Saturday July 20th, I competed in a 10k run in the Oakland Redwood Regional Park. The race was put on by Urban Coyote, the same organizers I ran with in January’s Pacifica 10k as part of my 2018 goal list.
At the moment I’m not in great running shape, but have been going out once or twice a week at lunch with a coworker named Scott. We usually run on the bay trails for 2-4 miles which is good training during the week. I’ve also been weight training twice a week and biking to work still, so I felt resonably prepared in terms of fitness.
Saturday morning, Megan, Jane and I made the hour drive up to Oakland on a warm but clear morning. After checking in and some brief downtime waiting for the 1/2 distance runners to start, we were lined up listening to the race director’s pre run brief. I hadn’t looked at a course map, but the organizer made it clear that 10k runners were following yellow markers, and would climb the ridege for 2.5 k before dropping down into the trees for the remainder. Easy enough I thought.
The climb up the ridge was steep. I (and almost everyone else) ended up walking the steepest sections but once we gained the ridge the run was nice. Thinking back, the last yellow flag was around the 1k mark and most runners were content to continue along the ridge. I paused for just a moment around the 2k mark where some trails began intersecting the ridge, but there were no markers.
By the 3k mark I was pretty certain we were off course, and I think a few others had realized the same but as a group we continued running along the ridge. Eventually we reached another trailhead, and everyone was throughly confused. As I ran into the lot, I saw a group of twenty or so runners start off up another ridge and within a few minutes a new group of twenty or so had formed around a few cell phone carriers. One had a bad picture of the map, and another was trying to get reception to call an uber! I looked around the trailhead and got a paper map of the park. Not knowing the course ahead of time was a hindrance, but I made up my mind that considering I was about halfway complete with the couse distance I would just take a direct route back to our starting trailhead.
Others seemed determined to do otherwise. Most wanted to get back on the ‘official’ route. A few wern’t interested in maps and were speculating (wrongly) about directions and where the three trails to choose rom might lead. And some were pretty upset and looking to get a ride back to town.
(I’ve lost the images!, future Jon… can you find them? )
Pace
Intended race route
Actual route completed
After a few minutes I was running again, along with a few others, headed back to the trail head. The route back was nice, along a creek, in the shade of the redwoods, and on the soft loamy trail which is so nice to run on. At the finish, I had run nearly 10k, but bypassed a big climb due to my direct route back.
Overall, it was a great experience. Getting lost added some excitement to a typical 10k run, and it was a great reminder to always memorize the route and bring along a paper map when going our for a run.
(This post was originally thought to be lost, but grok bot found it online and recovered it!)