Taper

Big run tomorrow so just a short taper run today. Since it is only an 8 mile race tomorrow, I could run today without much problem. If it is a half marathon or longer I would generally not run at all the day before. It feels so weird.
You really get conditioned to running for your regular period...M-F an hour generally for me and to not do that can make you cranky. The little half this morning was fine.
Looks like most of the fellow runners from work are not making the trip...just one...Rodney...so it will be a sparse crowd. I am excited to be running an organized event. First one since the Relay.

Upcoming Saturday

The Carmel Valley Fiesta Mountain Run is next Saturday, August 1st. Here are a few things that you should know to help get you ready for the race. We will follow up this e-mail with another one, later in the week, with details about the awards ceremony, the great prizes we will be giving away, the Just Run Kids' Race, and other exciting Carmel Valley Fiesta events.

Breaking News
The Carmel Valley Fiesta Run is over three-quarters full! The race is limited to the first 200 people who sign up and, at our current registration rate, the event may sell-out before race day. If you know anyone who has not yet registered, you should let them know that there could be limited or no race-day registration.

Directions
The race start and finish are at Dampierre Field baseball park. To get to Dampierre Field, take Carmel Valley Road east to Carmel Valley Village. Turn right on Paso Hondo and keep left as you proceed down the hill. After approximately 0.7 miles, look for the entrance to the ball park on your left. Be sure to drive slowly and keep noise to a minimum. This is our inaugural event and we ask for your help in avoiding neighborhood complaints. Click for a map of the area.

Parking
Once you arrive, you will be directed where to park by volunteers. Please follow directions and park in the designated areas only. Parking is very limited and we need to make the best use of the space available. If at all possible, please carpool with other runners. There is no event parking in the residential neighborhood.

Check-in
You can pick-up you bib, t-shirt and goodie bag between 6:30 and 7:45 AM. The race will start at 8:00 AM.
Water and Porta-potties will be available in the start area.

The Course
The Fiesta Mountain Run is challenging: with narrow trails, steep climbs and descents, rocks, roots, limited passing opportunities and poison oak. Be prepared for dry and hot conditions. There will be one aid station at about 4.5 miles (Garland Park mesa - by the pond) with water, Gatorade and Gu. We recommend you carry your own water bottle. The course will be well marked, with signs, pink ribbons and volunteers at some intersections. Some sections of the course will have traffic in both directions; please be alert and yield to downhill runners.

Awards
The course closes for official finishers at 11 AM. Awards are given to the top 3 male and female official finishers in the following age groups, 14-17, 18-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70-and-over. First place age group finishers will receive custom-designed awards, and raffle tickets will be awarded to 2nd and 3rd place finishers.


For more Information about the race visit:
http://www.active.com/page/Event_Details.htm?event_id=1740365
http://www.cvkclub.org/run

Senses

Saturday was a trial run for the Carmel Valley Fiesta Run coming up on Saturday August 1. I was acutely aware of my senses as I headed out on the trails...in particular was the sense of smell as I was nearing he first crest. The Bay Laurel trees smelled so good. They are interesting in the locations they grow. They need some water and relatively cool locations which makes them just in the right place as you ascend the switch backs. The next great smell was coming down Redwood Canyon. The warmth on the redwood mulch and the trees in general smelled of cedar almost...I am sure it was just the redwoods, but what a wonderful whiff...
The next sense to make it to the fore was the sense of sound. Coming down the Redwood Trail, the mulch just deadened all the sound. It was close to silent and in spite of my rumblin', bumblin'and stumblin' I was absolutely stealthy.
A great run, but certainly tough. There are four climbs and the last was the steepest. Gonna be a tough run on Saturday.

It was a Dark and...

Just seems dark all of a sudden. Had to go early this morning...it was foggy, and it is staying dark longer now. Just the course of nature, but it was just real dark this morning. It has been a nice long stretch of running in the pre-dawn light.

Great Wildlife

It maybe that the summer is dry or just a lucky day, but this morning when I was coming back to cross the river I saw a doe and her fawn--high on the cute meter--and a skunk on the bridge--low on the cute meter--hawks, screaming and and cawing...all within a few hundred yards.
The skunk was funny...the bridge is an expanded steel single lane bridge with two very skinny walking rails on each side. I saw him up ahead and am about halfway through the bridge and had to stop as he waddles off. Well a car comes along so I stand to the side and point...the cars slows and understands I think.
So finally I get to run past as he heads down the bank. That is right where I got sprayed...the only time ever and was a very dark morning and I did not even see him. I think I got hit with one drop that day...and it lasted all day through every thing I could put on it. Ugh...skunks. The worst.
The fawn was super cute though.

Portland Oregon

Went to visit family in Portland Oregon over a long weekend. It was a beautiful stretch of weather, which made for a wonderful sightseeing tour time...but I know and you know that it can be a damp dreary place when the rain sets in.
Portland is a neat place, lots of hips and modern people and of course the evergreen and towering mountains...Mt. Hood and the like.
Running was nice and as always when running on a vacation trip a great way to learn the area. We were in Southwest Portland and the runs were on surface streets, in and around towns like Tigard and Lake Oswego.
Really special running in the Pacific Northwest when it is warm and sunny.

Western States 100

http://montereyrunninglife.blogspot.com/

http://www.runningandrambling.com/2009/07/western-states-100-race-report.html

Check out this report from a local runner's experience at the Western States 100. OH MY.

Blanket of Fog

This morning the fog had pulled into the valley. I started from the house just above the small layer and turned uphill and did the hills above my house first instead of last...to see above the fog. Then when warmed up I headed to the river and the trail and could feel the transition into the fog zone...cooler, gray of course, and comforting...lots of moisture suspended and made for just a real nice running environment.

Mid-Summer Classic

This morning felt like a mid-summer classic, a clear warm morning. A bit unusual for this area. Summer is here and today of course is the MLB All Star game. The tune in my head was Take Me Out to the Ball Game..."buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack..." I guess 'cause I was thinking through what I had to do today and that was one of the things I needed to get done...buy peanuts and Cracker Jacks to take to our friends that are hosting...

Diesel

On Sunday I wanted to run the Oak View Trail which is that last part of the August 1 Course, which I did not run the last time I was out. Running along and just starting up to the back entrance to the park, I see a black dog in the middle of the road. As I got closer he had a kind of guilty look like he was not supposed to be out. I had not seen him before and of course did the quick assessment of him for safety. Turns out he was still a bit of a puppy. Black lab but skinny with a tag. I am starting up the hill in earnest and pay little heed once past. But he starts to follow. I talk with him and he just keeps following.
I get up on the trail and he is following for real now. I stop and try some commands to no avail. Not too well trained, but friendly and enthusiastic as is the want of such creatures. I toss an old ball back to the park entrance and street we had met, but after he chased it he just came back.
So I head on up the trail with Diesel in tow...or in front, or on the side, and wait was that a squirrel? he asks. And back again. Run with a dog--very different than solo and running with this pup was a challenge. He did not seem to know the trials and did not know how we were going to negotiate them together. He almost brought me down more than once.
I decide we better stick to the trails and will have to alter my plan. I want to crest Oak View and then into the main part of the park and on to the Valley Road for the usual Sunday trek. But surely did not know how Diesel was around other people, dogs and certainly all the cars on the Valley Road. So I decide to crest the trail and then come back down Garzas Canyon.
Wonderful run but hot and dry. I am thinking the pup is going to need some water. The last time I was in the creek there was still water up there so I head that way. Sure enough a nice spring still running and I splash some at Diesel so he knows to drink. Hope he does not get sick from it.
After the creek bottom we have to go up the other side of the canyon. As we ascend we come upon some nice young CDF guys out training to climb the hills with packs on. I ask if they have a cell to call the number on the tag--and they do. The address is 1 Paseo Rio...almost all the way back where I met Diesel. They say just leave him in their truck and they will return him.
When we get to the bottom, I do not see the truck, so decide to just return him myself. Added a little more the run, but what the heck.
I ring the bell and a nice little old lady say "Oh My, where did you find him." Diesel is gone to the cool of the house and a water bowl I hope. I tell her the story, and she, it turns out is dog-sitting for her son who is in San Luis.
Diesel was fun and running with a pup is a hoot.

My Dogs are Barking

Saturday morning my dogs were barking...usually I seem to be writing about what is going on in my head or the great sights I see as I run. Saturday morning followed a day full of Company functions that kept me on my feet for more than 12 hours, mostly on concrete and all in my ever present cowboy boots. When I got up to run on Saturday prior to going back to work, my legs and feet were tired...whine, whine, snivel...so just a shorty and stayed fairly flat.

Five Degrees of Seperation

There were just about five degrees of separation between the moon and Saturn this morning. A nice thing to see on the way to the river...with Little Feat--Time Loves a Hero as the sound track.

July Full Moon

What a great day for running. Full moon, clear sky and the moon was up high enough that it was visible throughout the entire morning run. It was particularly cool when I turned to go home, crossing the river bridge and looked over my shoulder to see the full moon, and looked in front and the sky was rosy with the dawn.
Shoulda been there...great day for running.

Steamboat Springs, Colorado

I went to Steamboat Springs, Colorado for a long weekend over the 4th. I highly recommend it as a destination summer or winter. My parents have lived there a long time and my youngest brother was raised there. Dad was a ski jumper as was that young brother--that now resides in Park City, Utah. Fortunately he and his family was able to join my wife and I for the weekend.
The first day I was able to run in The 'Boat was Friday. I set out about 7 am on a cool gray morning and headed down to a great trail that runs next to the Yampa River as it runs through town. The weekend crowd was not yet in place and those that were were not stirring. I got to a train trestle, and a great looking deer was standing near the tracks enjoying a little breakfast. As I moved along enjoying the mountain scenery I ran with a gent from Nebraska. He was chugging a bit and said he had run a 1/2 the first of May, in a very respectable 1:47, but had not run since and the altitude was killing him. Steamboat is at over 7,000 feet and can be a challenge. Did not seem to bother me on the trip much though I did just go no more than an hour a day or so.
Everyday I was there at least one hot air balloon rose off the valley floor--a great pastime for visitors to this as in many vacation spots.
After that great run on the first day, we had a pretty good family hike up Fish Creek Falls. Another must if visiting.
Ran again on the 4th and this day broke clear which made the balloon that much more impressive. I ran way to the end of town on the trail and then back right downtown main street as it was all blocked off for the upcoming parade. Lots of fun and a neat old town...real western feel to it.
The 5th I went out of town on the same path. New scenery and ran right under the balloon for a while out and back. Very cool to see the flame filling the envelop.
The final day was a high-light as I got to run with my youngest brother. We only had time for a shorty, so we headed up from the rented condo in the cool clear morning and run through the golf course and neighborhood up that way. My brother is and always was a much better athlete than I. Even figuring for his youthful exuberance. We had the good fortune of running the St. George Marathon together a couple years back. We managed to run the first half together, got separated at a water stop and finished just minutes apart. At any rate a great run to finish a wonderful vacation and series of runs through Steamboat Springs.

Plenty of Room on the Track

I always say that there is plenty of room on the track at 5 am. You often hear people say that their gym or fitness center is crowded or they can never find a machine or get a court time when they want it. Well, maybe they ought to be out running...this morning I got to run a little later, at 6 am. Worked out well and even saw another running. We passed as I was turning around, and yes he was younger and faster...we exchanged pleasantries...he runs about 3 miles in the morning as do I. Said he was going to the river, and I panted that I live up the hill a bit.
Fun to see someone else out.
Saw the flock of turkeys again...not Flock of Seagulls silly. There were two hens and 12 chicks in the brood now...