Back to town for Santa Cruz Bad Ass

Still feeling behind with blogging, work, family, friends, pictures, social networking and running actually but slowly catching up. I've drafted a "post mortem" post on the Ethiopian trip but am still working on the selection of pictures to go with the text. Another busy week in perspective at work so here is a short post to recount the Santa Cruz Bad Ass run organized by Adam Blum yesterday. My second fat ass of the month. One ultra every Saturday but no running in between, not the best training regimen...
I almost missed the invitation on FaceBook after so many weeks away from the Internet civilization. Checked on my account on Friday night and also got an email from Pierre-Yves who wanted to borrow my copy of Born to Run. I was going to join our Saturday morning group at Rhus Ridge this Saturday but switched to Adam's run so we could catchup and discuss the upcoming season with our RhoQuick team.
5 of us started the run this morning: Adam, Pierre-Yves, Gary, Andy and I. The meteo was supposed to be bad for the whole weekend but this Saturday morning was actually looking good. A few clouds, cool temperatures but some sun. Everybody was in great shape after running the Saratoga Fat Ass of last week and we started on a fast pace going down the steep Hutchinson Road. Adam had told Holly that we should reach Santa Cruz in around 3 hours and 15 minutes. He added that the Bad Ass Café after which this run is named is actually closed so we were to meet at Lulu's, at the entrance of Pacifica.
Last year I was slightly injured and decided to drop at Felton, about half-way between Adam's and Santa Cruz. This year, I was excited to go for the whole course, that is the round-trip including the climb up Hutchinson Road to get back to Adam's.
Adam maintained a strong pace and was determined to PR today. He was astonished when we reached Lulu's 2 hours and 15 minutes after leaving Rudy Road, and 2:06 of effective running time. We took a 15-minute break, a latte for some, a bagel for others, a cookie for me, and swiftly hit the road again to avoid getting cold (my specialty or limitation...). Gary actually dropped at Lulu's, as originally planned, and ended up running a 2-mile at the Los Gatos All-Comers meet later that afternoon. Andy and Pierre-Yves led the way as I was feeling the lack of training and fatigue from my African adventure. Adam was behind and asked not to wait for him.
We kept a reasonable pace all the way except for some walking in the last steep uphills, mostly because I was tired, slowing down Pierre-Yves and Andy. We reached Adam's house after 4:53 of elapsed time (excluding our stop at Lulu's) and Adam actually arrived shortly, just a few minutes after us, in great shape and super excited to have almost caught up with us. And to have set a new PR, eventually!
For me this run showed that I have a lot of work to put back in training after this long winter break. As for the others, the team seem ready to kick ass again this year! Fat ass, bad ass, fast ass, you name it, we are ready for the fun! Should be a great 2010.

Run Happy all!

PS: a few (50!) additional pictures in my Picasa album. And in Gary Gellin's one too.

My favorite picture is this one, where Andy, in the background, seems to have jumped over the fence without even touched it. What a horse! ;-)
We saw a train (the driver was not happy to see us sharing "his" track...):