Oct. 18, 1998
by Papa Bear
The Humboldt Redwoods Marathon is
about as far from the New York City Marathon (as a marathon experience) as you
can get. The trip was a bit tiring for
the amount of time spent out there.
Basically Joy and I flew a good part of Friday to get there and a good
part of Monday to get back. This is not
an ideal way to do a marathon and see a beautiful part of the country but we
had no choice in this instance. If you
plan to do a marathon more than a few hours away, I suggest you stay longer if
you can.
The place is beautiful! We stayed in a lovely B & B and a very
small, very poor town in the middle of Humboldt Redwoods State Park. This is about 250 miles north of San Francisco. The only industry in the area is logging,
with a bit of tourism on the side.
Logging is moving off shore so it is an economically depressed
area. You see signs in front of houses
(usually run down mobile homes) saying, "We support the timber
industry". Would that the timber
industry supported them! Besides Joy,
Suzy came down from Portland for the weekend so I had a nice support team with
me.
In the park, there was no logging of
course, but outside of it we could see signs of clear cutting, plus a few
mills. The natural beauty of the area
is surpassing. The place is in a mountain
valley. The stream that went along the
road evidently floods once in a while (maybe from too much logging?). There was a sign in one town (population
200) that said "Flood high water 1964” at the side of the road. This sign was about head height so it was no
big deal until I noticed little arrows went up the pole to the top where there
was a horizontal marker bar about 30 feet above the road. Now that must have been impressive! Most of the town was way up on the side of
the hill. I don't wonder why.
The weather was super perfect for
running. 40s in the mornings with fog,
which burned off by about 10. The
temperatures got up to the high 60s or maybe 70s by the afternoon, but under
the redwoods where we ran for all but a small section, it stayed 10 or more
degrees cooler. I would bet the
temperature did not rise above 60 along the race course during the marathon.
The course was equally perfect. It consisted of two out and backs. From the start we went down one road about 6
1/2 miles and returned. There was a
concurrent half marathon in progress so this part had a good size crowd (maybe
1700 from both half and full marathon).
At the start/halfway point, the half marathoners finished and the real
men and women turned onto another road for the second half, another out and
back. I would characterize the first
half as flat, and the second half as slightly rolling with an elevation rise of
about 150 feet from mile 14 to 20. Of
course this meant there was a gradual down hill for the last 6 miles so one
could hardly ask for a better course.
The second half was fairly sparse.
No spectators and only about 300 marathoners spread out by this point,
so for stretches you were running alone.
But you were running along one of the most awe-inspiring courses
imaginable so the loneliness became transporting.
The laid back nature of the race was
illustrated by the start. A large
digital clock was put up and a man with a can of spray paint drew a line across
the road and printed the word "START". The clock was set to count down from 10 minutes. People sort of mingled and chatted and
gradually congregated. The fast guys
were doing their striders and others were just stretching or chatting. When the clock got to about 30 seconds,
people got themselves on the proper side of the starting line. A few people who must have been timers stood
around but nobody with a bullhorn or starting gun or anything of that nature
was in evidence. When the clock reached
10 seconds, the crowd chanted 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-0 and we were off. Just like that, with no official directions
whatsoever. Cool - we should try that
in New York!
I would highly recommend this race, or
the similar "Avenue of the Giants Marathon" which takes place in May
every year, to anyone. It's as beautiful
as Big Sur, without the hills.
My own race was a little less awe-inspiring. My hamstrings bothered me from early on and
the last half of the race brought a good deal of pain. It was a fairly specific pain, unlike
hitting the wall. I couldn't hold onto
the pace I wanted towards the end and I missed my goal by about 6 or 7
minutes. Although disappointed in my
time, I was surprised to see on the Internet when I got back that I had placed
3rd in my age group! Go figure! I do think my training was fine and at this
point, one week before the NYC marathon, I am largely recovered, uninjured,
healthy and ready for what's next. I
feel at least as healthy as when I started training, perhaps more so!
Now I'm ready to do lots of
non-marathon things, like trail running, shorted races, hiking, or maybe
sleeping late on Saturdays. But who
knows, may next year I'll decide it's time for another marathon.
My time: 3:42:31 86/314 overall, 68/182 Men, 3rd in age group.