September 15

AM: 15+ miles moderate

Today's run on the Dipsea Trail was memorable.

I drove up to Marin to meet Varner and Sam in Mill Valley to trace the route of the Dipsea--a famous trail race that runs from Mill Valley to Stinson Beach. To give you an idea of the difficulty of the terrain, we covered not quite 16 miles in 2:22. Normally for us, that would easily be 20 miles or more on reasonable terrain. Not today.

The trail is an old hat for Varner, who's won the Dipsea and Double Dipsea trail races a bunch of times, but relatively new for Sam and completely new for me. With more than 4,000 feet of climbing, the trail reduced us to hands-on-knees power hiking, especially on the trails infamous sets of stairs. On the steeper descents (especially the stairs), Sam and I settled for carefully staying upright, cursing under our breath as Varner bounded down like a frightened jackrabbit, knowing where to put every footfall.

One stretch on the way out included a 20-minute climb, and another stretch on the way back included a climb that lasted nearly a half hour. Despite our pedestrian-on-paper pace, there were several times where I could hear my heartbeat in my ear drums, but we were rewarded with some great views of the San Francisco Bay and Pacific Ocean flanking us to either side at the top of the highest of a series of named climbs. Once we got to Stenson Beach, we took just enough time to slurp down a gel and some water before during back and doing it all over again.

I finished tired, dirty, and dry mouthed, but days like today make you tougher and stronger.

Some of the aforementioned stairs.