I haven't taken many pictures lately, and wanted to get back in the habit. This past Sunday, I woke up early and drove up to Russian Ridge Open Space for the sunrise. Here are a couple pictures from the trip.
Valley Sunrise
Bay Area Sunrise
Setting Moon
This wasn't my first 50k, and it sure won't be my last. But it was quite a memorable one.
My first 50k was back in December 2011, at The North Face Challenge Championships which are held every year in the Marin Headlands. After completing my 30k in 2010, I went on to do really well (for a first time 50k) on The North Face Course. I had a goal of finishing within 8 hours, and then I ended up completing the ~32 mile course in 6 hours and 45 minutes, demolishing my goal.
Since I had done so well, and enjoyed the 50k, I was easily swayed by my friends to sign up for another 50k; the Tahoe Rim 50k. The run starts at 6900ft above sea-level, has around 6800ft of climbing, reached a low of 6500ft and a high of 8900ft. I signed up for the run in January and decided to start training. Then I forgot to keep training.
Months kept going by where I would remember to train and that I should be ramping up the miles. Then I'd get busy and forget to run far. I was still running, but not the double digit runs that I probably should be have doing. Around late May is when I really tried to get more serious about running. Looking at my GPS logs, I see that I ran about 30 miles in May (mostly back-loaded), before stepping it up to 72 miles in June. And my longest run in June was a crazy 11 miler with 1300 feet of elevation gain (end sarcasm). Before I knew it, it was July, and just a few weeks remained. Plus I was supposed to taper at some point. The longest run I went on was somewhere around 16-18 ...
What does one do when one has a cabin in Truckee and a season pass to a ski resort that is blacked out? Well, in my case, I still want to be active in the snow. Over the past week, I decided to go snowshoeing up near Donner Lake. Family and friends parked near Donner Summit and then followed part of the Pacific Crest Trail south towards Sugar Bowl until we were able to overlook Donner Lake on a beautiful day.
Forging a Trail
Icicles
Then, a few days later, on New Years Eve day, I went nordic skiing for my first time ever. We started at the State Park at the east end of Donner Lake and followed a trail several miles out, for about a four hour trip. By the end, I was definitely ready to be done with the skis, and probably won't go that long again until I'm a bit more experienced on skis (downhill and nordic). It definitely didn't sour my first experience though and I plan on going at least several more times this winter.
First Time Nordic Skiing
Snow and Shadows
