Rodeo 50K, an elvish experience..

The last adventure of the year… The PCTR Rodeo Beach 50K.

Fabric $7.00
Tights $3.50
Running 50K in an elf costume- Priceless

A year ago we ran the Muir beach 50K, in that particular race a friend. (Fred Ecks) decided to run as Santa. Janet and I told him that if he was up to, we wanted to be his elves next year (this year). He moved away to Colorado (poor guy), and well, we decided to do it anyway…

Fred Ecks, I mean Santa running Muir Beach 50K last year.

Of course we did not want to spent lots of money on costumes, so we searched for an affordable costume idea.. I found one and we decided to go for it.
The weekend before, Janet and I decided to go for a double Dip Sea trail run. It was her first long run in a while and it was my return to the trails. I had been training for the Ironman in flat easy courses, so needless to say the experience was a little painful. OMG, after we were done with the dipsea trail, we were in pain. And for the whole week following the run I was very sore…. It was laughable, really. We used to train in this trail all the time and now… well obviously we are out of shape.

The day of the double dipsea run, we drove to the fabric store, parked the car and the minute I got out, I realized how much my poor legs ached. I was limping and laughing at the same time, Janet was in the same condition. We found the fabric and bought enough for the costumes and left. Jon Burg and Kim Evanson joined in the festivities. And all of the sudden we were about to have a host of elves running this 50K. Lazy elf (me), Sleepy Elf (Janet) Finisher Elf (Jon), Doctor Elf (Kim), Honorary Elf (nicole). Jon being a Costume making expert managed a really “aerodynamic” and more professionally made attire than ours

Just when we got there.. we look like dorks huh?

The day of the race we got there early, put our costume on and left the car. I have never dressed up for a race, and I don’t think Janet also. Jon on the other hand is always looking for excuses to dress up… We got lots of smiles from the fellow competitors, lined up at the start and waited for the GO from Wendell.. It was a fun start; people kept giving us compliments and looks of disbelief since we were planning to run the 50K "on that".

At the startting line.. from left to right, Finisher Elf, Lazy Elf, Sleepy Elf and Doctor (Cool) Elf.

The best thing of all is dressing up and running a great race with friends. Honorary Elf (Nicole) was doing her first 50K on this race, one of her goals for this year. She had no idea that she was going to be embarrassed by a host of crazy elves.. She did not have a good start but managed to hang on.Her stomach was not collaborating. We, being magical creatures and all, were bouncing along the trail having a great time. We even managed to find Santa. He was riding a horse (not a raindeer), and was wearing a bike helmet…. Obviously NOT the real Santa. We took a picture of him anyway.

The weather was perfect, although a little windy on the ridges, but for the most part it was an amazing day. Perfect weather conditions for running. The best thing of the whole race, people and the fact that we were there to have fun and nothing else.

Look at this sight... What an amazing day it was.

Finisher Elf tackling the stairs..

Taking a little break, what a beautiful day it was..


The lost Elf... Sabrina a member of my running group.

A funny thing happened, we were at the finish line, after the first loop so we needed to get out and do another smaller loop to finish the 50K. As we were getting ready to leave, the first male (Nathan Yanko) came in breaking the course record. WTF? He finished in the 50K in the same time it took us to finish 30K and he wasn’t wearing an elf costume nor was he a magical creature. We laughed and went back to finish the race. Nicole was feeling a lot better then, we talked, we laughed, we talked some more, we laughed some more and then we had less than two miles left. So we picked up the pace… Didn’t want Nicole to believe that all 50K’s were this easy, well it didn’t work, she finished ahead of us and with a big smile in her face. She is officially an ultrarunner now. Welcome to the dark side of running Nicole.. I hope to see you on the trails for more fun and I promise you, they get better and harder too, I wonder what your goal is for 2010?

This is the spot where Nicole became an official ultra runner.. At mile 26 or so... yay Nicole..

After the finish, she holding her "not longer a 50K virgin" coaster from PCTR.