The Air Up There...

Yesterday was National Get Outdoors Day. I did just that. For the third or fourth weekend in a row I headed up to the San Gabriels in Angeles National Forest to run on the Mt. Disappointment course. The weather on the drive up the mountains was delightful.


It was a misty foggy rain that left visibility quite poor. The temperatures were chilly as well once I got soaked through. It wasn't too bad a few miles in once I generated some heat and even dried out a bit. The challenging part was trying to follow a course I had never run without being able to see landmarks. Occasionally the view would open up a bit, but in many areas I couldn't see 50 feet in front of me. The highlight of the run? The climb up Mt. Wilson takes you up a 2600 foot climb in the last few of the 31.5 miles. Nasty. I was only running half of the course and that climb was challenging. It's steep and goes on forever. People joke about the 50k times on this course looking like 50 mile times. It's no joke. Especially on race day pounded by the brutal heat of early August in Southern California.

Trail to 1000 update:
164 days in
201 days to go
431.8 trail miles run
568.2 miles to go
2.63 miles per day [current average]
2.74 miles per day [goal]

Also, I am still shooting for the 100 mile month of June.
13 days in
17 days to go
55.5 trail miles run
44.5 miles to go

One of the biggest challenges of these goals is finding time to put in miles. The weekend long run involves 3 hours of driving, preparation time (gas the car, gather nutrition needs for during and after, plan a route to run, etc.), and at least 3-4 hours of running. The rest of the miles get crammed in after work but can't go too long so I can get home and take care of the dogs...not to mention eat dinner myself. Still, if it weren't important to me I wouldn't do it. It's worth every minute and ounce of energy. It would be harder for me not to run. Some of you will think that is crazy...and some of you know EXACTLY what I am talking about.