Chased by a Hippo

The running of the inaugural Safari Park 1/2 Marathon occurred on Sunday.  13.1 miles of combined road and park running, up and down hills...a few more hills than I had factored, but the terrain grousing aside, it was a fun event.

I ran with my peeps - Kris & Ebe - and we did the majority of the course in the interval style that I learned from my new friend Cyndie (you might recall that I met her and Sue at the Surf City 1/2 back in February).  Kris was our official timer, 2 minutes running, 1 minute walking.  It was for the most part very effective, except in a couple of instances where the incline was significant enough that 1 of the 3 of us would declare it time to walk, and then we would get back on the path again.

There was some mysterious knee pain in the last 2 or 3 miles, I suspect that it had something to do with the long climb back up the main road (I think that it is part of highway 78 or maybe just the access road into the park), which was angled in such a way that things felt off-kilter.  The good news is that we just walked it out (Ebe for the record declared herself OVER IT at mile marker 12) and still finished at the 3-hour mark, a personal record for both Kris & Ebe and within 15-minutes of what I had predicted.

We didn't see too many animals in the morning, as I suspect the time change and thunderous hooves of 3000+ runners was more than they wanted to deal with as the sun was rising.  We did see quite a few animals in the last short stretch to the finish line, such as a cheetah (super sleek, I am pretty sure that he could have outrun us!), a giraffe and a baby hippo with its mother, pictured here.

Fortunately, I had Ebe to point out to me the hippo is a rhino.  Glad to know I have such a strong grasp on my wild animals.  I am blaming my apparent lack of observation skills on the run.  That may not be the real reason, but we'll go with it for now.

Next up...the Pasadena Reverse Tri THIS Saturday (yep, 6 days later).  I wonder what wild animals we will encounter there?