As I am sure you know, any excuse we can find to go back to CA we jump on it! This was an event that we did last year and we had a great time. Luis Escobar really knows how to put on a wonderful event. The location for this one was a bit different, it was on a rodeo ground this year. And this was going to be Betty White’s first long road trip (that is the name of our big white Sprinter van).
We left on Thursday and headed to Las Vegas to spend the night with wonderful Aunt Debbie. Jesse was driving the van since I am just not ready to try to maneuver all 170 inches of it. I was nervous the whole time, this van was new to us but it has been used. It is a Mercedes diesel engine and I have been reading up on what quirks they have. As long as you take care of it, you shouldn’t have any problems but who knows what happened in her life before we bought the van. But I was put at ease right away, Jesse did a great job driving and I was able to bluetooth my phone to the radio so we could listen to podcasts.
We made it safely to Vegas and spent the evening eating and drinking with Aunt Debbie. It was wonderful as usual. Early the next morning we started driving to Santa Maria, CA. We made a stop at the grocery store to get supplies for the run. Finding the rodeo grounds was easy, so we parked the van and checked in at the registration booth. This setting was quite a bit different than last year. There was an event going on that involved horses and riders running around barrels. The mix of different people doing very different things at the same complex was interesting. At one point one of the cowboys asked what in the world we were doing. It was funny seeing someone in running gear trying to explain how a bib works and why some people run for 48 hours to a guy in full cowboy gear.
There was a young guy playing music at the stage that was set up and there was a taco truck. Jesse and I got some tacos and sat by the fire to enjoy the music. Turns out the kid was with a family that was competing in the rodeo. He had his guitar with him and saw our stage was empty so he offered to play. The music was good and he had some fun banter with Luis, who invited him to come back tomorrow and play some more.
We went to bed early since we were tired and it was dark and chilly at night. I made a curtain from a thrift store sheet to block out the cold coming from the windshield. We also bought two blankets at the thrift store to put on the floor of the van as a rug. The air mattress we found with the stuff that was in the trailer was pretty deflated but we brought all of the blankets we own so we ended up being cozy. That van needs to be insulated before we sleep in it again since you could feel the cold coming off the walls. We slept really well thought and it was awesome being able to stand up while changing into running clothes.
The aid station had some pretty terrible coffee but at least it was caffeinated. After milling about, drinking horrible coffee by the fire and having a granola bar, Jess and I lined up and prepared to spend the day running. Jess did the 6 hour and I did the 12 hour. It was a 1.77 mile loop that you can run as many times as you want in that time frame. We ran past the van each loop so we were able to grab water and snacks whenever we wanted. It was going well for both Jess and I but he was starting to feel the miles once he got to 20 miles. I was very proud of him for getting up and doing another bunch of miles. I have not been running much this summer since I hurt my hip back in June so I was not really ready for this event. My hip didn’t hurt at all but my heel started to hurt at mile 17 or so and the next 11 miles I did was mostly hiking. The motivation to keep going was to get an ultra distance and to eat the burrito Jesse got me from the taco truck. I ended up with 28 miles and was pretty happy with that. I stopped when they handed out the 3 hour run awards and the 6 hour run awards. Part of this event included a local cross country team that Luis invited. There is also a club called the 100 mile club that the kids were part of and they try to run 100 miles in a month. It was really fun running loops with these kids. Some of them were very fast.
After I decided I was done, I changed in the van (so much easier than trying to get out of sweaty running clothes while in the Crosstrek) and ate my burrito. We joined the group to enjoy one of the many bands and sit by the fire. The 12 hour awards were also handed out at this time and I got yet another amulet that I love. This was a bit more special and Luis told us how this all started. The original creator of the amulets has since passed away but he would say that if someone admired it, then you gave the amulet to them since it doesn’t belong to you. So we each picked out an amulet and then traded it with a fellow runner. It was really touching and made it even more special. Just like other events Jesse and I went to bed kinda early. Evidently the cowboys and cowgirls came over to our camp to enjoy some of our beer and food and music. They ended up getting pretty rowdy and were asked to leave after they started to bother the runners.
Just like other events Jesse and I went to bed kinda early. Evidently the cowboys and cowgirls came over to our camp to enjoy some of our beer and food and music. They ended up getting pretty rowdy and were asked to leave after they started to bother the runners.
We left early Sunday morning to start our drive to Vegas where we would spend another night at Debbie’s before going back to Utah. Debbie is so great at picking places for us to go eat. This time it was an outdoor tiki bar attached to an old school Vegas italian restaurant. They make crazy strong tiki drinks and big thin crust pizza. She was rather surprised when we ate two whole 18 inch pizzas. But they were so good!! Eventually we were full and went back to Debbie’s place to sleep. We had another day in the car until we were back home in Utah.
This event is such a good time and we will be doing it again next year. Although I heard it will be back in the original location at our usual ranch. I am looking forward to our van Betty being all ready and insulated by then! We will keep you updated on our progress.
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