Saturday morning, I had the bizarre experience of attending a trail race without actually running it.

Bright and early, Ann and I awoke, shuffled out into the chilly morning with our coffees in hand, and headed up PCH to the Ray Miller trailhead in the Santa Monica mountains, just a mere 50 feet from the ocean. Preparing for her 9k trail race (her first race ever), Ann nervously pinned her BIB number to her shirt as my friend Liam arrived. Liam signed up only the week prior, and the evening before the race, called me to ask:

1. How long is 9k?

2. This is on TRAILS? I only run on a treadmill.

I had a sinking feeling about Liam's finishing. At all.

The 50k and 30k racers took off at 8:30, and 15 minutes later, the race director gave instructions to the 9k racers, all toeing the line in the parking lot. With the shout of "GO!", off went the 79 runners, doing a loop through the parking lot to scatter themselves before entering the singletrack trail. This worked about as well as trying to shove a marshmallow into a parking meter slot as everyone completely stopped to allow the single file line to form.

But then they were off!

I had time to kill, somehow, during a race. Not running? What the hell should I do? I wandered around the grounds, offered a helping hand to set up an aid station for the 50k, and then readied myself to see Ann's approach. Liam's too, but I still wondered if I'd ever see him again, at least in one piece.

Lo and behold, the leader came screaming down the trail, finishing in 38 mns, and only 13 minutes later, in raced Liam, crossing the line 19th overall! He was beat, so I pointed him towards the food/fluids table and sat myself down, awaiting Ann. Soon thereafter, Liam joined me, and looking up, we saw her running full-force toward the finish. I yelled, "RUN SUCKOW, RUN!", and seeing both Liam and myself waiting, responded, "You BEAT me?!?!?!", which echoed throughout the canyon, causing everyone at the finish to laugh.

She crossed the line in 1:05 and some change, placing 8th out of 40 women runners, 33rd out of 79 overall! Once she'd caught her breath, she said, "I wanted to keep going! I could have kept going!"

Is another ultrarunner born? We shall see.