Marin March Run

My running buddy Michelle is preparing for a 100 mile endurance run in September. The event is the "Headlands 100" and takes place on the Marin Headlands to the North of Golden Gate Bridge. It's a 25 mile loop and participants run 4 times - alternate clockwise and anti-clockwise loops. This is a very demanding event. There's 5000 feet of climbing on every loop. This is distributed as 5 climbs of 1000 feet. So every five miles there is a 1000 foot climb, followed by a descent back to sea-level. This is tough.

So we went to run a single loop. I don't believe Michelle has ever run there before. I've run quite often there, although not for a while. It's very beautiful and very challenging. One of the trails was closed and this caused us to add a few miles. The weather was blustery and sunny and as we arrived at Rodeo Lagoon, it suddenly started raining very heavily and we very glad that Ali was there to meet us in the car. We'd run 23 miles, and skipped the last 4 because of the weather.

The weather worked out perfectly. It was raining very heavily in San Jose when we left. However the weather-man promised it would clear quickly from the north, with occasional showers later in the day. Perfect forecast. It was a little cold when we set off. Later on we got a little sunburnt and it started to pour during the last 10 minutes of our run. I'll confess to being happy to finish when we did. Perhaps we'll have another trip to Marin before the event in September. A very nice afternoon. Thank You Michelle for your company.

Michelle's getting lots of support and encouragement from Dennis and Catra. Ali and I will be there to cheer her on in September. Michelle: you are awesome to take on such a challenge.