The G Running Diary

Quadness: 11/29/04

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I sat in my car with the rain pounding down so loudly that it was hard to think. It was 3:00 am. I was next to the park in Mill Valley after a drive of an hour and a half. Don and I had read the forecast that the weather might be bad, but this was really bad. Yeah, yeah, whose idea was this anyway. For some reason, Don has a fascination with the Dipsea trail. The Quad Dipsea is one of his favorite races, but four crossings just isn't enough. He settled on eight as a nice round number, and convinced Philip to do it with him. At least that let me off the hook. But I decided I could run six Dipseas to keep up my semi-studly ultra status. (Extra mileage gives you an excuse to go slower.) So there I was, waiting for them to come off the trail in the rain. I kept telling myself that the rain was letting up, but it wasn't. Don had his cell phone and called me with about a twelve-minute warning for when they would turn up. I got my running stuff together and then saw Don's green light. They weren't the happiest of campers. The trail conditions were nasty. They seemed to be hinting at something, but I was clueless and happy and didn't get it. Don told me later that they would have stopped right there if I hadn't been ready to go.

So, off we went up the stairs. I had a tuna sandwich in my pocket. The trouble was, the rain was so bad that I really didn't feel like eating or drinking anything. Don said the same. At first the trail didn't seem too terrible. Walking up the hill with the big houses was no big deal, but that was because it was pavement. We passed through Muir Woods, and then things got mushy. This section is often a little damp anyway. I was watching my footing, but then branches would hit my head. We didn't talk much.

There was a spooky part. Out on the exposed ridge, it was really foggy, or I guess it was low clouds, but it was so thick that you couldn't see the trail. At least the trail was straight on this section. I've never seen fog so thick. You know how they say that you can't see your hand in front of your face? With this fog, it was true.

Things got better after we turned around. The weird fog moved off the trail. The rain was stopping and the trail was even starting to dry up. Amazingly, it wasn't so slushy on the way back. A little bit of sky was peeking through. We were worried about the idea of the race starting without us, and that we'd have to fight our way down the stairs with 200 people coming up, but we made it down with some minutes to spare. I went over to my car with a single purpose: change my clothes. I wished I had time to change my shoes and socks, but that wasn't going to happen. At least my feet were no longer soaked through. I threw off my gloves, jacket, top, and outer layer jogbra, and put on new ones. I was glad I had a whole new set of clothes.

I went to the back of the crowd to start the race and found Cindy, our coaching client. I kept saying she shouldn't stick with us because we'd be so slow we might not make the race cutoffs. They were 4 hours for 2 Dipseas, 6:15 for 3, and 8:30 overall cutoff (although that's always been soft). Philip and I both thought we wouldn't even make the first cutoff. Don powered ahead with Cindy. He seemed to get stronger the longer he spent on the trail. I was tired going up the stairs. But on any downhill I felt fine. The weather had turned out beautifully. The rain had cleared out all the junk and the views were the best ever.