Patricia Venerable's Staging Area

This was a fun run in downtown San Jose Tivo Santa Run. Start on time 3:00 pm. Flat fast course. Walk, run, jump, hop with a sea of Santa’s. One water station en route at about mile 2. Great long sleeved tech t, cute bib, awesome finisher’s medal. Cookies and milk at the finish line. There was also kids race before the main race started. Yes, there were timing chips on the bibs. I heard a lot of people saying there was no timing of the race…. not true. Race ended in Christmas in the Park. Plenty of places to park (paid parking for the most part unless you were lucky enough to find a no charge spot). This race sold out at about 2-3 thousand runners. Fun, fun, fun!

w0W! Summit Rock trail race course is absolutely beautiful. Lush, green, tree canopy, twigs, rocks, climb climb climb, embedded/exposed tree roots. This course is everything a trail race is all about. Uphill climb, downhill flyin.
WARNING: This is a course where many runners slip, trip & fall with so many embedded rocks and roots. So be careful on both the uphill and even more so on the downhill.
Well stocked aid station, well supplied end of race food table.
Beautiful race shirts, incredible finishers medal.
Plenty of port-a-potties
Plenty of parking. $6 to park

Oh my goodness……. the scenery was absolutely beautiful with all the fall colors painting a canvas of Quarry Regional Park beauty before my awe struck brown eyes. Flat gavel/pavement course. It was pouring rain for this race but we were out there in droves anyway. Well stocked aide stations, and course monitors were awesome to be out there in the rain with us knowing how important it is to keep running on course. This race was the second in a series of Brazen Thanksgiving week races. If you ran Nitro Turkey two days before and then finished Quarry Turkey you earned a third connector that transformed both race medals in to a MEGA medal…..such awesomeness. Plenty of porta potties, well stocked aide stations, nice finishers table food spread, fabulous medal, eye poppin’ race shirt, well packed swag bag, incredible race directors.

The Diablo Summit Stomp 10K was at Castle Rock Park, Walnut Creek, CA. Three race distances were offered, 30K, 1/2 Marathon, 10K, & 5K. I ran the 10K in this beautiful lush park. The beginning part of the course took us up over some embedded boulders and then through lush green, beautiful surroundings. We ran through several small creek that are now dry due to the CA drought. The course then winding up through a single trail up, up and up. I was so in awe of the beauty and fall colors surrounding me during this race. I finished my race and was greeted at the finish line with my name being called as I crossed the finish line. Friendly course monitors to help keep us on course and well stocked aid stations as well as a great after race table of food for runners as well as a bottle of water. About 5 minutes before my race started the race director said, ‘make sure your bib is pinned on the front of your shirt.’ Oh crap, I forgot my bib in my car which was parked about 1/4 mile away. I rushed back to get it got back to the starting chute. I told the race director what happened. He checked my bib and I was on my way. This was a beautiful course.

This was a flat course in the back parts of beautiful Morgan Hill. There was one what people were calling ‘the hill’ on the course. Since I run other races with higher elevation I didn’t see this as a big hill but for new runners or others out for a casual 5K with family and friends it would probably be a ‘sweat breaker.’
The course took us past some farm animals. I enjoyed hearing the roster cockadoodle doing along the way. The course was well marked with one water station at mile 2. The race swag was nice with great edible goodies. The information & timing booths were able to help me with a couple of things that turned out to be non issues. They had chairs setup for people waiting for the awards ceremony. I ran this race with my cousin. We had a blast!

This was a easy 5K course nestle in the wine vineyards San Martin, CA hills at Clos La Chance Winery. This was a 5K with no other race distances offered. The course wrapped around the vineyards that were loaded with grapes. The scenery was spectacular and the access to the winery grounds made me feel fabulous. The race theme was ‘Greek or Toga wear’. So there was a lot of sparkling togas and head bands. The race started on time at 9:15 AM, which in September it made for a hot start. There was one water station at mile one. Medals were issued to the top 3 winners in age divisions. There were no finishers medals. The ‘swag’ was nice…. a cotton tshirt, a wine glass, and each participate 21+ received a wrist band with four tab that allowed them four 1 once wine tasting opportunities of which I passed on. The race directors invited everyone to bring a picnic lunch etc. to spend an afternoon there on the winery grounds. I certainly recommend this race to others. Since we were not instructed not to sample the grapes while on the course I must admit did taste them and they were deliciously sweet.