Climbs and Crossings

The Elevations! Many factors contributed to the fact that today was an all around fabulous race put on by Pacific Coast Trail Runs. My number: All 4's.  This led to a certain annoying commercial popping in and out of my head the entire race. If you don't already know what I'm talking about, it's this one... So I often found that I was saying 444 - 44 44   over and over again in my head. It was kind of an annoying mantra that kept my legs moving...and made me want to offer legal help to my fellow runners.  The scary bathroom line. The bathrooms, not the line.  I had exactly 1 minute by the time I got through the line and exited the bathrooms until we were called over to the start.  Last minute weird looking stretching.   The best thing about this course is the fact that it's mostly single track surrounded by giant redwood trees and ferns. The air has that beautiful smell of mulchy soil and eucalyptus. The temperature is cool except for th

June was my last race. I needed a pick me up, a motivational boost, a challenge, a test, something to kick my own ass. This was that.  Looking at the elevation profile I tried to convince myself it looked easier than my previous 21k at  Tilden Park  where I used such descriptive terms as "surviving death", "treacherous", "dying for salt", etc. Eventually, I stopped kidding myself and accepted my doom.  Saturday morning, still dark, we were on the road toward Martinez. Obviously there was a Starbucks stop along the way before arriving at beautiful Briones Regional Park for my first run with Brazen Racing. I picked up my bib, timing chip, t shirt, and goody bag... Taken by a volunteer, this is me probably waiting in line, definitely contemplating  my life's purpose.  went to the bathroom about 800 times, laced up, geared up, vaselined up, and I was ready to go.  My prayer to the running gods was clearly working.  Here's some fore