Climbs and Crossings

My training week consisted of a silent foggy Christmas morning run plus a handful of 5 and 6 mile runs. Nothing exciting to report. On Sunday, I finally got some trail time at the PCTR Woodside 17k. Yes, you read that correctly. Pacific Coast Trail Runs has been resurrected and is alive and well under new ownership! John and Maureen Brooks announced they were taking the reigns in August, and I think this post by John on the PCTR Facebook page sums up their vision:  It’s a dream come true for me to combine my work experience with my passion of endurance sports. I absolutely love the endurance community. Maybe some of you can relate to this: I really only race to be close to people like you. Endurance athletes are amazing people! We debated for weeks of whether to keep the name of PCTR or to rebuild from scratch. PCTR has a strong, 12-year legacy that was tarnished in the last 7 months before closing. One of the most important factors in retaining the name was reading the years of co

I'm sitting on the couch wrapped in a blanket sipping a glass of pinot noir. Outside it's raining and the winds are gusting upwards of 40 mph making me glad I got my run in earlier this morning. About every 15 seconds I'm looking up from the laptop at the trees outside the windows waiting for something to happen. 4 years ago... Judging from the amount of time I'm spending staring out the windows, this post will likely take roughly 4 hours to compose. On with it. Monday was a rest day. Just work and a needed rest day. Tuesday after work I did a 4 mile tempo run and some core work. Wednesday I got in 5 miles before going to work in the evening to do inventory. Thursday I ran 4 miles after work racing the sunset. I've been feeling a cold coming on for a few days and I'm overdue because I generally get sick once a year. Everyone around me has been sick over the past couple of months. I interact with hundreds of people on a daily basis, but so far I'

By the time midnight rolled around on December 8th, 1,360 people had entered the lottery for the Way Too Cool 50k wanting one of 900 spots available...much better odds over last year when there were only 500 spots! Race lotteries generally turn me into a ball of anxiety because my life feels like it's hanging in suspended animation until I know for sure whether I'm in or out. Lucky for me, it was only about 24 hours until I'd learned I snagged an entry this year. Huzzah! My infiltration into the California trail running scene has come along pretty recently. I have a couple years under my belt and only one ultramarathon (barely). It amazes me that I live somewhere that almost any weekend of the year I can drive an hour or two and find a trail race. I could be flying down switchbacks smelling Eucalyptus or climbing endlessly up a mountain and look back over my shoulder at the Golden Gate Bridge. I can be wading across rivers and stomping through streams beneath enormous Red

Brazen Racing puts on events that make you want to immediately sign up for another one... and then volunteer for a bunch more.  Sunday's Diablo Trail Adventure offered a half marathon, 10k, 5k, and family hike with a portion of all entry fees going to Save Mount Diablo, an organization working to increase and preserve the natural lands around Mount Diablo.  From the race director: Because of their efforts, the amount of protected land on and around the mountain has gone from less than 7,000 acres to over 110,000! With over 70,000 acres still at risk of being lost, your support is more valuable than ever! This was definitely one of the reasons I chose to participate in this event. I love that I can run a trail race and, at the same time, contribute to protecting and maintaining that very same land. Arriving at the park I saw, not just a trail race being put on, but a total festival atmosphere. Music was playing and people were milling around booths set up by R

I don't know about you, but that was pretty much the longest summer of my life. After coming off a successful Big Sur Marathon, the  Skyline to the Sea 50k  back on June 10th led to an injury that kept me away from running for the rest of the summer. During that time I rode the highs and lows of life without running. Ok mostly lows. The only high I can come up with is the sleeping in on Sunday mornings. Oh, and no poison oak was good too. I'm not saying I was in a funk, but I was in a funk. A week or so later was an awesome concert at the Mountain Winery. I didn't get to run the 31 miles on my 31st birthday in July like I had planned, but I still got to do a little light hiking and was grateful for that. Pacifica is my jam. Then in August we made our annual pilgrimage to Hermosa Beach where I couldn't take no running for an answer. I did a lot of bike riding, which was great, but normally I start the day with a run on the beach. It might have been too so

To say the week preceding the race was an emotional roller coaster would be an understatement. What I didn't know, was that it would be nothing compared to my experience out on the trail. I had said going in my goal was a sub 6 hour finish, and, unknowingly foreshadowing my race, I added, "but you never know what can happen out there." My decision to run ultras came long before my actual ability to run them, so after collecting a couple years of trail running under my belt I finally felt ready to take the plunge. Skyline to the Sea came at just the right time providing a net downhill course with just over 3,000 ft of elevation gain. If you're not aware of the on again off again drama that ensued surrounding this race, refer to my previous post  here . Race morning, standing at the trail head with over 200 other runners, a collective feeling of gratitude hung in the warm air as Wendell counted us down to start. Spectators lined the street above us, and the runners e

Five days before the fifth annual Skyline to the Sea 50k, entrants received an email from race director Sarah Spelt that knocked the wind out of us all: I am beyond sorry to announce that I am forced to close the doors at PCTR, effective immediately... It's been no secret to the Northern California trail running community that Pacific Coast Trail Runs has experienced quite a bit of turbulence, especially in the last year, resulting in some cancelled races and even a no show. 2012 boasted a handful of successful races, the most recent being the Diablo Marathon and 60k just three days prior. Things seemed to be on the upswing, especially with the upcoming Skyline to the Sea Marathon and 50k being completely sold out. I'd been through the disappointment over previously cancelled races, but this time was different. I'd carefully chosen this race to be my first ultra. I was brokenhearted and angry, but it didn't take long for a runner coming from Illinois specifically for t

Only in San Francisco will you find a guy dressed up like a bat, tortillas on the ground,  and a naked guy with a giant...camera bag in the same photograph.  We (me, GeNene, Staci, and Jim) returned for something that can only be described as a quintessential San Francisco experience: Bay to Breakers, a 12 kilometer footrace across the city that feels more like a parade than a race with tens of thousands of participants ranging from completely costumed to completely naked. As well as completely sober to completely drunk. This year we had some special guest stars: My mom and her husband David in town from Indiana to visit, and Allison and her friend Michael, who is from Washington and was seeing San Francisco for the first time. Saturday we hit the expo and lunch before taking off to walk the Golden Gate Bridge (happy 75th, GGBridge). It's always fun to take people who've never been up here. All agreed it was awesome.  It was an early night, and before you know it we

Saturday afternoon, @HalfMarathons tweeted this photo with the caption: Wind's gonna be strong tomorrow at the Big Sur Marathon. It blew down this port-a-potty already out on the course.  I don't know what's worse, the thought of wind that strong during the marathon, or the thought of being in that port-a-potty.  The weather in Monterey was beautiful Saturday. After the Expo, where Bart Yasso was hanging out at the Runner's World booth, and Dean Karnazes was giving a talk, we had lunch and walked the wharf. There were lots of commercial fishing boats docked along the pier to ogle and fish markets down at the end. Walking back toward the beach I heard from below a frantic "Stop paddling! Stop paddling!" I would say, just don't make eye contact and throw it in reverse.  The rest of the afternoon/evening was spent relaxing, eating, and preparing for the 3am wake up call to catch the bus. I did  Big Sur last year , but if you remember, part of

The week BEFORE running a marathon. The taper week. The what's done is done week. It's at this point that you are either in a panic realizing you can't go back in time and get in one more long run, or you're sitting back having enjoyed the journey trusting your training. I'm mostly doing the first part. Just take me back about 3 weeks, I need to get in a 20 miler. All I can do with five days to go is hydrate, sleep, eat, and run some shake out miles...and do my best to not drive myself and those around me nuts. The Taper Madness has set in. Many of the symptoms are universal (obsessiveness, anxiety) although they manifest in different ways in different folks. Here are a few of mine: 1. I'm spending every waking moment either thinking about the marathon or trying not to think about the marathon. If I'm sitting on the couch with the tv on, I may be staring at the wall recalculating splits or trying to remember which mile last year I started cramping

I had some very important business to take care of Friday evening at 4pm just on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge. Since we planned to stay in San Francisco that night, I looked into registration for the Coastal Trail Runs Canyon Meadow run Saturday morning, a race company I hadn't previously run with. Immediately and halfheartedly I clicked my way through the links to check out the half marathon distance course map and elevation profile. The last couple of races I've signed up for, I'd toyed with the idea of graduating from the 21k to the 30k distance, but it never took. This time, it was time. What I didn't know is that 4 inches of rain would fall in the area before race day. Looking at this profile, I could see only one point that could be my demise: right at the half marathon point when I'd have to head out for another loop and repeat the initial 500 foot climb in a half mile. The rest of the course was completely runnable. As long as I could get