No zooming for me

Coastal Trail Runs has created a new sister racing company - Zoom Running Events. The general idea (which I might have completely wrong) is to let CTR focus on their trademark, tendon-snapping, ridiculously tough courses, while ZRE focuses on somewhat easier courses and races more geared for new runners and road runners that are curious about trails. All finishers get a medal and the age groups are in five-year-chunks, which greatly improves the odds of someone like me getting an age group medal.

Mrs Notthat and I signed up for the Labor Day Zoom Vasona Lake event. It's a bit closer to us than most of the East Bay events, but it is largely on pavement. Two things make it desirable for me though:

A) I get to see Tom's bench (more on that later).
2) There is a nice hill on the Half course that makes up for a lot of the pavement.

Mr Coastal tries to get his brother to do the Hokey Pokey. Mrs Coastal's brother is smarter than that.

 It was very sunny and starting to heat up a bit already - a huge change from Saturday's race.

There were a lot of runner friends here, including many that were volunteering, but it was especially great to see Enidualc and Ynnad (not their real names) and Harlow. This was just before the start.

There were two distances, and everyone started at the same time: 5 miles and Half Marathon. I haven't seen the final results, but I'm pretty sure there were WAY more Half Marathoners than 5 milers.

All of the 5 mile course and most of the Half course is on paved trails, often with gravel shoulders (thankfully). You run along some lakes and Los Gatos Creek. While not exactly flat, the hills on the paved portion are very mild - even I could run them (for a while).

The course is one out-and-back for the 5 mile course, and two out-and-backs for the Half course. All runners run to the first aid station, then turnaround and head back to the start.

At the start, the 5 mile runners are done. For the Half runners, there is an aid station there followed by the second out-and-back. The thing about out-and-backs is that you get to see all the runners, whether they are ahead of you or behind you.

One runner I never saw was Mrs Notthat, which was mildly troubling. I chalked it up to me being about as observant as blindfolded bat, but it was still nagging at me. After a bit, Mrs texted me to say she ended up stopping after 5 miles due to plumbing issues.

The Tom bench.

Sort of near the white mile three marker there is this bench. (There are several other, lesser cool benches in the area, so you might have to look a bit to find this one.) I never fail to get inspired by it.

By far the coolest thing (and most unknown thing) is what is embedded in the back of it. Tom's Western States 100 buckle. You can read more about Tom and why he has a bench here. (Cool thing; I was telling some people in the finish area about this and a guy said he had seen a few people run behind the bench and touch it, but had no idea why. I REALLY feel bad that I didn't give anyone advance notice about this.)

I'm not quite half way done and the leader of the Half is very nearly done. Heavy sigh…

 More than half of the course is shaded by trees, which helped a lot with the sun.

The third aid station. We would get to see this one again on the way back.

Shortly after that third aid station we leave the paved path and get to run on some gravel, followed by some nice climbing on a fun single-track trail.

The single-track is a bit challenging, both because of roots and rocks, but also because there is two-way traffic and it gets a bit tight.

After a significant amount of climbing you finally get to the top and get a view of Lexington Reservoir.

I loved the teamwork here.

You then have to head down a steep trail to the Half turnaround.

Haiyr (not her real name) has left the aid station and is getting ready to climb that hill.

That's all well and good, but you know that once you leave that aid station, you have to climb back up that steep hill.

I'm not sure why there were rangers here; maybe it's to make sure nobody eats too many goldfish.

Ecarg must be a tough-minded angel to put up with Drannyl.

The coolest thing about this aid station was that I got to meet Drannyl's wife, Ecarg (not their real names).

Most aid stations don't need a stop sign.

Once I arrived back at aid station three (now aid station five - there were a LOT of aid stations on this course, not to mention a fair number of bathrooms), I knew I was a bit less than two miles from the finish. But I was dragging a bit. I wanted to finish in less than three hours, but that seemed unlikely at this point.

But while passing Tom's bench and touching the buckle, I found a bit more inside me and picked up the pace a tiny bit. (Trust me - it would have been really hard to measure the improvement, but I was sure it was there.)

Well, I did stop to take this picture of the geese.

And sure enough, I broke three hours. Barely.

The hat gets me lots of comments. My standard story is that I was attacked by a 30 pound badger during a Coastal race. The truth is that our idiot dog thought it looked tasty.

And I ended up getting third in my age group. Seriously.

This is not a difficult course by trail race standards (a total of 945 feet of climbing for the Half), but it is difficult by road race standards. That hill is worthy of a trail running ballad, but it's the only one, so it's bearable.

The really awesome part of all this were the runners that had done long distances on Saturday at Coyote Ridge, and then did the Half here, two days later. These people are not normal.

But then, how many trail runners are?

That's it - move along…

PS: You can see more of my pictures here.

Lots of ridges, not so many coyotes

The Marin Headlands and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area are home to an amazing number of great trails with stunning views. And hills. A LOT of hills. Some day I'm going to do a trail race here that doesn't involve a ton of climbing (if that's even possible). Saturday wasn't that day though.

The Coastal Coyote Ridge trail run is based out of Muir Beach, which is surrounded by a lot of hills, naturally. My normal approach to these races is to choose the distance that lets me cover the most trails without repeating, and for this race, the 20 mile course would be the correct answer. But it's been a couple of weeks since I've done any meaningful running, so I wisely chose to do the 10 mile course.

I tend to obsess over elevation charts. Five distances were offered - I was not surprised that the distance I chose ended up with the most climbing per mile:

7 miles @ 1900 feet = 271 feet/mile
10 miles @ 2740 feet = 274 feet/mile
20 miles @ 4390 feet = 219.5 feet/mile
27 miles @ 6290 feet = 233 feet/mile
31 miles @ 7130 feet = 230 feet/mile

Yes - you 20 mile runners should congratulate yourselves on choosing the "easier" course.

The Parks people require the runners to park outside the main area, saving the parking spaces for the normal people that visit the beach (and there are a LOT of normal people that visit this beach). So the runners got to bond while riding a school bus to the start area. I can still hear "The Wheels on the Bus" throbbing in my brain.

"Hey Mr Coastal. Will there be bacon?" (Mildly inside joke.)

We lined up on the bridge that served as both the start and finish chute while Mr. Coastal provided last minute tips, most involving explaining how green is the new yellow, or something like that.

The race starts with several hundred feet of level ground before you start climbing the first hill. We were maybe half a mile into the race and already the start area looked way below us.

Another half a mile and Muir Beach is rapidly disappearing.

Once you get to the top of that first hill, you get to cruise down the other side of it. Your joy is tempered by your view, though, of the next hill and the long line of runners heading up it. (At least that's the case if you are in the back of the pack like me.)

That second hill is wicked.

But after you get over it you get to float down to the first aid station in Tennessee Valley. For those running the 7 mile course, they turn around and head back. For the rest of us, we keep on going, naturally, up a hill.

I managed to catch newly minted Marathon Maniac Haiyr (not her real name) and we spent a bit of time going up the hill together. At about the time the hill ends, the 10 mile turn appears. Haiyr is both pointing at her new cool visor and at the trail I now have to take…

… the uphill trail that disappears into the clouds.

Eventually I made it to the top of that hill and enjoyed some nice downhill single-track.

That's the second aid station (for the 10 mile course) - the same one that I had visited a few miles ago.

Leaving that aid station, there were less than three miles left to go. I can't explain why that last three miles felt more like six, although there is a small chance that the evil, snarky hill we had to climb had something to do with it.

Once you finally get to the top of that hill though, it was all downhill to the finish.

Before today, Leinad (not his real name) had never raced further than 22 miles. Today he won the Full Marathon. And set a new course record. (Actually, he was not alone in setting a course record since all course records fell today. My favorite was the women's 50K record that fell to a woman named Tennessee - her real name - from Brooklyn NY.)

Trail runners are a serious lot.

There were a lot of great stories today. Like the two people that missed the 10 mile turn and ended up doing a 20 mile race, and were smiling about it. And the runner that hurt her knee and, while limping in to finish the first 20 miles of her Full Marathon, started wondering if she still had enough time to go out and get that last seven miles. And Haiyr, who ended up the dead last finisher, but hung in there to finish one of the toughest Full Marathons around. Marathon Maniac indeed!

The weather was perfect with a marine layer that hung around all day and kept things cool, although it muted what were normally stunning views. And all the volunteers that supported the runners all day were awesome.

It was great.

Next up is the Zoom Vasona Lake Half Marathon and then next Saturday, the Brazen Drag 'n' Fly.

Yikes!

That's it - move along…

PS: You can see more of my pictures here.

PPS: Saturday was National Bacon Day. Aid station bacon would be awesome. Maybe.

Berries and runnable doorways

A couple of quick things on this gloomy Friday.

My gardening skills this year have been pathetic. Very few tomatoes, an OK amount of zucchini (which is pathetic -who can't grow WAY more zucchini than they can use?), and a few small pumpkins will be it. But one thing that went reasonably well were these berry plants that I grew in small hanging planters.

I grew up in Kansas eating these berries a lot. I don't know what they are actually called though, and it's tough to describe their taste - they look like small blueberries but taste nothing like them.

My German grandmother called them (phonetic spelling alert) swaspidda.

I've gotten two small bowls of berries so far - this harvest was added to a loaf of zucchini bread (which came out stunningly wonderful). My mother sent me a bunch of the seeds a couple of years ago and this is the first year I've seriously tried to grow them here. I'm thinking next year they will get bigger pots and even more attention - I love fresh picked berries, especially from plants that aren't trying to maim you.

The grandkids have started school. Grandkid First Born (above) is in third grade (!) and Grandkid Second Born (below, eating chicken nuggets) is in first grade.

GFB told me about how she was one of the few successfully climb a flagpole at school yesterday. And she did it multiple times. Then she showed me how she can climb doorways. In a princess dress.

I have more than a little pity for her teacher.

That's it - move along…

Skirts, dirt, and a lot of (sometimes tired) smiles

What happens if you put on a tough trail race, put "skirt" in its name, and target it at women runners? You get an event that I nearly blew my camera out trying to take enough pictures.

Inside Trail Racing put on the inaugural Skirt 'n' Dirt trail race out of Joaquin Miller and Redwood Parks - parks known for some of the toughest trails in the East Bay. While men weren't excluded from running the race, they were a tiny minority (193 women finishers vs. 16 men). Mrs Notthat ran the 25K course while Weird Haired Mom (with her damaged foot) and I (with my camera) worked at the most exciting of the aid stations, Moon Gate. (Motto: "GU So Nice You'll Want To Come Back Twice! Or Four Times If You Are Nuts And Running The 50K." T-shirts available soon.)

K-Dub being WAY too perky this early in the morning.

We knew a lot of the runners that were going to be out there, which helped make this even more fun for us. WHM and I stopped by the start area to drop off Mrs Notthat and say hi to a few people before heading out to Moon Gate.

Note that WHM is on crutches here. And still was eying that start line, thinking  "I could do a 10K on crutches, right?"

We did what we could to get a group picture, and this one is nice, but a number of people are missing. That was OK though, since we would be seeing them all later.

WHM and I drove up to where the aid station was to be placed. As you can see, it was quite foggy - the  mist dripping from the trees was very close to being rain, and the trails under the trees (which are most of them) were actually a bit muddy and slippery.

Yes - this aid station name is ripe for a practical joke or two. But we didn't have time for that (and it was a bit too cold for the obvious mooning opportunity - besides, the runners had to endure enough without having to experience something like that).

Within minutes of getting set up, the first runners appeared. They loved the cool weather.

Only one of the 16 men finishers got into the spirit of the day, and naturally it would be Yhcrats (not his real name).

Weirdly, K-Dub is still perky after nearly 3 miles of running. She is closely followed by K-Bacon who was a star of the show today - she not only ran the 25K, but helped check runners in at the start, helped us out at Moon Gate once her race was done, then swept part of the course. Not to mention the cookies (more on them later).

Two VERY brave men that drove up to the aid station and walked 100 feet down the trail to cheer on their significant others. They survived. Barely.

Mrs Notthat after 12 tough miles, with 3.3 miles left to go.

All runners hit our aid station at the 2.9 mile mark. Then:

• The 10K runners wandered off to do a 1.7 mile loop (that was much harder than it looked on the map), hit us again, then went back to the finish.

• The 25K runners stormed off to do a 9.1 mile loop (that was exactly as hard as it looked on the map), hit us again, then went back to the finish.

• The 50K runners stormed off to do the same 9.1 mile loop, hit us again, head to the finish, head back out to us again, storm (but maybe with a bit less thunder) the 9.1 mile loop again, hit us yet again, then head back to the real finish.

As I said, this was a great aid station to work at, although we had to be the first to open and the last to close.

That's a LOT of pink! 

Note the pink flamingos. These are a trademark of All Day Nek (not his real name) who places them just ahead of the aid station to provide a tasteful early warning that a buffet is just ahead. 

Don't EVER make the mistake of thinking women in pink aren't tough. The one on the left is smiling, even while sporting a nasty bit of trail rash.

Eventually the runners thinned out and the sun made a token appearance, which meant we could spend some time trying to warm up a bit.

K-Bacon fresh from her 25K race, headed out to sweep the 10K loop. That's a lot of ribbons for less than two miles of trail.

WHM working over a blister.

K-Bacon could have spent the night before the race cowering under the elevation chart, but instead made a bunch of these ridiculously cool cookies, as modeled by Ettevi (not her real name).

Once the last couple of runners came through, we packed up and headed down to the finish area to pick up Mrs Notthat.

I didn't wear a skirt, but I hoped the pink lei would be festive enough. (Don't tell Mrs Notthat, but I also tried to wear her tiara from a previous race, but there was no way it was going to fit on my non-tiara-friendly head.)

This was a great event. There were a number of issues with runners getting off course, which worried me a bit with regards to Mrs Notthat - the last time she did a race in these parks she managed to turn a 13.1 mile Half into a nearly 20 mile trudge. But in talking to her afterwards, she had no issues and said it was all well marked.

Which kind of leads to the last interesting bit.

I'm a tiny bit anal about having a course map with me for all races. Even with races that provide printed maps, I end up making my own, with lots of helpful notes ("Don't die on this stretch"). So I made a map for Mrs Notthat, which she thanked me for, folded up, and tucked safely away in some forgotten pocket. (Note that when she was busy turning her Half into a 20 miler, she also had a map with her. They do NOT guarantee success.)

Before the race, Mr Inside asked how many were carrying maps. Naturally, Mrs was not paying attention and missed that bit, but she did hear about a raffle for a pair of La Sportiva shoes at the end of the race. When she finished, she asked about the raffle and learned that it was only for runners with maps. Like the one she had stuffed into some obscure pocket.

So she entered the raffle, and we found out yesterday, she won!

A map might not keep you from getting lost, but they can help your feet feel better about any bonus miles you add.

That's it - move along…

PS: Here's a link to some more pictures I took. And here's a link to the Inside Trails Picasa site that has all of the pictures I took.