Climbs and Crossings

I've never actually written a year end recap post because I'm usually writing about stuff all year long so why be redundant. THIS year, however, I've been such a slacker at writing and racing that this will be brand new information. If anyone is still here. I had a kick ass 50k in March followed up with a crappy attempt at my second ever 50 miler in April, and that's pretty much where we left off. Let's address that and get it out of the way. Here's what my Lake Sonoma race report should have said: I can come up with excuses that sound reasonable as to why I dropped, but in reality my head wasn't in it. When I needed mental strength to push through, it wasn't there. That's it. I moped the rest of the spring and spent most of the summer trying to shake it off.  ANYWAY...on to summer. Summer was great. My birthday is in July, and somehow my birthday celebration has gone from the actual day, to a week, to a month to...well it started in June this ...

The wind, though... Especially when you also have to deal with all of *this* A little drought relief finally came in the form of a few days of total downpour across Central California just in time for  Coastal Trail Run's  Golden Gate trail race in the Marin Headlands. Chance of rain on Saturday morning was Infinity%. Traffic directing volunteers: much respect.   The start had the group of us standing on the road under an angry sky, waves crashing next to us onto Rodeo Beach, listening to Wendell's ribbon instructions (polka dot means a turn is coming up, blue is bad). Some wore rain jackets. Some wore garbage bags, and some wore ponchos. I chose a light rain jacket and a hat to keep the rain out of my face (fat chance). The morning air was warm. The rain was light but steady, and the wind was threatening to make things interesting. We took off up the Coastal Trail on the first big climb. A couple miles and 900 feet uphill later, I was welcoming t...

On my way up to the turnaround point at the north peak of Montara Mountain, I looked up to see  Caitlin Smith  cruising back down. Well, there goes my chance for an age group win today, I thought. (that's a joke) Someone should hire me to write course descriptions.  Inside Trail celebrated its one year anniversary with a return to Pacifica, the site of their inaugural event. Last year I ran the half marathon distance, but this year my training for Way Too Cool called for an 18 miler. The past few trail races I've run have had a good amount of climbing, but for the most part, the entire second half has been downhill. I was super excited to challenge my legs to some late in the race uphill. (spoiler alert: legs were not super excited to accept the challenge) I'm very familiar and comfortable with the first loop up the mountain. It's the longest and highest climb, but it's also the first three miles of the race when everybody's legs are fresh and rarin...

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 ...