The G Running Diary

Javelina: Party Time Again: 11/17/04

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Trying to capture all the thoughts from a 100 miler can be difficult as life intervenes and the images fade. Even immediately following the event, points can be hard to remember because the nighttime section seems like just a dream, and I wonder how long I really was running.

This Javelina turned out better than I expected. I felt more bonding with other runners than usual, and I kept my wits enough to realize how great the volunteers were. All around, I spent the weekend with a super bunch of people. Maybe that is the point of it all, that within this community, people are just nice to each other, recognizing common suffering and helping each other through it. We share the triumphs and commiserate over the disappointments. And everyone seems to make the best of whatever happens during the event.

Don and I decided to run Javelina 2004 about a year ago, immediately after Javelina 2003. There was something special about this one. Maybe it's the desert setting, I don't know, but it was definitely worth the return trip. As the race date approached, we found out other people we knew were going. It felt like a party!

We flew out of San Jose airport at 9:00 am Friday. Everything went smoothly and the rental car company even upgraded us from an economy car to a minivan. I was thinking that would be a great place to sleep if I finished before Don.

Finish before Don? Well, he was the one who had originally promised to run with Lucinda through the whole 100 miles, to make sure that she would finish her first 100 miler after many attempts. I was included in that promise, but I could choose to do my own thing at some point if I wanted. Well, that wasn't really necessary. I figured my best goal would be to avoid having a bad, slow night like the one I had last year. If I could take care of things during the day, in particular, eat enough, then I wouldn't have the nighttime heebie jeebies. If I could do that, what would my finish time matter?

We arrived at the race checkin and wandered around meeting up with friends. One person I was on the lookout for was Rich Limacher. I've known him over email for a few years, but we never met in person. I used my powers of deduction to figure out who he was, and when I said hi, he already knew who I was. After a (very) brief pre-race speech from Geri, we went off to buy more food for dinner and attempted to get to sleep early. With a 6:00 am start and the hotel 30 minutes away, Don figured we should go to bed at 9:00 pm for a good sleep. Well, it was something like that. We also talked with Lucinda, who was all set for the next day. She showed me her foot taping job, which looked very well done. I should have followed my own advice on that one. I didn't tape my feet at all. I thought they were all tough and could stand 100 miles of the Javelina not-very-hilly terrain. That was a little mistake. At least I had decided to wear gaiters.