Climbs and Crossings

A light mist was falling as I wound my way up King's Mountain Road to Huddart Park last Saturday morning. Running again in Woodside, the race company was different, but the course was exactly the same with an out and back added to make it a half marathon. My plan was to run steady and conservative on the first half of uphill and then cruise on the downhill. The start is downhill across a wide open field to the start of the trail. Within a hundred yards there is a sharp turn around a fence that brings the pack to a dead stop as we funnel out down the single track. I knew I was running the first mile fast, but I like to think of it as taking advantage of the early downhills...plus it was fun. I flew, and then I began the long 5ish mile climb. About a third of the way up my legs decided they were done. Like DONE. I felt like I was crawling. The week before I had plowed uphill steadily feeling strong, but now, my legs felt like cement blocks. Finally reaching the top after a final ...

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 ye...

I used the credit I received from the  Santa Cruz Mountains Race  to enter this one when I heard about the screening of Unbreakable in San Francisco the night before. What better way to get pumped pre-race than to watch a film documenting the Western States 100 and be in the presence of director JB Benna and elite ultrarunners Hal Koerner, Geoff Roes, and Tony Krupicka. Driving into Huddart Park the next morning I saw, off in the distance a bunch of people standing around in what appeared to be a giant line. Look at all the people over there, wait, what are they doing? Is that a line? Is that the BATHROOM LINE? That can't be a line for anything that's way too many people to be a line for something.  It was a line. And it was the check in line for runners to pick up their bibs. The bathroom line was pleasant and only a few people long. I got at the end of the check in line. Fifteen minutes later I hadn't moved and there were about 50 more people behind me. ...