The G Running Diary

Dipseas: 11/30/04

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The runners coming the other way were smiling. Well, most of them were, except the competitive ones who looked so determined. The greetings back and forth were friendly. At times like this I think of Mr. Roarke from Fantasy Island, "Smiles everyone, smiles."

We came down into Muir Woods, and there was an aid station, right after the stairs so they could warn us about the slippery steps. There was some good food! We carried on through and it was uphill for a while. All uphill until the Cardiac aid station, really. Don argued that point with me. Sure there were a couple very small downhills, but mainly it was a climb. This was a revelation to me.

There were lots of happy people at the aid station, and as we continued to pass through this aid station 3 more times, word spread that Don had been up all night doing extra miles. Some people thought I had too, so I made sure that they knew I was only half-crazy. Anyway, we were thinking about Cindy. I wanted her to hurry up, so that she wouldn't be up against those cutoffs. We made it through Stinson Beach, the turnaround, in under 2 hours, which was ok. The quicker we could get through there, the more time we'd have to make it back. The way back is supposedly harder, but in my mind it was easier. All you had to do was suffer up the bad stairs and the rest was all downhill. (That wasn't true, but it was how I saw it.) We went along fine, but as we got closer to Mill Valley we told Cindy to get going. We were being a bit too casual for how close we were to the cutoff. Cindy was being polite to hikers on the trail, which is good, but if they step aside for you to go by, you go. I told her to go and then as I tried to hurry through the water crossing, I skidded on a rock and almost went all the way down. Don caught me before my butt hit the water. We ran on. We took the stairs pretty quickly and made it with a few minutes to spare. I saw familiar faces there, but with no time to chat, had to hurry back up those stairs. Even though the race was only half over, it felt like I was close to finished. I only had to go up all those stairs one more time. I still had to come back down them, but that was later.

The day was so beautiful that the run didn't seem hard. I talked with Cindy. On the flat downhill sections I trotted and felt like a real runner. Don said I was really fast--this from a guy who'd been running all night. But it was important to keep moving. We were heading out to Stinson and the 6:15 cutoff. Cindy was moving well on the downhill, and we made it just a little over 6 hours. Now we had plenty of time to get back to Mill Valley. Cindy was relieved when I told her. Don was behind us but soon caught up. He was always faster on the uphills. We enjoyed the views for the last time, and enjoyed our crossing of the Dipsea without seeing any more runners. We were close to last. We still saw plenty of hikers out there.

We were happy to descend the last stairs. Finally we could stop and talk to people. Cindy was happy, and her husband and son were there for her. Now our only problem was making sure we got food and didn't freeze to death. It was great weather for running, but not so great for standing around. Hollis cooked us sausages and I had the best spicy black bean soup ever. We got a shirt and a hat and a whole lot of satisfaction. The drive home took a while, since Don and I were in separate cars, we both had to stay wide awake. That was hard, but then we got to sleep until noon the next day.