Early rise, check-out.  No post-race hotel shower, not part of today’s equation.  CSUB parking before 6.  Same-day registration, easy straight forward.  Baseball cap swag.  Nice, Bakersfield.  Definite keeper.  Marathon’s 4th year.  Lotta community support, well organized.  Pacers.  Big show from the pistachio industry.  No talk of hills.

Day 2.  Last night late.  Diverted south to San Bernardino, crisscrossed America on empty farm roads thru isolated migrant towns.  No public restrooms, grocery stores.  No fast food.  High-priced fuel & date-expired snacks.  Apologies, Mexican brothers.  Not the American dream we promised.  Chin up; it gets better.  We’re not all wall-building war mongers.

Lined with the 4:30 pack.  Lil’ faster than planned but ironically, knew the pacer.  Ran together & we finisher-posed with Carolyn in Santa Rosa, 2016.  Small world.

Nice shake-out after Vegas.  9 miles of city street then diverted thru historic ‘Old Town’.  Shopkeeper digs, trapper cabin, bank, old jail.  Classy perk, unexpected & FREE 😊

Aid Station sat Mile 11.  Not Las Vegas heat but I warmed with the day temps.  Dizzy, unsteady.  Came unexpected/out of the blue.  End of the road?  Nope; given a couple mustard packets – California MIRACLE.  6 years marathoning & never knew.  Walked, took in fluids.  Picked up pace & kept on truckin’.  Mile 12.  Mile 13.  Half-way mat.

THREE MILES of HILL.  Long grinder.  up, UP & kept climbing.  Bakersfield Community College – top of Bakersfield.  Another mustard packet.  Attitude upbeat, surprisingly all good.  Started taking in scenery.

Caught the 4:50 pacer at mile 17.  You never late-race catch the pacer.  Kept pushing.  Kept thinkin’ he was right behind me.  Planned a short walk at 24.  Skipped it.  Again at 25.  Just kept moving.

Re-entered Cal State-Bakersfield, mile 26.  Folks cheering near the Finish – SPRINTED the last two-tenths.  Crazy happy me.  Hung close (3 minutes) & thanked my 4:50 friend for the late-game push.

Post-race burritos & beer if you’re a boozer.  4-hour drive ahead.  Crossing the Mohave 🌵

2 days, 2 states, 2 marathons, 2 medals.  Nah, it’s not Triple 8 but great training experience.  Nevada & California join Oregon & Arizona, the ‘5’ Club.  FIVE marathon finishes in each.  big GRIN.

Early feasting next weekend.  Thanksgiving Thursday flying trans-Pacific.

Life GOAL realized – SUPER excited!  My 7 Continent FINISH in Osaka, Japan 🇯🇵

Congratulations on Finishing the Bakersfield Marathon!

 

Sun November 17, 2019

Bakersfield, CA US 93311

 

K R Haga  Marathon  Louisville, CO  BIB#1328  CHIP TIME  4:47:36.6

 

10K: 1:00:13

13.1: 2:17:30

30K: 3:25:55

FINISH: 4:47:36.6

Las Vegas-Bakersfield, Day 2

Post 50 miles (6 days ago) thought I’d need a walker.  Wednesday/Thursday back at it.  Body’s an amazing tool.  Pair of 5-mile runs, easy 10:30/min pace.  Calendar read: taper, rest & relax.

Mind: Triple 8 obsessed.  Since posting last week, it all became very real.  Work mates, run mates, family.  It’s new, it’s BIG, so folks are talkin’.  And so were… the head demons.  It’s impossible…

Last-minute full-price completely-unplanned DOUBLE MARATHON weekend.  Nip dat in the bud.  $100 flight to Vegas & a $60 rental car.  Best Western budget sleeps, two tanks of high-priced unleaded.  Marathoning Vegas on Saturday, California Sunday morning.  Gonna out-crazy the head crazies.  Confidence boost.  Windshield or the bug.  Extra thankful, Thanksgiving dinner 🦃

Late Friday flight (post-work, 2019 PTO/come n gone).  Enterprise pick-up.  5-hour sleeps, predawn showered & run ready.  Registration table for a 6am Start.  Desert cold… give that an hour 😉

Inaugural race.  Eight 5K laps plus a short loop – 26.2 miles.  Day’s course: Exposed bike path along Interstate 215, Vegas’ Western Beltway Trail.  Not super scenic; desert & empty office buildings.

Day’s course support?  Absolutely FIRST-CLASS.  Water, electrolytes, foods salty & sweet – both ends of the short out-n-back.  Grade INCLINE mile-half out, downhill glide on our return.

One ‘hill’ – 16 times.  BIG bridge, BIG climb.  Fast became the scheduled ‘walk break’ after Lap 1.  Push, push, push to the Bridge.  Walk UP.  Quarter-mile to the turnaround, quarter-mile return.  UP again (Bridge return).  Downhill relief, back to the Start.  And repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat.

Really good energy.  Lotta high fives.  Super awesomeness about lap races – ya see familiar faces.

Hot & ugly by Lap 6.  Tagged a LA runner most of 7, all the last loop.  5 hours in the desert (so, of course)… Challenged him to a sprint finish & got my butt kicked!  Little did I know, was the difference between 3^rd & 4^th place.  Dude killed it.  Very well deserved.

Medal, hotel shower – & on the road (4 hours west).  Day 2: CALIFORNIA 🌞

Las Vegas High Roller 26.2

 

1  Erik Thys M Bib 63 Las Vegas, NV  9:57min/mi  4:20:31

2  Mark Hudspeth  M Bib 52 Maryville, TN  12:36min/mi  5:30:19

3  Daniel Del Castill  M Bib 104 Norwalk, CA  13:08min/mi  5:43:58

4  K R HAGA  M Bib 116  Louisville, CO  13:09min/mi  5:44:24

Las Vegas-Bakersfield, Day 1

Happy RUNniversary!  6 years, 72 consecutive months.  Just WOW!

Streak near-miss after March’s DNF, my 2^nd 50 FAIL.  Next attempt, next week.  Tunnel Hill.  Flat.  Winter weather.  BESTEST crew.  And Sis.  50 miles of Possum Holler outhouse tales.  LOL>

Wisdom from Pistol – find a Plan B.  No guarantee next Saturday’s 50 won’t deliver a third excuse.  So… REVEL Mt Lemmon.  Hour-15 flight from Denver.  Touchdown Friday, HOME 20 hours later.  In-n-out.  Streak secure.  Tunnel Hill 50, no pressure.  Just a long long fun-run in rural Illinois.

Hilton check-in.  Phone alarm set.  4am school bus departure.  Notta lotta sleeps but a whole lotta positives.  Early run start = guaranteed hotel shower post-race.  Bigger perk than ya think.

O’ dark hundred drop-off.  Top of an Arizona mountain, surrounded by other Mylar-layered bodies.  Porta-potty.  Check, done.  Big race, whole lotta marathoners.  Hour sit & wait.

Lotta BQs at REVEL events.  Not 100% on board with 4000ft elevation drops, weighted the same as KC’s hill fest…but for me, really doesn’t matter.  As a male, BQ time is pretty ridiculous.  Plenty of other Massachusetts gems.  Falmouth, Holyoke, next year Hyannis.  Ok, maybe not the same.  HA!

Steady even strategy.  Easy to tick 7-minute miles first 5 markers but hamstrings & quads pay later.  Very different impact downhill.  Goal race is next week.  Easy comfortable, Arizona fun run.

Sunrise START.  Piñon pine, sharp rock caverns.  High above the desert, landscape explosion 🌵

Lined with the 4:05 folks.  Young pace gal from Dallas.  Runner from Prescott.  2 from Austin.  Others weaved in, out again.  Pack grew after the elevation steadied.  Conversation-pace first 8 miles.  No strain, easy downhill stride.  Couple inclines, long stretch of flat.

Thermometer didn’t spike ‘til mile 19.  30 point increase.  Heat-struggled next 2 miles.  82 degrees.  Group goodbyes.  Me & Prescott walked it out.  She needed the company, I digged the camaraderie.  Same medal, 4:05 or 4:30.  4-mile walk.  Easy jog at marker 25.

Cactus FINALE finish.  Well done, REVEL.  Beautiful scenic course.  Marathon 168, Arizona #5 😊

MT LEMMON

K r Haga – Nov. 2, 2019

Bib #   1007

Chip Time       4:36:48.25

 

TIMING POINTS

Start    6:31:01

First Quarter    7:29:40           6.55     58:38.29         8:57

Half Way   8:30:00                 13.1      1:58:58.74      9:04

Three Quarter    9:30:24        19.65   2:59:22.79      9:07

5K To Go     10:13:36             23.1      3:42:35.00      9:38

1 Mile To Go    10:52:58        25.2     4:21:57.00      10:23

Finish     11:07:50                  26.2     4:36:48.25      10:33

REVEL Mt Lemmon