The G Running Diary

That's What I'm Talkin' About: 2/5/03

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Sunday we finally went out for a run after three weeks of nothing. Well, my intention was to go out hiking, because I was still unsure about my leg problem. I had tried a half hour run early in the week, and that hurt a lot the next day. But walking uphill didn't hurt, so maybe running uphill wouldn't hurt either. At some point you just have to try it out. Otherwise, you get weak and fat and can't run anymore anyway. Of course, if it was a serious injury, I would not run at all and would have to go to the gym and do all that gym exercise that I don't enjoy.

So we went to Mission Peak. It was more crowded than ever, probably because the weather was perfect. On a clear day you can see for miles, and it sure was clear. I knew climbing that thing would be hard. Don said that it would be under an hour no matter what. Maybe for him, but I thought that would be hard for me. On the trail there are two intersections, one very early and another just a little farther along, where you can go off to the right and follow the Horse Heaven trail. It's a different route that still eventually takes you to the top, but has flatter areas so you can run. Run! I wasn't sure about that, but we took the second fork to the right. I know I got a good workout, because I did try to run a lot of the switchback uphill section. There were plenty of cows out there, but they were not interested in us. The Horse Heaven trail is not as popular for people as the direct route to the peak, and it is a single track trail. It felt good to be out there. The sun was warm, the wind was cold, and I was hot from the effort.

We encountered the crowds again at the top of Mission Peak. Standing room only (well, it seemed like that). After a brief pause, we headed down the direct route. A guy with a Jack Russell Terrier was going down too, almost as fast as Don. I was being careful, even though the terrier kept looking back encouragingly at me (so I thought). This side of the peak was really windy, so I was glad when we got past it. Running downhill was going ok. We took it easy, so the whole run totaled 2 hours. And a note for anyone who wonders if ultrarunners have special healthy diets: we stopped at McDonalds drive-through before even making it home and I had a Big Mac and fries. It was a good day.