Trail Running in the Marin Headlands: A Fastpacking Adventure from San Francisco to Point Reyes - Part 2

The wild turkeys made me smile. I had flashbacks of staying in a hovel in Hawaii and being awoken by roosters. It boded well for my day. On a whim, I phoned the hostel in Point Reyes and they told me they had only one bed for one night. Oops. A large group had booked the place well in advance of yours truly, Ms-Flying-By-The-Seat-Of-Her-Pants. Oh well, I thought. So I unpacked most of my food and left it behind. One night it is.

The turkeys and I awoke to a beautiful day in the Headlands. After only 5 minutes, I had ditched my arm warmers by the time I reached Rodeo lagoon. However, between my re-packing and daylight savings time I had a slightly late departure time. Oh well, I thought. I'll get the extra light in the evening.

Flowers at Rodeo Lagoon

The first 5 miles of the Coastal Trail from Rodeo Lagoon to Muir Beach offer up some stunning scenery and some huge ascents and descents. The trail climbs and descends twice, but the scenery just pulls you along. I shared the trail with two mountain bikers, climbing out of Tennessee Valley. We were going the same speed and managed to chat a little as we climbed upwards. At the top of this climb we were rewarded with a long clear view of the coast and I let out a giant, "Wooooooohooo!" The boys laughed out loud and told me, "You're just happy to be out running in your running skirt."

They had me figured out already. I am a simple creature.


Outside of Muir Beach, I made my way up the Heather Cutoff and climbed upwards for almost 4 miles to the Pantoll Ranger Station. I enjoyed a hillside of pink flowers, I saw a coyote pouncing on some invisible prey, I was buzzed by hummingbirds and lazy turkey vultures and I scared a couple of deer who crashed wildly through the woods. Near the Dipsea Trail, I was joined briefly by a guy on a mountain bike who looked like Santa Claus, except the fitter California version. As we were filling our water bottles at Pantoll, Santa looked at my legs and exclaimed, "Hey girl, you're all pumped up!!" It's good to know my quads are still show stoppers. I was still laughing when I hit the Matt Davis Trail and continued on to the Coastal Trail.

The miles flew by as I cruised the 6.5 miles between Pantoll and the Bolinas Ridge Trail. This part of the trail is just so sweet. The singletrack. The colour of the earth. The views. The flowers. It's all so pretty.

Up until this point, I had no problem navigating the well marked trails. Between my maps and my memories of the Miwok 100km, I was doing well. Only one problem came up, and this was because my memory failed me and there was a gap in my maps between the Headlands and Point Reyes. I had a little detour, but figured it out and found my way on to the Bolinas RidgeTrail. I enjoyed the change of scenery as the singletrack changed to double-track and my world became dark, muddy, lush and green. I felt small running through these quiet, massive trees. I ran 5 miles on the trail, before I took a sharp detour down the Randall Trail.

When I reached Highway 1, I had been running for 8 hours and it was already 5:30. I quickly realized that I wasn't going to make it before dark. Thanks my late start, day light savings time, my propensity to take photos and the stunning scenery that kept stopping me dead in my tracks, I was going to need a Plan B. I had my headlamp, but I was nervous about the unfamiliar trails. Fortunately for me, there was a couple of hikers at the trailhead who gave me a lift to the Olema Point Reyes Information Centre. From there I enjoyed my first taste of the trails of Point Reyes and cruised the last miles into the hostel before it got dark. I was tired, happy and hungry. My energy and my legs had been great all day. I couldn't believe how good I felt after my 32ish miles!!

When I arrived at the Point Reyes Hostel, I immediately met up with the group leaders who were responsible for the 20 high school students who were the "group reservation" at the hostel. When I told them I had travelled by foot, on trail, from the city, they thought that was pretty cool. I had to repeat it a few times: Yes, I ran here. On trails. By myself. You ran 40 miles? Yes. On trails.

After that, it was my turn to be surprised. In turn, they told me it was no problem for me to stay additional nights and that they would be happy to share their food with me. Woooop! Here's to good people and good fortune. I was going to get to explore the trails of Point Reyes afterall!!

Stinson Beach Race Report and Happy Anniversary Run

First, a quick snapshot of Keith and I pre-race yesterday morning at the start line of the Stinson Beach 30km trail run:

Awwwwww!?! Aren't we just the cutest?? And does this look like the San Francisco Headlands in November? I was prepared for cool and windy with a side of rain, but hey - we were pretty stoked with this finer than normal weather we were gifted.

For contrast, this was taken 24 hours later out of our front window:

Can you spot the difference?? Yikes.

Yesterday, we were blessed with some pretty sweet Northern California weather for our "Anniversary Run" at Stinson Beach. It was awesome! And my husband was a super-star. I am still in awe that he even agreed to go on a "running holiday" and let me beat him up for 9 days and then run a 30km race together at the end of it. I think he loves me! I am a lucky girl.

Keith fueled up the night before with a Guiness and a Blue-cheese and bacon burger and we found a place to stay a block from the start line. It was great to just wake up, eat and stroll on down to the start line. We got there early to enjoy some "Pre-race" time and hopefully see some familiar faces.

It was great to meet Dave of Atlanta Trails, who has dropped off the face of the blogging world after moving from Atlanta to the Bay Area. It's all good Dave - we Get It. Grad School is sort of busy like that!

Keith and Dave heading out and UP!!

We got to enjoy the first bit of the run with Dave, who was running the 20k. As we headed out of town to join up to the Dispsea trail, there was a massive bottle neck of runners all waiting to get on the single track, which was pretty entertaining. Good thing we weren't in a hurry! The race had over 450+ people with a 12k, a 20k, a 30k and a 50k option available. When we hit the Dipsea we could see the runners off in the distance heading up towards the Steep Ravine Trail.

The famous Dipsea Trail and Steep Ravine were as gnarly as I had anticipated and we all walked this section together as one big mass of runners. You couldn't have run anyways, with the volume of runners on the trail. It was a great slow start and forced march for Keith, who has the habit of going out a wee bit fast! The trail was cool, dark and moist but we were already sweating buckets on this warm November day.

After about 55 minutes of trudging upward on the steep trail, we finally emerged from the ferns and redwoods into the sunshine of the Bolinas aid station. En route we picked up Neil, who was a great pace match for Keith and we ended up running with him for the duration of the race! He had done the Hawaii Ironman 4 weeks ago and was rocking the 50k on this day. More importantly, he kept Keith chatting and distracted for the entire duration of the run! A super nice guy.

After the huge elevation gain, when we finally came out of the forest, the trails and views just opened up. It was a FINE day to be enjoying a sweet trail run in a beautiful place. And the company was good, too! I had not one, but two boys to run with!!!

Neil - the Aloha boy

The descent down into the town of Muir Beach was so much fun! The boys were rocking it when we hit the aid station and turn around. From there, we had a little reprieve on the flats before another big climb back to the top, where we enjoyed some more sweet coastal views.

Pause for smooch - (He didn't want to Stop!)

Keith - leading the pack of two....

The descent back down to the finish line at Stinson Beach was more great single track, twisty-turny, rooty, technical and F-U-N! The boy was starting to run out of juice at this point, but he sucked her up and got 'er done. His downhilling has improved hugely just in the past few months. Superstar! Bonus stars for you.

Too bad he was too tired to carry me across the finish line of the Anniversary Run and he didn't take me up on the offer to carry him (next time, honey!) but he had fun, was stoked to be out running around on the trails and was thrilled to finish as a solid mid-packer! Yeeeah-honey bun! He ran strong, smart and happy.

The Pacific Coast Trail Runs team serves up a great event. Wicked course, great trails in pretty places and awesome aid stations and organisation. Maybe Keith and I will make it an annual event!!

Happy 10th Anniversary Keith! Love you and thanks for a great week and a great Anniversary run!