Race Report: Bear Creek Trail 1/2 Marathon

Race Report: Bear Creek Trail 1/2 Marathon - Martinez, CA

Alternative Title: The Tortoise and the Hare CAN get along.

Details

Total distance: 13.33 miles
Total climb: 3030 ft
Total Time: 3:27:02
Total number of times I said "Oh good, another climb": I lost count after 16

Yesterday I received a comment from Katie A. that she was also going to be running the Bear Creek 1/2 today. (ok, that does not really make sense, but it seems odd to say 'Saturday' instead of 'today', when today is Saturday.... Move on, RBR, no one cares)

Like any good blogger I went and lurked at her blog. Damn! This chick is fast. Like 'qualified for Boston', 'runs with Aron (runner's rambles)' type fast. I figured I would look for her and say "Howdy!" but we certainly would not be running 'together'.

As is the case in real life, the metaphorical Katie is cuter than the metaphorical me. (As a biology teacher, I must also add that the metaphorical me in this picture is a turtle NOT a tortoise)

Pre-race

I followed the volunteers' directions and pulled into the grass lot and look over at the car next to me. The perky little gal in the car excitedly asks, "Are you RBR?" It was Katie A. What are the freaking odds of that?! We pulled in at exactly the same time and parked right next to each other. It was kismet! (Calm down, RBR. There were only about 100 people doing this race it is not exactly inconceivable)

We check in and get our timing chips (Seems odd for a trail race with over 3000' ft of climb. Anyone planning on setting a half mary PR on this course? *looks around for a show of hands*)

Lined up at the start. I figured this would be the only time me and Ms. McSpeedypants would be together for a picture.

Side note: I do have to say that this is the second Brazen Racing trail race I have done and I am a fan! I think they do a great job. Great course marking, great volunteers, excellent goodie bag (with shit you will actually use not just fliers), and snazzy looking technical t-shirts. I highly recommend them if you are in the area.

Race

Katie said that she wanted to take it easy today and have fun ,so she was going to stay with me. I will be honest and tell you that my thoughts were "Yeah, right." Many a fast person has told me the very same thing and they rarely make it more than a mile at my tree sloth on Quaaludes pace before they say "I am just going to run ahead a bit. I will see you later."

But, bless her little heart, she did stay with me for the whole race. Snaps to Katie! A true endurance athlete!

First climb. Told you, I am a hot chick magnet.

We met up with really nice gal that was training for the Skyline 50k with Team in Training. We chatted about running and triathlons. I felt a little bad ass to be running with these two women.

RBR running with the hardcore club!


This picture really needs no caption, or it needs a really long one. Hilarious!

I felt hardcore, until the next series of climbs started. Let's talk about the climbs...

Elevation profile for the run. I have to say that there seemed to be some sort of physics trick with this run, where you climbed more than you ran down.

The views were beautiful, but like any beautiful view you had to pay for them.

Here was a personal fave. The climb from 6.5 to 7.5 had a particularly nasty billy goat climb that you had to practically scramble up. I snapped this shot of Katie climbing...

You will note I had to zoom since I was still WAY far back scooping up my lungs from the trail

My taking of the above photo elicited this response from our delicate flower....

I know, I was proud too.

After this we began a particularly miserable section of the run. Full sun, long uphills, almost non-existent downhills. And then we were stalked by a cow.

Cow stalker

Katie has some SERIOUSLY bad running juju. I don't want to tell her stories, but go check out her blog I am sure she will tell you, but let's just say that it was not totally outside of the realm of possibility that we had an unfortunate cow encounter, so we kept a wary eye on our bovine friend .

After narrowly escaping the rogue cow, we celebrated with another climb to complete mile 10 and more beautiful views

The last 3.1, wait I mean 3.3 miles, were not easy, but we kept our sense of humor and got 'er done.

The Finish

The last tenth of a mile we ended up at the bottom of stairs. STAIRS!

My sentiments exactly!

After climbing AGAIN we were done. Katie has never had the pleasure of a last place or almost last place finish. She was a little taken aback by the "special olympics" type cheering and empty parking lot.

Before we started, I was telling Katie that when I finished a race there was never any of the good food left. I told her, "Donuts, cookies, sandwiches? All gone. Fucking watermelon, that's all that is left when I finish."

Well, Katie, did you enjoy your watermelon?

Welcome to my world.

The tortoise race experience is a little different from that of the hare, but when they race together I found that they can have a hell of a lot of fun. Thanks, man. It was a great day.

Randomness (meaning it came on TV while I was typing this post, eating a sandwich, and watching a Hoarders marathon. What can I say? I am a multitasker)

This is just hilarious