Click on this link: RUNNING CENTER REDLINERS to go to our FACEBOOK page for the most up to date information and events.  

The finish at the San Francisco Half Marathon where 12 of our club members competed!!!

SEPTEMBER

Monday TRACK workouts:  6 PM, at Los Alamos Sports Park in MurrietaThursday night runs: 6 PM from Running Center Store 

Wed night runs: 6:15 PM at RODRIGO’S (Corner of Winchester and Nicholas) or Pizza Factory (79S & Margarita) 

Thurs night runs:  6PM from the Running Center store.    You choose from either a 2, 4 or 6 mile runs.  These are in addition to our run club runs and anyone and everyone is invited to take part.  Prize drawings, pizza to all who run last Thursday of each month, punch card: get 20 punches and get $35. credit toward run center merchandise.

SRP= Santa Rosa Plateau

Track =Los Alamos sports park in Murrieta

Squint hard to see some of the Redliners in non action

TEMECULA  REDLINERS –  ABOUT US:

We are a loose knit gaggle of runners who range in ability level from not at all fast (think 9 to 12 minute mile pace) to not at all slow (think 6 minute mile pace). Most of us run in the 8 to 9 minute mile pace and  we’re happy to adjust our paces for new comers. We often chat as we run, car pool to races, provide each other cheers from the side lines, and have periodic ‘special’ fun runs or party’s/picnics amongst ourselves. We have almost equal representation of males and females.  WE have some hubby/wife pairs but more often have just a male or female who’s partner in life isn’t into running.  We sometimes bike or swim or hike (or do whatever someone wants) together also.

Our ‘normal’ schedule is to do a track work out Monday nights, a 5 mile run/jog Wed nights, a longer run  Sat. mornings, plus many of us go to the Running Centers Thursday night 2, 4 or 6 mile ‘choice’ run.  That run is a great place for beginner runners to meet some of us and the two mile course is easy enough for just about anybody to fit into.  Runners who can go 5 miles at about a 9. pace can fit into any of our runs.

We are trying to expand our numbers so please, don’t just think about joining us, JUST DO IT!!

Our Exact schedule and chit chat amongst us can be found on our Facebook page “RUNNING CENTER REDLINERS”  I’d give you a link but I’m a runner, not a computer person and I don’t know how to do it.

JUNE

RUNNING CENTER RUNS: starting Thursday 1 April, there will be runs held from the Running Center store.  These runs will start at 6 PM and will involve  2, 4 or 6 mile runs.  These are in addition to our run club runs and anyone and everyone is invited to take part.  Prize drawings, pizza to all who run last Thursday of each month, punch card: get 20 punches and get $35. credit toward run center merchandise.

Monday TRACK workouts:  6 PM, at Los Alamos Sports Park in Murietta

Wed night runs: 6:15 PM at RODRIGO’S (Corner of Winchester and Nicholas)s) Facebook announcements say  6 M because it won’t let you type in ’15′ but the correct time for run to start is 6:15

Thursday night runs: 6 PM from Running Center Store

SRP= Santa Rosa Plateau

Track =Los Alamos sports park in Murrieta

Dripping Springs runs will be held roughly 1st and 3rd Sat’s each month unless other wise specified.

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JUNE MEETING:  Parking lot places, everyone.:

The parking lot meeting  went smoothly except Ingy had roving eyes.  He kept scanning the ground for quarters.

Ingy suggested, and we then decided, by popular vote to move Wed. run N  meetings to Rodrigo’s, a more convenient start local for those living in Murrieta. Parts of this run will be on an honest to God bike trail…won’t THAT be a pleasant change, plus parts will go around lake Haverston.  Does running around a lake on a warm summer evening sound inviting?? : )  Mt biking beside the runners may actually be a feasible option on these courses, though bikes may have to jump over leashes attached to dogs around  Haverston.

SRP runs will normally be held the 1st and 3rd Sat of each month, with a Drip Springs run roughly once a quarter, date to be determined during monthly meetings.

Sat the 19th of June will be a run from Christine’s and Bryon’s and I believe I heard the word ‘food’ mentioned  : )

Noni and Eric will have a Run- with- the- Coyotes Moon light run, date to be determined by the full moon dates.  We will park at Veterans Park on La Serena, run down Pina Colada to Meadow view, then course the trails out there.    Probably follow up pot luck dessert in the park. Person with best imitation Coyote ‘ki yii’ wins kudos, and maybe gets to take left over desserts home. (I’m starting to practice mine today!!)

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WHAT DO YA GET WHEN YOU ADD REDLINERS TO CYCOPATHERS??

RED CYCOPATHS?

Hubby Bob’s been leading bike rides fit for all ability levels from Cycopath bike shop on Rancho CA road (uphill a ways (also known as East, I think) from the Target center) at 8AM Sundays.  Today he hit a grand slam when about 14 people joined in at various points of the ride.  Victoria and son AKA: future triathlete Jacob got in at the start, arriving with a tire flatter than a road killed snake. That got fixed post haste, then they, Midnight Rider Doug, and a host of non ‘Liners got launched.

This group ultimately paired up with Darcy, her hubby Pat, AND Karrie, AND DINA and the entire crew headed up toward pant pant pant SRP.  Some like Doug topped out at the TOP, others braked for a break at the fire station and others hung loose  further down.  Then there were the over achievers AKA Darcy and Co. who continued on PAST SR pant pant P.

Those that went up, came flying back down and some continued to fly down Jefferson at 22 MPH but I won’t say… Who… U Doug??.  Others assumed a more reasonable pace before tying back into the Flyers once the flyers put their landing gear down and went into a more comfy pace.   Darcy’s over achiever  group ended up going something like 41 miles and how many hot fudge sundays does one deserve for doing that?    This odd combo of friends and strangers,   experienced and novice riders and runners ended up having a blast together.

……………….

As usual, please excuse the jumping numbers in the calendar. And while I’m excusing me, please excuse the lack of May (hey, we survived without it, right?) but I was working hard for the census and didn’t have time to update this…OK, truth is, Christine’s doing such a great job on facebook, it’s kind of like, do we even need this??

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PAST:

MEETING NOTES: WHAT A TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE, LET ME SEE IF I GOT THIS STRAIGHT:

1. The run club will continue to exist but there will be no dues and thus no free pizza in conjunction with Wed. night runs.  The runs will continue to occur from the pizza factory, and the monthly meeting will continue to occur there, but anyone wanting food will have to pay for it themselves.  Having said that, there will be free Pizza given to those who run any distance from the Running Center at 6 PM on the last Thursday of each month.

2.  Run club points will continue to be counted by guess who..yep BETH…so repeat after me, “GET YOUR POINTS TO BETH.” I know a bunch of us as in everyone but uh, one person, ceased sending her points so now we gotta all play catch up and get them to her.

3.  Monday track work outs are staying the same for now but Monica is looking into alternative locations.

4. Christine’s been doing a great job with posting our runs on face book. Once posted, these messages automatically (I guess) fly through cyber space and end up on anyone’s E mail who has a facebook account. If you aren’t getting the messages, it’s because you aren’t on facebook.  She encourages anybody who has an event they want to invite people to or if you want to carpool to races or whatever, PLEASE POST IT on Running Center Redliners Face Book!

MUDDY BUDDY RACE:

IF  ONE PICTURE IS WORTH 1000 words then the following 30 or so pics aught to be worth 30,000 words.   I’ll let the pics do the talking for me!

Unlike the Temecula Muddy Buddy held in Dec where our costumes froze themselves to our bodies, March 28 saw absolutely ideal weather conditions, with a course made more challenging due to the addition of numerous rain ruts.

My partner Rick (in back with blue head dress) and I delivered half of this gaggle of gals who rented bikes from Cycopath bike shop to the start line.  The 6 gals came down from Canada to do the race.  (Want me to repeat that for all you locals who aren’t doing it for whatever reason??)    They were quite an adventuresome lot, some having done ultras (watch out Eric!!) and with plans next year to run the Great Wall of China Marathon.  But maybe not dressed this way!

30 minutes before race start, everyone in costume hit the stage for the costume contest.

RICK and I did our best but were trumped in the costume department by about 20 other couples. The winners were a couple dressed head to toe as bananas, accompanied by their labra’dork’, dressed as a doggy banana, complete with little green ‘peal’ hat on his head.  I think I saw him tell a poodle “Don’t ask, don’t tell or the cats in the neighborhood will NEVER let me live this down!!   “

This couple pledged to love each other “TIL MUD DO US PART”

Two guys ya don’t wanna mess with in the mud pit…or out!

Of course, these two look like they were made to keep the above men in line

The banana dog may not have been the only creature saying, “Don’t ask, Don’t tell”

Living proof only 4 legged animals should wear fur?

The gun went off and off went the bikers, followed 30 seconds later by the runners.

For the next 5 miles we went under, over, or across 4 obstacles, each time switching from bike to run or run to bike, with our partner.

I have no idea what’s growing out of this gal’s bike helmet

But whatever above is, it looks like it might make a meal out of whatever this is!

THE BIKING:

The photographer occasionally actually caught someone..or maybe ‘ something’  riding the bike.

Proof that some participants appeared normal.

Emphasis on the word “some”

OF COURSE the BEST obstacle is the 40 foot mud pit.  COLD, OWEEY GOOEY MUD.

“Anybody got some SPOT remover?”

Rick and I cross the finish in 47.07 to take first in age and 20th overall of 343 teams. Not bad for a pair of over 50′s : )

Once you finish, half the fun is watching others do the mud crawl

Recognize her?

These two globs of mud look pretty darn serious about the final sprint to the end.

Fashion statement…keep one shoulder clean?

Cotton candy gone BAD??

‘Twister’ …. so not the indoor version!

Hopefully Temecula’s veil lake will continue to be a venue for this race but unless the race folks lower the pricey price to something more reasonable, I suspect it may not last long in this area.

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DIAMOND VALLEY LAKE HALF MARY:

“HOW DRY WE AREN’T”    to misquote an old commercial!

STEVE Altfillisch, BRYAN Allen,and DAN Detienne prove that none of them melt in rain.

Steve sets a new record for race report brevity:

“Here is a picture from Diamond Valley Half.  We all finished in the top ten!”

Note to all you Redliners out there:  SEE HOW EASY IT IS TO WRITE A RACE REPORT !!

Thanx Steve for sharing and congrats to you who muddled thru the puddles of both the half and the full. I guess rainy races are in the eye of the beholder because I heard everything from “It was really nice, the way the rain made the rocks shine, the peacefulness, the split splat of my feet” …to….”it was utterly miserable and awful to boot”.

Looks like at least one person perfected how to stay dry.

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RUN, TROT N BIKE ALONG THE SANTA ANA RIVER TRAIL

6 of us joined Dina and Victor on Sunday to enjoy a day of perfect weather on the trail that runs along the Santa Ana River.

Happiness is free parking!

The path weaved in and out of grassy areas vegetated with assorted flowering bushes, plants and trees, then periodically dived down toward the rushing waters of the river.  Kim, Christine, and Dina took off for their 12 mile jog, while Glen, Bryan, and Victor headed out for 16.  Doug and I biked.  The competitor within made me start my bike out hard and fast but my ego took a hit when my legs started to rebel against my pace at the 20 minute mark.  Doug, who had been riding my draft, cruised passed me and nonchalantly pulled ahead without appearing to break a sweat. He gradually pulled further and further ahead of me, feet lackadaisically rotating his pedals, while I spun like crazy to keep him in sight.

8 mile mark, and yes, that is a stuffed gorilla in the tree.

We rejoined after riding 8 miles and hung out there for a bit til the  male crew showed up on foot.  They rested for 60 breaths, then  made a U turn and headed back towards ‘the barn’.  Doug and I continued West on the bike trail to mile marker 12 before U -ing ourselves.  On the ride back we cruised a gentle pace, admiring a large variety of bird life that hung 10 in and along the water.  We passed Victor, Bryan, and Glen, who were now running with about a block between each other.  We  hit the huge park  by the parking lot to find Kim and Christine lounging on the grass while Dina  stretched her 12 miles into about 14  miles.  Glen popped up just a few minutes later making me wonder if perhaps he was wearing those shoes with built in rollers on the bottoms.  We lounged and chatted and just about the time we were starting to wonder what was up with Victor and Bryan, speak of the devil….. they appeared in the distance. Not moving fast.

The sub 8 pace on the way out, or maybe just the distance involved,  had taken a toll.  Victor’s knee went on strike at the 15 mile point and he and Bryan walked it on in.

Once  everyone was present and accounted for we  lounged and chatted some more before heading for a great little Mexican fast food place Doug steered us to.  Hunger satisfied, we headed back to Murietta.  

All told, it was a great day along the river with great company.  And how often around here do you get to see a roaring river thats spouting tons of water over 5 foot drops and whirling along the banks that are only a few feet away from the trail one is on!!

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SRP= santa Rosa Plateau

Track =Los Alamos sports park in Murietta

Pizza Fac = pizza factory

FM= farmers market in old town

TYPO: Temecula FIT  Race is Sunday the 13th, not  Monday..but you all  probably already knew that.

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Thanx to Beth (yet again!  ) for saving the Newsletter format  from my inverted mess to something reasonably readable : )

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Note:    From  KIM KOCH:   “Several of us are going to run the Temecula for Fit loop on Wed. 9  Sept at 6 PM starting at the parking lot between the rec center and the pool . We might do 2 loops.

Note to that note:  Herman and Victor were surrounded by a full compliment of run club females at the above referred  to training run….maybe ‘surrounded’ isn’t the right term since they both seemed to be well out front of the rest of us.  Anyway we crunched and mashed and gasped  our way through  that heavily hilled course.     Once  one lap  was done, we contemplated doing a second for about .93  of one second,  then concluded that would amount to excessive masochism. So instead we topped off the hills by runnin’ round Regan park’s nice flat pathways for combined distance  of 5.1 miles.

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JESTER RUN on 19 Sept SAT!!!! Location:   Far east end of Murrieta Hot Springs Road -drive east as far as you can go…beyond the narrowed off area..   just keep gonin’ til you spot Eric’s smilin’ face -be there by 7 AM, prepped to have  fun and exercise!

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WED. NIGHT MEETING DATA:  The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly:

1.  THE GOOD: See below for data on Eric’s planned Jester FUN run on 19 Sept.

2.  Noni plans to have a club picnic and run on Sat 3 Oct, tentatively at a beach. Stay tuned for details as they  emerge .

3.   Mr Victor L,   Ambassador Extrordinare’ (or however  it’s  spelled..I  barely spell English let alone French) did some schmoozin’ with the folks  at Harry’s Pacific Grill and we can reserve the outdoor patio area some friday night for  drinks N’ conversation. Contact him directly, those of you who’d like  to do this.

4.  Ingy wants to know if people would like to join him (and often Bob M and Doug) for periodic Sunday morning road bike rides, normally starting from his house at around 7 AMish pending what folks want.  These rides run about 18 to 25 miles and are done at EZ pace of maybe 15 to 16 MPH average and oft times include ‘cofffee break stop’ at a ritzy joint like MacDonalds.  (Am I the only american that can’t spell  MacDonalds??).  Anyone interested, let Ingy know a couple days before Sunday arrives.

THE BAD:  Membership down and dues dollars disappearing fast. Ingy can’t find enough coins to support the club, especially now that his running distance has dropped.  Help save him from getting run over by cars at intersections by doing your part and paying your dues and trying hard and harder to recruit fresh blood.  and speaking of fresh blood:

THE UGLY:  About 6 of us (that’s like 1/7  of the club   members) are periodically crawling around Hurkey (aka Crash) Creek on our mt  bikes.   Most of us go in slooo mo’, which certainly doesn’t keep us from spillin’ blood but we’re havin’ a   blast doing it.  For you 6:

Today Doug and I set a new  distance record (for us)  out there, going 16.24 impressive miles in 4 hrs 20 minutes. Two, yes, 2 inches of rain fell there yesterday and that made  parts of the course… mmmmmmm… shall we say ‘interesting’. The Fresh rain created ruts and freshly exposed rocks tried to grab  our tires.  In other places, the sand turned to nice compact dirt and the stream that normally isn’t, today truly was a stream.      The world  of Hurkey smelled fresh and clean, scented by nature,  and yellow flowers carpeted the valleys.

We took the next loop higher up from the loop taken with Barb, known officially as Snake Skin.  It started at roughly 5,500 feet.  We did a long false start when we took the wrong trail, then back peddled up chuga- chug hill to locate the correct trail.  Once found, that trail was sweet with views to die for of the surrounding mountain tops and Doug, did you remember  to bring the lightening rod??  After descending almost back to the double  track road we all like to ride on, we forked off toward the  …uhhh…East (I think) and took a delightful single track that weaved it’s way through bushes but which wasn’t technical  in nature.  Just plain pretty and fun.  So heads up you mt bikers, this is a spot we’ll have to target at some point.

Key for Calendar:

SRP = Santa Rosa Plateau (parking lot the horse trailers use about 1 mile past the visitor center parking lot)

FM = Farmers Market in old Town Temecula

Pizza Fac =  5 mile run from Pizza Factory in Redhawk on Temecula Pkwy next to Stater Bros

Track = New location: In Murietta: Los Alamos Sports park, corner of Los Alamos and Hunter, meet at 6:30 PM at the concession stand.

Note:  1st and 3rd Sat of the month will be run at SRP at 0700 for the Summer

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WED night meeting:

Quick recap:  Monday night track workouts have been changed to Los Alamos sports park located in Murrieta, corner of Los Alamos and Hunter. Meet at the concession stand.

Dr. Brigid Freyene gave an extremely interesting talk about osteoporosis and how to prevent it.  Key points: we  should be getting 1,500 mg of calcium per day, spread out through out the day because one’s body can only absorb 500 mg at a time…so even if you eat 2 gallons of ice cream all at one time   (Is my finger pointing back at me??),  you can only absorb 500mg of calcium  even though the 2  gallons has more than that in it.  In order for the calcium to be properly absorbed, you also need about 1000 iu of vitamin D. One gets vitamin D via sun or food or vitamins. Despite living in this sunny climate, she sees  lots  of folks with vitamin D deficiency.    So make sure you eat it or absorb it or all that calcium you’re gulping, slurping or  swollowing down won’t do you the good it should.

Take heed males too:  Osteoporosis isn’t just no fun for we gals.  It can strike you too, so when the kids scream for  ice cream,  if your figure can afford it, think about screamin’ with them.

Dr Brigid tossed out this incentive ref the Os. disease:   If you are ‘older’, to put it nicely,   and you break a hip because your bone mass was  lacking,  there is a 90% chance you’ll be under ground lookin’ up at the bottom of your gravestone within 1 year.  YIKES!!  Runners tend to be slender and the more slender one is, the more likely one is to have the problem….but weight bearing activities such as running and weight lifting (note:  not biking or swimming) tend to build bone mass.  So what does she see?        Runners with strong hip/leg bone mass but they’ve got whimpy spines and poor upper body bone mass.  So pay attention to   your calcium and vit D. intake and work at weight lifting along with running.

From Doug:

Looking at taking Kayak lessons in San Diego. Talked with Mark about it and he said he and Barb are interested also. Said he can go either 8/2 8/15 or 8/30 Im wondering how many others might be interested…  price is a sweet $35.  for lessons plus use  of the kayak for follow up hours of  fun minus the instructor. E me  back if you are.

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from Ingy:

WE HAVE REDLINER SHIRTS FOR SALE. GO TO RUNNING CENTER, OR SEE BOB. Cash or check preferred. $20 each.-   In Addition to below Redliners shirts, Ingy has  a few Trotters shirts at $5.  Each.

Men’s sizes large or medium in white, gray, or green.

Women’s sizes small or medium in white only.

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HURKEY CREEK :

Kim :  Where do you suppose  my job stress went to??

Doug:  I think you left it in the car but it could’ve fallen out at that big dip you rode through.

Kim, Doug and I have now  made several trips to Hurkey creek.  On todays (31 July) venture,  Doug was able to  piece  together the correct route for the 24 hrs of Adrenalin Race course.  We followed that course well compared to the last few  times when the multitude  of unfamiliar trails kept confusing us.  Doug  enjoyed  the  steep, luge- course – like decent of the trail called the Exfoliator while I crept down behind him at a pace fast  snails could beat. We walked some heavy duty ascents,  flew down some truly delightful descents, and paid our  respects at  a  memorial    made  of  rocks,  GU packs, and photo left in memory of a young and handsome looking mt biker named Darren. Anybody flying along that trail  on the back of a bike  has to feel a certain  kinship  with Darren.  It made me realize how special  it is that those of us who  mt  bike or hike or trail  run get a  chance to enjoy aspects of life that the vast majority of the population never experiences. We live  life to  it’s  fullest.  Good for you, Darren, for being out there  living life to  it’s fullest in the abbreviated  time  that you had on earth.

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FROM AARP  MAGAZINE:

Ways to burn 50 calories:

1.  Vacuum for 10 minutes   (gag but if you gotta do it,  at least it accomplishes something besides clean floors that already looked clean )

2.  Give a friend a massage for 9 minutes.  Not sure how many you burn if you are the receiver but less than 50 for sure.

3.  Spend 20 minutes typing at the computer….When Doug was doing the newsletter, he was spending something like 35 hrs a week trying to put material  into it… this might explain why his metabolism actually went up instead  of down as he got,  uhhhhhhhh….. not younger.

4.  Laughing for 10 to 15 minutes.  Don’t we do that most Pizza nights??  maybe we need more  of them!

5.  8 minutes of Hula Hooping  (if your back doesn’t go out after 5 and prevent you from running for 2 months)

6.  8 minutes of picking up litter..now that’s what I call a win win situation!!

7.  14 minutes of conducting an imaginary orchestra..and here we all thought ‘ringing in the ears’ was just an irritant.  Now you can wave your arms to it and burn calories!

8.  last and definitely least:  Chewing gum for…4.5 hrs

SRP = santa rosa Plateau      FM  =Farmers  market  in old Town

Pizza fac  =  pizza factory

Note:  1st and 3rd Sat of the month will be run at SRP at 0700 for the Summer

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NEW just in below  Doug’s data:  Doug, Kim K. and my trip to Idylwild’s Hurkey creek for mt  biking fun in the sun.  NOW ADDED:  3 Video links …and corrected the inadvertent  duplicate video.

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From Doug:

Looking at taking Kayak lessons in San Diego. Talked with Mark about it and he said he and Barb are interested also. Said he can go either 8/2  8/15 or 8/30 Im wondering how many others might be interested…E me  back if you are.

====================

Thanx to Doug,  it looks like we really are going to have a ‘proper’   July newsletter…the following are his photos, captions and comments

HEY GANG, ENJOY SOME PICS FROM THE 5K/15K RACE AT CORONADO PLUS SOME PICS  FROM THE 5 K “OFF ROAD” RACE AT GUAJOME

Some of the Gang awaiting Awards.    4th of July and American flag

Check out Boston’s new Bicycle Wheel Ear rings

Guajome Park 7 AM  ”Only the Fit are Fearless”

Middle of the Men’s race and Tino’s just behind Big Mo’.  He’s  runnin’ well but for some reason he’s giving me the stink eye.

Victor Flores:   this Gato’s  gettin’  faster with every race. Or maybe he’s  afraid of gettin’ passed  by a dude with a mullet.

Flyin’ Bryan Allen mid race

Noni mid race.  Boston Barb is hidden behind Noni, you can just make out Barbs elbow behind Noni.  They are trying to run down Jammin’ Jane who has 20 yards on them and Jane is trying to catch Kim P. who is 10 yds in front of her.

KP only a few yards from the finish line. Kim took Taimi’s bib and ran in an age group 2 age groups lower…and she won..and if that wasn’t remarkable enough, Jammin’ Jane finished about 18 seconds later and Boston Barb and Noni (I’m guessing) finished just about 20 seconds back of that.  …And they are all 4 age groups older and would have placed well  in the W 35 to 39 group!!   I’d get down on my knees  and bow but well with my back  and all I might have trouble  gettin’  back up.  Any rate, you gals all rock!

Guajome Park and what’s left of the gang as they head home back to 100+ degree temps.

Thanx Mucho’s Doug for providing some really  first class quality material for the Newsletter!!

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On Friday 16th, Doug, Kim K, and I  Mountain biked  at Hurkey Creek, about 1 hr from Temecula.  Fun was never so  cheap.  $2. per person entrance fee to the lovely Hurkey creek campground start area got us a full days worth of mt  biking fun.

This area is ripe with trails from EZ to NOT  for  mt. biking and hiking.  The multitude of trails come with spectacular views and a map  designed to  confuse the best, or at least the 3 of us. The fact that it confused Kim and me was no surprise but even  pro navigator Doug got a bit twisted around due to the map not accurately reflecting cross trails.  Not a big  deal though so long as your brain remembers which  general direction gets you back to the campground.

I’d advise taking plenty of fluids and food though to allow for potential unexpected extra exercise that returning to camp might entail, and the compass we tossed in our pack last  minute came in handy.

We climbed steadily on  mostly nice single track from the start local of about uh….4,200 ft til 2.2 miles and 40 minutes later we summited at 4,900 feet.  After that our bikes got to play with swopping fun and ez downs til we suddenly hit the below technical  blip.   The photo  doesn’t accurately reflect the difficulty of the  20 ft dead down dive.  The dive led to the 2 ft wide bridge Kim is standing on that the bikes had to be aimed at, then pedal for all you’re worth to try to get back up  the 20 plus foot tall slope Kim’s facing.

Down hill speedster Doug was well   ahead of pokey down hiller me as we  approached this surprise.  Kim was  on my back wheel.

Kim flexing her new found mt  biking muscles.

Before Doug even had a chance to think ,  ’WHOPPYYYYY’  , let alone yell it,  he flew down, crossed the bridge and upPPed  back up the UP  again.   I doubt he even  had time  to comprehend the difficulty of what he’d just done or  maybe he just always looks that cool and collected under pressure :  ) .     He sprang ( as   much as   he can ‘spring’) off  his bike to spot me across.  Approaching more slowly than Doug had,  I took one look at it, clutched  my back brake to slow  my pace  fearing I’d go over the bridge’s  edge, turned  my bike into  what Doug calls  a  sled, slid down, then only had enough speed to make it half way back up before reaching max uphill speed of zero MPH.  Since most bikes don’t like to stay vertical at 0 MPH, especially when on about a 70 degree slope, mine plopped over  on it’s side.   OOPSie daisy also  known as OH S$%&#t !!    Knowing Kim  was on my tailfeathers, I dragged my bike aside, and Doug bounced (yes, he can bounce) down into a better spotting spot  just   in time for her to catapult down, accross and WOWWWW KIM, I CAN’T BELEIVE YOU MADE IT back up and out.

KIM:    ”I double dare you Glen to  make  it up this first try!”

After the ‘blip’, the trail resumed to EZ fun downs, leading to a large valley surrounded by mt’s.

Doug doing a snake track check, better  known as an R n R stop.

R n R feels pretty good, even to a new found expert biker.

“Maybe it’s an ADD thing.”

Unlike most humans who fall off their bikes going zero MPH, somehow Doug manages to remain on his.  Or maybe the camera just stopped his motion really well. We’ll   never tell!

The above and below photos reflect  the terrain/views we had most  of the time.

Kim to Doug:   “Do ya want to compare heart  rates?”

Doug: ” Not particularly”

Lunch time – 5.3  miles and roughly 2.5 hrs into the ride.

Mt  Biking has a fast  learning curve to it  and Kim’s picking it up  at warp speed.  In this pic,  note that she’s even learned to stand like an expert  biker…and I don’t think Doug by the looks of it coached her!

View at lunch. (That road is steeper than it looks!).   We got to   experience this view twice because after lunch we headed down down downnnnn a very longggg and very nice double track road  for a very longgggg time until….

The nice nifty double  track dead  ended  at a DO NOT ENTER private property fence line. Hummmmmmm….

Lost in Space but at least it was   beautiful space  to  be  lost in

Doug:  “Not lost….I still  know where  North is and where the camp  ground is… uhhh,  let’s see that compass again  for a sec… and don’t those forest   service folks believe  in billboards  or  somethin’ out here to  ID the trails??”

Sooo we got to ride all the way back upppppp, making frequent map  check stops that didn’t help us,  til we  got  to   re  see that  view we had at   lunch at 5, 100 feet, then we kept going UP further from that spot til we spotted hiway 74, then went DOWNHILL and re found our original summit that actually wasn’t since  it was 4,900   ft. We  back tracked  back to  our start    local, then dropped our bikes after almost 4 hrs. We  all  set down and chilled out eating good food and drinking all  the extra  fluid we  had   left at the car  :    )

Icing on the mt  biking day Cake:  After words,  we all  took  a bath together. Uh, that didn’t come out quite  right since two of us are married.  We drove the 2 miles to Lake Hemit and took an absolutely delightful plunge in the chilly waters to clean the dust off our   very well  dusted clothes and bodies.  The perfect ending to a perfect day.

VIDEO LINKS TAKEN DURING THE RIDE:  Doug tackles the deep   dip and makes it look too easy and Kim   and I  traverse a    meadow, I whoosh thru a down slope at our lunch spot:

http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b143/Trexx77/?action=view&current=HurkeyCreekJuly09KimandTracy004.flv

http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b143/Trexx77/?action=view&current=HurkeyCreekJuly09KimandTracy005.flv

http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b143/Trexx77/?action=view&current=HurkeyCreekJuly09KimandTracy006.flv

FM= farmer’s market

Track= at temecula middle school

SRP=Santa Rosa Plateau

HASH RUN

Saturday, June 6th we will meet in the parking lot of Best Buy on Temecula Parkway (Highway 79 South) at 7am for an approximately 7.5 mile Hash Run. Herman Castille will be the rabbit and claims he has NEVER been caught!!!Plan to make this Saturday run as it sounds like fun and club points will be awarded.

————————–

WHOOPPEEEEEEE!!!!

FLORES   Pool Party and BBQ June 13th at 1pm at 27945 Canyon Hills Way, Murrieta

RSVP:  dflores000@msn.com or via phone number   on your club roster

——————

3 JUNE:  Pizza nite:  special speaker:  Tim Sall, former coach at Murrieta Valley High, will speak about speed work for distance runners.  That same night,  Ingy encourages everyone to bring friend, relative or best enemy to run club for both the run and the FREE pizza as part of the Inaugural National Running Day celebration

Almost the whole gang – Top Row: Glen, Kim, Mari, Beth, Iain, Noni, Monica, Mr. Ambassador, Vic, Polly; Middle Row: Jen, Tino, Barb, Dina, Tony; Bottom Row: The Big E

Legend:   Pizza Fac:  Pizza Factory                   Track at Temecula Middle School

FM :           Farmer’s Market  (old town )           SRP:   Santa Rosa Plateau

Coming Soon:  Pizza night, June 3rd thanx  to Ingy we will have a guest speaker, Tim Sall, former coach at Murrieta Valley High School, and a former runner and disciple of Dr. Vigil, America’s premier distance running coach. He will speak on “speed work for distance runners”

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SURF DOWN FOR NEW PICS FM Memorial Day Lake E   Race!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SPECIAL NOTE  from INGY!!! :  Wednesday, June 3 is the inaugural National Running Day, created to promote running as a healthy, easy, and accessible form of exercise. Across the country the day will celebrate the benefits of running as part of a healthy and active lifestyle.
    I encourage all club members to participate in our 5 mile run that evening at 6:15pm and to invite any friends or neighbors who may be interested in running. They are also welcome to stay for pizza following the run. We will have a local running coach that night speaking on “speed work for the distance runner”. 
.———————

From Ingy:

WE HAVE REDLINER SHIRTS FOR SALE. GO TO RUNNING CENTER, OR SEE BOB. Cash or check preferred. $20 each.-

 Men’s sizes large or medium in white, gray, or green.

Women’s sizes small or medium in white only.

———————

YIPEEEEE..every one see this!!!!!

Hi All,
 
Attached is an invitation to join us for a pool party and BBQ.
If we’ve left any of the Running Center Redliners out, please forward!
 
Thanks,

The Flores Family

Flores Pool Party June 13 at 1 PM, location:  27945 Canyon Hills Way, Murrieta, RSVP:  dflores000@msn.com

————–

RED, White N Blue races at Lake E.

Kim K:

“Happiness is running ‘short’ at Lake E today and not 26.2 in the LA Marathon !!”

 Doug hung out at lake E. this morning, admired the scenery and clickity clicked his camera  while Redliners hit the dirt and ran.  You have him to thank for these photos.  As for results, Ingy went crazy with power with his new faster than the speed of Taimi internet connection, pulled ‘em up and if you keep scanning down, there they are : )

INGY,   out NOT finding the fiver I found at Regan Sports park this A.M  :  )

“Surf the what???  I’d rather run the LA Marathon cold turkey than surf the net!!”

Jane doing that ‘screech to a halt’ thing at the finish after burnin’ up the dirt to  get there.

 Boston Barb hits the finish line with energy to spare…care to try to go 20 more miles Barb, just for old time sakes??

  Doug’s comments re his pics: Heres a few pics from todays race.   One pic is of Jane crossing the finish line. Another is of Barb just after crossing the finish line. There is a pic of both Ingy and one of Kim K at about the 2.8 mile mark.

   Thanx  Mr Camera- Doug-man  : )

  Thanx to Ingy,  we even have results!!:

RESULTS OF THE LAKE ELSINOR RED, WHITE, & BLUE RACES:

10K WOMEN

Taimi S.—————1st OA

Jane G.—————-1st AG

Barb F.—————-2nd AG (that darn Jane!!)

MEN:
Bryan Allen———–1st AG (top 10 OA)

5 K woman:

Kim Koch……..1st AG

Chris Allen…..2nd AG

MEN:

Glen Koch…..1st AG

Tino Soria————2nd AG

Adam Allen———-16th AG

Herman C.———–1st AG

Ingy———————1st AG

Looks like we had quite a showing out there!

_______________

MAY BIRTHDAYS:

02–Steve Altfillisch

03–Jane Gainer

04–Iain Scott

19–Tony Islas

25–Maureen Bourgeois

31–Tracey Scholtemeyer

————————–

                                                 CLUB RACE
                                                Saturday, July 11th

From INGY:

I have contacted the race director for the Guajome Lake 5k Run and they have offered us a substantial discount. This race supports the Vista HS Cross Country Team and is run on their home course. All off road, but groomed trails with one hill, finishing in a shady park. I’ve done this race 4 or 5 times and its pretty good and close to home. We need a minimum of 10 runners for the discount (our price will be $18), so bring your checkbook to pizza night or see me before then—I have applications.     Ingy

_________________

Victor’s doing (that’s like participating in, not leading) spin classes at LA Fitness at 6:45  PM  on Tuesday/Thursdays followed by session with yogurt shop to rehydrate the healthy way.    Anyone who wants, he’ll see ya there.  (I made a mistake before when I said he did this ion the morning.)

_________________________

Wed night meeting notes of note:

1.  Ingy made what he called a proclamation but which Bob M.  said sounded  more like a confession:  Since Ingy is  now officially the “least fastest”   member of the run club, we need to launch  a major recruiting drive targeting slower runners so that Ingy, as club president, will have people to   run with at his not any where near fast  pace.  

2.  3 Jun is National Running Day -probably an event started by runners jealous of the Ride your bike to Work day folks.  Kim P volunteered to contact local  Newspaper, tell them about this little known event, and have the paper mention our club  and invite  all  runners to join us for our club run  on Jun 3rd. 

3. Victor’s doing spin classes followed by yogurt (not Yoga!) at LA Fitness on Tuesday and Thursdays at 6:45 PM .  he’d  love  to have others come suffer with him.  He promises the yogurt fun makes up for the spin suffer .   

4.   The Sat. 6  Jun morning run will  be a  Hash run, hosted (if that’s the word) by  ’rabbit’ Herman. Meet at the SW end of the Best Buy store off Hi-way 79.    The objective is for the pack of runners (that’s us) to try to catch the rabbit (Herman) as he weaves his way through a 7. something mile course.  He will get about a 10  minute head start along a pre marked path.   Complete info will be given out run morning but lets just say this running game includes deceptive  paths which the pack   must sort out in order to   properly follow the rabbit.  I’m thinking dipping  Herman the Rabbit’s  feet  in red paint or   memorizing his shoe print might make things a lot easier and bust his current record of never being caught. 

5.  Matt Capelouto, founder of our great club (Yep, there WAS a time before   Ingy!) spoke to us about the upcoming Vineyard run (10K course will be two loops of the 5 K this year).  It will be   chip  timed,  distance won’t be  exact   and best   of all his high tech special running shirts with your bib number imprinted  on the race shirt will be featured.   This means runners can Just Say No to wearing a separate paper number if they wear the shirt given to them in their race  package.  

He showed us several   very impressive examples  of his work on his high tech extra nice moisture wicking shirts.  Instead of screen printing shirts, which merely puts a picture on top  of fabric (and blocks fabric breathability where the picture is),  he uses a far superior process called sublimation.  The fabric itself   is dyed with the picture or photo, thus the fabric remains soft,  breathable and of course the  design never cracks or peals  or fades like screen printed  designs.  This also   lets him custom make shirts to any individual’s specifications.

 Prices range from $20. if you bring your own white or light colored shirt to $30 (shirts/tank tops) to $40. (sweatshirts) if you use his products.  He feels one is better off using his shirts since he knows exactly how those shirts react to his process.  You can see his shirt styles at WWW.wearyournumber.com   or call him at 951-990-7227.  His web  site is matt@impulsetshirts.com   The greatest part of all:   he works out of his house in redhawk and it’s easy to e mail him photos you’d  like  on shirts or visit him in person and select  shirts from his inventory.    To quote him:  ”If the photo  comes out on your printer well in the size you’d like  to  see  it on a shirt,  it will come out fine on the shirt”  He has light colored shirts also but  stated that white tends to  work best.

—————————

VINEYARD RUN PICS BY DOUG:  

Walkin’ on water  may be hard but  looks  like runnin’ on air is easy…..

……maybe easier for some than others but look at this cornering technique!!

I’ve been gone and haven’t got much feedback on Vineyard except I gather the Redliners collectively commandeered a lot of brass running in the thick  dirty rows of dirt between (?) the grapevines on a decidedly hilly course on a day that was on the hot side  of warm by the time the 10K started.  Barb wore her Vineyard run race shirt with race   number ‘imbedded’ in the shirt fabric by Matt to Wed. nights run and I for one really liked the effect.

————–

RAGNAR RELAY…ALL NIGHT AND ALL DAY FUN  

Tony gives a shout out as the Team 40 first leg runner

(Photos/captions fm Noni)

Thanx to Beth, we have the following blow  by blow or is that step  by step  account : )

You are all so AMAZING!!  I never thought that 2 hours of sleep would be so much fun, thanks for letting me be part of the experience.  For those of you on the 12 man team, I have typed up some of the highlights of the Ultra Team’s race.  Although we didn’t visit the Hospital (scary), I am sure your experiences were about the same.  I look forward to the next relay and getting to run in it!!  

Leg 1: Tony got tripped in a pile up, twisted his ankle and was thrown off his “A” game.
Leg 2:  Polly got her first taste of the “Relay” magic and played pinch hitter to give Tony a rest.  ”Hurry up Polly, get out of the car and run!!!”
Leg 3:  We drove the wrong way, Tino was fired from navigation, but Beth drove 100 miles an hour to get us to checkpoint #4.
Legs 5 & 6: Jane braved the headwinds but enjoyed her first taste of Ragnar

Here comes Jane into Exchange #6 for the hand-off to Eric

Legs 7 & 8: Eric had a fan come up and shake his hand.  He was her “hero”.  He then ran like the wind in his pink leggings. We lost Glen for the first time but Eric remained calm when no one was there for the hand off for “36 seconds”.  ”Hurry up Polly, get out of the car and run!!!”

Leg 9:  Polly ran her tail off and the Suburban missed getting hit with flying glass from a passing truck by 25 feet.  Scary!
Leg 10: Still couldn’t find Glen, getting worried.  Tino took over, ran a great leg and saved his pride at the end and didn’t let the “girl” pass him!!
Leg 11:  We found Glen!!  He ran so fast he passed lots of runners!!
Leg 12:  We saw a whale!!
Dinner Break & Sleep at Santa Monica Pier:  Dinner was good but sleeping in a brightly lit parking lot was impossible.  Glen said I snored, hmmm….
Leg 19 & 20:  Eric strapped on his headlamp and ran the beach trails.
Leg 21 & 22:  We lost Glen for the 2nd time.  The checkpoint 21 forgot to mark he went through but luckily we caught up with him 50 feet before the handoff at 22.
Leg 23 & 24:  Tino hit the hills hard.  Memories of Wild Miles
Leg 25:  Tony braved the cold but put on too many layers and overheated.  ”Hurry up Polly, get out of the car and run!!!”
Leg 26: Polly ran very quickly through the “Hood”.  Very sketchy with lots of police action but Polly you were so BRAVE!!  
Leg 27:  Tino was a gentleman and accompanied Polly to keep her safe!
Leg 28 & 31:  Tony got back on his “A” game and ran 2 fast legs.
Leg 29 & 30:  Jane had a beautiful run on the beach and was DONE!!
Leg 32:  Glen ran his last leg and we didn’t lose him but we weren’t sure what was whiter, his face or his shirt!  The bagel store on this leg had some great food!  We finally see some other Ultra teams including a guy with “bun huggers”, hmmm…
Leg 33 & 34:  Eric suffered through 19 miles of heat and hills (but at a blistering pace).  Chocolate milk and oranges saved the day.
Leg 35:  Polly set a record for most bathroom visits in a 10 minute period but was able to speed up the hills in Laguna
Leg 36:  Tino ran an amazing leg in the hills (again), passed the “wig guys” and sprinted to the finish with the team!

Celebrating the finish!

I was so tired from watching you all run that I went home and slept for 14 hours straight.  Just think if I actually ran!!! Beth.

————–

Below  is partial excerpt from E Eric  sent out ref results:

The upshot is both teams were 2nd in their respective divisions.  the ultra team had an official time (adjusted for just running time) of 19:51 and the regular team was at 21:57.  Winning times were kind of ridiculous and  around the 16 hour mark.  
 
congrats to all- super experience and we loved getting to hang with everyone for the complete race experience.  another special thanks go out to beth for being super-crew.  you saved our race for sure allowing us to worry about the running and not the minutia.
 
have a great night and recovery.

The Jester

————

From Noni and Eric:
Hi Everyone!  Here is an album of photos taken on our camera during the relay plus the two photos Bob took of the gang on Wednesday evening with the Ragnar Awards:
 
http://picasaweb.google.com/noninierenberg/2009RagnarRelayPhotos?authkey=Gv1sRgCKLl5p3ZrdfAjQE&feat=directlink.

————————

From Doug:
Very short video of one of our teams crossing the finish line. You can hear them announce the team and pretty much see everyone if you stop the action. I tried to address this email to all that I knew were there. If I missed anyone could you guys please forward it to whomever? Thanks  dougie

http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b143/Trexx77/?action=view&current=RagnarVideofinish001.flv

————————

 To Victor,
You are busted!!  I am telling your doctor you ran!!  Congratulations to all of you, I am amazed at how good you look after 186 miles, no sleep and no showers.

 From Beth

 —————–

what a motley looking crew we all were after running so many miles on so little sleep! wouldn’t have had it any other way-you are a fantastic group of people . . . crazy, but fantastic!
jane

 —————-

Hi Everyone!  Eric and I wanted to let everyone know that we will be bringing what he likes to call the “unique awards” both teams won for our magnificent 2nd place standings in our divisions (GO REDLINERS!!!) to this Wednesday’s run at the Pizza Factory.  Each team member will receive an award.  Please let us know if you won’t be able to make it to the run and we’ll figure out another way to get your award to you.
 
We hope everyone has caught up on their sleep and is feeling well and ready to get out and run a few dozen loops around the Santa Rosa course this weekend (ha ha!).  Eric actually ran the 11 mile loop with his coachee on Sunday afternoon.  He said he felt a little more sore after that run than he did after finishing the relay!
 
We both had a fabulous time with the incredible Redliners.  Eric thinks you all are ready to become ultrarunners since you do so well on no sleep, lots of “interesting” experiences that would throw lesser humans into a tizzy and yet you all want to come back for more!  Congrats to everyone on a great job done and special thanks to Iain and Mr. Ambassador for their team captaining and to Beth for being the ultimate crew person!  Thank you Doug, Mark, Kim, Aaron and Brian for coming to the finish line to greet us and thanks Doug for the video that recorded the glorious moment of the Running Center Redliners crossing the finish line!
 
Hope to see you all Wednesday!  

harpy tails,
 
Noni & the
 

jester       O  
           \ __\__                                                     
                  \   \
                   \
              ___^
            /          \____       
        _ /                    \
————–

WED

Temecula Triathlon:   On your mark..get set….FREEZE!!

Legend:   Pizza Fac:  Pizza Factory       TMS:  Temecula Middle School

FM :           Farmer’s Market  (old town )           SRP:   Santa Rosa Plateau

Per Ingy:       TRACK:  The track workout at Great Oak fizzled when there was a track meet in progress, forcing us to go back to Temecula Middle School. I would guess that we’ll stay at TMS through April and we’ll discuss at the May 6th meeting.———————————————

BOULDER CITY HALF MARATHON :  WHO IS THAT UNMASKED MAN??

STEVE:

“IS THIS WHERE THE LINE TO AUDITION FOR AMERICAN IDOL STARTS??”

This was a great Half.  It is called “six tunnels to Boulder Dam” because the course runs along the railroad that was built to haul materials to the dam during construction.  The old railway is now a rail trail and includes six tunnels and great views of Lake Mead.  My friend “fasteddie” and I were the only Elvii in the race and had a lot of fun.
Steve

——————–

Diamond Back Doug’s Diamond Valley Lake  Mt Bike N’ snake watch Ride

(Photo’s  by Noni/Eric )

Sunday at 8 AM a 6 pack of Redliners met at DVL and cruised thru the 22 miles in temps that started out cold enough to freeze  a  snake to it’s burrow.  Happily,  just a few  miles of effort and sunshine warmed everyone up.   By the half way point some of us were shedding layers……

Noni, Linda, Doug (Tapping Mother Earth:  IS ANYONE HOME??), Tracy, and Ingy the Snake Snack.

Answer to Doug’s question….    One BIG YES:

,,,,, and by 3/4 way round, Speed  bumps started popping up  on the path. The above speed bump was fat  N’ sassy N’  big enough to think about eatin’  Ingy for brunch if Ingy dared tap  him with the whimpy whimpy whimpy itsey bit of straw that Ingy thought would make the perfect snake stick.  

Mr Western Diamond back,  sub species ‘Red’, checks out his brunch menu.  

One of the nifty things about these bike rides is that one gets to  chat with each other better then on runs.  As a result, one learns some interesting things.  I learned two things about Ingy.  One is that if he tried out for the Valley’s American Idol competition, he’d probably win, so long as he could sing The Skunk Song.  This song was goin’ thru his head since he’d heard it enroute to the ride.  Several  of us had never heard it before (for better or worse and probably for better,   per Ingy) thus Ingy belted it out for us.  And he did a darn good job!!  The second thing I learned about Ingy is that he needs to do a race to Oz, as in where the ‘Wizard Of’  lives.   That’s because when it comes to  rattle snakes,  he needs to find a brain, not a stick. Happily he ultimately dropped his  piece  of straw  and vamoosed with the rest of us.

 Technological miracle plus incredible balancing act = photo  of all of us. (it only took 35 tries and if you felt the earth shake, that’s  when the camera, balanced on Noni’s helmet which was balanced a top a round trash can lid plummeted to the ground.)

Thanx Doug, for  organizing this ride and thanks Noni/Eric for the great   photos ..more can be seen at this link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/noninierenberg/DiamondValleyLakeBikeRide32909?authkey=Gv1sRgCJrQifjYvYLP_gE&feat=directlink. 

…………………………….

Editors note:  Jack provided below input about his first half ironman experience. Jack’s clearly an ‘outside the box’ thinker (Read that “whacked out insane “). Most folks doing their first half iron sign up for one that’s got as user friendly a course as possible. Special note to Jack :  They DO exist.  After hours spent training in 80 degree swimming pools with .5 inch waves, Jack signs up for the Super Frog.  Second special  note to  Jack:  The Super Frog ain’t  one of ‘em. Perhaps all that chlorine impacted his brain. Here’s his story:

My First Super
Frog Experience, by Jack (The water-logged) Lenzo.

Note:  I
made many rookie errors this being my first half iron. (Ed.  Note:   You’re being way too hard on yourself…I only spotted one:  namely signing up for Super Frog vs any one of the other 200 half irons held in this neck of the woods -you know, the ones with lake swims and non sandy runs)  Hope this write up helps any future participants! My times are as follows:

Short Story:

 The Swim: Never
mind the 55 degree water and 8 foot waves; when the horn blew I got right into the
surf with all the other Crazies out there…(Read that:  Jack gets his first reality check:  he’s no longer in a swimming pool in Kansas)

 I was in the first wave, registered as a Clydesdale. (Yes
Bob, I’m still over 200 pounds). I was able to ignore the cold- if not for my breathing
being completely arrested. Both salt water and fog were getting into my goggles
and confusion set in rather quickly, between GASPING for air, and lack of
vision. ( Ed. Note: So I guess that idea of visualizing yourself in a calm, happy place kinda got sucked down the drain fast?) I couldn’t see where I was going at all. (That’s OK, The sharks probably could) I was making strange noises I
didn’t know I could make. (Those are called shark calls) I was convinced I was being water boarded. And this
was after practicing in the ocean and hundreds of laps at the pool.

“Anybody seen where Kansas went??”

 I was contemplating my first DNF right
then and there. I resorted to the “Zig-Zag” swim method, (Guess he watched Kimmie’s  demo tapes). I took my goggles
off, which got me redirected several times by race officials in yellow canoe’s asking
“Are You Okay?!! The Shore is THAT WAY!” This coping mechanism did cost me
time, but kept me moving forward at least. At this point, I felt completely
over my head.  What did I get myself into??  I was cursing my friend who convinced me to do such a calamity. This had to be the worst of it, I hoped.  I could not have my wife simply “pick me
up with the truck” either, so I was resigned to tough it out. I’m glad I did. All
in all, as horrific as the swim started out, I did manage to get “comfortable” on
the last lap, and was in a groove.

“Where’s the Beach??”

Unfortunately I was now catching elbows and feet
from the next wave behind me. (Attracted by all your commotion, the sharks probably were too) Somehow, the 1.2 mile swim felt like just a half
mile swim, much shorter than a 1.2 in the pool. For me, the swim was not about
time, but survival. No pool training could have prepared me for the surf and
salt water entry.

Even though I did practice ingress and egress at the beach in
Encinitas with the wetsuit, I had forgotten my goggles that training day, so
those problems never came up before. My step son, Kendall, who was in the same
wave (15-29 age group / along w Clydesdales), was having the same problem, only
he opted to swim with his head out of the water the whole way, and swam a
timely 34:09! (That’s darned impressive for turtle style swimming!)  When I got to the
bike rack he was already gone… Up to that point, I was considered the stronger
swimmer. Ha! I had trouble getting out of my wetsuit too, even though I did well
in practice drills. My Velcro kept re-securing itself over and over! LOL!  I was
stuck in a bad joke…  Out of
desperation, I had a spectator help me un-latch the Velcro. (Am I disqualified
now?) To my credit, with gobs of Vaseline I avoided the dreaded “ring around
the collar” chaffing burn, which my step son forgot to do, so now he’s got a wetsuit 
souvenir hickey around his neck. (That aughta impress girlfriends and teachers alike.) Burns like hell too! (But worth it, I’ve no doubt.)

  Wedding Ring note:    Make sure you take off
your wedding ring: not only will you not lose it in the chop (or inside some shark’s tummy), you can pick up
more chicks while on the bike and run. (Just Kidding!) Seriously though, right
before the start, I tucked it under my wetsuit ankle, having forgotten to take
it off.  The guy standing next to
me said that he lost his ring in just the same way, and to tie it to the
zipper-pull instead. Luckily, I had just gotten done tying it when the whistle
blew!

The Bike:
Coming out of T1 from the swim, I followed two guys on the bike just ahead of
me who made a wrong turn. There was no indication they were off course, until
the absence of other bikes made it obvious.

“The tasty one’s have arrow bars”

Only then did we get told how to “get
back” on course by this laid back volunteer guy. (A sign with an arrow pointing
the way would have been far more effective than the labyrinth of cones you have
to make sense of), but then again a sense of awareness is part of the race too.
I get back on course and start cruising along on my modified road bike, losing only
about a minute or so for having gone off course.

What jack and Jack’s ‘Modified road bike’ were up against -the real reason he didn’t come in first place. Or second…or…

Soon enough, the wind kicked up, and 20 mph became 14 mph,
and sometimes 12 mph. Me and my large self caught every bit of wind. Pro’s
were zipping by me, literally, like I was standing still! I was quite distracted
by all the exotic tri-bikes that were rolling at 30 mph. They looked like aliens on a
mission, or maybe like comic book super heroes come to life. Their foiled wheels made
these whirring sounds, and I heard “On your left” at least 10 times. So I
stayed right the whole way. I also lost count of how many laps I did, and was
told I was done at the 3rd lap when I actually had yet another lap
to go. I only knew I wasn’t done since riders who pulled ahead of me still had not
yet finished. (The bike course is Out and Back, four times). (Jack gets extra points from Beth for honesty)

The last 30 miles were done in pure agony.  My left knee developed lactic acid over load. I tried everything: standing up, changing gears,

un-clipping to shake leg out, you name it. (Amputation??) I was LOATHING the bike ride at this
point, sniveling salt water out of my nose non-stop like a faucet.

What jack felt like on his less than significant bike in the more than significant winds

 Then, on what I thought was the last lap, I see my step son pass by
me in the opposite direction, now a whopping 8 miles ahead of me! I shouted,

“Are you kidding me!??” This was (yet) another low point. I switched between dropping all
manner of “F-Bombs” to whimpering on and off. I got completely owned by the
strong head wind, constant salt water nasal drip from the swim, and chronic knee
pain.

What Jack needed

I swore, I am NEVER doing this again (join the rest of us who’ve said that!), but of course, I will, to beat my
time, right?.  (You got it). And, gotta’ break 6 hours! It took a couple of days to reach this conclusion
after the race, but it did happen. Knowing the course, at least for me, is a huge advantage, and I am confident I will
break 6 hours next year- knowing what I know now. (LOL) Then the phantom knee
problem suddenly went away, as if by magic, and I finished the bike without
incident. Good thing too; back at T2 I noticed I left my spare tube on the
ground! Another rookie error…

The Run:
My nutrition was good on the bike at least, a combo of Gatorade and Accellerade,
and I was glad to get off the damn bike, so I was already smiling putting on my
running shoes. (Apparently no  one told Jack most people doing half irons dread the run) It took me about a half mile to shake off the bike’s muscle
memory, and to get into running form. I felt pretty good, and did the second lap
faster than the first. I never ran a race long enough before to have to take
water. That’s when I found out it’s difficult to drink out of those Dixie cups and
run at the same time without stopping. (It is but it’s a great way to replace the salt water in your nose with fresh water.) On the second lap, they offered a 1
liter sports bottle which helped a lot, half of it being dumped on my head to
cool off, as the sun broke free of the clouds. Another rookie error:  I didn’t grab my hat when I took off
running! So now I’m all sun burned :0    I  took off in the wrong direction, until somebody
redirected me. Luckily only 20 feet was lost. This happened to others too. (Usually does)

There were no portable bathrooms on the run.  I discovered the body won’t let you go while running, I tried that! There was one porta-potty behind some obscure sand dune, out of sight of course, or so I was told; so I invoked “The Tree Method.”  The 1 minute delay cost me about 5 minutes on the road, to catch up to the German guy I was pacing with. From there, I started to pick it up and passed a number of people.

Much of the run is on the shore line, so if you are not watching it you could get a surprise salt water foot bath. I was caught twice.

And you have to dodge the frequent sea weed patches too.  There are two very sandy spots going on
and off shore to access the Navy Base where it is like “running in place” because
the sand is so soft. The only good news is that it’s the same for everyone else
too, and it’s not that long, maybe 50 feet, but it feels like forever. I really
enjoyed the run a lot. (Proof of my “Whacked out insane”  comment in the header) I over trained for hills that did not exist on this
course. I could see my step son’s yellow jersey getting brighter and larger as
I made ground on him on the way back. I always knew it would come down to a
foot race…

The Finish: The
last 3 miles had to be sub 8 for me. (Now that IS Amazing!!) With just a half mile to go, I could see
my step son walking and jogging, looking over his shoulder for me. He later
told me I was like a boogey-man chasing him down, and I was. He never ran 10
miles before; much less 13.1 on sand, so the run was toiling for him. He turned
it on just enough to beat me by 30 seconds, but it was a spectacular moment. My
family and friends at the race did not know I made up all that ground, until the
very last minute when they saw me turn the corner right behind him. I had made
up almost 20 minutes that I lost to the bike. It made for a great finish! AND,
it was all caught on video too. I finished in 6 hours, 17 min, and 51 seconds. It
was an EPIC experience, definitely a love-hate ordeal. To do a full Iron Man, now that is crazy.

Thanx Jack for this great re-creation of your experience.  Many of the problems you experienced are part and parcel  of the triathlon experience, and they aren’t limited to beginners!   

I see where Kim P., who soloed the Super Frog last year with some outstanding splits (after almost visiting the Titanic on the swim) , made up 1/3 of a relay team this year  that took 2nd place in mixed teams and 48th over all with a time of 5:00.23.  I know Kim biked, I don’t know who her cohorts in crime were but their splits were 36:03 Swim;  .43 (that’s like in seconds!) T-1; 2.38.19 bike;  .48 T-2; and 1.44.30 run

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CARLSBAD  5000  Photo by Doug : )

Say, “FUN!”

Just about as many Redliners showed up for the Carlsbad 5000 as for the Temecula tri.  I haven’t heard how most people did but Boston Barb, at home in the cool morning air,  beat her last years time by about 13 seconds, giving her a 23.10.  Monica blitzed thru in a tad over 20 minutes but she’s shooting for a tad under so her goal continues to allude her.  Maybe a pair of 3 oz shoe, .5 oz socks and no hair barrettes will do the trick!  Dina mean while shot for 25 minutes but got some extra seconds  in her time too…but she still  managed to trim 45 seconds off her previous 5 K time.  Isn’t that like about 10 seconds or more  a mile off??  I’d call that a sizable improvement! Taimi ran at around noon by which time the temp had heated up so  she may have left some scorched foot prints imbedded in the pavement if she went at her usual pace.  

————————————- 

R E N E G A D E   ADVENTURE   RACE N’ Hobble

“What fools these mortals be”  (If you don’t recognize the quote, re read Shakespeare)

Photo note: Some of  the photos (like above) aren’t us but they depict parts of the race nicely.

Basics:  .5 mile paddle , 8 mile mt bike, 5 K
run.

Our splits: 33.56
paddle= 23 of 48 total  teams

1.31.54 bike = 31 of
48     46.05 run =18
of 48

we took 8th
of 11 in coed age group of  3 ages
=ing “over 100”

We were 28th
of 48 teams over all.  That’s much
better than we thought we did and I’d 
insert a big fat happy face if I could!

The nitty and very
gritty details:

Sat. Glen stole Mr.
Damaged-Goods- Doug’s identity and took Doug’s place beside Kim and me to
paddle, pedal, trip and plod our way through our first true adventure race. Jealous
Doug still came along as race handy man, prepared to help any and all with
every thing from pre race set up to post race team reconciliation services.

The race took place in the oak and cacti studded vistas of Bonelli  state park, roughly 73 miles away in San Dimas.

After we signed out lives away we got
two pages worth of detailed squint- to -read do-or-die instructions and three
pages worth of  We’re- Gonna- Be- Sooo-
Lost maps, 1  oriented North,
2  oriented who  knows??  (My perspective). 
We also got a classy high tech shirt not slaughtered with ad’s and enough
carb bars to keep lost souls alive for 24 hrs.

The pre race briefing
clarified the instructions. Scattered through out the course were 5 “challenges”.  Interspersed between those 5 challenges
was 1 gear check and 11 punch card check points.  The Zinger: 
Everything had to be hit sequentially to avoid disqualification and all
challenges had to be completed to avoid 20 a minute penalty. Each.  

The briefing ends 15
minutes before blast off.  In the
last 60 seconds of the briefing they drop the most important info of the
day:  Our starting order.  To avoid course pile ups at challenges
and check points, the pack is split into thirds. 1/3  start with the run , 1/3 with the bike, and lucky Team Going
Going and Gone gets to start with the Paddle.  That would be us. Maybe strike the term ‘lucky’. We have the
most difficult activity sequence.  After paddling, we bike. Then on legs either nicely warmed
from the bike (if you’re Lance Armstrong) or totally toasted (if you’re us), we
get to run.   We glance
around.  1/5th of the
park is dead flat. That’s the part that’s water.  As for the rest, not so much.  

Teams now have 14
minutes and counting in which to sort out the half ton of stuff dumped in the
transition area into the correct order of use, grab what they need for their
first race segment, and check  maps
to see which pathway they need to take.

ANYBODY GOT MAP QUEST??

In our case, that’s
easy.  Bright yellow rafts and a
lake full of water are pretty hard to miss.  Per pre race strategizing, I struggle into wet suit while
Glen turns the maps this way and that, orientating them so we know which way to
bike after we complete the swim.  Last we saw of Doug, he was headed down to the life guard
tower with binoculars around his neck, face slathered in sunscreen, ready and
willing to volunteer for bikini watch. 
How charitable  of him  : )   We 3 trot to the
start.

Twenty feet and 3
minutes from the start, I realize I’d had a ‘loco’ moment. I’d pulled my wet
suit on over my dog collar.  That
wasn’t a typo.  I’m wearing a Bull
Mastiff sized collar around my waist. 
Why?  That’s coming shortly.

 As Jack found out in his Super Frog
race, when you want a wet suit to come down fast, 9 out of 9 times it won’t.  Kim and I de-suction the wet suit inch
by inch from my skin as the seconds tick by. Tick, peallll, tock, pulllll, tick
pealll and umpfff. We get it half off, dog collar gets unclipped and re located
outside the suit. We scrunch my torso back into the suit, zip me up and Velcro
me in.  My required life jacket
gets cinched on tight.  I feel like
the Boston strangler’s got a chock hold on my chest.

The gun goes off and I
can barely breath. The pack splits as teams head for differing pathways.  About 16 teams head for the rafts.  We can be recognized because we’re the
one’s who look like Michelin Tire men, running with life jackets on over
wetsuits. This attire is not designed to help one set a PR.  Neither is the fact that 1 member per
most teams is either barefoot or wearing super thin swim socks .  Distance to water:  ¼ mile plus.  We tip toe fast.

PADDLE / SWIM ?  : 0

Kim, Glen and I arrive
lake side well ahead of the pack.  In
the next 2 minutes, we promptly zip into close to last place.  That’s because our pre race strategy
had a few errors in it.

 At the lake, teams get a rubber raft
sized to fit two midgets, one paddle just big enough to spank a minnow, an
inner tube big enough to drive Doug’s truck through, and enough rope to lasso
13 horses. Our mission:  get those
items and ourselves across ½ mile of (freezing) water. 

“What’s the load limit on this thing??  Two 5 year old kids??“

Piranha bait in the making?

“Load limit’s less than 2 adults, for sure!”

Our pre race
strategy:  Tie the rope to the
tire, tie the tire to the dog collar on Tracy’s waist, let Tracy swim while
Glen and Kim use the paddle and their hands to move the raft forward. 

Reality check 1 :  We ended up with enough spare rope to
anchor the Titanic and it took ‘a while’ to get that coiled up and secured on top the tire.
I’m not confessing how long ‘a while’ was but Doug offered to bring us Mai Tai’s
and some of his sun block. LOL. As we lingered, other teams simply plunged into
the water, 2 people per raft and 3rd person often on top the inner
tube, rope unused.  They’re off, we
aren’t.  

Looks like the Loch Ness Monster’s not gettin’ feet for lunch

Reality check 2:  Attired in a wetsuit and life jacket
that   compress my lungs to
the size of a dime store goldfish’s, there’s no way in Hell, or in this lake,
or in any other body of water that exists, that I can out swim a raft Glens’
paddling.  Any of you looked at his
arm muscles recently?  What’s that
guy do in his spare time?  Bench
press his BBQ?? And of course there’s that inner tube getting a free ride to
nowhere fast 2 feet behind my feet.

Inner Tube’s:  Not Small.  May fit Jolly Green Giant’s Truck

 We inched our way across the water, Glen
taking one paddle stroke for every 50 of my arm strokes. Kim kept turning
around to spot me as I putt putted through the water. Lesson learned:  Next time either the raft pulls the
tube or maybe better yet, the tube forms a necklace around Kim’s neck.

About forever later we reach what felt like Never never land and find our first challenges.

 These beach challenges consisted of a balance beam, a 4
ft tall wall, and a cargo net the teams go under while their equipment goes
over.  We trot to the beam, then stall to a stop.   We have to wait while
3 females cross the beam at a speed 3 legged turtles could beat.  Kim and I then cross light as twin
Tinkerbelles.  

Next comes so not a ballerina Glen.

The raft is balanced on his noggin, blood tries to flow back into his lower legs, the legs that were crimped in half for the 30 minute paddle.  His speed is impressive.  His balance is not.  Kim and I take 5 while Glen and the raft practice beam repeats. Three tries later, he and
we are off to a 4 foot wall.  Glen
and raft soar over.  Kim, the inner
tube and I sort of tumble across on his heals then head for the last obstacle, the short cargo net.  We toss our
stuff on top the net as we dive under it. 
Grap our stuff and hoof it over to the check point.  Beach mission completed, our card gets
punched and we head for transition to bike. 

BIKE:

We transition at about
the speed of lightening bolts minus the lightening part.  My wet suit’s got a death grip on my
swim socks and my swim socks have suctioned themselves to my feet like
barnacles to rocks.  That’s OK
though because this gives Glen plenty of time to re –exam our bike route and
Kim ample time to get her pony tail through her bike helmet hole.  Doug doesn’t offer us any more Mai Tai’s but I suspect he was thinking about ordering us pizza.

Squint hard:  Yes, that’s Glen, me half hidden, and Kim in Blue leaving T-2

We launch the bikes
toward the bike route, pedal 1 block, then make the first of 15 Tracy
stops.  A ‘Tracy stop’ is a pit
stop all   team mates make
because control freak Tracy’s confused about our route. Each stop took about 1
minute.  You do the math : 0

 So Gentleman Glen pulls out the 3 maps
for Tracy.  I look a little like a
psychiatry patient trying to interpret a Rorsch ink blot. “ Where’d  North go??  No, no, I mean on the map…”  I twist the map 360 degrees.   It’s facing back the way it first was.  Oh, that’s better. “Wait!! NO! This is
the run map, not the bike map!” 
Opps%&^*!

Glen, who spent half
an hour in the raft paying attention to which way bikes went while my head was
pointed toward Nessie in the depths below now calmly suggests we follow the
path he saw 50 other bikes take. Uh, OK. 
Lesson learned: Trust your partner’s  knowledge and instincts.  

Tracy:  ”North’s still UP?”

The bike course was
more challenging than I expected. We tackled 8 scenic miles of some quite rocky
ups followed by many delightfully swooping downs.   Kim learned on
the fly to lean forward to keep her front wheel planted while each of Glen’s
1,345 bones got rattled to the core on his hard tail style bike.

Half way through the
bike we swing up a hill, round a corner and see this gimpy mirage that turns
into Doug!!  Apparently bikini
watch wasn’t that great. He’s managed to intercept us and note he didn’t need
any map to do it.   I’m so jealous
: ) 

 He films us coming down a sweet spot on
the trail, then hops  or is that
hobbles over to catch us as we dismount the bikes and launch our brains into a
puzzle challenge.  I’ m blind
folded, Kim and Glen direct my hands in their placement of puzzle parts.  The puzzle challenge is a divorce
lawyer’s dream but Glen and Kim manage to get through it still married.  We head for T-2.

RUN:

Not Flat:

We get through T-2 and
start traversing trails of hard pan 
interspersed between solid rock inclines, and rich mulchy descents. That’s after a nice volunteer gets us turned around and headed back in the right direction 1 block after we left the T area.   

Glen followed by his following

Half way through the 5 K my
right foot lands square on top a round rock.  The rock rolls backward, my body flies forward, then dead
down and Mother Earth goes AUCH!  No soft mulch here. 
5 seconds later that 6.4 earth quake hits Italy. Kim scrapes me up off
the ground as Glen zips by. I start spilling blood from both hands, both knees
and one elbow.  Kim and I take off
in hot pursuit of Glen.  That
lasted for 1.5 steps. That because the other .5 of a step is when the knee that
kissed the earth should’ve swung forward but couldn’t.

Tracy and Kim:  “Whoa GLEN….Got a clean up on isle hand, elbow, knees!”

 The hot pursuit turned into a slo mo
limp and Doug could’ve run circles around me.  We yell to Glen to ease up in the speed dept but it’s not
til a quarter mile later at the next check point that he sees I’ve changed from
mostly tan to muchly bright red. 
Any hopes of a fast finish vanish. Since we were out to have fun and not
collect brass, this glitch didn’t matter. 

We eventually cross the finish line, all holding hands as required and Kim pleaseeeee keep your thumb out of that crater in my palm!!!!.

Team Going Going and Gone re-named:  ”The  Rolling Stoned”

Kim and Glen:  Now in search of new and better bikes 

Me:  Now in search of bigger better  band aids

AUCHO!

 We learned several things about team
compatibility for this sort of a race. I had assumed matching fitness levels
amongst partners would be top priority for any team.  After this experience, I’d drop that down to forth in
importance.  For me, tops is a
compatible attitude, followed by the right combination of  brains (to understand tasks quickly),
imagination (to think up short cut solutions to tasks), and personalities (so
you don’t kill each other and can swallow your ego and accept help when you
need it).  Then comes fitness level.  

All three of us had a
blast and hope to do more races like this. the future.  And yes, we made a great team!!

……………………………….

THE     T E M E C U L A   5 K   SPRINT  and  TRI  and   TRY   Again

           A  slew of Redliners  showed up for these two popular events.  Most were trying to out sprint or out tri their last year’s times.  The weather Gods had to  find a compromise between Doug’s devilish desire for pouring rain  and Barb’s angelic wish for sunshine. I guess Barb must’ve connected with them a bit better than Doug (why does that not surprise me?) because the sky didn’t really let loose until after Barb neatly parked her bike during T-2.

   I think you’ve all heard  that  my attempts to cam cord the run failed.  That’s a shame since most everyone waved, called out, gave me a thumbs up, or did a cart wheel as you passed me.  But none of those antics were as impressive as what Tino did while entering T-2 on the bike, which I did catch on tape.  He was so intent on spotting where to go with his bike once he entered T-2 that he failed to realize his bike had totally stopped just outside of T-2.  He got a quick lesson in physics, and the lesson was that stationary bikes fall  over and so do their riders.  Plomp.  AUCHO!

 Tino quickly drew from his childhood bike riding days, got himself and his bike righted, then kind of wondered into t-2, over to The Right Spot,  and proceeded to remove more layers of clothing than ducks have feathers. Judging by the speed at which he did this,  I think his brain was badly in need of oxygen and he temporarily forgot he was in a race.   Removing all those clothes gave his brain enough time to start properly using air again, he went back into race  mode and  sped out of T-2 for the pool. At that point he was out of my sight but Doug and Barb would shortly move into it.  Below is Doug’s account of The Amazing Race between  Barb and him : )

Kimmie:  ”Ya know,  it’s a whole lot colder watchin’ these things than doin’ ‘em.”

Doug’s account:

As a few of you are aware Ive been on the injured reserve list for the better part of the past two months. I hurt myself lifting weights. Pretty sure its Sciatica. That said,  I’ve done the Temecula Tri for quite a few years now and didn’t want to miss this race even if it meant crawling around the course on my hands and knees. So I waited until the last minute to enter. Of course that meant getting hosed for an additional $10 on race morning but I digress.  

I came into the race having only ran 2x in the past 6 weeks for a total of 5 miles. (editor’s note: sounds like Doug’s not exactly out pacing Kim N Glen’s yard tortoise)  I’d swam a few times and gone on two mountain bike rides. Yep I was well prepared .    

Race morning comes with threats of rain and I was doing my rain dance as I absolutely love racing in the rain and or mud. It also seems to slow everyone else down.  Well race morning was dry as a bone.  But the skys did look a bit threatning.  I was pleasantly surprised to see so many Redliners there (we are the Redliners right? I’m still seeing Trotter shirts everywhere I look and even this website still says Trotters but once again I digress...   Redliner/Trotters present: (or at least the ones I know) Karrie, Brigid, Tracey S, Tracy E (with camera in hand) Barb, Kim K, Kim P (with Pom Poms) and Dina.  Eric, Tino, Victor L, Victor F, Dan, Maurice, Glen and Dougie, hope I did’nt miss anyone.

”   BRRRRR…..Who turned on the AC??”

The race got off on time and I could have sworn we had a much smaller race this year but checking the results and I can see where we had 5 more in the Tri and about 25 less in the 5k.  Now I’m a sloooooow runner, that’s not news, but I was expecting to be at the back of the pack. And I didn’t disappoint as I was nearly at the back but I was sure I’d go 35 minutes in the 5k and managed to go 31 so I only had to spot the field from 6 – 11 minutes on the bike.

Eric, in about 7th place, followed by the center of mass pack, followed by the behind the center of mass folks, followed by Doug.  Doug the Mathematician:  How MANY bike MILES to make up how MUCH time to catch Barb??  

That shouldnt be too hard to make up right? LOL.  I figured on the bike my injury wouldnt be such a hinderence and it wasn’t but it was apparent afterwards that I was out of shape.  I pedaled that little red bike for all I was worth. It hurt. My legs burned the entire ride. Well they did cool off just a bit as it started to sprinkle a bit.  I managed to come in about 5 minutes slower than last year. ARGH!!.

My goal for the day was to try to catch Barb. Barb is a much MUCH better runner than I and also a much better swimmer. The only place I have her covered is on the bike. But Barb ran a 24 minute 5k so I had 7 minutes to make up.

Well fortunately for me Barb dropped a chain. (Editor’s note:  90 second stop N fix on Barb The Bike Mechanic’s part.) That allowed me to close in to about 3 and a half minutes at the half way mark. Once I realized where she was I pulled out all the stops (something Im still paying for as I write this on Wednesday morning, semi paralized in my computer chair).  I could see at the top of Night hawk that I’d closed to within 2 minutes. When I got back on Red Hawk loop I put it on the big ring and started hammering for all I was worth. It was then that I got a big knot in first my right calf and then my left. I stretched quickly and tried to ignore the pain. As I came back down the hill towards the school I still couldnt see her. Then as I approached that last turn around near Perchanga blvd I could see her less than 10 seconds in front of me.  And her body language was saying she was out of gas. But I too was running on “E”.

 I managed to close and pull up along side as we turned at the baseball diamond with maybe a 1/3 mile to go. I tried to put her away but I know Barb, she got out the big shovel and dug deep.  As I pulled into T-2  Mark Fanelli and Tracy were standing there and I could hear Tracy hollar something like “its Doug, he’s passed Barb!!!”  and then as Im hopping off  my bike I hear her hollar “and here’s Barb!  ….This should be a great race!!” (Ed. note:  Barb jetted into T-2 barely 7 seconds behind Doug, and headed for her  ’T-spot’ at a quick trot just as Doug got to his T-spot).

  Now at this  point Im having Deja Vu as we had this very same scenario at the Tinman last June where I caught Barb on the bike only to have her sprint by me as I gimped to the pool. Well this time I was going to go for all I was worth. I had a nearly perfect T2 (Ed note: About 30 seconds total) and from what I understand Barb had a bad T2. (She tried to out do Tino in the slow mo multi clothes removal dept.) But the run to the pool was long and homey don’t run real pretty without shoes on. But damn I was gonna try. I got all the way to the water and looked over my shoulder and she still wasn’t coming. Maybe I could pull this off.

I got in and started swimming hard. But after only one of six lengths of the pool I was tired. After the second length I was spent. Normally the swim is uber easy for me. Today not so much. I had to slow or drown so I opted for slowing. I think it was on my 3rd or 4th turn that I saw this tiny figure go by me mid turn. It was either a pool otter or Barb. Turned out to be Barb. ARGH!!

 I was soooo tempted to reach out and grap her ankle. But that would only be funny to me so I passed. I tried to hang on but she left me like a discarded pool toy.  We’d finish 123rd and 124th out of 231.  When we were standing in line at the finish the skies opened up and the spectators started running for cover.  Well thats the race thru my eyes.  

Pool Otter Barb:  Ready for some Sun shine!

Many Redliners did really well (as usual) Here’s the rundown:

5K RACE:

I think all the Redliner women ran with friends today and took it easy. I say that because I saw most of them on the run, running and yaking with friends and thats not the norm, they are usually not even in the same zip code as I am. Still that said;

Kim K took 2nd AG
Dina  also took a 2nd AG
Tracey S took 6th in the largest AG out there.

Victor F won his AG
Glen won his AG
Maurice won his AG

In the Triathlon it looked like this:

All the Redliner women brought home hardware

Brigid won her AG and I think was 2nd OA Woman
Barb won her AG
Karrie took a 3rd in her AG

Way to go ladies

Dan was the fastest Redliner, he was 3rd in his AG and went 1:08:17
Eric was close on Dans heals. Eric was 1st in AG and went 1:08:40
Victory L went 8/25 and had a really good race but a tough AG
Tino went 9/16 and…
Dougie went 9/11

Check this out: Tino beat me 1:24:38 to my 1:31:32.  Yet I beat his Bike time by 1:07 and his swim by 1:23.  He KILLED me by almost 10 minutes on the run.  Last year my time was 1:22:23.  Get training Tino, ( In my best Austrain accent) I’ll be Baaack in 2010.  

Conspicuously MIA at this race was the Ingster’. He opted to go do an Xterra race at Black Mtn.  If he’d been there Barb and I might have had an added dimension to our race.  Next year.

  Thanx Doug for the blow by blow account : )

For all of you who enjoyed reading that, remember it’s your submissions that make this the outstanding publication that it is. (Sometimes more outstanding than others, I confess.)

___________________________

WED. NIGHT CLUB  MEETING:

1.  AS USUAL, INGY EMPHASIZED GET YOUR POINTS TO BETH -REMEMBER TO  INCLUDE THE JESTER RUN.

2.  IT WAS DECIDED TO RE START TRACK WORKOUTS ON MONDAY NIGHTS AT 6:15 AT TEMECULA MIDDLE SCHOOL ON MEADOWS (SAME PLACE AS BEFORE)  MOST PEOPLE WOULD LIKE  INGY TO CREATE A WORK OUT SCHEDULE FOR THE TRACK WORK. INGY WOULD LIKE  HERMON TO BE IN CHARGE OF TRACK WORK OUTS.

3.  SHIRTS WE ORDERED ARE IN, EXTRAS CAN BE BOUGHT FROM INGY FOR 20 DOLLARS.  THEY LOOK REALLY NICE AND RUN A BIT ON THE LARGE SIZE.

4. IAIN TALKED ABOUT THE RAGNOR  RACE AND I GATHER WILL BE SENDING OUT COORDINATING E MAILS   TO THE TEAM MEMBERS SO I WON’T COVER WHAT WAS SAID HERE.  HE  DID STATE THAT TEAM MEMBERS SHOULD TRY TO TRAVEL  LIGHT SO DON’T BRING EVERYTHING BUT THE KITCHEN SINK WITH YOU.  DO BRING HIGH CALORIE ENERGY PACKED SNACKS.  YOU WILL BE ABLE TO STOP AT STORES/GAS STATIONS WHATEVER TO BUY STUFF IF NEEDED.  BOTH TEAMS HAVE ENOUGH VOLUNTEERS NOW. 

R E N E G AD E   ADVENTURE   RACE N’ Hobble

“What
fools these mortals be”  (If you don’t recognize the quote, re
read Shakespeare)

Photo
note: Some of  the photos (like above)
aren’t us but they depict parts of the race nicely.

Basics:  .5 mile
paddle , 8 mile mt bike, 5 K run.

Our splits:
33.56 paddle= 23 of 48 total  teams

1.31.54 bike = 31
of 48     46.05 run =18 of 48

we took 8th of
11 in coed age group of  3 ages =ing “over 100”

We were 28th of
48 teams over all.  That’s much better than we thought we did and
I’d insert a big fat happy face if I could!

We were 28th
of
48 teams over all.  That’s much
better than we thought we did and
I’d 
insert a big fat happy face if I could!

The
nitty and very
gritty details:

Sat. Glen stole
Mr. Damaged-Goods- Doug’s identity and took Doug’s place beside Kim and me
to paddle, pedal, trip and plod our way through our first true adventure
race. Jealous Doug still came along as race handy man, prepared to help
any and all with every thing from pre race set up to post race team
reconciliation services.

The race
took place in the oak and cacti studded vistas of Bonelli  state park,
roughly 73 miles away in San Dimas.

After we signed out
lives away we got two pages worth of detailed squint- to -read do-or-die
instructions and three pages worth of  We’re- Gonna- Be- Sooo-Lost
maps, 1  oriented North, 2  oriented who  knows??  (My
perspective). We also got a classy high tech shirt not slaughtered with
ad’s and enough carb bars to keep lost souls alive for 24 hrs.

The pre race
briefing clarified the instructions. Scattered through out the course were
5 “challenges”.  Interspersed between those 5 challenges was 1 gear
check and 11 punch card check points.  The Zinger: Everything had to
be hit sequentially to avoid disqualification and all
challenges had to be
completed to avoid 20 a minute penalty. Each.  

The briefing ends
15 minutes before blast off.  In the last 60 seconds of the
briefing they drop the most important info of the day:  Our starting
order.  To avoid course pile ups at challenges and check points, the
pack is split into thirds. 1/3  start with the run , 1/3 with the bike,
and lucky Team Going Going and Gone gets to start with the Paddle. 
That would be us. Maybe strike the term ‘lucky’. We have the most difficult
activity sequence.  After paddling, we bike. Then on legs either nicely
warmed from the bike (if you’re Lance Armstrong) or totally toasted (if
you’re us), we get to run.   We glance around.  1/5th
of the park is dead flat. That’s the part that’s water.  As for the
rest, not so much.  

Teams now have
14 minutes and counting in which to sort out the half ton of stuff dumped
in the transition area into the correct order of use, grab what they need
for their first race segment, and check  maps to see which
pathway they need to take.

(Map photo)

ANYBODY
GOT MAP QUEST??

In our case,
that’s easy.  Bright yellow rafts and a lake full of water are
pretty hard to miss.  Per pre race strategizing, I struggle into wet suit
while Glen turns the maps this way and that, orientating them so we know
which way to bike after we complete the swim.  Last we saw of Doug,
he was headed down to the life guard tower with binoculars around his
neck, face slathered in sunscreen, ready and
willing to volunteer for bikini
watch. How charitable  of him  : )   We 3 trot to
the start.

Twenty feet and
3 minutes from the start, I realize I’d had a ‘loco’
moment. I’d pulled my wet suit on over my dog collar.  That
wasn’t a
typo.  I’m wearing a Bull Mastiff sized collar around my
waist. Why?  That’s coming shortly.

 As Jack found out in his Super Frog race, when
you want a wet suit to come down fast, 9 out of 9 times it won’t.  Kim and
I de-suction the wet suit inch by inch from my skin as the seconds tick
by. Tick, peallll, tock,
pulllll, tick pealll and umpfff. We get
it half off, dog collar gets unclipped and re located outside the suit. We
scrunch my torso back into the suit, zip me up and Velcro me in.  My
required life jacket
gets cinched on tight.  I feel like the Boston
strangler’s got a chock hold on my chest.

The gun goes off and
I can barely breath. The pack splits as teams head for differing
pathways.  About 16 teams head for the rafts.  We can be recognized
because we’re the one’s who look like Michelin Tire men, running with life
jackets on over wetsuits. This attire is not designed to help one set a
PR.  Neither is the fact that 1 member per most teams is either
barefoot or wearing super thin swim socks .  Distance to water:  ¼
mile plus.  We tip toe fast.

PADDLE / SWIM ?  : 0

Kim, Glen and I
arrive lake side well ahead of the pack.  In the next 2 minutes,
we promptly zip into close to last place.  That’s because our pre race
strategy had a few errors in it.

 At the lake,
teams get a rubber raft sized to fit two midgets, one paddle just big
enough to spank a minnow, an inner tube big enough to drive Doug’s truck
through, and enough rope to lasso 13 horses. Our mission:  get
those items and ourselves across ½ mile of (freezing)
water. 

“What’s
the load limit on this thing??  Two 5 year old kids??“

Piranha bait
in the making?

“Load
limit’s less than 2 adults, for sure!”

Our pre
race strategy:  Tie the rope to the tire, tie the tire to the
dog collar on Tracy’s waist, let Tracy swim while
Glen and Kim use the paddle
and their hands to move the raft forward. 

Reality
check 1 :  We ended up with enough spare rope
to anchor the Titanic and it took ‘a while’ to get that coiled up and
secured on top the tire. I’m not confessing how long ‘a while’ was but
Doug offered to bring us Mai Tai’s and some of his sun block. LOL. As we
lingered, other teams simply plunged into the water, 2 people per raft and
3rd person often on top the inner tube, rope unused.  They’re off, we
aren’t.  

Looks
like the Loch Ness Monster’s not gettin’ feet for lunch

Reality
check 2:  Attired in a wetsuit and life
jacket that   compress my lungs to the size of a dime store
goldfish’s, there’s no way in Hell, or in this lake, or in any other body
of water that exists, that I can out swim a raft Glens’ paddling. 
Any of you looked at his
arm muscles recently?  What’s that guy do in
his spare time?  Bench press his BBQ?? And of course there’s that
inner tube getting a free ride to no where fast 2 feet behind my feet.

Inner
Tube’s:  Not Small.  May fit Jolly Green Giant’s Truck

 We inched our
way across the water, Glen taking one paddle stroke for every 50 of my arm
strokes. Kim kept turning
around to spot me as I putt putted through the water.
Lesson learned:  Next time either the
raft pulls the tube or maybe better yet, the tube forms a necklace around
Kim’s neck.

About
forever later we reach what felt like Never never land and find our first
challenges.

 These beach
challenges consisted of a balance beam, a 4 ft tall wall, and a cargo net
the teams go under while their equipment goes
over.  We trot to the beam,
then stall to a stop.   We have to wait while 3 females cross the
beam at a speed 3 legged turtles could beat.  Kim and I then cross light
as twin Tinkerbelles.  

Next
comes so not a ballerina Glen.

The raft is balanced
on his noggin, blood tries to flow back into his lower legs, the legs that were
crimped in half for the 30 minute paddle.  His speed is
impressive.  His balance is not.  Kim and I take 5 while
Glen and the raft practice beam repeats. Three tries later, he and
we
are off to a 4 foot wall.  Glen and raft soar over.  Kim, the
inner tube and I sort of tumble across on his heals then head for the last
obstacle, the short cargo net.  We toss our stuff on top the net as
we dive under it. Grap our stuff and hoof it over to the check point.
 Beach mission completed, our card gets punched and we head for
transition to bike. 

BIKE:

We transition at
about the speed of lightening bolts minus the lightening part.  My
wet suit’s got a death grip on my
swim socks and my swim socks have suctioned
themselves to my feet like barnacles to rocks.  That’s OK
though
because this gives Glen plenty of time to re –exam our bike route and Kim
ample time to get her pony tail through her bike helmet hole.  Doug
doesn’t offer us any more Mai Tai’s but I suspect he was thinking about
ordering us pizza.

Squint
hard:  Yes, that’s Glen, me half hidden, and Kim in Blue leaving T-2

We launch the
bikes toward the bike route, pedal 1 block, then make the first of 15
Tracy stops.  A ‘Tracy stop’ is a pit
stop all   team mates
make because control freak Tracy’s
confused about our route. Each stop took about 1 minute.  You do the math : 0

 So Gentleman
Glen pulls out the 3 maps for Tracy.  I look a little like
a psychiatry patient trying to interpret a Rorsch ink blot. “
Where’d  North go??  No, no, I mean on the map…”  I twist the
map 360 degrees.   It’s facing back the way it first was.  Oh,
that’s better. “Wait!! NO! This is the run map, not the bike map!”
 Opps%&^*!

Glen, who spent
half an hour in the raft paying attention to which way bikes went while my
head was pointed toward Nessie in the depths below now calmly suggests we
follow the path he saw 50 other bikes take. Uh, OK. 
Lesson learned: Trust your partner’s  knowledge
and instincts.  

Tracy:
 ”North’s still UP?”

The bike course
was more challenging than I expected. We tackled 8 scenic miles of some quite
rocky ups followed by many delightfully swooping downs.   Kim
learned on the fly to lean forward to keep her front wheel planted while
each of Glen’s 1,345 bones got rattled to the core on his hard tail style
bike.

Half way through
the bike we swing up a hill, round a corner and see this gimpy mirage that
turns into Doug!!  Apparently bikini
watch wasn’t that great. He’s
managed to intercept us and note he didn’t need any map to do
it.   I’m so jealous : ) 

 He films us
coming down a sweet spot on the trail, then hops  or is
that hobbles over to catch us as we dismount the bikes and launch our
brains into a puzzle challenge.  I’ m blind folded, Kim and Glen
direct my hands in their placement of puzzle parts.  The puzzle challenge
is a divorce lawyer’s dream but Glen and Kim manage to get through it
still married.  We head for T-2.

RUN:

Not Flat:

We get through T-2
and start traversing trails of hard pan interspersed between solid
rock inclines, and rich mulchy descents. That’s after a nice volunteer gets us
turned around and headed back in the right direction 1 block after we left the T
area.   

Glen
followed by his following

Half way through the 5
K my right foot lands square on top a round rock.  The rock rolls
backward, my body flies forward, then dead
down and Mother Earth goes AUCH!
 No soft mulch here. 5 seconds later that 6.4 earth quake hits Italy.
Kim scrapes me up off
the ground as Glen zips by. I start spilling blood from
both hands, both knees and one elbow.  Kim and I take off in hot
pursuit of Glen.  That
lasted for 1.5 steps. That because the other .5 of
a step is when the knee that kissed the earth should’ve swung forward but
couldn’t.

Tracy and Kim:  “Whoa GLEN….Got a clean up on isle hand, elbow,
knees!”

 The hot pursuit
turned into a slo mo limp and Doug could’ve run circles around me. 
We yell to Glen to ease up in the speed dept but it’s not
til a quarter mile
later at the next check point that he sees I’ve changed from mostly tan to
muchly bright red. Any hopes of a fast finish vanish. Since we were out to
have fun and not collect brass, this glitch didn’t matter. 

We eventually cross
the finish line, all holding hands as required and Kim pleaseeeee keep your
thumb out of that crater in my palm!!!!.

Team
Going Going and Gone re-named:  ”The  Rolling Stoned”

Kim and
Glen:  Now in search of new and better bikes 

Me:
 Now in search of bigger better  band aids

AUCHO!

 We learned
several things about team compatibility for this sort of a race. I had
assumed matching fitness levels amongst partners would be top priority for
any team.  After this experience, I’d drop that down to forth
in importance.  For me, tops is a compatible attitude, followed
by the right combination of  brains (to understand tasks
quickly), imagination (to think up short cut solutions to tasks), and
personalities (so
you don’t kill each other and can swallow your ego and accept
help when you need it).  Then comes fitness level.  

All three of us had a
 blast and hope to do more races like this. the future.  And yes, we
made a great team!!

DRIPPING SPRINGS:    ’Gettin’ Ready’

 FROM DOUG:  8 AM Mt bike ride around Diamond Valley Lake  Sunday 29 March -see below : )

Legend:   Pizza Fac:  Pizza Factory                   

FM :           Farmer’s Market  (old town )           SRP:   Santa Rosa Plateau

————————————

Dan Detienne

—————————————–

MOUNTAIN BIKE RIDE AT DVL

Next Sunday, March 29th, at 8am what’s ya say we all make like Magellan and circumnavigate Diamond Valley Lake.

Dig out your Mountain bikes and put some air in the tires, blow the dust of the seat, maybe lube the chain and show up Sunday morning in the Marina Parking lot on the East end of the lake. Ive got one extra bike in case someone would like to go but doesnt have wheels.

For those that havent ridden DVL with us before, we ride at an easy conversational pace. We take a few breaks as needed. Bathrooms are every 5 miles.  The entire ride is just under 22 miles and normally takes us from 2.5 – 3.5 hrs.  So we should have you back in your car by Noon O’ Clock. Dont forget a bottle of something to drink, and maybe a snack.

Its up to you but a helmet and gloves are always a good idea.

If you can Id appreciate an email confirming you plan on coming…so I dont go and find out Im the only one   dgstephens26.2@netzero.com

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NEW FUN:   THE JESTER RUN:  RESULTS, and Noni’s great photos and award winning captions : ) ,   Ingy’s Black  mt X terra race,  Below Eric’s Coyote 2 Moons data comes data  from another person engaged in insanity – a friend of mine’s take on racing up Haleakala  volcano on Maui. He took one look at Noni’s photo link to Eric’s race  and E mailed that the Coyote race looks like “FUN” to him (Did they share the same  Mom from outer space or somethin’??) and he may try it next year.  BEWARE ERIC:  He says the HURT race in Hawaii he’s done makes: ” Coyote look LIKE A PAVED PATH comparatively”  Did I just hear a challenge??

     Other stuff below:  _PHOTO LINK TO:   Eric’s write  up on THE COYOTE TWO MOON 100 MILER –  Dripping Springs High Tea with photo link : )….and Don’t forget the Jester Run coming this Sat. at SRP!!   And uh, Victor, oh Victor…before I start making stuff up  about you and Dan in Florida…did your input get lost  in cyber space?

COMING IN APRIL NEWS LETTER:  

                                       TEMECULA  RUN and TRI:  You all  saw me out there with my cam corder:  Slight problem…just about every one of you waved at  me as you ran past but I’m just learning how to use the cam corder and i happily stood there and video taped absolutely none of you because I didn’t push the record button hard enough.  I’d hoped to have a ‘motion picture night’ of the event but it ain’t happening …tells  me I need to stick to stationary photos and writing…I did catch portions of the tri on film but mostly that involved those screaming fast U turns on the bike and the screetchin’ halts at T-2, punctuated by  Tino’s oOOpsie and Doug and Barb’s dash to the splash finale’.

 I think about 80% of the club  showed up for either the run or the tri and despite freezing, everyone seemed to have fun.  At some point I’ll post the pre race stationary photos I took matched with great, good or even bad commentary from anyone whose willing to write it.  I’ve also decided that the club needs to   invent a new award for the Redliner that spends the most time in T-2 pealing off the most layers of clothing in slow  motion during a race…currently it would be a tie between  Barb and Tino…and I’ve got it on tape to  prove it : )

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BROOK’S NIGHT:  Wed. night’s run saw roughly  13 Redliners pop over to the shop to sample the shoes (or not).  We ran  a really nice route (per Barb, Noni, Kim K, myself and probably everyone else) compared with the high traffic routes we’ve done in the past from the store. This route took us past the double dog parks located in the new YMCA complex off Margarita, then up Solano to I think it’s called del Rey, swung a u turn, then returned.   Route was a bit short compared to our usual 5. but could easily be extended up del Rey.   I loved the Brook’s Adrenaline shoe I tried, with it’s  nicely fitted heal, comfy wide toe box in the size B width, and special fluid filled toe and heal gel pads.  It was light but provided plenty of padding and the shoe’s sole was very flexible.  Other comments I heard:  females seemed to like the snug heal/wide toe box bit except one female with narrow  feet found the shoe a bit too wide -maybe needed an ‘A’ width since we mostly tried b’s I think.  One male found the toe, which slanted very slightly upward (Theoretically to help  one’s stride) to feel ‘odd’.  (I didn’t feel the slant at all, other’s did with mixed feelings.) 

       Post run, we provided some verbal feed back about the shoes and got goodies like barefoot shaped key chain/can opener, decals, and quite a nifty gun metal grey shirt with saying “Are You In A Trance?” on the front.  That refers to the Trance shoe but it cracked me up.  I’m thinking I need to cross out the “Are You” part and substitute, “Am I”  for it then wear it next year if I try the shorter  more user friendly 100K version of Eric’s Coyote 2 moons race :  )

—————————-

SRP “Jester” Handicap Run:   photos by Noni,  Frivolous extra comments by your editor.

Before the start of the Inaugural Jester Handicap Race at the Santa Rosa Plateau

Frivolous extra comments:

Kim, Dina, Tino, Victor’s 1 and 2 = this will be a blast.

 Taimi:  How fast should i not go?? What if I see a  Mt  lion eating a coyote?  Is it OK to leap  over rocks with a single bound or should I take a step in the middle?? Does horse doo doo come  off shoes?? Can Tarantula’s fly??

Ingy:  Don’t worry Taimi, this is a piece of cake,  first the path goes 50 feet straight then ya see that bush, ya make a little  left by it then ya go  like 40 feet and turn south and the path goes up a ways then ya go like maybe 3 blocks through this grassy area and then ya just…

Glen:    “I think one of Taimi’s flying tarantulas just crawled up my shorts”.  (Note that  Victor instantly  in-acted  anti-tarantula measure)

Eric:  Suddenly decides his jester run might be harder to orchestrate than expected.  Can be seen here trying to create falling domino effect to see if his leaning on Glen will cause everyone to fall over. Why is he doing this?    As usual,  I have no clue.

Write up by Eric, edited by Noni :

We had 8 club members and future club member and Jester missus, Noni, show up for the handicap run.  When asked for predicted 4 mile times, most people were ultra-conservative even though being warned about penalty time if they run much faster than predicted.  Even though no one had to race, most everyone had someone within sight ahead of them and that helped motivate the pace.

Dina takes off with victory in her heart and hands!

(Ingy’s hopin’ she gets her head up and eyes off the ground real fast…form like she’s showin’ here could threaten his course coinage collecting)  See link below for start  photos/Noni’s commentary for each runner.

 Winning the sandbag award (no points) is Taimi who predicted a 4 mile time of 36:00 or a 9 min/mi pace.  Since I do not think Taimi is capable of running 9 min/mi even while dragging a tire behind her, I called her on it but she felt timid about the terrain and was worried about going off course, among other things. (See editors above list of  ”Other Things”)

Here comes Taimi with her pony tail barely keeping up with her!

Editors note to Taimi:  See that thing behind you?  It’s called a bench, it is inanimate, and it can not chase you. Some people even sit on them half way thru runs. 

 Glen Koch, however, showed up ready to go – getting into the real spirit of the event.  He started trash talking immediately and to back it up, predicted the fastest time so he got to start last and try to catch everyone.  First off was Dina at 7:50 am, then Ingy took off chasing her at 7:51.  Ambassador Victor Lopez chased Ingy at 7:52 not realizing that all his relay training is starting to kick in.  Kim Koch and Noni took off together at 7:53 and just cruised, gabbing all the way.  Then Taimi, starting way too far back at 7:54 caught Noni and Kim at about 1.5 miles into the course.  (We know the spot because Noni was able to point out to Taimi the spot where Noni saw a bobcat on a run at SRP last summer.) (Editors note:  OK,  now THAT explains Taimi’s extra burst of speed!)  Then Victor Flores took off, determined to catch his missus, with the 5 minute lead,  left at 7:55.  Tino also tried to match Glen’s bravado however he knew he was going to run another long run on the trails after the jester run and so held a little something back.  Not much though and he predicted a time fast enough to let Victor F. have a four minute lead before he pursued at 7:59.  Then Glen was off at 8:00 flat to try to catch them all.

Glen is worried that Jester Man won’t get his start time right since he has to take his photo at the same time! 

It was no surprise to see the sandbagger, Taimi, come in first with a run time of 31:54 well under her predicted 36:00 time.  She received a time penalty of 2 minutes for an official time of 33:54 which made no difference as she had the 3rd fastest time with or without the penalty.  However with the penalty assessed she was not the first to finish but was 3rd.  The next runner in was Victor Lopez who also sandbagged to a lesser degree and received a lesser penalty to actually take the win.  If he had run 18 seconds faster he would have been assessed an extra minute and Ingy would have won as he was the next runner in and he was also flirting with a time penalty but just under the “redline”.

Here comes Bob looking fit and ready for another loop!

 Noni, being more familiar with the trail and course, finished just ahead of Kim K. who was fifth officially. Kim was the first person to run sort of close to but still faster than their predicted time.  Noni finished just ahead of Kim but as she is not a club member yet doesn’t count for points.  Dina came in 5th, less than a minute and a half from her predicted time with hubby Victor right on her heels in 6th – a hair over a minute faster than his predicted time.  Glen came in 7th having a hard time making up so much time on the rest of the field, catching only Tino, who came in 8th running close to Glen’s predicted time.

Jester Man with best guesser Glen and worst guesser Taimi

(Ed. Note:  Based on expressions, I believe Jester is patting Glen on back for job well done while simultaneously pinching Taimi for miscalculating her time so badly.  From Jester’s expression, this is like trying to rub your belly and pat your head at the same time)

 Every runner in the event ran faster than predicted.  (Ed. note:  Just think how much more ‘under predicting’ would have happened had everyone been doing Ingy’s track workouts!!)   In the future time penalties will be more severe with one minute assessed at two minutes faster than predicted then two more minutes on the third minute and three more at the fourth minute and so on so that a runner running 4 minutes faster than their predicted time would have 6 penalty minutes added to their time.(Editors note: They will also be fed to the nearest Cougar. That should solve the problem.)  Of note – there is no penalty for running any time slower than your predicted time. (ED Note to Taimi:  SEE, that’s what that bench is for!!) So for handicap points Victor won 15.  Glen, who aimed high, got 9 points for his finish but since he was the closest to his predicted time (41 seconds) he gets an additional 15 points for a total of 24 points.

Tino and Glen did finish in style; so much so that Camera 1′s batteries died from the heat they gave off as they blitzed through the finish line.  That’s our story and we’re sticking to it. 

Ed note:  SO HOW COME THE JESTER DIDN’T GET THROWN IN THE HORSE’S WATERING TROUGH??? (Those of you sharing my military past know what I’m talkin’ about.)

Everyone was able to follow the simple and well-marked (if the Jester does say so himself!) course and despite being a little chilly and grey, it was a fine running morning and everyone had a lot of fun.  Tino and Taimi had so much fun they went out with run coordinator, Jester, for an eleven mile circumnavigation of the Santa Rosa Plateau.  Do I detect a little regular team vs ultra team competition going on?  Below are complete results:
 
runner               start      finish     place     run time  rank   predicted time   time difference   points
 
Victor Lopez        7:52 8:26:13+1   1      34:13+1     7     37:40               3:27               15
                                   8:27:13(official)    35:13(official)
 
Bob Ingertson      7:51    8:27:17      2      36:17        8     38:48               2:29               14
 
Taimi Schweighardt7:54 8:25:54+2   3       31:54+2   3     36:00               4:06               13
                                   8:27:54(official)    33:54(official)
 
Kim Koch           7:53     8:28:19       5       35:19       6     37:00               1:41                12
 
Dina Flores         7:50     8:28:36       6       38:36       9     40:00               1:24               11
 
Victor Flores        7:55    8:28:58       7       33:58       4     35:00               1:02               10
 
Glen Koch          8:00     8:29:19       8       29:19       1     30:00                 :41                9+15=24
 
Tino Soria           7:59     8:29:37       9       30:37       2      32:00               1:23               8
 
Noni Nierenberg  7:53      8:28:08      4       35:08       5      37:00                  1:52  

THE BEST PART:  NONI’S PHOTO LINK: 

http://picasaweb.google.com/noninierenberg/JesterHandicapRun32109?authkey=Gv1sRgCMqiuqTYveXL6QE&feat=directlink 

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BLACK MOUNTAIN 5K/15K   …The answer to  why Ingy wasn’t at the Temecula Tri…as told by INGY to my computer:

Black Mountain Regional Park is very large and quite pretty, esp. now when everything is green. I encourage anyone thinking of a trail run, or just a weekend hike—give the place a try.
That said, anyone who has ever ran an Xterra race learns quickly not to trust their course descriptions. This race was described as flat and fast, “the fastest trail run of the year and great for beginners”. Totally deceiving as the only flat was the last 50 meters across grass to the finish.
The first mile of the 5k was mostly downhill and you had to pay close attention as there were many ruts and washouts on the 10 foot wide trail. At one point I glanced at my Garmin and I was at 6:20 pace. The second mile was rolling with several hundred yards of single track trail. At two miles the course took a right turn and we started to climb. At about three miles I took a look at my Garmin and I was doing 19:00 min. pace! Of course, true to Xterra, the course was long also, measuring 3.61 miles on my Garmin, with the last 1.6 miles all up.
The best part of Xterra is always at the finish! Everyone gets a finishers medal and a great breakfast. Bananas, oranges, watermelon, 4 kinds of muffins, scrambled eggs, and coffee, and since their races are generally limited to around 400 runners there is rarely much of a line and plenty to go around. Normally, they also have lots of give away stuff. On Sunday I won a 48 count box of Gu——pretty cool, it’ll last me a long time!!
Xterra age group medals are also quite large, about the size of most marathon finishers medals. Since this was the first race held on the Black Mtn. course I also get to be the 60+ course record holder for at least a year—–my first record!!!! 

Ingy

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Wed meeting notes: In  abreviated non nonsense format:

1.Ingy and Beth arranged for Dr Alex Espinoza from the OUCH clinic to run and speak to us.  He did, provided interesting data on glycosumine, most forms of which apparently haven’t been proven to do much. Summerized what the clinic does -not just bone/joint work but also deals with lung/heart type issues.    Plus he gave out a number of nice T’s and the two wounded  warriors ( My hubby Bob and Kim P.) got nice AUCH clinic swet shirts 

2.  Jester Eric discussed the  ”Jester run” at SRP on 21st -recommends Ragnar folks make that a double and maybe even triple run day plus he hopes to have Ragnar team meeting that day.  Iain:  Show up. Please. See below for SRP run details.   People old  enough to drive are needed as Ragnar  volunteers.  Discussed the need to pin down group’s general collective speed to determine start time.  Start time determines also if folks may need to  spend previous night near Ragnar start local or be able to drive up there race morning.  Noon start time makes driving up on race day practical.   

3.  Noni discussed her Dripping Springs social briefly -see below.

4.   Ingy and Victor collected $$ for our new shirts -Plan to order them next week.  Ingy still has some left over Trotter and Brooks high tech shirts -buy from him at the Running Center.  OK to pay him for the sshirts you each ordered when possible.

5.  It was universaly agreed that ‘my’ Bob looked great for someone who had the joy of a triple bypass the previous Wed. 

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H  I GH  T E A    AT  D R I P P  I N G   S P R I N G S

Noni and Eric instigated a Run, Hike N’ High Tea event at dripping Springs Sunday.   They put this on for visiting friends of theirs. Their friends are clearly pretty unique  since there aren’t a lot of Americans in the grey haired dept. for whom The Drip Springs elevation gain and plunge would qualify as  ‘What I  most Want to Do on my Sunday’.  A few moments talking with their friends proved their uniqueness.  These are people who call double crossings of the Grand Canyon “fun”.  I guess that means they come from the same planet as Eric though I note they have dropped that planet’s style of attire and adapted to ours much better than Eric has.   A slew of Redliners  joined in on this Trail to the Sky.  Some hiked, some jogged, some ran.  Most of those who hiked headed out the less rocky more undulating left fork of the split while the runners headed up the steeper ups of Dripping Spring trail.  I wasn’t there so I can’t give much commentary on what went on before the High Tea part BUT let me activate my imagination and here’s what may have happened: Everybody takes off fresh and smooth at the start, accompanied by the involuntary thumbs up of Kimmie. Kimmie’s thinkin’, “Can I hike fast enough to burn off last night’s  huge lettuce n veggie salad, the one with no dressing but there were those 3 crutons”; Barb’s thinkin’, “I’m gonna make Mark hang with Kimmie’s  speed come hell  or  high water”; Steve A. is thinkin’ to himself,   “This can’t possibly be as fast as that super sonic 2 hr 55 minute run up here two weeks back but over my dead  body am I gonna slow down in front of Monica and Taimi”.  Ingy’s brain’s going,  “There’s a dime in my future and the future is gonna be in the next 10 minutes”.  Mean while Noni is happily  chattin’ away to  her friends about flower species endemic to the hills and Eric’s  thinking who knows what because it’s  impossible for me as a  human to  think like an alien.  Iain is target locked on just keeping up and so is Kim K. who’s headed up the steep route at quick time with Glen, hoping to reach the top for her first time. With those thoughts everybody heads up at various paces and as they do Doug chats 100 sentences to Mark’s 2.5.  This distracts both of them from aucho prone bodies and their speed’s pretty good because it’s embarrassing to have two females topping out at 5’  3” tall smearing two 6 foot tallers into the dirt. Eventually, some where near the clouds, half the fast group decides to search a rabbit warren for dead protein or something I didn’t quite get.  Maybe Monic’s idea since Eric being an alien,  he doesn’t get protein from meat.  They split  off from Taimi  and company.  Taimi’s busy finding out she really does dig this trail run stuff more than expected. Her turbo charge function kicks in and Steve goes into O2 deficit in .3  seconds and remains there for the next hour. Everybody makes their way back toward where great food awaits and as they do Ms. Wind Beneath Iain’s Wings, aka Alejandra (did I finally learn to spell that right??) has managed to do the impossible:  De-energize their two sons.  Every female out there can tell every male out there that that takes twice as much energy as any male ever spends doing anything including running Dripping Springs.  Doug to Ingy:   I wonder how many calories the group burned off this day.  Anyone wanna try and do the math?? Wait, it’s  on my garmin for  me..I could  just   multiply that by the number  of people who hiked that path, add 10 calories for  each 2 quarts of water each person carried, divide it by how little the gal’s weigh then add the distance and speed Taimi’s group blah blah blah…… Everyone hikes, jogs, dashes or in Steve’s case draggggssss then drops back into the parking lot.  Steve has just learned that given sufficient motivation he can do Drip Springs 15 minutes faster than he thought was his fastest possible pace.  2 hrs 40 minutes. Gasp whew gasp.    That’s if he doesn’t mind looking like a dead fish whose mouth is poofing in and out trying to suck oxygen molecules out of the mountain air. Noni:  I did this test thing:  I made 2 huge pans of brownies and my friend made 2 coffee cakes and we thought we’d see which of them Tracy ate…you aren’t gonna believe this:  SHE ATE some of each and 3 brownies!!     3 ??  NO!! didn’t ya see? it was more like 6!!  She made  this brownie sandwich with a blondie and a sprig of lettuce in the middle, then she opened wide like this and just popped them all in at once!!  it was just  like those Hipppo pics you see on discovery channel.    it was amazing!! Everyone then proceeds to eat great food and I take an instant liking to Noni’s friend because she understands the importance of putting large quantities of brown sugar streusel atop coffee cake.  While I didn’t bring anything besides Bob, I felt I contributed to the High Tea by eating large quantities of Noni’s brownies.  We certainly didn’t want the kids eating it and going into hyper mode, right Alejandra??  Living proof that Doug DOES eat!!….BUTTTT… Over whelmed by the 3 tablespoons of cous Cous, 1 tablespoon of pasta salad, 2 potato chips, and 1/3 of  one brownie he ate, Doug’s enormous  meal leaves him sleepy and ready for a nap.  About 1 Pm, everyone splits up to go get cleaned up, Steve drags himself up off the ground but is still looking for spare O2 molecules.  Last to leave was probably Ingy who did the parking lot sweep, you know, just  in case someone lost  some change. FROM ERIC: could you please put a short line in the newsletter from noni and me thanking all who attended and brought stuff.  we really enjoyed the morning, it was such a great day and super companionship.  and, btw, we have someone’s fold up blue chair that says “Z communications” on it and will return it when we know who’s it is. harpy tails,  jester       O              \ __\__                                                                        \   \                    \               ___^             /          \____                _ /                    \    PHOTO  LINK FROM NONI: I sat down shortly after returning home and downloaded the photos I took to a Picasa album and even added goofy captions.  Here is the link to the album:   http://picasaweb.google.com/noninierenberg/DrippingSpringsRunMunch?authkey=Gv1sRgCLj_gpD5q6aEogE&feat=directlink.    PS I think Eric already wrote to you about this, but just in case, would you please put a note on the website to everyone who joined us for today’s adventure that we are so happy they could come and we want to thank everyone who brought goodies to share as well. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ First quarter Jester Event   Mar. 21, 2009 at Santa Rosa Plateau same bat time, same bat channel (7:30 am; horse parking lot) we ask everyone to show by 7:30am and since this a handicap run slower runners will start around 7:45 w/ the faster runners starting around 8:10   format:  handicap run course: fairly benign 4mile run on trails marked w/ flour dots at intersections; approximately 8 w/ only 5 being major turns. method: on arriving everyone will provide a time estimate for the course.  these times can be based on one’s fastest attempt or whatever pace they choose to do therefore it is not really a race per se where the fastest runner wins.  to prevent sandbagging, any runner running more than 3 minutes faster than their predicted time will be penalized 1 minute per minute faster.  so a runner trying for an advantage w/ a slower start who runs five minutes under his predicted time will be penalized 2 minutes. a runner predicting a time of one hour for the four miles (15 min/mi) will start at 7:45 while a runner predicting a time of 20 minutes (5 min/mi) will start at 8:25.  theoretically both runners should hit the finish line around the same time.  points will be awarded as such:  15 points for the first finisher (not the fastest time), 14 for the 2nd finisher down to 2 points for the 14th finisher.  there will also be 10 points awarded for the closest to the predicted time done.  watches are allowed, we just ask runners to abide by the spirit of the run and not run the clock out to win the closest to the predicted time.   all math will be done by the organizers, just show up, predict your time and run the course when told, and we’ll handle all the point awards and timing.  full results with finishing order, points awarded and a ranking of times from fastest to slowest will be posted on the newsletter tho no points awarded on the basis of fastest times; it’s just a race w/in the race kind of thing.   also, for ragnar relay team members this is our tentative day for our triple workout.  hang around after the four mile handicap event for the second run of the day starting around 9:30am, distances to be determined depending on whether runners are on the regular or ultra team and non-ragnar relay team members are encouraged to join in the fun.  let’s run wild out there! harpy tails, JEster          O            \ __\__                                      \   \                    \               ___^             /          \____                _ /                    \   the coyote two moon 100 miler ….Just the fact that ’100 miler’ is in the title tells you this comes from Eric: (Even if you don’t read this, check out the great photo link and Noni humorous captions at bottom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)   for those of you that are planning on attending this month’s jester run, the handicap santa rosa ramble, imagine, if you will, instead of predicting a 4 mile time over a fairly benign dirt course and having a staggered start over the next half hour you instead predict a 100 mile time over a mountainous course and having a staggered start over the next 9 hours. “Yi Yi YIKES!!!  I’d rather hang out in my den than even think about doing that”  that’s the way the coyote two moon race was set up.  the only 100 miler (and 100k for the wimps out there) with a handicap start.  it is also the only race i know of that adds and/or subtracts time from your “raw” time in the form of boner or bonus minutes done mostly on the whim of the rd.  boner minutes are awarded to people being rude or just doing really stupid stuff while bonus minutes were awarded based on being colourful, perky, friendly, participating in pre-run activities (like bowling), spending money in the host city (ojai), and sucking up to the rd.  so full results will not be fully tabulated until later this week tho minor awards are given out after the race for the top fastest times and all finishers.  so you get the gist- it’s a weird, fun race if that can be said of any 100 miler. Pre race activity:  Howling??   for all who have been introduced to the joy that is the dripping springs trail imagine, if you will again, doing the full up and down and then repeating it 6 more times for the distance of 100 miles and you will have a very good sense of the coyote 2 moon course. (Editor’s note:  Guess we ain’t talkin’ flat)  however, for feet of climbing to be equal you would have to repeat dripping springs a little more than 9 times to equal the 28,100 feet of climb in coyote.  at ojai, ca there is a mountain ridge, nordhoff ridge, just north of the town.  there is a truck trail that runs the length of the ridge east and west and there are single track trails running from both north and south sides and the west end up to the ridge and the truck trail.  the coyote course is really simple- run 6 miles up to the ridge, run along the ridge a wee way then take a different trail and run back down to ojai.  get to the bottom and turn around and run about 9 miles back up and go to the highest spot you can find on the east end and then return down 1.5 mile and run along the ridge for a half mile and then plummet down 8 miles to rose valley on the north side, turn around and run back up (but skipping the highest peak point) and run back past where you got on the ridge originally (and only 6 miles to the finish line but way too soon as this is only the 40 mile point) continue on the ridge to another trail that leads back to rose valley from the west but instead of a long gradual descent of 8 miles as done earlier the course drops the same elevation in only 3 miles.  once you return to the rose valley aid station and can face going on the course goes back up to the ridge via the steep 3 mile dirt road that was just done down.  back on the ridge again head west for another mile or so and, you guessed it drop down again off the ridge on the north side to howard’s creek, only four miles of fairly nice single track trail and again get to the bottom and turn around and go back up then follow the ridge west some more for a bit more than a mile again and hit gridley top aid station.  from there 8 miles with the first mile being uphill to the watchtower then 7 miles of mostly downhill plunge to the cozy dell aid.  turn around and return to gridley top and then turn right and head down gridley trail to gridley bottom 6 miles away back on the south side of the ridge.  following that head right back up to gridley top and then follow the ridge all the way back (about 6 miles) to your original trail and run back down that to finally reach the finish line just 6 miles away.  man, it was hard just typing that, it’s gotta be easier to run it, right?  …right? “I’m so confused…where was I supposed to go??”   due to the staggered start and the fact that once upon a time i used to be fairly good running hundreds i was in the last start group for the 100 milers which was 3am sat. morning.  a good time for me as i am a night owl.  the first wave started at 6 pm fri..  there were seven of us in our group, four guys and 3 gals.  as was my wont i cruised up the first climb in the lead intent on trying for a fast time.  i had karl metzler’s 19:24 from last year to shoot for tho i thought that unlikely given my training.  in any case i was hoping for the fastest time for the race.  by the first turn around i had a comfortable 5 minute lead and was not pushing.  everything was still going well at my first appearance at rose valley.  i had been seeing runners from other start groups coming back up the mountain and had already caught a few of those on the long downhill into rose valley.  the sun had risen and it wasn’t so cold (around mid to upper 20′s on the ridge and northside overnight).  at the aid station i drank about 6 oz of pickle juice as i had a pre-cramp feeling in my calves on the downhill and a full nestle chocolate milk plus some coke and a chocolate donut hole and headed back up.    it was hard getting back going as that was the first time i had had to see noni and really refuel and i stayed put a little long.  but my lead was still around 15 minutes so i felt pretty good.  headed back up the mountain doing ok.  energy was great but i noticed i was gradually slowing.  i still caught a couple of other people from earlier starts but looking way down the mountain i could see my pursuers and they were not still 15 minutes back.  by the time i got to the ridge aid station ray sanchez caught me and he was in and out and gone.  soon after on the downhill roch horton caught me.  i was thinking that those guys really didn’t know how bad that 3 mile steep downhill and then 3 mile steep uphill going back to and from rose valley was going to effect them and i thought i could run conservatively and eat them up later.  knowing while i was thinking it that race strategy never, and i mean never, has worked for me in the past but since my legs were feeling all pounded and tired what choice did i have?  going mincingly down to rose valley francesca passed me.  i stayed fairly steady from then on but not fast tho i think i actually went up the 3 mile hill better than most from rose valley as i still caught more people and no one else caught me.  when i got to the howard’s creek trail i was happy.  this is my favorite trail on the course.  four miles and just a gradual descent (and ascent) mostly soft dirt and single track.  i stretched my legs out and ran with some flair down.  no mincing just a relaxed cruise.  at the bottom i met noni and again spent a little too long time there and i stiffened up.  luckily she convinced me to carry a small head lamp for the next section even tho it was only about 13 miles to the next time i’d see her at cozy dell and i had 3 hours before dark.  one of the most amazing things i have discovered about ultras is how slowly i can go while actually racing.  i have clocked myself running, yes-running, a mile in 25 minutes during one 24 hour race on a flat 1 mile paved loop (i found i could walk the mile during the same race in 20 minutes so yes there are times when i can walk faster than i can run).  in any case wendy from my group passed me on the climb back up to the ridge on my favorite trail tho close to the top.  we stayed together and talked  for the next few miles but then when we started descending to cozy dell she pulled away.  Two Coyotes chattin’.  Note they are smart enough to pause as they do so, unlike certain human runners in this race.  my downhill legs were shot.  i could go up about as fast as anyone at this point but everyone, and i mean everyone, was going faster than i was on the downhill.  then about halfway down it got dark so i got even slower.  i did have my lamp so not all was lost.  just before the bottom the last two from my start group passed me and i was in last place from my group.  a position i solidly held from thence on to the finish.  noni got me food and more lights at cozy dell and nicely suggested the joys and comfort of just staying in place and letting the race go on without  me.  it was not an unkindness, she just knew i was fairly miserable at being so slow and that there were two more horrible climbs ahead and over 50 kilometers left in the race.  however, i had dnfed the year before at near the same point and as i have not finished a 100 miler since 2005 and especially since i was feeling ok, energy levels good and no significant pain like i was breaking something i was determined to carry on to at least the next aid station where i could see her, gridley bottom at 80 miles.  again, i stiffened up at the aid station and starting back in the dark was hard.  especially as i kept tripping on rocks and stumbling about.  i went thru my whole profanity vocabulary within the first mile until i figured out ( it takes awhile for my brain to work out things sometimes) that my LED light was not giving me the depth perception i needed so on rocky sections i used my hand-held flashlight and i don’t think i tripped ever again.  also after a bit more than a mile there was a fog coming over the mountain and the LED headlamp just reflected back from the fog making it very difficult to see.  it did not seem to slow many people down tho but once again i was going uphill and only two late start 100kers passed me going up.  to give you a sense of the speed needed to do 100s let me tell you i did the 8 miles uphill to gridley top in 3:26.  not exactly blistering.  and that was non-stop in case you thought i might have pulled over for a nap or something.  running down to gridley bottom was a painful chore and i got passed by a few more people but everyone was very spread out now even tho with lights one could see runners literally 8-10 miles away once above or below the fog layer.  i guess i shouldn’t call it fog as it was really a cloud cover that the mountain was higher than.  at gridley bottom, 80 miles, i had 20 more miles to go and noni let me know that she wouldn’t be horribly crushed if i called it a day there.  well, since her job was pretty much done as i wouldn’t see her again untill the finish anyway and i had done 7 of the 8 mountain climbs i concentrated on thinking just one more uphill and one more downhill to go rather than ten miles of mostly up and ten miles of mostly down for 20 long miles.  i set off and had only one guy pass me from a 100k start before gridley top.  going back up i saw that there were only a handful of people still racing behind me.  i knew the race was officially over by 10am sun morning and given that i was taking around 2 and a half hours for every 6 miles i knew it was going to be a close thing for me to be an official finisher.  i knew i was finishing as there were no good dnf options after 80 miles but i had worked so hard it would have hurt to not be official.  so i pushed my walking pace from 80 on doing the 6 miles back up to gridley top only 15 minutes slower than i went down.  at the gridley top aid station we were above the clouds and the moon was out and bright and the mountain ridge looked really cool with the ocean of clouds below us.  there was a bit of a backlog at the aid station and since i had really tanked up when i last saw noni six of us left the aid station withing a minute of each other.  so we had a little race w/in the race.  feeling pressured by time and knowing the last 10 miles of downhill to the finish was going to be slow for me i power walked past this group.  they appeared to be out for an evening stroll just chatting among themselves and having fun, it sounded like.  since we were on a smooth(ish) truck trail and on the top of an open ridge with a bright moon i did not have to use my lights at all from there to the finish so i was in “stealth” mode and i could watch everyone else ebb and flow from their lights.  i put some serious distance on the group fairly quickly and by about 4 miles in i had close to a half mile lead on them.  but then the downhill started.  it was quite gradual for awhile but i continued walking hard but it was not long before the crowd passed me just cruising along.  i did notice however that all conversation had ceased and everyone was down to business.  not long after that my second sunrise occurred.  well, i should say the next daylight happened as the cloud cover rapidly rose to meet the sun so that before it could crest the mountains to the east i was below the clouds so it was not until we were almost home that the clouds cleared enough for me to see the sun.  about a mile out from the last aid station 7 miles from the finish another guy caught me.  he left the aid station looking strong altho he was also walking like me.  i followed him to the last section of single track trail, the one i had started up more than a day ago and he disappeared quickly.  the first mile and a half down was very technical,  lots of rocks big and small and several switchbacks.  i tried running ever mindful of the 10 am deadline but it was just too hazardous given my state of mind and physical dexterity or lack of both.  hearing noise above me i look up at a switchback and see a lady catching me.  as the trail was  narrow with little passing opportunities i picked it up looking hard for some sort of pull out so i could let her go by w/out slowing her down too much but, of course, nothing and when she got close she seemed content to maintain at my pace  we were quiet for awhile but then we started talking and she was in the 100k but was about 2 hours slower than her last year’s effort and was just trying to get it over with.  finally we hit a campground and i let her pass and she pulled away.  about a half mile further the last guy that had caught me was coming back to me.  maybe he tried to hard to put me away but his wheels were certainly falling off and bouyed by the run with the lady and passing the guy i was able to run almost all the last trail down to the finish.  i get to the soccer field where i had to run a lap before the finish line,  a nice little insult after all that we had gone thru but at least it was flat and soft grass.  noni walked beside me as i ran my loop before skipping ahead to get a finish photo.  people with energy and spryness make me sick.  but at least i was finally done finishing at 9:28 am for a time of 30:28:48.  can you imagine doing anything that you love for 30 and 1/2 hours?  i won’t know how i did overall for about a week but i know i was the slowest of my start group all of whom finished the race with the top two fastest men’s (ray had the fastest with 25:16) and women’s (francesca had the fastest i’m guessing around 27 hours) time coming from my group.  and i also know that when it comes to really hard courses (at least at non-significant altitude) i can persevere.   there is so much left out of this account which is really a bare bones mile by mile replay.  it does not express the amazing feelings being on a mountain top after working hard to get up there (several times) and seeing the view 360 degrees around with the whole world seemingly below.  missing are all the feelings of going from cold temps to fairly warm (upper 20′s to mid 70′s) and back again.  and the spirit of comradery in the face of competition  which is really the greatest thing about ultras that i know cannot be expressed adequately in words by me.  out there on the course all racers are like a close family.  we may be racing but people are always willing to help each other be it batteries for lights or food or fluids or advice or just companionship and conversation.   harpy tails, “That race was worth howlin’   about” jester       O              \ __\__                                                                        \   \                    \               ___^             /          \____                _ /                    \ FABULOUS PHOTO LINK WITH GREAT NONI CAPTIONS:   I finally finished the photo album of C2M.  Here is the link to it:  http://picasaweb.google.com/noninierenberg/Coyote2Moon2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCITbhPivyOmxqAE&feat=directlink.           Editor’s note :  Reading that had an odd effect on me….it made  me both interested in what it would be  like to experience this sort of race  myself and it also made  me interested in never experiencing a race  like this!  Maybe  if the cut off could be extended to about 4 days and they provided a really nice camp ground with hot showers for one each night  ( I know: Whimpy whimpy whimpy!) ————————————————    HALEAKALA  RACE,   MAUI: The below race write up comes from a talented 59 year old friend who ‘specializes’ in ultra’s and adventure races. His name  is Ed Bugarin and he is an instructor (as is his wife Carol) of the POSE method of athletics.  This method teaches one to use gravity to help one’s performance.  (He did Eco Challenge Borneo for those of you aware of the eco challenge series).  Note he and Eric have a few things in common -like race foot wear…do they know something we mortals don’t?? I did the Haleakala “Run to the Sun” this past Saturday (March 14) on the Hawaiian island of Maui.  As usual, it was a grueling uphill run to the summit.  About 5 minutes into the 4:30 am start it dumped hard and long enough to get everyone soaked and wet.  Then it stopped and did not rain until we reached the 8,000 ft level.  At the beginning of the Haleakala Road, where the switch backs begin (about 14.5 miles into the run) there was a strong headwind blowing at 40 MPH.  That really slowed down the runners.  We were also told at this point that the 36.2 mile race to the 10,023 ft summit was shortened 3 miles due to the high wind conditions at the top. The park rangers closed the summit off to everyone, including tourists due to the windy, cold and limited visibility of about 200 yards.  At mile 31 aid station we were encouraged by the volunteers that we had only 2 miles to go.  Then at the mile 32 aid station we were told we had only 2 miles to go.  That confused all the runners, especially since it was very cold, 35°, and with stronger winds.   With only 4 miles to go, my buddy, Tom, and I were walking at a sub 20 minute per mile pace because of the grade and windy condition and it seems like the lack of oxygen.  Damn runners in front must have used up most of the oxygen.  We were also freezing.  It was a good thing that my wife Carol was following us in a rental car because she stopped along the way and gave us clothes and gloves to put on.  If she wasn’t there to give us clothes, I would have dropped out early on.  It was so cold that about 3/4 of a mile from the finish line, I was shivering pretty good and was contemplating getting in the rental car Carol was driving.  Of course (editors note:  Why oh why would he say “of course’….like this is something the rest of us might do?? LOL) both of us were wearing Crocs and the wind was going right through the holes in the front of the Crocs and with wet socks our toes were numb.  But we managed to finally finish in 7 hours 54 minutes.  That was the 6th time I did this race and the third time in my Crocs.  Even with a slow time I managed to place 2nd in my age group, 50-59.  Next year I move up the the next age group, yeah! Here’s a few photos of Tom and I as we were up at the higher elevations fighting the strong head wind and steep climb a few miles from the finish line which was actually 34.2 miles from the start. Edward Bugarin Pose Certified Running Coach, level 3 Pose Certified Triathlon Techniques Coach, level 1 http://poseathlete.com “Training is supposed to reveal the possibilities, not define your limits.“          Most of you know by now that Hubby Bob had the joy of undergoing triple by pass operation a few days ago. He deserves an award at next years award night for being the run club  member who was most dedicated at attending pizza night, rarely missing a single slice, who always pays our dues on time, yes, for both of us, and who himself has yet to run a single club run during our 4 years of membership.  But he has done a tri or two and many bike rides.  Fortunately his heart suffered almost no damage from the minor heart attack that occurred.    SO I don’t have  time to do a proper write up on dripping springs hike but here are the photos, courtesy Glen and Doug: Eric may be able to walk on nice smooth even water, based  on his speed getting accross the creek, but here’s proof Doug can walk on tippy pointed rocks. Which is harder?? The FASS TTTTT    Group:       Taimi: “ Where’s the pavement??” Iain:  ”There’d better be a Chili Relleno waiting for me at home after this” Eric:   “Hill, What Hill??” Steve:    ”HI Ya, Old friend  Mountain”  They’re  OFFFFFF  into the Wild Blue Yonder..Up they GOOOOOOO!!!! Into the Blueeeeee! Mean while,  Kim, Glen and I go alternate gentler second fork  of the trail Kim’s and Glen’s second Honeymoon? We return and Glen and I construct a rock bridge that no one ends up using “This should do  it!” Shortly after we  return, the fastttt group  does too.   Then Beth and her family shows up and doesn’t stay dry crossing the stream ….   Some  more voluntarily than others, as Sandy her  dog demo’s. Everyone had a  fun time -Ingy was there  too and had an exhausting trip to the top and back but found no money so chooses to wipe the experience from his  memory banks.  (Is that a pun of a sort??) Barb and Mark were there also, or maybe it was their ghosts since I didn’t see them.  They zipped up and zipped down at max pace due to Barb’s need to sell shoes at noon. ———————— BOB UPDATE:  Noni and I went to see my Hubby  Bob today in the hospital  and he was up, moving and smiling.  Lot’s  of smiling.  His  injected pain meds were replaced with a  magical ” little pink pill”.  Asked if he was in pain, he said only when he breathes in.  Isn’t that like 20 times per   minute?  His leg, which now lacks a vein it formerly possessed, felt fine. He comes home Sunday and may learn the location of every pot hole between here and the hospital. That’s about 70 miles. I haven’t decided yet whether I should try to to hit them or avoid them.  Next time there’s a  bond issues aimed at pot hole repair, pay attention to which way he votes. Then you’ll  know which I chose to  do.   Lesson Learned from this:  Health via Osmosis doesn’t work.  In other words, you can possess all the exercise equipment in the world and belong to all the gyms within 15 miles but if you don’t make the time to use it, it  does you no good.  ———————– Monday PM:  Bob’s a great patient, continues to do incredibly well, and down loaded calorie counter into his I phone today…and used measuring cup to find out what half a cup  of sauce looked like at dinner tonight.  The food God’s   may have rolled  over  in their graves about this sudden interest in calories and diet : ).   His  words of wisdom on awaking this morning to the reality of multiple upcoming doctor  appointments and 14 pills a day,  most with various restrictions about how to  take them, and insurance phone calls:  THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A ‘MINOR’ HEART ATTACK.  Every one has a  major  impact  on one’s life and the life of one’s  immediate family.  He thanks you all for  all your wishes.    ————————— BOB UPDATE: FRIDAY March  the 13th:  Food for thought for any of your friends that might be heart attack prone:  Bob is recovering MUCH faster than the norm, probably due to his athletic past BUT his surgeon still won’t release him to work full time until 12 weeks from his date of surgery. So you might want to ask those who are over weight and love their food more than exercise who are in their 50′s if they can afford to skip work for 12 weeks.   If that thought doesn’t scare them, the staples used to hold the skin together over the incision should: They run about  9  inches long. (They came out earlier this week).   Bob is permitted to drive again starting next week. Look out fellow drivers !! His aucho factor goes down bit by bit.  The most painful part is from a vein that was relocated from inside one part of his chest, removed from it’s ‘normal’ local, and re routed to form one of his bypass spots. The other vein was removed from his leg.  Interestingly, that process has caused him very little pain -interesting because others we have spoken to have said the leg aucho is usually high.     I never knew how stress contributed to heart attacks.  This is how it works:  Stress makes your veins/arteries (whatevers) contract.  With time, they stay contracted and don’t bounce back ‘open’ again.  The smaller they are, the more likely an obstruction like plaque build up or a blood clot will be able to fill up that narrowed space, causing the heart attack.  Whether the solution to the heart is stints or a bypass depends in part on location. location, location.  In Bob’s case, the attack was extremely minor with virtually no heart damage but the local of his blockages were such that stints couldn’t be used.  Doug tells of a friends of his who had a heart attack a few weeks before Bob’s,  same  general age range. His attack was   massive with lots  of damage but stints were used to  repair his problem.  When a stint is used, the plaque causing the blockage is not removed -apparently it’s  just kind of  shoved back out of the way and the stint forms a tunnel for the blood to  go through again. Bob’s Mom had a stint put  in but it didn’t work ‘right’ and she later had to have bypass done.  My Dad had a stint put in 3 years back at age 80 and his is working great. Unfortunately,  once the heart is damaged from the attack,  it can not be restored -it stays dead- and then the rest of  the heart has to build itself up ‘extra strong’ to make up for the damaged parts inability to work any more.    ======================