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December 08, 2004
wednesday's wet and windy mt. tam run
the power went out last night. the rain came down all night long. it stuck around a little bit this morning too. we woke up around 6 am...to a dark house , dark and wet neighborhood---but still managed to be out the door just a little after 6:30.
we headed over to mill valley the start of the dipsea.
the creeks were FULL of water...just rushing down the hillsides with so much energy and momentum...it was wild.
alison and i headed up the dipsea trail until we got to muir woods. from there we took the touristie main trail via the "center" of muir woods...tall beautiful daunting trees surrounded us for miles...we were just visitors in their huge green territory...we then ran straight up the mt. via more redwoods and green forests and hit the dipsea trail again....from there...we ran part of the headlands course and ran out to coastal trail. the trails and woods were absolutely beauitful. the greens were glowing in the rainie weather, the sounds of the water falls and creeks running were so loud at times i couldn't hear anything else...it sounded like there were huge mac trucks coming at us in the forest-- the water 's weight and sounds and energy were just so powerful. we had to jump over many creeks that were overflowing onto the single track trails. most of them were easily jump-able...however some of the crossings you had to just step right in the mini waterfall to avoid a face plant on the trail. the coastal trail was so foggy you couldn't see the forest above or the ocean below...it was kind of surreal. i could have told alison there were polar bears just ahead and she would not have really known...it was just that foggy out on the coastal trail. we were thinking about heading down to stinson beach...but we had already run for 1 hour and 20 minutes by this point...and with alison's cough not getting any better...we decided to head for the car. we turned around and ran to pan tol. from there we skirted around the mt. on the matt davis trail and troop 80 trail via more dense wooded forests, over and around bridges that covered rushing , overflowing streams and creeks until we hit mt. home inn. we then took these great single track and fire trail routes down the side of the mt. and cut through one last neighborhood before we arrived back at the car. we ran for 2 hours and 43 minutes in total. i'm convinced it's about 15 miles...maybe more...i'm positive not less.
all in all despite the rain and wind it was a great way to wake up this morning. i wish alison's cough wasn't so persistant and she was feeling better. despite her cold she was a trooper...she ran up and along the trails like a real marin-ite trail runner.... (the down hills she was definitely more cautious on...but who isn't especially in the rain! :)). it was great to have company on a long run...again we chatted nearly the entire time...and to me the run just flew by.
Posted by liz at December 8, 2004 11:30 AM
Comments
Liz - sounds like a magical run this morning. You were certainly out there for a long time! Great choice of trails. Too bad it was so stormy.. I guess it added to the adventure. What a terrific couple of days of running you have had - thanks for the inspiration! Hope you can rest up and relax tonight... ! Good strides...
Posted by: Mary at December 8, 2004 12:11 PM