Spillway Classic Trail Run, Part 1

So Lefty and I decide at the last minute to head down to Norco for the Spillway Classic Trail Run. Neither of us have raced in a trail run before, so this is unchartered territory for both of us.

On Saturday, we haul ourselves out of bed at the crack of dawn; engage in our pre-run, raceday preparations; then hop into Lefty's mini-cooper for the hour drive to the race site.

We arrive in Norco a little after 7:00 a.m., plenty of time to find the race site and register.

We follow the directions to a "T." When we arrive at the alleged race location, the area is remarkably free of any race day activities. The exception being a line of bright yellow port-o-pottys.

Now, I don't know if you've heard of Norco, much less been to Norco, let me assure you, most people would be hard pressed to get lost in this town. There's a McDonalds, a Shell refinery, a bar, a boat launch, and not much else.

After arriving in Norco, we spend the next 45 minutes driving around the alleged area of the race site. We drive a mile or so down the levee, no race. We drive through the boat launch parking lot, no race. I get out of the car and ask several boaters if they know where the race is, no idea. We drive down a nearby dirt road, no race. We're certain we've missed some crucial detail in the instructions that is preventing us from getting ourselves where we want to be.

As I am wont to do, I complain to Lefty about the lack of promised signage pointing us to our destination. My brain is already crafting a tersely worded email about the inadequate directions and lack of prominent signage.

I keep reading through the race materials. Reading and rereading the directions. To no avail, we cannot find the race site.

I mention to Lefty a fact I find a bit ironic, according to the racing materials, this is the second largest trail run in the U.S. (the largest in the South). At the moment, its size does us no good because it isn't large enough for us to find.

Finally, Lefty--proving that she is the smarter of the two of us--says "did we get the date wrong?" Um.

Yes, yes we did. At the top of the racing materials it clearly states "Sunday, July 20, 2008."

One would think that in 45 minutes of reading and rereading the racing materials I would have processed this most important piece of text. Nope.

Well, there's nothing left to do except heckle boaters or head home. We decide to head home.

I will now be referring to Saturday as a successful scouting mission. For we clearly DID find the race site, that bright row of yellow port-o-pottys has been set up for the race that is happening TOMORROW.

Spillway Classic Trail Run, Part 2

So Lefty and I haul ourselves out of bed at the crack of dawn on Sunday morning. We engage in our raceday preparations and then hop into Lefty's mini-cooper for the hour drive to the race site.

Although we've only been to Norco once before, we're pretty sure we know exactly where we're going.

Once we arrive in Norco, the line of cars stopped on the highway waiting to turn onto the levee road is as good a sign as any that we've arrived at our destination.

We're able to register, get our numbers, and make trips to the port-o-pottys with about 10 minutes to spare before the start of the race.

Lefty's goal is to enjoy the run and have a good time; my goal is to not break an ankle.

According to course veterans the trail turned out to be not nearly as sloppy this year as it has been in previous years. I wound up with a little bit of mud on myself, but I never hit any really rough spots in the trail. The most frustrating part of the race was getting stuck behind walkers and not really having any room to immediately pass them.

Overall, I was happy with my race time considering this was my first ever trail run. When I consider that my overall strategy was to not injure myself my time looks even better.

Next year, I'll have a plan. The first part of that plan will be to wait until race day to make the drive to Norco.

Seriously? The Montgomery Flea Market is just like a Mini Mall! I share this with in the hope that you also will not be able to get this song out of your head.