This year we had superb weather on Catalina for the race.  For the first time in my memory, we had a clear day in all respects.  A noticeable increase in first timers at Catalina and plenty who had never been to the island before, always fun to see the reaction.  John Duke, publisher of Triathlete (and now Velo News and Inside Triathlon) was over for what I believe was his 20th CM. He comes nowadays with a group of people including former World Record holder in the marathon, Steve Jones.  Steve now runs in 4+ hours and just for fun these days.  He did come up to me after the race and said he was going to get in shape for next year.  What can a man of his stature and running a 2:07 and change in the mid 80's run on Catalina 25 years later? I would like to find out.

During the race there were a lot of buffalo out in the middle section of the course, some even on the course itself.  Did not hear any reports of problems but I will bet there were some startled runners at times.  One problem we need to address next year are those that enter as a "walker".  We allow them to leave early since its such a rugged point-to-point course.  The issue is some of them don't "walk".  We have had numerous reports of walker starting early, then running the course and even a few ending up with awards.  How someone would find that acceptable is beyond me, but I have been in the business too long to know this kind of behavior does not occur.  We are looking at some preventive measures and severe penalties (including a lifetime ban) on violations. 

Have to conclude with our thanks again to the Morrows, Pat & Ralph. Without them, we would find it nearly impossible to stage this great marathon.  A special thanks to them.

Yesterday turned out to be perfect weather for running a half marathon.  Overcast, light breeze and in the 50's.  If you are producing a race, a perfect situation would be to have one with ideal conditions for the race itself and then magically turn sunny and warmer for the post race.  People tend to hang around a bit longer at the food and refreshments and stay for the awards when its warmer.  It was not a "beer garden" type of Saturday although the Michelob Ultra guys did a reasonable business. 

One thing we are strongly considering is a move to finish inside the Rose Bowl itself.  When we launched the race, I personally did not think it was a big deal for runners to finish inside rather than in front.  I was wrong.  The question comes up all the time and I must confess that every time I see that tunnel going under the stands and toward the field I want to run through it.  Should we go that direction, we would probably move the race to January of 2010.  We cannot finish on the field during the UCLA season or in December when they are preparing the field for the Rose Bowl game.  In January, we could.  We may also move the race to Sunday to allow for a fuller pre-event expo on Saturday and add to the destination aspect of the race.  It is going to be in our post-race survey going out this week to see how people feel about it.  

Sightings:  Casey Wasserman of Wasserman Media Group (WMG) and Matt Wickstrom of the LA Avengers both ran and had solid finishes yesterday.   Glad to see that some of the important guys in sports in LA can also strap on the shoes.  Jane Chin (from my alma mater UC Irvine) the #1 ranked femaie golfer in the NCAA, wisely chose to do the 5k instead of jumping in for her first half.  She ran with former UCI golfer (an aspiring pro) Kenny Kim.  A long time ago I started running myself because I needed more endurance to finish the 36 hole matches we had to play in tournaments.   You can see where that led.  Betty Morin (of Live Earth) and Sharon Boles, both our Pro Coordinators from the LA Triathlon had good finishes with Sharon besting Betty this time.  They go back and forth in their friendly competition.  Final note was on our two singers, Elizabeth Shea, who sang the national anthem and Andrew Jed whose band entertained us after the race. Watch for these two in the future.

Those of you who did the half hopefully will consider doing the Buffalo Run and Catalina Marathon.  To do all three (our Pacific Challenge) really would be a great accomplishment.  We are ramping up our party at the Catalina Canyon Hotel after the marathon. It would be great to celebrate with some of you completing 52.4 miles of running.   No doubt you will be in great shape by then. 

Happy Holidays.