The day before I had kayaked Elkhorn Slough with visiting friend Maria, and biked up Hwy 1 to Davenport, and more important, was not really recovered from my Rio Resolution 10K a week earlier. In fact, on Wednesday I had tried to run 2 miles and barely did 1 before my right calf started complaining. Thursday I was able to run a slow 2 miles. And now I'm committing to run 13 miles, including some hilly trails? I was tired! I woke up on Sunday and tried my best to talk myself into just going back to sleep and not do this thing. But, in the end, I projected forward and saw I'd be feeling regret if I let this opportunity go by. It was a beautiful day and it's a beautiful run and besides, I still had my kayak gear in the car and my boat on the roof... I could kayak Waddell Creek after the run and do nature photography, as I love to do. At the last possible moment, I bolted out of bed, threw on my running shoes, grabbed my CamelBak and a Power Bar, and off I drove to the Mission Street Safeway to meet the gang. We had about 10 runners, plus Katherine Beirs and a couple of others had driven off earlier to be on the trail by 8 am. I really wasn't sure I would be able to do the run - either my right calf would feel worse as I kept running (in which case I'd stop and go back, do my kayaking and drive home early), or it would loosen up and I'd be fine. It turned out to be the latter, but I ran it slow just the same. 3 hours for the 13 mile round trip, including 5 minutes at the Falls. Man, I wish I'd stowed my camera in my Camelbak; the falls were gorgeous. Filtered sunlight came through the trees and hit just the right splashes and sprays on the 80 ft falls, so that it positively glowed under a beautiful rainbow. I took a mental picture, and started back. About 3 miles from the car, I caught up to Antoinette and we commiserated on past and future marathons, and I also demonstrated to her the advantages of using your glutes in running.

At left, I'm massaging my sore right calf before the run. Peter, on the other hand, is perfectly conditioned, except for lacking a jacket to deal with the frosty forest we're about to enter.

The Track Club does this run maybe twice a year. This time, it was a low key affair; no pancake-fest courtesy of Joe waiting at the end. After getting back to the car, I'd already decided I would immediately walk out into the surf to cold-plunge my legs, as I was feeling pretty beat for the last few miles. The surf was so rough, however, that after getting wet, I walked over to Waddell Creek and stood in it for 10 minutes instead. Not as cold as the ocean, but still cold enough to do the job. Then, dismounted my kayak from my roof and went for a nice paddle upstream.