a barrel of this

Above is my shiny new medal for finishing third of 11 in my age group (30-34) and tenth overall at the San Pablo Bay Trail Half-Marathon. My time was 1 minute and 40 seconds faster than my SF Half-Marathon time mainly because the field was much smaller (obviously) and I was better placed from the start. Also, I was racing this time rather than just making sure I could finish. However, this course was decidedly more difficult as it features a tough climb of some 600 feet from miles 3 to 5 and 1/2. There was a fair bit of climbing through out and the last 3 miles were particularly difficult.

The hills were hard on my pal Space who finished a few minutes behind me in 18th place. He had a spill early on which can really put a damper on your day. For a second I was patting myself on the back for besting my friend until I recalled that I don’t have a 10K Triathlon to run next weekend. Also, this distance is really made for a runner my size. I don’t have to pull significant muscle mass around the course. My marathon time is likely to be slower compared to his time in past DC runs and maybe even in triathlon runs. Not that I’m competitive or anything Space is an iron man (he completed one in Germany recently). I’m more of a copper man or some other soft, pliable metal.

I’m quite happy that Space reminded me of this event. I have a link to the Redwood Trails site on my sidebar but, I’ve been so focused on trying to gain miles on the road for the MCM that I’ve been avoiding trails for fear of possible injury. But, I prefer to run trails. The view from this trail in particular was spectacular. I had no idea that San Pablo Bay was so big! Also, the Redwood Trails organizers put on a well run and amply stocked race. I will definitely run their races in the future. In fact, I’m thinking the Big Basin 16 mile run might be just the thing.

Speaking of the Redwood Trails folks, I got to meet Scott Dunlap who writes the excellent A Trail Runner’s Blog which you should not miss. Scott was volunteering and in charge of handing out the awards and so I got to thank him for publishing such an interesting and inspirational blog. Sadly, there are not many trail running blogs out there but, I hope folks will follow Scott’s example. Read his take on the day to get an idea of all that goes into setting up an event like this. Thank you Redwood Trails for a fun and satisfying race!

• Map: USGS map
• Personal condition: Good

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 25th, 2005 at 4:36 pm and is filed under China Camp State Park. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.