Banff Trail Trash: Trail Races

First, a quick snapshot of Keith and I pre-race yesterday morning at the start line of the Stinson Beach 30km trail run:

Awwwwww!?! Aren't we just the cutest?? And does this look like the San Francisco Headlands in November? I was prepared for cool and windy with a side of rain, but hey - we were pretty stoked with this finer than normal weather we were gifted.

For contrast, this was taken 24 hours later out of our front window:

Can you spot the difference?? Yikes.

Yesterday, we were blessed with some pretty sweet Northern California weather for our "Anniversary Run" at Stinson Beach. It was awesome! And my husband was a super-star. I am still in awe that he even agreed to go on a "running holiday" and let me beat him up for 9 days and then run a 30km race together at the end of it. I think he loves me! I am a lucky girl.

Keith fueled up the night before with a Guiness and a Blue-cheese and bacon burger and we found a place to stay a block from the start line. It was great to just wake up, eat and stroll on down to the start line. We got there early to enjoy some "Pre-race" time and hopefully see some familiar faces.

It was great to meet Dave of Atlanta Trails, who has dropped off the face of the blogging world after moving from Atlanta to the Bay Area. It's all good Dave - we Get It. Grad School is sort of busy like that!

Keith and Dave heading out and UP!!

We got to enjoy the first bit of the run with Dave, who was running the 20k. As we headed out of town to join up to the Dispsea trail, there was a massive bottle neck of runners all waiting to get on the single track, which was pretty entertaining. Good thing we weren't in a hurry! The race had over 450+ people with a 12k, a 20k, a 30k and a 50k option available. When we hit the Dipsea we could see the runners off in the distance heading up towards the Steep Ravine Trail.

The famous Dipsea Trail and Steep Ravine were as gnarly as I had anticipated and we all walked this section together as one big mass of runners. You couldn't have run anyways, with the volume of runners on the trail. It was a great slow start and forced march for Keith, who has the habit of going out a wee bit fast! The trail was cool, dark and moist but we were already sweating buckets on this warm November day.

After about 55 minutes of trudging upward on the steep trail, we finally emerged from the ferns and redwoods into the sunshine of the Bolinas aid station. En route we picked up Neil, who was a great pace match for Keith and we ended up running with him for the duration of the race! He had done the Hawaii Ironman 4 weeks ago and was rocking the 50k on this day. More importantly, he kept Keith chatting and distracted for the entire duration of the run! A super nice guy.

After the huge elevation gain, when we finally came out of the forest, the trails and views just opened up. It was a FINE day to be enjoying a sweet trail run in a beautiful place. And the company was good, too! I had not one, but two boys to run with!!!

Neil - the Aloha boy

The descent down into the town of Muir Beach was so much fun! The boys were rocking it when we hit the aid station and turn around. From there, we had a little reprieve on the flats before another big climb back to the top, where we enjoyed some more sweet coastal views.

Pause for smooch - (He didn't want to Stop!)

Keith - leading the pack of two....

The descent back down to the finish line at Stinson Beach was more great single track, twisty-turny, rooty, technical and F-U-N! The boy was starting to run out of juice at this point, but he sucked her up and got 'er done. His downhilling has improved hugely just in the past few months. Superstar! Bonus stars for you.

Too bad he was too tired to carry me across the finish line of the Anniversary Run and he didn't take me up on the offer to carry him (next time, honey!) but he had fun, was stoked to be out running around on the trails and was thrilled to finish as a solid mid-packer! Yeeeah-honey bun! He ran strong, smart and happy.

The Pacific Coast Trail Runs team serves up a great event. Wicked course, great trails in pretty places and awesome aid stations and organisation. Maybe Keith and I will make it an annual event!!