AKA: The Camera Catastrophe
Yes, I'm writing a race report for a race I didn't run.
My plan for the day was to spend a lot of time at the Goat Killer Climb, taking photos of all the runners. I think when I tried to take the photos of Jeff running up the climb my camera's auto-focus worked so hard that it decided to give up the ghost, so I didn't get nearly as many shots from that camera as I expected to. Since I was now down to my backup (a simple point-and-shoot, I left my older camera body at home) I moved down to the DDR aid station just to see the peeps. Funny side note, John Lai shoots using the same camera that I use, and had a spare body with him. He offered for me to use it, but I said "I already broke one camera today, and I don't want to break someone else's" (cue ominous foreshadowing music). It was good seeing folks, some of whom I've seen at the last couple of races, others I haven't seen in a while.
Since I had packed my running clothes, I decided to run the course backwards using my point-and-shoot. I figured this would give me a chance to see more runners. I checked in with Ben, just to make sure that it wouldn't be an issue (being polite, I know, unusual for me) and off I went.
My backup camera is actually new to me, waterproof and shockproof so I wasn't concerned about actually running (I still have a camera at the bottom of the Colorado River, but that's another story altogether). I think the camera did ok taking photos even when I wasn't looking at the view finder, since I was shooting while running. About 1/2 way through my lap the battery died, at that point I decided to just continue my run.
While running I met a new ultra-runner (to be, once she finished) who was not having a good day, so I switched to pacer mode. Lot of talking and walking, but she got it done. She was a bit surprised that someone she had never met before would take the time/effort to help her finish, as I said, she's new. She also commented about the number of people at the DDR aid station. I told her that is how we roll, if we aren't doing anything we tend to show up in large numbers just to be together. At the 377 aid station she asked David to deliver a beer to the next aid station, so when we got there she was handed a gluten free beer, that just ain't right. She did finish, as expected, even after drinking what must have been the vilest concoction ever created (can you tell that with regards to beer I am a bit of a purest).
After the race, I went home and downloaded all the photos, only to discover that a large number of shots I thought I took were not in the daily folder. It took me a bit to find them, my camera decided to reset the date while running.
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