Joined up with the Trail Runners Club this morning for a "special run" away from our usual Santa Monica Mountains locales, and more inland to Chantry Flats which is about a good 30-45 minutes away. The morning was already very warm when I met up with the crew at 7am but thankfully, the course we would run offered a lot of relief from the blazing sun.
That being said, it was still very hot when the sun did shine on us - the worst of it being from miles 2.5 to about 4 when we made the ascent up a series of switchbacks to Mt. Zion. Thankfully, it mostly descended down for the remaining portion with a lot of shade, cool stream crossings and very fun, leaf covered roads to tear up. I ran with a pair of runners at the front of the pack for most of the way and we just had a blast in nature's playground. I had initially intended on covering a little more ground by taking a 5 mile option near the end of the run, but unfortunately was out of fluids and stomach was crying for the post-run feast we were to have. Only put in about 9 miles when it was all said and done, but I should probably cut back anyway since I'm running the LA Marathon next weekend (just as a pacer for my cousin). If my body craves more punishment, I'll add more miles tonight.
Before I sign off, I want to give a special shout-out to Ron, who finally got his Boston Qualifier in Sugarloaf (Maine) today with a blazing time of 3:17 and change (his BQ time = 3:20:59). Congratulations Ron - I'm sure today's performance made the journey all worth it in the end!
(You can read all about his pre-marathon prep leading up to Chicago '08 here, although he came up short in that effort.)
10 comments:
I was bummed to miss this one! Was amazing last year, glad you had a good day man. :)
Thanks for stopping by my blog and commenting, Billy! It's a Canon 5D. I had a zoom lens on but I have two and can't remember right now (without looking) which one it is (is that awful?! :)).
P.S. 9 miles is better than no miles! Great job!
Congrats to your friend!!
Also seemslike afun group to go out on runs with. Hopefully I can join you guys when I get down there in July.
i'm just glad you didn't get lost this time. kymberli is right - 9>0. and certainly better than my 1.5 mi performance last week. you can always pull that one out when you need to feel better about yourself :)
Chantry Flats is such a cool place. We used to go camping up there when I was a kid. Hve you ever done the race up to the top of Mt. Wilson? I was eyeing that the other day....
Wow, great run Billy, sorry I couldn't make it out there. Bridal shower calling. ha ha :) Good luck this weekend!
Love reading about all your trail runs! I need to go out there and hit up a real trail one of these days :) Huge congrats to your friend! An amazing accomplishment!
Nice job, it got warm all over it seems!
Nice run. It was definitely smart to keep it at 9 mi. with the marathon coming up (!!!).
another great trail run :) good luck on monday!!!!
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