Important Disclaimer!! I had originally planned on doing my "breakout" marathon here, but a tendon injury 2 months ago curtailed my training. After taking 4 weeks or so off (including 1 setback), I began running again about a month ago with a long run of 10 miles last Monday. So, after some consultation with Tetsujin and advice from him as to the benefits of slow running, I opted for the doing the half as a "$75 long run".

Anyone who is expecting "race details" can stop reading here


Short version: About 18 miles of running at somewhere around an easy conversational 11:00 mm pace. 13.1 miles in somewhere around 2:25, no idea of placements, and one of the best times I've ever had while running. Then another 4.8 miles at same easy pace.

Long Version: Drove down on Saturday AM, meeting Tammy on the road and caravaning with her, and enjoying a very scenic drive. Got down to packet pickup, made race day changes, and then had to detour some 20 miles to get around a slide area to get down to the campground where we met up with SLOJim and his wife, Ilene, Labduck & Mrs. Labduck, Sherie and Karl at one of the most beautiful campgrounds I've ever been to. SLOJim provided some special commemorative boomer reunion at the avenue t-shirts just for the occasion. Thanks Jim, great shirt.

Well, we kept waiting and waiting for not only Econo & not so little Econo to arrive, but also Fastforward (making his racing debut) and his brother Bob, who had gone on a scenic tour on there motorcyles. Just before 6PM Fast and Bob arrived, ......... on 1 motorcycle .... turns out an ignition problem on one of the bikes caused them to have to leave it temporarily some 40 miles away somewhere along the remote "lost coast" area of northern Calif. Econo & not so little Econo eventually arrived also and by this time we were all pretty hungry, so we drove over to the pasta feed, where we enjoyed spaghetti with either red meat or red veggie sauce.

The next morning, Sherie, Tammy, & myself got back down to the race area around 7:30 AM. (The race starts at 9AM) and looked around for some other boomers, finding SLOJim, Labduck & Mrs Labduck, Ilene, & Fastforward, Karl, Econo & not so little Econo, and finally getting the chance to meet our own fearless moderator, the one and only ......... hup, and a couple of his friends from Modesto, who were up for the event. Great people, all.

My only "race" plan, was to go slow, run with Karl and/or Sherie, not get hurt and have a good time. As this race has a lot of team in training walkers, Tammy, Sherie, Karl, & myself followed Ilene, as she led us down to an area ahead of a lot of the walkers. hup, Fast and Labduck lined up near the front, so we didn't see them, and Econo, Jim, & Mrs. Labduck were doing the 10K, which started in a different location a few minutes later. The half marathon course is an out and back, up Bull Creek Rd 6.55 miles and back to the start, while the marathon has the same start and then continues on another out back, down Avenue of the Giants, and back. This is my favorite race and one of my favorite parts of the world, this being my 3rd time running down here.

As the race started, I ended up running most of the first 5 miles with Karl, having a most enjoyable conversation. At around 5 miles my plan was to stop and get pictures of labduck, hup, fast, and the other races as they ran by me the other direction. I had borrowed Mrs. 2635's digital camera and was unfamilar with it's operations (I'm so lowtech), when lab, hup, and fast came blazing by there was no way I could get a picture, so I ended up putting it away, and continuing on to the turn around, seeing Tammy, Ilene, Sherie, and Karl before I got to the turnaround. I managed to "catch" Karl again around mile 7, and we continued our conversation until he turned off around mile 13. Karl and I ended up having a lot in common to talk about, and the 11 or so miles we ran together was one of my most enjoyable running experiences.

After the race I met up with Tammy and went over to the food area where I had a couple of awesome hummus sandwichs, along with pretzels, bananas, fig newtons, apple juice. Eventually we met up with labduck & mrs. labduck, Ilene, fast, Jim, Sherrie, hup, and others. Econo had left already to get back home, and Ilene & fast had to leave also, but the rest of us ended up soaking our feet in the icy river, enjoying cold beverages of choice. (Beer for them, water for me). About an hour or so after the race ended, I decided I hadn't run far enough yet as I wasn't sufficiently tired, so I put the shoes back on and ran another 4 or 5 miles.

All in all, it was a great time and one I look forward to again.
I say this all the time and without trying to sound to gushing, every time I meet someone from the board and get to know them, it's like meeting and seeing again a friend you've known your entire life. There's truly some awesome and remarkable people here.

One last thing, to counter Econos feasting at Carl Jrs on the way down, I stopped at one of my favorite local deli's, Mulberrys, in Arcata and had an awesome vegan black bean tofu wrap on the way back home.

Congrats to the other Oregonians on their AG hardware, most impressive half marathon debut and most impressive running skirt. My own performance wasn't up to their lofty standard, but I had a fantastic time.

Pictures to follow, Mrs 2635 must download them @ her office, email them to me, and then I will have to email them to Tammy, as posting pix is beyond my capabilities.

John

ETA; Fashion report. Brooks Adrenaline GT7's, Black shorts commando, white w/red & black stripe BAA singlet (closest I'll ever get to Boston), Brown floppy Timothy Leary Flower Power hat with artificial Daisy. Got a bunch of comments on that one.

http://This message has been edited by John2635 (edited May-07-2007).