The G Running Diary

More Running: 3/9/03

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The season seems to begin with the Way Too Cool 50K. My running is getting into full swing. Don, Jeff, and I ran Coyote 4 Play over Feb. 20-23. Four days of running that was just great. Then on the following Saturday, March 1, we explored the Bay Area Ridge Trail section that runs through Santa Theresa park. Finally, this last Saturday, March 8, we ran Way Too Cool. And today, Sunday, the whole day was spent on planning our run for August. But I'm starting to get ahead of myself.

On last Tuesday, I got to do some running during the week. Don had exchanged a bunch of emails with a guy from Minnesota who was coming to town for Way Too Cool, and wanted to hook up with ultrarunners during his time in the Bay Area. So, Don included me, and the three of us arranged to meet at Rhus Ridge at 4:00 pm on Tuesday. Well, at the last minute, Don was stuck at work, so I went off on my own to meet Bob Metzger. The afternoon weather was nice--perfect for running, and even more perfect for a runner from Minnesota. We set off slowly, since we were going uphill for a little under a mile. This was the same route I ran with Don and Jeff a few weeks ago. The trail flattens out on the Black Mountain trail, so we ran a bit and walked a lot, talking the whole time. We talked about races we'd done, injuries, getting into ultrarunning, other people we ran with. I thought it was funny that there were topics that Bob already knew my thoughts on, since he was a reader of my journal. I liked how we connected on our feelings about DNFs. Having the maturity to know when to say when is a difficult thing. It all depends on if you have future race goals, or if the race you are in is the most important thing to you. We laughed how some ultrarunners would be shocked at our stories of DNFs where we just decided to be done because it wasn't fun anymore and wasn't worth it. My DNF at Rio Del Lago left me with absolutely no regrets. I knew it was the best thing for me, and I had a good 60 miles before stopping at 70. Bob didn't seem to have regrets either. He had a story of stopping when he had to, due to dizziness, and another of stopping to save something for the upcoming bigger race.

As we went along, I was keeping the time. Originally Bob had said that an hour would be fine, but after almost an hour we were still heading up the mountain and looking for the top. So we kept going. I hadn't been up there in over a year, so I wanted to see it too. We made it to the intersection with Montebello Road, and turned around to come down, looking at the great views and still talking all the way. Darkness descended, but the great part about that was the view back into the Bay Area was now lit up. Everything looked different. We finished the run in almost complete darkness, since the Rhus Ridge trail head is kind of in a valley. I was sorry that Don missed out, but glad that he had the initiative to set up the run!