thanks posie.

Missed you.

Somehow, missed seeing your DS's in the mix.

Instead of being one of 25,000 runners in the Viaduct-to-Tunnel 8K celebrating the opening next week of the long-delayed (six years), over-budget ($600,000,000) replacement of the waterfront Alaska Way Viaduct with a two-mile, double-decker, north-south, tunnel beneath Seattle, talked DW into joining me with 100,000 walkers doing the same.

White-tiled sides will be quite the contrast to the darkness in the uniformly poorly lighted other tunnels on area roadway.  Nice four foot shoulder on the west side of the two-lane roadway for easy egress every 650 feet but zero shoulder on the east side’s gunna be kind of scary.

Park to Park HM, Sulphur, Louisiana 2/2/19

This is a small local race with 10K & HM options and around 200 runners in total. This was the 10th annual running and my 4th. 2016 was my second ever HM and in ideal conditions I broke 2 hours. Both 2017 and 2018 were above 70F and very humid and I was closer to 2:10. This year was high 50s, sunny and a little humid so I hoped to go sub-2 again.

No chip timing for this race. They had planned for the pushchairs of Ainsley’s Angels to start 2 or 3 minutes before the main field, but only one turned up and having his very fast brother pushing he asked to start with the rest of the runners. This was not a great problem except it appears no one told the timers.

This was my third race in 4 weeks, having run a 27 mile trail race and a marathon in January. I ran a good 9+ training run Tuesday and then took 4 days rest before this race, I woke up ages before the alarm went off and did my usual pre-race preparation but just didn’t feel quite right.

First couple of miles felt OK but my cadence was rather high and my stride length very short. Pace was around the 9 minutes I was aiming for, but the effort was unsustainable. I couldn’t seem to change my rhythm as I ran and I eventually stopped and restarted to get to a more comfortable gait, though pace was about 30 seconds slower.

At the water stop at mile 6 a young boy looked at me and said “You’re steaming!” I wasn’t surprised.

Past halfway and I was actually feeling better apart from a hotspot on the ball of my right big toe, which developed into the first significant blister I’ve had since I started running. Gradually closed in and passed a handful of runners over the last few miles and finished strong.

This is where the timing team confusion at the start came home to roost. Not only did they get the 10K and HM results combined (the winner of the HM came in 50th overall) but they couldn’t figure out the 2 minutes between the Angels’ start and the main field. I think my official time was 2:03:18, but it could be 2:05:18.

The HM was won by a local 50yo in a time of 1:16 (or was it 1:18 or 1:14?) and despite it being such a small race, I was 9th or 10th in the M60-69 AG.

https://www.calicotrailrun.org/home.html

I did the 50k, as a birthday "present" to myself.

Nitty gritty:

5:50:39 on my watch, but I forgot to set the auto-off off, so I think I remember my official time being 5:56:00ish (costume change at 22 miles).

Certified course

29th overall, 6th A/G

Nasty gritty:

I'm assuming this is a tough course, I don't know because I haven't run one before. Other runners were talking about it afterwards.

After a 2 mile downhill, there is a relentless 8 mile uphill, at least half of which was sand. A couple miles down, also some sand, and then another relentless 5 mile climb, steeper, and another section of sand along with a few canyons with fist to beachball sized rocks as the running surface. Max elevation at about 18 miles, and then a very steep descent of 500+ feet in a third of a mile. At the bottom of that, there is a nice 4 mile descent of 4 miles, with only short sections of sand; I was able to avg 7:30's without much effort through this section. Then the climbing again; the last 7 miles featured long steep climbs and short steep descents, rocky canyons, and whoop-de-doos (this is on ATV trails). I probably walked 3 of the last 7 miles, and there were only a few sections where you could run normally because of the steepness or surface. The last mile or so had good surfaces and pavement, and included a 100-120' climb right before the finnish, with a 200m downhill to the finish. The guys who were able to run on those up and downs and long climbs dropped me by a mile+ in the last 7 miles. After the initial 2 mile downhill and a mile into the first climb, the packs were pretty much sorted out. I think I loped by 20 eager-beavers that took the downhill fast in the first 1/2 mile of the climb. After the initial running order was sorted out, I passed 13 people and was passed by 4 during the rest of the race. One woman power-hiked faster than me on that last hill before the finish, I easily caught her coming down the last 200m, but thought it was in poor taste to sprint by her in the last 100m of a 50k, and jogged in with her instead. Race etiquette thoughts?

Fun gritty:

If you've never been, you should stop in Calico and look around. It's only a few miles off the I-15 near Barstow. It's not huge, and half a day would allow you to see everything, a little longer if you eat there and do a couple of the "attractions" (narrow gauge railroad, silver mine walk-through, mystery shack, gold panning, etc). I decided to stay in the cabins instead of my campervan in the campground, because HEATER! and more space. The cabins are only $35 during the week, higher on the weekends. They are log cabin style and very quiet, which is key because most of the other people are there to ride ATVs, and for some reason that includes revving the engines at all hours of the day and night, parked, in the campground. There is a new coin-op shower facility next to the cabins, and it's about 1/4-1/2 mile walk to "town" from the campground. The geological scenery is great.

The race is a fundraiser, and like the town, is old-timey. A bunch of local non-runner volunteers, all very nice and helpful. It's kind of a community event, the guys running one of shops had laid out the chalk marks, other people who work in Calico ran some of the aid stations (which required 4x4 pickups or ATVs to schlep the stuff out there). The aid stations were not stocked with Gels or other sponsor rations, they had sliced fruit, M&Ms, water, Gatorade, pretzels and chips. (I only took water, and used my own gels). The finisher medals are small and simple, the t-shirts are run-of-the-mill cotton, and the race logo looks like it was clip-art. The awards are hand-painted mugs or sawblades by one of the artists with a shop in Calico. It's like your church or Grange decided to put on a 50k fun run, and the whole town got involved. Very nice!

I went with my life accomplice, we left the teenagers at home. We stayed Friday and Saturday nights in the cabin and drove home after the race (after my drop bag got back from station 4 an hour and a half after I finished). After the race I said I wouldn't do that one again, but maybe the 30k. I might reconsider that, because now that I know the course I'm sure I could do better. I visited with some 60-70 y/o's after the race who had done it several times. Maybe it becomes an annual thing!