Here is a photo of my shiny thing, my shirt, and a sew on patch I got. The CD disk is there just to show you how large that sew on patch is.

Some of the loot I got...

I also ordered and picked up a hooded shirt for my sweetie. We drove down to the land of the big redwoods from Edmonton, spending the first night in Spokane, Washington, and the second in Eugene, Oregon. The first day of the drive down was pretty nerve wracking since we ended up hitting a late winter storm from just south of Red Deer all the way past Calgary. Visibly was very poor and it was very slippery, with white out conditions and strong winds. This picture says it all about that ordeal:

Beginning of the trip in Alberta...

Visibility nearing zero and slippery factor high...

We had also just removed our winter tires for this trip. After a while near the US border the snow turned to rain and it rained pretty much all the way to Spokane. Fortunately the weather began to get better.

We arrived at our campground around 7 PM on the third day, which was Friday night so we had one day’s rest before Sunday’s race. We stayed at a campground in the Redwoods State Park named the Burlington Loop. It was very convenient as we were only a few kilometers from the Dyson Bridge which was the staging area for the Six Rivers Running Club’s Avenue of the Giants Marathon. Oddly enough, although I expected the place to be full to overflowing, this particular campground was largely empty. Maybe it was a third or half full at most. The campers who planned to run the race were fairly obvious as a lot of them were actually jogging around the campground (I have to ask myself “Why?”, LOL).

Marilyn is happy to be set up in camp...

This campground picture hints at the huge size of the Redwoods...

The campground was fairly damp from rains which had recently stopped and it was pretty cold at night. We were expecting Jon and Morgan from San Jose, California to roll in around 9 or 9:30 PM and so they did. We shared the campsite that Jon had reserved in advance last year. We probably could have found a vacant site, but how can you know that in advance? So I would recommend reserving your campsite as soon as possible if you are planning to do this race.

Both Marilyn and I and Jon and Morgan were pretty tired after the drive so after we set up our tents we went to bed early. The next morning we decided to tour the area and the first place we went to was the “black sand” beach about 20 miles south of us. It’s not really black sand at all, but merely very dark gravel.

We toured this area the day before the race...

On the way to the beach we toured other areas too and the following pictures are just a small sample.

Los quatros amigos, left to right, Jon, Morgan, John, Marilyn...

Jon and John hamming it up on a big tree trunk...

Morgan practicing to be a tree dweller...

Roomy enough for Jon too...

Morgan looking up at us on top of the fallen tree...

The black sand beach pebbles...

This stream simply disappeared into the pebbly beach...

The beach...

Morgan and Jon, my favorite picture...

Front to back, Jon, Marilyn, and John...

Morgan...

Marilyn and Morgan...

Morgan again...

Marilyn and John...

And now on to the race! We picked up our race packages on Saturday before our tour.

John showing off the t-shirt on Morgan...

Sunday morning dawned a bit chilly and foggy with overcast skies, but fortunately the day progressed into a hot and sunny one. There were 437 finishers (228 male, 209 female) for the marathon including Jon and I, there were 1128 finishers (400 male, 728 female) for the half marathon, and 432 finishers (137 male, 295 female) for the 10 km distance. I find these statistics interesting in that I looked at the half and the 10 km stats first and I noted the preponderance of female runners versus male runners and I predicted that the marathon stats would show many more males than females for some sort of macho reason. I was wrong, the male female split there was relatively equal. So in total there were 1997 runners who finished but I don’t know the total number of registered runners. I have not looked at the history of this race to see how typical these stats are for the other 38 years the Ave has been around.

The course itself consists of two legs which cross at the Dyson bridge staging area. They are approximately equal legs of 1/4 a marathon distance. So we ran down the road from the bridge for about 10 or so kilometers one way, then turned around and went back to the bridge to take the other leg. Like the first leg, this was a 10 km or so out and back run to finish right at the staging area. The run is on a somewhat narrow paved road which winds through the big redwood trees in the park. The roads were temporarily closed to traffic for about 6.5 hours from 8 AM to 2:30 PM, although there are always cars which somehow manage to slip through anyway plus there were also police cars and parks vehicles which slowly wound there way past the runners on the road.

Apart from the Dyson bridge staging area, where the sky was exposed and therefore hot and sunny, most of the run was through heavily shaded redwood old growth forest and so heat was not an issue. There were lots of aid stations, but my only complaint was that there were not enough porta potties at some of the aide stations so there was always a lineup. I lost about four minutes waiting in line at one of them before giving up and running on to the next one where I lost an additional 5 minutes so I was not happy about having to wait. Oh well.

At the staging area there were a lot of tents and things to buy and look at, as usual at these events. Here are some photos of the staging area including some of Jon and I waiting for the start in the morning.

Just in case you need beans before your marathon...

Jon, John, and Morgan waiting under the bridge trying to keep warm...

Marilyn took that last picture. Marilyn and Morgan did not run, they were there for support and they did a fabulous job, although I frightened Morgan a bit when I ran past for the second leg when I joked that I felt like falling flat on my face and crying like a baby. For a moment I think Morgan took me seriously, but I was just joking about the effort. They refilled my Powerade bottle there on my way past the half toward the full.

A cool, clammy and overcast morning at the Dyson Bridge staging area...

For some reason, we found this heavily armed piece of personal equipment to be very funny – it just looked really weird to us, though I am sure it helped the owner quite a bit…

Well, it does look rather awkward (apologies to this unknown person)...

Here the marathoners are ready to start. Already the sky is clearing. Very exciting time in the race!

Ready to begin - always an exciting time...

John and Jon, pre-start photo, stripping for the run...

It begins!

John and Jon starting out. Since Jon is a much faster runner, we separated early but we got to high five each other twice as we met on the two legs of the run going in opposite directions of course!

Would John and Jon look this good at the finish line? No way...

There were lots of vendors at the staging area...

This shady scene typifies most of the run...

I guess, that'd be me...

I am wearing a home made pirate thingy on my head (thanks for making it, sweetie!). Basically it is just a piece of triangular cloth. It’s made of high tech fabric which absolutely keeps all the sweat off my face and out of my eyes, it works great and I feel it is something which I will always use. It works much better than any other hat out there for wicking away sweat and keeping you cool. Much better than a baseball cap.

John crossing the finish line...

Jon crossing the finish line...

Jon looking way better than he felt after the finish...

Post finish photo opp...

I ran way too fast for me in the first half which is a recurring problem I have to get under control. Nevertheless, I managed to finish the second half in less pain than usual. It was an excellent experience I would recommend to everyone. Most of the run I enjoyed just looking at the scenery and the big trees. Two weeks later, after this race, I ran a 16 km trail race in Edmonton and I did not do well, because I felt too run down still from the marathon. Going back to karate did not help that race either, it’s just too hard on the legs with all the kicking and stuff…now I have stopped running altogether in order to recover completely before I begin again, but of course I am still cross training in karate.

Sorry to be so late in posting this race report, but on coming back home I was too busy. Currently it’s May 30th and the ground is still covered from last night’s snowfall. I plan on resuming my running this coming Wednesday. We’ll see how it goes.

I was up at 6:45 AM and had two cups of coffee plus two toast with almond butter for breakfast. Then we headed for the race in Terwillegar Park in Edmonton’s North Saskatchewan River Valley. Marilyn was a volunteer so we got there early. I got a 5peaks hat, some Kicking Horse coffee beans, and a race bib holder. The weather was great, not too hot, peaking at about 21 C, and sunny.

The race started at 9:15 with the Sports runners starting at 9:30. The sports runners run one lap of ~8 kilometers and the Enduro runners run two laps, so I got to run those nasty hills twice. For the first time no Sports runner caught up to me during the first lap. In previous races, the faster Sports runners usually passed me before I got one lap in even though we started 15 minutes earlier. I didn’t see any sports runners at all during my run.

So how about some pictures? OK.

Kamren Farr, Race Director for 5peaks holding a Canadian Flag.

The starting chute area.

Early morning in the starting chute.

The Enduro runners are off to a good start!

That's everyone!

They run, therefore they are.

When the race started I had to pee again, but as usual I was at the back of the pack starting out so once we got around a corner and over a hill, being the last runner, I was able to dart off into the woods and, well, you know! I was DFL until about the 6 or 7 kilometer mark when I caught up to and passed a few people. On the second lap, I caught up to more and passed them. Then in the distance I noticed more runners that I was catching up to. Although blowing by them was tempting, I’m not that good at it and so I restrained myself and I kept telling myself to stay the pace and run my own race. But there comes a time when you look up and suddenly find yourself on the heels of another runner and I just blew past them. There is this one long downhill section where it was a lot of fun tp just let gravity take over and I was just flying. Fortunately it very near the start line before taking off in a different and flat direction, so I got to look really good for the crowd at least twice!

Downhills are a lot of fun!

I'm getting this water! MM is a volunteer at this water station and took these photos.

So on my second lap I slowly gained ground on what turned out to be aan older than me runner and we sort of traded places a few times, dogging each others heels for a while. Near the end of the race, with only about a kilometer and a half or two to go, one is pretty tired and basically a lot of us gravitate towards tunnel vision and we don’t have enough oxygen in our brains to be really aware of where we are. It’s pretty easy to miss a turn and that is what this older runner did twice. That would have been a bitch if he were to go off course so near the finish! Fortunately I was right behind him and I had to yell at him pretty loud and let him know he was off course. I showed him the right turn to take and he was grateful. As I said this happened twice. The second time was happened later coming off a long downhill wooded area and onto the flat within view of the staging and finish area. Looking up the man saw the finish line and began veering off course toward it until I steered him right again.

Running heel to heel, I passed him with about 750 meters to go and also passed a few other finishers so that I finished pretty much alone, I think, although they came in behind me just a few minutes and seconds later.

Me approaching, with Kamren's mom in the hat giving support.

Almost there, but I won't catch this finisher!

Finished at last!

So I felt pretty good. I gave it my best, and I’ve got myself a significant new PR. Still, I am a half an hour too slow to place in my age group because the competition is strong. There are a lot of really fast and fit runners in my age group of 50-59. However, I did really well, partly from training, but mostly because I have lost at least 10 pounds, being down to 174 pounds now from my previous standard of 185. I think placing next year is doable, especially if I reach my goal weight of between 150 and 155 pounds.

I may never get there, but believe it or not, the process of trying is a lot of fun.