As I sat on my porch Wednesday the 6th of May watching the fire consume Inspiration Point, I felt overwhelmed by emotion. My thoughts first raced to those with homes in the area, and second, selfishly to the loss of one of my favorite trails. Perhaps "loss" suggests too much permanence. I know Jesusita and Tunnel will be back, and reinsert themselves vigorously into the local trail lexicon, and even offer a few new curves, twists, and turns. I can't wait. I did run into a local runner on San Ysidro the other day who ran the first mile of Jesusita the last week. She ran into a group of mountain bikers who had made their up and over from Tunnel. The bikers said it was difficult finding the trail, while the runner spoke of tromping through waste deep ash. Maybe a few health and safety concerns here.
Sadly, Santa Barbara Nine Trails will once again have to find a new home this year. RD Luis Escobar is investigating the possibility of running a 50k/50 miler at Montaña de Oro on that same Thanksgiving Day weekend. Good luck Luis. That said, I have some thoughts about a 9 Trails alternative on another weekend-The Five Trails 50k. This idea came to me on last Sunday while running the 5 remaining front trails: Cold Spring, Hot Spring, San Ysidro, Buena Vista and Romero. Let me know if anyone is interested in pursuing this with me as a race or a "fun run".
Anyone running next weekend's Blue Canyon Ultra? I just looked at the entrants list and saw very few local names-Patty Bryant, and Kevin Steele, and asphalt speedster George Williams among the few. I'm looking forward to running some new trail. There is a great deal of elevation gain in this race, so I will be moving slowly enough to really take in my new surroundings.
While I'm not running in Western States this year, I do know Garret Headly. Garret, after being shut down last year due to fire, will be returning to Lake Tahoe to test his mettle against this storied 100-mile race course. I wish him the best of luck! Last month I was talking to Scott Jurek (gratuitous name dropping) at Santa Barbara Running about the relatively easy entry qualifications for Western States-one sub 11 hour 50 mile result. Western States, like many other events, has become seriously impacted, with only about 15 percent of the qualified race applicants being chosen in the December lottery in 2007. As a member of the 85 percent unchosen community, I was disappointed but also a bit relieved. I know many Western States veterans are advocating changes, including the running of 100-miler as a prerequisite. I would support that change, even though it would remove me from the playing field. Another suggestion would be to return the 50-mile qualifying time to sub 10 hour. Hey, this is the Boston of ultra marathons after all. Scott Dunlap's very excellent blog devoted an entry to this very topic. I look forward to following the progress of Scott Jurek (7-time winner), Scott Dunlap, Garret Headly and Gary Wang on the Western States live webcast next month.
Good luck on the Blue Canyon race, what distance are you running? I'm another SB local running the race with my neighbor who also ran RUTE (though we ran as a relay team!) We are both doing our first 50K in the race. I've run some of the trails, definetly a little bit of bush whacking on the middle section and lots of poison oak.
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