🌌🌧 It was a dark and stormy morning. The start of a long day, too long for one race report post. I got up, put on my running outfit I’d set out the night before (https://tantek.com/t55_3), snacked on a dark chocolate mocha Clif bar, and ran up to the intersection where Cori was coming to pick us up. Stephanie joined minutes later. It was only sprinkling, yet the cold was already biting, despite us wearing all the layers we brought. Cori picked us up, last two seats in her car, we huddled together for warmth and cracked jokes to lighten the mood and lift our spirits. We arrived at the Rodeo Beach parking lot just before 06:30, already brimming with activity(2 📷 Bryan). We weren’t the only #MarinUltraChallenge runners determined to run our races despite the cancellation. The rain picked up. I’ve run in the rain before, many years @Nov_Project_SF & a few other cities, and a year ago on my double Tam run. Separately I’ve run in the dark, also at #NPSF, usually early gang, and on so many Tam sunrise runs. This was the first time I’d run in the dark, in the rain, on trails. Carpooling and starting together helped, knowing we’d all be out there facing the elements, finding our way. After quick bathroom trips we found each other and @BryanTing under a green umbrella(3,4), assembled for a group photo(5 📷 Bryan), unbeknownst to us mere days before social distancing orders would forbid it. We composed ourselves in the now pouring rain, and started our run(6 📷 Bryan) crossing the Rodeo Beach gates(1 📷 Bryan), up the Coastal Trail. #run #runner #runners #RodeoBeach #darkness #morning #rain #weatherProof #nightrun #WorkHardDreamBigDoCoolShit #50miles #50miler #ultra #ultraRunner #ultraRunners #ultraRunning #ultraMarathon #InsideTrail #MUC #MUC50 #optOutside #NeverStopExploring #NovemberProjectSF #NovemberProject #NP_Continues #NP_WeekendWarriors #MarinFitnessProject #2020_074 #20200314 #laterGram #noFilter

Half a dozen runners wearing headlamps, rain gear, and shorts, starting a run crossing through a gate in the darkness, their headlamps lighting up the pouring rain, Rodeo Beach in the background.

Several cars parked at and a few more approaching the Rodeo Beach parking lot, a couple of buildings in the background lit from inside, silhouettes of a few people backlit by headlamps reflecting on the wet asphalt in the dark.

Blurry image of a few runners in rain gear and shorts on both sides of Bryan wearing a lit headlamp holding a green umbrella.

Runners clustering in the rainy darkness, Bryan with a green umbrella, backlit by headlamps from cars in the parking lot, also lighting up a drop of water on the camera lens.

Seven runners lined up with rain gear and all but one in shorts in front of the Rodeo Beach bathrooms in the dark.

Half a dozen runners wearing headlamps, rain gear, and shorts, starting a run at a gate in the darkness, their headlamps lighting up the pouring rain, Rodeo Beach in the background.

🌌🌧 It was a dark and stormy morning. The start of a long day, too long for one race report post. I got up, put on my running outfit I’d set out the night before (https://tantek.com/t55_3), snacked on a dark chocolate mocha Clif bar, and ran up to the intersection where Cori was coming to pick us up. Stephanie joined minutes later. It was only sprinkling, yet the cold was already biting, despite us wearing all the layers we brought.

Cori picked us up, last two seats in her car, we huddled together for warmth and cracked jokes to lighten the mood and lift our spirits. We arrived at the Rodeo Beach parking lot just before 06:30, already brimming with activity(2 📷 Bryan). We weren’t the only #MarinUltraChallenge runners determined to run our races despite the cancellation. The rain picked up.

I’ve run in the rain before, many years @Nov_Project_SF & a few other cities, and a year ago on my double Tam run. Separately I’ve run in the dark, also at #NPSF, usually early gang, and on so many Tam sunrise runs. This was the first time I’d run in the dark, in the rain, on trails. Carpooling and starting together helped, knowing we’d all be out there facing the elements, finding our way.

After quick bathroom trips we found each other and @BryanTing under a green umbrella(3,4), assembled for a group photo(5 📷 Bryan), unbeknownst to us mere days before social distancing orders would forbid it. We composed ourselves in the now pouring rain, and started our run(6 📷 Bryan) crossing the Rodeo Beach gates(1 📷 Bryan), up the Coastal Trail.

#run #runner #runners #RodeoBeach #darkness #morning #rain #weatherProof #nightrun #WorkHardDreamBigDoCoolShit #50miles #50miler #ultra #ultraRunner #ultraRunners #ultraRunning #ultraMarathon #InsideTrail #MUC #MUC50 #optOutside #NeverStopExploring #NovemberProjectSF #NovemberProject #NP_Continues #NP_WeekendWarriors #MarinFitnessProject #2020_074 #20200314 #laterGram #noFilter