from the finish to make sure I really did wear that thing. She was horrified by how slow I was moving though - she worked really hard to get me to go faster, and probably shaved several minutes off my time.

Here is the shirt and the medal.

For the first time, Brazen set up races on two consecutive days - New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. If you complete a race each day, you get a third medal to tie the other two together. This bonus bling likely had a lot to do with the large crowds, and you'll get to see it in my next post, which I'll try to get done tomorrow.

That's it - move along...for now

PS: Here is a link to a bunch of pictures I took.

Running out of 2011

2011-12-30T10:55:00.000-08:00

Most of you are excused from feeling like you need to read this post. It is going to be filled with more inane trivia and such from this year's running events than most people, including runners, can possibly care about.

Sorry.

Note: I'm a tiny bit early with this since I still have one more race to do this year, on New Year's Eve. If I waited to do this after that race, this likely wouldn't get written until the middle of 2012, if ever. (Keep your rude remarks to yourself!)

This was an AMAZING year in running for the Notthats.

The spreadsheet is pretty much impossible to read this year. The one cool thing was that I added a section for The Boy. If he didn't work most weekends, his section would undoubtedly be a lot fuller.

I save all my bibs (including the bonus "bib" I made for the Brazen Dirty Dozen 12 hour run - the handwritten one below 23). Tragically, Mrs Notthat saves almost none of hers.

One thing that sticks out is that there are only three bibs with four-digit numbers - this is because I mostly do trail races and they rarely have more than three-digits worth of runners. My favorite number this year was "88," which others pointed out can represent the mythical "double infinity" if worn sideways (which I of course did). Odd note - the race before this, it was Mrs Notthat's turn to have 88. I was insanely jealous. I couldn't believe I got it the very next race.

Side Note: There has been some debate about what to do with the bibs. I believe they would look fantastic covering a wall in our bedroom, but Mrs Notthat oddly disagreed. There was talk of making them into coasters, but I could never bring myself to cutting them up. Placemats would work though, but who really needs 39 placemats (and that's just for this year)? I'll just keep them hanging from a hook in my office at work. For now. Maybe I can talk Mrs Notthat into giving me a bathroom wall - the bibs are all water proof.

I almost always opt for getting the shirt at the various races, even when I am volunteering and not actually in the race. These are most of the shirts - I thought it would be cool to lay them out in a "rainbow of colors" style, but I didn't want to bother working out the actual order of rainbow colors plus I'm pretty sure rainbows almost never have gray or white.

(Yes, the tan shirt is out of place, but I was not going to shuffle all these shirts around just to put it someplace else almost as dubious. Plus the dog was determined to walk on these, and I needed to get done before they all ended up needing to go into the laundry.)

Cool shirts to point out: Palo Alto Moonlight Run, Brazen Bear Creek, Western States 100 "Official" volunteer, PCTR Skyline to the Sea, and a Marathon Maniacs singlet (!).

Out of the bottom section, Golden Hills, Brazen Bad Bass, Dolphin South End Runners ("Start slowly and taper off" - my racing strategy to a T), Turkey Track Trail, the wildly uncentered Wharf to Wharf, Urban Cow, and Brazen Summit Rock.

One thing that surprised me as I laid these out - there are no black shirts. Last year I got at least three of them.

And then, the bling. A few favorites: the bonus coaster I got from PCTR when I finished the Skyline to the Sea 50K - my first ultra; the hard to see small clay medal from the Turkey Track Trail race in Colorado; the Brazen Dirty Dozen medal that is a medal, coaster, and bottle opener all in one; the cow bell from the Urban Cow Half in Sacramento; and the Brazen Turkey Weekend three for the price of two deal. The stylish arm sleeves were from the Golden Hills Marathon, which did not give out medals, but had these sleeves, a great shirt, and a great goody bag.

Mrs Notthat's medals look a bit different, mostly because she has a lot of age group winner medals (six!) mixed in there. She also got two "medals" that are more like jewelry (Nike Women's Half Marathon and the Mermaid Run) - these are in the lower-left corner of the picture. She also has a bunch of ribbons from the Dolphin South End (DSE) Running Club races, which is a group in San Francisco that put on ridiculously inexpensive and fun races in a variety of city locations on almost every Sunday morning.

My firsts this year:
• First ultra attempt, followed shortly by...
• First DNF (Did Not Finish); the Brazen Diablo Trails Challenge in absurdly foul weather
• First successful ultra attempt (PCTR Skyline to the Sea)
• First race requiring a boat ride (Coastal Ayala Cove on Angel Island)
• First DLF (Dead Last Finish - Coastal Cinderella Marathon), which ironically was also...
• First first place age group finish (sometimes it's good to be in an unpopular age group)
• First out of state race (Turkey Track Trail in Colorado)
• First timed event (Brazen Dirty Dozen 12 hour race), which included...
• First "cookies tossed"
• First night run (Palo Alto Moonlight Run, oddly with thunder, lightening, and rain in September)
• First (and hopefully not last) cowbell medal (Urban Cow Half Marathon in Sacramento)

I ended up running in 39 events, volunteered at 6, and cheered others on at 7 others, making for a total of 52 events attended this year. Yikes! Probably the most stunning accomplishment was finishing six marathon or longer races this year - all on trails. At one point I had done one a month for four months in a row, which got me into Marathon Maniacs (one star, but still...).

I covered a bit over 533 miles in races this year, including 62,446 feet of climbing, all in 139:45:50 (I'm estimating 3:00:00 for my New Year's Eve Half Marathon) - about a 15:45/mile average pace.

Mrs Notthat covered nearly 311 miles, including 24,326 feet of climbing, in just over 72 hours - about a 13:50/mile pace (astonishing!).

The Boy ended up in 9 events covering 76.3 miles with 6,705 feet of climbing (and a mud pit along with other Warrior Dash obstacles) in 14:45:11 - about a 11:32/mile pace (wow!).

And the best thing was no injuries (although there was a scare when I had some knee pain in one race).

Next year should be interesting. I figured I would tone it down a bit, but then I signed up for the Coastal Crystal Springs Marathon (in a bit over a week), I made it through the lottery for Way Too Cool 50K, I need to make a second attempt at Brazen Diablo Trails 50K, I'd love to do PCTR Skyline to the Sea again, and we are hoping to get to go to Pagosa Springs Colorado again for the Turkey Track Trail.

All of that is before July. This is pretty exciting!

That's it - move along...

PS: The following is just for my purposes. They are links to all the posts I did about the various events I was involved in. It's a shockingly long list.

Brazen New Years Half Marathon
Brazen Coyote Hills Half Marathon
Coastal Steep Ravine
Brazen Bay Breeze (volunteer)
PCTR Redwood Park 20K
Brazen Diablo Trails 50K (DNF)
PCTR Skyline to the Sea 50K
Brazen Western Pacific (volunteer)
Coastal Ayala Cove 10 mile
Brazen Wildcat 10K
Mermaid Run (cheerleader)
PCTR Sequoia 30K
Coastal Cinderella Marathon
Apple iWalk 5K
Coastal Horseshoe Lake (volunteer)
Brazen Hellyer (volunteer)
Healing Hearts 5K
Brazen Nitro Half Marathon
GECKO Turkey Track Trail Marathon
Coastal Zombie Runner San Francisco Half Marathon
Western States 100 (volunteer)
Brazen Dirty Dozen 12 Hours
Redwood City Fourth of July 5K
Wharf to Wharf 10K
Brazen Bad Bass Half Marathon
San Francisco Progressive Marathon (cheerleader)
Brazen Bear Creek Half Marathon
PCTR Sequoia 20K
Coastal Zombie Runner Vasona Lake Half Marathon
Palo Alto Moonlight Run 10K and Brazen Drag-n-Fly Half Marathon
Coastal Mt Diablo Half Marathon
Brazen Trail Hog Half Marathon
Urban Cow Half Marathon
Golden Hills Marathon
Brazen Rocky Ridge Half Marathon
Brazen Diablo Adventure Half Marathon
Brazen Nitro Turkey 10K
Brazen Quarry Lakes Half Marathon
Brazen Summit Rock Half Marathon
Coastal Zombie Runner Bay Trail Marathon

Yikes! (If you read this far you have too much time on your hands! But thanks!)

Monday Grab Bag

2011-12-26T09:23:00.000-08:00

Catching up on a number of dog and grandkid bits and pieces.

First, a dog update.

Kaya had a ridiculously invasive procedure intended to shut down her puppy-factory abilities. The cone of shame was to keep her from licking the incision. "Keep her calm and NO WALKS for two weeks!" we were told. Keeping her calm is impossible - it would be easier to teach her to manage this blog.

After three days, the cone could come off, which was a blessing for us since she had learned to use it as a weapon.

So we tried the t-shirt trick. My shirts were a bit too big and she kept walking out of the arm holes.

So we tried one of Mrs Notthat's shirts and it fit a lot better. She didn't seem to mind the shirt so much, but by morning it was off and nicely folded in the middle of the living room.

The grandkids and their parents are moving from the duplex they had been in for five years or so to an apartment. The apartment is not dog-friendly, so we have inherited their dog, Dove, for the next six months or so (at least that's the plan - HA!).

When Dove was younger, she was easily Kaya's equal when it came to being an overactive, rambunctious puppy. Now that she's older (she's maybe three or four), she's mellowed. And become the cranky old guy yelling at kids to get off the lawn - she cannot stand Kaya's bounciness.

But they do have their moments of peaceful coexistence, such as when they are plotting to escape through the front gate.

Now for some grandkids.

The grandkids stayed with us for a few days while their parents worked to move into the apartment and clean up the old place.

Grandkid Second Born @ 9:12 AM: "I HATE cinnamon Chex! You can't make me eat them!"
Grandkid Second Born @ 9:13 AM: "This is the BEST cereal EVER!!!"
Me: Massive eye roll that nearly caused an injury.

Grandkid First Born and I decided to try something that I read about on the Internet. (What could possibly go wrong, right?) The idea is to make cupcakes in ice cream cones.

GKFB filled the cups. We had no guidance about how full to make them. And also, I had the brilliant idea to top some of the cones with marshmallows. (The cones were a bit top-heavy which made them eager to tip over. The cupcake pans were really no help. I have a theory about how to better do this in the future what would even include being able to use sugar cones.)

Lessons learned: Only fill the cones a little over halfway and the marshmallow idea was a winner, although it was a bit messy due to the cones being a bit too full (the kids would not try them). And possibly marshmallows about halfway would be fun too. Or maybe M&Ms or other surprise candies.

Neighbor Amles (not her real name) and the grandkids enjoying ice cream cone cupcakes in the backyard.

I have no idea who this woman is, but she apparently HATES leaves. A week ago she was going up and down the street raking leaves from the sidewalk out into the street, with the hope that the city would come by and suck them up as they have every year since we've lived here.

But apparently the city has no money for this, and the leaves in the street are getting stale. So this woman is now filling up her compost bin with street leaves. We have filled up our bin a couple of times now with leaves, but this weekend was reserved for the leaves created by trimming our hedge.

GKSB volunteered to help compress the leaves so we could shove more into the bin. GKSB needs to put on a bit more weight if he really wants to be effective at this.

So skinny Mrs Notthat jumped into the bin. She was much more effective. Granted if I had jumped in there, we probably could have fit twice as many leaves, but I'm not nearly graceful enough to manage that sort of challenge.

GKSB loves winding up the dogs. And the dogs love being wound up by him.

And no matter how soulful and pleading Kaya can make her puppy dog eyes, GKFB wasn't having any of it and did not share her grilled cheese.

And this card that came with an item I ordered online pretty much sums up my thoughts. (Although my thoughts are just a bit ruder.)

That's it - move along...

What a difference a year makes

2011-12-20T09:46:00.000-08:00

Mrs Notthat and I ran the Coastal Zombie Runner Bay Trail race last year. Or maybe more accurately, swam it. (The post from that event is here.) This year's edition of the race had two surprises for us: It was dry (if nippy, but I'll take nippy over soaked any day); and it was sold out!

Selling out this race was a bit of a surprise for me - they had just held essentially the same race a bit over a month ago, and, while this is a trail race, it's not the kind that takes you through thigh-busting hills and root-filled forests; it's flat with mostly gravel roads for trails (with a fair amount of pavement, if you like that sort of thing).

Well, actually that probably explains why this sold out - a flat race where you don't have to compete with cars with great footing (even if it rains) is pretty attractive to a lot of people. What made it attractive to me was that it was close to where I live (Google helpfully said to allow seven minutes travel time - REALLY close).

So Mrs Notthat, Weird Haired Mom, and I all signed up, all at different distances, with wildly different finishing times, which meant we each drove our own cars the seven minutes to the parking lot. (Normally we all try to carpool to the races since they are usually at far-flung places in the East Bay that Google only vaguely knows about.)

One thing that made today's a race a bit special was that it was the first race for Lehcar (not her real name), on the right in this picture. She is an avid bike rider (she rode her bike to and from this morning's race - heavy sigh...), swimmer (which would have come in handy last year), and recently, trail runner. What she isn't, however, is fond of organized events like this. But fortunately, peer pressure was skillfully applied by her friend Aras (not her real name either), so Lehcar was standing near the start line, shivering with the rest of us.

Weird Haired Mom did the Half Marathon, Mrs Notthat and Lehcar did the 5 mile race.

Einre (not his real name either - sorry for this, but it amuses me) was also there, joining me in the Full Marathon. He was still glowing from his amazing adventure running the New York City Marathon a few weeks ago. He was also eager to share all the new rude words he learned while riding in numerous taxis and such while there.

Nad was there as well. He's smiling because he knows he's about to rip up this Marathon course (spoiler alert: he did).

WHM had an adventurous morning. Apparently she's been hanging with Ultra Woof (who missed the race due to a sick Spammy) a bit too much - she plugged in the address of the Zombie Runner store instead of the Zombie Runner Race and didn't realize her mistake until she was deep in mysterious downtown Palo Alto. She really did not want to do this race - alert readers can detect her slight lack of enthusiasm in this picture.

Lehcar took this picture while waiting for the 5 mile race to start.

The Half and Full Marathon people started together, and as you can see, WHM blazed to an early lead over me. (As you can also see, I haven't quite made it to the start line and I'm already switching to taper mode.)

This is maybe half a mile into the race and WHM still has a lead on me (she's the one in back there). This is typical of what the trails looked like - gravel, wide enough to easily pass (or get passed), and flat.

Shortly after that above picture, I passed WHM. In this picture, I have looped around the finger of a lagoon - that is WHM in pink in front of a bird viewing building. Note the sunshine and calm water - it was quite cold but very still, which made it reasonably pleasant.

The Duck Pond station (and the 5 mile turnaround point) at mile 2.4. This course had several chunks of out-and-back trails, plus those doing the Full Marathon did two laps and ended up visiting this aid station four times.

There were a LOT of water fowl strutting their stuff out there, making for nice viewing while going around this course.

This bike rider politely waited on the side of the trail as we passed.

Remember when I said it was cold? This puddle has ice on it, and this is at about 10 AM.

The "hill." My favorite part of the course.

As I was heading back, still about 3.5 miles from finishing my first lap, Nad came steaming by. He was flying!

With my first lap finished (under three hours, but barely), I had to bypass the glory of the finisher chute and instead turn around and head back out for lap two.

But not before saying "Hi" to Lehcar and congratulating her on finishing her first race in fine style! Look at that smile - it might be because she is having a great time, but it is more likely because she is done and does not have to go back out for another 13.1 miles like I do.

Lehcar did manage to get a picture of me wandering by a row of porta-potties (YAY!) before I headed back out. (You are welcome to those of you that were worried I might forget to include such a glorious picture.)

As I headed back out, WHM flashed me some secret gang sign and smiled, knowing she was nearly done.

I'm at the Bayshore aid station for the second time, mile 19.5, and I'm showing Htenaj (not her real name) how a zombie would look "running" this race. Sadly, this is also how I was looking at this point.

Htenaj and a lady wearing a tree on her head at that aid station. (Htenaj was the course marker and sweeper.) Weirdly, I wasn't dead (ha!) last, so she was hanging out here waiting for Einre and another runner that had accidentally turned the race into an ultra.

We spend some time going past a golf course. I loved this shot with all those geese clogging up the fairway. I suspect the golfers don't love it so much.

Finally I'm at the last aid station - mile 24.5 (Cooley Landing) - manned by a guy that has read my posts and STILL smiled at me! (Mostly though, the smile was because, once I show up, it means the race is nearly over.) Due to a trail closure, this aid station was not at it's normal point, which resulted in the course being about 250 yards short. The cries of anguish over this shortfall were deafening by their absence.

There's a bridge we have to cross to get out to that last aid station (it's an out-and-back, so we cross the bridge four times). As I was heading back, I could hear what sounded like Niagra Falls and saw that there was this man-made waterfall going on. I'm not sure how many times I've been over this bridge, but this was a first for me - it was kind of cool!

And there's the finish line - for real this time! Mrs Coastal is thrilled to see me (race directors are always happy, and mildly surprised, when they don't have to call 911 to deal with me). Note the speed bump on the trail - this is for YOU, you fast runners!

I was thrilled that the Soup Lady was still there - a large cup of hot soup tasted REALLY good after this race. By the afternoon, it had clouded up and the wind started blowing a bit, making it actually feel colder than it was in the morning.

But what about Mrs Nothat? She, of course, was stunning in her 5 mile race. Lehcar took this picture of her heading back after the turnaround. And that's The Persuader, Aras (with the stroller), just ahead of Lehcar and almost at the turnaround.

Mrs not only finished in fine style, she won third in her age group! Pictured with her is Nna (not her real...sigh) who won second in her age group and sent me this picture! The funny thing is that Nna recognized Mrs Notthat from previous posts - it always startles me a bit when someone comes up and, without a hint of malice, says they know us from these posts. I love that! (The downside is that I am HORRIBLE at remembering names, so I often end up smiling and chatting while desperately wracking my brain for clues as to who this is. Please don't take it personal - I'm just not gifted in that way.)

And that's about it. The race was a lot of fun, well organized, well marked, well aid stationed - I can't think of anything to whine about. (I could whine about the cold, but I just think back to a year ago, and that thought goes away fast.)

That's it - move along...

PS: Here is a link to some pictures I took that have a few snarky comments. And here is a link to many more pictures I took of a lot of the runners out on the course and posted to the Coastal site.

Kaya update: flappy doors, startling noises, and a cone

2011-12-17T10:10:00.000-08:00

Here are a few Kaya-based updates that will hopefully make it easier for you to sleep at night. (At least one of them should help us sleep in the morning.)

There has been a bit of progress in getting Kaya to use the dog door. She will now go out the door on her own. She still, however, will not come in on her own - we have to hold the flaps up. (There have two exceptions to this: She came charging in behind the grandkid's wonder dog Dove, who has no problems going in and out the dog door; and she came in once when The Boy dangled his cat in front of the door.)

Since using The Boy's cat as bait is likely unethical and cruel (not to mention dangerous to whoever is trying to hold the cat at the time), we will rely on Dove the Wonder Dog to teach her how to take advantage of the dog door. It turns out that she'll have a lot of opportunity to do the teaching since the grandkids (and their parents) are moving to an apartment that is not dog-friendly, and Dove will be hanging with us for a while.

So, what's the difference between going out the door vs. coming in it? As Old Dog Teddy became a bit more fragile, he wouldn't hesitate to go out the door, but wouldn't come in it unless desperate. The only real difference is that, when you come in, you are pushing two flaps (the main one plus a second one that goes around the outside of it). I can't believe that the dog can really tell the difference, or care, but apparently it's a big deal.

One alarming trend was that Kaya would wake up at about 5 AM and decide it was time for us to be up too. She would come in our bedroom and start pulling the covers off in an effort to get us up. So we started closing our door at night. Her answer was to sit outside the door and whimper pathetically and keep nudging the doorknob.

Our first thought was that she needed to urgently go outside, so I would get up and take her out, where she would start bounding around and try to get a perky game of fetch going. That might have fit her definition of "urgent," but it failed my test.

So a friend at work had a suggestion that he used to train his cats to leave him alone - set up the vacuum cleaner outside the door, and run its power cord to a power strip next to the bed. Now, when the dog starts nudging the doorknob, I can flip the switch and the dog will give us some peace.

A fear though is that, once she masters the dog door, she will figure out that she can be just as annoying at our bedroom's deck door, and work out that the deck door is not guarded by a frightening appliance. Yet.

One Thursday, Mrs Notthat and I took Kaya to the Peninsula Humane Society to get spayed and micro chipped. Kaya eagerly showed off her private parts in the waiting room - she had no idea what was coming, thankfully, and was not nervous about being there. (Fat chance she will feel that way if we ever have to take her back though.)

This is her with The Boy after all was done. She was pretty drugged up, but still keen on being an exhibitionist. At first, they didn't think she would need one of those cone collars, but within seconds of walking out the door, she started licking at her stitches.

So she ended up with a collar after all. (This is her in the back seat of the car.) That first night was awful - she was miserable and we couldn't do anything to help. When I came home from work, instead of being decked liked normal...

(This is from a movie Mrs Notthat took. Amazingly, I get off easy - The Boy is the one that really gets it when he comes home.)

...Kaya didn't even move. Didn't lift her head. But wow did she whimper.

She would stand up, but act like she couldn't turn her head, and thus, her body. The cone, in addition to the drugs, was really messing her up.

The next morning, she was a bit better, but still a bit disoriented. She knew about the refrigerator though.

I took the cone off for a bit and she was thrilled. She ate breakfast, wandered around outside for a bit, and then started licking her stitches. So the collar went back on.

Today, the collar is still on, but she seems to have adapted to it, and has learned to use it to her advantage. In theory, tomorrow will be her last day with it on. We are going to try a few suggestions that others have made to get her a bit of time free from it before then, but there is a bit of a worry about that - in addition to the collar, she is on restriction from being active. We aren't supposed to even take her on a walk for two weeks. Even with the collar on, she is now as bouncy as ever. When it's off, she's like a tornado that's been held down and is aching to release all its pent-up energy.

I'm not sure the neighborhood will survive once she is really free and able to be herself once again. She's got a lot of time to make up for.

That's it - move along...

Double infinity is not how long it took...

2011-12-13T08:28:00.000-08:00

...but it sure felt that way.

On Saturday, Mrs Notthat and I took part in the Brazen Summit Rock trail race outside of Saratoga in the Santa Cruz mountains. Brazen doesn't do that many trail races in this part of the Bay Area, so it's a real treat when one shows up.

But wow, this is a tough course that has a way of sneaking up on you.

There are three races (5K, 10K, and Half Marathon); all out-and-backs on the same trails, with each longer distance going out a bit farther. The trails are amazing - mostly single-track through a thick forest.

The catch is that the 5K and 10K runners spend the first half of the race going steadily uphill until they reach the turnaround, where they get to head back down that switchback-infested hill.

After struggling to get up the hill, it's very tempting to take off and try to make up for lost time going back down it, however the trail has a lot of roots and rocks that can trip you up - there were a number of mildly to moderately twisted and sprained ankles and such by the time the runners hit the finish line. Almost everyone either got tripped up or stumbled several times.

The Half Marathon also headed up that hill, then turned right, and headed through a valley just to add a bit more of an elevation challenge.

Mrs Notthat and I signed up for the Half Marathon, however, Mrs Notthat was in no condition to be doing a race at all, let alone a challenging Half, since she was in the middle of a fierce battle with a raging cold. So she grudgingly downgraded to the 5K and promised to take it easy. (Spoiler alert: HA!)

She says she only stuck herself once while putting this bib on.

Mrs and I gave each other a hug just before I took off with the other Half runners. (The 5K didn't start for another 30 minutes, so she headed over to the coffee pot and got a bit more hydrated.)

One nice surprise was seeing Probably Not a Canadian out on the course cheering us runners on (she was running the 5K and so had some time to kill). She helpfully yelled at me to start running. I responded by not making a rude gesture.

Weird Haired Mom came out and took pictures at the 5K turnaround. This is about 1.5 miles and nearly 700 feet of climbing into the race. This is not a 5K for the faint of heart.

Picture by Alameda Ted

Here I am reaching the 10K turnaround point, a bit over three miles and 1500 feet of climbing into the race. 10K runners are rejoicing since it's all downhill for them from here. Half runners still have about 1400 feet of climbing to go, although the long, relentless climb is pretty much over.

The trail along the top of the ridge really showed the effects of last week's wind storm. It was covered in small spruce (fir? redwood? palm?) tree branches, giving a festive feel while making the rocks and roots just a bit harder to see. Ahead of me is my arch nemesis - Yram (not her real name), keeping up a strong pace. Would she beat me yet again?

Sometimes the branches on the trail were actually whole trees - talking with the Brazen Rabbit (who marked the trail the day before), she had to do a fair amount of work just to clear enough space for us to get through. Even at that, it felt like we were in one of those made-for-TVobstacle races at times.

I would walk up to one of these obstructions and carefully step over, around, or through it. Others just took a flying leap, so to speak.

Finally, after nearly two hours (!) and to the comforting (?) sound of gunfire, I reached the Half turnaround at about 6.6 miles. (There is a shooting range across the road, and it was filled with enthusiastic customers.) Unlike the 5K and 10K races, hitting the turnaround for the Half did not mean it was all downhill from here - we still had that valley to go through, and about 500 more feet of climbing.

One thing about this kind of race, there are a LOT of negative splits (where runners cover the second half of the race faster than the first half). And I was no different, taking a little less than one and a half hours to get back to the finish line.

Picture by Jonathan

I was quite happy to be finished. (Note my sideways "88" bib. Double infinity! And you math guys can save your flames; I know you can't really double infinity, but if the timing company could figure out how to enter that into their computer, that's the time I should have gotten.)

I finished in 3:29:44, and really don't know how I managed to do this same race in 3:04:11 last year. But enough about me - what about the "clinging to her deathbed so she's going to take it easy" Mrs Notthat?

Picture by Jonathan

There she is (in teal, or whatever that color is in the center) "taking it easy" on her way out.

Picture by Jonathan

And here she is "taking it easy" on her way back to the finish line. She ended up second in her age group at 42:34!

It's not easy to get this many Brazen people to stand still long enough for a picture (or to get a picture of Mr Brazen when he isn't thoughtfully stroking that impressive bushy thing on his face, trying to work out how to make the race more challenging next year).

For those keeping score, I ended up passing arch nemesis Yram just before the turnaround and beat her, but not by much. For those that need to know, from left to right, you have Yram, Mrs Notthat, Brazen Rabbit, Mrs Brazen, Mr Brazen, and Yrrek (not her real name and not a whiner, no matter what I said elsewhere).

I love this - Mas, who often is the sweeper, ran this race and finished an hour or so before me. He was rewarded by getting to push Brazen First and Second Born in the stroller. "Come on Mas! Daddy would push me much faster up that hill! Let's do it again!" explained First Born.

Note the deer off to the right. I was amazed at how unconcerned they were about all the people, the music, and the general mayhem going on. I suspect they were hoping for leftover It's-It ice cream bars.

I love this type of trail, but it is not without its issues. The faster runners coming back down the hill at a breakneck (fortunately, not literally) pace had to contend with getting past the slower runners still heading up the hill, and the trail was often too narrow for this to happen easily. (An advantage of being a slower Half runner was that I had none of these issues when I was coming down that hill. I could go as fast as I wanted. Which was usually just a bit above a slow jog.)

The other issue is that upon reaching the top of the hill you are not rewarded with sweeping views, as is the case in most of the East Bay races - instead, you are rewarded with views of more trees. Which is fine by me - I love running through forests like this and get just as much of a reward looking at trees the whole way.

A huge thanks to all the volunteers, the Brazen people, and all the runners that made this such a fine and fun event.

That's it - move along...

PS: You can see more of my pictures here, and a BUNCH more pictures from the prolific volunteer paparazzi here.

Turkey race take two

2011-11-27T15:16:00.000-08:00

This was the day many had been waiting for. Ever since Brazen announced a second turkey-based race and a special medal to commemorate it, the excitement has been mounting.

The day started with another Kid's Fun Run against an inexplicably cocky Brazen Turkey. Not only has this turkey never won the race, it has never beaten anyone. (Yes, it occurs to me that if was able to enter, its chances would improve dramatically.)

These kids are very competitive and really push it. Grandkid Thing 2 is giving it his all.

Grandkid Thing 1 is also flying. Both finished strong and nicely warmed up for their upcoming 5K. The Brazen Turkey, sadly, just barely finished at all. (Click here to see a movie I took of the race. It's rated "F" for "Furious." Click here to see the Nitro kid's race.)

Weird Haired Mom and Thing 2 stayed together for the 5K race. And don't let this blinding exhibition of speed fool you - Thing 2 was determined to walk the whole course. But he understands that you have to run for the camera.

Thing 1, on the other hand, did a LOT of running. This was her first race where she was able to head out mostly on her own, and she loved it. She made friends with probably half the runners on the course and finished strong.

Meanwhile Mrs Notthat and I did the Half Marathon course. This is an easy course - flat, a lot of pavement, little chance of getting lost - which is another way of saying I would normally hate it. But I was nobly willing to overlook all that and focus on the medals.

Mrs Notthat was strong and fast, which was amazing considering she was having serious tummy trouble and probably should not have been out there at all.

These porta-potties at about miles 3.3/10 were lifesavers. (She asked me to apologize to anyone that tried to use these after her.)

For the first time in a couple of years, my right knee started acting up. Dr. Nahom (not his real name or profession) whipped out a bottle of that magic stuff used at all the World Cup matches and sprayed some on my balky knee. I don't know if it or the ibuprofen worked, but within 30 minutes or so the knee was significantly better.

While the course is flat and a lot of time is spent running along a "creek" next to a lot of backyards, there is also a lot of time spent running around Quarry Lakes, which were quite pretty today. Those with good eyes will note the Brazen arch - so close yet so far.

Not only did I get my nifty finisher medals, but I also got a bottle of wine (for wearing that arrow through the head thing on Thursday) and, coolest of all, Marvin the Paranoid Android, made by the awesome Yrrek (not her real name). She's very clever and talented and I NOW HAVE A MARVIN! (While this had nothing to do with the race, I NOW HAVE A MARVIN!)

Momma Woof was also there and again won an age group medal. Ultra Woof did not win an age group medal, so Thing 2 picked her a yellow flower.

This is what the grandkids walked away with after these two turkey races: A medal from each Kid's Race, a medal from each 5K, and a bonus medal to tie the two together. They loved showing people how they went together like a puzzle. They also loved sounding like a herd of cows as they walked around with all of these on.

The somewhat frightening Brazen Rabbit and Not the Canadian - that is one of the greatest costumes ever seen in a trail race!

Who says trail runners aren't competitive?

Or athletic? I have no idea who the people in the above pictures are, but they are typical of what you will find at these races. And they, along with all the fun and enthusiastic volunteers, are what makes these races such a blast, which is why I can't resist doing them.

It was a great set of races and a great way to spend a couple of mornings.

AND I GOT A MARVIN!

That's it - move along...

PS: You can see more pictures I took here.

Don't these people know there's football on?

2011-11-25T11:30:00.000-08:00

Turkey Day races have become very popular, and why not? On a day known for food (and football), what's not to like about getting in a bit of exercise to help offset what you are about to eat? (Granted, for what I was about to eat, I'd have to do at least a 50K to put any kind of a dent in it.)

We, along with about 600 others, did the Brazen Nitro Turkey race last year and had a blast. There was no way we were going to miss it this year. And then Brazen upped the ante by adding a second turkey-based race and AWESOME bling for those who ran both races - a medal that's a puzzle!

So today, nearly 800 runners came out, braving a threat of rain (it didn't rain on the race, but the early setup people got pretty wet) and skipping a football game so that they could grab the first of the medals.

The Boy has his game face on, as well as my arm sleeves from the Golden Hills Marathon. It was fairly cool so he wanted to try them out (I think he got warmed up and pulled them off around the first mile marker, which is what makes them so useful. The style aspect is just a bonus.)

One of the best things about this race is that there are a LOT of families that show up. I've seen Nivek (not his real name) at dozens of other races, but today I got to meet his family! It was a blast seeing so many kids and others that had probably never done this sort of thing before show up and do the race - lots of walkers (like I was, mostly) enjoying the trails and fun and great post-race food. Well, and the medal.

There were a lot of people with dogs as well, including us with Kaya. It was her first race - we had no doubt that she would handle the 10K fine, but were unsure how she would do around so many other people and dogs. (Spoiler alert: She did great!)

The grandkids, Thing 1 and Thing 2, did the Kid's 100 Yard Fun Run, which involved racing the Brazen Turkey (who really needs to get off the couch and hit the trails - the BT came in last for the third straight year). The race was free and the kids all got medals and goody bags.

The grandkids, along with their parents, then headed out to do the 5K race. Here, Thing 2 (wearing his headband - Thing 1 refused to wear hers due to it not being very aerodynamic) and his dad Needs Cool Name caught up to Kaya and I at about mile 2. Thing 2 was explaining the science of squeezing as much goody out of an aid station as possible.

The startlingly domestic looking Not a Canadian, who had finished her 5K much earlier, was helpfully (HA!) standing at about mile 3, waving a bottle of wine and box of chocolates at the runners, warning them of a slippery muddy stretch just ahead.

I caught up to Ultra Woof and Spammy at the 5K/10K split. We were competing for the coveted Dead Last Finish and by this point were pretty sure we had no other competition.

Kaya made sure I got a good shot at DLF by twice making me grab a bag and clean up her trail gifts.

Ultra Woof took this shot of me at this cute little porta-pottie. (BTW, in case you are curious, the arrow through the head thing worked out great. I mostly forgot it was there until I would see a kid staring at me with grave concern - I had to take it off to convince one boy that it wasn't real.)

Spammy is a born trail runner, making absolutely no effort to avoid puddles. Kaya, on the other hand, mostly avoided them, even though I showed her how it should be done.

I never saw Mrs Notthat after the race started, but fortunately there were several volunteer paparazzi scattered around the course that caught her as she streaked by. She finished the 10K in great shape and had to be restrained to keep her from doing another lap.

Weird Haired Mom and Thing 1 finished together. Thing 1 ran almost the whole 5K, and has declared that her goal is to be able to do exactly that. She's caught the bug.

NCN and Thing 2 finished together. Thing 2's goal is to figure out how to clean out an aid station more effectively.

The Boy, who also did the 10K, just missed setting a PR and finished just under one hour (two seconds under).

And finally, Kaya and I finished. (I love how it looks like I was breaking a ribbon, but actually, I was DLF and the ribbon was from the finish line being taken down.)

We got a nice group picture of our family, the Woofs, the Htenajs (not their real name), and Eam (not her real name) posing with a very tired (but still photogenic) Brazen Turkey.

Momma Woof did the 5K and again scored an age group medal.

To everyone that worked this event, from the Brazen people to all the volunteers, a huge "THANKS!" I know you all must have had your doubts while setting up in the rain. This event was just plain too much fun - lots of runners, lots of cheering, lots of food - what more could anyone want?

Well, the other bits of that medal. See you all on Saturday!

That's it - move along...

PS: Click here for a lot more pictures.

Kaya(k) update: wonder dog or not?

2011-11-13T19:19:00.000-08:00

We have finished two weeks with Kaya(k) and we know a few things we didn't know before:

When she's not going 100 miles per hour, she can do a passable impression of a pancake.

She has a strong aversion to dog doors. The first night she was at our house, I got her to come in twice through this door (I had to hold the flap open, but at least she would go through the hole). Since then - nothing.

She has learned to use the flaps as a doorbell, bumping them with her nose over and over again until we finally open the door and let her in (or out). We've tried treats, squeaky toys, promises of uncountable bones, but she will just stand there looking like this. Once in a while she will stick a leg through, only to quickly pull it back. She knows how it's supposed to work, but she really does not trust that flappy door.

This morning was a 10K DSE race on the Embarcadero. (Riley and Darci are "helping" direct runners. Riley helped one runner so much he smacked him with the flag. [Not really - he was just holding it out and a runner ran into it. It's a lot more fun though to picture Riley trying to spur on some runner that was slowing down.])

Diane wanted to do the race, so I bravely offered to drive her and Kaya(k) up there, drop her off, park, and meet her at the finish line while Kaya(k) and I got in a nice walk. But the drive through the city did not go as planned, took way longer than was expected, and resulted in Kaya(k) giving back her breakfast on the floor of the van.

I think she likes driving in that city as much as I do.

But things were made all better by a belly rub from Darci.

After the race, we gave Ultra Woof and her dog Spammy a ride back to her car, which provided a test of Kaya(k)'s ability to tolerate another dog in tight quarters. Mostly, it went fine, although there were some tense moments when Spammy started showing off his mad surfing skills. (It's a long story.)

After dropping off UW and Spammy, we headed home, and Kaya(k) did her best impersonation of a GPS system. ("Ruh Roh" was her most helpful comment as I navigated tight traffic past Candlestick Park and masses of rabid 49er fans.)

Riley and Kaya(k) really like playing tug-o-war. Kaya(k) was actually pulling Riley across the room.

The one loser so far has been Jesse's cat, Shadow. The cat is amazingly skittish under the best of circumstances - toss in a hyper, overgrown puppy and that cat rarely makes an appearance anymore. Kaya(k) is very curious about the cat, but has not been hostile. The cat has hissed a few times, but hasn't actually tried to kill the dog. There is hope, but it might take a year or two.

So, is Kaya(k) a wonder dog? Hardly. Is she Idiot Dog Kaya(k)? Possibly. Mostly though, she's just Puppy Dog Kaya(k) on a crusade to squeeze as much goody as she can out of every day.

And she's a really good squeezer.

That's it - move along...

PS: Click here to see more pictures from the DSE thing this morning. Click here to see pictures from a dog walk we went on last weekend.

Turns out it doesn't always rain on Mt Diablo

2011-11-09T21:24:00.000-08:00

My last two Brazen races on Mt Diablo have been moist. REALLY moist. Ridiculously rainy and muddy. So I knew that the third time would be a charm and Sunday's Brazen Diablo Trail Adventure would be dry and pleasant.

And then a series of storms lined up off the coast, laughing at how naive I was. It rained on Thursday and another storm was primed to crash the party on Sunday, except it jumped the gun and ended up doing its thing Saturday night.

Sunday morning was sunny, if a bit cool, and glorious. The trails were a bit muddy in spots, but nothing like my last two visits here.

There were a LOT of trail running friends at this race, but the coolest was Ultra Woof's mother - Momma Woof! This was her first trail race (she is a power walker that has done numerous road events) and by all accounts, she had a blast! (Helping the blast a bit was her winning second in her age group - two medals! She's now hooked and is looking forward to whipping that turkey at Brazen Nitro Turkey.)

This is the first time I've worn calf sleeves, and judging by how dorky I look in the picture, it's obvious that they aren't there for style. I have a nasty habit of picking up poison oak whenever I come near a trail race in the East Bay, and my hope was that they would protect me a bit. (I'll know in a few days how that worked out.) Meanwhile, Not the Canadian (standing next to me) is explaining how cool it would be if Brooks came out with a line of high heel trail shoes.

This is probably 100 yards from the start line and I'm already in last place. And I think I had taken half a dozen pictures of the course by this point.

About a mile into the race was our first aid station, where Weird Haired Mom and about 30 other volunteers, rangers, and search and rescue people were keeping us all hydrated and fed.

This is easily one of the coolest pictures of me on a trail ever. You can see that I'm about to ford something just a bit smaller than the Mississippi River. I'm brave. I eat nails for breakfast.

Or maybe I'm just goofy. This is a picture just before that creek (those of you with excellent vision and a bit of imagination can see Esoj - not his real name - with a camera crouching behind a tree on the right). Esoj did an amazing job with that picture of Brave Notthat, but as you can see, it's actually quite easy to go around the tiny creek. Not that I can figure out why anyone would want to do that.

Shortly after braving the creek, there was a very nice uphill stretch of single-track trail. A fun thing is that I got a chance to see a lot of other runners at this point - the 10K people (who started well after us) had caught up to me.

The second aid station. It was novel to get to eat crunchy crackers, chips, and cookies after the last two races here.

As usual at these Mt Diablo races, there were a LOT of search and rescue people waiting for someone to do something stupid. They always got excited when they saw me coming, and I hated to disappoint them, but they all ended up being largely bored. (But dry!)

The third aid station. I was really tired by this point - the trail mostly just goes uphill (with a short downhill break early on) for the first 8.5 miles. Not long after passing through this aid station, the climbing is over.

One advantage of getting to the top are the stunning views you get to enjoy. (Another month or so and these hills will be startlingly green.)

There were a lot of small streams to cross, and I tried to stomp through all of them. Here, Ytsirhc (not nearly her real name) is sneaking up on me. Yes - hard as it is to believe, I had actually managed to get ahead of 3 or 4 people. (Most passed me well before the finish line.)

Eventually I made it to the finish line. And the BBQ (even as late as I was, there were burgers, sausages, and soup to go along with all the normal Brazen post race food).

There was some debate as to what kind of bird that's on the medal. I think turkey and flamingo were ruled out. Maybe pigeon too.

This was a great event. The Save Mount Diablo people help put it on and do an amazing job, not only supporting this race, but preserving and protecting this wonderful trail-infested area. There are a lot of great trails in the Bay Area, but it's hard to find any that are more fun or with better views.

Especially when it's not raining.

That's it - move along...

PS: You can see a lot more of my pictures (with snarky comments) here.

Parents, dogs, and warriors oh my!

2011-11-05T10:20:00.000-07:00

My parents drove out from Colorado for their annual winter camper storage pilgrimage to Arizona. Once the camper was more or less certified safe from snow, they threw in a short (HA!) side trip to visit us.

Here they are watching Darci pull up some carrots that we had planted in the plumeria tree pots.

Mother had made a large batch of wonderful peanut butter cookies for us to snack on. Well, most of us. While talking to her while she was still in Arizona, I reminded her that Darci is allergic to peanuts. So they found this pink heart-shaped box and filled it with peanut-free cookies - Darci was so thrilled with this that she guarded that box of cookies with an intensity that would have frightened a Navy Seal. (Or Sea Lion - I always get those two confused.)

The Bairds with the afghan mother made for them.

And us with the one she made for us. (Dad is providing balance for the picture - he did not get partial custody of the afghan.)

Darci is "wearing" a quilt that her mom, Weird Haired Mom, started making back when Darci was still hanging out in her tummy. But it was hot that summer, and one thing lead to another, and the quilt was never quite finished (it was all done but the actual quilting, which she started doing by hand).

The last time my parents visited, WHM handed the quilt to my mom and dad and explained that hand quilting is a pain. It turns out that my dad has a massive quilting machine, so he had it do the quilting, and finally, after seven years, Darci has her quilt. She seems to have outgrown it a bit however.

My parents have been suffering along with most of you while I go on and on about this race or that trail event. So Mrs Notthat and I skipped this weekend's race. But The Boy, His girlfriend The Big Wind, and Weird Haired Mom had already signed up for the Warrior Dash in majestic Casa de Fruta (Russian for "Put Up Enough Billboards and People Will Stop, Even Here in the Middle of Nowhere").

You can see a lot of Warrior Dash pictures here. But key to its success, at least from my parent's point of view, was that you could buy beer there and drink it under a shade tree while watching thousands of people jump over fire pits and crawl through mud pits lined with barbed wire.

The happy warriors. I'm pretty sure they all would have gladly done another lap. Weirdos.

What do mighty warriors eat? Quiche. And beans. And a token salad.

One goal my parents had was to adapt a small dog while out here. Back where they live, the shelters have nothing but large dogs. So a lot of time was spent on a variety of computers going through the inventory at various shelters. We were also looking for a big dog for us.

On Sunday we visited several of these shelters and ended up with nothing. This little guy was the closest they came up with, but they really wanted a maltese for allergy reasons. The shelters basically had two kinds of dogs; yappy (sometimes ridiculously so) Taco Bell dogs and Pit Bulls (which all said "not appropriate for homes with little kids," which I suspect was just to protect the shelter).

So we failed. We then turned to Craig's List.

Mrs Notthat stumbled onto Kaya, a black lab/boxer mix that is one year old and badly needed a new home since her current family was moving into a non-dog friendly condo. There are a lot of Kaya pictures here.

I cannot explain how this picture of Mickey Moose got in here. He does look like he's ready to do a trail race though.

Kaya loves chewing on sticks.

Riley found a nice big one for her to work on.

Dove the Wonder Dog and Kaya get along, mostly.

My mom making a ton of super bubbles. Riley levitating while trying to pop them all.

The grandkids and Kaya with a spider on that brown leaf. The spider was declared dead, and they were in the process of giving it a proper burial, when they thought they saw it move. It was then declared mostly dead and set free in the lawn where Kaya most likely found and ate it.

The Boy and The Big Wind being goofy with a grape.

Darci showing off her flexibility.

And Kaya just plain showing off.

My parents visit was a blast - perfect weather and lots of good food and lots of time with the kids and grandkids made it so. The only downer was that they left with no dog. Craig's List had a lot of maltese dogs, but they were all too expensive or their owners were too busy/stupid to respond to email or phone call questions.

The jury is still out on whether Kaya will get dubbed Idiot Dog Kaya, but she's making a strong case for it. She's completely if baffled by the dog door, which is something that even Belle, arguably the stupidest dog on Earth, figured out in a few seconds. So we will see.

And judging by the above picture, dog beds are confusing too.

That's it - move along...

Note to self: Rocky Ridge 10K might be a good idea next year

2011-10-23T10:03:00.000-07:00

Reality check: 10K might be nice and wise for 2012, but past experience shows that within a week or so I will already be thinking about how I can beat this year's time in the Half Marathon. Common sense and trail running rarely go hand in hand.

Last year, the Brazen Rocky Ridge event nearly brought me my first DNF. This course is shockingly hard. This year I was determined to tame it and finish strong.

Mrs Notthat, being wiser than me, and Hteb (not her real name) did the 10K race. The funny thing was that they both bought new trail shoes this week, and they ended up with exactly the same ones! Wearing new shoes at a trail race is a bit risky, but Mrs Notthat had been having lots of trouble with her current shoes, and it was unlikely that the new ones could be worse. So would the new shoes make these two faster? Who would finish first? And who really buys turquoise shoes on purpose anyway?

I was explaining to Htenaj (not her real name either) what the hills were going to be like. Just to humor me, she pretended to be concerned. In the end, she flew up and down them and finished with a time I can only dream about.

The course was as billed - absurdly challenging but laced with stunning views. Mt Diablo mocked us in the distance.

Much of the course was reasonably shaded, with a lot of great single-track. Granted, that single-track was either going straight up or straight down.

As usual, the course was very well marked, although I was a bit puzzled by the "Go Rocky" and the dog drawing at the 5K turnaround. (It turns out that World Famous by HBO Artac - not her real name - helped mark the course, and was running the 5K with her dog name Rocky Ridge. It's good to be a course marker!)

There were four aid stations for the Half Marathon, and they were all fantastic. But the last one was a bit special. Yes, Weird Haired Mom and her wonder dog Dove were there, but what really made it special was that there were only 2.7 miles left. And no more major hills to climb.

Dove begged me to take her with me. I probably should have since her perkiness might have rubbed off on me, as I was in desperate need of perkiness at this point.

As I was on the final stretch, I couldn't resist pausing to stand in the only real mud puddle on the course.

These two were heading back out on the course, cheering on the last few runners. I loved the emotional lift and high fives I got from them! That carried me all the way to the finish line.

The waiting ambulance was amazingly not for me, but that arch certainly was.

Mrs Notthat had been finished with her 10K for hours before I finally showed up. She's smiling because she did really well, and even more important, her feet were in great shape - the new shoes performed better than hoped!

Mrs Notthat keeps getting faster, and now she's picking the brains of others for how she can get better. Here, Nad (not his real name) is explaining that moving your feet quicker can make you go faster.

A great surprise was seeing Ultra Woof with her new dog, Spammy! Here she is teaching Spammy that standing on a table is great fun!

After I rested a bit, Ultra Woof, Spammy, and I headed back out on the course to find Einre (not his real name either). I had forgotten that it was mostly downhill to the finish, which meant that heading back out would mean going uphill. We went for a bit and then I decided it was wiser to sit and wait for them. I played fetch with Spammy (what a cool dog!) while waiting.

It was a little disconcerting that we met up with the course sweeper before Einre - he explained that Einre was coming up behind him along with one of the aid station volunteers ("the one with tattoos" he said - that didn't narrow it down very much).

It turned out to be Weird Haired Mom and Dove the Wonder Dog pacing Einre in. Einre has been doing tough race after tough race all summer long, and it finally caught up to him on this course. He had a tough time, and nearly DNFd at the same point I nearly did last year, but the sweeper talked him into finishing, and finish he did.

Which naturally led to a tasty recovery lunch at a local In-N-Out.

This was, as usual, a very tough race. I'm thrilled that I managed to finish it without all the issues I had last year, but am humbled that it still kicked my butt. In the battle of new shoes, Mrs Notthat ended up beating Hteb by a little over five minutes, and beat her time from last year by more than an hour and forty minutes, finishing in 1:21:10. I ended up beating last year's time by a bit over thirty minutes, finishing in 4:33:46.

To make things a bit more interesting, Brazen offered cash prizes for the winners. This is probably partly to blame for their being nearly twice the number of runners this year as last. Last year, Mrs and I both got third in our age groups - this year, she got 7th out of 9 and I got 9th out of 9.

Since my parents are visiting next weekend, I will be taking it off (my first non-race weekend in 10 weeks). But the following weekend has the Brazen Mt Diablo race, which is tough, but mild compared to Rocky Ridge. Thankfully.

And for those of you that worried I missed a porta-pottie picture, not to worry. I didn't take this one (world famous photographer Etep did), but it is stunning (including getting mooned by Spammy).

That's it - move along...

PS: Lots more pictures and snarky comments here.

I've got some catching up to do...

2011-10-15T17:30:00.000-07:00

I've got lots of fun stuff that needs to be covered, so let's get on with it.

The Boy has a new toy. He saved his pennies, he took a motorcycle safety course, he bought all the right clothing (that jacket has all sorts of protective bits on all sorts of places that need protecting), and then, finally, he bought a bike. I know nothing about it other than it's a 600 and has two wheels.

Riley of course loves it, and can't wait until he's big enough to get a ride on it.

A couple of weeks ago Riley had another of his breathing issues and ended up spending a night in the hospital. Darci hung out with Mrs Notthat and made this message. (I have NO idea what that thing is on the right.)

Darci knows but isn't telling.

A friend headed to Japan for a couple of weeks, and Mrs Notthat bravely volunteered to watch their, ummmm, dog. It was one of the most bizarre dogs I've ever seen - tiny, with a haircut that looks like a cartoon animal, and more quirks than a high school theatrical group on Red Bull.

Of course, Darci loved her. Although I think even she had her limits.

Speaking of Darci, she has lost another tooth. I came home from work to her being extremely excited about this - so excited she couldn't wait to show me the kleenex that had all the blood she lost during the process. Mrs Notthat was the one that pulled it - judging by all the lost body fluids, it might have been a bit early, but Darci was certainly ready.

This is the note that Darci wrote. I think the idea is that she wants the money, but she also wants to keep the tooth. I've got no idea how all this turned out, but it's just like Darci to put in so much effort to negotiate with a fictional person (Darci has admitted that she knows there is no such thing as a tooth fairy).

Weird Haired Mom and the grandkids went to a charity dog walk sort of thing (NOT a race). That is their lovely dog Dove (after two weeks with that other kind of a dog thing, I now realize that Dove is a very noble pooch). Riley wanted to wear his dog costume, and Darci volunteered to walk him (all dogs had to be on a leash). This is an adorable picture.

And that's about it. There are other things that have happened (a race or six, a bathroom being born in our bedroom, and a LOT of tomatoes coming from our garden) but they either didn't make the cut or will be handled later.

That's it - move along...

Weekend off my eye

2011-10-09T16:14:00.000-07:00

When I finished the Urban Cow Half Marathon last Sunday, I took a deep breath and looked forward to the following weekend, when I, for the first time in seven straight weekends, would not be doing a race.

And then Einre (not his real name) started telling me about the Golden Hills Marathon. About the great trails. About the really long cutoff time. And I laughed. "Not me buddy! I'm sitting home and watching football!"

But then I went to the race website. And I started thinking about how this really was a great-sounding race. And I was suckered in.

There are actually two races - a 50 miler that starts in the dark at 6:30 AM at Lake Chabot and heads up to Tilden Park in Berkeley, only to turn around and head back; and a Full Marathon that starts at 9 AM in Berkeley and follows mostly the same trails as the 50 mile race back to Lake Chabot.

Since the Marathon was a point-to-point race, we parked at the finish line and rode a bus to the start line. It took nearly an hour to get up there. It is NOT true that Einre started up a rousing chorus of "One Hundred Packets of GU on the Wall."

Einre getting bibbed up. It was pretty cool up in Tilden Park while we waited for the race to start. Not that he noticed.

Our start is the 50 miler's turnaround. They will have gone 26 miles by this time.

A porta-pottie picture!

The course had a LOT of these sorts of inspirational signs.

The trails were a mix of fire roads and lots of fun single-track. And there were plenty of hills if that is your thing.

And a LOT of dogs! I loved all of them out running around. This guy paced me for a bit before realizing that I was going too slow to be worth pacing.

The Marathoners were blessed with the bonus of going on the French Trail. If you've ever wondered where the saying "Pardon my French" came from, just go spend a bit of time on this trail. Lots of climbing, lots of roots and rocks - just plain some of the best single-track around. But it nearly killed me. I was really dragging by this point. And my French was freely flowing.

And then I saw these guys. I thought about stealing one of them, but then thought better of it since I didn't have my cowboy hat with me. (Llamaboy hat?)

There were a couple of trees that lost the battle with gravity and chose to block the trail. Almost nobody gave up and turned around.

This bit of trail really puzzled me - why was a perfectly good looking bit of trail being detoured around? I found out later that many of the 50 milers were attacked by a swarm of wasps from a nest here on their way out. It's good to not be first sometimes!

The aid stations were plentiful, well stocked, and universally awesome! They cheered, they watered, they fed - they did everything they could to make this a perfect race. The graveyard was a new twist though (and as the Brazen Rabbit noted, that guy in the middle should have had a bib on - he certainly looked more perky than I felt at this point).

Finally - Lake Chabot! And the finish line (eventually).

I saw this and thought, Mrs Notthat isn't here, but it was possible that the Brazen Rabbit might be there waiting for me to finish (or more likely "drop-dead"). Both her and Nad (not his real name) were doing the 50 miles and I had seen them a long time ago looking absurdly perky as they were heading to the 50 mile turnaround, and assumed they had both blown past me while I was "pardoning my French" while struggling up a hill or two on That Trail.

I freaked out the finish line guy and the photographer when I stopped just before finishing so that I could take this picture. (The time is for the 50 milers - subtract 2:30 to get my Marathon time.)

And it turned out there really was a drop dead gorgeous person waiting for me - Yrrek (not her real name)! Neither the Brazen Rabbit or Nad had come in yet, so the two of us did a lot of cheering as runner after runner came streaking in. The BR made her appearance well before the magical 11:00 time (faster than 11:00 means you qualify for the Western States 100).

I was tired, not feeling well, and barely functioning at this point. The Brazen Rabbit was ready for another lap.

Both Nad and Einre finished a bit later. Swapping post-race stories is a lot of fun after a tough race. I was surprised by how many people were still hanging around, although there was a LOT of great food (the homemade soup was stunning!) waiting for us.

Nad and the unstoppable RJ (not his real name either) swapping their own post-race stories.

The swag was pretty amazing for this race - a great Patagonia shirt, Moeben arm sleeves (you got to pick the style you wanted), a wine glass, an issue of Trail Runner magazine, some other misc stuff, and a nice bag to carry it all in. Note the lack of a medal - a lot of these types of races know that these kinds of runners do a lot of events and appreciate getting useful stuff (which is why coasters are popular). The 50 milers also got a very nice Patagonia jacket.

This was a stunningly great race. Everything about it was well done, from the excellent course marking, fun aid stations, and great finish line experience to the great post-race food. The weather was ideal and the trails were perfect after the rain we had earlier (it was nice to not have to deal with dusty trails). The rain did cause a slight course change, and I'm hoping next year to get to see that other trail.

So I didn't get the weekend off. In fact, I ended up doing the DSE Polo Fields 5K the next day. Next weekend is the Redwood City Half Marathon, followed by my nemesis - the Brazen Rocky Ridge Half Marathon.

Likely I will be polishing up my French for that last one.

That's it - move along...

PS: You can see a lot more pictures I took here.

Cowbells! And more cow-based puns than you ever imagined...

2011-10-05T21:29:00.000-07:00

We had to make a choice.

There was a Half Marathon in San Jose that would be a lot of fun with bands sprinkled around the course. When I was a cheerleader there last year I realized that Mrs Notthat would love the San Jose Rock and Roll Half Marathon.

But there was also this Urban Cow Half Marathon in Sacramento ("A Race Like No Udder!") that would be a lot of fun with bands sprinkled around the course. Even though I had never been a cheerleader at this race, I knew Mrs Notthat and The Boy would both love it. (Mrs Notthat because it was much cheaper and still had the element of music along the course, and The Boy because it meant he could see his sweetie, The Big Wind.)

The thing that swung the decision firmly in the direction of Sacramento were the cowbell finisher medals. How can any race compete with that?

On Saturday afternoon we headed up to Sacramento to pick up our bibs, shirts, and timing chips for the next day's race, then headed north to Marysville (motto: "We know it looks like Kansas, but trust is, you really are still in California") to stay with The Big Wind and her family.

TBW works at a shelter where a few weeks earlier, someone had left a herd of very fresh kittens on their doorstep. So TBW ended up keeping them at her place so she could bottle feed them and get them to an adoptable age. Yes - the kittens were absurdly cute and I am stunned we didn't end up with one or four riding back home with us.

The next morning we all headed to downtown Sacramento. It turns out there were about 4000 other people that thought a cowbell medal sounded like a good idea. The plan was for Mrs Notthat, The Boy, and I to do the Half Marathon while The Big Wind would do the 5K. This changed a bit when The Boy started having stomach issues and sadly (wink wink, nudge nudge) had to do the 5K with TBW.

The obligatory porta pottie-picture. There were a lot of these along the course, and early on, they all had lines like this.

One of the bands along the course. There were probably 5 official bands plus a few unofficial ones - they were all fun though.

We spent a lot of time wandering through neighborhoods, and I loved how many people were out in their driveway cheering us on.

I love the "Caution Watch For Pole" sign in the middle of this picture. The course was all on pavement, although there was a nice stretch along the river where you could run beside the pavement on dirt if you so chose. (I so chose.)

We were told that at one point we would be passing close to the state capital building. This wasn't it.

I completely missed the capital building, but fortunately Ultra Woof had her camera, and since she is a better tourist than me, got this picture of it. How in the world could I have missed this? (I overheard a LOT of people saying they too had missed it. You had to look the opposite way you were running to see it, which is why so many missed it.)

It was nearly impossible to miss the many cow-based cheerleaders along the course though.

There was one short out-and-back stretch and I had hoped to see Mrs Notthat there. She didn't start with me since she spent a LOT of quality time in the porta-pottie line at the start area. Here she was though, just a few minutes behind me.

A side note: As you can see it was sunny. Sunny + Sacramento = HOT. Usually. But not on this day - the weather was perfect for this race.

My favorite stretch of the trail, along the river with optional dirt to run on.

This was a first for me - an arch telling you that you still had half a mile to go. (Sporting one of the many cow puns along the course.)

A surprise to us was that Yram (not her real name and needing a fun nickname) also did the race and turned in a great time.

A total non-surprise was that Einre (not his real name and also in need of a nickname) did the race and finished with a smile on his face.

And then of course there was Ultra Woof (does not need a nickname), with her superior tourist abilities (I stole four pictures from her) and amazing talent for adding stress to the beginning of a race.

The happy owners of new cowbell medals. After a fine meal at an upscale burger joint, we headed back to Marysville to drop off The Big Wind and pick up our bags and such.

And give The Boy one last chance to bottle feed a kitten. THEY WERE SO CUTE!!!

So, how did it go? I was happy. Both Mrs and I set PRs with our times. (Not that the USA Olympic Committee should be taking notice. Yet.) I bought a bonus cowbell to give to Weird Haired Mom who was unable to come to the race. (It was embarrassingly hard to hand it over though.) I loved the finish line area - it sounded like a huge herd of cows wandering around a field with all the clanging cowbells.

The race was a blast. The course was fun, there were lots of water stations (no food on the course though), and it seemed like everyone in Sacramento was either in the race or standing on the side cheering. The only negative was that they had no Half shirts in my size or the next size down - I had to settle for a 5K shirt. (Seriously, I can't complain too much - I've already gotten about 30 shirts from races so far this year and my closet deserves a break.)

Maybe next year we will try the San Jose Rock and Roll race. Or maybe we need to get a second cowbell medal.

You can never have too much cowbell. (Sorry. I couldn't resist.)

That's it - Moooove along...

PS: You can see a lot more pictures here.

Getting piggy with the Trail Hog

2011-09-25T10:37:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, over 300 runners braved the wild pig infested hills of Joseph D Grant Park outside of San Jose for Brazen's Trail Hog race.

Here is the finisher medal and the vision each of us carried out there of what to be on the lookout for.

(By the way, this may be their best finisher medal ever.) About a year and a half ago, a group of us lead by Coach Luap (not his real name) did an infamous hike in this park, and I actually managed to get a picture of real trail hogs. Not quite as fierce looking, but close enough. So I knew they existed.

This time I saw no trail hogs out there - only miles and miles of fun trails with moderate hills sprinkled in just to change things up. Sections of the course were pretty exposed, and it would get a bit warm, but with temperatures hovering around 75 degrees, it wasn't all that bad.

Most of the trails were fire roads that dodged in between nice shade trees and open fields. Mrs Notthat and Ultra Woof are enjoying the shade above. (They would get cranky if I pointed the camera at them while going up a hill - running for the camera is a rule, and doing that while going uphill is not fair. There were a LOT of wonderful Brazen photographers out there, but a lot of them were on uphill sections. However, I think they shaved a couple of minutes off my time by forcing me to run more than I would have if they hadn't been there.)

Lots of the trail looked like this. There were nice views of the surrounding hills, including Mt Hamilton, as you wandered around the course.

There was a great stretch of single-track in the second loop on the Half course.

There was a bit of climbing in that single-track stretch though.

I look like I am toast and ready for the finish line. Except this was taken before we had even reached mile 2. The course started with a hill that warmed you up quickly.

Mrs Notthat was perky all the way through this race and ended up getting 2nd place in her age group.

The Boy, as usual, took off and was way ahead of us. We heard from Weird Haired Mom though that he had started dragging at about mile 7. Then a random runner named Eicats (not her real name) caught up to him and told him to get his butt in gear. And he did. Both he and Eicats ended up winning their age groups (he beat me by nearly 20 minutes).

WHM and Ultra Woof both did the Hiker Half start. Well sort of. WHM was actually there for the 7:30 start, while the GPS-challenged Ultra Woof was touring the wilds of southern San Jose looking for this park. UW ended up catching up to WHM near the end and they finished together, with more piggy pink than anyone had bargained for.

Look, if the Brazen Rabbit writes "BACK" on the trail, who are they to ignore it (with a bit of attitude to boot).

The front of the neutral-colored shirt (HA!). I love the small race logo over the heart.

And the large one on the back.

This was a great race - a bit harder than I had expected (only a bit over 1700 feet of elevation, but for some reason it felt like a lot more); it would have been a lot worse if it had been just a day earlier though, when temperatures were 20 degrees higher.

And here's a cool thing - WHM and Ultra Woof met up with Htenaj (not her real name) at the Half Moon Bay Marathon Expo, with WHM and UW still sporting their Trail Hog bibs and medals.

Where they met runner extraordinaire Scott Jurek, who is now the proud owner of Ultra Woof's Trail Hog medal! Scott surely got a bit nervous will all this pink - he was impressed that they had done a Half in the morning and then driven to the expo. (UW is doing the HMB Marathon today.)

And that's about it. Next on the Brazen schedule is one of my arch-enemies - Rocky Ridge. Oh my. Next on my race schedule though is the flat Urban Cow Half Marathon in Sacramento - cowbell medals are really tough to pass up.

That's it - move along...

PS: You can see more of my pictures here.

Grand Old Teddy

2011-09-21T08:01:00.000-07:00

Not long after we bought our house in 1997, we got a dog. Well, sort of a dog. More like a maniac barking machine.

Jesse loved having a dog to play with, but Belle wasn't a very sturdy dog for a rambunctious seven-year-old, and she ended up with a broken front leg.

So we started thinking about getting a bit more rugged dog, something medium sized.

A friend of Diane's had a friend that took in a stray dog that turned out to be filled with puppies. The mommy dog was just about the perfect size, so we took a chance on one of her puppies.

Diane named him Teddy because he looked like a teddy bear. He was about the same size as Belle, but was extremely clumsy. Belle spent a lot of time making it clear that this was her house, and right up until she passed away, Teddy always deferred to her in matters of food and treats and places to lay down.

We really had no idea how big he would get, but were hoping he would be about his mom's size. But he kept growing.

And growing. One thing for sure - he was plenty rugged for Jesse. And apparently, soft.

He loved being outside, especially camping.

Teddy ended up with another little boy to raise when our grandson Riley showed up. Riley loved playing with Teddy, and Teddy was amazingly patient with him.

Unfortunately, Teddy had issues around most other dogs - he had very bad social kills. He would do OK around little dogs (like Belle, and Aubri's dog Sophia, above), but get him around any medium or larger dogs and it would not go well. So our walks were mostly an exercise in finding trails with no other dogs around.

And cats were the worst. I don't know that he hated cats so much as didn't know anything about them. If he ever saw one on a walk, he would do everything he could to get at it.

But as he grew older, he finally started to mellow. I came home one evening to see him being civil with a friend's white German Shepard. It's hard to explain how stunning this was - I never would have considered even trying to introduce them, and yet, here they were sniffing each other in our living room.

When Jesse came home with his cat, we were all very nervous. Except the cat and Teddy, who were curious about each other for a bit, and then just plain didn't care.

About six months ago Teddy's hips started to go. He still had a lot of energy (at least for a little bit), still loved to go on walks, but clearly his hips were a major issue.

Worse was that he started losing control of his bowels. He would be laying there, then sit up and do his business on his way to the back door. It became a challenge when getting up in the middle of the night to keep an eye out for where you stepped. You could tell it really bugged him to leave boom-booms in the house, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Diane was amazing at keeping him on his many medications. Most of them he couldn't stand, so they had to be disguised. When she headed back east to help her sister for nearly two weeks, it became my job, and while it started out OK, it quickly went downhill. He mostly stopped eating - I began making him boiled chicken and rice and he would eat it, but not nearly as much as normal. I could get him to take his medications for the first couple of days, but then he started becoming more suspicious and would refuse to eat anything that looked good, like this Fig Newton with a pill hidden in it.

I started feeding him strips of chicken and bits of cheese by hand, and this was fine for a couple of days, but then even that stopped appealing to him. And he had gone a long time without leaving a boom-boom, which was a bit worrisome. (I would wake up in the middle of the night, and sniff the air hopefully. One time I thought I smelled something and was thrilled! But it must have just been gas.)

He never whined or acted like he was in pain, but he clearly was miserable. He would lay in the same living room spot all day. I would coax him to go outside, drink some water, and sniff around a bit, but then he would have trouble getting up the step to come back inside. I was amazed that I could actually lift him now since he had lost so much weight.

After talking with the vet, we decided it was time to take him in. This picture is from his last morning front yard visit. He looks so perky, alert, and healthy in this picture, yet he wasn't any of those things.

He did have one remaining surprise for us though - he hadn't had a bowel movement for almost a week, and we took that as a very bad sign. Granted, he wasn't eating a lot, but still something should have happened. And it did, in the vet's waiting room.

Teddy was far from perfect; his social skills kept us on edge when out in public. In a strange incident that made no sense, he bit a woman on the thigh while we were away and a friend was taking him for a walk. And he shed like nobody's business - we will be finding his hair in things for years to come.

Teddy is hugely missed. I swear I still hear him several times a day. He lived for over thirteen years, which is amazing for a dog of his size. He was never sick and was very little trouble (other than his early need to gnaw on everything and destroy anything we planted in the backyard).

We will eventually get another dog or two - Riley can't believe we haven't already done that (and is positive that he's the one to pick them out). But for now we will wait a bit. And remember the legend that was Idiot Dog Teddy for many years before becoming Old Dog Teddy.

That's it - move along...

PS: You can see more pictures here.

Sure, you could drive to the summit...

2011-09-17T21:26:00.000-07:00

...but in what way would that be fun?

Mrs Notthat and a bunch of running friends did the Coastal Diablo trail race this morning. This had all the makings of a really tough run:

• Mt Diablo (Swedish, roughly translates to "Delightful Mountain") is known for very hot temperatures this time of year. After last weekend, we anticipated the worst. (Spoiler alert: it was actually quite pleasant in the morning. Those doing the longer distances though, almost for sure had to deal with heat.)

• There was a bit of serious climbing involved.

You go uphill for 6.6 miles. Then you turnaround and come back, going downhill for 6.6 miles. The arrows show where the aid station was. Total climbing to the summit of Mt Delightful was 3420 feet. The elevation didn't bother me so much as the relentlessness of it - I'd never done a course that wasn't a mix of up and down.

• It was the start of tarantula season.

This was a positive for me since I'm pretty sure tarantulas keep the rattlesnake population down. I never saw one, but Hteb (not her real name) alertly noticed one that her husband, Nairb (not his real name either), thought might make a wonderful pet. Hteb was able to convince him otherwise. (I love that these two each had a camera with them! More tourist runners!)

(I'm not sure whose finger that is, but it's not mine.)

• I'm a little directionally challenged this early in the morning. We are on time, heading east on 580 so that we can go north on 680. When I saw a sign saying "Nevada State Line 10 Miles", I figured I might have missed a turn. We ended up driving a bonus of 20 miles and heard the race start just as we pulled into the parking lot. So we started about 5 minutes late.

But we managed to start the race, and that's all that really mattered. Well, Mrs Notthat managed to start the race - I was stuck IN A LINE AT THE MEN'S BATHROOM! What is up with that?

It took me a while to catch up, but I finally managed to see Mrs Notthat ahead of me. She did the 4 mile race and my goal was to catch her before she hit her two mile turnaround.

I did, thanks in large part to Nad (not his...oh surely you get this by now) who lives nearby and wandered over to make fun of my gaiters, but also paced me nicely (mostly he just kept me from getting lost, and made sure I knew that Mrs Notthat was WAY ahead of me). Mrs Notthat hit the turnaround and flew back to the finish, with Nad trying to keep up.

The relentless uphill was often only a fairly moderate climb, but once in a while it threw in some steep bits just to make it interesting. This woman trains on Pikes Peak in Colorado. At the end of this race she declared it the toughest race she has ever done. (She stole my heart because she also had a camera and was taking a lot of pictures. Another running tourist!)

Surprisingly I managed to catch up to the speedy Hteb and Nairb at about mile 4 or so. This was their first trail Half Marathon - they knew it was a doozy, but it was very close to their home and, really, if I could do this race, how hard could it be? (Note that they each have their cameras out. Yay!)

Weird Haired Mom (my daughter) was at the aid station directing traffic (there were also 10 mile, Full Marathon, and 50K distances going on). The aid station was a life saver - lots of water and such, but also PBJ sandwiches, potatoes, and a lot of other good things to eat.

And another surprise - Arabrab (with a novel way to display her bib) was also at the aid station. Don't worry, she ended up soundly beating me.

Leaving that aid station there is just 1.6 more miles of climbing, and then it's all (mostly) downhill from there. How hard could another 1.6 miles of climbing be? Well, if you run across the feared Endorphin Dude, especially when he is wielding his chopstix, it can be very hard.

Actually, this bit of the course was a blast - steep at times, but pretty single-track with some mind-numbingly challenging technical bits.

Once I got to the top, I thought I saw a shortcut.

Ultra Woof talked me out of it though - some bizarre logic involving trail race etiquette and how hard it would be to scrape me off the cliff.

I like this shot of Hteb, showing her lack of fear of cliffs. And that really is what the trail looked like at this point.

Then I saw this picture and realized that I'M NOT LOOKING WHERE I'M GOING AND THERE IS A CLIFF THERE!

Of course Einre was there, steadily breaking the trail to his will as usual. And grinning from ear to ear as usual.

I don't know who this is, but it's an example of how cool the trail was here.

As soon as we hit the downhill on the return, Hteb and Nairb took off - they were in their element. I managed to make it back to the aid station just as they were leaving. WHM is showing great style in displaying the course map. I think the heat was getting to her.

There were a lot of stunning views along the course. This was very different than the golden hills of last week.

Once I finished I caught up with the others. (I told Hteb that I wasn't taking the picture until she was taking a bite of her soup, so she finally did. Sometimes it's tough to be the paparazzi.)

Mrs Notthat showing off her third place age group medal (!) and the great water bottle she won at one of the raffles they have sporadically during the race.

The race was a blast - much more fun than I had expected. The course was great and the whole thing was run very well.

And it really was a lot better than driving to the summit.

That's it - move along...

PS: You can see a lot more pictures I took here.

Two days, two very different races

2011-09-11T13:35:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, I decided to sign Mrs Notthat and I up for the Palo Alto Moonlight Run. It was (theoreticaly) the weekend before Brazen Drag-N-Fly and a couple of days before Mrs Notthat headed to spend some quality time with her sister in Maryland. It was perfect.

Until Ulra Woof asked what I was thinking scheduling a 10K the night before a ridiculously challenging Drag-N-Fly. I knew she was wrong, but I checked anyway, and to my horror found out she was right - I had seen the registration cut off date and thought that was the race date.

This meant Mrs Notthat was not going to be able to do the Moonlight Run (Weird Haired Mom stepped in to take her place) and I was going to be really tired for Drag-N-Fly the next day.

The Moonlight 10K race was a lot of fun - my first night race - but had a pinch of bonus excitement in the form of a lightening storm followed by a brief, but drenching rain. Cool surprise - seeing Wel (not his real name) from my old San Jose Fit world out there running (he beat me by a few seconds, and then I lost him in the crowd, sadly).

We all had a great time, including Nairb (not his real name) who faced very stiff competition and ended up getting fourth overall. (Note that Ultra Woof is also there - she's tougher than me so it wasn't quite as surprising seeing her do a race the day before a Half.)

It was nearly 11 PM before we got home and my alarm was set for 4 AM - not a good night's sleep before such a tough race.

Note: You can see more pictures from the Moonlight race here.

Since WHM was volunteering and I was doing the Hiker Half start, we had to get there early. Very early. It was still dark and the Brazen arch wasn't up yet. This thrilled me since it meant I had a chance to help raise the arch again (trust me - the thrill of a lifetime!), but my body convinced me to make a quick stop at the bathroom first.

By the time I came out, it was up. And soon after that, a blazing sun joined it.

WHM, Yerrk, and Anaid (not their real names) were assigned the first/last aid station. This meant they had to be there very early, before us hikers made it there, and were the last to close. Note the complete lack of shade, except for that awning. And yet they were amazing and enthusiastic and encouraging and life savers - as were all the aid station volunteers wherever we went.

Heading out, this is what faced you from that first aid station. A 1000 foot near cliff.

Looking back wistfully on that aid station while part way up the cliff.

The second aid station could not set up until the Black Diamond Mines park opened their gates - I watched them pull in (I've never seen a VW microbus take corners on two wheels before) and get the table and water set up just before Ultra Woof and I arrived. Keeper the dog made it hard to leave this place. (Well, that and knowing what was ahead of us.)

The lollipop part of the Drag-N-Fly course is a lot of fun, assuming your idea of fun includes very technical single-track trails with tons of elevation. So it was more my idea of fun than UW.

We discovered this mine shaft vent that had cold air pouring out - we politely stood here for awhile letting the faster runners have plenty of room to pass us.

Seriously - this is a challenging section of trail.

Near the top of the climb was the third aid station, staffed with angels to get you hydrated, fed, and cooled off with water poured on your head. It was very hot by now.

From that aid station you head back to the second aid station at the base of the lollipop. It was mostly downhill, but there was some uphill still (naturally). And steps. Way more steps than I remembered.

A real dragonfly!

The scenery was stunning. (No, we didn't have to climb over that rock formation. But I'm sure the Brazen Rabbit tried to make it part of the course.)

I loved this part of the course. I wouldn't have minded doing a second lap, except for the intense heat and my very tired legs.

A very cool thing (literally) is this mine shaft - it's amazing how much cold air streams out of this thing. It was very hard to leave here, but I'm pretty sure it saved a number of runners that needed a bit of a cool down by this point.

We finally made it back to the second aid station, almost an hour before the cutoff. Keeper the dog congratulated us for surviving the toughest part of the course, but reminded us we still had a major hill to go up.

Far from the hardest hill on the course, but by this time, with tired legs and a relentless sun, it was very challenging.

It took a bit but finally we caught a glimpse of the first aid station again. What a great sight, although that meant we now had to climb down that cliff.

Brain freeze! As wet as I would get as these aid stations, by about 15 minutes later I would be dry again.

This picture is a classic - as one of the faster runners came through he called out to get water thrown at him. WHM was more than happy to oblige.

Ultra Woof, Nahom (not his real name), and I all managed to finish the Half, but with shockingly slow times. The Endorphin Dude, Chris Bliss, and a few others weren't quite so lucky (or were smarter) and ended up doing a long 10K.

UW and I showing off our medals. She beat me by about two minutes or so - when she smelled the finish line she took off with a burst of energy that was astonishing.

Mrs Brazen and her wonder kids seemed to enjoy the day, but were happy that it was almost over.

And then the arch came down - the last runner had come in and we could all go find some serious AC.

Most of our group hanging out at a shady table, comparing trail stories.

The shirt, medal, and bib - stunning design as always.

I survived the two races, but not by a lot. They were a lot of fun though, even with the many challenges they provided.

But believe me that I will be a LOT more careful when looking at race dates in the future.

That's it - move along...

PS: You can see more pictures I took here. I will be posting more on the Brazen Picassa site later.

No zombies but lots of water and soggy dogs

2011-09-05T21:30:00.000-07:00

In an effort to get a bit more fit, back in 2009 I was convinced to join San Jose Fit's summer training program. Every Saturday we would meet at Los Gatos High School and head out on the Los Gatos Creek Trail. It was great and it certainly got me in shape (well, better shape at least), but I ended up a bit tired of that trail.

It's a lovely trail following a fun creek - kind of amazing considering how urban the area actually is. Since a lot of it parallels the freeway, you do get a bit of traffic noise in places, but for large chunks, it is pleasant. Maybe too pleasant, since it is very popular and tends to get crowded, especially with over-caffeinated bike riders that love to take advantage of the smooth pavement and fun curves.

So I wasn't all that eager to do today's Coastal Zombie Runner Vasona Lake Half Marathon. But then Weird Haired Mom signed up, and then The Boy was able to do it, so we all headed down to Vasona Lake for the morning.

By the time we got there, there were quite a few people already hanging around.

We found a few others that we frequently run with and managed this before-the-race group photo. Note that everyone is smiling - it actually stayed this way for the whole morning (well, except for when climbing That Hill).

Enirehtak the Canadian (not her real name or nationality, but it's fun to wind her up) and The Boy are demonstrating the kind of trail that made up a bit more than half of the course today - nicely paved (although you could often find dirt shoulders to run on) with rolling hills and nice lake or creek views.

The Half Marathon ended up having five aid stations - the longest distance you could go without hitting one was 2.4 miles! Each had great volunteers and lots of good things to eat and drink.

There were lots of pretty views like this.

One of the other things that convinced me to do this race was a chance to visit my favorite bench in the world (although to be honest, I haven't actually seen every bench in the world, yet) - the bench put in to honor Tom Kaisersatt, who started the San Jose Fit group. On the back of it, where absolutely nobody ever sees it, is his Western States 100 Endurance Run belt buckle. I love looking at this thing and remembering how cool and encouraging he was to us slow people, and how much he loved trail races.

Another cool thing is this massive mural underneath an overpass, not long after you leave the pavement and hit the real trails. Ultra Woof is demonstrating its interactive nature. (In the three years I've been going by this thing, I've always wondered about the steps that appear to lead to the hut, but actually take you to a cement wall. Leave it to UW to work out how to use these things.)

There was a too short stretch of great single-track trail that we got to go up and down. Here, Eirolav (not her real name either, and I'm not going to try to make fun of her nationality, but she is moving to So Cal, so there ought to be something in there to make fun of) slowed down just a tad so that I could get this picture of her.

The course was two out-and-backs. I knew I would see The Boy at some point and be able to judge how far ahead of me he was and whether I could catch him. When I saw him here, with WAY too much energy and WAY earlier than I thought I would see him, I knew that catching him was WAY out of the question.

WHM and UW however were comfortably behind me, so I knew I wouldn't be the dead last finisher. (Close, but not quite.) Here they are pretending to be running up That Hill - as soon as they heard the shutter they stopped and spent five minutes gasping for air. (Of course I'm kidding! It was more like ten minutes.)

There were a LOT of soggy dogs along the trail. I stopped and watched this amazing dog jump in the water, snatch this ball, then swim to this set of stairs and climb back up, only to start barking, demanding to do it all over again.

Eventually I managed to get close to the finish line and was met by The Boy (who had finished in 2:18 or so, and took second place in his age group!). He took this moving picture.

Here I am triumphantly crossing the finish line in a little over 3:06 - not a great time, but considering that I walked almost all of the paved bits, well, still not a great time.

Once I finished, we headed back out to find WHM and UW. Once they showed up, I pointed the camera at them and they ran nearly all the way to the finish line, ending up with a sub-four hour time.

And that's about it. It was a wonderful time and perfect weather (although it was starting to get pretty warm by the time we left). It was great to see so many friends out there.

But here's the cool thing - WHM was only signed up to do the 5 mile race. When UW started making noises that she was going to stop after 5 miles too, WHM decided to go ahead and "pace" her and make her do the Half. The thing is, WHM did her first Half just last weekend, and she did not come to this race expecting to do another one.

But she did it, and better yet, had fun doing it (even with That Hill). And she is now qualified to join Half Fanatics, which is a goal she didn't expect to attain until sometime in October. Amazing.

A HUGE thanks to Coastal and all the great volunteers for putting on a great event and hanging around for us slower people. Everyone had a blast.

And we didn't have to get soggy to do it.

That's it - move along....

PS: You can see some more pictures I took here.

All about the grandkids

2011-09-01T22:03:00.000-07:00

This is my first "R" word free post in a while, and it's been totally overrun with the grandkids.

Guess who's a second grader this year? That doesn't seem possible.

And guess who's a kindergartner this year? (And guess which school had an involuntary shudder when they found out?)

Here's a cool thing - they are both going to the same school that their mother, Weird Haired Mom, and their uncle, The Boy, went to. That's amazing. (Even more amazing, I think they all had Teacher Anin - not her real name - for at least one year.)

I love this picture - the kids were given these boards and told to have fun. The girl created something that an accountant or lawyer would appreciate. Riley created something like a dinosaur with its jaws open, ready to eat someone.

This is such a great picture. And the calm before the storm.

Meanwhile, Darci is presented with a large piece of paper titled "What I Want To Learn In Second Grade." It is NOT true that the first thing she wrote was "How to get extra desserts." (It was at least third down the list.)

Riley has been doing real good at keeping out of the hospital, but Sunday night was a reasonably close brush with it. The kids were at a party when he started coughing and having some breathing issues. Since our house was between the party and home, they stopped here to get a breathing treatment.

You can see how much Riley is suffering, playing with a slingshot. In the living room.

In the meantime, Darci showed me her face paint.

After the treatment was over, we headed out to the garden. There were cucumbers, crookneck squash, and a couple of tomatoes that needed to be picked. (There were also a LOT of weeds that needed to be pulled, but we saved that for another day. Like maybe next year.)

Darci did manage to pull up a nice little carrot though.

When I mowed the lawn, Riley told me to leave two patches tall, I've got no idea why He then spent some time hacking at the grass with a deadly garden implement.

In the meantime, Darci planted some nasturtiums since you can NEVER have too many nasturtiums.

Darci was just promoted to "Yellow Stripe" in this Martial Arts class she's been taking, and she is really excited. She can't wait to break her first boards. Fortunately, that didn't mean I couldn't get an embarrassing picture of her.

Even more fortunately, she thought that was funny and didn't decide to Kung Fu my butt. (Note the stylish feather on her head - Mrs Notthat, when she wasn't busy kicking rattlesnakes off the trail at a recent, ummm, ironing event, found this wonderful feather that Darci loves.)

And I will close with a picture of Riley, showing off his latest medal for, well, a kid's ironing event.

And that's it - lots of grandkid pictures and the "R" word didn't appear once!

It was a near thing though...

That's it - move along...

The Boy whips me again. And it never gets old.

2011-08-28T20:19:00.000-07:00

The Boy and I signed up on Friday for Sunday's PCTR Sequoia 20K trail race. I know that's cutting it close, but I wasn't sure I should do a race since my right heel has been bothering me and I was pretty sure these would be the perfect trails to REALLY aggravate it.

But on Friday afternoon when I asked The Boy if he was interested in a "scenic" (code word for "difficult and treacherous") 20K and he agreed, I had to sign us up. I've done races on these trails twice already this year, here and here. I love these trails for their challenge and beauty. But after today, I could swear someone has added some bonus hills that weren't there before.

I knew the day was going to be a bit abnormal when the vehicle we parked behind turned out to have these two in it - Nimsaj and Latsyrc (not their real names). They also did the 20K race.

And there is Nerak (not her real name either), alertly listening to the pre-race instructions that mostly consisted of "follow the pink ribbons, don't pet the snakes, and don't eat the yellow snow." (The RD did ask if anyone couldn't tell the difference between pink and orange ribbons. As it turns out, there is a good chance that The Boy can't - he's pretty color blind. "I'll be right behind you" he told me. HA! I lost sight of him in the first mile and never saw him again. Once a race starts, he's off like a shot!)

Mud! There were a surprising number of muddy spots, most easy to avoid (if your brain is wired that way, which I suspect very few trail runners are - I saw a LOT of foot prints in the mud, right next to mine).

This was my first race with this new rugged camera that I'm hoping will have a longer life than the other cameras I've carried with me on these races. Unfortunately, I need to learn how to use it, and am really aggravated this picture came out so bad. Last May, Weird Haired Mom had seen this dog leading the pony through the meadow at the start line. And then, here they are, on the same trail that we were running on! So cool - how many people can say they've shared a trail with a dog and his pet pony?

The first aid station. This was about 3 miles into the race, and the next aid station (which is actually a return to this one) won't be for a bit over seven hill- and occasionally sun-infested miles. The RD in his pre-race talk stressed to make sure you filled up your water bottles here. I filled mine to the brim and thought about carrying some extra water in my cupped hands - I'm a tiny bit paranoid about running out of fluids.

A sun-infested stretch of trail. Not as flat as it looks (seriously - you were almost always going up a hill or down a hill).

I made it back to the aid station (adorably named "Moon Gate"), and now have a bit over two miles to go to the finish line. My heel was screaming at this point (wow am I glad I didn't sign up for a longer race), my legs were shot, but other than that I was feeling good.

And then the Cinderella Trail, designed by her ugly step-sisters no doubt, reared its ugly head. This is a bit of downhill trail that has bits that are so treacherous even that dog and his pet pony would never tread on them.

I keep trying to get a picture that does justice to this bit of trail, but they never do. Falling here would not end well.

And then, just like that, there is the finish line. Since I was the last of the group to finish, I got a nice cheer as I approached the finish line (although I'm not so sure "What took you so long?" is the most encouraging cheer I've ever gotten).

Nimsaj and Latsyrc trying hard to convince the RD that it wasn't a huge mistake to let me do the race.

Ahhhh - after-race chili! This stuff tastes great at the end of a cold winter race, and surprisingly, still tastes good at the end of a warm summer race.

After a bit of a wait, the 20K results were updated and The Boy ended up getting second place in his age group, missing first place by a tiny bit over a minute! He did amazing, and finished 15 minutes ahead of me.

These trails are a blast and the weather was fine (although I'm sure it got a bit hot by the time some of the 50K people were heading to the finish line).

"Scenic" indeed!

That's it - move along...

PS: You can see more pictures here.

No bears, but still exciting!

2011-08-14T12:05:00.000-07:00

Mrs Notthat and I did the Brazen Bear Creek Half Marathon. This was her first Half Marathon since the Turkey Trail Half in Colorado in June, and she picked a doozy.

Here's how someone who is only barely fit to do these sorts of races should NOT spend the day before the race - standing in the sun for three hours judging people trying to catch water balloons from this catapult.

The company I work at had their corporate games, and the timing was not good for me. However, while my legs were a bit tired on Saturday morning, I figured it wouldn't be that bad. (Spoiler alert: It was.)

Sorry - I need to get the porta-pottie picture out of the way. Notice all the sunshine - it was heavily overcast around the bay, which gave me some hope of cool weather at least for the first part of the race. But once we crossed into the part of the East Bay where the race was being held, there was nothing but bright sunshine. Mrs Notthat rejoiced!

Just before the race. Mrs Notthat asked me to smile. I need to work on that.

Mrs Notthat started out fast. I was a bit worried that she had maybe forgotten how long a Half is, and how much climbing we would be doing, but was thrilled to see her moving along so well.

Mrs Notthat was the only runner with walking sticks, and she took a bit of heat for that. She sure liked them on the uphills like this though. The race started with mostly uphill for the first 2.9 miles. And it was all mostly exposed like this - even though it was only 8:30 or so, it was getting hot already. That aid station you see at the top of the hill marked the start of a long downhill. Yay! (Or so I thought at the time.)

Mrs didn't even pause at the aid station - she was feeling great and loved being so far ahead of me. Plus this was a nice long downhill stretch, and she does well on these.

Unfortunately, not long after I took this, I saw her coming back up the hill. It turned out that she had lost her iPod somewhere between the aid station and about two-thirds of the way down the hill. (Her playlist had ended at about the aid station and she didn't go to restart it until she was near the bottom of the hill, which is when she noticed that her ear buds were dangling.) This left a LONG uphill stretch where the iPod could be - so we both headed back up the hill to look for it. I made it all the way back to the aid station, but no luck.

So we headed back down the hill. And just like that she had gone from an unstoppable sprite to a tired, unmotivated runner with sore feet. After a bit she grudgingly agreed to try my Shuffle, which has maybe 20% songs she really likes, 20% songs she will sit through, and 60% songs she could not possibly hit the skip button fast enough to avoid. But it was better than nothing, and her mood picked up a bit.

That didn't makes the hills any easier though.

Because we lost so much time going back up that hill searching for the iPod, we ended up in last place. Once the Shuffle was pressed into service though, we started making up ground and passed Einre (not his real name) a little bit before the next aid station. (Note that we were finally in some shady areas at this point. This course had a lot of very exposed sections, but also a lot of nicely forested sections.)

At the second aid station (5.8 miles), Mrs Notthat's iPod was there waiting for her! I loved that it was making better time around the course than we were! (And a HUGE thanks to whoever found it and dropped it off there - you made Mrs' day!)

This totally picked up Mrs Notthat's spirits and she charged up the hill out of that aid station.

There was a very nice stretch of trail along a mostly dried up creek. I had managed to pass Mrs Notthat - I think the reality of this being a Half was starting to set in (this was about 7 miles into the race - a bit over half way).

The nice trail ended with a stunningly difficult uphill stretch.

We had been seeing a lot of soggy dogs coming down the hill, and once we finally got to the top, we could see why - there was a great little pond that the dogs would swim around in, trying to catch a couple of ducks that were having a great time teasing the slow dogs. (It's hard to see, but that's a duck being "chased" by two dogs.)

It was very hot by this time. To make matters worse, all the excitement of the iPod saga led me to forget to fill up my water bottles. Mrs Notthat ran out at about mile 8 or so, so I gave her the rest of my water (I still had some Nuun in my other bottle) and headed out to get to the next aid station at mile 9.9.

As I was going along a dirt road, I heard a horn honk at me. I couldn't believe some rancher or tourist was out there harassing us runners, so I turned and glared and saw the unofficial Brazen Mobile driving up to the aid station. I'm not sure why they were there, but I know they picked up at least one struggling runner - it was hot and dry and if you weren't watching your hydration, you were going to be in trouble at this point.

In any case, I got a quick cool down with a sponge on the head, filled my bottles, and headed back down the hill to catch up to Mrs who I knew would be really needing some water by this time. The two of us then headed up to the aid station and filled our bottles and enjoyed the shade for a bit.

There was only a 5K left to do - 5Ks are easy! Yeah right - we were both tired and ready to be done. But a bit over three more miles certainly seemed doable. Barely.

Mrs Notthat headed out first, and almost immediately we heard a sound that you never want to hear - a rattle followed by a startled yelp. Mrs had come very close to stepping on a less than pleased rattlesnake.

It was a bit ironic that it was so close to the aid station - I suspect it was hoping to get relief from the heat as well. Lots of pictures were taken (from a nice, safe distance) and it posed politely through all of them. After it grew bored, it slithered off to the right and was gone.

I had scientifically worked out that, after that aid station, it would be mostly downhill to the finish line. I told this to Mrs Notthat, and she believed me. We then spent the next mile climbing a lot of small hills, which by this time, felt like mountains. She stopped talking to me. There were two things that were true though: There was another aid station at mile 12 and there was only a mile to go after that - we were actually going to finally finish this thing!

If you get a chance to run a race behind Mrs, do it. She is very entertaining and creative in how she keeps herself moving. Here she is airing out her pits. I thought she was trying to scare the snakes away. (We did see a second rattler later on. Who knows how many we missed.)

A cruel tease. That's the 12 mile aid station, but it's still about a mile away. Thankfully it was all downhill though.

The two of us triumphantly making it to mile 12! ("Run for the camera" I yelled. Once the camera was put down though, the running stopped.)

Me giving myself a sponge shower. These were amazingly effective at cooling me off for a bit - I would also get my hat wet but was amazed at how quickly it would dry out. Mrs Notthat declined to let me squeeze a sponge over her. I don't get it either.

In addition to the sponge shower, I was remarkably sweaty. When Nyleve (not her real name - a volunteer photographer who had been at this aid station since the early morning) asked to get a picture of the two of us, Mrs made it very clear that I was NOT to touch her. Again, I don't get it either.

Shortly after we left that station we came upon an outhouse. Remarkably, I actually needed to use it (that's never happened this late in a Half Marathon before - I had been taking saltsticks and I think they helped me a LOT during this hot race). Mrs could smell the finish line, so she took off and I didn't see her again.

I did manage to hear Einre at the aid station asking how far ahead of him we were, so I knew he was close. So once I left the odor-filled comfort of the outhouse, I tried to make some good time, and possibly catch Mrs (HA!).

The trail was fantastic at this point - nice single track with rolling hills. Unfortunately, there is a lot of poison oak in those shrubs. And apparently earlier in the day, a lot of bees. (The medic at the finish line had spent a lot of time rinsing off people's legs to remove the poison oak and treating bee stings, not to mention the dehydration issues which resulted in one person leaving in an ambulance.)

Just before the finish line, you go down a set of stairs, cross a creek (that actually had water in it!), and go up a second set of stairs. Many people worked hard to not get wet while crossing this creek, but I loved the cold water on my tired feet. I stood there for as long as I dared, fearing that Einre would start down the stairs and pass me.

But I still managed to beat him by a couple of minutes.

This was an odd race. It was my second worst time in a Half Marathon, but the backtracking had a lot to do with that. It would have been interesting to see how this would have gone without the distraction of the lost iPod - I suspect the toughness of this course would have caught up with Mrs Notthat eventually, but she still would have had a respectable finishing time.

As it was, we were both thrilled to have finished at all.

And survived, bite free! (No bees, bears, or rattlesnakes got us!)

That's it - move along...

PS: You can see a lot more pictures here and here (sorry for some confusion in them - there were some irritating upload issues).

Of course SF would have a progressive marathon

2011-08-06T10:57:00.000-07:00

First, I go through great lengths to avoid driving up to San Francisco. So for me to head up there two days in a row, and to have to find parking three times, it's going to take something special.

I am generally not interested in big city marathons - I don't like dealing with the huge crowds and my knees aren't fond of pavement. So I had no interest in signing up for the San Francisco Marathon.

But Weird Haired Mom found out about the progressive marathon option, where you put in 23.1 miles towards your marathon on your own, keeping a log of how you accumulated that mileage, and then you finish your marathon by doing the 5K race on SF Marathon day. So Mrs Notthat, WHM, and the grandkids all signed up for this.

The Saturday before the race had three items on its agenda: The Brazen Bad Bass trail race (already written up here), the SF Marathon Expo (where you pick up your bibs, timing chips, and shirts), and the Marathon Maniac's carbo load dinner.

One of my goals was to finally meet Mad Hatter Fancy Pants, an amazing runner that symbolizes all that is good about this sport, either at the Expo or at the dinner. But how would I spot him?

Well, that wasn't hard - he was standing at the front door to the Expo holding his trademark sign. (He holds this up a short distance from the marathon's start line, and once everyone has started, he runs back to the start, starts his race, then spreads his encouragement around as he surges towards the finish line, where, once he crosses the finish line, he heads back out a bit and shows the back of this sign, which says "WOOT! You're almost there!")

I doubted I would see anyone else I knew at the Expo - The Endorphin Dude had spent the previous day there and surely would be too worn out to show up for a second day. I should have known better, as I almost immediately ran into him and a number of other Maniacs (Ellehcim, who is an even fresher Maniac than me, a cape-less The ED, Einahpets, who you should never assign the task of finding someone to take a picture too, Nahom, and The Blog - none of these are their real names).

Once you got your bibs, shirts, timing strips, and such, you get to spend some quality time in a shopping area. Mrs Notthat and WHM spent a LOT of time in here. While standing outside of the area, patiently waiting, I noticed the "WTH" and thought that was a bit odd for a marathon. Then I noticed it stood for "Worth the Hurt," the official motto of this year's race. Still, a bit odd.

So I was hanging around, again waiting patiently for Mrs and WHM to exhaust all the shopping opportunities the Expo presented, when I heard my name called out. Coworker Sukram (not his real name) and his squeeze were there! I had no idea he was a runner, and it turns out that was for a good reason - he isn't. But his darling is. (Hopefully she can do something about that LA shirt he's wearing. Like maybe burn it.)

Finally the Expo hall started closing down, so we headed over to Buca di Beppos for the Maniac dinner. The whole group of us posed for a picture with Chris Bliss, Ultra Woof, The ED (with his cape!), and Einahpets (who weirdly was able to find someone to take this picture with little effort).

Dinner was a blast, but the biggest surprise was finding out there really is a Mrs Einre - this woman must be one of the most patient wives ever (although she also probably doesn't mind getting Einre out of the house each weekend so she can have some peace and quiet).

That guy in the back is Trab Ossay - the Chief Running Officer of Runner's World magazine and an amazing runner. He is like the Hugh Heffner of running. A big deal. He came by the dinner and posed for an huge number of pictures, but the coolest thing was grandboy Riley horning in on the action. (He most likely didn't even know Trab was there - he LOVES The Endorphin Dude.) In any case, when Riley gets older and is training for the 2020 Olympics, he will have this picture to look back on, and proudly say "IN YOUR FACE ENDORPHIN DUDE!" (He has beaten The ED several times now.)

The next morning, Needs Cool Name drove the runners up to the city and stayed around to take a few pictures.

I forget this guy's name but we all know him as "that guy from Arkansas" - he spent the summer as an intern in the area and we saw him at a bunch of races.

That's the Bay Bridge in the background with WHM and the perky grandkids doing their second 5K race of the weekend.

I love that Darci is running on the rough center area rather than the smooth street. That kid's a born trail runner.

Mrs Notthat set a new PR for a 5K. (The runners got these great long sleeve gray tech shirts, which is why you see so many people in gray.)

A friend of Darci was also at the race. Here she is getting ready to participate in the Tossing Riley contest.

And that's about it. I drove in to pick the runners up (and found free parking!) and watch a lot of people finish the various other races going on. We knew quite a few people doing this race, but managed to miss almost all of them finishing (I think there were about 50,000 runners total - it was a bit of a madhouse there).

After reading various race reports and looking at pictures, I'm now seriously rethinking whether I want to do this race. Maybe 2012?

That's it - move along...

The Bass got Badder

2011-07-31T19:02:00.000-07:00

Which is a good thing.

On Saturday the whole family headed over to Lake Chabot to do Brazen Racing's Bad Bass trail race. The Boy and I did the Half Marathon, and were anxious to try out the new course, and all of us wanted to see if Brazen could outdo last year's medal and shirt.

This is The Boy's second time doing this race (his third Half Marathon). You can tell how nervous and excited his is. Or maybe that's just him being a teenager.

The Boy and I were in the Half Marathon starting corral while the rest of the family waited their turn to start their 5K race. Note the innocence on Darci's face.

It wasn't always like that. Note the bib number - apparently she lived up to it.

The Boy has stopped yawning eventually and we were busy getting our game faces on.

This is a great picture of Mrs Notthat streaking back in on her 5K race.

Once she finished, Mrs Notthat went out to find Darci and run her in. Darci was not being very perky. Mrs Notthat is explaining about the It's-It ice cream at the finish line.

That worked.

Weird Haired Mom and Riley making their final push for the finish line.

OK - now on to the Half Marathon.

About a mile into the race I had to stop at a bathroom (a good thing about this course is that there are quite a few bathrooms while you are around the lake area - a weird thing about this race is that I failed to get a porta-pottie picture). I never saw The Boy again until the finish line.

Me running uphill for the camera.

I love this. You would be amazed at how many people will run right past a sign and a lot of flour arrows on the trail telling them to turn. So Brazen posted a volunteer at the sign with strict orders to not let any Half runners past him, and I'm pretty sure he was authorized to use any force necessary, including tackling, to accomplish that. (This was at the bottom of a bonus hill the Half runners got to do. The 10K runners didn't go up that bonus hill, and instead came up to this point from behind where he is standing. I'm sure things got tricky at times.)

The real hill. Many of us mortals walked up this thing. Mr 10K (on the left and the eventual 10K winner) flew past us mortals.

As usual, the aid stations were nicely stocked with everything you might want (short of a beer and a burrito, but then, I didn't actually ask for them, so who knows). This is at the top of that main hill and served as the 10K turnaround.

A nice obstacle. And there is no truth to the rumor that The Brazen Rabbit put this here just to stir things up. Probably.

A very welcome course change removed a not-as-much-fun-as-it-looks (and it didn't look fun at all) little out-and-back near the end and replaced it with an awesome stretch of single-track trail. Since the trail runs partly through a dried up creek, it's a bit doubtful that this could be used for the New Year's version of the race, but then, running through a creek can be a lot of fun (hint hint).

Darci came out to meet The Boy and run him in. He is SO happy to be so close to finishing.

He is also in a fair amount of pain at this point.

Then Darci headed back out and ran me in.

Darci said "Do that again and you'll have to run yourself in from now on." It's hard to explain this, but I was trying to do a "leap of joy" for the camera. I mostly just succeeded in frightening people (the good news is that I didn't hurt myself).

Mrs Notthat got third place in her age group, beating eight others! She is liking 5K races and it might be hard to get her back to doing Halves again.

And The Boy is now a true trail runner! He fell for the first time, although by all accounts (his), he made it look graceful and almost planned.

OK, maybe not quite a true trail runner since there was almost no blood and probably no skin left back on the trail.

The whole group at the finish line. Everyone was mostly happy (Riley got third in his age group, and a bonus medal, but Darci got fourth in hers and no bonus medal) but a bit hungry.

So Mrs Notthat suggested having lunch at a local health food restaurant.

And that's about it. The Boy and I give the new course layout two scraped elbows up! It was another great Brazen event with well marked trails, nicely stocked aid stations, and It's-It ice cream at the finish line (along with a TON of other great food). The volunteers were also great, helping to keep everything running smoothly.

And the new Bass is definitely Badder.

That's it - move along...

PS: You can see a LOT more pictures from the event at Brazen's Picassa site.

Wharf to Wharf to Wharf

2011-07-28T22:14:00.000-07:00

For the second year in a row, Mrs Notthat and I participated in the perpetually sold out Wharf to Wharf race. It's a six mile race that goes from the roller coaster-infested Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk to a beach in Capitola where they handed us our t-shirts.

Last year we got up at 4 AM and drove down to a parking lot where we got on a shuttle bus that took us to the start line, and at the end of the race, we stood in line for an hour to get on another shuttle bus that took us back to the parking lot. We spent more time fooling with shuttle busses than we spent actually running the race.

This year we decided to be smart and avoid the shuttle busses altogether, and even better, avoid having to get up at 4 AM - we got a hotel more or less at the halfway point of the race. The idea was to walk to the start on the morning of the race, run the race, then walk back to the hotel from the finish line.

Once we checked in on Saturday afternoon, Mrs Notthat had the great idea of trying out the walk to the start line just to see how long it would take (30 minutes).

As a bonus, we were able to scout out all the porta-potties in the start area (which were all padlocked on Saturday night, which really puzzled the tourists). We walked out on the wharf and ate a fine carb-loading dinner of fried calamari.

On Sunday morning we got up at a civilized hour, ate breakfast, and leisurely strolled to the start line, where we met up with 15,000 others that were doing this race.

There was only one person we knew for sure that was doing this race - my ex-boss Yllas (not her real name). But look at that crowd - how would we find her? We weren't even on the proper starting street but on a side street. Just as I was telling Mrs Notthat how hopeless it was going to be to find her, Mrs pointed and said "But isn't that her right there?"

It was unbelievable - she was standing about ten feet away from us. I tell you - Santa Cruz is a town where the weird is just plain normal and expected.

The big deal about this race is that the course is lined with bands. A HUGE variety of bands, including two different groups of bagpipers.

Some of the bands were pretty eclectic. Some were obviously not used to being up early on a Sunday morning.

Since Mrs Notthat and I ran most of the race this year, we were not in our normal back-of-the-pack position where the crowds of runners are fairly thinned out. Instead, we were in the middle of the pack, which was much more crowded. If you look hard, you can see the line of runners in front of us stretching around the road WAY out ahead of us.

One unique thing that happened was towards the end of the race. There was a large banner that said "Marry Me Emily" that we could see ahead of us. When we got up to it, Emily was busy getting all romantic with some guy - apparently just a minute or so before we got there, he was on his knees proposing to her. (There's no truth to the rumor that she asked him to speed it up since she had a race to run. But she should have.)

We managed to finish the race in about one hour and seven minutes (almost thirty minutes faster than last year!). The walk back to the hotel though took a bit longer.

This is an interesting race. It has two big things going against it: it's all on relatively flat pavement and 15,000 runners is quite a crowd. But it has several big things going for it: most of the 15,000 runners are out to have fun, the bands are a blast (as is Santa Cruz), it's fairly cheap ($35), and Mrs Notthat loves this race.

The "hotel in the middle" thing worked out pretty good, but next time we won't do the five mile test walk the night before the race. (We weren't the only ones that took this approach - there were a lot of people that actually walked all the way back to the start line after they finished the race.)

We had a great time. The hotel was fine, the calamari loaded our carbs (with some help from the pasta we had for dessert), and we had a nice drive up the coast in the convertible on our way home.

And we never had to touch a shuttle bus.

That's it - move along...

PS: There are a lot more pictures here.

Fourth fun

2011-07-17T11:04:00.000-07:00

I know, this is very late and it's obvious that my priorities are all wrong (cute grandkid pictures are way more fun than sweaty runners) - The Blog acknowledges your concerns and deeply respects them. And thinks the true Zito showed up last night.

But back to the important bits; we started the July 4th celebration by doing exactly what our Founding Fathers hoped and dreamed we'd do - running a 5K race.

Also doing exactly what our Founding Fathers hoped and dreamed we'd do to celebrate the unfriending of the British, The Boy and the grandkid's dad Needs Cool Name both went to work. After all, people that want to celebrate the day by getting their oil changed or buying a new laptop also have rights.

Grandboy Riley asserted his right to be pushed by his mom in a stroller (and yell encouraging things to his mom like "Shouldn't you be running faster than this?"). Which left Grandgirl Darci, Weird Haired Mom (who was coming back from a leg injury and had promised her doctor that she would take it really easy, Riley's encouragement notwithstanding), Mrs Notthat, and I to do this race.

Mrs Notthat started off with Darci and then left her with me and took off after it became obvious that I was not going anywhere fast due to all the pictures I was taking.

Darci and a school friend were accosted by the media IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RACE!

Media Guy: "How has your race strategy gone so far?"
Darci: "I'm staying hydrated, I'm beating my mom, I haven't stepped in any horse poop, and I'm going to try REALLY hard to talk my grandpa out of going for that third lap."
Media Guy: "Offer him beer."

I love that Darci is floating in that picture.

The race required us to make three laps of the course, but I didn't know that when we started. Darci was thrilled when we saw the finish line after going for only about 15 minutes. That's when I asked someone and found out the real deal. Darci REALLY did not want to do that third lap, especially since her friend dropped out at the end of the second lap. But she sucked it up and did it, and I was SO proud of her for continuing on.

The funny bit was that, while I was selling her on the benefits of that third lap, WHM almost caught up to us. There was no way she wanted to be beat by her mom pushing a stroller, so she took off and finished strong, with almost no whining. Mrs Notthat, who had finished earlier, met us about a quarter mile from the finish and ran her the rest of the way in, beating me by several seconds.

You can see a lot more race pictures here.

The next big event on our schedule was the annual Battle of the Bands that features the Stanford and UC Davis bands making a LOT of noise and mayhem for two hours. I've gone on and on about them before, so I'm going to be gentle this time. I do like this picture though of Riley trying to work out where the batteries go in this hair brush.

For my money, the UC Davis band was more entertaining and won. Here the sax players are attacking someone from the one of the other food groups. They also did a nice thrashing of the Stanford Tree.

The Stanford band was also very good - it's always impressive that these people hang in there for two hours in the sun, enthusiastically making loud noises and doing wildly improper things with their instruments. The guy in feathers is their director.

Darci kept herself entertained by collecting escaped feathers from the apparently molting director.

Once the concert was over, it was time for kettle corn, hot dogs, and shopping.

As evening fell, Mrs Notthat, WHM, and the grandkids (who were later met by NCN once it was worked out that nobody really wanted to buy a laptop on that day after all) headed to Foster City to watch the fireworks. (The Blog was encouraged to stay home since he is not a night person and little of his grumpiness goes a long ways, or so he has been told.)

A vicious game of Uno helped pass the time.

So it was a great day all around (post-fireworks traffic being the exception). I think our Founding Fathers would have been OK with it all.

Except maybe understanding the oil changing part.

That's it - move along...

A Maniac (!) goes bust

2011-07-10T11:50:00.000-07:00

I was really bummed last year that I had to miss out on the Brazen Dirty Dozen trail race due to me having to be in Missouri playing with fireworks. This year though, no Missouri or fireworks, so the Dirty Dozen was ON!

Einre (not his real name) spent the weeks leading up to this race convincing me that I could actually go 50 miles in 12 hours. I had my doubts, but it did seem vaguely possible. So I made this sign to wear on my back during the race:

It got a LOT of comments; "I've my got money on you making it!" said one woman who actually had nothing to do with the race - MANY runners gave lots of great encouragement. But was there a chance of me not going bust? (Spoiler alert: No, not really.)

It was actually pretty good running conditions, weather-wise, outside of a brutal and relentless wind. The good part though was that the wind was often at your back or blocked by the trees.

Note the two arches; Brazen tried something new this year - in addition to the 6 and 12 hour endurance runs, they had two 10Ks and two 5Ks, each timed to get fresh runners on the course near the end of the 6 and 12 hour runs. This was a brilliant idea, although it must have caused a near meltdown for the timing company's computers, trying to keep everything sorted.

The course was a 5K loop that had some great views of the bay.

And some great trails through the woods. The hills were modest, although they tended to add up over time - after 8 hours or so they started to resemble 1000 foot cliffs.

Near the end of each lap you were greeted by the double arches and music coming from the finish line. (Naturally, it wasn't a direct shot to the finish line from here - you had to turn left and do a bootleg move to get there.)

Weird Haired Mom, who did the early 10K and late 5K (Double Dirty!), managed to skin up a knee a bit. Welcome to the cult that are trail runners!

There was an aid station at the 5K halfway point - this meant we had an aid station every 1.5 miles! This was stunningly cool.

It also meant I had ample opportunity to catch Endorphin Dude sitting around, soaking up the sunshine. He is seriously grimacing here since he saw me and my camera. Beware the paparazzi!

There were also a number of encouraging (sort of) signs around the course.

This course is on trails in Point Pinole Park that used to be a munitions testing/storage area. This is a remnant of its past. It is also something that caused me great confusion during my 9th lap - I had gone past it 8 times but had never noticed it. When I saw it on my 9th lap, I knew I was off course. I went backwards a bit, but kept seeing pink ribbons marking this as indeed the right trail. I finally just accepted that I have the observation skills of a moderately advanced shrub.

The course was actually marked very well, including this just before a turn. It's funny how, when you get tired, you can easily miss things like this. Twice I caught myself looking down and noticing flour arrows, and realized that I had nearly missed a turn. Zombie runners like me need all the help they can get.

In addition to the absurd goal of going 50 miles, I had a real goal of finishing a 50K (ten laps). As I came in towards the finish line, The Brazen Rabbit and Yrrek (not her real name either) were holding a ribbon across the finish line. Much to their horror, I stopped and took a picture of them before I continued on. The problem was the speedy Ydna (Not his - oh never mind) was coming up close on my heels and was threatening to break my ribbon, so I hustled and managed to beat him to it. I was very tired at this point, and breaking this ribbon was much harder than you would have thought.

This was a very cool moment - I could stop now and be happy, but there were still nearly four hours left in the twelve hour race. I did a bit of math and realized I could still easily break 40 miles if I could do three more laps. So I headed out for the first of those three laps.

At the end of the first of this lap, I announced that it was going to take one heck of a sales job to get me to do another lap. The Brazen Rabbit is quite a saleswomen, and paced me on my next lap.

But at the end of that lap, I was REALLY convinced I was done. I sat for a bit, then laid down. I was shivering and VERY tired. (I'm in a bit of misery here, but startled SIR Hard Core and Etep by asking them to take my picture. Then I couldn't stop laughing long enough to look as pathetic as I felt.)

In any case, this caught the attention of the medic, who came over and started trying to work out whether a life-flight chopper needed to be radioed in. I'm sure he knew I was done, but he didn't know how determined SIR Hard Core and Etep could be.

They got me back on my feet, wrapped me in a warm towel, and got me to have a couple of cups of soup broth and a hot chocolate. Remarkably, these made me feel immensely better - the shivering stopped and my tummy seemed perky. I was still VERY tired, but after the medic asked me a few questions to prove I was reasonably lucid (What day is it? Where are you? What is up with those things on your ankles?), he reluctantly agreed to allow me to do my last lap. There was still over an hour, and even at my worst, I should be able to do a lap in plenty of time.

SIR Hard Core, who is an avid hockey player, paced me on that lap and we spent a lot of time talking about the wonders of the icing rule. Well, until all that soup and hot chocolate decided it really needed to be rejoined with nature (I am SO glad Endorphin Dude was not around with a camera for that, bloggable or not!).

But, thanks to the efforts of the very serious and noble Brazen Rabbit and SIR Hard Core, I did it. With 20 minutes or so to spare. (There was a mini-loop of 0.7 miles so that, in the last hour, we could add more miles. HAH! So not happening for me!)

OK, maybe "very serious and noble" are not exactly the right terms for these two. (But without them and Etep and an understanding medic, I would have ended with 34.1 miles.)

A great picture that Etep took - I have no idea how I found the energy to look so perky.

WHM and I with our medals. I'm MUCH tireder than I look.

Endorphin Dude joined us for a picture. He managed to get in a 50K, even with a late start. (And I think he is doing another 50K on Sunday!) I'm starting to list a bit, so WHM and I packed up and headed home.

The two medals on the left are WHM's. The one on the right is mine - the Swiss Army Knife of medals (a medal, coaster and bottle opener!).

In a typically amazing classy move, Brazen engraved all medals of people that did two or more races or the 12 hour endurance run.

And that's about it. This was a race of firsts for me:

> The first time I had to have a BM after the race started. (There were several easily accessible bathrooms, although one of them had an odor that was stunning low-flying birds at 100 feet.)

> The first time I've thrown up during or after a race.

> The first time I've gone further than a 50K or a time longer than 9 hours.

> The first time I've had pacers.

> And probably the most surprising, the first time I've qualified for joining Marathon Maniacs! Granted, it's at the lowest level possible (three marathons in 90 days or less), but this is pretty shocking for me.

So, I went bust - no 50 miles (although I'm now convinced that, with a bit more training, this would have been entirely doable), but 40.3 miles is a nice consolation prize. This event was a blast with so many talented runners putting in remarkable distances (I think the winner put in about 75 miles!). And everyone was great at encouraging the others - a fun thing about this sort of event is that you tend to see the same runners multiple times.

I'd like to give a HUGE thanks to all the volunteers that had to stand in that cold wind while we at least were able to move around and keep a bit warm; and of course, a MASSIVE thanks to everyone that pushed and cajoled me into reaching a great milestone. You were all angels and heros!

That's it - move along...

PS: I put a LOT more pictures here.

A mud free BBQ

2011-07-02T14:21:00.000-07:00

Mrs Notthat decided to have a BBQ for a family visiting from somewhere in the East Bay (maybe Reno). About 20 others were also invited.

Here is one of my favorite pictures of part of that family:

Yes - they are also trail runners and they also took on Mt Diablo this spring. It was at this race, sort of, that we met them. (Actually, Weird Haired Mom met them at an aid station, then we noticed each others blog, and then we finally formerly met at Brazen Wildcat.) They are awesome (obviously).

BBQ day was nothing like that rainy day back in March, and I don't think anyone was bitter about that.

Their son Bubba had a great time wrestling this beast around the backyard. (When I first saw this picture, I thought this was grandboy Riley.)

The girl on the left is one of their daughters (Sadly, I don't know which one is which, so I will call all of them Bubba. I expect to get kicked in the shins for this the next time I see them at a trail race.)

The guy in the yellow shirt is Mr Bubba (who looks WAY more like a runner than I likely ever will). I grilled about 20 pounds of a variety of meat, including a few slabs of salmon that ended up being a small step away from jerky. Fortunately, everyone was hungry, so it all got eaten.

And finally, a cleaned up Mrs Bubba.

The shade was very popular.

Well, OK - there are always one or two exceptions that like sitting in the sun.

I spent a fair amount of time trying to make the various kids sick by spinning them on this swing. I was able to make a few of them turn green, but (fortunately) failed at getting to find out what they had just eaten.

The Big Wind (AKA Irbua - not her real name) was also here with her family, including their new almost dog, who proved to be VERY popular.

Yes, as warm as it was, some still had to have their coffee.

It was a great BBQ, with LOTS of great side dishes brought in to go with the meat. The weather was perfect and the laughs were flowing freely.

In the end, everyone seemed to have a great time. Even if there wasn't any mud to stomp in.

That's it - move along...