Mount Tamalpais Summit!

Finally! After over eight years of residing in the Bay Area, I've finally gotten myself to the summit of Mt. Tamalpais (aka Mt. Tam) in Marin. This beautiful mountain overlooks the Marin Valley, and is a part of many famous trails in the area. It's been taunting me, silently, and on my list of "to do's" for a while. 

I ran up with our friend Johan. He knows the trails there like the back of his hand, so he took me up a running friendly route. It was all "runnable" I'd say, although it definitely pushed me to my limits. Johan, who had recently finished an ultra marathon in Stockholm (I think a 90k?), was practically running circles around me. I completely threw my heart rate plan out the window, and just tried to keep up with him. 

There are several ways to get to the summit. Jon was hiking with his sister up this notorious (with the SFRCer's) trail called the Widow Maker. You can see our friend Brett's segment data here. It is basically STRAIGHT up, reaching the summit in less than two miles, whereas I took nearly seven miles at a low/moderate (5%-7%) incline.

I have to say, I was impressed. The views were tough to beat, and it was fun climbing around on the rocks at the top. There were even some rock climbers top rope climbing nearby. We were pretty fortunate to be going up on an unusually clear day, so we could easily see the entire city of San Francisco, the bridge, and plenty more. 

One thing I could have done without were all the thirsty and hungry bees at the top. I'm not allergic, but I've also never been stung and wanted to keep it that way. They tend to like bright colors, so my bright pink and purple attire was not working in my favor. Time to switch to black and grey. I am such a pansy.

Jon and his sister joined us at the top, we took some pictures, and then Johan and I ran down for another eight miles back to the car. It was a nice and easy gradual downhill, but for some reason my stomach was super sloshy/bloated/gurgly/monster-like and I had to trot down at an easy pace. 

Oh! I should mention that I also used the Jenny Vesta, and it was GREAT. I love the fit of the vest, nice and snug, no bouncing. I used a hydration pack in the back and had two bottles up front, which made it pretty freaking heavy. I might have to tweak that, but it's a good buy. I'm going to take some proper photos of it soon, and wear it a bit more before I give a review.

Since Mount Tam, I've been taking it pretty easy. There's been a heat wave, and over the long weekend I spent my free time outside gardening, harvesting, and tearing up our old tomato plants. This is only the tip of the iceberg.

All that time in the sun lead to some minor heat exhaustion, and dehydration. I went out for a MAF run later that night, and ended up tripping and falling. It was a slow fall. The same state of mind that I imagine cyclists have when they are clipped in and fall at a stop light. You know it's going to happen and you just have to let it happen. It was only in front of about 10 other people. Happy families on their evening holiday stroll. And no, nobody helped me, we all just diverted our eye contact and pretended like nothing happened. Naturally.

I had another easy run tonight, but the heat wave isn't helping things. Temps in the bay area are reaching triple digits, and even with the sun going down it was still in the 80's. My ankle is also a bit swollen now, the road rash really stings!

Tomorrow is the big JP Morgan Corporate Challenge. Storm8 has a team of 13 folks running this year. I'm really excited about it, and can't wait to post. I doubt I'll be breaking any records, especially since it's only supposed to be hotter tomorrow...but I guess you never know! More to come later!