Turkey Suit and Running

Yes, that's Footfeathers in the appropriate personage.

It's that time of year again, families gather, warm conversation, good food, reflection on being thankful, and some idiot running around in a 105 degree turkey suit at the Quarry Turkey Thanksgiving event on Saturday put on by Brazen Racing.  Thursday I'll be helping them out at their other T-Day event as well, just not in the turkey suit.  The weather has been nice, 60s and clear and should continue through the week.

Last weekend we (PCTR) put on the Santa Monica Mountains Trail Run down in Malibu.  We arrived on Saturday to a warm and sunny afternoon of trail marking for the 50k, 30k, 18k, and 9k events (sounds daunting but the courses share the same trails).  I'm nearly ready to burst from my self imposed recovery month of November, so I wasn't too upset when I got a bit lost, which ended up with a 2.5 hour run on the shoulders of Pt. Mugu looking down the canyon to the ocean and sunset.  Beautiful trails.

Of course, race day brought stormy weather with rain starting at 5am and not ending until 7pm.  Super weather for the runners but miserable for race directing, as seen in the photo here (I'm in the ball cap to the right "managing".  The perplexed looking young lady to the far left led a few runners on a little extra bonus loop of miles off course.  I had to run out to investigate reported vandalism (which was fine since I got to get out for another run ;-) and found this girl (the perplexed one) standing at the same intersection she'd already made the mistake at and contemplating making the same 12k mistake again.  Ah, trail racing!

Anyway, the event went off perfectly, especially considering the awful weather.  We packed up, slept a couple hours and drove back up to the Bay Area.  Race directing is terribly glamorous, as I was reminded while left alone to unload a couple thousand pounds of race equipment, soaked and muddy and in need of a good cleaning and airing out.  Next event is Woodside 50k next weekend.  Hoping for good weather and a perfect event.

Here's a nice video of the Santa Monica event that Billy Yang put together - Boy's got skills.

PCTR Santa Monica Mountains Highlights from Billy Yang on Vimeo.