T&T rambling report

This may b e a very disjointed race report. I am firing on three cylinders, what with RDing a 100 miler, a fun run including a night trek with scary stuff the next weekend, and then marking, remarking, running, and un-marking Turkey and TATURs. I took far less pictures than normal, and none at the start/finish. My mission was to mark a 15.5 mile course with hundreds of turns, any of which would be a disaster if any runner missed. I marked over 200 plates, and I will continue to use these. Nailed to trees, runners see them and go the way the arrow points!! AMAZING!! Plus, you can turn the signs upside down, and they can point left or right.

This led to a new generation of course vandalism. Some jerks turned signs upside down in an attempt to sabotage our course. In addition, a "wrong way" sign was moved onto the course leading people to think that the correct way was wrong. Fortunately, we caught these mean spirited actions before any runners were led astray.

I had great help marking the trailz, and we worked from early til dark Saturday. I had Dee Deatherage helping, Chris Warnken, Russell, and Stormy. We teamed up and tied a dozen rolls of pink ribbon, and almost a mile of yellow caution tape.

The course had to be marked so the 50Kers could follow it on their second lap, which was ran the opposite direction.

Early Saturday morning, I was feeling good. By late Saturday night, I was wasted.

Strabgely enough though, I was stoked to run, and felt light on my feet and actually ran a spirited run in the hours before the sun came up. Edward, Mitch, and I left out at 4:30 running the direction that everyone ran. They split off and finished the 10K portion of the course. Christy and Stormy ran the course in reverse, and all of the course was rechecked before the runners hit is. I found a dozen or so ribbons that were torn down. Stormy and Christy found about a mile of the course where all of the ribbons were torn down. Glad we caught it, but I am really bummed about this.

I had my Petzl Nao, which is an awesome headlamp. It makes a tunnel of daylight through the dark woods.

When looking down, the light dims slightly so it won't be blinding. Only one light shines. But look ahead into the darkness, and the second LED goes to work bigtime. The sensor works flawlessly. The light is well balanced and never seems heavy or bothersome. (A shameless plug--RunnersWorld has these slights as well as a good selection of other Petzl headlamps.)

The 50K started at 6:30--just at daybreak. Thirty minutes later, the 25K took off, and another thirty minutes later, the 10Kers were let loose. Thanks to Nedra for this 10K pre-race shot.

My race was solo and lonesome for almost all of the way. But I started getting passed on the lower yellow trail--around 9-10 miles in.

Two great things about us moving this race from early September to early November: much cooler temps, and great color in the trees.

There are places where anyone can look like a professional photographer. Just point and shoot.

Cole and Kim ran the Top-of-Lipbuster aid station.

This course has a lot of easy trail, and also a lot of rocks.

The next aid stop was at the lower parking lot. From there, the Red Trail was next.

But these pictures are a bit out of sequence.

I could just say this was the red trail, but the locals would know better.

The last manned aid station, manned by Johnna and Danny, probably had more traffic than any other. All runners hit it as their first stop. The 25K and 50K hit it twice. They worked hard all day. I came back and hung out a while with them, but they had it all well at hand.

About 11miles into the run, the wheels fell off. Fatigue set in. I was on the easiest part of the course on the Snake Trail, and slowed to a walk. By the time I made it to taken For Granite trail, I was done. Then, I rolled my gimpy ankle--not bad, but enough that I needed my brace. Stopping at 25K made a lot of sense.

Thanks to the Westside Y for letting us have our start/finish on their grounds. And to Dana for scaring up food all day. She made some killer chili and grilled hotdogs. Mitch spent a lot of the day cooking, as did Brynna. I was tired and oblivious to all that went on. I do know the 50K course record fell, with Daniel Ellis shaving 5 minutes off Tom Brennan's best time here. Lori Enlow also set the course record for thew women's 10K. Results can be found here.

Congrats to Bailey Liebherr for being 3rd female and winning her age group. Congrats as well to Brandon and Cameron Plate for finishing 11th and 14th overall in the 50K, and being 1st and 2nd in their age groups. There were may other fantastic times in all three distances. Mine was not one of those, but I had fun.

It's late Wednesday night, and as of a couple of hours ago, all of the pink ribbon and course markings have been removed from the trailz.