Climbs and Crossings

Think back to when you were a kid. Think about pedaling your bike as fast as you could pedal or running through the grass as hard as you could run. Think about how you pushed yourself to the limit, heart pounding, chest heaving, for no real reason, just because you felt like blasting it out. Think about when you felt free in your body, before you knew about injuries or training plans or being conservative in the early miles. That is how I felt going into my 3rd Dipsea race - ignorant to danger and prepared to go all out. From the sound of the whistle signaling the start for my group, which is about to join the 43 other groups that had already started the race, I didn't hold anything back. The spirit of the Dipsea is to never let off the gas and floor it as often as possible. Through downtown and then into the shade of Old Mill Park, we race toward the three flights of six hundred and seventy something stairs that make up the first half mile. As our group begins to catch up to...

On the Sunday morning a week before the 104th annual Dipsea race, I went out for a final training run to attend the Church of the Dipsea Trail. It was a time to quiet the mind and focus on strategy, to run with and talk to veterans of the race and to feel graced by the beauty all around...because race day would be total balls out insanity and there wouldn't be time for any of that. I've run the race twice, both times in the Runner section (that's the way way back). I consider myself an expert on what it's like to run for the first time and think you've done enough research to know what you're in for (HA HA HA), but you don't. I also consider myself an expert on what it's like to run for a second time and think you know more than you did the first time, but you don't.  If nothing else, I can tell you a good story. You get to see the start of the race you're running...again...and again...and again... At 8:30 am the race began with group ...

WHEEE! I'm running the creek crossing,  but really I hoped this would be "so congested" that I would "have to" run through the creek. You know,  because running through the creek would just be the "smarter" option. So actually I'm a little disappointed right now even though I'm having the time of my life. I really just wanted to splash through that water.   Highstepper.  Going downhill is a controlled fall. This race finally convinced me to admit I'm a strong downhill runner. The uphill, on the other hand might be an opportunity for improvement.  Dipsea was an amazing and unique race experience, but it was also one of the most beautiful trails I've run. Ever. TRUE. 

Somewhere along the grueling uphill called Cardiac I ran up on a small blonde kid who couldn't have been more than 8 or 9 years old. He was walking. As I started to move around him on the left, he threw a quick glance over his shoulder at me and took off running. A couple minutes later I caught him again, walking, and again, he took off as soon as I got close. This would continue a few more times until his "take off" wasn't much faster than my slow trod up the hill. His stride was getting shorter, his pace slowing, and just as I thought he was finally going to give up and let me go around him we came to a pretty large tree trunk laying across the trail. This kid, that was looking like he was done for, and who can blame him after what we'd all been through in the previous miles, didn't miss a step. Propelling himself into the air with one foot, he landed on top of the tree trunk with the other, paused to get his balance and then jumped straight up into the ...

High on my list of dream runs is the  Dipsea . I've been a little fixated ever since first reading about it and it's history and discouraged because it's extremely difficult to get into. 1500 people are allowed to run. A large number of runners from the previous year's race are pre-qualified for entry the following year. 500 entries are first come first serve, and the remaining slots are filled by auction, lottery, bribing and begging. The only way to enter is to download the application from the website the day it is released and mail it in, which means the closer you live to Mill Valley, the faster your application gets there. Also, more than double the number of people enter than there is room for. And here's the description of the course from the website, dipsea.org: It begins in downtown Mill Valley with a sprint down Throckmorton to the Old Mill Park, then up three flights of stairs as tall as a fifty-story building, and up some more through an old horse ranc...