Western Hemisphere Marathon 1966 - Delta Harvest Half 2013

As I have been mentioning in previous posts I have been going through "stuff" and among that stuff is a significant amount of running memorabilia both from my own running and from teams and athletes that I have coached. I found my original packet from the first marathon that I ever ran as an 18 year old college freshman. It was the Western Hemisphere Marathon. Even in 1966 it was the 19th running of the race that sadly no longer exists. I took some pictures of some of the things from the packet just to show how far race packets have come.

One of the funniest things to me was that the race numbers were actually made of paper the weight of poster board.

Another thing was the hand drawn course map.

One of the interesting things from the race "instruction sheet" was the following item: "2. Pick up your packet at the Swimming Pool check in area by no later than 6:00 a.m. on Sunday, December 11th. You will immediately get into your running clothes and report to the doctors for a physical which must be satisfactorily completed before you will be allowed to run". As far as today's races go, you pay your money, you show up upright at the start line and you run. Times have really changed.

I ran the race with 6 other members of the Mt. SAC cross country team. I ran 3:15.27 and finished 58th of 211. Five of us finished and two others dropped out, one at 17 miles and one at 19 miles.

Another race that I ran with college teammates was the Rose Bowl Half Marathon. I'm not sure if it was before or after Culver City but it was sometime close. The map called it a marathon but it was only a half although a very hilly half. I also remember that it was very hot and when we ran by a convent on the course we were grateful for the Nuns who sprayed us with their garden hose. I ran 1:28.47.

Another Hand Drawn Classic

My most recent race was yesterday; I ran the Delta Harvest Half Marathon in Brentwood, California. It was a good out and back course that was flat and fortunately it was cool, 58 at the start because it was very humid 85% at the start. I'm still running them slow but I'm still running them.

Additionally it was a good day racing for my extended running "family" in Colorado. Robert and Gerald each wrapped up the championship in their age group in the "Colorado Runner" magazine racing series at the Blue Shoe 5K in Denver. In the race Gerald was the overall winner and Robert was 2nd in his age group. Here they are "carb loading" for their next race.

Colorado Runner 2013 Series Winners

And finally Joe and Walter ran the Pony Express Run, a 15 mile race around Rampart Reservoir. They each finished 3rd in the age groups and Walter was 7th overall. So between the five of us we had three 3rds, a 2nd and a 1st. Not a bad race day. It is a lot of fun keeping up with one another's racing and training.