The ten miler ha a new course (again) and I think this one is a keeper. Sure it has an 800 foot climb but it has an 800 foot descend in the end.
This morning when driving to put out aid stations, we saw wild horses out in the beautiful green hills. It was amazing to say the least.
Equally amazing is how in less than 2 hours the volunteers put everything together so a race can happen.
This year the 5k and 10 miles shared the first 3 miles and at mile 2 the ten miler winners were leading the 5k winners.
As I was walking to the 5k turn around I heard that Maggie Baker won the 5k and her mom got second. Maggie is an 8th grader.
Backtracking a bit, the creek crossing was different this year in that the creek was only 3 feet wide. Bad thing was it was followed by a nasty looking puddle. I am glad I blazed a side trail to avoid that goo.
After the creek is a nice little hill and it is always funny how some runners think. I was walking and caught a lady before the hill. On the hill she ran by me.
I asked why is she running up the hill? She said always tries too. I said you could save a lot of energy and just walk up it. She ignored me.
We get to the top, she starts mall walking and she never catches me the rest of the run.
Well on to the ten mile! My hard work flagging the course was not as important because the 4 x 4 trucks we used in the morning to drop off the aid station made the course easy to follow.
4 x 4 really tear up the trail, of course both barely made it up the trail.
When I got to 4 miles, Galvin of McFarland harrier fame still had his lead and was looking good. A couple places behind him was the lead woman and BDPer Rey who ended up 3rd in front of the first women.
The second women was master runner Hope, who really enjoyed the finishing down hill.
I saw lots of friends on the course and many said they liked it. I hear Wes talked Monica into chasing down Natalie and Chris and his adventure race buddy were third women when I saw them.
On the BDP front, I saw Norma looking good and Pam was our first women of the day. Pam's twin sister and I were each other through most of the valley trail.
In the roller coaster section Robin looked good and had a race on her hands as well. After I reached the turn around, I saw Ann and Becky from my morning power walk camp and they were looking strong.
When I find official results I will post them.
Hopefully next year we keep this course but get rid of the rain!
