Trinidad to Clam Beach {Part I}

After talking with some friends about walk/run/jog races, Rob and I decided to jog the Trinidad to Clam Beach fun run on February 7th. We prepared by exercising and jogging or walking the American River Trail on Saturdays. Shelley decided she wanted to go with us and so we headed to Trinidad which is close to Arcata/Eureka, California. We got there around 4pm on Friday (I took Friday off so we could travel over to the coast) We checked in for the race and picked up our packets, checked into our motel and then headed over to the coast so we had an idea of where we needed to be for the start of the race. These pictures were taken around 6pm and I set my camera for night pictures. I thought they turned out pretty well considering that when I set the camera for auto to take a picture, my flash popped up and took a flash picture and everything turned out dark except for a few feet in front of me. That picture was deleted! :) This is right in Trinidad at a little cove...
This is a lighthouse close to where the 3 mile race would end. There were three different races: a 3 mile race, a 5 3/4 mile race and an 8 3/4 mile race --
which one do you think we signed up for?
(Shell is in this picture)

Trinidad, Shell's Pics {Part II}

Shelley dropped Rob and I off at the Trinidad Town Hall. We were then bused up to the starting line about three miles north of Trinidad. While Rob and I were jogging our hearts out, Shelley had time to take pictures of the beautiful coast. She was afraid to use my camera and so she took these pictures with Rob's camera.
The weather was absolutely beautiful on Saturday. We almost decided not to go because the weather had been so rainy and we thought we would be jogging in the rain. Fortunately for us, there was a window of good weather and that was on Saturday -- Friday and Sunday were both rainy days. We felt so lucky to have good weather.
Trinidad BeachThanks Shelley for the great pics!

Trinidad, The Race {Part III}

Well, it is now Saturday, February 7, 2009 around 10am. Rob and I are wondering what the day will have in store for us and how we will do on our run. The starting time for the race was 12pm and Shelley was going to drop us off in Trinidad. We weren't sure how long it was going to take us to finish so we asked Shell to be at the finish line at 1:30pm just in case we made better time than what we were expecting (I wanted to be in under 2 hours).... Here's the picture of Rob after his race. He came in at 1 hour 32 minutes....
Shelley got a picture of me coming into the finish line. Boy was I excited to see the end of the race. For part of the race, you have to slosh through the Little River to get to the beach. We decided to take our shoes off and then cross the river and then jog the rest of the race on the beach on bare feet! The beach part of the race was about 2 and 1/2 miles long....Have you figured out yet which race we jogged??
Rob giving me moral support and holding me up as I came past the finish line. You can tell by my face how happy I was that it was over! :)
...and yes we jogged the 8 3/4 mile race. I came in at 1 hour and 41 minutes!
Shelley giving me a congratulatory hug for a great accomplishment!
She really thinks both her mom and dad are a little crazy,
!!!!!!!!!!!
but she was proud of us, too!

Trinidad Ocean Pics {Part IV}

After the race, we went to the beach and took these beautiful shots. It seemed like everywhere we looked, there was so much beauty that it was hard not to get a great shot.

Shell checking out Trinidad beach



...and I think this last shot was my favorite...I like the shimmering water
and the girl with her dog
sitting beside her... The end of a wonderful trip to the coast!
There's always next year and another race to run! :)

Kate Jackson Photography Pic of Rob & I

Kate did a photo shoot of Rob and I the end of January 2009. She wanted to get some models that were "a little older". We happily agreed (well, sort of happily agreed) -- I always worry about looking good in photos but Kate took some great photos of Rob and I. This was a picture that Kate played around with and put some texture on the photograph. She wasn't sure she liked it, but I thought it looked vintage and since I'm vintage I just had to like it! You can see all of her photos on her photography blog

Great job Kate!

Thanks for taking your time to make us look good!