CLIF Contest Winners; Random Shots of Beauty

Last weekend I committed to announcing the winners of two CLIF Bar contests on Nov 3^rd … and I’m making it with a little under three hours to spare.  In ultrarunning terms, that’s a huge cushion below the cutoff time, so I’m choosing to think of this as an accomplishment.

But before we get to that, let’s knock out a Random Shot of Beauty:

The Lone Cypress in Pebble Beach, as seen during a family geocache outing on an 80-degree November day.  California, baby … California.

And now for our winners.  The first contest was in conjunction with CLIF’s Meet the Moment promotion, where my kids and I got to choose our favorite entry to receive a CLIF sampler pack.  (Just as an FYI, I have no idea what’s in it – but it’s probably cool.)  Here’s the one we picked:

Submitted by GregoryBoytos, who is our contest winner.  Congrats!

The second contest is offering up a sample pack of CLIF’s brand new Chocolate Cherry BLOKs.  This was a straightforward “whoever random.org’s number generator smiles upon” contest, and the winners are Stephan Uzzell, Sarah, and Owen Yeates.

Thanks very much to everybody who entered, and if you’re one of the winners, e-mail me your contact info so I can pass it along to my CLIF reps.  Also, be on the lookout for another (non-CLIF related) contest later this week!

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Monkey Shake Winner; GoLite Spring Blowout Sale; Soft Star "Princess" RunAmocs; Random Shots of Beauty

A few business notes of interest before our customary weekend RSOB ..

First, let's announce our Monkey Shake winner!  Mike Dixon: e-mail me your contact info - you've won!  In case anyone's curious, Mike's winning entry was the famous "I'll stir fry you in my wok!" line from the classic "Intergalactic" - which, just as a final MCA tribute, I've decide to embed below.  Interestingly, considering that this is a running blog, nobody picked the "I run the marathon to the very last mile" line from the same song.  Anyway, congrats to Mike, and thanks to everyone else who entered - that one was kind of fun.


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I used to do a number of product reviews for GoLite - but that stopped roughly one year ago as the company laid the groundwork for a somewhat radical new business model.  Basically, they're dramatically downsizing their marketing and completely eliminating their relationships with third party outdoor retailers.

The upside of this from a customer's standpoint is that their product margins aren't impacted by those additional costs, so they pass the savings - in many cases, up to 50% of the previous MSRP - on to customers via direct website sales at GoLite.com.  It's a model that's driven by discounts and word of mouth marketing, and depends upon returning customers who have strong loyalty for the brand.

Of course, the model won't work unless the products are high quality - and in the case of GoLite, that's exactly what they offer.  Their Rush pack is still my favorite for day hiking, and their 9" Mesa Trail shorts are a top choice for chilly winter mornings that aren't quite cold enough for tights.   And right now you can get those items as well as anything else at the GoLite site at deep discounts while the company blows out their Spring 2012 inventory - for example, the Rush pack I linked above is only $45, and the Mesa shorts are $22.50.  Click here to check out the sale, and it will be interesting to see how GoLite's new business model fares in the months and years to come.

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I'm not exactly sure whether this next item pertains to any of my readers, but you never know, so here goes: Soft Star shoes is now able to make shiny, starry varieties of your running moccasins if that's something you're into.

Black suede with white stars (middle), cream leather with gold stars (right); photo from Soft Star website

The company has recently sourced some decorative suede hides with star patterns that can be used for adult RunAmocs.  They also have a cream and gold star leather that can be used for decorative accents.  So if you want to get carried away with shiny leather and starry accents, you could potentially create a spectacularly princess-y version of the RunAmoc Dash like this one:

Like I said, I'm not sure who might bite on this one, but hey - feel free to go wild.

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Finally, out Random Shot of Beauty is leftover from my Pebble Beach trail run report.  It's hard to see at first, because the subject is camouflaged so well among the trees and brush - but if you click to enlarge, you'll see her in there:

That's another thing Pebble Beach is known for: a whole lot of native deer.  Sometimes I wonder if they realize what a remarkable place they happen to inhabit -  or at least on some level understand that they contribute to making the place more remarkable for me.  I doubt it, but I hope I'm wrong.


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Beastie Boys, "Intergalactic" (click to play):

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Backyard Adventures: Pebble Beach / Del Monte Forest Trail Running

*Before today's post, a reminder to give me your best Beastie Boys lyric for a chance to win a 30-serving bag of Monkey Shakes.  The winner will be announced Saturday, so get going!

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When most people hear the name Pebble Beach, they most likely conjure up the following things:

1) Golf courses

2) Mansions

3) Luxury cars, or

4) Conspicuous consumption

What they don't think of very often is "trail running adventure", but that's part of the beauty of running in Pebble Beach: almost nobody knows how to do it.

Even longtime residents sometimes struggle with running in Pebble Beach - often shortened to "Pebble" by locals - as many trails are unmarked, unmapped, or oftentimes both.  Paths are frequently interrupted by a road or house or fairway without any clue as to where they continue - if they indeed continue at all.  Even though the Del Monte Forest that dominates the region is only 10 square miles, it's easy to get disoriented, causing planned 5-mile runs to become 2-hour explorations.

I've lived in this area for almost 20 years, and I still get turned around in the forest sometimes ... but the more miles I spend there, the more amazed I am that this place exists, and the more awestruck I am at the glory of creation.  Which sounds like enough reason to do a photo tour, right?  I thought so ... and took my camera with me one day for a 20-miler that highlights the best (and strangest) of what the area has to offer.

(As usual, click any photo to enlarge ...)

For most locals, a run into Pebble Beach actually starts outside the area, in the parking lot at Carmel Beach - which is a natural wonder in its own right.  The reason we park here instead of going into Pebble Beach proper ...

... is this gated entrance.  All road access points into Pebble Beach pass by manned gatehouses, where visiting cars - classified as anything without a resident medallion on the front grill - are charged $9.75 to enter.  On the other hand, if you pass through on foot, bike, or rollerblades, there's no charge.  Running in Pebble is wonderful, but it's not 10-dollars-a-pop wonderful - so adding an extra mile or two onto either side of your run to avoid the fee is pretty much a no-brainer.

You encounter your first trail less than a quarter mile past the gate - a restored remnant of a historic horse path that used to circle the perimeter of Del Monte Forest.  Many of the trails here were built or maintained by the local equestrian community; in a related story, mountain bikes are pretty much outlawed in Pebble Beach - but that's a discussion for another time.

Trails also pass remarkably close to multi-million-dollar homes, many of which sit vacant for most of the year, because they're the vacation homes of people who have an equally (or more) expensive house somewhere else.  To say Pebble belongs to people with money is quite the understatement.

Here's the most remarkable thing about Pebble Beach, though: for long stretches of trail, there's no sign of any civilization or development, and it looks and feels almost exactly like running through the Sierra Nevadas.  It would be easy to completely forget where you are ...

... except that every now and then you skirt a lush green fairway, which reminds you that no matter what the surroundings look like, in these parts, golf is king.

Many of the trails are marked by signposts with colored stripes to distinguish one from another.  The green posts mark a popular route that climbs towards the top of the forest ...

... and back down to another swanky fairway near the Pebble Beach lodge.

This is a polo field near the Pebble Beach Equestrian Center.  It's nothing special, really - probably just like the polo fields in your own neighborhood.  Let's move on.

One long stretch of the green trail turns into a deep sandy path that rises up and over a large dune ...

... before cresting the dune to get your first breathtaking glimpse of the coastline below.

Remember that multi-million-dollar home earlier?  This futuristic one with beach access would be in the multi-multi-million dollar range.

This is Bird Rock - a name that become obvious if you click to enlarge and check out all the little black dots on top of the white surface in the distance.   It's a popular stopping point for auto tourists on 17-Mile Drive, and a popular rest stop for cyclists and runners ...

... mainly because it's got one of the only public restrooms and drinking fountains in Pebble Beach.  You can refill your bottles, catch your breath ...

... and gaze down the coastline at the flat stretch of trail ahead.  You know - just like the view at the public bathroom near your house, I'm sure.

The trail continues for about two flat miles along the coast, where the sound of crashing waves and the sight of rocks and surf is almost mesmerizing.  Not coincidentally, this is the section where you're most likely to see fellow runners or cyclists who are lucky enough to be there too.

Soon enough you leave the beach behind and start back up the hill, crossing over more sand dunes until you re-enter the heart of Del Monte Forest.

Here's one of the challenges I mentioned at the top: occasionally, trails just emerge upon a road or intersection, and unless you happen to know which way to go from here, it's very tough to figure out where they continue on the other side.  In many cases, the continuation is a quarter-mile or more down the road from where you first hit the asphalt.

Sometimes the trail is marked on the trunks of trees on the periphery of a golf course, and you know if you stay to one side of the fairway you're in the general vicinity of the trail ...

... and other times the golf course IS the trail as you make your way along cart paths down the length of one fairway and up another.  If you thought it was easy to get turned around on trails, try telling one immaculately groomed fairway from another sometime.  I've gone back and forth on golf courses more than a few times ...

 ... before popping out on the road somewhere and thinking, "Wait - how did I end up at the Poppy Hills clubhouse?".  Fortunately, if you know the road system here - which is no small challenge either - you can at least point yourself back in the right direction back into the forest ...

... where the trails eventually turn back into secluded Sierra-like fire roads ...

... and quiet single track as you climb to the apex of the forest.

The trails stay quiet all the way down a long descent back toward sea level ...

... and within a couple more miles you exit the Pebble gate and return to Carmel Beach.  In the space of a few hours, you've gone from seascape to forest and back, from sea level to hilltop, from civilization to seclusion, from the gaudy excesses of humanity to the simplest joys of natural existence.  It probably offers the largest environmental variability of any run I know of - and the more time I spend here, the more thankful I am for every opportunity to explore it.

*See other photo tours under tab at top of page.

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Holiday GU Giveaway Winners; Soft Star RunAmoc Giveaway Winner; Random Shots of Beauty

Who says the Internet sleeps on Saturdays? It's kind of an exciting day around these parts, as we announce winners of two giveaways: holiday-flavored GU, and the Soft Star RunAmoc.

We'll start with the GU winners: Katie Peterson, wch, and Kelly (from Baldwinsville) - e-mail me your contact info - you've each won 2 boxes of holiday GU!

And now for the big prize today, a pair of free RunAmocs: TK - contact me. You're the winner!

As usual, thanks very much to everyone who participated - in particular, with such great feedback regarding the Soft Star company, whose products should be on every natural footwear aficionado's wish list this year.

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And now for this weekend's Random Shot of Beauty:

(click to enlarge)

Stillwater Cove in Pebble Beach, CA, on December 13, when the majority of the country was experiencing blizzards and deep freezes.

This photo wasn't taken during a run, which is probably fitting, since December is usually my biggest slacker month of the year from a training standpoint. Rather, it was taken during a lunch appointment that turned into a lazy 3-hour diversion, mainly because we couldn't think of any compelling reason to be anywhere else.

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Born to Golf?

Regardless of how many other industries thrive here, there’s no debating that on the Monterey Peninsula, golf is king.

People make pilgrimages here from all corners of the globe to play at our numerous world-class resorts, and hotel rooms all over town sell out months in advance of the annual AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Whenever there’s a big tournament in town, the traffic snarls and tourist swarms are enough to make locals avoid venturing out of the house until the frenzy dies down – unless, of course, they’re part of the frenzy themselves.

And whenever the U.S. Open comes to town, all the insanity gets ratcheted up exponentially.
Such is the case this weekend, as Pebble Beach hosts the 2010 championship. And for our local newspaper, the tournament isn’t simply a weekend event – it’s a cause for week-long coverage of every conceivable story line you can imagine.

It also eclipses any other sporting news that might take place during the days leading up to the big show. This week, Giants and A’s reports were confined to the back pages of the sports section. The NBA Finals received cursory coverage. World Cup results were buried in the box scores.

So if you’re the author of a measly running column, you definitely shouldn’t expect much in the way of promotion.

Our regularly scheduled column slot was on Thursday, which also happened to be the first round of the Open. I figured there was a pretty good chance that the column wouldn’t run at all – but my friend Mike and I gave it a shot anyway.

To improve our chances of getting published, we came up with an angle that was golf-related, but still allowed us to tell a story that had running as its primary focus. Honestly, I think it was a pretty clever stretch on our part; you can see if you agree after reading the article that follows below.

Nevertheless, our column was indeed bumped this week in favor of golf coverage, so this one hasn’t yet seen the light of newsprint. It might appear at a later date – but since the tournament is going on this weekend, I figured the timing was right to post it here anyway.

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Running Life 6/17/10 “Born to Golf?”


Think you know who invented golf? If you’re like most observers, you believe that the sport as we know it was invented in Scotland in the late 1400s.

Some historians also note that the ancient Romans played games with sticks hitting stones on the ground, but this pastime had no link to modern day golf. Others attribute some influence to activities called kolven in Holland and chole in Belgium that involved sticks and rudimentary balls or stones - but for the majority of golf purists, the pursuit of hitting round objects into slightly larger holes in the ground is strictly attributed to the Scots.

However, with all due respect to those historians, we have another theory: maybe golf was created by a band of runners.

Chris McDougall’s book Born to Run describes the reclusive Raramuri, indigenous people of the treacherous Copper Canyon region of northern Mexico. Raramuri are the world’s greatest distance runners, whose “superhuman talent is matched by uncanny health and serenity.” These natives were so reclusive that they were not discovered by the outside world until the 1500s by the Conquistadors, who mispronounced the name to call them Tarahumara. (They are still commonly called Tarahumara by outsiders today.)

The name Raramuri means “runners on foot” or “those who run fast”, and the entire culture of the tribe involves running for joy. McDougall set out to chronicle the Tarahumara to understand how they could run for hundreds of miles without getting injured. Among other observations, his documentation of huarache-clad ultrarunners has greatly influenced the recent barefoot running boom in the United States.

And what does any of this have to do with golf? McDougall also observed that the favorite pastime among the Tarahumara is a game called rarjiparo. These contests are typically held between village teams and involve running continuously for 36 or 48 hours over hilly and dangerous terrain. The object is for each team to move a small wooden ball called the rarajipari, made of hard wood from tree roots.

Men kick the rarajipari to advance it, but women are allowed to use an implement called the ariweta – “a ring of strong plant fibres or twigs which are hooked with a curved wooden end which allows the ball to be hit”. They hit the ball, then chase after it – up and down hills, around curves, into the dirt or bushes, and occasionally dropping into holes in the ground. Sounds like a group of amateurs on the back nine, doesn’t it?

Furthermore, Tarahumara villagers gather from miles around to watch these events - a primitive gallery, if you will - and bets are often made involving pelts, livestock, blankets, jewelry, and other items. After a rarjiparo, it is traditional that “winners do not demonstrate arrogance, and the losers show no anger” – as rivals often gather together and spend the next 48 hours drinking tesquino, a corn-based beer, until they pass out. Since the Tarahumara have no refrigeration devices, all of the tesquino had to be finished within the 48-hour party.

So let’s recap: a game that involves using sticks to knock little balls around, which claims specific rules of decorum, features large spectator galleries, and encourages betting, beer drinking, and camaraderie. What game does that sound like to you?

The Tarahumara have been doing this for more than 2000 years. Perhaps they weren’t just Born to Run, but Born to Golf as well - and maybe all the passionate golf fans at this weekend’s US Open owe a tip of the hat to these natural born runners.

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Banned From Pebble Beach

Let’s say you happen to live near one of the most famous and beautiful golf courses in the world – a course that’s nestled along the most spectacular ocean shoreline that anyone’s ever seen.

Let’s say that you also happen to be a runner who wakes up early to do long weekend training runs, and this majestic vista provides the most perfect backdrop to a long run that you could ever imagine. And let’s say that on the other side of this golf course is one of the most scenic roads in America, one where drivers are charged $10 per car just to get past the gate and travel through paradise.

Finally, let’s say that the alternative to running across the beautiful golf course is that you have to run on a narrow, winding, heavily trafficked road where drivers are often paying more attention to the scenery than to potential hazards nearby. And if you start your run early enough, you can usually make it across the greens and off the course before the first golfers of the day have completed their first few holes.

Oh, one more thing: the golf course is kinda, sorta, technically ... private property. The question now is, would you run across it?

If your answer is yes, you’d fit right in with the Monterey Peninsula’s regular Saturday morning running group. Shortly after starting at Carmel Beach, the group cuts across the 11th fairway of the esteemed Pebble Beach golf course to avoid running on the most frequently traveled portion of 17-Mile Drive. Once you get through the course, 17-Mile Drive is very quiet, and it’s the kind of road that makes you want to run forever. Runners have been crossing the Pebble Beach links to begin their Saturday morning long run for more than 30 years.

At least, they did until a few months ago.

This summer, the Pebble Beach Company hung a sign at the access point declaring that trespassing across the course was prohibited. Of course, nobody paid the sign any attention – so shortly afterward, the PBC hired a guard to deter runners from crossing.

We took a couple jabs at the PBC at the end of a Monterey Herald column in October – and that’s when things got interesting. Last week, we devoted a whole column to the situation, trying to present both sides of the issue without appearing too biased towards our own interests. The article follows below; the only change I made here was to take out the PBC guy’s last name, in case he's concerned about increasing his Googlibility (Has anyone invented that word yet? You knew exactly what I meant, right? Can I get credit for this?).

The article generated the most e-mail we’ve ever received in response to a column - I'll leave it for you to guess whether or not the feedback was favorable. And later, after reading the article, ask yourself the question again: would you run across the course? That’s the dilemma facing Monterey runners nowadays.

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Running Life 12/4/08 “Banned From Pebble Beach”

You may recall a recent column when we took some shots at the Pebble Beach Company for restricting our running club from an access point to the Pebble Beach Golf Links, even though the club had been using the route for nearly 30 years. They even went as far as stationing a guard at the crossing, which – in light of the PBC recently issuing nearly 30 layoffs – seemed quite excessive in its severity.

Needless to say, the crackdown made very little sense to us. So you can imagine our shock when, shortly after our column ran, the PBC constructed a giant fence at the crossing that says “access prohibited” in large red lettering. The guard was gone (perhaps one of the layoffs?), but the message remained clear: runners were personae non gratae around the Pebble Beach links.

That's when we shifted into attack mode. We decided to do a little bit of muckraking, and sharpen our journalistic teeth on the meat of the soulless corporate monster. It would be an investigative report to make Woodward and Bernstein proud.

It was a great plan, until we actually picked up the phone and started talking to people.

In particular, we had a long conversation with Mark [omitted], an Executive Vice President at the PBC. He’s a descendent of a legendary Monterey County general – which is mildly impressive – but more impressive was that the first thing he told us is that he’s a runner. He runs in local races and exercises with his kids, and enjoys running and hiking the roads and trails of Pebble Beach.

What was MOST impressive (to us, anyway) was that he actually reads our column – and he was aware of the Headwind razzie we gave the PBC last month. So, while we felt a little guilty about that, we were happy to have apparently found a sympathetic ear to our running club’s plight.

Then Mark started telling us the difficulties he’s dealt with from the access point just inside the Carmel gate. Golfers – many of whom travel here from all over the world, and pay several hundred dollars to play a round on the famed course – frequently encounter runners, off-road bikers, and equestrians at all hours of the day.

Most of this public traffic crosses the 11th hole fairway, sometimes as golf patrons are playing on those very same holes. Tournament play doesn’t deter some headstrong folks, either – as Mark reported that runners took to the Pebble Beach course during last month’s Callaway Tournament.

As a result, the PBC now enforces a rule that has been on its books all along: no foot traffic on the links while the course is open to golfers. Since the course opens at 7:30, and the running club departs Ocean Avenue in Carmel at 7:15, there’s no practical way for runners to cross and exit the course by 7:30.

There are also liability concerns from runners crossing the links, as they pose unexpected hazards for golfers and runners alike. The thought crossed our minds that a runner hit by a car on 17-Mile Drive could still leave the PBC potentially vulnerable to a lawsuit - but Mark disagrees with this, as standard rules of the road (sharing the roadway, staying alert from others, etc) apply within Pebble Beach borders as they would in any neighboring municipality.

As a runner, Mark appreciates our dilemma – and during our conversation, we discussed some practical suggestions for the Saturday running club. Since he’s a trail runner, his main recommendation was for runners to get off of the roads, and onto the 26 miles of public trails that crisscross Pebble Beach.

The trails are a combination of fire roads, equestrian trails, and single track, offering steep climbs and breathtaking views within a few miles of Carmel Beach. There is a trail entrance close to the intersection of Carmel Way and 17-Mile Drive, so runners can avoid the shoulderless road that leads to the Pebble Beach Lodge.

Another option is for runners to run south from Carmel instead of north. The views are still quite impressive from Scenic Drive to the Carmel River Beach area. From there, runners can head past Mission Ranch to the Mission trails, or across the river (except in high water, of course) on the trails to Monastery Beach and Point Lobos and back.

We understand that there’s no substitute for running along one of the most fabulous roads in the world, so we’re not saying that runners should stay out of Pebble Beach. Realistically, it’s only the half-mile stretch of 17-Mile Drive between Carmel Way and Live Oak Road (or the quarter mile between Carmel Way and Crespi Lane) that is especially dangerous – so if you’re cautious, there’s no reason to deny yourself the pleasure of running amidst the mansions and majestic beauty of 17-Mile Drive.

Unfortunately, crossing the golf course links at the 11th fairway will likely become a thing of the past. We don’t have to like the decision (honestly, none of us do – let’s just say we’re not revoking their Headwind award), but we should abide by it. Hopefully, the change of routine won’t detract from what is an otherwise perfect way to spend a Saturday morning.

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