A Daunder at Loch Chabot

A few weeks ago, it was time to sign up for Brazen's Bad Bass race, so Mrs Notthat and I signed up for the Half Marathon. (Mrs Notthat managed to catch a nasty cold the week before the race, so ended up dropping to the 5K, where she could take it easy and push herself too hard. Yeah right.)

Shortly after that we realized that the day after Bad Bass was the San Francisco Marathon, which we were signed up to do the first Half Marathon. I wasn't too concerned since, by Brazen standards, Bad Bass was a pretty tame course.

What I didn't notice was that they had fixed that problem.

The nearly terminally ill Mrs Nothat (ha!) talking with Mrs McBrazen and The Brazen McRabbit, who sported kilts. "All the cool kids will be wearing them!" they said. Yrrek begged to differ.

Mr and Mrs McBrazen watching the Half Marathon start.

For reasons never quite explained, this edition of the Bad Bass race had a Scottish theme. And you have to hand it to Mr McBrazen - he pulled off the look rather nicely. (It's not true that he spent most of the day looking for a caber to toss. He did seem to toss those orange pylons into the truck rather enthusiastically once the race was done, however.)

Was that Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap I heard?

The rangers at Loch Chabot do not allow amplified music, so alternatives have to be found. These two were very cool!

It was so cool to see Nairb and Hteb (not their real names) at the first aid station. This was the first time they had ever worked one of these, and this one is a doozy - it has to be the first one set up and it sees all of the runners, including the bonus of seeing the 10K runners twice! Nairb did his best WalMart greeter impersonation while Hteb did her best to keep a stock of water and sports drink filled cups ready to go.

Just replace those brown patches with green and this could easily be a scene from the Scottish Highlands.

There are some hills to climb, but you get a great reward of nice views at the top of them.

My arch-nemesis was not running this race, so I had to deal with my emergency backup arch-nemesis, Ytsirhc (not her real name either). I can take being beaten, but this sort of taunting can crush my spirit. Or cause me to rally and do some serious running. (Smart money is on the crushed spirit thing though.)

The second aid station, and the 10K turnaround. I like how the turnaround cone is a bit before you get to the aid station, which meant you had to add some distance to your 10K if you wanted to grab some M&Ms or a cup of water.

Super runner Aluap (sigh...sorry about this) protecting the Half runners while crossing this busy road. She was showing her truck-stopping technique. It must have worked since very few runners were run over by trucks.

After the brutal taunting, I managed to get significantly ahead of Ytsirhc. And yet, there she is, piling on more insults.

I'm not sure what happened, but somewhere in the next few miles Ytsirhc passed me (heavy sigh…) and took off. Also somewhere along this stretch, we realized that the course had been changed a bit, with some bonus hills added. The course change also took us closer than ever to the shooting range, which was overflowing with wildly enthusiastic gun owners blowing through thousands of dollars of ammo. I prefer to think of it as our 21,000 gun salute.

There were several places where the poison oak was already turning colors. So pretty! And treacherous!

The third aid station and my arch-nemesis Yram. When she saw me straggling along, it was hard for her to not toss her jacket to the side and beat me. Again. Instead, she happily pointed out that Ytsirhc was way ahead of me and that, once again, I was going to lose. And that I could fill my own dang water bottle.

The last aid station, which meant that there was only one more mile to go to the finish.

The finish (almost). It seemed like it had taken days to get here, but in reality, it was just a bit over three hours. Not a great time by any means, but considering the changed course and that I was putting in a mild effort to save something for the next day's race, not too bad. Or at least that's what I kept telling myself.

Ytsirhc and her buddies picking on me. Next time Ytsirhc, next time. "Are you sure you don't need to sit down cupcake?" AARRRGGHHH!!!

Hteb and Nairb survived their aid station and then hung around a bit to cheer in some runners. They had a blast and will do this again! (The free race thing doesn't hurt either.)

Picture by Brazen volunteer.

I love this picture of Grandkid Second Born sprinting to the finish.

Picture by Brazen volunteer.

And this one of a tired Grandkid Dad pushing a borrowed kid across the finish line. The kid loves it, but the Nayr has a new respect for people that making running with a stroller seem effortless.

I love the medal, and am pretty sure that "B" is not willing to do double-duty.

It was a great event with great volunteers. The course changes (which were due to the rangers being concerned about that single-track stretch that used to be in the course) only added about 300 feet of additional climbing, but it felt like a LOT more.

And how did the "I'm going to take it easy in the 5K" Mrs Notthat do? She was third in her age group, beating 15 others with a solid top 100 finish.

And thankfully, there was no haggis at the aid stations. (Bottles of Scotch, however, might have been nice.)

That's it - move along…

PS: You can see more of my pictures here.