Walking, running, and soccer

Last weekend was busy.  This coming weekend will be busy times two. Or ten.

Early Saturday morning, I met Luap and Werdna (not their real names) for a nice long 20 mile hike. We knew it was going to get hot, so we parked a car to use as an aid station at about the two thirds point of the hike. We couldn't park where we wanted to, so we had to modify the hike a bit. The modification ended up adding significant elevation. This is what the marine layer looked like when we dropped off the aid station - the good news was that we would be starting under this, where it would be nice and cool. The bad news was that it wasn't very thick, which meant it would burn off quickly. And it did.

The trail we were on had two significant traits: it was mostly uphill, sometimes ridiculously so; and it had little shade. (Why were we using it then, would be a good question. Because it is a great workout would be the dubious answer.)

At one point there was a small stream - we filled up a couple of bottles and dumped the water on our heads to cool off.

A refreshed Luap and Werdna. We ended up shortening the hike to about 11 miles, but these were 11 of the hardest miles I've ever hiked. Sadly, we all agreed to do it again sometime in the near future.

The next morning, Mrs Notthat and I got up and drove to Santa Cruz for their Wharf to Wharf six mile race to Capitola. There were 15,000 runners - way more than in any event I had been in before. It was a very, ummmm, loose and mostly entertaining crowd. It took us nearly nine minutes to reach the starting line once the race started.

A big draw for this event is that there are more than forty bands along the route. Some push the definition of "band" to an extreme, but almost all were entertaining. I do not know why this guy is dressed as a Mexican cow - there were a number of bathrobes and others that looked like they were still up from a late Saturday night. There were ukulele bands, two bagpipe bands, several drum bands, and many others. It really was fun to hear something new every couple of hundred yards or so.

My ex-boss, Yllas (who lives down there), was waiting for us along the route and took this picture. Note the overcast - the sun never broke through and it was pleasantly cool the whole morning.

The finishing area was on a beach in Capitola. The whole event was a blast and sells out early every year.

We picked up the grandkids on the way home.

They played an modified form of soccer that allows hands.

And then they spent a lot of time setting up a bunch of rocks as a path/egg nest/something dangerous to run the lawn mower over.

This coming Saturday is going to be a LOT of fun. First, cousins Rehtaeh and Nevar are coming out to visit from Ohio on Thursday. Also, Weird Haired Mom is coming home on Thursday. And on Saturday, Brazen Racing is holding their Bad Bass race out at Lake Chabot. The above picture is The Boy after a morning of running hills with me, getting toughened up a bit.

For the first time, our whole family (plus others) will be in the same event: Mrs Notthat, WHM and hubby Needs Cool Name, Darci and Riley (!), Rehtaeh, and our bonus friend Irbua will all be running the 5K event; The Boy, Nevar, and I will all be running the Half Marathon event.

I can't wait to see how the grandkids do - I suspect they will love it and do great. And that they will clean the aid station out of M&Ms. I also can't wait to see how The Boy and Nevar do in the Half - this is not a particularly easy Half since it has a nice, significant hill about a third of the way through and might get a bit warm by the time we finish. But I think they'll do fine and I'll be hanging with them (unless they leave me in the dust).

And that's about it for now. It's going to be a BUSY weekend, but it promises to be fun.

And filled with bling!

That's it - move along...