Lessons From a 9-Year-Old: Big Sur 5K Race Report

The nice thing about running a 5K rather than a longer endurance event is that instead of spending several hours on the course, you’re only in the arena for a half-hour or so. In other words, it’s not a compete day-killer – and even when you account for gnoshing post-race food and shooting the breeze with friends and co-runners, you’ve still got plenty of time to get home and relax for a bit before plunking out a race report.

Which is why I’m able to report on the weekend’s running event in such timely fashion: instead of participating in the Wildflower Triathlon, Quicksilver 50M, or Big Sur Marathon – all of which took place this weekend, and are all fantastic races that I’ve done in the past (see links) and would love to do again at some point – I returned with my daughter to the Big Sur 5K, which last year was the scene of her first-ever road race.

I wrote about that run last year, and this year’s version wasn’t dramatically different, so I’m not exactly compelled to do another traditional report that could potentially read like a carbon copy from 12 months ago. However, there were enough memorable points that I thought it might be fun to throw together some snapshots, observations, and perhaps a few tidbits of advice to share.

Accordingly, allow me to present some scenes from the Big Sur 5K:

It always amazes me how mellow 5K runners are in comparison to marathon runners. You know how at the start of most marathons, the announcer always has to tell the runners to stay behind the start line? True story: about 30 seconds before our race, a race crew member had to get on the loudspeaker and tell everyone to move up about 20 yards so they would be at the official line when the gun went off. It’s like a Bizarro world for a seasoned marathoner.

Footwear for the day consisted of the Vibram Bikila LS for me, which will be formally reviewed here in the next week or two. As for my daughter … I’m going to hold off just a bit for now, because I’m still kicking around a post about minimalist footwear for kids that I hope to have wrapped up soon. A trained eye can probably figure it out, though.

And speaking of shoes …

Here’s one practical tip, courtesy of my 9-year-old daughter, who is the tiny blond head next to the girl in short shorts in the above photo: if you’re going to give a great effort on a sizeable hill in the first mile of the race to clear some space for yourself away from the walking crowd, make sure your right shoe is laced securely as you’re doing it …

… otherwise you might have to give back a lot of that time when you finally make it to the top and realize that it’s untied.

Another tip for 9-year-olds: just because you’re small and cute, don’t think that earns you any special privileges on the race course. See my daughter in the black shirt? About a half-second after this photo was taken, the grown-up dude next to her totally swerved into her to cut the corner a little more closely … you know, so he could bust a 10:48 mile split instead of a 10:49.

More from the “adults acting like idiots” department: one of the people in this photo – I won’t specify who - made a point of telling everybody “We’re running in front of Brad Pitt’s house right now!” She was referring to the row of houses on the left side of this path, while the rest of us – or maybe I should just speak for my daughter and me – could care less about our proximity to a material possession of a Hollywood celebrity …

… because we were much more attentive to and appreciative of the beautiful, natural ocean views on our right. But again, maybe that’s just my daughter and me.

Two thoughts stand out here: 1) I often tell my daughter that with her long legs and knock-kneed stride, she reminds me of a baby giraffe sometimes. I’m thinking that if she ever expresses disbelief, I’ll use this photo as Exhibit A. Also …

2) One more practical tip from my daughter: if you’re going to give a great effort on a sizeable hill in the last mile of the race to start reeling in some people who went out too fast, make sure your left shoe is laced tightly as well …

… otherwise … yeah. Kind of a bummer.

One final tip: if you’re trying to break your course time from the previous year and you end up giving away about a minute or so in shoe-tying predicaments, you’d better high-tail it during the last half-mile to make up some ground. To my daughter’s credit, that’s exactly what she did …

… and sailed into the finish area a full two minutes faster than the year before. She even managed to win an age group award, which was a nice bonus. Now when the marathoners win age group awards at Big Sur, the prize includes a bottle of Monterey County wine; but for some reason, the killjoys on the race committee decided that the winners of the 5K's 8-11 age group aren’t entitled to a similar prize. Whatever.

Even without the alcohol, it was a pretty sweet morning all the way around – which is pretty much what you expect when it comes to Big Sur events. My daughter and I both went home with happy feet, glad to have spent another fun race morning together, and talking about similar future mornings to come.

*See other race reports under tab at top of page




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Running Life Book Discount; Random Shots of Beauty

Two brief reminders before this weekend's RSOB ...

1) If for some reason you missed it, be sure to sign up for a chance to win a pair of Merrell Barefoot Women's Pace Glove trail shoes; the winner will be announced here next Sunday.

2) You've got one more day to purchase my Running Life book at the 20% discounted price from our website, in conjunction with our promotion at the Big Sur Marathon race expo. The discount is good through close of business on Sunday, May 1.

*
Speaking of the Big Sur Marathon, that's the subject of our Random Shot of Beauty:


View of the beautiful, rugged Pacific coastline from Highway 1 in the Carmel Highlands, an equally beautiful and rugged stretch of road that this year's marathoners get to traverse twice. Lucky them.

As for me, I won't be in the marathon this year - I'll be doing this again instead. Honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way.

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Merrell Barefoot Women's Pace Glove Review and Giveaway

Obviously, the big news with today’s post is that it features a giveaway of another sweet Merrell shoe. This time around, it’s the Merrell Barefoot Pace Glove, a model that my wife has been testing for a couple of months, and one that the company introduced last year as “designed specifically for women, by women.” So there’s definitely a strong Girl Power vibe around the website today; maybe this finally makes up for all those Britney Spears, Beyonce and Shakira photos I used to post here all the time back in the old days. (OK, maybe not … but it’s a start.)

Merrell Barefoot Pace Glove

The Pace Glove is one of three models in Merrell’s barefoot collection for women, and is the one best suited for trail running, making it the female equivalent to the men’s Trail Glove that I reviewed earlier this month. In fact, it’s so similar to the Trail Glove that I initially questioned what exactly the distinctions are that make the Pace Glove a more female-oriented shoe.

That’s not meant as a knock; the Trail Glove is an outstanding shoe, and the Pace Glove is equally remarkable. It’s just that when comparing the two models, there’s not a whole lot to distinguish the male from the female of the species. At 4.7 ounces, the Pace Glove is a bit lighter than the 6.2-oz Trail Glove – not unlike women and men in general, right? - but its overall structure and performance features are otherwise nearly equivalent.


Like the Trail Glove, the Pace Glove has an upper constructed of microfiber and breathable air mesh, which provides nice ventilation while still keeping the foot well-insulated in cold conditions (especially with socks) when necessary. Rubber toe bumpers in front improve the upper’s durability and offer protection in case of toe-stubbing.


Merrell’s Omni-fit lacing system, along with vertical TPU overlays hooked into the laces, wraps the entire midfoot to make the shoe fit like a glove (thus the name, I suppose). It has the same synthetic leather rearfoot sling to stabilize the ankle, and a grippy microfiber footbed that prevents your foot from sliding around on top of the midsole.

Since all of these features are also present on the Trail Glove, and since one of my observations about that model was how the snug fit caused slight difficulty getting my foot into the shoe, I specifically asked my wife about this (more than once, actually). She reported no difficulty getting the shoes on, and she wears socks with them every day. This might reflect the relative narrowness of women’s feet compared to men’s – or maybe it just indicates that I have fat feet; we’re only an experiment of two. At any rate, she reported that the Pace Gloves are extremely comfortable, even when wearing them for several hours.


Turned upside down, you can’t tell a difference between the male and female shoes; they both utilize the identical Vibram TC-1 rubber outsole that provides great traction in nearly all trail conditions, and has proven to be extremely durable after hundreds of trail miles (my model) and approximately 100 mixed road and trail miles (my wife’s). I had a couple of small quibbles with this outsole in my Trail Glove review, but I have to say that I’m very impressed by how the lugs have retained their thickness even after extensive use.

Pace Glove on L, Trail Glove on R

Predictably, the best way to distinguish the male from the female is to look at the tail end. Instead of the thin ankle collar with pull-up thumb loop on the Trail Glove, the Pace Glove has a more lady-like foot sling that is stretchable but sits securely around the ankle once the shoe is in place. I suspect that the wrinkled fabric of this collar might be a source of mild discomfort with sockless runners, but since my wife isn’t in that category, it posed no problems whatsoever for her.

Close-up of heel sling; yellow TPU overlays attach to lace system

The same structure and technology that Merrell uses through the midsole and outsole of its men’s barefoot models are present in the Pace Glove as well. It’s built with a completely flexible, true zero-drop platform to promote the biomechanics of natural running. Total “off the ground” height of the Pace Glove is approximately 12mm in the heel and forefoot, combining the outsole thickness with a 4mm compression molded EVA midsole, 1mm shock absorption plate in the forefoot, and the thin insole footbed.

Super-flexible midsole

The height of this shoe was probably the most interesting consideration for me in comparing my wife’s performance feedback with my own. When I first wore my Merrells, the 12mm spec seemed relatively high – probably due to the fact that I’ve been running barefoot or using true minimalist footwear for the better part of two years – and the Trail Gloves at first seemed a little too cushiony to be truly minimalist. However, my wife typically uses thicker zero-drop shoes like GoLite’s Micro Lite, and she could tell a big difference in reduced cushioning and increased ground feel once starting with the Pace Gloves. She even developed some soreness underneath her metatarsal heads after increasing her distance too quickly with the Merrells; while this wasn’t a positive development for her, it was proof to me that this line of footwear really does approximate barefoot running quite effectively.

At this point, my wife doesn’t want to go any thinner than her Pace Gloves, and I wouldn’t want to go any thicker than my Trail Gloves; however, we both love wearing our respective Merrells. This was the genesis of the premise in my Trail Glove review that Merrell’s Barefoot line is well-positioned to become the first mainstream barefoot shoe, equally attractive to dedicated minimalist users as well as recreational runners who want to go as light and low as possible without giving up modest comfort and protective features. Just as it did with the men’s version, Merrell’s women’s Pace Glove should appeal to a broad spectrum of runners, and I anticipate it will become a lot of people’s favorite shoe this year.



The Merrell Barefoot Pace Glove retails for $100 from TravelCountry.com – but for one lucky female reader, I’ll spare you the trouble of buying a pair. So here’s your chance, ladies: the giveaway contest for one pair of Pace Gloves is on.

We’ll use the same contest rules as the other Merrell giveaway: one entry for a lone comment, plus one additional entry for a Facebook or Twitter link to this contest page, and a third for a blog link to this page. Men are welcome to enter and perhaps become a Sugar Daddy for their lucky gal. When you leave a comment below, tell me how many entries you’ve earned. The winner will be announced next Sunday, May 8th.

Good luck to everyone, and very big thanks to Merrell for sponsoring this giveaway!

*Product provided by Merrell
**See other product reviews on sidebar at right. If you have a product you’d like reviewed, contact me at info@runningandrambling.com.

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Hiking Yosemite With Kids, Part 2: Yosemite Falls

If you were following Part 1 yesterday, you’ll recall that my wife and I had just guided our three kids on a hike to the top of Nevada Fall and back, a 7-mile round trip with about 2000’ of climbing, and an adventure which helped them fall in love with Yosemite the same way my wife and I each did on our first visits here.

We didn’t tell the kids this at the time, but the Mist Trail was our “building confidence” hike – because we knew that the challenge of Day 2 would be significantly greater.


Our objective for the day was Yosemite Falls, which at roughly 4 miles from our starting point at Yosemite Lodge was only slightly longer than the previous day’s outing, but has an additional 700’ of climbing, much of it over very irregular rocky terrain. (I've also profiled this hike in a previous photo tour from two years ago.) If there are any city folk reading this who want a frame of reference, the hike is roughly the equivalent of climbing up two Empire State Buildings – except that instead of having an enclosed stairwell and railing to hold onto, the path on the top third of the climb is covered in snow, frequently gets slippery, and is less than 1 foot wide. Hopefully that helps.


To their credit, even after we explained the goal of the day (we conveniently left out the Empire State Building part) none of the kids shrunk from the challenge – which is a good thing, because the trail demands full commitment right off the bat, as it starts with a series of more than 60 switchbacks that help you gain altitude in a hurry – approximately 1000’ in the first mile.


After a mile and a half or so, the trail levels out, just as the footing starts to get tricky. It’s a nice courtesy of the trail to introduce these challenges one at a time, to keep you from getting too discouraged once you hit the sections that are both steep and technical. You also enjoy* a nice little downhill portion before commencing the real difficult stretch of trail ahead.

(*"Enjoy" might be the wrong term, since you know you’ll have to make the elevation back up in the very near future. As my father-in-law put it, “I hate giving back elevation” – and as you might guess, he wasn’t thrilled with the brief downhill part.)


The good news is that just as the trail shifts to expert level, you have some killer views of Yosemite Falls, and get close enough to get saturated by the spray if you linger for too long.


And as you continue even higher, you get the “only one spot in Yosemite to see this” vantage point of having both Yosemite Falls and the face of Half Dome in your field of vision.


It was somewhere above 6000’ elevation that the snow progressively became more of a factor; at first it started as decorative accents on either side of the trail …

… before becoming enough of an impediment to make you alter your course, especially around switchbacks and turns …


… then completely obscuring the trail except for a narrow footpath …


… before ultimately blanketing everything in sight, which thankfully didn’t occur until just below the top of the climb. Incidentally, see that rock there? That’s one of the ones I sat on while taking a “sun break” to warm my toes up a bit, as I mentioned in this post about wearing Vibrams in the snow.

As for the kids, the snow seemed to energize them; approaching the last third of the climb, the girls started to drag just a bit, but as the snow got deeper and we got further and further into a winter landscape, they forgot that they were actually exercising and started goofing around in the snow. Either that, or the caffeinated CLIF Bloks my wife and I gave them about halfway up the hill were finally starting to kick in. (Seriously.)

Whatever the cause, they showed no signs of fatigue, throwing snowballs and making snowmen and generally having a blast …


… until my toes were warm enough to finish the outbound leg by heading toward the overlook area, where (fortunately for me) the granite was completely dry under the glare of direct sunlight.


The Yosemite Falls overlook is one of the coolest spots in the park, but this “pre-fall” section is as close as the majority of my family got to seeing it ...


... because the rest of the path to the overlook is a somewhat vertigo-inducing route down the face of the cliff …


… with these narrow stairs and this small handrail the only thing to keep you from plunging over the side.


My son was the only one who felt compelled to stand at the edge by himself. Actually, that’s not entirely true; my 7-year-old (remember, the one we deemed “most likely to tumble off a cliff or waterfall”) also went down with us, but I kept one hand on her at all times, and for some reason it didn’t seem like a good time to try playing around with my camera in the other hand. Call it a hunch.


We returned to the safer part of the overlook and enjoyed the views while having another lunch at the top of Yosemite – our second in two days, with one on each side of the valley. Not too shabby for a first family trip, I’d say.


I took this photo after lunch because it was such an oddity: my wife, who’s waaaaayy more paranoid than me when it comes to standing near steep dropoffs, and who has deferred two separate opportunities to overlook Yosemite Falls, randomly walked to the edge of the cliff and called our son over to point out the view of Yosemite Lodge in the distance far below. This also seems like a nice moment to point out that I don’t account for 100% of the crazy in our family – my wife’s good for at least a percent or two sometimes.


Once we had our fill of both food and the beautiful views, the return to the floor of the valley was one of those situations where the journey down takes almost as long as the way up. By midday, the paths of snow had turned slushy and slippery, and the combination of technical footing and steep descents dictated that we go fairly cautiously, especially in the company of little legs that had completed their second major day of climbing in a row. We didn’t have any serious problems, though …


… and before we knew it were back on the valley floor, looking back up at where we had just been. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of “did we really just climb to the top of that thing?” to instill a sense of accomplishment in the kids … and OK, in the adults as well.

In the final analysis, all of our kids performed wonderfully with both of our day hikes, and proved without a shadow of a doubt that our concern about their ability was somewhat unfounded. It’s worth pointing out that my wife and I wouldn’t describe any of our children as remarkable athletes; they’re just everyday kids who occasionally need some encouragement to be active, but generally enjoy goofing around outdoors and exploring the natural environment. Adventures like this seem like the kind of thing that should be commonplace with children, but are sadly becoming more of the exception in modern society.

In many ways, children might be seen as little microcosms of endurance athletes: if they’re motivated and determined to accomplish something, they’re capable of overcoming just about any perceived physical limitation that might stand in their way. And fortunately for my wife and me, the beauty of Yosemite was a perfect means of stimulating our kids’ ambition to push themselves further than normal in hopes of finding a significant physical and spiritual reward.

The really cool thing is that this effect works just as well on grown-ups as it does on kids – which is why I’m hopeful that this will be the first of many family outings into Yosemite.


*See other photo tours under tab at top of page

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Hiking Yosemite With Kids, Part 1: Mist Trail

Admin note: this was intended as a single post, but in true Running and Rambling fashion, I got carried away with things, and before I knew it I had a monster post on my hands. So we’re doing this as a two-part deal, on back to back days tonight and tomorrow. Feel free to comment on one, both, or (sigh) neither – whatever you prefer is fine with me. At this point I just need to rest my fingers for a while.

**

For each of the past few years, my wife and I have made a springtime pilgrimage to Yosemite National Park. On each of these trips, one of our most frequent topics of conversation while hiking throughout the valley has been when we thought our kids would be ready to join us on similar outings.


It was a more complicated question than just taking a family trip together; after all, there are plenty of families who bring young kids to Yosemite to walk around the meadow, explore the trails of the valley floor, or camp in the shadow of the mountains. But since we live in a rural area, our kids are able to experience a lot of natural beauty and do those outdoorsy activities at home. If my wife and I were going to give up our annual dose of seclusion to drag the kids along on a multi-day excursion, they had to be able to handle exploring the park in the same way that we enjoy. They also had to be able to appreciate the majestic grandeur of Yosemite, and capable of putting in the long hours that it might take to appreciate some of its unique features up close.

In other words, they had to be pretty strong little hikers.

Last fall, we finally decided to go for it, and made reservations to visit the park during this year’s spring break. However, we still weren’t fully convinced that our youngsters were up to some of the challenges, so after the first of the year we spent a lot of weekends hiking in the hills of Carmel Valley, all the while counseling them that the trails of Yosemite were even steeper, with more tricky footing, and more unpredictably variable weather conditions. We also assured them that all their practice would be totally worth it. They gradually paid their dues on our home trails, and last week was time for them to cash in and have some fun.


In addition to me and my wife, the cast of characters that set out on our first morning in Yosemite included our 12-year-old son, who was already a veteran of climbing up Sentinel Dome; honestly, we weren’t too worried about him. Our 9-year-old daughter runs with me on a weekly basis, but also shares my affection for wasting the day away with a good book underneath a warm blanket, and would probably be the first one to get discouraged if conditions got too wet, cold, muddy, or otherwise uncomfortable. However, she was also recently drafted into the Running and Rambling gear testing collective, so she was probably feeling a bit of pressure to finish the hike to increase her chances of getting more free stuff in the future. I considered that to be a good thing.

The biggest question mark going into the hikes was our 7-year-old daughter, who had the smallest legs of the group, but is also something of a firecracker. We ultimately decided that if we could channel a portion of her energy for relentless chatter into simply moving one foot in front of the other, she’d be fine. However, she also has the shortest attention span of the group and is prone to wandering off on her own without warning, so she earned “most likely to wind up tumbling off the edge of a cliff or waterfall somewhere” status with my wife and me. Fortunately, since you’re seeing this report on my blog instead of the evening news, you pretty much know how that turned out.

Our first day would be spent on the Mist Trail, which I’ve already documented more thoroughly in this photo tour. It’s about 3.5 miles in one direction, rising nearly 2000 feet while passing by two spectacular waterfalls. It’s one of the most popular hikes in the valley …


… when it’s open, that is. When the trail’s still officially closed for the winter, you’d be surprised at how effectively that scares the tourist traffic away. In our case, it also triggered a nice early-morning discussion of situational ethics, such as when it might be OK to disregard the rules to do something that is totally cool. Yes, it’s a slippery slope of logic: when the objective is seeing a cool waterfall, I’m completely OK with it, but if my youngest daughter ever tells me that she’s thinking about BASE jumping off Half Dome someday, you bet your ass that I’ll say “Absolutely not – it’s against park rules!” So let’s just say I take some liberties with parental authority, and move on.


The Mist Trail more than lived up to its name, as we made our way up the steep granite staircase that was soaked from the spray of nearby Vernal Fall.


Remember what I said about having natural beauty at home? Well, um … we don’t have a waterfall like this in Carmel Valley. We ended up timing our trip almost perfectly for waterfall volume, as heavy late-winter snowfall had melted quickly over the previous couple of weeks of sunshine; consequently, all of the falls we saw on our trip were in full-fledged boom mode.


For the most part, the trail to Vernal Fall was passable, aside from a few little snowbanks to maneuver around here and there. However, between cool temperatures, an overcast sky and getting increasingly soaked, the chill factor on this stretch of trail became pretty bad. But to our pleasant surprise, nobody really complained about it.


It also helped that by this point we were close to the top of Vernal Fall, where we could dry off above the waterfall spray, and where we had the place completely to ourselves. (Must have had something to do with that closed trail thing down below.) Each of our kids stood on the precipice of the 480’ vertical drop – and that’s pretty much all it took for them to be sold on Yosemite.


After a brief break, we continued up the trail with the final objective for the day, Nevada Fall, looming in the distance ahead.


The upper portion of the Mist Trail is essentially one long staircase, much of it in direct line of sight with Nevada Fall – but since the spray from this fall blows in the opposite direction, it’s not nearly as cold as the section below Vernal Fall.


Staircases gradually turn to switchbacks, but by this time we were close enough to the top that excitement seemed to override fatigue pretty easily for all of our kids.


At the top of Nevada Fall, we once again had the whole rock to ourselves, which made for a perfect lunch spot after a few hours of climbing. It was also a nice opportunity for my daughter to model the CamelBak pack she was testing; I’ll have a full review here in the next week or two, but suffice it to say we were both very pleased with it.


There are two ways to descend from the top of Nevada Fall: via the John Muir Trail, which is the thin line of snow that’s barely visible at right-center in the photo above, or to retrace our steps down the Mist Trail. Luckily, we chose to stay out of the snow as much as possible on this hike … because unbeknownst to us, on the following day we’d see a ton of it.

Which is where we’ll pick up the story in Part 2 next time.

(UPDATED: Part 2 is here.)

*See other photo tours under tab at top of page




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