It's Over

The long awaited trip for the marathon is over and I’m back home in Orland. The trip over to the coast on Saturday was an easy one and we pulled into Eureka about 1:45 PM. It was only a 30 minute drive south to Fortuna and we found the hotel easily. Not much can be hidden from view in Fortuna. We checked in and found a place for lunch, and then it was time to head south once more, this time to the Dyersville Bridge, where race headquarters were located. We didn’t find it quite as easy to locate as the directions provided would have us believe, but after a few false starts, we found the collection of tents and awnings that made up the headquarters. We got our packets and a nice t-shirt and then headed back to Fortuna, crossing the bridge over the mighty Van Duzen River.

We hadn’t been very lucky with our hotel, as the only room they had was a “Smoking” room. Yuck! So we stopped in town and bought a scented candle and a large can of orange scented Febreze. This we sprayed in the room every few hours. By a little before 6 the next morning, we were ready to leave the smelly room and head to the starting line. Excited.

We were directed to park down on the sandy wash area of the Eel River where there was ample room to park hundreds of cars. It was a short walk up the hill to the staging area where we watched preparations being made for the start. But there was no coffee. No coffee? What was that all about? So we walked back and forth, down to the car, back to the starting line, etc. Finally about 7:30, a coffee truck shows up and since it’s only 30 minutes till race time, there is no time for that cup we wanted so bad.

You can read about the actual marathon here.

Since there was no food left for the late finishers, there wasn’t much sense in our hanging around so we headed down to the car, where we found a small sandstorm in progress…thoroughly dusted and sprayed with sand, we got into the car and headed back to the hotel for a much needed shower and something to eat.

There was a restaurant nearby and we both decided that we wanted BEEF and lots of it. So we ordered ½# hamburgers and that filled us. Well, we might have had a few other snacks as well…

It was raining this morning, just a light drizzle, but it helped to make the sand on the car into a mess.  We left about 7 and after an uneventful trip home we pulled into the driveway about noon, very tired and glad to have this marathon over with.