Getting in a quick 29.

Had an awesome time with the fam at our annual church retreat in the Santa Cruz mountains.  Lots of bible learning, games, sports, pool time, all in a beautiful serene setting.  But alas it had to come to an end and I still needed to get my miles in the form of a long run, so I decided to run back to town.

It is basically all roads, but these are California backcountry roads for the most part, which usually don't see too much traffic and may narrow down to one lane in confined sections.  You just have to keep your head on a swivel, learn the various sounds of approaching traffic, and get out of the way of the loud cars that you know are having fun...

The first part of the run consisted of beautiful mountain roads that were either in the shade of giant redwoods, or on an open hillside with views sometimes all the way to the ocean.

Preparing for departure from cabin 8B.

From Highland to the ocean.

Looking across to Sierra Azul from Summit rd.

 Once you reach old Santa Cruz highway it is a nice long downhill to lexington reservoir.  At this point you just hook up with the los gatos creek trail and get in some nice bike path running all the way to campbell park.  I have run home from there before, but had decided before I started the run that I was only going for 29 miles as part of a controlled buildup in my training preparing for Firetrails.  So Joanne was kind enough to pick me up at campbell park.

It was hoppin at Vasona Lake.

I looked so calm and collected when I started out.  What happened?
Campbell park - credit Joanne Johnson - she always catches me at my best...

The day was much warmer than I would have preferred, but overall I felt ok except for a patch where I ran out of water for a few miles, but that is all part of the gig.  I did it in about 4 hrs, but I know under cooler conditions and no water shortage (wouldn't have had a water shortage under cooler conditions anyways), I think I could have gotten 3.5 hrs no problem.