Turning right from highway 99 onto highway 32 and heading up the hill from the valley I feel the stress and anxiety of the past week or so start slipping away as the pine trees slip past me. The trees, streams, and trails in the foothills above my old hometown of Chico are some of my favorite places to visit. Although I am not so much looking forward to tent camping (something I thought I had left permanently in my past) I am looking forward to visiting with people I haven’t seen for a while and to doing so with my son, Sean, and wife, Alessandra, for the first time.
I am also excited to be racing again. Not that I do anything close to what most people call racing. My races are more supported slow runs then they are actual races. However, Alessandra is doing her first 10k and Sean is running his first half marathon.
In April I traveled to Forest Ranch to help with the Forest Ranch 4 and to support my friend and race director, Karey. Karey puts on a great race festival! I first met Karey through some of my local running friends and immediately joined up as a Loco Ambassador and regular participant. I have made two failed attempts at the 100k distance and I ran the inaugural FR4 50k (where I earned 1st in age group, 3rd overall, and DFL all at once). Between helping to cook breakfast and helping with an aid station, I ran some of the course.
When I was lying in the hospital recovering from being hit by a train, I decided that I would run and race again. I had no idea it would take this long to get to it. My goal was to run the St. George Marathon, 1 year and 1 week after the accident. I had a backup plan to run the California International Marathon 2 months later, in December. Little did I know that the world was going to collapse. As it turned out, I was not ready for a marathon in October. St George was cancelled. Then my whole family had Covid and I wasn’t going to be ready for CIM either. That was also cancelled. St. George issued a refund and CIM gave me a deferment. So my plans for 2020 have been moved to 2021.
Loco will be my first actual race since being #trainwrecked and the half marathon distance seems like a good choice. I had gotten up to that distance last summer in my training, but then tapered off with training difficulties and Covid. Then I had an unrelated surgery and had to wait for that recovery. Finally! I’m ready to run 13.1 miles on my favorite trails. Or… maybe not.
One week prior to the race everything came to a halt because of a kidney stone. If you haven’t had one, I hope you don’t. If you have, you know what I mean. Miraculously, the stone seems to have dissolved and the pain went away. Still, in the back of my mind, I’m wondering if the pain will come back while I’m on th course. All I can do is drink a lot of water and hope and pray.
Our original plan is to camp at the start line. We drive up and see that the only available spots are along the side of the road. There is no water, no bathrooms, no fires, and no room. We drive a little further and pull into Butte Meadows Campground. I’ve stayed here before and my Sacramento Area running friends have already set up camp. There is an adjoining space and Sean and I have the tent up and air mattresses inflated in short order. Soon we are sitting around the campfire laughing and talking like it hasn’t been months since I’ve hung out with these friends.
Sleeping on the ground is just as much fun as I expected, but we wake up when the ultra runners are getting ready to leave and half sleep until it is time to make our way to the start line. It’s close enough to walk and we get there with enough time to realize that I had forgotten my full water bottles at camp. I grabbed a Loco bottle (Karey, I still owe you for that) and fill it up and head to porta-potty line. The race starts a few minutes early and I am still waiting when the go past me, Sean starting strong on the road portion of the course. The 10k is a straight out and back and Alessandra is on her way with her favorite running partner, Sasha.
I did what I had to do and started down the road after the other runners. I caught the back of the pack as the course turned from pavement to gravel to dirt and joined the 10k on the way to their turn around and aid station. I see Alessandra and Sasha there and fill up my water bottle (I’m not risking any lack of hydration). She is headed back and I continue to the turnaround. Soon I see my friend, Tony, coming back in the lead and, soon after, I see Sean in 4th place of his first ever half marathon. I reach the turn around and continue gaining on people that I had given a head start and catch up to a few running friends and run with them for a while. We leave the 10k course to take the Coyote Butt trail. This is a beautiful part of the course that is slightly less maintained and runs along the edge of the canyon. I’m still feeling pretty good so I keep up my pace on this gradual descent.
It feels like I’m done when I reach the start/finish line, but I’m not. I fill up my water bottle. I see Sean (who ended up in 5th with a sub 2 hour half marathon… not bad for his first one and longest ever) and Alessandra resting with Sasha after completing her longest run ever. We think it might be a good idea to take Sasha for my last 2 miles, but it takes her all of 100 yards to decide she wants nothing of it and I send her back. Coyote Head loop runs steeply down for 1 mile and I keep thinking, “I’m going to have to go back up!” Sure enough, the last mile is not runnable for me and I end up hiking the climb back to the finish. Still, I finish in just under 3 hours and, all things considered, I’m pretty happy with that.
Truth be told, the best part of running Loco is the people. The runners. The volunteers. The race director. All of her staff and family. I won’t list them all because I am sure I would leave somebody out, but Karey makes sure that everyone feels like family. I know I do and that’s why I keep coming back. And the grilled cheese Sammie made with waffles are pretty awesome too.
