This is what it's all about

Sunday. Point Reyes. What a beautiful day. Gorgeous. Indescribable. The reason we live here.

Today was an unbelieveably clear and warm day. What most visitors to California don't realize is that beach weather is in the winter. Car loaded with picnic supplies, beach chairs and toys, we motored out to Point Reyes National Park to one of the prettiest beaches in northern CA.

The plan was to get there at lunch time. Bekah and the kids would eat while I put in a planned 7.45 mile trail run up the steep coastal hills along the shore line.

My run started at sea level and I had planned to climb 600' in 4.8 miles before descending back to the beach. The run started out flat and easy. In about a mile, I began the ascent from the salt marshes to the highlands beyond. Recent rains made the trail very wet with the path at times a small stream and footing muddy and wet. Quickly, I gave up on keeping my feet dry and began the wet slog up the trail; mud flying and shoes squishing. Fortunately, my Salomon's were perfect for this kind of running. The trail ascended through coastal scrub and grass land. About 3 miles in, I came across my first herd of fallow deer grazing in the newly emerging green grass brought on by winter's rains. A couple of white fallow's were in some distant groups that I came across.

The views were stunning as I ran through the scrub. I kept a nice easy pace but the NFS mileage signs were completely wrong. No way I did 2.6 miles in 32 minutes (a check later on my topo maps confirmed that the signage was done by the Stooges--in fact, I had completed 3.5 miles). An offshore wind blew in my face as I reached my course turn, 4.8 miles later. Only then did I find out that the back course was close. This meant that I had to track back on my uphill course. Instead of being 2/3 of the way there, I was now half way. My run just went from a little over 7 to just short of 10 miles!

Back to the beach in a series of descents and small ascents passing only 2 couples out hiking in the bog. My legs were covered in mud as I finally reached the beach. Emily and I played in the water as I rehydrated.

A couple lessons learned. Despite the fact that my run only climbed 600' in 9.6 miles, my pace was considerable slowed by less than ideal trail conditions. In some parts of the bog, I had to gingerly step around deep pockets of mud. This slowed my pace down to about 9:30 overall, despite good long down hill sections running at better than 7:30 mile pace. I'm starting to think that a reasonable estimate for Ohlone is 13-14 min mile pace average given the terrain....that'll mean about 7 hours over the 31 mile course.