Getting There
Some of the states that I have run have been what I would call true race trips as I have flown into the city where the race is being held the day before, run the race, and flown back home the day of the race. That was my Kansas experience earlier this May. Crater Lake, however, was more of a vacation with a race involved rather than a trip to run a race.
Wanting to stay in Crater Lake Lodge race weekend, I booked a room with a view of the lake 13 months out from the 2nd weekend of August 2012. From what I could tell, the race has been held the 2nd weekend of August for quite some time. With a room booked that far in advance, I waited awhile before looking for air fare options. Portland seemed to be the nearest major airport; near but still what looked to be a 5 hour drive south. As airfares seemed to remain holding steady around $500 and with 25,000+ frequent flier miles in my United account, I was able to book a direct flight from New Orleans to San Francisco for 12,500 miles each way. I jumped on that offer as: 1) there aren't that many nonstop flights from NOLA to anywhere 2) 25,000 mile roundtrip options are few and far between these days 3) I had not yet traveled on CA 1 and wanted to experience the California coast drive at some point and 4) I had no other vacation planned for the year so a long trip seemed in order.
Once I settled on the airfare, I needed to figure out where I was going to stay between San Francisco and Crater Lake my first night of travel. Using mapquest to estimate driving times following the 2 lane windy coast highway, I settled on Eureka, CA as my first night stay. It involved a good deal of driving on day 1 but put me in good shape to arrive in Crater Lake mid afternoon. I also decided to add a couple of nights in Yosemite National Park on the back end of the trip as I had never visited the park and it was within 5 hours of San Francisco. So flight was all booked in March, race registration was set to open in April. With a race cap of 500 total for a 6.7 mile, 13.0 mile, and marathon races, I waited anxiously to register for the race as everything but the race was booked.
I registered for the 13.0 miles without any problem and everything was in place by April for my August trip. I happened to check my trip details in June and both my flights to and from SF had been changed. The departure from NOLA actually helped me by moving my arrival time up half an hour; however, the return flight was moved up over 3 hours from 4PM to 1PM. I didn't want to feel rushed driving from Yosemite to SF for the flight so I managed to push the return flight back a day and booked a night in Union Square in SF.
After a nice 4 hour flight, the car rental process went smoothly with a remote agent via a kiosk (first time I had this experience) and I was crossing the Golden Gate bridge heading north right on schedule.
There were many beautiful views along the winding CA 1. There were quite a few sections of the road under construction but none of the delays were long. I arrived in Eureka around 6PM, checked into the bed and breakfast and grabbed a quick dinner at Chilis. I made a stop at K-Mart to pick up a few food/drink items for the week before heading back to the room.
Friday brought more winding roads along the coast and one through a forest as well before I joined US 101 with wider straighter roads. Before long, I was being scared by the view on my Garmin heading up rim road to Crater Lake. This was a prelude to my running experience the next morning (switchbacks = much hill climbing):
I checked into my room and had an awesome incredibly clear view of the lake from my room:
I wish I had taken more pics Friday as smoke from nearby fires settled over the lake Saturday and views were really hazy all day long.
Race morning turned out to be about 20 degrees warmer from the prior year race day temps but temps in the 50s were still considered pleasant for me. Altitude above 7,000 feet with 1,000 foot elevation changes over 4-5 miles proved to be rather tough for me. My per minute mile times ranged from 7:50 to 15:05 depending on the uphill/downhill mile that I was running. As advertised, the last 5 miles of the race were killer being all uphill. There's just no way for a sea level flatlander to simulate those conditions. All in all, I was pleased with my 2:18 finish time.
The rest of the day Saturday was spent doing some hiking in the park and also doing some laundry before having dinner in the lodge dining room. Sunday was another driving day going from Crater Lake all the way to the Awahnee Lodge on the Yosemite valley floor. With traffic delays, it took over 10 hours to drive the distance.
Yosemite was more crowded than Crater Lake, especially the valley portion of the park. The hour drive up to Glacier Point yielded fantastic views of the valley. As expected, the more popular Yosemite waterfalls were dry this time of year. I think that is what led to the even more crowded feel around Yosemite trails.
After running hills and hiking hills in both Crater Lake and Yosemite, I had one last option to walk hills in San Francisco. A nice afternoon walk from Union Square through Chinatown up to Coit tower got my heart rate elevated once again. Over the hill and back down to the bay brought me to Pier 39 and these guys:
Next morning I headed over to the airport and had an uneventful flight back home. Up next will be a couple of 10 mile runs and then a couple of local half marathons. My next state chasing trip should be next September where I think I will be doing a Sunday/Saturday back to back halfs in the Dakotas. I have done several Saturday/Sunday back to backs but this could be my first back to back spanning a week.
