Ironman Training Run

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Mountain Home Inn Trail Run

Today was a crazy day up on Mt. Tam. We started at the Mountain Home Inn along Panoramic and headed up. As always, M2 was a little scetchy with details, and admitted he'd never done this exact route, so we were all a bit worried.

The course was the Matt Davis trail to Pantoll Ranger station to start. This was a nice single track with switchbacks and some nearly overhand crawling on a few sections. The heavy rains were still draining from the mountain, so a few steam and mud-bog crossings were in order. Once we got to Pantoll we regrouped and for good reason since the first off made an immediate wrong turn and would have ended up in Stinson Beach and about 10 extra miles. The Park Ranger was really nice in making sure we knew where we were going since our fearless leader is not quite as forthcoming with directions. An unexpected turn came when she told us a bridge crossing had washed out, so it paid off a little asking for directions.

Down the Dipsea we went for two miles to Muir Woods. Of course we missed the turn the Ranger told us about and we ended up having to scamper over a fallen tree to cross the river, but then back on solid ground to our next obstacle, Miwok Trail. This was a crazy trail, starting at 120 feet, and ending at around 800 over 1.7 miles. Tim and I were off and only a few down trees got in our way. Heading up the hill I saw a California Condor circling, hopefully I didn't look that bad I looked like a good lunch with my heart pounding. Top of the hill and Tim was waiting after I got in a little over 17 minutes.

Running along Panoramic, making our way back to our cars, there was just one more dip into the valley to take on Sun Trail. Sun Trail was a good stretch of slight downhill for a few miles, but then a hairpin up on Redwood Trail was waiting that absolutely put the screws to us. Tim raced ahead, but a bear jumped on his back until I caught up and yelled at him and he was off again. Probably the steepest piece to the entire run, and at mile 11, not very welcome. Finally to the top and a short run to the car, and some well deserved Muscle Milk. Over 2600 feet of elevation gain!

Awesome day, and it felt even better as the rest of our group came in, feeling stronger than ever given the brutal terrain we just conquered.