A Mom's Perspective

 Told y'all I had a lot of pictures from last weekend! These are all from my camera, so you'll have a peek at what the day was like from my view.

First, it was beautiful. This was a memorial pool, and behind it was an elevated wooden deck in the trees. Very Ewok-ish.

 Brazen's village. That whole structure on the far side that is covered was food.

 Sam and Jasmin hard at work, getting the runners prepped for take off.

 The half started first, then these two and the 10k, then the 5k.

 That's the 10k getting started.  When I finished, all those blue chairs had runners sitting in them with bloody knees, that's the first aid area. Lots of tripping and falling during this race.

 Here we go!

 We were heading out of the aid station as Sophie was heading in.

 Above, man I love this picture, such a pretty picture of Sophie and Blythe kicking in for the uphill finish.

There ya have it. Another beautiful day in the woods.  Looking forward to next months 12 hours of Brazen fun!!!

Brazen's TrailQuake 5k - 2014

 Sophie, Myles and I ran the 5k. Sophie always wants to go at her own pace, while Myles likes to have me with him...although he finds it hilarious to run ahead really fast like he's leaving me behind, and then stop and laugh.  Until this race....where he just did not stop the whole second half.  Once we hit the turn around and had 1.5 miles of downhill (and again, this was tricky down hill, not easy to run), he was gone. I'd catch glimpses of him, but he was nearly a full minute ahead of me at the finish. In fact, I heard him announced as he crossed the finish while I was still in the woods.

Aside from that, we all started out together with a runner named Blythe. You may start to recognize Blythe by now, she and Sophie run the same pace, so if they are in the same race, they tend to end up together. This race, they were together from start to finish, and we all climbed the first hill together. I was cracking up looking at these pictures wondering what Sophie was saying that had Blythe laughing the entire race....but she's generally pretty perky anyway, so that is her normal, happy face.

 You would totally think the kids were running with Blythe and I was just some lady in blue behind them : )

 

 We were just coming up the first climb, deciding we should start running again.....

 Now we've climbed up 1.5 miles, and down about a mile...Myles had hit turbo and was cruising pretty good.  Allen took these next few pictures....(and some above)

 I'm getting heckled for letting Myles beat me, but I had no chance of catching him, lol. I have no turbo button these days.

 Sophie and Blythe, still deliriously happy : )

 Look at Myles go!! He was so happy, and very proud to have been "the first from our family to finish".

 Um...well, it was a little bit of an uphill finish and it felt like a huge up hill finish and I haven't really run in 6 months but really I have taken most of this year off and ....yeah, just don't look at me and let me finish-pretty much what I was thinking.

 And here come Sophie and Blythe!

Again, these are all pictures taken by Brazen's volunteers and put on-line free for all us runners. Thanks again volunteers!!  It was a great race, and we all had a great time!!

Brazen's TrailQuake 10k

Brian and Emma ran the 10k at Brazen's TrailQuake in Sanborn Park, Saratoga, CA., and both said its the hardest Brazen 10k they have ever done. That said, they both loved it.  Brian loves some good technical trail, especially running down it. He knew everything he was climbing, he'd eventually get to run down.  Emma said she, too, liked it, but would do the 5k next time.  She did eat some trail, but was relatively unscathed at the end.

I'm doing separate posts for all of us because there are just too many pictures to post all at once.

A huge thank you to the volunteer photographers, especially Allen! And as always, thanks to Brazen for another great race, and keeping pictures free!

 

 

 

By the way, Emma took home an additional medal for 2cd in her age division!

Brazen Racing's TrailQuake 5k Elevation Chart

Wow! That was awesome!! The course was beautiful, really, really beautiful.  It was nearly all shaded, which was so nice!! Now, I know Brazen has always said that Rocky Ridge is their most difficult 5k, but I would move this one to the top of the list.

First, holy climb!!  The first half is entirely uphill, strava measured the steepest part at a 38% grade, which is steep. Second, you are in the woods, so lots of roots, pine cones, rocks, boulders, downed trees to go over and under. Third, everyone is on the same trail if you do the 5k distance.  In other words, you have the 5kers coming back down the trail at you, as well as the 10kers and a few 13.1ers. On the way back down, you have the fast runners of the 10k and 13.1 coming up behind you, keeping in mind the trail conditions going down - steep!! Roots, pine cones, rocks, boulders, and downed trees to go under and over.  And fourth, this is all happening on narrow single track. There's a lot of knowing when someones coming up behind you and then stopping and jumping off the trail, then going as fast as you can until you have to do that again.

And, by the way, none of that is a complaint!! We all had a blast and loved every second of the adventure!!  It was very challenging, yes....but it was just such a beautiful setting and that made it enjoyable.  We will for sure be back next year!

I should also mention that Rocky Ridge is super tough too, for me that's mainly because the climb is paved, and not shaded at all. However, it is easy to run down it because its paved and other than the occasional cow, there are no obstacles.

In the mean time, I'll post pictures soon, but please do click on the Strava link to this run and check out the Elevation map.  This is one map that I actually do think captures the true extent of the epicness of the climb in this 5k.  Usually I don't think you can really tell from the map how hard it was, but this map shows you exactly how hard it was.  Myles and Sophie also did the 5k, and Myles actually finished nearly a minute ahead of me.  I was a bit timid on the downhill and he had no fear!
Anyhow, Strava link is below on the left.  Or, click HERE and scroll down.

TrailQuake!!

We are so excited for tomorrow's Brazen run! We've never been to this park, and have never done this race before, so it's extra exciting!! Brazen posted this video on line of a previous years TrailQuake race, and it looks beautiful!  If you're wondering about the name, you're running on or near the San Andreas Fault...thus the quake in TrailQuake.  Anyhow, here's a peak at what looks like a beautiful course!