Friday, May 9, 2008

Miwok 100K

Hey all:

Jean ran her first big race of the season last weekend, and I have a couple of shots to prove it! The race was the Miwok 100K, in Mill Valley/Marin County California. The run started at dawn at Rodeo Beach and then up to Muir Beach, Pan Toll, past Stinson Beach to Randall and back. 100K = 62.47 miles. Here are a few shots:

Rodeo Beach pre-dawn: the usual anxious milling around:


The ladies getting ready to run. It was pretty chilly on the beach.


The racers then all walked out to the beach for the start. The walk was sort of the equivalent of the neutral start in cycling. People were talking, joking around, running into their friends, wishing each other well, etc.


They crossed this bridge to the beach and the lights started to come on. That's when you realized that the start was a pretty cool place. I've been to a few of these now, and I think this was the prettiest start so far.





Ready to start: (in the lower right hand corner of the shot below is Dave Mackey (white shirt, white visor) of Boulder, CO. This day, he would run the race in 7 hours 53 minutes and shatter the course record. If you do the math, that is an average of 7.5 minute miles for 62+ miles. Astounding.)


Then up the beach and up the trail:

Once they were off, I went back to the hotel and back to bed, as always. I then loaded up the car and drove around Marin to run support, with everything except the camera. So, I visited Muir Beach, Stinson Beach, the National Seashore, Muir woods, the Panoramic Highway, etc. and have no pictures. Bummer. It was beautiful, trust me.

12 hours 9 minutes later, I had the camera again when JC crossed the line as the 20th female. Her goal was 12 hours and top 20, and she made both. Nice Work SP!!

2 comments:

JenyJo said...

JEAN JEAN JEANJEANJEAN JJEEEAANNNN!! YEAH!!! Good job, my friend!! i'm so proud of you!
eben -- great write up and pix! THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS!!!!

i mean it.

you two are still such an inspiration -- in so many ways.

love you guys.

Ed said...

Wow! Great job Jean, congratulations!

Ready for more snow ...?

:-)

Ed