| Event-Day: Texas was well represented this year at OP50. I was joined by Tom Crull, Letha Cruthirds, Mark Dick, Matt Crownover from the Dallas-area and Sammy Voltaggio from the Austin-area. The weather forecast was for a low in the upper 30s Saturday morning and a high around 60 for the afternoon. The rain forecasted for Sunday was moving in faster than expected. So the updated forecast now called for a 10% chance of rain in the late afternoon. I included emergency rain ponchos in each of my drop bags, and my raincoat in my 40mi drop bag. I also had an emergency rain poncho in the pocket of my waist pack. I arrived to Kentucky Camp with some of the others from Texas a little after 5:00am. Plenty of time to find parking, walk down the hill, check-in, turn in drop bags, and make last minute adjustments. I got to see my friends Matt and Anne Watts in the start area before the event started at 6am. Tom made his ominous comment to Matt Watts that so far for 2005 it had rained at every event he had done. There were two other people at the OP50 start who had been at C4P the week before: Mark Wienecke and Krissy Sybrowski. So I was not alone :-) The ambient temperature was not as cold at the start this year as it was last year... nor was it anywhere near the forecasted low of the upper 30s. I felt comfortable with two longsleeve coolmax shirts and shorts. (Initally I had planned to wear tights). Standing at the start my legs were feeling okay and not stiff. I thought maybe OP50 would not be so bad after all.My final plan was to take it easy the first 19miles to Helvetia Aid Station. I felt that I would know what sort of day it was going to be by the time I reached Helvetai aid station .. The event ? started promptly at 6am.The sky was still dark and I carried a small LED flashlight. The course began with a short climb up out of Kentucky Camp. The short climb went well... and then on to some rolling terrain. About 0.5mile into this terrain, Matt Crownover passed by me. We chatted and then he continued on.. After about 15minutes, there was ample daylight to turn off the flashlight but still not enough light for taking photos. I thought I recognized a runner ahead of me, and worked to catch up to see if it was Laura Nagy and to say hello. I had run with her during a portion of Zane Grey last year. The runner was indeed Laura, and we talked for about a minute then I dropped back into my slower pace. Wayne was also near me. I was feeling fatigue in my legs already, and we were not yet to the first aid station at the 3mi mark. I told Wayne it was going to be a long day for me. ? I was still trying to find a pace that would not put my legs into fatigue mode. Wayne went ahead of me, and he would stay within my sight only for another mile or so . Arriving to the first aid station, Granite Mountain , I capped off my water bottle. As tired as my legs felt, I was only a minute behind last year's split. I like the stretch between Granite Mountain and California Gulch(2nd aid station at 7mi). It is mostly single track, rocky in sections and affords some nice views of the sunrise to the East. Because there still did not seem to be enough daylight for the one-time use camera, I was not certain how well a photo would turnout.... But I took a photo anyway. |
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| Photo # 1 : Morning sunrise in the desert. |
| P A G E 2 |