The G Running Diary

Run for the Birthday Boy: 1/14/04

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Saturday was Tropical John's Epiphany run. I remember a friend or relative commenting more than once that the run should be on the 6th, otherwise it couldn't be called that. But it's TJ's birthday that is on the 6th, so all is well. As the years go by, fewer people do the so-called Real Deal, which is John's age in miles. Most have converted to metric, which John calls the Popular But Wussy option. There is also an Absurdly Feeble Half Deal (26 miles) and really, you can run whatever distance.

This year more than ever, it seemed like a running party to me. People were out there running what they felt like. In a regular ultra race there can be cutoffs and time pressures, and if you don't run the full distance, you get a DNF black mark on your running history. At this run none of that applied. The only slight pressure was, well, if you didn't finish the ultra distance of 53K, then your name wouldn't be published in Ultrarunning magazine.

Don and I knew we would be running slowly. We were still recovering from our Vegas adventure and we were not in regular training mode. Besides, it is more fun to hang out at the back. We took Steve along with us, since he lives close by, and we convinced Karen to come down from Sebastopol to run with us, too. Actually, she didn't take much convincing. Even coming off stomach flu, she was raring to go on her second 50K ever. Her first was just the week before.

We set off around 7am, just as it was getting light, although still foggy. Great, I thought, the fog will be fogging up the glasses I am wearing. Running in glasses is hard to get used to. I don't know how other people put up with it. I'm glad this is only temporary. The trail was fairly muddy in some places, but I was wearing my mud shoes anyway, so that didn't matter. I thought it was funny after we were done that the hiker/walker people were washing off their shoes under the faucet at Skyline Gate. Someone thought I was waiting to do that. I said, "No, we don't care." They also had to wash off their dogs--it's quite a dog park. You see all kinds.

Even though the run is free and unorganized, there is an aid station about half-way to the turnournd point. Hollis and Chuck were there. That was another excuse to hang out and talk, and partake of many typical ultrarunning goodies, like M&Ms, Oreos, potato chips, bananas, Coke, and GU. Oh yeah, and even some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

The turnaround point at 13 miles is Lake Chabot Marina. There we hung out in the snack bar, talking with Wendell and Sarah and others who came by, and envying the two runners sitting eating pancakes. The maple syrup smelled really good to me! I used to hate the stuff, to the point of being nauseated by the smell. We set off again with our snacks and drinks--Don had a Red Bull, I had a Pepsi. The time seemed to be going by pretty fast. I liked talking with Karen. It was easy to talk about almost anything, and that certainly made the time go by. Before we knew it, we were back at the aid station, eating and talking.

Back at Skyline Gate, we had another out and back to do to complete the full run distance. I was thinking about stopping there. I could sit in the car and read a book. I was nervous about my eyes being dry, since I was still on medication for an eye infection. But I was not in pain, so Don just said, "You'll feel better if you do the whole thing," and so I didn't think about it anymore and set off. Karen was wondering about this interchange. "How did you change your mind?" I guess I just keep running if I don't think too much about stopping. And what was another 6 miles anyway? We found Philip Stark on this section. He'd run longer than we had, so he was happy to go along at our pace for the last part. And then we were done. Philip went to his car and brought out all these tasty snacks. They were the best snacks ever! It was a change from the same old stuff. We must have looked like junk food junkies munching down all that snack food. He had turkey jerky, pita chips, rice cracker mix, and sweet almond clusters. Very nice! After all that, we got our cold muddy selves back into the car and headed home.

And what was the post race food? Margaritas, baby back ribs, chili, and steak fajitas at Chili's!