Malibu Creek Trail Challenge 5/7/05

About 400 people took place in the 14 mile Malibu Creek Trail Challenge on May 7, 2005. There were also about 175 participants in the 4-mile event. The weather conditions were ideal with a cool ocean breeze for much of the race. However, no amount of beautiful skies could help runners up the four-mile cliff known as "The Bulldog" which starts at mile two. As I trotted up this wretched hill, I passed a fellow runner who was wearing something that said "Jesus is my coach" and I thought to myself that even Jesus couldn't help us now - at least not until we got to his front porch located somewhere in the stratosphere at the top of the Bulldog hill.
After the Bulldog hill, the rest of the course consists of gentle sloping uphills with quite a few teeth chattering Kamikaze downhills. Then comes mile 12 - single-track switchbacks climbing up through a hot canyon. Remember how marathoners run into "the wall" around mile 20?
Somewhere around mile 12, I had slowed to such a crawl that it would have been physically impossible for me to "run" into anything, therefore it was "the wall" that actually ran into me.
In retrospect, I must admit that running this particular 14 mile event only six days after completing the Vancouver Marathon was not my most brilliant bit of race planning strategy... However, I actually managed to take four minutes off my Malibu time from last year for fourth place in my division. Naturally, today (Sunday) I've been horizontal on the couch, napping and eagerly awaiting my next dose of Advil.
Local Malibu resident Dale Reicheneder was present to run around his old stomping grounds. He won his division last year, but got fourth in his division this year, likely due to his extreme racing schedule. In his attempt to win a trip to Italy as part of Trail Runner Magazine's Trail Series, Dale seems intent on pushing his body's absolute outer limits. We ran together afterwards for a bit as part of our cool down routine. He mentioned he would be traveling to places like South Carolina, Colorado and Toronto - all within like the next few days as part of his racing quest. Suddenly, my poorly designed racing schedule didn't seem so bad...

Click here for Trail Runner Magazine Trophy Series Standings

Click here for Malibu Creek Race Results