Bear Mountain Weekend

On the ride back to the city after running yesterday, I said to Wayne, "Sometimes being an ultrarunner is a big time suck. Like my weekend, gone. All I did was run at Bear Mountain." (Not entirely true; went to Wayne's party and celebrated his birthday w/ him and drinks with Gwendolyn and a little writing and a bunch of baking.)

He responded so beautifully, "That sounds like a great weekend. Running's a great way to spend your time."

And it was. It was a beautiful time running some technical trails that try my running, my body, and of course my soul.

Saturday was great. Al and I took some of the most difficult trails (I begged for the hardest climbs to prep me for the North Face Bear Mtn 50 Miler in just three weeks), including the dreaded Stairway to Heaven. Andrea stuck with Martin on some slightly different trails, and all of us were on almost no sleep. It was great. It was chilly (high 30s/low 40s), and got rather rainy and windy towards the end and we all got chilled. But still, you'd look around at such gorgeous trails with lovely views and almost no one in sight - and feel lucky to be training in such a great place.

Sunday wasn't as long of a run - just around 4 hours. We hit up some slightly easier trails, but enjoyed awesome views, a couple climbs, a run around a lake, and LOTS and LOTS of puddles to run through. (Many of the paths and stream trickles turned into brooks, which was so much fun to run through.)