We knew that we had a strange run in front of us when we met for breakfast (Carole Wolfe, Chris Rios and myself). We watched the rain pouring down outside as if the monsoon season had started in L. A. instead of India. As hope springs eternal, we had visions of the rain letting up as we prepared to walk the mile to the starting area. However, reality set in as we stepped outside and encountered the rain and wind. At this time one secretly wonders "What in the name of ____ am I doing here? Of course, the runner's ego takes over at this point, especially in the company of other runner's egos, and rationalizations pop up such as, "Oh well, at least it is going to be cool!"

We encountered a couple walking away from the starting area, she was in running clothes and he was in street clothes. I remarked to them, "You are going in the wrong direction!" The man responded "Oh no we aren't!" I secretly thought "She probably trained hard and deserves to be miserable with the rest of us!" Of course, the mans bearing and body language suggested that he was saving his friends life.

As we jammed together at the starting area, I sensed that people were standing closer together than they would normally, perhaps to conserve body heat. There were literally tons on plastic body coverings, with a preponderance of black garbage bags to be discarded somewhere along the way. The liter of the first few miles resembled an army evacuating a combat zone. The impatience of the runners grew louder as the Mayor gave his pre-start speech; however, a politician needs his moment in the rain!

The sudden movement forward suggested a start. This was perhaps the only exciting moment of the whole day, other than stepping across the finish line. I said a small prayer of thanks for the computer chip on my shoestring that read accurately my time as I stepped across the start line. In years past, we were penalized by how far back we were in the starting crowd.

The rain went from bad to worse over the next couple of hours. The sounds associated with this run was the swooshing of plastic, the plopping of wet shoes in water, and the collective sighs of the hundreds of runners around you as the rain went from bad to buckets! None the less, many hearty Angelenos stood wet at curbside to cheer on the runners. I'm beginning to think that the rain was the really unique event of the day! The real heroes of the L.A. marathon were the thousands of volunteers that man the aid stations. They were very wet and cold and determined to be there for the runners.

At about mile 17 my right hip was giving me a lot of pain, so I faded into the background out of sight so as not to slow Carole and Chris with my more frequent walking. I continued with an alternating walk and survival shuffle. Coming upon mile 23 I joined Mel Miles and we agreed to walk in together, as misery loves company. As luck would have it, the rain stopped only to be replaced by a cold 30-mph head wind. Upon seeing the finish line we agreed to run. One rule with runners is that no matter how crippled, miserable, and tired you are you always finish looking like a super jock! Amazing, the male ego!

Congratulations to all the Ridgecrest runners who soaked up the 1 3/4 inch of rain and went the distance. I'm sure our memories of the pain and miseries have long faded. Runners have short-term memories when it comes to pain. I am already entertaining the thought of LA XVI.
 

Beautiful spring weather brought out 105 runners and walkers for the 2-mile Coyote Chase on March 18th. Over two-thirds of this year’s participants were walkers and the participants ages ranged from 1 year to over 70 years old. The overall male runner was Jarod Zurn with a time of 13:44 and the overall female runner was Carol Wolfe who finished in 16:56. In the walker categories the first place male was Jake Wagoner who finished with a time of 25:27 and Gina Kauppi with a time of 28:01.