Volunteering at PCTR's Redwood Creek 50k

10 and 20k runners post race. Look at all that sunshine.

Finish line food. I had chicken soup and chili duty again. Tri-club mate Heather is cutting up the fruit and refilling all the other food stuffs.

Friends who ran the 20k race.

Shan (dropped from the race, wisely enough, because of a pesky achilles), Brett (2nd), Larissa (10th and 3rd Female) and Nathan Yanko (1st).

Finally some new content. I was getting tired of looking at pictures of myself.

People were thanking me again on Sunday for the time I spent volunteering. Yeah that all makes sense because I say the same thing to the volunteers at my races. Really though, it's not 100% altruism on my part. I enjoy being out there and it's hardly work. I get a lot out of it too. It's more of a "hey how's it going?" kind of time. And, and, it's fun watching other people run. I would say that volunteering is my favorite taper or race recovery activity.

Just like at Skyline to the Sea 50k with our friend Dana where a bunch of us came down to see her finish her first 50k and I volunteered at the race, a group of us came down to see Cheyenne finish her first 50k at Redwood Creek and I volunteered for the event as well. I figured since I was going to be there for most of the day anyway I might as well make myself useful. This event had a 10k, 20k, 30k and 50k race. Cheyenne's mom who was visiting from Mexico was also on hand to support her and witness her finish. It was a good thing that this was a loop course as she got to see her daughter come through a couple times during the day. Cheyenne had problems early with a strained calf muscle but she persevered. She did it but she says that will be her last 50k, right, right, we'll see. Frankly I don't really care about the distance. I am more stoked about the fact that many of my friends, the triathlon "Ironman" types, have really taken into trail running. Even better, it is something that they continue to do, race or no race and thats cool. This is my favorite activity and I'm glad to see other people enjoying it too. Hilly dirt is a great thing. Viva la Trailrunning!

Nathan Yanko and Brett Rivers of The Endurables and Trail Run Times took first and second. Their Endurable teammate Larissa Polichuk would come in third woman and 10th overall. It was a good day for them. Other friends also came to participate in the 10k, 20k and 30k races. It got warm out there and some people suffered but most raved about the beautiful trails on the course. I'll have to take their word for it since I had never run the race.

Cheyenne coming in while her much relieved mom (in blue) looks on.

The gang with Cheyenne at the finish.

For more pictures, click here.