Dirt Diva

For those of you who are signed up for PCT 50 miler here is the new plan.

ok , boys and girls. It looks like we’ve got us a race this Saturday.

Due to the crash of a military helicopter on the PCT trail, the Forest Service has officially shut us down. They have closed off the PCT from Boulder Oaks all the way up to Dale’s Kitchen. I was not aware of this earlier, but the two marine pilots unfortunately did not survive the crash. I am sure all of your well wishes and prayers go out to their families. The craft was loaded with munitions, one of which exploded today from the heat, triggering a fire and sending the munitions search team from the area. There apparently is a fair amount of munitions that needs to be recovered.

So, thanks to the efforts of Paul Schmidt, and the kindness and flexibility of the folks at Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, the SD County Board of Education, and USA Track & Field, pending my getting a whole bunch of paperwork completed and approved within the next 24 hours, we will be staging the PCT 50 on the SD 100 course at Cuyamaca. Same time. Different place.

There are a tremendous amount of logistics which I will need to sort out between now and then, but for the present anyone who was planning on setting out at 5 a.m. will still do so. All others will start at 6. Same sign in procedures will apply. I will figure out appropriate cut offs. I still need to get you off the course by 7:30 p.m. I will advise you of cut offs at the race start.

This will now be a single loop course—the exact same loop run twice for the SD 100. If you’ve never run Cuyamaca, it is a great place to run. So I think you’ll enjoy it. For a map and other details, i.e., crew access, please go to the SD 100 website: http://members.cox.net/sandiego100/

I also have two favors to ask:

1. If you know other runners entered in the PCT 50, please try to contact them and make them aware of this change. I’m hoping to reach most everyone this way, but there will always be some out there who will miss the call.
2. If you can carpool to Cuyamaca, please do so. The park has made this request. Start/finish area will be at the Cuyamaca School Camp location, same as SD 100. Again, check the SD 100 race site for directions, etc.

Thank you all for your understanding. I hope to see you all on Saturday.

Best regards,

John