6 and 7 April 2002

We did it! We walked two half marathons on back to back days and it did not kill us. Our training plan called for us to walk 14 and 14, a half marathon is 13.1 miles. We headed out on Saturday feeling very good and very strong. We did the usual, started on Garden Farms and headed for the Hofbrau in Atascadero, had lunch and headed back to the car. Every thing went smooth. For Sundays' walk we had signed up for the Paso Robles Wine Country Half Marathon. We got up early and headed up to Paso. We parked in the parking area a grabbed a ride to the start line on the bus, it was about 1 mile away. We checked in and waited in the cold fog. While waiting for the start at 8:00, we met another woman that was training for one of the Avon 3-Day walks. She was telling us how she had missed a group of friends that were walking and had taken an early start, 7:00. The officials were not happy they were starting early, but they went anyway.

At 8:00 the gun went off and the pack headed out and down the road. It took only a dozen steps, and Katie and I were the clean-up sweepers. There was a small group of walkers 50 yards ahead of us that started in the middle of the pack. This made us feel good, we were not the only walkers. That good feel slipped away before mile one as the other group of walkers walked out of sight. Katie and I just put one foot in front of the other and walked on, we knew we could walk a half marathon. There was water and toilets at 3, 6, 9 and 12 miles, but we planned ahead and had food and water with us. We also had the knowledge that there was the guy in the pickup that seemed to be following us. Once in a while he would zoom off down the road, but we would soon pass him and he would start to follow us again. Having the sag truck with you is a secure feeling. 

The walk was beautiful, rolling hills of vineyards on all sides. It was a little cold but the walking helped to keep us warm. As we walked into the mile 3 water stop, we were greeted by a very friendly group of volunteers. We took some water, used the toilet and walked on. At mile 6 there was another group of volunteers, a mom and her two kids. Again we used the head and got some water. As we were were walking out of the mile 6 water stop, a truck pulled up with a crew to take it away. It was 10:00 and they were starting to take the course down behind us. We did not care too much, we had our own food and water.

We walked on and that truck kept on following us, so we felt good. About 10:30, the sun started to come out and it warmed up. By this time, we were on headed south on Old River Road. Just before 11:00, we walked into the mile 9 water station. We were greeted by some grand cheers from a large group of High School kids. It felt good, we were starting to get tired and the cheering helped. We took this break to change our socks and fill out water bottles back up, this turned out to be a good thing. We were right on schedule, 3 miles an hour, 9 miles, a little less then 3 hours. The guy in the truck also pulled into the water stop. We took this opportunity to thank him for his work. We have been on the other side in events like this, we thanked him twice. Off we went on down the road.

About 5 or 10 minutes later a woman in a truck pulled up to us to tell us the course officially closed at 11:00. We could continue on if we wanted to, but she could not guarantee there would be any more aid along the course. She gave us some quick hints about what to look for to stay on course and headed on down the road. The only real tricky part was a half mile down the road. The course takes a hard left up a hill, you do not want to walk the hill, but you really do not want to miss the turn. We were very pleased to find that the volunteers were still at the corner when we got there. We turned the corner and up the hill we went. Just a couple more miles to go.

From the top of the hill on in, it was a basic flat run, ah ...walk. Our feet were starting to hurt and we were getting tired, back to back half marathons take it out of you. The 3-Day walk will be a challenge. At this point in time, Katie was still trying to figure out her shoe/arch support setup. Her feet were starting to hurt more and more. She tried to change her shoe arrangement, pulled out the arch support. It helped a little but not much. Then the hard part came, we are both starting to drag, and we had to walk past our car. Cross the big street and we can be driving way. No, we are going to finish.

We round the last corner and could see the finish line. We are stoked, we did it. I look at the GPS, 3 hours and 58 minutes, overall average 3.3 miles per hour, moving average 3.5 miles per hour. We kicked some butt. The volunteers were well into cleaning up, the official clock was gone but the finish line was still there; we walked through the gate and were glad to be done. All the workers were so good. We got our finish packs, shirts and give away junk. They then pulled fruit and water out of the boxes and gave us food. We stood around and pushed a bunch of fruit and water into our systems. Then it was time to find the car. As we started to leave, I said to myself "I hope the busses are still running! From the festival area to the parking lot" (the festival was all closed down and packed into cars). We could not see the bus pick up area. We asked and no one knew the bus setup. Lucky for us, we were offered a ride from a woman as she was just leaving. As we drove back to the car, we could see that the busses were all gone; we did not want to walk that extra mile to the car.

We got to the car, took off our shoes and headed home. As we drove home, we both were having second thoughts about a marathon in January. But a hour after we got home and ate more food, we were both back in the right mind for the marathon.

Bob