When all was said and done in the 101st Dipsea Race on June 12, Jamie Rivers of Mill Valley, with the championship plaque in hand, was hoisted off the ground by Roy Rivers, her husband, in front of the post-race awards stand.
He could truly say he has a trophy wife.
Rivers, who won the time-handicapped 7.5-mile trail race from Mill Valley to Stinson Beach in 2007 but was forced to walk the last half of the course last year when she had a hamstring injury and finished 622nd, caught and passed 71-year-old Hans Schmid of Greenbrae then held off the challenge of former champions and newcomers to win her second Dipsea title. But her celebration was tempered as she waited at the finish line for her husband, who, suffering from dehydration, stumbled from second place to ninth in the final mile.
"I get across and I turn around and I see Hans and it's like, 'Where's Roy?' " Jamie said. "Then I see him and it's 'Oh, my baby!' "
Rivers, a 60-year-old nurse at UC San Francisco, led her husband to the medical tent and sat next to him as he lied on a cot. His blood pressure was 127/42. His heart rate was 83. His head, however, was still on the race.
"What was my time?" Roy asked.
"I don't know your time," Jamie replied.
"Of course you don't," Roy joked.
For the record, Jamie's actual time was one hour, seven minutes and 34 seconds, more than two minutes faster than Schmid but 10 minutes slower than Roy's. But Jamie had a 20-minute head start in the time-handicapped race determined by age and gender and once she passed three-time Dipsea champion Melody Anne-Schultz, 69, Rivers considered the possibility that she could finish first and her husband might be right behind her.
First, she had to catch Schmid, which she did coming down the stairs in Steep Ravine.
"Get the lead out," said Rivers, offering encouragement.
"I can't," Schmid replied.
Rivers apologized as she passed.
"I had a nice little lead, but I don't want to fall at my age so I don't take any chances," Schmid said. "I never expected to finish second. I'm happy."
Third place belonged to 2009 Dipsea champion Brian Pilcher. He was waging a battle with Roy Rivers, the 2008 Dipsea winner, when the two came upon a newcomer to the race. They jumped over and passed him when the new guy fell in the Swoop. Pilcher and Rivers noticed his fancy running shoes.
"There goes the ringer," Rivers said.
The "ringer" was 54-year-old Chuck Smead of Masca, Colo. He was the silver medalist in the marathon in the 1975 Pan American Games in Mexico City who thought training at high-altitude in Colorado would prepare him for his first Dipsea. He admitted later that he was spent by the time he reached Cardiac.
Meanwhile, Jamie Rivers hit Panoramic Highway in first place. Spectators informed her there was no one in front of her and no one in sight behind her.
"I was expecting the boys: Roy, Alex (Varner) and the others guys. The ringer," she said.
No one threatened to overtake her. Schmid finished 23 seconds behind her. Pilcher was 44 seconds back. The 25-year-old scratch runner, Varner, though winning the best time award for the third consecutive year with a time of 49:09, finished fourth for the second year in a row. He was a minute and 35 seconds behind Jamie.
The defending race champion, 9-year-old fifth grader Reilly Johnson of Mill Valley, suffered from an upset stomach and finished 90th overall. Another Dipsea champion, 73-year-old Russ Kiernan, who has won 30 Dipsea Black Shirts for finishing in the top 35, placed 61st overall.
For the Rivers, the first-place trophy is now the fifth sitting in their Mill Valley Home. Jamie has won two and Roy has won one and he acquired two more Dipsea first-place trophies from the 1920s on eBay.
Though Roy came in ninth, he and his wife managed to win the Alan Beardall Award as the fastest family and they led their Pelican Inn Club running teammates Alex Varner, Gus Gibbs and Don Stewart to a historic team victory. They ended the 34-year reign of the Tamalpa Running Club as the winner of the Dipsea team award.
Liz Gottlieb, 35, won the fastest female award with a time of 59:34, 14 seconds faster than 17-year-old Julie Nacouzi of Santa Rosa, who was the first female high school runner to finish. Johnny Lawson of Forest Knolls once again was the first male high school finisher while Tanya Fredricks was the first finisher from the Dipsea Runners Section.
The Jack Kirk "Dipsea Demon Award" for dedication, perseverance and performance over time was awarded to the oldest runner in the 1,500 starting field -- 85-year-old Roy Harvey of Mill Valley. He was one of 40 runners age 70 or older entered in the race, which was his 30th Dipsea.
The Red Tail Hawk Award (Jerry Hauke Perpetual Award) for leadership, dedication and sportsmanship went to Leon Sivertson. He has volunteered to travel four hours round trip on Dipsea Sundays to oversee and execute the timing program he designed for the race that has led to quicker, more accurate results.
The most popular award recipient in the post-race awards ceremony was Lori Cohen of Larkspur. Battling Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease, she was presented with the Norman Bright Award for extraordinary effort in the Dipsea Race. She received a standing ovation.