Rattlesnake Ramble

Course Description:
Describing the Rattlesnake Ramble half marathon course is “easy”. Runners of the half started near the marina, circled Lake Chabot clockwise, and finished near the marina. The first couple of miles were along the eastern shore of the lake, with some gently rolling hills. The course then crossed the dam, and started climbing into the hills west of the lake. There were two major hills, with lots of rolling before, in between, and after. And then, just when a runner thinks (s)he’s safe, there was a quarter-mile-long steep hill, just to remind runners to hate steep hills near the end of a race. The last mile (and a half?) was again along the lake, on the western side.

About 4 miles of the course is paved, with the rest on dirt trails. The weather was sunny and warm in 2016, and had been dry for several days. So there were a good number of muddy areas, and quite a few stretches that were very rutted from rain run-off. There was one overlook about mid-course, with a view of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the San Francisco skyline behind. It’s a really beautiful course!

The 5K and 10K courses use the latter part of the half marathon course, out-and-back, running up the western shore of the lake. The 5K is almost entirely paved, fairly flat. The 10K went up into the hills.

Organization & Production:
As I’m becoming familiar with various local organizers, I’m finding that they all have their own personality, and try to do/be different things. In my perception Sasquatch Racing tries to be – and succeeds – well organized but low key and relaxed.

Between Sasquatch’s website and Facebook page their information for people interested in their race is pretty complete. Registration was easy. Pre-race communications and instructions were good and helpful.

I’m nervous about being late to venues with which I’m not familiar. I don’t want a missed turn or full parking lot to cause time stress. On top of that, Superbowl 50 was in Santa Clara, so the possibility of traffic was an additional concern for me. Consequently, I got to the park a little after 6AM, probably the first to arrive for the race. I think Sasquatch people and volunteers started arriving after 6:30. With race day bib pick-up starting at 7:30, and the regular half marathon start being at 9:15, being able to arrive a little later was a convenience for all concerned. Check-in was easy and quick; I don’t think the parking lots were ever full. The park has several restroom facilities, adequate for the size of the race without portacans.

In addition to the normal half marathon start there was a “hikers” start half an hour earlier. It was not timed electronically or by gun time, and finish times for the hikers were referenced to the regular start gun time. Due to small variations in the two start times, my official “finish” time was off, after correcting for the 30 minutes offset, by about a minute and a half. I normally time myself by my own watch – usually not as precise as the organizers’ timing system, obviously – so I know what my actual time was. The regular start times for the three distances were chip timed, start and finish. Preliminary results were posted online and notification emails sent to runners less than 24 hours after the last half marathoner finished.

Generally, the course was well marked and runners received a “cheat sheet” turn by turn course description. There were a couple of points at which I went off course briefly. One was due to a confusing placement of a turn marker at a place on the 10K course, probably because of it being out-and-back. The other was an unmarked fork at a bridge, where the correct choice (the bridge) looked less likely. In both cases course monitors got me back on course quickly. Had I read that part of the “cheat sheet” I probably would have stayed on course – mea goofa. There were no mile markers. The first two aid stations on the half course were at about miles 4 and 8. Runners are advised of this in the pre-race instructions email, and are advised to carry water. The aid stations were well stocked even to the very end, as were the finish area goodies.

One of the unique things Sasquatch Racing does is they have a sort of scavenger hunt along their courses. They place “woodalions” left over from previous races, painted bright green and marked with various prizes, along the course. I found one, and the prize was a free 10K or half marathon entry for a Sasquatch race. Nice!

Swag & Goodies:
All runners received a tech T-shirt. The lower left of the front features a large rattlesnake coiled and ready to strike. Diagonally across the top is the name of the race, and the distances and year just below. On the back and on the sleeves are logos of the organizer and sponsors. All the writing and graphics are in silver. I can remember two colors of men’s shirts (dark blue and gray), and two colors of women’s shirts (pink and blue). With the men’s shirts at least, the two colors represented two sizes. All in all, it’s a very nice race T-shirt.

The bibs are not personalized, but are otherwise quite nice. With a variegated dark green background, the bib gives the name of the race, the distances, the coiled rattlesnake race logo, the bib number, and several sponsors’ logos. A colored Sharpie was used in the last digit to distinguish distances (e.g. red = half marathon).

The finisher’s medal for the half marathon is a roughly oval bottle opener. It has a silver border, a black background, and a nicely detailed rattlesnake head in silver in the center. Across the top in black is “RAMBLED”; at the bottom left in raised silver is “13.1”. The ribbon is black, with snake heads near the medallion, the race name and date at the part of the loop opposite the medallion, and “Snake, Rattle, and Roll!” on one side, and “Don’t Tread On Me” on the other. Very! Nice!

10K and 5K finishers received a circular “woodallion”, laser-scribed with the snake head, with the race name around the top, and the date at “4 O’clock” under the snake’s tongue. Instead of a ribbon the “woodallion” is hung on a braided cord. From the pictures I’ve seen it looks really nice.

The aid stations offered water, sports drink, cut up bananas, sectioned oranges, and GU gel packets (that I can remember), and very encouraging, helpful volunteers. I didn’t graze around the finish area much, but with my finisher’s medal I was also given a Hint water and a paper lunch sack with a bag of barbecue flavored Kettle Chips and some M & Ms. There were also two kegs with beer from a local microbrewery (I’m unqualified to say whether the type of beer I had was good or not; it was very flavorful and reasonably refreshing).

My Results & Opinion of the Race:
Rattlesnake Ramble’s half marathon course was fairly challenging, and it was a warm day (in February!). All in all I was and am happy with my finish time.

Sasquatch Racing (at this point at least) is focused on organizing small low key trail races in pleasant but challenging venues. It’s tempting to say they did some things simply, but, thinking on it, that would be incorrect. Everything they do is at least a bit nicer than I’ve seen done basically in various races. About the only things I’d have like to have seen would have been a chip timed hiker’s start, and mile markers. Stand-outs for me were the very nice T-shirt and finisher’s medal, the finish area goodies, and the very friendly and encouraging volunteers and staff (frankly, I’ll take nice staff and volunteers over nice swag and goodies every time; Sasquatch had both!).

Would I do the Rattlesnake Ramble again? I’d certainly consider it. Would I do another Sasquatch race? I had already planned on doing the Sasquatch Scramble in a couple of months, and my experience confirmed that plan. The free entry is a pleasant bonus, not a decision maker.