The G Running Diary

Ruck-a-Chuckin' (part 1): 3/26/03

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One of the things I like about ultras is the chance to see friends. There are some people who just make me smile. When Don and I were on our way to the Rucky Chucky Roundabout 50K, we weren't sure who else we knew had signed up. We were pretty sure we would see some people we knew, but with 3 other local events going on that same day, we couldn't predict who would be there.

Rather than facing Friday night leaving the Bay Area traffic, we set our alarm for 4:15 am so we could drive up to Foresthill in the morning, leaving here at 5:00 am in time for the 8:00 start. Foresthill is 17 miles past Auburn. The race course is on the Western States trail, starting from the school at Foresthill, down to the Rucky Chucky river crossing and back up. The event included a relay of two 25Ks. I would think the relay partners would all want the first half, not the second.

Rob and Linda Mathis put on this race. Don and I ran their Pony Express 50K in August, and had said back then that we would run this race. The Rucky Chucky Roundabout used to be put on by someone else, went away for a while, and this was the first year that it was being revived. I found out that it used to be run in September, which would have been quite a different experience. I like the March choice better. There were so many flowers, green hillsides, streams and pools of water, and perfect running weather. In September everything would be brown and dry and hot.

After a moment of silence, we were off down the road to the trail. With a downhill start it's hard to get the kinks out, but I was still going easy. Also, everyone bunched up when we hit the trail, so there was not much else to do but take it easy. The trail was sort of familiar. I had seen it twice before: once during Western States training over Memorial Day weekend 2 years ago, and the other time was last year during Western States in the dark. It was hard to relate the darkness experience to what I was seeing today. During some sections I was thinking, "We ran down this in the dark?" But I supposed we would have walked when it was all rocky and dangerous looking. Or maybe since we couldn't see it all, we didn't know any better. I remembered a short section where I had hallucinated a little gnome sort of policeman character.

As the switchback through the trees continued down, there were little streams to cross. Everything was green and refreshing. Don was ahead of me, so I was lost in thought. Because it was so peaceful, I could spend time trying to work out huge questions like, "Why am I here? What should I do with the rest of my life?" The answers that you come up with when you are out on a trail must be quite different from the ones determined while sitting in traffic. Some runners behind me were awfully chatty, but I eventually managed to get far enough away that I couldn't hear them any more. I like meeting people on the trail and talking, but during this run I needed the time alone.