On I did my last long run before the PCT50 race at El Moro. I met there Pete and two of his friends from his triathlete club – Lisa and Julie – both IronMan finishers.
We did a short but nevertheless hilly loop of just 9 miles. We ran down to Laguna Canyon, crossed Laguna Canyon Road and climbed the infamous Stairs trail in Aliso Canyon, and then just ran all the way back.
When climbing the Stairs, I had a lot of flashbacks from those long climbs at Leona and Mt.Dis, climbs that go on and on and on, and all you want is to get to the end and look in the eyes of that sadistic RD that included that stretch of the trail into the race course.
It is like in that Russian anecdote:
Imagine Russian farmers market. People sell grains, vegetables, chickens, cattle and stuff. And there is a big very gloomy man making his way through the crowd and dragging a huge bear on a chain after him. People stop him asking if he sells bear or something. – No, I just want to find that man, who sold this bear to me last year as a hamster.
A lot of those courses remind me that hamster (when you register for a race and check the course profile from home) that all of a sudden turns out to be a huge bear when you eventually get there.
Here are some more photos from our run:
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| El Moro: May 4, 2008 |
P.S. I am still working on my recap from PCT50 race and will paste it here shortly.
1 comment:
Hi Dmitri!
This greeting comes from Jenn of Jon and Jenn...remember us from the PCT 50? Alias Ben and Chris, but don't mention it to anyone...it is a xfiles project we have been working on....great meeting you on the trail and thanks for mending my knee...ya know my running partner thought dirt was the best treatment....he's a real sensitive guy as you might have noticed...it was nice chatting with you..please let me know of OC runs that are going on the next few weeks...John and I are training for Leadville 100...should be fun...wanna join us?
take care and write soon.
your Penny Pines friends
Chris & Ben
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