Saturday Run

Ready to go! Boy was it cold, not cold enough for some of us to give up the skirts and shorts however:)

What a great run that was. Longer than I should have gone but way to start January.
It was an early start which is always hard for me but once I was up it was all good. I caught a bus to the Golden Gate Bridge, to save my legs for the trails, and ran to the meeting point. I crossed the bridge just before 6AM and except for the cars I was the only one there. That's a first, I had the bridge to myself. I made it to Rodeo Beach right at 7, I didn't bring a light so I followed the roads going in.

BRRR..IT WAS COLD!
Florencia Gascon's Garmin recorded 31 degrees, that's cold here. You didn't need a temperature gauge to tell you it was cold though, not only did you feel it but you could see it. There was lots of frost on the ground and this is at sea level close to the ocean. Quite a sight.

14 of us set out of Rodeo Beach shortly after 7AM and we all ran different distances. People turned around where they felt comfortable. By the time we got to the Pantoll Ranger Station some 4 hours later only four of us were left and from there Florencia and I peeled off for Mill Valley. We left Kelly and Suzanna to continue the run.

FORMAL INTRODUCTIONS
I managed about 30 miles in about 6.5 hours. It was good fun and I'd like to run with these folks again in the future. Not owning a car limits my involvement but I'm not averse to getting up extra early to join in on the fun. A bonus was finally meeting two people who I've always seen at races but never actually formally met. Suzanna and I have shouted encouragements to each other in races, the most recent at the Quad Dipsea, but it was only this Saturday that we formally exchanged names. Florencia Gascon I've seen since my first ultra and I'm glad to have finally met her as well. I think she gets a kick about our French last names that sound similar.

I was definitely slower today. I feel the strain of all those miles not having gone long in the last three weeks but nothing that took me out of Frisbee and Football. Having a case of the butterfingers was a bigger, more embarrassing problem. So were the bad throws:)

Enjoy the pictures!

Always a special day when I can already be at the Headlands while it's still dark in the city. It doesn't happen that often.

Rodeo Beach at the start.

The way we came, the first miles.

We thought about our East Bay friends and their training grounds out there. That's Mt. Diablo in the distance. I plan to participate in PCTR's Mt. Diablo 50-miler this coming April, two summits to the top and then some.

Kelly and Tamara dropping down the Miwok trail.

Kelly and I love our Drymax socks but we are also big fans of Bob the Drymax representative. Bob this photo is Kelly's idea and it's for you.

For the photoset.