Run Like the Wind: Lake Chabot Marathon

Yesterday I had the privilege of running the Lake Chabot marathon. This event was sponsored by Coastal Trail Runs, which in a small way, is affiliated with Pacific Coast Trail Runs. This was a new event and offered distances of 5, 9, 17 and 26.2 miles. The event started at a sanely hour of 8:30 which meant I could sleep some before driving over to Castro Valley. At 8:30a. all participants lined up and Marissa sent us on our way. The marathoners were to run the 17.1 mile loop first followed by the 9.1 mile loop. I headed out running at a nice pace. The course followed the East side of the lake with 2 miles of pavement before hitting the dirt trails. The Skyline 50K, Dick Collins Fire Trails 50 mile, and the Lake Chabot half marathon all run on these Redwood Regional Park trails and I love to run here. We headed down the bridge

and up the Live Oak trail. I met up with a nice man named Ron from Hickman. He used to belong to the Turlock Running club so we had several mutual friends.

This was taken on the Grass Valley trail. Here is my new friend Ron and another runner.

I didn't wear a watch so I had no idea of my time or pace. I felt really good as I came into the start/finish area to head out for the 9.1 mile loop. I dropped off some clothes, grabbed some food and headed out. I haven't really done any trail running since Western and I found myself walking a lot on the uphills.

I was surprised to see how low the water level was. This is a picture of a marshy area, which used to be water.

The nine mile loop is gorgeous. It has a lot of single track trail with lush greenery. There are no bikes allowed on this narrow trail so it's in pretty good shape.

I hit the pavement on the East side of the Lake and knew there was only 1.75 miles left. I tried to run, even on the little uphills but my legs were tired.

I came into the finish at 4:01:58, good enough for 1st woman and 2nd overall (it was a really small marathon). Results can be found here.