Avalon Ultramarathon

Our Guesthouse

Leo got up at 4 am for his 50 mile race start at 5 am while I slept in.  When I left our room at 10 am, the streets were deserted.  

I walked up the hill to the Holiday Inn for a view of the ocean and the town of Avalon below.

View from the Holiday Inn

By the time I walked back downhill again the town had woken up and everyone was driving around in golf carts.  Vehicles are severely restricted on the island.  There's a 12-year waiting list to bring a real vehicle onto the island.  And for good reason; there's really no place to park them.  And the carts are restricted to just the town of Avalon.  There's a locked gate to the road that leads to the airport and the other smaller town of Two Harbors.  So the only way to see the rest of the island is to take a tour or sign up for a 50 mile ultramarathon.  (Or a 4-day backpacking trip.  Hiking is free but camping in a developed campsite is $60!)

In the afternoon, I walked up to the Wrigley Memorial and botanic garden.  The garden concentrates on cacti and succulents from around the world and also endangered plants that exist only on the island.

Endangered endemic Catalina Island Mountain Mahogany

This endangered mahogany is the only one I could get a decent picture of.  The other plants were completely enclosed in chicken wire (see lower left of photo) to prevent browsing by feral animals that have wreaked havoc on local species.

Pigs and goats have been removed, but mule deer and bison brought in for a western movie remain.

View from Wrigley Monument

The Wrigley Monument was built to commemorate William Wriggley of chewing gum fame, who once owned the island and developed for tourism.  It's a typical folly.  I was sitting on the bench on the lower right of the picture when a Catalina Island fox (endemic) casually trotted down the curving staircase, sauntered over to pee on a metal post and slipped into the bushes.  They were almost wiped out by distemper, so they have been captive breeding them and releasing them in the wild.

Leo did well in his race finishing in under 10 hours.  He's often the oldest person running in his trail races, but this race has lots of oldsters.
There's an 82 year old who's run it for 35 consecutive years (he started a day before everyone else and took 26 hours), but he's retiring this year and will only run the 50 km next year.

Leo chased a fellow in his age group downhill the last 3 miles but couldn't catch him and finished 17 seconds out of third place, so he's he's a little bummed out, and suffering mightily today from the pounding he gave his legs.

We had fun at the banquet, an excellent meal and we sat at a table with a runner from Dallas, Texas, a teacher who moved from Minnesota to San Francisco to escape the winters, a young local born in Mexico who came second in his age class on his first long distance race, and a young Minnesotan woman who moved to Los Angeles to escape the winters.  But her boyfriend Dmitri, outright winner of the 50 k race, won the "one time I ran in weather so cold I . . ."  bragging rights. He's originally from Irkutsk, Siberia!

Bird of the day:

There's tons of these adorable acorn woodpeckers flying around the palm trees.