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OK, Flagstaff has it's summer series. Phoenix has it own running series - the "Grand Prix" - run by the Arizona Road Racers...NOW WE HAVE THE "PRESCOTT-SKULL VALLEY FALL SERIES"! AND HERE IS THE STORY-- AS EXPECTED -- FROM BRIAN! I had to publish this because it is so funny. I hope nobody gets offended - this story was obviously made to be funny. Brian is such a witty writer and I couldn't help myself! Run to the Skull Brian Peacock November 24, 2008 It is said that adversity brings out the worst in people. Nowhere was this more true than last Friday evening. They not only lied about the hills, they kept on lying as we were confronted by hill after hill. “Just four miles up,” they said,” and then it’s downhill all the way. Just what you need to get ready for the Tucson marathon.” And then they lost my car keys. This jolly bunch of Mountain Milers come in various flavors. There are the old (in terms of experience) superstars and a new one, Rob, who had to get home quickly to be in time for his weekly poker game. So he ran quickly. Then there are the middle of the road runners and finally Steve and I, although perhaps Steve was being kind. The run in question was really about the "fish and chips" at the only restaurant in Skull Valley, which is fifteen miles into the sunset from the junction of Copper Canyon and Sherriff’s Posse. It all started well, we parked our cars at Tim’s place and gave him the keys just in case he needed to move them. Then we trotted half a mile to the meeting place and meeting time for half this band of brothers. One quarter had gone on ahead and the superstars were to give us half an hour start. So off we went up the steep winding hill. “We can walk a while” said our leader, “It’s only four miles to the top and then all the way down into the sunset and food.” So we walked a while and then trotted when the slope lessened and so on and so forth up to the top where we were greeted by a magnificent view of the valley and mountains in the distance with the sun doing it’s daily thing. (editor's note: Brian intentionally left off my name as the leader (Ken). I don't claim that title and the Skull Valley runs were orchestrated by Heidi - further removing me from any blame! I will admit that I may have knowingly misrepresented a few strategically placed uphills in an effort to increase attendance but Brian can run the hills and altitude quite well so my pangs of guilt are minimal at best!) “Let’s stretch it a bit” said the one who is already stretched. “ It’ll get us ready for Tucson and I will be qualifying for Boston, just as sure as the hills are down and the sun sets in the West.” So he checked his GPS and sure enough we were cooking. Eight minute miles. Wow, I hadn’t run a race that fast since I was 68. And then the first proclamation was proved to be false. We rounded a bend and there was an up hill. “This is not really a hill,” said our leader,” rather it is an optical illusion due to the recent down hill; it is really flat.” But my legs told me that this was a lie and my very experienced legs don’t lie. They know hills when they see them. But we had a cheery Christina and Steve reminiscing about high school and the good old days when Prescott was just a one horse town. The scenery was magnificent, - high scrub and pines rolling out down into the valley and on up the distant mountains that were rising to meet the sun. Round a corner and then lo and behold another up hill and so on and so forth. And each time our fearful leader proclaimed that this was the last. Now I am not one to complain. Rather I take every day and hill as it comes, whistling happily to myself as I plod onward ever onward, and upward. Soon our great leader showed his leadership skills. “I am going to run ahead, because you are a pair of wimps and I need to get to the fish and chips before sunset. Don’t get lost.” So off he went, with the redoubtable Christina in tow, still chattering about art and music and all that stuff, leaving a bedraggled pair of has beens to find their own way in the twilight. (2nd Editors Note: I claim total innocense in Brian's recount of my parting message. I probably said the part about those 2 straggler's being wimps but there is no way that I told them "Don't get lost"...that would infer that I actually cared about someone other than myself! - I deserve an apology!! LOL) We found water, at first the stash put out by young Steve and at the eleven mile mark in the boot of the car driven by Julie, the kind one. Just before this oasis the faster ones had caught us and reminded us that it was down hill for the rest of the way, and this time they were right, almost. I suppose that runners are so used to lying about their times and ailments that a little fib here and there about hills is considered inconsequential. Soon we caught up with the sad Dan, husband of the kind Julie. Dan is training for his first marathon, at Tucson, and had run a bunch of miles to the start. This for him was to be a 20 miler, and they lied to him about the hills and he died. Not literally, but almost. Now a few of us like Heidi the fast and Brian the less fast had been there and done that. “The mind goes before the legs” I said cheerily. Dan’s less than cheery response was not printable. “ .......you, I’m dying and my legs are hurting as well, I want to curl up by the wayside and be eaten by havellinas. Who said that there were no up hills in the last 11 miles?” And then along came Tim, on a bike. He was to drive us back to the start after our fish and chips and then give me my car keys and all would be wonderful. Not so. Just ask Dan about wonderful after he has just hit the wall. If it doesn’t kill you it makes you stronger. But the process of getting stronger is painful. Oh so painful. So painful in fact that he couldn’t eat his fish and chips. “Eat and be merry” we all said. But no he did not wish to be merry and eating was the last thing on his mind. He was down. Eventually, the sun set and the always happy Steve and I plodded into Skull Valley, a small village of a couple of dozen people who all went to the restaurant on Friday nights for their fish and chips. We were accompanied, by chauffer Tim, riding his bike, with my car key safely in his pocket, or so I thought. The fish and chips were in the company of every one from the village and they all wore cowboy hats. We felt somewhat under dressed, but the proprietor let us order and eat on this occasion, but warned us that proper attire would be required if we ever came over the hill again. Imagine, runners with cowboy hats, perhaps it is a style that will catch on. We were entertained by a blind guitar player who sung old love songs. All was well in Skull Valley on this Friday night. Except for poor Dan, who was taking a nap in the car, wishing that tomorrow would be a better day. No amount of been there, done that, felt that consoled him. The beautiful day and run over the hill had turned round and kicked him in the teeth. We paid the bill, apologized to the townsfolk for our sartorial ineptitude and drove back over the hill to pick up our cars. And Tim still had my key safely in his pocket. Not. “I gave it to you.” No you did not you senile old codger.” “Yes I did”, “No you didn’t”, “Yes I did. Yes I did. Yes I did.” “No you didn’t.” So we broke into the car using the height advantage of our leader (3rd editor's note: in case anyone from law enforcement is reading this, I was ASKED by the car owner to use my height advantage to jimmy a wedge into the top of the door to pry it open far enough so that the "Master Burglar" aka "Folsom Tim" could get to the latch with a wire - although he may have lost his "Master's" standing because he hasn't been in the big house for "breaking and entering" for over 4 years) and the dexterity of our driver and the experience from an old car guy. And the keys were not there. “I told you so” I said. “You must have taken them with you and thrown them into the bushes half way up one of those hills” said chauffer Tim.. “No way” I said, “Do you think that I’m stupid?” I retorted, “On second thought don’t answer that.” “Here’s the deal”, said Tim the key loser. “You take my car and look for your spare keys at home and learn a lesson that you should always have a spare key squirreled away under the car somewhere. You can leave your car at the Shuttle terminal tomorrow morning at 4.30 and I will drive with the superstar Heidi and swap out the cars.” It worked but the mystery of the lost key remains as do the lies about the hills and Dan’s memory of a bad day on the roads. November 21 run 3 weeks after our first run, Heidi Schuette engineered a 2nd run to Skull Valley yesterday (11/21) - a late Friday afternoon run where we could all make it by dark and have a dinner at the Skull Valley cafe! Oh my - this was fun with staggered starts (Dan Munsell ran the longest starting east of downtown and logging 19 miles!). I ran from my house and got in about 16.5 and the rest of the group ran from Heidi's house or from the Copper Basin/Sherrif's Posse intersection an excellent 15-ish miler! Dan, Christina Robertson, (who started at the intersection), and Steve Orth and Brian Peacock, who started at Heidi's about .5 of a mile away, convirged with me within 2 or 3 minutes at the Copper Basin/Sherrif's Posse intersection. How cool was that! Speedy Rob Turpin and Heidi started from Heidi's 30 minutes later and still caught us as we again all came together at our "aid station" 4 miles from Skull Valley. Julie carved out an aid station for us - many thanks Julie - you are the best! Julie brings a complete aid station for us - better than most races. Hot dogs next time?? Amazing. Tim Schuette and Deborah Kathan also met us in Skull Valley for dinner and to provide rides back. Thanks to Tim and Deborah. Tim even rode up the course from SV with a light on his bike but we all made it in by dark. A truly fun night. Some interesting highlights: 1) We can expect a story shortly from Brian because we may have "mis-represented" a few uphills that were mixed in with the downhills. 2) Tim, Brian and I broke into Brian's car after returning back to Prescott to get his keys--- fortunately law enforcement was out capturing the bad guys and we didn't have to explain our actions. 3) Christina joined us for the first time. After hearing from so many about her, it was nice to meet Christina and run with her. Christina is fast AND an accomplished marathon and ultra marathon runner. Hope to see her run with our group more often. Looking forward to our next club run --- if you missed this one, you missed one of the most fun events we have orchestrated. Thanks again Heidi!
November 1st run On Saturday, Heidi invited the group to run from her house to Skull Valley. 6.75 of us (see below how I arrived at 6.75) headed out on a 15 mile run to S.V., had breakfast and returned in her car - which we took over on Friday and left it there... After a beautiful run of 4 tough uphill miles followed by an 11 mile drop from the sky, we had breakfast at the Skull Valley cafe. A most enjoyable and welcome breakfast! We piled into Heidi's car sans Dan Munsell who was riding back on his bike with wife Julie in support. The course was straight up Copper Basin onto the dirt section and staight over the top rather than turning right on Thumb Butte road to go to the Sierra Prieta lookout. This will be an awesome winter run with some shade early, wide open sunshine the last half and some killer views. As many of you know, I hate heights but this track was not at all scary. There is a chance that all six of us (Jim, Steve, Heidi, a pair of Dan's and me) will be running in Tucson in 5 weeks and the downhill section is an excellent 11 mile prep. 6.75? Well Julie Munsell counted for a half since she was nice enough to create an aid station with 4 miles to go! The other .25 goes to "Kaibab", one of Dan's many girlfriends! (although in this case Kaibab is his dog)... Peace Out. PS: The main reason I wrote this up ---- at the cafe we were greeted by 2 of Steve's local friends and they basically said we could pick the weekend for the Skull Valley 10K next spring. Typically it has been 1 to 3 weeks before the Whiskey Row marathon which is the first Sat. of May. Per Dan M. there is a new half in Camp Verde so we need to work around that. Check your calendars! We need a big showing in this race as it was started by Gheral Brownlow and it is the only fund raiser for the Skull Valley volunteer Fire Dept! |
