The Yellow Shower curtain

  On Saturday before Mother's day I went up to the WS course to run from Michigan Bluff to Last chance and back.  I met Jeffrey and Carrie at the park n ride in Auburn.  Carrie has been running ultra distances for some time yet ran her first organized ultra at PCTR's Mt. Diablo.  She finished just a bit over 12 hours and is quite the studette!  As we were driving up to meet Steve and Rich at Michigan Bluff, Jeffrey asked Carrie is she'd been on these trails and she said she had.  Jeffrey was worried that it might be a "yellow shower curtain day"?  I asked what that meant and he said he was running a training run with the man who was lost on the WS trail last year.  He had gotten separated on the climb to Devil's thumb and was found safe the next day.  You can read about it here.

The five of us set out from Michigan Bluff and were having a great day.  We saw many people out enjoying the day. 

We started on the final descent to Eldorado Creek before the climb to Michigan Bluff.  I was clearly the ball and chain in the group.  As you know, downhill running is not my forte.  I was behind the group and kept running, off on the wrong trail.  Well, I didn't realize it was the wrong trail right away, it took me awhile.  There were ribbons hanging (just like the rest of the day) so I thought I was okay.  Well, I finally turned around and tried not to panic.  I had run out of water and food!  I used my Garmin watch to go "back to start".  

Of course, it was mostly uphill and took me forever.  I'd walk a bit and then would yell "HELLO".  No answer, finally I made it back to where I took a wrong turn.  Steve was waiting there.  Boy, was I happy to see him.  Another runner headed up to Michigan bluff to tell Jeffrey I was found.  We waited for Rich and Carrie to return from searching in the opposite direction.  I was thirsty and hot!  

It took us awhile to climb out to meet Jeffrey.  He had called Placer search and rescue, worried that I had gotten hurt.  No, I wasn't physically hurt, just my pride.  All I could think about was the "yellow shower curtain"!!!  as I was trying to stay calm while thinking I would be mountain lion/bear/vulture food!!

I felt awful for taking so much extra time and stressing out everyone else.  A 25 miler turned into a 28+ miler.

I was supposed to have Mother's day dinner with my son and daughter in law at 6 p. but ended up eating at 8 p.  What a longgggg day.

run fun....

On a side note, I ran Monday with a new found glee, glad that I was still around to run another day.