Tina Torun (MM15672, DA3665, HF16109) Medal Monday and I was super happy to start a little earlier, run fast enough and to acquire my Yosemite Half Marathon medal.
A lot of folks run it for the PR. I enjoyed the scenery and going to see Yosemite park afterwards. Vacation Race do not take place in the National Park, but you are very close by to go to the parks later. Saw a few Half Fanatics in the race too! They said 30% of the racers were first time running the half marathon
Runners were spread out enough that I couldn’t tell there were around 3000 running.
Early morning shuttle bus, up to the start. Rolling start from 5:45 to 7:30.
We stayed in Oakhurst and could walk to the shuttle bus 0.5 mile away.
We were lucky enough to get a ride from a fellow runner, whose husband was driving her. We loaded the bus and left at 5am, when we were suppose to leave by 5:20am. 40 minute shuttle ride up.
The first 10 miles are mostly down hill. The first 4.5 miles or so were mixed trail. I had to pay attention to the rocks.
The last 3 miles are rolling hills around Bass Lake. 43F or so at the start and 60F by the finish.
They were missing a couple of boxes of medals from shipping and would need to send them out later.
There is just something about the added joy of hold your medal, taking finish line photos, and wearing my medal while sightseeing qnd taking scenery pictures.
The runner next to me on the shuttle back didn’t get a medal, but they did give them Yosemite shot glasses. So happy to finish before it got hot, decent time considering the varied course terrain. I stood in line for awhile to take photos with the Vacation Race signs.
Ran into more runner friends. The lines for the shuttle bus back were long. I went over to gear check and my gear bag was not there. I panicked and had to look thru every bag. It was missing. I put my number, Tina, asterisks, so it wouldn’t be hard to miss. They said those were all the bags. Race crew said maybe someone mistakenly took it and to stick around to see if they would bring it back. I had my oofos and my Anchorage RunFest race committee jacket in there.
One volunteer said, maybe a friend took it. Luckily, my roommate did pick it up because she thought I had left and forgot it. She ended up on a shuttle bus that got lost and took 1 hour to go l5 miles, I heard. Relieved that my stuff was not lost, took the shuttle back and walked across the street to have BBQ lunch. It was 11:23am, but they didn’t open until 11:30am. I waited because I had seen the line the other day. It was delicious, like Texas BBQ! Later, I went to Wawona in Yosemite and hiked to the swinging bridge, only 1 mile RT from special dirt parking lot. The views were wonderful. Walked around historic area too.
Photo and Post Credit Tina Torun
