[Video] Tuesday Trail Workout at Del Valle, Livermore, CA

Every Tuesday from Early Spring to Late Fall, our running club the Huffers and Puffers run roughly 7.5 miles covering 1300 feet of elevation change through the Hills of Del Valle State Park in Livermore, CA.  In Spring around St Patrick's Day the park is especially beautiful because it is green with life.  Folks outside of the California desert may take the color Green for granted but not us - we revel in the color green.  In this video is the tail end of California's 'green' season.  Yeah, it lasts about 2-4 weeks.

Here are some video snippets courtesy of a newly acquired GoPro Hero 3 Black with head mount.

The Golden Gate Relay : Calistoga to Santa Cruz

I know many people who have done at least one relay in their running life, but I certainly wasn't one that could relate to 'them'.  The thought of being in a van for hours on end to run 'just a little bit' of a race, the sleep deprivation, and chaos of it all was just a turn off to me.  That is of course until I did one.

 I actually didn't sign up for the race and became a team member when one of the 12 that make up a relay group dropped out at the last moment.  I was days away from starting out on a 27 hour adventure and had no clue what was coming or really of what was expected of me.

The relay I ran May 3rd and May 4th of this year 2014 was called The Golden Gate Relay and 12 runners take turns running 'legs' from Calistoga to Santa Cruz : 198 miles!

Followup : Running the ITR 50K at Lake Folsom

Last year (2013) I ran Inside Trail Racing (ITRs) 50K and almost Did Not Finish (DNF).  You can read last years report here.

I spent a year consulting with many more experienced runners and trained, trained, trained.

I honestly had difficulty sleeping the week before the race in anticipation, reviewing how I was going to handle each leg of the race and if I could handle the warm weather.

Well, the running gods smiled on all of us cuz not only did it not rain us, although it had rained the night before, it was also cool!  Last year it was 55 in morning with high of 87.  This year it was 50s with high of 65!

Here's a front and back pics of the group getting final advice before we head out.  I believe it was a mixture of 50k, Marathon and 35K that head out first.