Barefoot Ken Bob

Race Report

Friday evening, one of my running buddies, Don, gave me a call, so see if I wanted to do a “bus run” Saturday morning. What we call a “bus run”, is we catch the bus down to Laguna Beach, and run back home, this gives us some variety from our normal beautiful runs through Huntington Beach, California – also some hills.

Anyway, I had already registered for the Huntington Beach Distance Derby on Saturday – but, I was thinking of running to the start, and back home again (a bit over 5 miles each way), making it, along with the 10-mile race, a 20-plus-mile day. So, instead, we decided to run from Don’s home, which was actually just barely 5 miles, which sounded much better, relatively, to me.

Saturday, I called Don at about 5am, just to be sure he was awake, then I drove to his place, and we started our first 5-mile leg of the day, in the dark. We kind of had to feel our way through some of the trails in Central Park (Huntington Beach, Ca, not New York – we weren’t that lost). Eventually, we made it through the park, and through downtown Huntington Beach, to the pier, where the race starts.

We started in the back of the crowd, but, soon were passing a few other runners. I wanted to go a bit faster, but I kept remembering that, after finishing the race, we still had 5 miles of running (or walking) to get back to Don’s home. So, we took it relatively easy, but still managed to wear ourselves out enough, that after we finished in 1:33:49, we decided that, after we finished resting, eating, drinking our smoothies (which I had made the night before, and carried over in a back pack), we would be walking, at least for the first bit of the 5 miles.

Once we started loosening up, a little, we decided on doing road-cross-intervals. That is, each time we crossed a road, that was when we would run. Eventually, we made it back to Don’s, and then I drove home from there, and relaxed for much of the afternoon (after a short walk with Herman).

Photos