King of the Hill

Anyone know anything about the 2012 King of the Hill Trail Running Series? And by "know anything" I mean: What are the "fun" challenges they claim to have along they way? And, what's up with Gut Check Fitness?--are they legit? I don't not know anything...I mean...I know some stuff. This is what I do know about it:

1. Four races up to the top of San Diego's "toughest" peaks
2. Each race gets progressively longer...culminating in a 22 mile race called Rabbit Peak...or maybe it's at Rabbit Peak?
3. They all seem hard

I've been wanting to do more trail running... but is this series over my head for starters if I've only done two trail races in my life?

Anyone done it or know someone who has?

Father Joe's Turkey Trot Report

My husband and I did the Father Joe's Turkey Trot in Balboa Park for the first time this year. Typically, I don't like running with my husband, but I figured this was only a 5K and just a fun run, so what could go wrong? In fact, it was fun and nothing (too bad) went wrong. We saw this guy at the start:
What a cute little turkey.
And while all the dogs were cute at the start line, it quickly became annoying once the gun went off. With thousands of people and many of them with dogs, it and was more stressful and chaotic than fun for about the first 10 minutes. There was a weimaraner bark-howling at every other person and trying to break free from it's leash, some kind of little wiry terrier kept jumping on passersby, and then there were multiple owners who let the retractable leash go too far...you can imagine. So, for the first mile my husband and I jogged slow and circumspect while entertaining ourselves by making gobbling sounds and then going "Ppiwww" like a shotgun. The two guys dressed like turkeys did not think it funny when my husband pretended to shoot them...and I was mortified. Which brings me to why I don't like running with him: when he's not actively doing things that he knows will embarrass me (like making farting sounds as he jogs passed someone getting into their car, or walking with their child), he's listening to his headphones shouting observations at me over his music, "DID YOU SEE THAT GUY?!" which is even more embarrassing. So that was the last 2 miles of the race... me being annoyed that he couldn't run a stupid little turkey trot with me without headphones.

I know I shouldn't care. I should let him do whatever makes running easier for him, but it's just not what I imagined when I asked him to run it with me. I always forget that when I ask people to go on runs with me, it's more like asking them to run beside me and ignore me while they listen to music.

Oh well. I'm still thankful for running, and I'm especially thankful for the fact that I can function as a runner without headphones. I know so many runners "incapable" of running without them these days. Running in and of itself is what's enjoyable to me-- not my pace or my finish time or my playlist.

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving.
Remember to be thankful that we can run whenever we want!

Santa Barabara Race Report

Santa Barbara is a beautiful city which made for an enjoyable, memorable race on Saturday. Also memorable for another reason seen here:

yep. I ate $h!t during the first mile. My first race fall. I did fall once before on a trail, but it's a little bit more acceptable in that setting. So here's the story: I was in the third wave and about two minutes into the race I saw a woman eat it on the sidewalk. Just before I went down I was thinking, "That would seriously suck...I wonder how I would recover mentally from a fall early in a race..." and then I thought about the movie "Run, Fat Boy, Run," when he falls at the beginning of a marathon and hurts his knee... and then I fell. Fortunately, I'm volleyball-roll trained, so I was back on my feet before the first person could ask if I was OK. I decided to ignore the pain in my hands (they both hurt) by pulling my sleeves down over them for the next mile...but when it was time to ditch my sweatshirt, I finally looked and found my left hand was nasty bloody. I stopped at the mile 5 medic station, dug out a couple pieces of gravel, wiped it dry, took a picture of it, and put on a band-aid (that fell of before mile 6) and sort of got over it. But, it hurts even now--two days later. It was a deep gouge and it's probably infected a little....I don't know... should I dump some frozen peas on it like that British-chick did in Bridesmaids?

So, back to the race: I was surprised by the size of the mountains around Santa Barbara, by the number of oil rigs just off shore (did you know they drilled there?), and that it didn't rain on us during the race--it poured the entire night before, and about an hour after the race it started to rain again.

I hope to do this race again next year AND the Silverstrand.... my goal is to be in such good running shape next year, that I can do two halfers back-to-back. I guess we'll see...

The bike path around miles 4-7








The final mile










View above the finish line at SB City College

To all halfers--

I hope the Silverstrand Half Marathon goes well for you all this Sunday-- I love (all but 3 miles of) that race. I'll be up in Santa Barbara tomorrow doing their half marathon for the first time. I'll come back with a full race report.

It looks like all of us will be getting soaked no matter which race we're in. I suggest running over to Sport Chalet and picking up a cheap rain poncho just in case it's raining while you're waiting at the start. You can get them for .99 cents and then not feel guilty if you decide to ditch it at some point.

Good luck fellow Halfers!