Livin’ the High Life

Mountain Masochist 50+ Mile Trail Race

Sat, 5 Nov 2011 18:08:18 -0700

Halloween

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:18:42 -0700

Once again, we took the 24 over to Bernal Heights for their very good Halloween for Kids celebration. Lilly and Sydney were both princesses, which is very true. Dylan was Harry Potter. Nicole was a witch. Tracy was a cowgirl. And I was lame.

Linda and Ron in San Francisco

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 18:25:11 -0700

I hadn’t realized it had been six years since I’d seen my sister. It’s not just that time flies, especially when your raising kids, but it makes things that much harder when there’s no direct flight to Memphis or Jackson. Such is life. Linda and Ron visited for the week and thanks to Ron’s solid knowledge of California from his stint in the Air Force posting in Yuba City, Linda got a great sampling of all things Nor Cal. I tried hard not to walk them to death like I do all our guests but I’m hopeless in that regard. It all ended well and Linda finally got to meet her niece, Lilly, and see our hood.

15th Street Apartment - Interior Photos

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 10:13:17 -0700

I borrowed a fish-eye lens from a friend and finally got some good pics of the inside of the house. Above and below is the living room with Lilly and Bela watching TV.

World War I

Sun, 9 Oct 2011 19:22:46 -0700

That’s my backyard. Seriously. While the inside of our apartment is done, the upstairs was completed four weeks after we moved in and downstairs probably won’t be done until December 1st. In the meantime, the crew seems to have decided to prepare for trench warfare and dig up the entire backyard. The worst is the very deep hole at the very front of the driveway. Because of it, we are completely prevented from parking in the backyard.This is what the yard looks like.

Golden Hills Trail Marathon Race Report

Sat, 8 Oct 2011 09:25:37 -0700

My favorite trail marathon continues to be the Golden Hills Trail Marathon, Golden Hills Marathon (link). This was my fourth time running it. It goes from Tilden Park in Berkeley to Lake Chabot in Castro Valley along the east bay ridge. I always find it amazing that you can run within a few miles of a several million people and cross only three paved roads. Many parts of the race look like the photo above (that’s Mt. Diablo in the distance behind me). There are long sections of running through redwoods, california oak, chaparral, and along the Lake Chabot at the finish. Normally, this race has 5,800’ of climbing but due to rain the week of the race, the course was redirected up a section near the finish that added at least 300’ of ascent.

My day did not start out so smoothly. I had laid out all my gear the day before and woke on time. I got dressed, gathered my coffee, bananas, and peanut butter toast, and headed out to the car. I had to drive myself to the finish and meet the buses that would drive us to the start as Tracy was taking Lilly to soccer that day. I was moving along nicely looking for my exit when I realized that I was entering the Livermore Valley. I’d somehow passed it. After turning around, I took the wrong exit and found myself on the wrong side of Chabot. I had at this point, almost certainly missed the busses to the start and would have to forego the race. After fuming for a few minutes, I resolved to beg a ride off of somebody and found my way to the finish. After talking to a number of folks, I eventually got a ride from the race director herself and rode, uneventfully, to the start.

The race went much, much more smoothly. I finally know the course and can anticipate the big climbs, and the frequency of aid stations. Even though I’d forgotten my GPS watch and was pacing on instinct, I felt like I could set a PR on the course.

I was also trying out some new Inov8 Rocklite 295’s. I’ve been a bit tired of my feet feeling like hamburger after longer races and also the junk my New Balance MT101’s were letting into my shoes. The 295’s have a tough sole, larger lugs, and a thick breathable upper that fit very well around my ankle. The only problem is that the toe box is a bit snug and my toes got sore towards the end of the race. But for 50k’s or less, they were do the trick. Especially on courses that had water crossings or very technical terrain.

The race went very smoothly, almost without note. I pushed a bit on the climbs, even the longer ones. I ate aggressively and put electrolyte tabs in my water bottle to replenish. By the time we got to mile 23 and the last climb where normally we branched off to follow a creek down to the lake, I felt pretty good. It was here that we had to ascend 200-300 feet as a detour. I walked most of the climb and had three people pass me here - in trail races where you spend much time at the higher mileages alone, this felt significant, but I was holding back. Once we crested, I could see the people that passed me about a quarter to a half mile ahead. I leaned into a good, quick pace and starting working on the last miles. As I moved along, I overtook several runners who I hadn’t even seen as they’d been ahead of me the entire race. We descended back down to the lake and as we made our way around the lake, I passed three more runners. I almost always walk sections around the lake, which has a rolling profile. But today, I churned through them evenly and push through to the finish without forcing it too much. The race director asked me how I was doing as I crossed the finish and I told her, “Much better than this morning.” How true. I set a PR despite the detour with a 4:38 and placed 18th.

Not too bad.

California Camping - Big Basin, Santa Cruz

Sat, 1 Oct 2011 18:34:50 -0700

We had a perfect camping weekend camping with Tomas, Claire, and Lilly’s best friend, Bela, in Big Basin this past weekend. We had excellent weather and instead of hanging around the site on Saturday, we went down to Santa Cruz and explored Natural Bridges Beach. As it turns out we were only two weeks off from the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Monarch butterflies. Lilly and Bela are beginning to really have love playing with each other, too, which made for a very relaxing weekend for the parents. I also got a short-long run down to Berry Falls along a section of the Skyline-to-Sea Trail through young redwood forest (mostly).

Coastal 50K - Race Report

Sat, 24 Sep 2011 09:28:03 -0700

Da Blog is back! I should start with a “we’re back at 15th Street” entry but it’s too late for that. We didn’t have Internet for over a week when we first moved in, so that one will have to wait for later. Besides, a race report is a much simpler thing to write than an entry describing the trials and tribulations of our second move in three months. I should also mention that it was totally out of the question to write blogs while living at The College.

So, I ran this race as a consolation to running the recently cancelled PCTR San Francisco “One Day”. I had signed up for the twelve hour run. For those unfamiliar, these kinds of races run a circuit (in this case a one mile loop around Crissy Field) for a fixed amount of time for 12 or 24 hours. The motivation for running these varies. It started out as a Zen running thing, I think, where you disappear into yourself (so to speak) but for me it was a way to run a twelve hour race where I passed an aid station every mile. This would allow me to safely exceed thirty and forty mile distances. For me, this day was to be a test run for my 54 mile run with Konrad in November in Lynchburg, VA - Mountain Masochist.

But, San Francisco One Day was cancelled and PCTR continue to cancel races with much apology due for “health reasons.” I was very, very bummed. So, I signed up for Coastal Trail Runs’ “Coastal 50K”. A name so generic and a motivation so unrelated to the race itself that when a hiker asked “what race” I was in, I answered, “The ah, something 50k.” To be honest, all I knew when I signed up was how long it was and that it was local.

As it turns out, it’s a gem of a course - Point-to-Point - from Stinson Beach to Rodeo Beach via the Fort Mason at the Golden Gate Bridge. I woke at 5:35, cooked toast, boiled coffee, taped nipples, and dressed in fifteen minutes and headed out the door to meet the bus leaving from the finish at Rodeo Beach in the Marin Headlands at 6:30.

I love the feeling when you are approaching a trail race and you look at the other cars and you see baseball caps and wicking shirts that everyone around you is headed for the same event. At the beach, I boarded the school bus driven by a man with gold chains name “William”. I sat on the wheel well by accident and made my apologies to the poor soul who sat on my deaf side and watched me warily as I drank coffee from my thermos while we tooled windily over Mount Tam. He was an amicable guy named Gary who, I’m sure, I’ll see again.

At Stinson Beach, I dawdled until it start time. Because there was only this 50K race and no other, the crowd look lean and tough. Even those not so lean, looked tough. I spoke with one woman who had run Ohlone Wilderness, a real beast, in ten hours - a slow time to be sure, but she finished.

So, the race commenced and we headed up Dipsea Trail to Steep Ravine. Dave Horning, race director for EnviroSports (www.envirosports.com), was up there cheering us one. I asked if he was going to make us sing the National Anthem and he ignored me. That was about here (below). I was making a move of sorts (hard to tell from the pic) and all these people finished behind me. That one thing I hate about race starts, people getting excited - including myself.

The race did a funny side trail for a mile. At the end, a bag of rubber bands hung from a branch. You grabbed one, put it on your wrist, and turn around. Everyone I ran with on this section was with me the entire race. I had nice conversations with a number of them.

From here, we broke free of Mount Tam’s western shoulders and headed down the Coastal Trail to the Heather cut off. This is a gem of a trail and I really hauled ass on it enjoying all of it. I never get to run this section and enjoyed it so, so much. At the bottom, I could feel my legs and worried a bit. I approached the Muir Beach aid station on the backside of Green Gulch Farm. That was here (a touch of anxiety in my eye):

You can also see the belly I’ve been working on since last year. I’m down ten pounds from last August’s high of 190. And the rubber band on my right arm from the one mile turn around on the course. Since I’d rushed out the door, I grabbed the wrong shorts and had to carry my empty gels (here, in my right hand). Finally, that hat on my head I’ve had since 1998 and have worn in every race I’ve run since 2003 (really). That shirt is from Ann Trason’s “Golden Hills Marathon”, my favorite race of that distance which starts in Berkeley and ends in Castro Valley (south Oakland). I saw another guy with that shirt on - we called out to each other as we passed. Finally, I’m not going to talk about the nipple band-aids. It’s a wardrobe malfunction here but you can see them through the shirt.

After Muir Beach, we climbed up to Pirate’s Cove trail. And from there, Coyote Ridge to Miwok to Tennessee Valley and then up the dreaded Marincello trail which I walked (at least we didn’t run on it three times like some races). Over to and down Bobcat fairly smoothly, I finally came to the mile 20 aid station. Two-thirds done. The guy there asked how I was doing after watching me eat half a salted potato and a can’s worth of Coke (so tasty). I told him the truth, I was a bit worn down. My fun on the first third was getting to me.

I spent the next twenty minutes fast hiking the climb up to Alta (870 feet). Walking allowed all that food to digest. I took on the trail down to Fort Mason at See Level at a pretty good pace and had very little to eat at the aid station there. Finally, turning around and hiking all the pavement back to the trail at the foot of the Golden Bridge, I made a concerted effort back up to the 700 foot ridge. The guy ahead of me later told me he was worried about me catching him. He had nothing to worry about the way I felt.

From there, I hiked up the last two hundred feet to the crest of the Coastal Trail and ran an consistent 8:30 pace to the bottom and back to the aid station. You can see how much dirt I had accumulated on my legs here. This shot is from my earlier binge.

I had some more Coke here (it’s so lovely when you need it) and decided that since I was feeling down and slow, I had nothing to rush for. I walked for five minutes. A woman passed me and asked me if I was okay and needed anything. I said I was fine. I felt relaxed and was having a good time but considered the question as she moved at a solid pace past. I’d just passed an aid station. What could I need? I’d heard the question before. The best explanation I could come up with was that women can be uncomfortable passing men. Tell me if I’m wrong.

I finally got off my lazy ass and pushed through to the finish which came soon enough. The picture below is hazy and I don’t look that great but there it is. I enjoyed a double-serving of soup and headed home. Lessons learned? Train more. Don’t go out so fast. Keep a more even pace. Don’t take 50K for granted.

Construction at 15th Street

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 13:29:51 -0700

Our landlord has been talking about building a garden apartment in the basement of the house for years and now he’s finally getting his wish.

The house was built in 1888 and sometime around what I figure was the 1920’s, an addition was built on the back. This addition, on our unit, comprised two small rooms which for much of our tenure here we have used for storage but more recently we’ve used one for guests. It’s my guess that the city wouldn’t give him a permit to work on the basement until he replaced the definitely-not-to-code-gonna-fall-off-in-the-next-earthquake 1920’s addition.

Starting in the first week of February, a crew show up and demolition began. It’s been a real roller coaster ride ever since. We’ve had our usual batch of serious winter storms, the house had to be raised off the ground so that the foundation could be rebuilt, our furnace has been removed, we’ve lost gas for three days, the crew works on Saturdays, we’ve lost Internet and phone multiple times, our kitchen flooded, there’s noise and dust and mud, and the yard is a wasteland fill with construction materials. We’ve adjusted to it all and we like the - very hard working - crew. And even though our rent will go up when it’s all done, we’re looking forward to some real improvements in our unit as well.

My feeling is that the pictures will tell the story.

THE HOUSE JUST BEFORE THE START OF CONSTRUCTION

New Desks for the Living Room

Sat, 4 Dec 2010 18:47:33 -0800

I’d been thinking about this project for a long time in one form or another. Our Victorian home is quite narrow thanks to the driveway on the east side. The fireplace sticks out into the middle of the living room in such a way as to make it the central point of the room but, unless you’re willing to hang a flat screen television above it and crane your neck, it’s really less than ideal. My solution was to replace the desks on either side of the fireplace with finished maple shelves. I custom cut cable holes to discretely run power to all of our gadgets, and added a second, higher shelf for books, printers, etc. After that, the room really opened up. Also in the picture, you can see our new 27” iMac, which I highly recommend, and an oil heater - very handy for heating just the living room through the chilly SF winter evenings. No one should try to heat an entire Victorian unless they like making PG&E rich. Also part of the fix-up-the-house project, a new 8’ couch and a peach paint job for the living room.

U2 at the Rose Bowl

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:38:30 -0700

Originally, I wanted to see U2 at the Rose Bowl because it was the only show in California. It ended up being the biggest concert in history. The stage setup was phenomenal, the sound was good, the view was good, the lights were good, but it was a lot of people and it did seem a bit far away from the rock of the show. I’ll make up for it at the Oakland show next year where I have floor tickets. John had floor tickets and stood in line to stand in the Inner Circle, a test of endurance to be sure, but he’s one of the few to get so close, eh.

Trip to LA - Griffith Park Travel Town

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:32:57 -0700

We went down to LA to visit with the Chrises and John and see U2 at the Rose Bowl. We snuck in a trip to Travel Town at Griffith Park on the side. Lilly looooved it as she to to ride a horse and a train on the same day!

50th Marathon

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 21:16:16 -0700

I ran my 50th marathon in the east bay from Tilden Park in Berkeley to Lake Chabot in Castro Valley. The race director is Ann Trason, 14 time winner of the Western State 100 mile race, so you can imagine it was not an easy race with almost 6000 feet of climbing and almost no flat sections. It surprised me to find out (not sure why) but of the 200 starters, 100 finished. I ran slower than last year but felt much better afterwards and even got out for beers at Lucky 13 in celebration later that night (thanks to all who came out). Pics are from me at the start and finish.

Dan, Jen, and Dash Visit

Sun, 4 Oct 2009 21:11:38 -0700

Dan, Jen, and Dash visited from New Hampshire during the Castro Street Fair.

Rackhams Visit

Sat, 3 Oct 2009 20:56:28 -0700

Roger and Joan came to visit for two weeks. It was their first visit to the city where we just hung out in the city (and environs). It was a lovely time much helped by fantastic weather.

Lilly’s First Critical Mass

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 22:11:38 -0700

We took Lilly down to her first Critical Mass ride. We went around Fisherman’s Wharf and environs. Everyone down there thought it was some sort of parade - which it really is these days it so tame.