Bizz Johnson 50K Ultra-Marathon and Jodi’s 50^th Birthday Party

Oct. 7, 2018/Oct.13, 2018

6:05:33 16/17 of 31 Overall   Both 2^nd in Age Groups

       Be careful what you influence! 😊 Five years ago I coached Jodi to her first marathon and in the process got not only a bride, but a distance-running fiend! Many months ago, Jodi determined that she wanted to run a 50K to help celebrate her turning 50. However, she ran (no pun intended) into many obstacles. The perfect one by the Golden Gate Bridge at Rodeo Beach on her actual birth date was cancelled.            
     There were many other options including doing a marathon and adding 5 miles, but most ultras involved either/or too much travel and too much mountain climbing or too much hot weather. (I debated with myself whether I’d be able to run it with her because even though I’d run 50 milers in the past, it was the distant past as in the 1980s and my last 50K was in 1997.)

            Finally, Jodi decided that Bizz Johnson looked to be the most runner-friendly with service-road to run on that was not technical and net elevation-drop with minimal climbing. Michelle Gabrielson is from Susanville and had run the marathon many years ago and told me that I should do it since it was a lot of fun so that was a good recommendation. That helped me to think that I could do the 50K myself, too.

            We drove to Susanville on Saturday morning (a 6-hour drive, not counting stops). The small expo was at an historical railroad depot since the race was on a Rails-to-Trails path and was very quaint. Susanville has a population of around 16,000 and is an hour and a half from Reno and about 2 hours from the Oregon border. It is very remote and still reflects its old west beginnings. Its founder named it after his daughter, Susan. It was a mining, then logging town, but now its biggest employers are the two nearby prisons. (I learned all this from the history posters at the depot and the nifty visitor guide.)

            We didn’t have to get up too early Sunday as the race didn’t start until 8. We did have to be at the depot at 7 to be driven to the start at 5200’ and about 26 miles from town. It was 31 degrees, but the sun was up so we just wore short sleeves, shorts, and gloves knowing that it would soon warm-up. The 50K runners ran out about 2.5 miles and then back to the start area where we joined by the full marathoners who started at 9. There were about 100 doing the 26.2 miler so we had more company to run with along the way.

            We followed a run/walk pattern for most of the race of running until our watches hit a mile mark and then power-walking for 1-2 minutes. This technique allowed us to run very strongly and consistently at 9:30-9:40 pace in the run segments. We had fun chatting with numerous folks as we all leap-frogged each other during the race. The aid stations also took some extra time as we made sure to eat and drink enough and chat a bit, too. One guy helping is 80 now, but he had run the Crater Lake Marathon 40 years in a row and won it overall at age 57 in time of 3:07. (Next to Big Sur, Crater Lake is the hardest regular marathon course that I’ve run. I ran it in 2011 in 4:31.)

            The first half of the course was basically just trees for scenery so it got a bit monotonous, but the second half had more rocks, rivers, bridges and tunnels so was more interesting. Jodi made it interesting, too, by taking pics of horses, dogs, tunnels, and aid station food. We found that our legs were strong, and we didn’t bonk or hit the wall, but we were ready to be done after 6 hours of running. In fact, our last mile was our fastest! However, we were very glad to be able to sit-down and finally relax!

This was Marathon #161; 25 states on 2nd go-round; All 10 Canadian provinces.

Photos of both 50K and 50^th birthday: https://photos.shutterfly.com/story_invite/b6a79ebf-b5bf-4b03-82c4-3ba93b136cee/70232482266?cid=SHARALEMAIL&_branch_match_id=474416565644165351

(The description is roughly in order of the pictures.)

Jodi’s 50^th Birthday Party

            Since Jodi was born in 1968, we decided to have a 60s-themed birthday party. (I was all for that since I had saved my double-knit bell-bottoms that I wore in college for an occasion such at this one!) We found more costume-stuff from a co-worker of Jodi’s and, interestingly, at a vintage costume shop in Susanville. We talked to Virginie about incorporating 60s icons such as bell bottoms, VW buses, NBC Peacock for color TV coming into existence, and peace signs into a cake. Jodi chose her favorite flavor of pumpkin which is especially appropriate and prevalent in October.

            Since my brother, Bill and I had a huge collection of albums from the 60s we displayed some of them and had a little contest to see who could name the artists for each of them. We also had a 1968 trivia game where we could test everyone’s memory of some famous events and people. Some of the guests even dressed-up and we persuaded my mom to wear a tie-died top.

            Jodi’s response: “My birthday party was the best ever; it may be the only big bash I have ever had. I absolutely loved by cake!”