From owner-ius-l@AMERICAN.EDU Sun Sep 1 23:44:48 1996 Date: Mon, 2 Sep 1996 02:20:36 -0400 (EDT) From: Geraldine Wales To: IUS-L@AMERICAN.EDU cc: guy_palmer@barths.com, Drs@caligari.dartmouth.edu Subject: Pt Reyes Short Version: Wow,wow,wow,wow,wow,wow,wow,wow,wow,wow,wow,wow,wow,wow,wow,wow,wow,wow,wow. Or to borrow from a well known song writer: From the mountains, To the prairies, To the oceans white with foam, God bless America, my home sweet home. Long Version: Folks - I ain't found it much better then this; but, alas, I am new at trail running, so I don't know if it gets much better then this. I was stunned by the scenery as I drove to the Olema campground the night before. Everyone there made me feel right at home; including Mr. Timmer who chewed my ear off about the fact that he had sent in a renewal notice for IUS-L and then stopped receiving mail. Hey Listguy Dave - Please don't hold it against me that I will be coming out in August instead of July now to do Point Reyes forever and please see if you can determine what happened to Mr. Timber - I mean Mr. Timmer's renewal. We started out at Fivebrooks on absolutely gorgeous trail. You have already heard about the temperature so I won't bore you with that. I can tell you that after a mile having all these people around me was beginning to weigh on my state of mind; so I finally slowed down to a crawl to get rid of all of them. I found the mist coming down through the trees so great to run in. It was like being in a storybook setting and I felt the presence of my forrest prince so very strong here. The misty rain that sometimes fell was making me a lot giddy with excitement. The sweep joined me at about 1 and a half miles and she was most pleasant to be with. She seemed to know when it was time to talk and when not to say anything. We hit the first aid station and then on to the second. At Palomarin, the second, there was lots of water, gatorade, and snacks galore. I had some mystical, magical, blue m & m's and then on to the Coast Trail. After seven miles of more then beautiful forrest, my eyes feasted on some of the most beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean I have ever seen. The waves were crashing against the coast and their power was awesome. We stayed on the coast trail and did not enter the forrest again until just about Glen Camp. This section of trail looked so much like my Fairmount Park. It was in here that it happened. I don't know how to describe this except it was like a change or a crossing over and it occured within myself. Something had changed and it was me doing the change. It was physical and yet also mental. It was weird but felt very good. Shortly after Glen Camp, it was back onto the Coast Trail and more beautiful ocean views. We then went back into the forrest for good and on to Sky Camp where they had such good fruits that I was tempted to stay. Now, I only have one complaint about this race and it falls right here. When I got to Bear Valley, I was told that they had closed the finish line and I could either get in a car and they would take me back to the finnish or I could go on knowing that there would be no one at the finnish line and I would not be an official finnisher. I checked all the info sent to me and the listing in Ultrarunning. No where did it say there was a 9 hour time limit. If I had known there was a time limit, I would not have had so much fun and would have gone a little faster. But, we all know that I could give a hoot less as to my name appearing in Ultrarunning magazine so you can all guess what decision I made. I went on. I met one other running who was having foot trouble and was doing a lot of walking. We decided to stay together and sweep because neither of us was going to be official anyway. Now guys, whoever put that trail tape on the poisen oak, that wasn't very funny. The side of my leg and thigh looks like I have the measels or something. He hit the finnish line in 10:34 and I was 2 minutes behind that as I was taking down the last 2 trail tapes. In conclusion, this is a must race. Mr Timmer told me that he had personally measured the course and it was 33.1 miles. There was 2 areas of heavy mud to run through and this made me feel right at home after that 50K in the Finger Lakes. Lady G PS - Who left Philly at 168 and returned this evening at 163.