Sunday, April 26, 2009

Skyline to the Sea

We had a great day out at S2S. Ed was running his 3rd 50K, and a number of friendly faces were out there as well. A group of OC runners that I knew from my SoCal running days were there, and were fun to see, as well as blogging friends Rick and Dave (Rick was helping out as well).

After seeing the runners off, I went off down to Gazo Creek Aid station, to get ready to mark runners on their way off around the loop. We had a good aid station, if I do say so myself, and got to see every runner twice, which was fun as well. I was the greeter, welcoming each runner and making sure that I marked their bib so that the next time around we would know to send them down the trail instead of up and around.

Ed was speedy, in the front third, and it was fun to be able to see him running so fast. Even faster than Ed, though, was Dave, who I finally got to meet as he flew through the aid station.

I got pictures of both of them, as well many of the OC TrailHeadz that I saw.

I continued working with the others until around 2, and then headed off to go get Ed, who was hopefully already finished. I navigated the windy roads, and finally got to the finish line about 45 minutes later. As I pulled onto the side street, I heard my name being called and saw Ed rushing over to the car in his new wonderful shirt. He had gotten a race PR (5:08) and was glad to be done!

Congrats to all the awesome runners :)

***Having started the commitment to healthy eating on Monday, I was super proud of myself for resisting the aid station goodies. Just imagining the sweaty, sticky, germy runners' hands all over the candy and cookies helped :) ***















11 comments:

Southbaygirl said...

what a great shirt Ed got! And I'm so glad you got to participate in some way!!!

Glenn Jones said...

Great photos Addy! Thanks for sharing them.

Ryan V. said...

Having followed your blog for a couple of years now (ever since I stumbled into ultrarunning), it's pretty cool to see how, despite your injury and inability to run as much and as far as you would like, you have inspired others (like Ed) to get into longer distance running. Very cool!

Gretchen said...

Beautiful pictures Addy! That looks like and awesome course. Nice job on volunteering!

Rick Gaston said...

Good to see you out there Addy, been a long time! Good job not partaking of the goodies. I on the other hand had some, plus I was the chili and chicken soup guy at the finish and I couldn't resist having some of the chili with chips mixed in. It did go down with a very good beer however.

The shirt looks great on Ed! I really like the shirts for this year.

Ms. V. said...

Great pictures!!!

Unknown said...

it was great to see a familiar face at the aid station- I loved the course i will be back next year.

coachken said...

Thanks for being out there, Addy! The aid stations are my second favorite part (after finishing) and it's people like you that make it worth it!

All Day!
~Ken

Rajeev said...

Addy,

Thank you very much for volunteering in STTS.

Volunteers totally make races, especially cheerful ones like you. :)

Hugs.
Rajeev

Jo Lynn said...

I ran this last year as my first ultra. The shirts are pretty cool this year, with the different background color.
As a side note - I ran the Diablo Marathon last week and before the race I was googling some race reports and ran across yours from 2008 (I think, or 2007?). Your description of the course, along with your photos REALLY helped me out a lot. Especially since I'd never been there before.
I hope to see you at a race sometime. I'm doing the 25K at Big Basin, looks like you're doing the 50K. ;)

Tracie Quong said...

A - it was great to see a friendly face. Thanks for the positive vibes. Hope to see you again soon. TQ