15k SOB

Gene and I signed up for the 15k Siskiyou Outback Trail Run. We decided after not finishing our last race to try something a little more manageable.

We have trained harder in some ways, and yet we had not as many endurance type runs, so I was nervous about the race.

There were two races being run that day. The 50k which took off at 7am and the 15k which began at 8:30am.

We arrived an hour and half early and the wind was blowing pretty good and making it very cool. I wished I had slipped some training pants on over my shorts and even considered wearing my jacket, but I knew once I got moving I would be warm.

We took off running and ran quite a ways before I began to walk up some of the steeper areas. Soon I found myself quite off the pace of most of the field. The scenery was beautiful. At one place you come out onto a meadow with Mount Shasta in the distance ahead of you and Pilot Rock off to the side. Of course one cannot spend much time appreciating the view as the trail requires you to pay attention for rocks and roots. After coming up the steepest part of the trail I found Gene and a photographer waiting for me to get up there. Gene took off again and when I rounded the next bend I saw him getting up after taking a fall.

At the turn around we headed downhill on a mountain road. We ran for quite a distance. As we neared the finish line I waited to hear our names called. Over the loud speaker I hear "We have the first of our 50k finishers coming in! It is a new course record! Erik Skaggs has completed the 50k in 3 hours and 39 minutes!"

Erik rushed quickly by us and all attention was on him (rightly so). A woman placed medals around our neck and after some time our names were announced.

I congratulated Mr. Skaggs and then told him "way to steal my thunder". (I think he wondered who the crazy lady was.)

It was a great race and it was great to experience the thrill of victory instead of the agony of defeat.