running cape falcon

When life asks you to drive your daughter to the beach to stay with a friend, what do you do? You go running, of course!

Her drop-off location was near Oswald West State Park, a hidden gem on the Oregon coast. The beach is surrounded by headlands, so it stays calm, the waves break well for surfing, and the surrounding forest is filled with giant, old trees.  It is one of my favorite sections of coastline, so naturally I chose to head that way.  The trail along there is part of the Oregon Coast Trail, but judging from the conditions away from the park, the trail is not well maintained.

I would say that the cool air of the ocean was a nice break from the warm temperatures of the Willamette Valley, but who am I kidding?  We have yet to really get to summer here.  The trail was very muddy, so it was a challenging run - it was nearly impossible to get a rhythm (un ritmo) going, but the views were well worth the effort.

Short Sand Beach at Oswald West State Park. The trail goes out and around the bluff.

I am a sucker for hidden waterfalls.

Looking down on Short Sand Beach. See the surfers?
We do have some very cold surfers here on the Oregon Coast.
This is a hugely popular beach for surfing.

A hidden cove only viewable from the trail.
The trail extends up the coast, but it was very overgrown and bee infested.

As I was running along, I thought of a good challenge - to run from Arch Cape to Neahkanie Mountain and back - it would be nearly 20 miles of good, hilly trail, with fantastic views - a great challenge for a weekend.  Because of the bee factor, you would want to wait until the flowers were done blooming, but what a fabulous way to put in a long run!

am i lazy?

One of my favorite blogger writers of all things endurance is Ann Brennan.  Her writing is lively, her stories entertaining.  She challenges me to think about my running and my training, to consider new ideas, and helps keep me motivated as I work my way through my week.

When her latest article showed up in my reader, I read it with some dismay.  "Are you a lazy endurance athlete?" the title read.

As I read her wise words, I could feel something in me reacting.

Yes, I am lazy.

I have been very lazy in the past few months.  Sure, I've run some long stuff, but I haven't really been challenging myself.

I've grown very comfortable with where I am at.

At first, I found myself a bit angry.

Who cares if I am lazy? I thought bitterly.  It's my running life.  It's my performance.  I get to decide how fast and how hard I run.  If I want to walk every hill this side of the Rockies, that's my prerogative.  I'll be lazy if I want to.

But as I let the idea sit, I realized that perhaps my anger is coming from a different place.

Perhaps it is not that I want to continue being lazy, but rather that I am finally ready to kick up the training a notch.  Perhaps I am reacting in anger because I am frustrated that I have not taken things to the next level, and I am finally ready to do so.

Sometimes what we feel is not what it appears to be at first.  I am taking my cue from my reaction to her piece, and I am going to start picking up my training again.  I've rested and relaxed long enough.  It's time for a spell of hard work.

If you want to be inspired, educated and informed in all things endurance, I highly recommend Ann's blog.  She might make you mad enough to change up your training too!

race dreams and not following my own advice

I really should learn to practice what I preach.

Tuesday evening, I started to run and could feel my back tightening up.  I turned back home, ready to throw the towel in.  But I really wanted to run, and I thought, quit being a baby and suck it up, buttercup. So out I went to run six miles against what my body was saying it was ready for.

Guess who ended up with a back in spasm for the next four days.

That would be me.

Now I know better than to not listen when my body is telling me something is up, but I wanted to get the miles in.  I wanted to train hard.  I am ready to train hard, mentally.  But apparently my body wasn't ready to do so after two marathons on less than stellar training.

Lesson learned.

But I did get up to the mountains to go camping this weekend.  I had hoped for a 13-14 mile training run around Timothy Lake, but I had to settle for about 8 miles of easy hiking and lots of dreaming for next summer.

The meadow surrounding the campground.Bug heaven.

 We stayed at the small campground at Little Crater Lake, an artesian sinkhole just 1/2 a mile from Timothy Lake on Mt Hood. Quiet, with large campsites, this little spot is a gem.

Little Crater Lake is nothing like the big Crater Lake.
But it is incredibly blue and clear, and it's 34º year round.

Trails lead right from the campground to the Pacific Crest Trail - a 2,655 mile trail from Canada to Mexico over the Cascade and Sierra Mountain ranges.  (The record on this trail is 65 days, 7 hrs, 16 min. The film "The Runner" documents David Horton's crossing .  You could run to your heart's content on this trail alone.

Care to walk to Mexico or Canada?

In addition to the PCT, you've got a 12 mile trail around Timothy Lake, featuring many beautiful lake views, marshy areas and bubbling streams.

A peek-a-boo look at Mt Hood - still covered with lots of snow.

 It was killing me to not be able to run.  That's what I get for pushing it too hard.

A hidden marsh. We bushwacked to check this one out.

After spending some time on these trails, I decided that next year, I'm going to go for the Mt Hood 50 Miler. The race runs right through this area along the PCT.  And maybe someday, I'll give some serious thought to running the entire PCT through Oregon...

Want to kill some time dreaming of records you can set on long trails?  The Fastest Known Time is the unofficial repository of speed records on the major trails across the United States.  

four stars

The 7:00 am start of the Stars & Stripes Marathon

I had no idea how two marathons would go when I signed up for the Firecracker Double high on the endorphins of qualifying for the Marathon Maniacs.  But since the two marathons were just $25.00 each, and I could get four maniac stars, I couldn't resist.

And then spring struck, and my training went to crap.  I topped out at 110 miles in May - not the mileage I wanted to have heading in to this.  I really wondered if I could pull it off at all.  Just a few days before, I thought about pulling the plug on the idea.  I couldn't get a handle on my allergies; I was undertrained - I thought of every excuse in the book.

You're doing the marathons, my husband told me.

Running with Sarah & Rob

Thankfully, I had my friend Sarah running with me.  Can I tag along with you? I asked her, hoping she would be cool with that.  I don't know what I would have done had she said no!   So she set a course for us - run .4 miles, walk .1.  Over and over.  And that's just what we did as we looped around and around Greenlake Park.  10 times.  We picked up another maniac, Rob, in the first loop, and just chatted our way through it.

No speed records were broken.  It took us a little over 5 1/2 hours, but after we finished, I realized that I didn't feel all that bad.  My legs were tired, but they weren't dead.  I soaked in the tub after I got home, took a nap, refueled on every food in sight, and went to bed early.

When I first woke up Sunday morning, I had a moment of panic.  I felt like I had run a marathon the day before.  Duh.  And I wasn't supposed to do this again?

Freedom Marathon smiles

But I thought about the friends I would see there, and I got ready and headed out to the course at 5:45 am.  I arrived with just a few minutes to spare, and then we were off.  Again.

We started out with Rob and legendary maniac Larry Macon - a 12 time 50 states finisher.  12 times.  50 states.  Mind boggling.  I could have listened to him describe all the marathons he had done for the entire day (the man is a running catalog!), but we gradually started leaving them behind.  Amazingly, my legs were feeling pretty good.  The aches and pains worked themselves out.  This was going to happen.

As we headed in to the 1/2 marathon turn around point, we realized that the overall winner was just behind us and was going to beat us in to the finish before we reached the 1/2 mark.  I had to try to outkick him.  I did.  And so I gave it everything I had, but the dude turned on the wheels!  (He was running a 2:50 ish marathon after running one the day before...)  He came up to me after and told me I had some serious speed - which was as great a compliment as I've ever received.

About this time our friend Jodi came in behind us, so we were excited to have her run with us.  Except that she was running really well, so she decided to keep on going and aim for a PR.  A little sad, we wished her luck.

.25 mile later, we watched her turn around and come back to us.  "I could PR, " she said, "but I want my friends!"  Amen to that!

And so we ran and chatted and ran some more.  The popsicles at mile 19 were DELICIOUS!!!

Heavenly popsicles!

Mile by mile, we got it done.

A sweet finish.

And that's how I earned my four stars for the marathon maniacs.  You don't have to be a running badass.  You don't have to train 60 miles a week.  But you do have to be willing to perform to what your body will let you do the day. You will have to adjust your expectations for how fast you will run.  

The greatest thing I've learned from the marathon maniacs is that there are more reasons to run marathons than just improving your time.  You can run for friendship. You can run for laughs. You can run to find what you are made of. With any kind of luck, you'll find all three.