OK. I must confess a 20 year curiosity that I can’t seem to shake. In 1985, ABC’s Wide World of Sports televised the Western States 100 — a very long trail run from Squaw Valley to Auburn. Several years later, Durdam and I helped our friend Vikara make and attempt at completing the race. He came up short missing the time cutoff at 90 miles. For more than 10 years I have been wondering when I would consider it in earnest.
I have decided to attempt a "sanity check" — a 50 mile trail run in South Dakota. Actually, I have just started to "sanity check" my "sanity check" with a series of longer runs and aggresive hikes (read slogs). Last weekend I did a 15 mile run on Saturday and then went for a "hike" on Sunday. Amazingly, I haven’t hiked much in the Bay Area, and I randomly picked the only trail I had heard of – the Dipsea Trail.
What I did was actually a Double Dipsea (Mill Valley to Stinson Beach and back) and it was an ass-kicker. I wore a GPS device to see the profile afterwards. Here is the MotionBased Activity. 4,000 feet of climbing. On the way out the uphills hurt on the way back it was the downhills. The 4th of July I was in a recovery fog from the weekend.
It is always fun to be completely new to something. Lots to learn.
Today, I am hoping to climb to the top of Mt. Tam.
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