Hit and Run

The Davis Stampede half marathon may be my favorite of the Superbowl Sunday races. It’s winnable, the long drive to Davis is less of a hassle than parking at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, and Davis is a wonderful college town. Last night Mandy, Maylee and I stayed overnight in Sacramento, about 30 miles to the east. We had a great Thai dinner with Suzette Smith and her son Michael, daughter-in-law Alicia, granddaughter Izzy, daughter Caitlin, and son Tim. Suzette and Tim are the only Smiths from last night who don’t live in the Sacramento area, so she considers it a second home.

This morning Suzette, Caitlin and I drove to Davis from Sacramento together, and will meet our families at the finish line.

We pull into downtown and find parking about four blocks away from the start. We have plenty of time to get our numbers and race shirts, and stow our belongings back in the car. Mandy will later find a parking spot right at the starting line. This is so much better than the Kaiser San Francisco Half Marathon in San Francisco, where once I was blocked in a parking spot for more than an hour after the race and another time sprinted to the starting line due to finding a spot minutes before the race.

My goal is to run a 1:24 half marathon, the slowest I’ve run since coming back from plantar fasciitis in my left foot two years ago. It is a flat course with a lot of turns and dips through bicycle and pedestrian tunnels under roads. The minor ups and downs are not imposing, but they do slow the runners.

I finish in 1:23:51, second in my age group (M45-49) and 21st overall. This was my slowest time since recovering from an injury in 2008, but any significant training adjustment wouldn’t have made any difference. The first place finisher in my age group ran two minutes faster than my PR and the person who finished after me was three minutes behind.

Suzette has an eventful race, with a time of 1:46:20, third in her age group (F50-54). The excitement occurred at the end where the street has posts to keep out motorized vehicles, as Davis is a bicycle friendly town. As Suzette navigates between two of the posts, a guy runs into her as he tries to pass her.

Some guys have a problem with women beating them, and others just want to finish ahead of every possible person. This isn’t the Olympics. This is like flying Southwest. There is no first class. Finishing 186th is no different than 191st.

As it happens, Alicia Smith is on the scene with her camera and catches the hit-and-run culprit. It’s Omir Torres, who’s 22 years younger than Suzette. We’ve got his license plate number: his bib is 3291.

Mandy, Maylee and I head back to the hotel after the race. We drive to Old Sacramento, which is right out of a Hollywood western. I’ve never been here, and it’s really neat. The streets are preserved in their 18th century motif, even if every store sells candy, ice cream or t-shirts.

We have lunch and visit the California State Railroad Museum. What a wonderful place. The Louvre of railroad museums: the trains are beautifully restored and displayed. Our original plan was to visit the museum on Saturday, but fortunately we went today. Yesterday was free admission and the museum had a record attendance of 15,000. Waits were long for all the train exhibits and the museum’s ventilation system couldn’t handle the vapor from all the people.

Today everyone is watching the Super Bowl, and we have the place to ourselves. Here’s Maylee next to a monster freight train. The wheel is bigger than her.