Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Running for the Wells 11k

Saturday morning around 3AM I woke up momentarily from the sounds of thunder and rain. When I got up for good at 5AM I thought it was all just a dream - we don't have thunderstorms in San Francisco. Wrong. Even though they are rare we do have them from time to time. It didn't look good but by 6AM I was in the car with Jon and his wife Wilma headed north to the Marin Headlands.

Thankfully it wasn't that cold and it had stopped raining. The fog was heavy though and low lying. It was pleasant on the valley floor, foggy and blustery at the top of the hills. Days like this you really need to know your trails because there are no visible landmarks. While Jon and Wilma set up the start I took off to mark the course with flour. Do they really want someone who gets lost in races to mark the course? Ha, I made sure to make the arrows large and clear and I would make extra marks on the tricky intersections. It was beautiful out there despite the fog. I got back just before they were about to start.

Jon's parents came and helped with the cooking. His uncles came too to help with the finish line food and the one aid station on the course. Wilma would run the course with friends. There was a lot of food; regular pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausages, cereal, milk, orange juice and donuts. Definitely much more than the advertised pancakes and Jon gave every participant Injinji socks courtesy of his sponsor.

Everyone had a great time, the only bummer is that it rained on and off at the finish. Everyone was a trooper though, the cooking kept going and there were no complaints from the runners. People left early however because of the cold so the hang out time in the end was a bit rushed. All in all a successful event for Jon and his family. Donations from this event, including those by folks who didn't run but donated money anyway, exceeded 3K - enough to build one well in Uganda. Pretty cool and it might just turn into an annual thing.

Great job Jon, hopefully you get even more people next year and no rain!

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Cool day for a run.

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And they are off.

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Cooking up breakfast.

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Wilma coming in.

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Jon with Wilma and his uncles, enjoying pictures from the run.


Click here for the photoset.

7 comments:

  1. Love the pics. Suzanna told me about your run across the Golden bridge with her. I am jealous....that would have been fun.

    What races to you have coming up??

    Alaskan Assassin

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  2. I heard you had a special visitor on the bridge at night - LOL !!! I spoke to Tom right after we spoke last night and he filled me in even more. He was hoping you could send him some pics from the bridge run. I gave him your email. See you in about a month !

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  3. Evan: It was windy, foggy and cold up there and it was good to have these guys to run with Saturday. Good times with those guys Saturday. I have three races left on the schedule a couple of 50-miles and the Quad Dipsea. Nothing too crazy. Will be volunteering too. Should see Brian Krogmann at SF One Day and will be at Javelina pacing and crewing my buddy Tony Portera.

    Tony: Dude he was pretty psyched. He made me forget how sore and tired I was. Here we were, dirty and with all our gear and there he was in his khakis, golf shirt and cap, leading the charge back across the bridge.

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  4. Rick,
    I must have just missed you three. I arrived at 6:15a. and headed out for a 30 mile run. I saw all the flour markings and even ran that loop clockwise than counter clockwise. It was beautiful out there!!
    Leslie

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  5. Sounds like a cool event for a great cause. And an 11k race...what a unique distance! How fun. And the food sounded really good too! :) Very nice. I hope they get better weather and even more people next year!

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  6. Great day, great cause, crappy weather oh well two outa three ain't bad!

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  7. From the pictures, it looked like a bit cold out there as compared to this side of the planet. It'll be good if this becomes an annual thing. Maybe Jon can consider holding it next time during a month when the weather is more favorable. Congratulations.

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