Testosterone Diaries, Entry #23

Completed a Monster Run with Tom and Gil yesterday:

25.8 miles
4330 feet elevation gain
10:30 mpm average pace

Dude! If I can do that for Skyline to the Sea 50K (coming up Oct 5th), then I can do the full 30 miles just over 5 hours, which would be great. let's say 5hrs, 30 minutes, because the Skyline to the Sea run has 5880 feet of elevation, and the end of the trail climbs up out of Berry Creek Falls - a run Tom and I experiemented with last weekend and it is a tough 1050 feet up and out.

The Windy to Rancho Run
We met at 5:45 am at Rancho San Antonio park (the gates were open, which was surprising, and some people were already showing up, which was not). We then headed over Windy HIll Open Space preserve. Our ran started in the fog and slight chilly breeze with a mile or so warm up, then a 3 mile hill (yeah!) and then winded around and we plopped out onto skyline, finally awake. From bottom to top, the elevation climb was 1700 feet! It's a gorgeous run, very woodsy and tropical and rain forresty.

Windy Hill Course Map



Then we headed down skyline as big slick trucks and whiny speedbikes whizzed passed us, until we entered into Russian
Ridge OSP. This is the third time I've run this trail, and it is deceptively hilly, even though it looks rather tame. It basiclaly keeps climbing and climbing and rarely lets up until you are past Page Mill road and ready to cross Skyline. The climb on this segment was 1370 feet. You run on these long windy single track trails thatcling to rolling nhills, out in the open. Very pretty. Can be brutal if it's sunny, but we were lucky to have intermittent fog and a breeze.

Russian Ridge Course



Russian Ridge - Monte Bello Course



Then we crossed over into Monte Bello OSP. We knew we had one more big climb before we'd hit the Black Montain Summit. But none of us had been on the trail before. It was nice going down, and we saw two runners coming down. Then, we found the hill, and it was a major bitch. Only 770 feet, but it was only within about a mile and a half. It was relentless and brutal, and in the sun. This hill was tough too because we had already around 3K climb under out belt at this time and this is when we were inching close to 17 miles and had been running almost 3 hours.

We finally make Black Mountain summit and see some hikers and bikers. We take a small detour so we can see the valley from the peak. Then, we begin the descent into Rancho San Antonio. We know there's around 8 miles to go, and despite the fact that our legs at this point feel simultaneously like cement and jello, Gil and I start jamming down the 2550 feet of drop. In a way, running a little fast downhill for me was smart, because it loosened me up. But you have to be very relaxed. The jarring and slamming down on the legs can add up and fatigue the joints and muscles. I try to do less bouncing and more of a glide, as iff you were cross country skiing. Also, the pelvis tuck is useful. Once we got to the single track we really started running. Gil, with his new bitchen Nike speedometer/pacer/mileage watch said we averaged 7:20 minutes pace going down. That's good for being past 20 miles.

We finally got down to the Chemise trail and winged it back into the familiar Rancho San Antonio County Park. I felt surprisingly good and definitely felt I could go further. Knowing how close we were to a full marathon, I was toying with the idea of throwing in Rogue Valley trail, but htat would have put us in the 28 mile range. And, we had to make it Jim Tait's funeral.

Rancho Course



All in all, what a great run. I feel great today. That's the most elevation I've ever done in a single run, and I LOVE it! The only pain was my shins were incredibly stiff and tight, but other than that some good Yoga helped. And lots of food and water.