Take Two!

Sunday morning, 5:30 AM. We woke up, got dressed, loaded the cooler, and hit the road. It took right around an hour to get to Norco. We were happy to see other cars pulling into a parking area at the spillway. As it turns out, there were around 1500 runners in the race this year. The course was just over 3 miles. The first mile and a half was on top of the levee. Even at 8 AM it was hot and the Sun was brutal. Naturally, it was humid as hell. I wanted to start a little slow and pick up speed at the end. looking back, this was not the race to do that. When the race turned off the levee and down into the woods the trail quickly narrowed to about 2-3 feet wide. That made it very hard, if not impossible, to pass people. We were basically running single file through the woods. I kept thinking of the Creedence Clearwater Revival song "Run Through the Jungle". Well, to make a long story short, I won the race. As you can see from the picture, I smoked the competition. I'm just kidding. The winner finished the race in about 15 minutes and some change. I finished about 20 minutes behind him.
It was a lot of fun running through the woods. I figured I would get pretty muddy, but it's been pretty dry this week. There was only one big mud hole, I went around it. I heard several people saying that it's a lot more fun when it's sloppy. I suppose I will run it again next year, hopefully in the mud.
A few side notes. first of all, Voodoo BBQ was giving away pork sandwiches afterwards. That was a huge letdown. There was no sauce to add to the meat and it really needed it. Also, there was no water being handed out after the race, or at least I couldn't find it. Luckily, there were Pepsi products. I prefer Pepsi so that was good. But, they were pouring it from 2 liters into little paper cups. It had no fizz, not cool.
All in all it was a good morning. K and I got free Phidipidees t-shirts(I am a shameless build board, give me a shirt with your name and I'll wear it). But, Sunday I was supposed to do a 7 mile long run as part of my training for the 10 mile race in Oct. So I ran 2 more miles when I got home. Then, a quick shower and back to bed. Well, I hoped you enjoyed my story. Have a great day.