The G Running Diary

AR50: Running in the Sun: 4/5/04

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For the American River 50, it wasn't particularly hot, but just hot enough that you had to pay extra attention to water and electrolyte intake. And ice at aid stations was a very good thing.

We drove up to Sacramento early Friday to avoid the traffic. We took the back way through the Delta, over on highway 4 and up 160, which avoided traffic even more. It was a relaxing change to the mania on highway 80. We arrived with plenty of time to do all the things we needed to do. We decided to watch more of the Heidi Fleiss story rather than go to the runner check-in. It's easy enough to check in on race day morning. However, looking back now, I guess we should have done it because they ran out of XL shirts for me and L shirts for women, which would have fit us better than the sizes we ended up with. Anyway, American River has three completely different locations for things. The parking for the start is on University, which is close to highway 50. The pre-race dinner is about 7 miles up 50, but to get there by 5:30 pm in Sacramento rush hour is a bit of a challenge. The packet pick-up is at the Fleet Feet store, which you get to by going up highway 80. I find Sacramento confusing. Our hotel was just up the road from the start, because we wanted to minimize the morning drive and maximize the time to sleep in. Well, as much as you can sleep in for a 6:00 am start. We bought sandwiches for breakfast and to put in drop mini-coolers for Beal's Point (mile 27).

There was a small group for the race dinner. Lisa spoke a little bit about the race and thanked the volunteers. We had pasta and salad, and an assortment of sodas and bottled water. There were cake and cookies for dessert. (It's nice to have a little dessert.) The main presentation made me think that next year Don and I should offer to do it, as many of the dinner attendees were first-time AR50 runners. They needed information. There were raffle prizes and we all got little goodie packages from Fleet Feet.

So, the morning of the race we felt a little rushed and got out the door pretty fast. Parking turned out to be really easy, because the businesses on University had allowed the race to use their parking lots. We were right by the portapotties. I worried that we would once again get so caught up in saying hi to people that we would miss the start. And suddenly we were off. Good thing we found Karen just before then. We were trying to get to the back of the crowd. There were over 500 runners out there! By starting very reasonably slow, we were soon almost last. 500 runners went out too fast. It is difficult not to get caught up in the excitement of the start of the race. But Don and I knew better. We promised Karen a finish time of between 10 and 11 hours. There was no need to hurry right at the start. We also told Steve our plan to go out slow. Even so, Steve and Karen were up ahead of us for a little bit. We started talking with two runners, Ivory and Pat. Don and Ivory went faster, Pat and I went slower. They were intereseted in Badwater. The topic came up because I was wearing my Sun Precautions hat. Pat was planning on Badwater 2005.

Lee Jebian wasn't running, but he kept coming down the path to meet Wini, so we saw him often during the run. He was always smiling and teasing me. I caught up to Don, Karen, and Steve. Karen was timing the run walk strategy: 8 and 2, 4 and 1. I didn't even look at my watch. We criss crossed with a bunch of different runners. Some of them eventually went ahead of us, others stayed behind. The ones who went ahead, we saw again much later in the run as we passed them.

It was nice to look forward to our sandwiches that were waiting at Beale's Point. I know Karen was looking forward to sitting down. I was looking forward to a real bathroom. Karen even started going faster to get there sooner. I promised that she would be allowed to sit for 5 minutes, so she didn't have to hurry. Don made our aid station stops really fast. This used to be a problem for me, because I could never get enough food. In this race with the pre-race sandwich, CLIP in one of my bottles, and knowing there was a sandwich coming up, I really didn't have to worry about extra food. Also, the slower pace meant I didn't need those extra calories.

I was running in trail shoes, so I tried to stay on the dirt shoulder of the bike path as much as I could. But, I didn't want to run on uneven ground or in the grass. I think if I have any allergy, it is a grass one. I kept chatting with different people along the way. I thought it would be funny if I talked so much I lost my voice by the end of the run.

In no time at all, Beale's Point was dead ahead, and Tropical and Lisa welcomed us from their chairs. We got our great sandwiches, made bathroom stops, and then Don yelled at us to get going again. We were on plan according to the time. It was about 5:30 hours into the race when we left the aid station.