Done Done Done Done DONE!

Finally!! After 3 months of work... an insane amount of miles, 30 plus hours of footage shot and several all-nighters during the "final edit" stage... I'm DONE with my latest film. I'm exhausted... I'm ready to fall down.. At the moment, I never want to look at a computer again.. But the DVD's are done done DONE!!

Overall, I am pleased. I mean, I don't do this for the money.. ha... I wish... I do it for the over all creative challenge and because I really do think that, for the girls, these DVDs will be something unique that they'll never get anywhere else, or in any other activity. I mean, how many times has someone crafted a documentary style film about one of your activities? Either that or I am just plain bonkers... My wife actually found a quote by Dave Barry that has become my theme this year: "There is a fine line between hobby and mental illness." That so sums up this project! I even added that quote at the end of my end credits on the film.

All in all, while some things got a little out of hand, the film turned out as I had hoped and the DVDs... grew. Out of the two that I do each fall, one ended up having so much content, I had to turn it into a 2 DVD set, causing a last minute trek around the city, looking for the double disk DVD cases and disks. All together, between the three disks, I ended up with 5 hours of edited content. Ug. I am just getting more tired thinking of it...

But rather than dwelling on the exhausting aspect... Here are some of the highlights:

• It is easy to take for granted that everyone involved with these projects know me and what I do. This year, I discovered this is not always the case as new people join the teams. Early in the season, during a break in the first tournament, I followed the team out into the hallway to film their meeting in between games. By this time, I had been filming each day at practice and now, the first game of this tournament. One of the new players to the team, finally had enough. Just as the team discussion had begun, she said "Wait... ok... Who the heck is this guy, and why is he always following us around with a camera?!" thus causing the rest of the squad to fall down laughing. Having never experienced something like this, she assumed I was some kind of stalker and it freaked her out. Throughout the season this became our little joke, getting plenty of milage.

• Beating Junction City, one of our key rivals and an unbeaten team.. in their gym in front of packed stands... Always enjoyable...

• During the warmups for one game I was filming the team warming up out in the hallway just outside the gym. Some of the girls started to.. overdo their hitting, one accidently hitting a ball a little too hard, into the ceiling, breaking a light fixture, causing all the various pieces to rain down all over the floor, making a huge noise. Oops. Sadly, I was facing the opposite direction and only flipped around when I heard the huge crash, only getting the aftermath on film, instead of the actual hit. We got a lot of dirty looks from school officials that night.

• During interviews with the players, I asked the question "What inspires you as a volleyball player?" There was one answer I honestly didn't expect to get from a high school aged girl. She said "what really inspire me are my parents" and went on to talk about how much she enjoys doing well for them.. to make them proud, and the strength that pride gave to her. WAIT.. these are HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS... what happened to "my parents are stupid".. "I hate my family.." or DJ Jazzy Jeff aka Will Smith's "There's no need to argue.. parents just don't understand" comments. That comment took me by surprise, and just surmised why I enjoy working with this particular group of girls. And yes... I did pop that clip onto my video iPod to show her parents at the next game.. Some things are just good to hear.

• Towards the end of the season, as my editing time began to grow by leaps and bounds, I knew that my editing schedule would prevent me from spending as much time with Little Calvin as I would like. So I came up with an interesting idea, as he has his own laptop and is learning Apple's iMovie. I gave him one of my little cameras and the instructions to film a game.. not like I would, but to film whatever he found interesting. Then he would take the footage, edit it himself and create one of the DVD bonus features: Volleyball.. from a 7 year-olds perspective. This way, when I got stuck having to edit while he was still awake, he could just edit his own project and we could work on them together.

The night he was to film his game, by pure coincidence, we ended up in matching clothes... Jeans and our black volleyball team shirts. So there we were running around together.. me with the big camera and him with the little camera, filming the game in matching shirts.. We got a lot of smiles that night. And his little bonus feature turned out great.. even with his little tour of the concession stand and almost filming in the bathroom..

• Finally, I must admit, after imagining a film, working out each sequence, filming, editing, etc.. it is a very surreal experience to actually watch the film with an audience and see their reaction. What I discovered this year is that it is even more surreal to not only watch, but closely listen to people's reactions as it is discussed. Once the main film was done, I set up two recording sessions to record two audio commentary tracks for the DVD, one with the 4 seniors, and one with the coaches. The seniors thought this was great, being able to see the film before the rest of the team as well, as "force everyone to listen to our crazy stories". For me... it was just wacky to both watch and listen to each comment, each reaction to some of my favorite shots. While it was a lot of work to get the film to the point of recording those commentaries, it was very rewarding being able to do it.

There are so many more fun memories: long bus rides, our trip to State in Klamath Falls, and many gray hairs thanks to close games. But again.. it is now done, done DONE!! It's time to take some time off... finally watch my Netflix movie that has been sitting on my TV since the third week of August, and actually try to get back to normal sleep again. Then, once January hits.. my camera will start to roll again, with another film on tap to shoot.

That fine line between hobby and mental illness? I think I am waaaaay over into the mental illness side. I swear... I must be nuts...

And Thus... The 36th Year Begins

It happened a mere 36 years ago: I entered the world with a loud wail, and thus.. Big Calvin's wacky life began. I guess that means.. today is my birthday. Yikes. I must be getting old. How else can I explain all the grey hair. And no, I can't keep blaming the ladies beginners motorhome driving classes. I'm just plain getting older.

Birthday number 36 began quite uneventfully. It was a "work day", as my birthday can't seem to fall on a weekend every year. Oh well... must make a living. As I chronicled last year, my coworkers and I have a lot of fun.. decorating each other's work space for each others birthday. Last year, my team chose to really surprise me, not do anything for my birthday and wait for several weeks, just until I figured they forgot. Then Blam... they nuked my office with glitter. So this year, I entered with great trepidation, fearful of what I may find. (As it so happened, I took yesterday afternoon off to film volleyball and so my office was left, unguarded). I peeked around the corner into my department, and.. from a distance. It appeared all was well. No decorating. No hoopla. I assumed I was free and clear, let out a sigh of relief, continued towards my door, and that's when I saw.... her..

It was Hilary Clinton... And she was everywhere. Oh Joy...

Yup. My lovely co-workers had plastered my office walls with giant print outs of (oh please no..) Mrs. Power wannabe herself... Hilary. And what better way to start my birthday. When these two came in, I just had to shake my head. Creative? Yes! Annoying to look at all day, until I had time to pull it down? YES!!!! I think I need therapy after having to stare at her smiling face all day. Ug.

After work, it was time for the family celebration. With as much is going on right now as the volleyball season starts up, it is usually difficult to do too much to celebrate my birthday, but this year my day fell on a non-game night, so it was a bit easier to plan. I assumed we'd be spending a quiet evening at home. My wife had spent a frustrating day dealing with irritating car mechanics and claimed to "not have time to get my birthday dinner cooked, so we'd just have to go out to eat". I was fine with that and we headed out.

Ironically enough.. we went to the same place I threw my wife's surprise birthday party last year, a local restaurant owned by a friend of ours. And, as I suddenly figured out as we pulled up.. this wasn't a "oh let's just go to dinner" this was a planned event. She had pulled off a birthday surprise.

And so for the next 2 hours, we ate a nice (and delicious) Italian dinner with some of our close friends from the area. Being that it was the middle of the week, it was a small group, but very fun.. with some friends using excuses like.. oh.... PHD dissertation deadlines.. and bible study classes (Priorities.. people!!! Sheesh!!). Our friend Pam cooked us a great, multiple coarse meal. Little Calvin and some of his friends dressed as waiters and served the meal, doing a great job (and were even tipped).

In all, a very nice time and a great surprise... even with the Oregon Duck with a Beaver colored noose around it's neck gift... (You'll PAY for that.. you know who you are!!!)

By the time we got home, I had just enough time to open gifts (New Oregon Ducks shirt, Casino Royale, Star Wars Risk and new Pirate toys for my office) and then get Little Calvin off to bed.

Sooo, Happy Birthday to me. Lets see what year 36 holds...

Production Prep

It is that time of year again... Time to begin another film project as the fall sports season gears up. What does that mean for me? A few things:

First, life is about to get VERY hectic. In a few short weeks, the volleyball game schedule will kick in, putting us out of the house and on the road (whether its a home game or away, it's still a lot of driving time!) almost every other night. One night well be here in Eugene, two nights later over the pass in Bend, or Cottage Grove, or over to the coast... Let's just say that we'll easily log several thousand miles during the course of the season. If it wasn't for my video involvement with the team, heck, I would barely see my wife between now and mid-November.

Second, I will get to spend much of the next few months in my "happy place", with a large camera firmly attached to my shoulder, chasing around the action of the team both on and off the court. While the shooting times are fairly straight forward, its the times away from the court that make for a very busy lifestyle. Take the last two weeks (and on-going for the next several) for example... Although shooting doesn't officially begin until Tuesday, I had to:

• Pull out last years video backdrop and repaint it to reflect this years production style. (Little Calvin eagerly helped with this one..)
• Begin to establish music lists of songs we have collected over the last year for possible use.
• Storyboard the scenes I have mentally put together over the last year and begin penciling these onto the calendar so there is time to get everything shot
• Pull all the video gear (spread out amongst many storage boxes) to make sure everything works
• Establish and practice new lighting designs to get this year's desired effects done correctly
• Begin graphic design for the team's t-shirts, sweatshirts, and eventually the DVD covers (although that will be much later in the season before those are finalized)
• Practice set ups and take downs of the gear to get back into the flow of doing this quickly. Many days, I leave the office for lunch break, drive to the campus, set up my gear, do an interview, take everything back down and get back to work.. all in under an hour, so as not to get busted at my regular job. This requires speed, coordination and great timing, all of which has to be practiced.
• Coordinate space on campus to shoot all this stuff including the ideas new to this year's production
• Play with the new "toys", to learn their tricks. For instance this year, I am adding a dolly track system to my gear that I'll be using for shooting some of the "more-specialized" sequences. The tracks and dolly system are all currently being custom built for me so I can begin shooting with them in the next week, but getting their set up down and actually filming with them will take some work!

This last weekend was the "final prep" weekend. This was my chance to get everything out, lighting and sound tested and the newly painted backdrop in place. I am sure my wife loves this, as I turn our living room into a studio... lights here.. backdrop there.. wires all over the floors, computers and software boxes strewn about.

Finally, it all came together in my test run. And who better to put in front of the camera for this first trial but Little Calvin. There's nothing like attempting to keep a 6 year old (7 on Wednesday.. yikes) occupied and holding still while sitting on a stool in front of lights, microphones and T.V. monitors (as he makes funny faces to himself in the monitors as I fix a focusing issue). But eventually I got everything worked out.. and a rather bizarre interview done with my son, as he filled me in on his favorite movies, the challenges of designing a theme park, along with cameos from his two pet gerbils. (Click below to see the results, or, if the video doesn't come up, click here to access it directly)

But, I think it is all coming together. As I have attempted to analyze in past blogs..this is the most crazy, hectic and insane time of year.. and yet I thrive on this.. loving every minute.

The season is beginning.. so for the first time this season, I can now say.. Go Spartans!

Vacation Report: 2007

It is time to sleep! It is time to recover! It is time for a vacation!! Oh wait.. that's right I am just getting back from my vacation. Ok, so I need a vacation... to recover from my vacation!

In case you are wondering about my absence from the blog, well, I have been on our annual family vacation to the Oregon Coast. This is the trip where my folks come out from Colorado and we all rent a beach house somewhere on the Oregon Coast to relax and have fun in. This year, after several years in the Pacific City area, we did something different and headed to the south coast, a place where none of us have been (and that includes me, an Oregon Coast lover who has lived here for 13 years... pathetic).

So this year, Bandon was our home base, with a great, two-story ocean front beach house overlooking the rocky beaches of the area. Highlights from this years vacation included:

A speed boat trip up the Rogue River. Beginning in Gold Beach Oregon we boarded Jerry's River Jets and headed east up the river. For those of you who have never had the opportunity to take one of these trips.. I highly recommend them! The speed boats do go quite fast, rocketing their way up river, in some places appearing only inches deep. In some stretches of water, the captain will actually spin the boat in circles, making for a fun (and wet) quick thrill!

The captains also know the rivers very well and provide area history and ample wildlife sightings. In our trip we saw deer, ducks, beavers (notice I say ducks BEFORE beavers...), a bald eagle actually pulling a fish from the water, and even a bear munching on some berries.

As we reach the midpoint of the journey, the boat stops for dinner as we picked from several restaurants. We chose the all you can eat, home cooked buffet. The food was outstanding and at the end of the meal, we all had to almost be rolled back down to the docks in wheel barrows from our over eating, and dessert bar trips.

Finally, as the sun dropped below the coast line in a spectacular sunset, we arrived back at the coast, a little sun burned, wind blown, wet and still full of dinner.

The other major trip of the week was down south to the California Redwoods. This was a first for the family, all of us having wanted to visit, but never taking the opportunity. After spending several hours in the van, we eagerly got out at a sign pointing to a "Big Tree". This made me smile... like they have to point out the big trees in this forest. Yeah.. Ok.

Well, they actually had a point here. This was one BIIIIIIGGGGG tree, my kids looked like tiny smurfs standing in front of the beast.

Also in the Redwoods was the "Lady Bird Johnson" trail, where the park was dedicated years ago. This was close to filming locations for "Return of the Jedi" thus dooming my kids to all my stories and comments and trivia about the little planet of Endor and its Ewok inhabitants.

And speaking of movie locations, we also visited locations from Jurassic Park: The Lost World. Most interesting was the "Fern Canyon", a thin yet deep canyon where both sides of the canyon are totally covered in ferns.

It is a strange, yet pretty site to hike through. (Movie fans will remember watching some poor hiker get chased and eaten by the Packies in the Lost World, filmed in this spot) After a day of hiking, it was time to head North again, back to the beach house.

The rest of the time was spent doing the simple things the family loves: building with sand on the beach, hiking, exploring light houses, roasting marshmallows on a beach fire, and card games lasting way too late in the evening. And after all were in bed, I finally had my few free minutes each night to finish getting through the final Harry Potter book.

And thus concluded yet another family trip. Now it's time to get back to work and all the realities of life. Now.. is it nap time. I have to recover from my vacation!

Seattle Nose Following

This week, I have been in Seattle for another round of Web Design World, learning all about all the latest in web design, multimedia, digital video, podcasting, blogging technology and other geeky catch phrases. While I didn't manage to run into an acoustic Foo Fighters concert like I did last year, I did still manage a few adventures. Heck, it just wouldn't be a business trip without some, right?

It seems most of my adventures take place during my "wandering time". Trips like this really promote my wandering. What I mean is that in order to save money from my budget, instead of renting a car and driving all over creation, I take a cab from the airport to my hotel in downtown and call it good. The conference is in the hotel so I have a totally self-contained environment: My meetings.. my room.. my food, all in one convenient building. But staying in that building... well, that just gets boring. And so I go out and just explore.

It helps that I enjoy the art of "people watching". There are so many personalities out there.. Heck I could just walk and walk for hours just to see what I could find, and to see what kinds of people there are in the city. It gets so diverse, it becomes fun to just explore and watch. "Where does this street go? Not sure... Let's find out". "What's down this path?” It's amazing what you can find when you take the time to look. It is this habit of wandering, both during lunch breaks and after the conference is over each night that seems to provide adventures.

But here's the key... when leaving the room.. DON'T have a plan. Just go. (This is why I don't do this while at home with my wife.. it would drive her nuts). As I leave my hotel each night I have no clue where I am going... what kind of entertainment I'll find, or where to eat dinner. I just see what I can find and what plays out. So with that in mind, here are the Seattle adventures for my annual trip:

• Night one: Tonight's wandering was fairly short. After landing at the airport and enduring a meandering cab ride to my hotel, I had a nice (and warm!) 5 mile run through the waterfront parks of downtown Seattle. This is one of the reasons I just love visiting this city. I can be in a very crowded, typical city environment, and within a block I can get to the water, parks, recreation and beautiful Puget Sound scenery. It's just a great mix. By the time I was cooled down and showered, it was getting late. So I headed out and happened to bump into a restaurant that I loved from previous trips.. The Icon Grill, with its fried Mac and Cheese. Delicious! I wasn't planning on eating there, I just happened to walk by, not realizing I was in that neighborhood. The benefits of wandering. From there I headed a few blocks south only to bump into a downtown movie theater. Anything starting soon? Actually.. Ratatouille was about to start. Heck.. let's go. (Mini review: Awesome movie.. one of my favorite Pixar films. Amazing animation that had a unique, creative story with real heart put into the characters. I highly recommend it for all ages!)

• Night two: After finishing the conference for the day, I had an hour to kill before I had to be at the Seattle Aquarium for our conference reception. Rather than being smart and walking towards the aquarium, I headed the opposite direction as I hadn’t walked that way yet. After a few minutes.. I found a line... a long line.. wrapping all the way around a city block. I followed it to the end, at the Seattle Cinerama theater, that just happened to be showing a press screening of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. From the size of the line, I figured there was no way all these people could squeeze into one theater. I asked one of the people waiting about their tickets, which only people in the right place at the right time could get. It even said on the ticket that seats were on a first come first serve basis, having a pass didn't guarantee a seat. So, the sicko inside me decided to stick around. This could be fun: watching the people pour into the theater, then see the rejected look on the first person's face who had to stand in line, but didn't get a seat. So I hung out at the front of the line, just watching.

Soon, they began letting people in. With huge signs and people walking back into the line yelling announcements that there were NO CELL PHONES OR CAMERAS ALLOWED and that all bags would be searched prior to entrance (and it even stated this in big letters on the tickets) I found it fascinating how many people just ignored it, only to get booted out of line, them leaving in a big angry huff. See, watching this all unfold.. quality entertainment! Much to my surprise, every person in line (except those kicked out for phones) got into the screening. That must be one BIG theater. The big kicker for me.. had I taken a chance when I first discovered this was a Harry Potter screening, run back to my hotel to deposit my phone and camera (I had both), and returned, I could have gotten in. The manager was ready to let me in the door, even without a ticket as they had a couple of extra seats. Oh well. I'd see it soon enough.

Time to head back down to the aquarium. As I headed down the street from the theater, I passed a guy.. typical downtown stereotype.. scraggy, frayed and looking a little out of it. As I walked past, he said something to me under his breath. Ol' naive me, who tries to be nice to people, thought he asked me a legitimate question and didn't want to be rude, turned and said, "I'm sorry, what was that? I didn't understand". That's when I learned the valuable lesson, note to self... "DON'T DO THAT!.. just keep walking!!" The guy spun around spitting venom "Oh you heard what I said!!" A little confused, I continued to try my polite approach: "Oh sorry, I thought you were asking me a question. My mistake. Have a nice day." That's when he came after me. "OH YOU HEARD ME LOUD AND CLEAR YOU @$@#%%. GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE #$%#%." He began charging towards me, fists drawn.. and that's when I quickly abandoned the "polite approach" and just got the heck out of there. I don't know what it is about us big guys that riles up the small and obviously drugged, small folk... But it proved to be an interesting encounter none the less.

Interesting side note: fast forward a few hours. I was walking down on the waterfront, heading back to my hotel having just come from a nice dinner overlooking the water. Up ahead of me, and coming towards me was the same guy. Mentally I went "oh great..." and continued to walk in the hopes that he just didn't recognize me. He did almost immediately. Only this time, his greeting to me was different. "Hey, Man! How's it going? So good to see you!!" He bellowed as I passed. A little surprised at his sudden friendliness and change, I instinctively, and in the same tone, yelled back. "Great! Nice to see you to! Enjoying your evening? Nice! Take care, man, good to see ya!". I continued to head back to the hotel.. grateful that he hadn't gutted me like a fish, and shaking my head at the whole surreal thing. Again... people watching.. quality, and free entertainment!

• Night three: No real adventures here, just more wandering. The conference ended around 6 PM after which I immediately headed out for another waterfront run. It did seem a bit warm as I was running, but since I usually run at night, when the temperatures are lower, since I was running at 6:30, in the hottest part of the day, I assumed it was normal. Turns out it was the hottest day in Seattle in the last 10 years. Yikes. But since I had spent the day in a hotel conference room, I was oblivious to the weather.

After finally cooling down, I headed out for a late dinner. Again, just walking in a random direction I eventually ended up at the Cheesecake Factory. No, I didn't eat cheesecake (although it looked tasty), I had a fantastic pasta dish. Across the street, more people were lining up for something. Curiosity killed the cat again and I had to find out what was going on. This time, it was the midnight, first showing of Harry Potter. I inquired as to if there were tickets left, and there were a few. Needless to say, I suddenly had a very late night out! (Also an excellent film.. a wonderful addition to the Potter series!) And even walking back to my hotel in the quiet city streets at 2:30 in the morning, it was outrageously hot. The heat just wouldn't go away.

The next day, the conference ended, and I flew home.. back in time for Little Calvin's evening swimming lessons. No adventures. Just normal travel. Which, when dealing with travel and airplanes.. a boring, uneventful, no adventures day is a great thing!

But the next time you are out in some strange city that you may be unfamiliar with, don't be intimidated by it.. savor that unfamiliar territory. Follow your nose. Walk. And just see what you can find. I'm always surprised and pleased with that adventure of walking into the unknown. And amazed as to what kind of fun I can find.

Running MY Race

Today was the day... Independence Day.... A nice midweek break.. and my first official 10k road race in years. It was about 2 months ago that my friend Zak contacted me, issuing the challenge that we run Eugene's Butte to Butte run on the fourth of July. After being "running slacker" for the past several months after the let down of not being able to run my marathon (thanks to my funky knees,) I figured this would be a good motivating factor to get my butt out the door and back on the roads to train. So for the last two months, I have been back at it.. working to get back in shape while not over-straining my knees.

After putting quite a few miles on my shoes in an attempt to get ready and with a few nerves, today.. race day.. finally arrived. What I didn't know before hand is that this simple race day would become one of life's little surprise lessons in integrity, that I could never see coming. It's funny how life can work sometimes. That said.. here's the whole crazy story:

Zak and I had met yesterday for lunch to put our whole plan together for the race. Neither of us had run this race previously, so the particulars and course were new to us. The race was to start at 8 AM. As can be guessed from the name of the race, the course isn't a loop. It starts on the butte on the south end of town, and ends on the butte on the north end of town. This is also a big race for our little city with about 4,000 runners.. a Fourth of July tradition for many. Thanks to its one-way course, and the huge number of participants, most people must be bussed from the finish line to the starting line. As Zak and I prepared our race plan, we figured that by arriving at the bus at 7:15, we'd have ample amounts of time to get ready, stretch, warm-up etc. prior to the race start. That was probably our biggest mistake.

We arrived at the bus stop, right on time and saw what appeared to be a small line stretching back from where the buses pulled up to load passengers. To our horror, we actually followed that line however, as it rounded on block corner.. then another block.. then another block.. then winding through an empty downtown parking lot. It took one look at this massive line, and the buses arriving every 5 minutes to realize... there were way to many people that still needed to get to the starting line, and that we could be in trouble.

That trouble confirmed itself as we finally got on a bus... at 8:03 AM. The race was supposed to start at 8:00 and there were still lots of people waiting in line. As we rode up to the starting line, many people around us were making calls to friends at the starting line and we began to hear varying reports. Some said that they had started the race on time.. some said they were holding the race until a majority of the runners could get there. All we knew is that we had no clue what we'd face when coming off the bus.

Finally, we arrived and darted off the bus. The starting line was just over a small hill. We followed the flow to the top, heading quickly towards the line. Zak began to get a little anxious in fear that the race had in fact started since we couldn't see the expected starting crowd. He asked if I minded him running ahead to see what was going on. I agreed and off he went. Besides, I still had to throw on my iPod and knee braces. (So much for pre-race stretching..). Once I was ready, I headed down the hill, still following the mass crowd, heading around the corner to find... the giant mass of the starting line. I was shocked... They had actually held the race. I immediately began sorting through the large crowd, in an attempt to try to catch up with Zak prior to the race actually starting. But there were just too may people all piled in together. And within 60 seconds of my arrival, the race began anyway with a loud cheer from the runners. We were finally off.

Now, anyone that has run in a large scale road race knows.. you don't just sprint off the starting line. In fact, you don't actually run for a few minutes until everyone starts getting some space to move. The same held true here. Sure, a few brave souls darted for the sidewalks in an attempt to get around the masses, but otherwise, everyone stayed in the group. And since I was stuck in the middle, I just followed the crowd.

It wasn't long before I started to get the feeling, that something just wasn't right in the universe. For one, all we had heard about is a GIANT hill in the first mile of the race. So far, there were no signs of a hill. Second, the crowd finally started opening up, but even with the added space, few people were actually running. After a minute of my brain going "what the...?!" I asked the runner next to me "Isn't this the 10k race?!" To which he smiled, laughed and said "Nooooo, this is the 4 mile Mayor's fitness walk.. The 10k started about 10 minutes before this race and went the opposite direction." WHAAAT?! THERE WAS A FITNESS WALK?! I'd never even heard about that as part of the race (Note to self.. look at the race t-shirt better.. it's actually listed on there.. DOH!)

Just as the revelation hit me that I had started the wrong race.. we got the point where the Fitness Walk merged in with the 10k. The guy next me laid out my options. "At this point, there is no way you can go back.. it's just too far and we're about 3/4 mile into this, so you might as well just merge into the 10 k and start running. Besides.. you missed the hill and the first two miles.. lucky you!".

So there I was, faced with a choice... do I just continue on, merge in and cut my losses? After all.. I missed the hill that I was a bit concerned about.. and think about what my time would be.. WOW! Or I could turn around... go back to the start and begin again, thus creating a mile and a half warm up.. and a guaranteed last place.. in a race where everyone's time is printed in the local paper. After a split second of trying to sort this out.. I immediately knew what I had to do. I realized.. I didn't do all the training for a real 10k to skip the first 2 miles, even if it was by unfortunate accident. I don't run races for everyone else, I don't run for places.. I run races for me. And running a 10k was a very personal experience, one that I would not be able to look back at with fond memories if I knew inside that I had skipped 1/3 of the real race. And so.. I turned around, and finally began running.. to the starting line. Sure, I had to endure all the "YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!!!!" comments, but again, it wasn't about them.. it wasn't their race.

About 25 minutes after the gun went off, I finally arrived at the starting line.. the real one and then began my race. By the time I had gotten there, the officials were taking the starting line down and cleaning up, the clock long since shut off, so I really had no idea how far back I was starting. It was obvious I was in last place.. I was being followed by the motorcycle cop up the hill as he was heading up to reopen the road to traffic.

So.. how was the race? It was actually very... quiet. Not the mass of people that I was expecting, but just my own race... running for pride, and not time. The hill wasn't too bad. Yes, it is steep at the end, but once it is done, there is a lovely 2 miles of steady down hill as a reward. (You can see the elevation chart below)

As I finally passed the "merge", I had to smile and wonder how I would have felt if that is where my race had begun. I also had a few moments of surprise and elation in those quiet middle miles as I actually passed a few runners. Sure.. they were elderly.. but still on the 10k course, so I could confirm they were not fitness walkers.. and bet of all: I wasn't in last place!

There were a few "issues" that concerned me after realizing the reality of my situation... It was a very HOT day, and with my late start, the water stops had been packed up by the time I arrived, causing fears of dehydration as I ran. Also in my late state, things like... course markers had already been taken down making things a little confusing for me and the traffic as I worked to figure out where I was supposed to be.

Luckily, my mental plan, concocted as I frantically ran back to the start, worked. By mile 5, I had caught up with the back of the pack of fitness walkers, so I didn't have to finish the race by myself. I also caught up to the water stops and was able to get a nice drink. The lady handing out drinks could tell I desperately needed some water, so rather than handing me a drink, she threw one in my face and as I looked surprised, she dumped another on top of my head. It was a wonderful thing.. just a little paranoid due to the iPod strapped to my arm..

In the end... I finally finished. Sure my "official" time was over an hour and a half, but under the circumstances.. I was a proud runner. It wasn't anyone else's race, it was MY race. And I finished MY race without regret, and without remorse. Despite the wacky start, it was a great way to begin my Fourth of July holiday and I look forward to running the race again next year.. with other actual racers.. And believe me: I'll be the first person on that starting line bus this time!!!