12 Hours at Cool

For want of a better thing to do on a Saturday night, I ran in something called the "12 Hours at Cool" this weekend. It is a 12 hour race in Cool California that starts at 7:00 pm Saturday and finishes at 7:00 am on Sunday with the idea being that you run as many laps as you can of the 9.5 mile Olmstead Loop Trail - in the dark.


I had been sort of interested in running the trails at night just to see what it is like. Normally you don't get to do that unless you are in some extreme 100 mile race and I know I am not that crazy so this seemed to be a good idea.

The race was pretty small - less than a 100 folks - so there was plenty of solitude - for my last 2 (of 3) laps I was entirely by myself so there was plenty of time to ponder the weirdness and the wonder of it all. It was a dark and moonless night and I found you really had to pay attention to where you are going. You couldn't relax and appreciate the stars or the silhouttes of the trees, you had to keep focused on that little patch of light from your headlamp or else you were in trouble. And then there was every little rustle in the undergrowth that was probably only a field mouse or something but you couldn't prevent your mind straying to mountain lions and whether they were out hunting that night. I nearly jumped out of my skin when a couple of dear bounded across the trail in front of me.

Anyway, I did manage 3 laps, albeit with a long nap in the back of my car between laps 2 and 3, so that was almost 29 miles. Not bad for someone who hasn't run more than 5 miles in the last couple of months.

Just to put it my measly performance in perspective - the winner did 8 laps - that's 76 miles - pretty amazing.