It was Rick Ferrell's birthday and it's becoming a tradition to do a big race that weekend. Ferrell chose this one, which looked great - a run from downtown Folsom to the American River, along the river as it becomes long skinny Lake Natoma, to the dam and over to the other side, and back along the bike path which parallels, to Folsom. I was pretty much repaired from the tough 10K in Carmel 4 weeks earlier, and Dave Delucchi decided to skip his scheduled cross-country race this week and join us. A late twinge in his hamstring had him change strategy, however, and plan for a bit slower race, running with Rick for most of the event. I, of course, would be well behind these two, who hoped to snag some hardware out of the race.
At Dave's - Ready to roll |
We had a little trouble finding the hotel - Ferrell's MapQuest efforts left us a few miles short. But a phone call fixed the situation. |
Pretty nice hotel, right on the American River. |
The dreaded "Mr Coffee", is totted up to the room. |
Trendy downtown Folsom's finest Chicago-style pizza was on our minds. That, and the Halloween costume'd citizens cavorting around the streets. The place positively needed some referees! |
Some adductor stretches for me |
|
After dinner, we drove to the start line a mile away, and then figured the route we'd be taking out, and into the finish. And, I did a short run in my relatively new, lighter Nike's. Then...
An early night's sleep, prepared with the help of some mind-numbing TV |
5am. Mr Coffee jolts us awake - bright eye'd and bushy tailed |
Pitch dark, driving to the start.... where's that coffee? |
Functional stretching; psyching the muscles into doing what they're supposed to. At packet pickup. |
Team Awesome |
hamstring stretch |
Ferrell considers the race shirt. hmmm.... I think I'll give this one to Kelsey |
Afixing the race number |
The mass start included both the 10K and the Half Marathon'ers. I brought Kim's pocket camera along during the race |
The race we well supported, with aid stations every 2 miles stocked with water and liquid Gu.
The course starts out downhill into downtown Folsom |
Then along the river |
Bridge #2, about mile 4, over a bay in Lake Natoma, where some swimmers were starting their workout. |
Bridge #3, at the halfway point, downstream of the dam |
Folsom Dam - fish trying to get up or down stream have to run a gauntlet of fishermen elbow to elbow. |
But PropellerHead caught me at mile 10. |
Mile 12 - the last bridge and back into Folsom |
 |
Last uphill curve to the finish |
 |
Re-United! 2:31:51 for me, which is 10 minutes faster than my Silicon Valley Half exactly 1 year earlier. |
Rick had a great race: 1:35 and 5th place. Dave was operating at 90% with a slight hamstring injury, and ran with Rick till the last mile, and then felt safe enough to go ahead and sprint in at 1:34 |
Post race, we showered, located a mex fast food place a few miles down the road, and re-protein'd. Endorphins, I suppose, carried me through the rest of the day without much pain. Enjoyed pumpkin carving and snacking at Diane's after we returned. Dave and Rick recovered pretty fast, and Dave was out running again 2 days later. My left hip was again the limiting factor, with significant pain in the last half of the race. My psoas/hip flexor bursa was again the issue that slowed me way down. Ice packs eventually got the upper hand, after which walking was OK later in the week. But Monday and Tuesday after the Sunday race were pretty painful.
Diane's Pumpkin Party Pic - I'm in back, behind my pumpkin with the big knife through the skull! |
