Huggy Bear, Starsky and Hutch

Looked all over the streets of San Francisco for Huggy Bear but couldn't find him.

Fun zooming around on the trams though, checking out the different districts and food. Great being able to take a bottle of wine into any restaurant and having them uncork for you for $10. Great little Thai restaurant on Market street .... mmmmmm!!!

Warm and sunny since I got here Friday morning!

Spent too much time in hotel lobby, conference rooms and hotel rooms today but managed to get out early for a run when the fog was just starting to lift. Nice little trails a few blocks from the hotel...hilly!

Whoa! These aren't running clothes! =D

Battle of Fort Langley

Quick trip out to Fort Langley this morning for one of the Fraser Valley trail series xc runs put on by Peninsula Road Runners.

This one was at Derby Reach park....photo at left except gray and rainy'ish and a bit chilly.

We were a little close to the start arriving in a packed parking lot with 10 minutes to spare ...luckily a lot of other non-punctual types like me so we were good for about another 10 minutes ... enough to register and then run to the start about a km away ... weird..

I ran with DK ... think a really fast Pippy Longstocking (she even had pink knee-highs) and you've got it .... pic isn't real but pretty close! Nearly got my ass kicked by her ... only 1 minute behind and first girl overall.

The course was mostly flat and fast (not great for hill runners like me) but nice trails. Guy at the start mentioned a hill we were to run up twice, called the "Big Nasty." Every little rise we came to i'd blurt out to the runners around me ... "is this it? is this Big Nasty?!" No takers ... very serious runners... Anyway, Big Nasty was a bit nasty but i was glad to have it so i could stay up ahead of some of the flatlander runners.

Last 2k was just holding on and hoping not to get passed by anyone ...especially Pippi. 10k is far for an xc and i'd put an hour twenty on my legs the day before... (nice... snuck in my sandbagging comment...). Ended up 5th though i think .... overall! :) ..Correction....3rd!!!! see results!

Although I'm not so sure about the current shake-out on the list because they have Pippi as being 75th in the 5k race =D ... when i'm sure she was about a minute back of me in 4th or 5th place in the 10k and 1st chick overall =D ...hmmm...

Barely had my breath back before Pippi crossed the line. We got our massive, crinkly, shiny scotiabank space blankets, a couple of miniature peanut butter ritzes and then made a dash for great little coffee shop/bakery in Fort Langley for the really important part of why we were out there.

Nice that i get to be one up on mr Tom for a race effort since he was away skiing, sitting on chairlifts, gorging himself on fatty resort food and generally loafing about ;)

Not secret training though! It's out in the open. Thanks for the push Pippi ... I only beat you because I was trying to get away from those shocking shoes!