Wandering around the Bayfront Salt Ranch

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?

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

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

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.