Continuing Quest

My race this past weekend was actually chosen to continue two quests; the first is the plan to run "new races in new places" and the second was to continue "following" in the footsteps of Mark Twain. I started following Twain where it all began, in Missouri and documented it in a previous blog. 

I decided to make a weekend of this race so that I could spend some time playing tourist in addition to racing. When I first arrived in Angels Camp I went to the Calaveras County Visitors Center to pick up my bib number. I then spent time taking the historic walking tour and learn more about the town and the area in general. I quickly realized that it was going to be a challenging course due to the hills. 

The chicken ladder was put in place to assist pedestrians in simply walking up and down the steep streets. When Twain stayed in Angels Camp he lived with others in a cabin on Jackass Hill. The cabin has been restored. 

Before leaving Angels Camp to drive to Sonora where I was staying I went to Utica Park where the race would finish and where there was a statue of Twain and a marker identifying where the Utica Mine was located. 

The race itself was a challenging one with a very long steep climb early in the race but I got it done and enjoyed the small town community atmosphere. 

Ghost Town

Continuing my plan to run new races in new places I signed up for the Alameda Runnng Festival on Alameda Island. It was held at the former Naval Air Station Alameda. It was a two day event and I signed up to do the "Double". I ran the 5K on Saturday and the 10K on Sunday. I stayed over in Alameda on Saturday night to make it a weekend event. 

The mounted jets at the entrances were an A4 and an A7. They were the two jets that I helped maintain the avionics systems on during the Vietnam War. 

I got to the race location really early on Saturday morning because I had to check in and you never know what the traffic will be like between the Valley and the Bay Area. I spent more than an hour walking or jogging all around the area. The base felt like a ghost town from another time. It brought back an amazing amount of memories from my four years in the navy. In addition to nostalgia I felt sad seeing so many abandoned buildings empty and deteriorating. Just another reality check that nothing stays the same. 

Other than humidity the weather was outstanding both days and the courses were all flat. The only negative on the course was the fact that the roads were so broken up from age and lack of maintenance. 

After the race on Saturday I visited both the Naval Air Museum and the USS Hornet. Both were interesting but the museum in particular could be much better. The Hornet was the same class as the Oriskany; the first carrier that I served on with VA 23. I didn't take a tour because I just wanted to wonder and explore at my own pace and wanted to be able to leave at anytime if being below deck started bothering me. I did fine but it brought back a lot of memories and most of them conflicted. 

Race start was a lot earlier on Sunday so I went to check in at the motel, had a rice bowl at Jack in the Box, bought some stuff at Walgreens to have for dinner and then spent the evening reading Twain and watching some college football. As usual I was up before the alarm and got to the race early. 

It was good to get out of the Valley and a fun weekend. 

New Places - New Races

Since this is my final year running in the decade of my 60's I decided to try to find new races in different places. So far I've done that with my first three races since turning 69. I wrote about the first two already, both of them run in Colorado. Even though I have run many races in Bear Creek Park I have never run a race on the east side of the park where the Hears 5K was held. My second race was in Castle Rock and I had never run there. 

My next race was both a new race and a new place and I was really happy that I did it. It was the Enviro Sports Trail 10k and was held on Angel Island. It was a challenging but fair course and provided beautiful views throughout the race. One of the nice things about not worrying about being competitive anymore is that I don't hesitate to stop and take pictures. 

Angel Island has an interesting history and I got a chance to visit the visitors center briefly before having to take the ferry back to Tiburon. It was also the first race where I had to take a ferry to and from.