Muir Woods 25K

Rickshaw · Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2005 4:26 pm

Ever since my last marathon six weeks ago, I've really let my training slide. Prior to today, I'd only run five times for a total of about 30 miles during the whole six-week period since the marathon. Not exactly the best training! So to get my butt back in shape, I decided to do a trail race today: the Muir Woods 25K (about 15.5 miles).

This was definitely the toughest course I've ever run. It started right on the beach, with our toes practically in the Pacific ocean, and started immediately up some crazy-steep trails. Before long we reached Steep Ravine, which was very appropriately named. In many places it was just too steep to run at all, and the best I could do was power walk. At one point we even had to climb a ladder! This was all through gorgeous redwood forests with streams and waterfalls all around.

At about mile 3 the course crested the ridge and started down the other side. Suddenly I was flying downhill, jumping over roots, rocks, and fallen trees. Being sure-footed was really more useful than being fast in this section. We went all the way down the other side into Muir Woods National Monument, and startled some tourists.

The course turned around in Muir Woods, and went back up the ridge again by a different route. By this point I was pretty exhausted, and I power-walked a lot of the steepest sections, but didn't feel bad because everyone around me was doing it too. Finally the course crested the ridge about mile 11, and came crashing down a narrow trail on the other side. I managed to pass a huge number of people through the final miles, due to being more sure-footed and a little less exhausted than the competition.

I ended up finishing in 2:27, which seems pretty slow for 15.5 miles before considering the steep trails and tricky footing. In all, there was about 3300 feet of climbing over the route. I think I finished 12th out of about 100 people. All in all, I was fairly pleased that six weeks of relative inactivity hadn't totally ruined me. :-)