Well folks, the hay is in the barn, as they say. We watched “Young Frankenstein” for Halloween and the image of Terri Garr rolling around the hay in the back of the oxcart is still bouncing around my brain,so forgive the analogy stretching.

Anyway, the work has been completed. The only work left to do will be to keep whatever strength and endurance I’ve accumulated through the training program. The 22 mile run on Saturday was difficult and slow, but it is finished.

Below are some additional pics from the run. In my earlier report I did not include a 4+ mile stretch that I either didn’t run, or was before the beginning of the race. I wanted to start that one at the start line, even though I began running farther back on the course. Does that make sense?

Anyway, included below is the 4+ mile chunk that includes everything before the start. To keep track of it all, just insert the pictures below just after the 12^th picture in the earlier post which I’ve reposted here.

Just after mile 4 you make a right-hand turn onto Los Carneros Rd. This begins the loop that will eventually bring you back to the start. When you hit this point the 2^nd time you’ll be somewhere between mile 12 and 13 and you’ll continue straight ahead.

Los Carneros is a nice gradual downhill until you get to the freeway overpass. This is the 2^nd freeway crossing, and the first that is a noticable uphill. It’s still a bit dark here, but don’t worry much about this “hill.” It’s early in the race and it’s nothing to be concerned about.

After the uphill, there is a nice downhill that takes you past a very familiar (to me) landmark. On the right you pass the building where I used to work. Many hundreds of noon-time runs have begun from this spot.

Eventually you begin moving ever so slightly uphill and make a right-hand turn onto Mesa Rd. At this point you are on or near the University of California Santa Barbara. Campus buildings are barely visable to your left as you make the turn.

In order to keep university traffic to a minimum, this gate is normally closed. It should be open on marathon morning. From what I understand this was one of the stickier issues to work out once the course route was decided upon. There is an opening to walk through, but this might have been a bottleneck/hazard if the gate had remained closed.

As I was typing this up I was looking at the course map and realized that I made a wrong turn on Saturday. There is a little dog-leg right and then left that I didn’t see before, but you’ll wind your way between some soccer/baseball fields and a shopping center, and eventually make your way back to Hollister Ave. which is where the race starts. Here’s Hollister looking toward the start (which can’t be seen in this photo) from the point you turn onto it. You’ll run about 1 mile on Hollister before reaching the start line for the 2^nd time.

Speaking of the start line, my previous shot may have been wrong. Below is Hollister Ave. about 130 yards before what I named as the start in the last post. This is just across from Hollister school, and is probably a more accurate shot of the start line. Be aware that just about all the streets will be closed near the start beginning at 4am. Don’t plan to park anywhere near the start that morning. Buses will carry runners from the finish area to the start (check the website for times), or you can get dropped off near the start, but there won’t be much, if any, parking.

So there you have it. An obviously incomplete run down of some of the course landmarks. Weather was picture perfect again on Saturday and will also be perfect Dec 6^th.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 2:25 pm and is filed under Running. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.