Power Tool Drag Races!

Now I can't have a blog called "A more interesting life" and have it all be about fun things like cleaning out my closet and resumes. Sometimes you just have to deal with the boring stuff too.

I am in week three of The Artist’s Way (Goal #61). One of the things you are supposed to do is take yourself on “artist dates” to fill the well and replenish your spirit. In other (less new-agey) words, all work and no play makes Shaw a really bored and frustrated girl.

I found out about the races online and it sounded too unusual to miss. It also seemed like a good opportunity to take some interesting photos. I was right. Enjoy!

The race track. You can't see it from this angle, but there is a huge pile of old mattresses at the end to stop the machines.

Scary clown head, not sure what it had to do with anything, but it made a good picture.



This one was called "War Criminal" the playing cards in the spokes have President Bush, Dick Cheney, etc. Unfortunately, this one just sat there and resurfaced the track when they turned it on.



I'm not sure what this one was made of, but they did tell me that angle grinders were one of the most popular tools to modify.

29 mph was a good speed for these things/tools/mechanisms? I'm not sure what they're called, but they were fun to watch. Even when they didn't go, and just sanded the track.

Now you can't have drag races without a flag girl, can you?

The man in the sombrero is the fire crew. No kidding.

I did it!

I am so proud of myself. I completed the Avenue of the Giants half marathon in almost exactly 4 1/2 hours. I did train, but I was kinda lazy about the training and slacked off on it now and again. But I’m glad I did as much of it as I did, or would never have survived.

It’s a beautiful walk. If you are going to do a marathon, this is a wonderful place to do it, because not only are you walking through one of the most awesomely beautiful forests in the world, it’s shaded almost the entire way. Beautifully cool and no sunburn!

I chatted with people along the way. There was a married couple who were playing word games to pass the time and keep their minds occupied. Another couple from San Francisco who received a flyer to go for a walking tour of Tuscany one day before getting the flyer for the Avenue of the Giants, and decided it was fate. I walked most of the way with a lovely lady named Dee, who runs a sports medicine clinic and was also by herself. Like me, none of her friends wanted to do it.

After the race they hand you a medal, clip your timing tag off your shoes and let you stagger off. Parking is limited, so I ended up parking in a dry river bed, and in the final walk from the finish line, over rubble and ruts was just cruel, because by that point you swear you can feel the texture of every pebble through your shoes.

I drove to my motel in Eureka, and slept for 4 hours. I felt great when I woke up, and then I made the mistake of trying to stand. Ow! Ow ow ow ow ow. I was enormously hungry by that point, so I did get up and slowly creep to the car and to an Italian restaurant. (Linguini w/ clam sauce, and it was good).

This was only part of my vacation. I took a total of 10 days off, ½ of which were spent exploring California, and the other half at home, doing things I’ve been meaning to do for a very long time. I’ll go into more detail in my next post, but for now, I just want to revel in the accomplishment.