Parents, dogs, and warriors oh my!

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

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...

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

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.