Bike to Work Day Run

I chose to celebrate Bike to Work Day by going for a run this morning. My plan was to do the O50K climb up Mission Peak, but turn right at the top of the ridge and visit Mt. Allison before heading back over and down Mission Peak. 9.7 miles, 2750ft climb, 2h05m.

There were a few spaces in the Stanford Ave parking lot when I got there at 8am -- I guess the chilly, foggy morning scared a lot of people away. Or maybe the active people were out riding their bikes to work.

Anyhow, it seemed like a good day for a new challenge, so I decided to run up the trail until the Peak Meadow Trail cutover to Horse Heaven. This yielded my fastest ascent to that spot yet -- 1.5 miles / 1050ft climb in 21m51s. That's about a minute and a half faster than I've done it before, with a mix of running and walking. I took it easy across the Peak Meadow Trail, then finished the ascent to the top of the ridge. I ran from there until the end -- to the bench at Mt. Allison, back down, up and over Mission Peak, and down to the parking lot. The pace was good enough to be my fastest yet from the peak to the parking lot -- 26 minutes. The last mile down was at an 8:01 pace, and my quads and calves were feeling it! (in a good way)

The "extra mile" trail is getting a bit overgrown. Hopefully it gets mowed a bit for O50K, or else everyone will have super wet feet!

Along the way I saw something that I think qualifies as "grosser than gross" -- a dead mouse atop a dead tarantula...

The view at the top was great, being right above the fog layer...

No better way to start a day.