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Lake Sonoma ridge tops

August 11, 2018 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: 90ish and hot sun, but no humidity

Comments:
We didn't get out to run in the early morning because ebelskievers were too tempting and then Lew and I rowed over to the boat landing to visit with Lucy, Tom I, and Jill and then rowed back with Alex and Teal. Then had to do some more odds and ends before finally heading off to run with Alex Kaz right around noon. (He and Kim just moved ot SF two weeks ago.)

I tried to recreate last year's run and ended up successfully connecting both of last year's runs by forming a loop up the big hill from the camp (with a fair bit of walking to reach the summit) and taking the ridge with its numerous steep climbs past the boat landing, and dropping down on the fire road to the Yorty Creek access road and back past the boat landing along the fisherman's trail until we were 150 meters from camp on the far bank at which point Lew met us by kayak. We gave her our shoes and watches and we swam the final chunk back to camp.

Alex seemed excited to run with me and I was fairly intimidated to be doing an off-road endurance run in mid day sun through arid hip high grasses and burs with a guy who has run two 50 mile races and multiple iron mans. Turns out he hasn't been running much this summer, isn't training for anything right now and requested to walk every major hill in the second half of the run and some downhills and flats too by the end. He also was surprised I wasn't bringing a water bottle and finished his off without ever offering me a swig. (Of course, he could swim much better than I, but this run just about broke him and I think I earned some credit in his eyes as I ran every hill and doubled back to him on the flats. I did have to walk to keep him company, far more than I would have liked, but it was nice to have the company and to be showing off. It was hot, but the air is so dry that sweat actually cools you off and the final two miles were downhill for the most part, so I never despaired. In fact, I felt surprisingly good on the crazy steep climbs and was glad I didn't have to run back down those hills as they are too steep to get down safely.

Alex's fancy watch said he covered 5 miles in an hour and 15 minutes, but every time he walked, I ran ahead and doubled back and I think I ran just about 5 too. The watch also said we climbed over 1,000 ft during the run (including the first hill which had a lot of walking.) Still, it was a good challenging run and I was satisfied to have felt pretty good all in all. With the circumnavigation of the Yorty Creek portion of Lake Sonoma and the final swim to return to camp, the route felt very satisfying.