08.21.08
Posted in Back in the Day, Road Races, Mr. Noise, Clubs, Bakersfield Track Club, Bakersfield Distance Project at 10:28 pm by Administrator
a reader wrote me today and was wondering what the course record was on the course. from the btc website, former driller joel cardoza ran 15:41 in 2006. i seem to remember that this time maybe suspect however.
the reader also inquired about the age of the race. he thought it was a new race but it has been around for awhile. i think it got started in the late 80s and i definitely ran it in the early 90s.
in fact, ten or more years ago it was the last race that i ran for the most part. i won the overall point series and it was my last race i seriously ran. in 2006, my son christopher won the series and it was the first race he ever won.
the btc summer series started out as the darryl easter memorial handicap series. darryl easter died at a young age and left behind several young children and a wife. i ran with darryl and he put on some local races back in the 80s too.
my earliest memories of this series was that it was run in winter and was held on sunday afternoons. the race also started up the road a bit. the finish was uphill near the tunnel where the bike path leads to now.
the bike path didnt exist back then either. the race was up what was called rattlesnake gulch and then back down. it was all uphill and then downhill. the turnaround was almost to the road at the top of the hill. the road the race was on wasnt much of a road.
it was dirt with a lot of rocks and ruts. watching ones footing was key and many an ankle was turned on the old course. it was a pure strength runner’s course back in the day.
later the race moved to tuesday nights and the start was moved too. i still believe it is the hardest 5k course around.
Join Andy at the biggest poker site in the world - PokerStars.com.
Permalink
08.10.08
Posted in Yada Yada, Road Stories, College, Education at 1:58 pm by Administrator
day two of of our uc tour was to uc davis. it was due east of the bay area and seemed real close to sacramento (15 miles?). i always thought davis was further north myself.
the surrounding are looked like kern county foothills with a few more trees. the university wasnt that impressive looking but we did like davis. it looked like bakersfield’s westchester/downtown area with a lot more trees and bikes.
i could see leaving my son here to go to school. the place was mellow and very non-threatening. felt like home but nicer. it seemed to a place that would be easy to go to school. maybe a little dull but definitely not crazy like berkeley..
then since it was on the way home, we headed to uc merced.
dont make the same mistake we did. there is no reason to visit uc merced. it is really sad. first off it is miles from the freeway and the town. second, it looks like frontier high school. no offense to frontier but a high school shouldnt look better than a UC
Join Andy at the biggest poker site in the world - PokerStars.com.
Permalink
08.03.08
Posted in Yada Yada, Road Stories, College, WTF, Education, Worst Person in the World at 9:00 am by Administrator
what started out as me doing the san francisco marathon ended up being a tour of the northern califiornia’s universities. after i survived the LA marathon, i thought “why not san fran” but after signing up i realized i didnt want to do five hour training walks in the summer heat, so i decided on doing the half instead.
at first i was going to do the trip alone but i ended up taking two oldest sons. we took the coast route up and it was beautiful. saw lovely coastlines, surfers sailing with kites and enjoyed the cool fresh air.
after eating in santa cruz, i decided to visit uc santa cruz. i havent been there since i was in college. my sophomore year, the all uc meet was in santa cruz.
i went to uc san diego, so we got to fly to the meet. sadly, i had never flown in a plane so all summer i trained hard to win my seat to the meet. i remember having to take a physics mid-term and then jumping into a van and barely getting to the airport on time.
my first flight was uneventful and the takeoff and landings just felt like a cheesy carnival ride for the most part. it was nice getting to san jose in so quickly though.
i barely remember the race except that it was hilly and there were a lot trees. the best part of the trip was getting to hang out at stanford with my old high school friends and going to a stanford football game.
now 20 plus years later, i am touring uc santa cruz with my teenage sons. the campus sits on a hill with a nice forest of trees. the campus is in the forest. it looked like a nice place to go despite their banana slug mascot.
then my mind changed forever. to leave campus, one must go down a very steep and long hill. wouldnt you know but santa cruz’s finest sits on the bottom of the hill.
i had my foot on the brake the whole way and i have never received a speeding ticket in my life. but they got me, i dont think i was speeding but they say i was. heck, they could have stopped everyone that goes down that road. when i left they had three of us. Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
« Previous entries ·
