A 31-Mile Trail Training Run From Mill Valley to Fisherman's Wharf — The Scenic Way

Friends, the Diablo 50k is coming up in about a month, so I trust that you getting in some weekend LSR's (the long slow run).  When training for a 50k, a good LSR can be between 18 and 27, I'd say - long enough to get your attention!

Today I have a bonus post, a relaying of a quick note written Sunday to several friends in the Bay Area Run for Fun trail group.  Bob below is BARF co-founder; Julian below is a 8-time Miwok 100k guy (I’m just a Miwok newbie, with 2 so far, but some experience w. about 240 half-marathons or longer over the last 7 years, including say 45 marathons or +); my fellow runners are the speedsters.

My plan, which is embedded in my adventure recap below, was to carpool from Walnut Creek’s Rudgear Park and Ride, run the BARF half-marathon round trip from Mill Valley via Dipsea, Steep Ravine, Pantoll and back to Mill Valley, BUT at the Sun Trail/Dipsea intersection at ~12 miles to veer off solo and run thru the Marin Headlands south to San Francisco and my all-time-favorite epicurean delight, In-n-Out, then BART it home.  I swagged this to be about 26 miles, so a worthy jaunt.

Read on … taking away three key training and race running tips: 

1) Always have enough nutrition onboard for whatever you might end up running (prevent fatigue, don’t try to treat it after it’s happened),

2) don’t get crazy 2 hours into a run and decide to run with the gazelles (unless you happen to be a gazelle plus don’t have what turns out to be 17 miles to go),

and 3) don’t you ever quit - just keep running all day (shout out to the Running Stupid podcast.)

From: jay mumford [mailto:jmumford@ethisphere.com] 

Sent: Sunday, March 24, 2013 10:04 PM
To: Bob
Cc: julianmrtz@ai...

Subject: I have certified the distance from Mill Valley to Ghirardelli Bldg, via Steep Ravine, Muir Woods (twice), Miwok trail, Sausalito, Ft. Point: 31.5 miles

26.2, not so much.  So … a bit of a miscalculation there!  Thanks for the car pool over to Mill Valley, which freed me up for a new adventure run to get from Marin to the city.  And an adventure it was …

Now, Julian you were witness around 11 miles, just after Mountain Home, to a special bit of fartlek craziness for which I later paid dearly. Adam and, er Tracy?, were zipping along.  Some special lunacy overcame me, and I decided to blast along with them from Mountain Home via to Sun, then over to the Sun/Dipsea intersection.  Well, I got a bit swept up in the speed play, so I turned on the jets with those 2 and we skedaddled along at a 6:30 – 7:15 pace, past Tourist Club, etc.  Probably only for ¾ a mile.  It was a lot of fun, but a very bad strategic decision.  See, a) they are just plain fast, b) they only had ~1.5 miles left, basically all downhill.  On the other hand, I am not as fast as those jackrabbits, and had at least 14 miles still to go!  Lesson learned, crazy sprinting thru the woods at 12 miles when not yet even at halfway point is bad.  Bad trail runner!

So we zoomed along, then after they zoomed on, sniff, I was there to take the turn again to the west at Sun + Dipsea.  Down to Muir, over to Miwok, 1.7 miles straight uphill and over Dais Ridge, Coyote, and onwards.  All alone, without my speed burners.  And quite tired, I suddenly realized.  I had some munchies, I had some Gu, but not nearly enough.

I then compounded the “adventure” by trying to get lazy and avoiding the climb out of Tennessee Valley staging area by, voila, not going down to the TV SA and instead keeping to the east on the ridge line looking south to TV.  This failed rather miserably because I ended up dropping down paved Country Home Rd plumb out of the rugged and interesting headlands and instead into the built-up east-side flats, over to the estuary, and along the paved trail all the way into Sausalito’s main drag. Sigh. Flat at this point is good, but paved trail with much bike traffic, bad. 

After Sausalito and a lemonade stand brownie purchased and inhaled, it was up up up to the north plaza of GG bridge.  So that elevation I tried to avoid by eschewing Marincello trail climb I think I ended up hitting all the same, but ithout the views coming down to the Bridge from above.

I hit the marathon point at the north plaza of the GG bridge … Looking from that n. plaza across the Bay to Fisherman’s Wharf, I could plainly see that it was still way too far to walk the 5 miles to the finish line, and no city bus was going to rescue me, so I chose to just keep on “running.”  Ghirardelli came at 31.5 and 7h33min.  I’ll count it!

I hadn’t really brought the appropriate food stores needed for a 50k, so I was reduced to walking a few times.  For example, up the “hill” from the n. plaza to the crown of the GG bridge, for a bit at 23 miles, for a bit at Crissy Field.

After all that, In-n-Out Fisherman’s Wharf, trolley bus, BART, the “Free Ride” from Walnut Creek BART to Broadway Plaza, then hoofing it another 1.25 miles to Rudgear Park and Ride, I arrived at my car perfectly on schedule, at, ahem, 6:49 pm.  :) What an adventure!

That said, feeling like a slacker today, I decided not to run up and down Mt. Diablo.  Perhaps tomorrow!

Thanks, Jay

And thanks for sticking with me, my readers.  This may have felt a bit like a 31 milers to you, too!