While up there a group of 5 deer fed within 10 yards of me. I snapped a few photos through the brush.

Total for the week: 5.5 miles.

WED/Thurs- Skipped the scheduled track workout to attend to social obligations. These couple of late nights but me at a bit of a sleep deficit this week.

Friday- Just did a basic 4 miler out the driveway and back. With 2 rest days you would have thought this would have been faster, but I got it done.

Sunday- Marked trail starting at 6:35 am. Big group of six of us made it go fast. Did 7.5 miles in 1:30, and arrived back in time to take off with the group for a second loop.
Second loop was in 1:23. Fastest mile was mile 7 at 8:43. My legs felt pretty trashed at the end.

Mileage for the week: 22 miles
Mileage for the Month/year 119 miles.

Wednesday- The Daily Double track workout. Warmed up with a 2 mile run to the track from work. Did 2 1200m sprints, 2 800 m sprints, 2 600m sprints, and finished with 2 400 m sprints. Each sprint my pace got faster, as I went from an 8:40 mile pace, down to a 7:00 mile pace on my last sprint of the night. Cooled down with a 2 mile run back to work by headlamp.

Friday-Wasn’t feeling 100% at work with a slightly upset stomach and headache, but got the four mile run done. 2 hours after was hit with a fever and became violently ill. Went to bed and woke up feeling better except dehydrated. to quote trail runner John M. (not me) “vomiting is inconvenient, not fatal.”

Sunday- Another Double loop marking the trail at quarter to seven AM with Patrick, Lori and Doug. Started raining on us about 4 miles in on the first loop, and continued for the whole second loop. Trails were pretty dry before the new rain, but got slippery on the second loop. Felt really good as we finished the second loop with just under 2 hours of time running. I’m handling the hills better this year.

Weekly mileage: 26.25
Year to date: 74.9 miles

Wednesday- 4.43 miles on the Fleet Feet Fun run. Another Headlamp run with Marc Strozyk and the crew from Fleet Feet. He paused his Garmin at the stoplights, and our pace looked a lot better. This run was one where I felt good nearly the whole run.

Friday- 4.55 miles out the driveway with a turnaround at Garzelli’s. Didn’t realize I was at such a fast pace on the way out. I think my aerobic conditioning is improving. Almost broke an under 9min/mile pace for the whole run.

Sunday- Early morning run with Patrick From Fleet Feet, and Lori Barekman, a Physical therapist. We were marking the route for the Annadel HM training group. We did the first five mile loop in about 1:06, hung out while Marc gave his pre run talk to the group of about 80, and then took off once more for a second loop. Did the second loop in about an hour. Felt really good at the finish. If I can keep 2-looping for the next 12 weeks I will be ready for an ultra. I’m going to have to start 20 minutes earlier each week as the distance increases!

18.2 miles for the week in 3 runs.
24.41 miles for the year in 4 runs

Tuesday- 4 miles on an out and back at 8:16 pm with the turn around at San Antonio Road.

Wednesday- 4.44 miles with Fleet Feet in Santa Rosa. Leigh, Bald Zach, Jeff, and I were schooled by 3 boys age 8-11. Granted they were all nationally ranked in the mile, and one of them ran a 5:26 mile at a national track meet. Kept them in sight until we crossed Santa Rosa Avenue on the way back. Then they left us in the dust. Got to visit with some Fleet Feet Santa Rosa Alumni, Chandra and Erin after the run at the store.

Saturday- 3.2 miles out and back in the driveway

Sunday- First run of 2012 in Annadel State park. 6.55 miles with my running family. We even took a group photo with some deer in the background. (click on picture to see full size)

On the trail with Marc Strozyk in the lead. His Garmin data is what is linked.

Marc's Garmin Data. Click for full size.

Total mileage for the Week: 18.16 miles (2011 avg was 13.58)
Total mileage for all of 2011: 679 miles in 117 runs (5.8 mile avg distance)
Total mileage for 2012: 6.55 in 1 run

Salt Point State park is in a no mans land between the Mendocino Coast and the Bay Area. It is not “on the way” to anything unless you are an abalone diver or have a fear of four lane highways. Windy Highway 1 is the sole access to this park famous for its rocky shoreline, rhododendrons and pygmy forest.

It is because of its semi remote location the Fleet Feet Santa Rosa Trail Run Training Group made plans to camp the Friday night before the race at the state park. This allowed us to wake up and not rush in the morning, just a mile or two from the start. At 5:00 pm I arrived at our camp and was greeted by long time training mates, Jeff , Al, Anna, Patrick, Ericka, Jen MC, Jen O, Shelby, Maggie, Lucy, Amy, Kim, Chris, and Tim. Marc Strozyk, who had been our fearless leader head instigator, motivator and coach, over the past twelve weeks had established our campsite as a base of operations. A soon as we had our tent up and dinner finished Marc rustled up a convoy to head to the coast to watch the sun set.

Now since I have been training with Fleet Feet, we have run at Salt Point 3 times. Two were training runs and one race in 2009. Each time we camp the night before and the evening sunset has become a ritual we all look forward to. There is something incredibly comforting as you watch the sun slip below the Pacific ocean horizon. I can honestly say that no two sunsets have been the same. This one was unique in its own right, as the fog bank off the coast gave the yellow orb the appearance of a mushroom cloud before slipping into dusk.

It is at this time that we all hold our support crew close to us and tell them how much we appreciate that they are there to cheer us on. In our group we had my three daughters, a husband, with their infant son, a couple of other kids, boyfriends and girlfriends, as well as training partners who wouldn’t be running the race due to injury. I think our group was responsible for over 75% of the spectators at Saturday’s race.

After heading back to camp in the fading light, most of us retired early to be fresh for the morning. Despite midnight attacks from marauding raccoons through out the night we were all up and having our first cup of coffee by 6:30 am. We convoyed to the parking lot ½ mile from the start and hiked to the registration. More of our fellow runners joined us there who had driven the hour and a half from Santa Rosa, and our loud chatter elicited glances from other runners as we waited to pick up our bibs and shirts.

After a short briefing via bullhorn, all the 11km, 26 km, and 50 km runners started all at once. The start was 200 yards from a right turn on to a narrow single track that wound up the hill to highway 1 and the congestion reduced the line to a walk. We were bumper to bumper all the way to the highway where our procession awakened a wasp or hornets nest, and I felt a sting on the back of my right thigh shortly before crossing the highway.
The pain from the sting distracted me as I ground up the offending insect between my fingers, and followed the runners ahead of me. Once across the highway I thought we were in trouble when the line in front of me headed up the hill instead of heading south parallel to the road. I knew we were in trouble when the trail led us through a surprised camper’s tent site. We turned south looking for a feeder trail to get us back on track but the asphalt pathway took us in a circle away from the correct direction. My heart sunk as I rounded the bend and saw our campsite in the trees ahead.

At this point I decided to head back to where I’d gone off course. I hollered to other team mates to take a left and we were quickly back to the road where I saw Al and Anna Meyers from our group just coming to the turn we had missed.

I hollered to them “Al we are off course!”

He replied back “We’re not! I got ribbons here!”

With their help we got back on course, with about ½ a bonus mile extra and we continued along the marked course. Other members of our team weren’t so lucky. Seven of our people and numerous other runners were stung as well. Doug, who had registered for the 50 k received multiple stings and had to go for medical attention. Twenty or so runners ran an additional two miles before they intersected the correct trail.

The first three miles was a steady climb. The state budget crunch was evident as the trails were overgrown and no down trees had been removed this year. In fact it was a down tree that caused the majority of people to go off course. Never the less, I continued up the long grade, gaining 1000 feet in elevation from the coastline over 3 miles and came out of the trees into a beautiful meadow known as “The Prairie”. We crossed back into the tree cover, and negotiated a rolling terrain until we came out on Kruse Ranch Road. A mile down Kruse Ranch , road, through the Plantation Farm Camp, another half mile to the Stump Beach trail where I refilled my water bottle, and ate a quarter of a PB&J. At that moment, it seemed it was the tastiest thing on earth. Perhaps it was the two mile singletrack back down 1000 feet to the coast, after 6 miles of climbing is coloring my recollection. I ran down a smooth duff covered path through redwoods and madrone trees with gravity pulling me forward and I just had to keep my feet moving. In the back of my mind I thought “better save some legs for the second loop” but the joy of rocketing downhill drew me on.

I crossed the highway and arrived at Stump Beach to see my daughters playing in the sand with friends Adam Schaible and Maggie Allen keeping watch. Maggie shouted encouragement and snapped photos as I negotiated the treacherous cliff, crossed the creek and began the shoreline portion of the course. This part is deceptively treacherous as the trail hugs the cliff edge and undulates along the sandstone that has been sculpted and scoured by wind and water over the centuries. It is easy to take a misstep while admiring the view.

And what a view it was. The day was a clear and sunny 65 degrees F, while the sea breeze kept it relatively cool; it was a warm day for this part of the world usually shrouded in fog.

Because of the wide open coastline, this stretch is mentally difficult because you can see a long way ahead and there is not the feeling that you are making progress fast enough. In addition the rolling terrain makes finding a rhythm difficult at best. Just the promise of another well stocked aid station drew me on.

When I arrived at the aid station, I saw one of our group, Lucy sidelined with an ice pack. Briefly the thought of just continuing 200 yards to the finish flashed through my head but I gritted my teeth and headed for the second loop with the mantra “Let’s Finish this %^&*(&”

On the second loop I walked with purpose for most of the hills. My stung leg was an annoyance but I couldn’t sense any swelling or other problems. Perhaps the antihistamine I took that morning mitigated any symptoms. Besides I had other distractions.   My quads were complaining, and my hips were feeling the toll of the terrain. My calves threatened to cramp despite the Endurolytes tablet every 30 minutes the sheer volume of sweat I was producing, coupled with 40 oz of water intake in 2 hours. I was 15 minutes behind my 2009 pace at the start of the second loop and now the only goal was to finish.

The first three miles of the second loop I was solo. It made it hard to spur myself on and easier to walk since no one was watching. My pace wasn’t as steady and determined as I crested out at the prairie for the second time that day, but I knew my last big climb was behind me and I downed my last gel, bit my last electrolyte tab, and washed it down with the last swig of warm water in my bottle with three miles left to go.

I had three runners overtake me along that stretch, and we passed each other a couple times along there. I encountered other runners who cramps had way laid along the trail. These were people I regarded as good runners, and it gave me pause as I pushed the images out of my mind and focused on getting to the finish.

When I hit the coastline trail I didn’t marvel at the views this time….Just the 30 feet in front of me. Because of the nice day, hikers and tourists abounded so I had people to pass on the trail. The walk breaks became more frequent. As I covered the last ½ mile for the third time that day, runners who finished ahead of me and were walking towards me voiced their support. I must have heard “just a little further”, and “good job” a dozen times along that stretch. It was enough to make me kick my pace up a notch to finish at a run, with 3:36:03 on the clock as I ran through the finishing chute.

The nice thing with finishing at the back of the pack is that all your friends are there to greet you at the finish. We all compared wounds and war stories as more of our group came in and I relaxed with a cup of chicken soup and 20 oz of the saltiest sports drink ever. It hit the spot.

We bid farewell to our teammates headed home, and my daughters and I along with fellow runners Jennifer McClendon, Adam Schaible, and their children, went down the coast to Historic Fort Ross. After there we returned to our campsite to spend the night with Marc, Patrick and Ericka. Back in camp we relived the race and relaxed, grateful for the luxury of stretching out instead of being car-bound with tired legs.

After a night without raccoon raids we packed up and headed home happy in the time spent with friends around a campfire and on the trail. It seems as if good friendships are cemented more when you share experiences, and especially shedding blood and sweat together.

Not only was this a training run to prepare for my race in August but it was an opportunity to get out the tent and get some nights under the stars with my fellow trail runners.

We hiked about a mile down to the ocean to watch the sunset on Saturday night. Tim, a fellow runner and hunter had three abalone we enjoyed grilled with butter and garlic. We finished out the night around the Campfire.

The next morning we enjoyed coffee as the birds tweeted their wake up calls. I could feel the prior evening’s hike in my hamstrings so I was a little hesitant about how today’s training run would be. Last year here, I had a very bad training run and that caused me to almost bow out of the race.

1375 feet of elevation gain at the start AND at the finish OOOFFF!

This time I was familiar with the trail so I knew what lay ahead. I ran when I could, walked when I had to and I took advantage of the downhill whenever possible.

Our route for our training run

As far as fueling, I had a powergel at 30 minutes in, and 1 hour in. I was doing one salt tablet every 30 minutes until I discovered that the sweat had dissolved the last three gelcaps in my pocket. My 45 oz Camelbak reservoir never got empty and travelled well between my shoulder blades, in my Badlands Reactor Pack (now sold as the Hyper Hydro).

On the long single track down hill of the two mile Stump Beach trail, my toe caught a root and I went rolling I scrambled to my feet and looked behind me…No one in sight. Perhaps no one would know I took a tumble.

At the end of a long downhill stretch with 3 miles to go.

When I hit the coast, SueK and the Reeds were on hand to take photos. As our Coach Marc said “When I hit the coast, I was toast” My two mile shuffle along the coast was rewarded with a pleasant breeze, crystal blue water, and sunshine.

Climbing up out of the creekbed was the start of the coast section and a momentum shift after two miles of fast downhill. Zach Rounds, a 70.3 (half-iron) triathlete, passed me at this point.

Soon I was back at the uphill section of our hike the evening before.  I knew the finish of the run was only.8 miles further so I tried to maintain a trot as I jumped over the down logs, crossed Highway One and arrived back at our starting point.  I had covered the 8.79 miles in 1 hour 43 minutes. 

Soon I realized my tumble was not going to go unnoticed.  Although superficial, that little scratch made a dramatic blood trail.  I had to fess up that I had wiped out.   After catching my breath I walked back to our campsite for a nice cooldown.  A quick clean up, and change of clothes and we broke down camp and bid farewell to one another until next week’s long trail run.

The status jumped out at me from the computer screen:

Marc Strozyk

Anyone want to join me tomorrow morning for a 14 or so mile run in Annadel???? Haven’t decided on route yet but I might just meander. Let me know.

After being seatbound in the car after almost 6 hours of driving, I was feeling pretty energetic.  I fired back a response that I would meet my buddy Marc at the Parktrail Drive trailhead, and we would figure out where we were going on the fly. 

I showed up fashionably late told Marc I wanted to see the trails I hadn’t seen before.  He got a mischevious gleam in his eye, and we headed up the Veterans Memorial Trail (in honor of the day).  We were both carrying Camelbak resevoirs and felt we could get back from anywhere a trail might take us in the park.  We hit the Canyon trail and followed it to Marsh where we picked up an unmapped single track that wound its way up through the oaks to an open ridge with a spectacular view of the Santa Rosa Valley. 

Marc’s Garmin told us between gasps we had covered just 3 miles.  Fortunately there were few trails that ventured any higher so we were confident we could withstand the remaining 11 miles to meet our mileage goals for the day.   We continued along the single track along the ridge top with a general feeling for the direction we were headed, but not really knowing like a structured trail run with a mapped out route.  At this point I told Marc I had never seen the Rhyolite Trail so we made that our next destination.

After a brief detour down Lawndale we found the trail we were looking at and found the flagstone quarry at the end of the trail, amongst the redwoods on the North facing slopes.  Another trail checked off my “never seen” list.  At this point we returned to familiar trails with 8 miles of exploring done, and we knew we had about 6 miles back to the car.

Our return route took us to Buick Meadow, up and down South Burma trail to Richardson.  Then the Lake trail took us to the dam at Lake Ilsanjo, and down the treacherous Spring Creek Trail.  With 13.25 miles on our legs I negelected to pick up my feet on the lower part of Spring Creek and skinned up my knee a bit.  It provided some amusment to the two horsewomen that witnessed the event.  I shook it off and we finished the run without any further incident.   

After the run with Marc.

Back at the car we cooled off with a Roscoe’s Amber Ale, and agreed it was an epic adventure.  When Marc uploaded the track from his Garmin, He wrote:

Activity Type: Trail Running | Event Type: Recreation
One of my most fun trail runs of all time! John Martin and I set out to run 14 + miles and we said we would just meander. We went off the beaten path and made our way up to the beautiful Boob. We went down the back side and just picked whichever trail looked cool. We made it all the way out to Lawndale. We checked out Rhyolite trail and then came back via Marsh, South Burma, Richardson and Spring Creek. John bit it on the downhill of Spring Creek but we were both running on some tired legs. We finished and enjoyed an ice cold beer together at the finish. We agreed that we are some bad ass trail runners . BTW – I thought I was immune to poison oak. After today’s run maybe not. This was definitely one of my favorite runs of all time. Thanks John for the awesome company.

Elevation profile for our Run Elevation Gain: 2,295 ft

Mile splits for our run. "long, slow, distance" was our motto

 I headed for the Ranch and got a shower at my folk’s house.  Despite my tired legs, my youngest insisted we catch horses and go for a ride to visit the neighbors.  So we rode and visited with folks along our 4 mile route.  Sydney was a pro handling her mount “Candy” and proudly showed everyone who would watch how she could trot and rein her mount.  It was a great capper to the day.  My Gelding Shorty was full of pee and vinegar and probably should have been on our run route that morning. 

Looking back on the day over a grilled hamburger and cold beer, I felt pretty satisfied with what we had accomplished over 3 days.  Numerically it was 750 miles by car, 84 arrows, 14.25 miles by foot and 4.04 miles by horse.  It was truly an epic few days.

Fourteen months later the second running of the  Annadel Half Marathon took place on April 17th, 2011.  This year featured a new course, a new start/finish area and an additional 100 race entry slots.   A whole slew of special activities were planned to celebrate  the 40th anniversary of Annadel State Park. This milestone comes at a challenging time, with ongoing fiscal cuts debilitating park services and threatening to restrict public access.  In support and celebration of the park, Fleet Feet Sports Santa Rosa and Empire Runners held the 2nd annual Annadel Half (Marathon) 2011 to assist Valley of the Moon Historical Association in raising much needed funds for Sonoma County parks.

Even though the organizers bill the 13.1 mile trail run as a “gnarly trail run over tough uneven steep terrain”, over 250 runners signed up for the Kathy’s Race 5K.  It used the same Start/Finish area at the Spring Lake swimming Lagoon area, but stuck to fire roads along Spring Creek on a more “family friendly” and less technical course.

This year’s route took us up over 1480 feet of elevation gain with less out and back trail as compared to the year prior.  The UP consists of two separate grades of note.  The first is a windy technical trail that lasts for most of  mile 2  known as “Rough Go” .  The next 4 miles is a rolling gradual climb until at mile 6 the two mile stretch of the “South Burma” trail adds an additional 650 ft of elevation, cresting just before  ”Buick Meadow”, and aid station #4.  There we have six miles of downhill, rocky, treacherous fire roads to run on legs that already paid a toll on the earlier climbs.

My preparation for this event started back in January when the Fleet Feet Santa Rosa  opened up a training group specifically to train for this event.  We ramped up our long run mileage each week as well as doing shorter runs and “speed work” during the week.  13 weeks of training peaked with a 13.2 mile run two weeks prior on fire roads that I completed in 2:25.  I figured with the additional elevation I could expect a time under 2:30 (two hours and thirty minutes).

The night prior, Fleet Feet Santa Rosa hosted a pasta feed (put on by Pasta King) and race  packet pick up.  It was a great chance to socialize in civvies with  the folks I’d only seen in technical running gear on Sundays.  I must say this group cleans up GOOD.

The next morning at 6:30 it was overcast and the high clouds obscured just the tops of the ridges we would be cresting on our run today.  THe high for the day was forcast to be in the 70′s, and the humidity was moderate in the 60% range.

I was helping set up and had a chance to let the pre race butterflies get at me.  Adrenaline is my friend with the exception of pre-event anticipation.  I remarked to my friend Rhonda that it wouldn’t be a big deal if this was a training run but I still felt “a little funny in my tummy”.   Luckily I found plenty of friends to talk with before the gun went off to distract me until a few minutes before the start.

Halfway up Rough Go I ran with Linda Reed, a local triathlete of note. Photo by Alan Marshall

As described earlier in the column the first mile is wide and flat and gave us a chance to sort ourselves out.  The climb up Rough Go spread us more.  I passed some people, I was passed as much.   I noticed I broke a sweat earlier than normal on the rainy training runs and immediately regretted not packing a few salt tablets.   I noticed I was drinking more water than usual and I hit the first energy gel 15 minutes into my run with the hopes of preempting any issues.   The sheer abundance of  aid stations meant my water bottle never got under 1/2 full.  My previous training run I’d  run 13.2 miles on 30 oz of water, and during the race it was hard to gauge but I’d  refilled again at mile 4.   About a mile past there I began getting some stomach issues and had to walk while I sorted them out (TMI moment, sorry moving on)  But between Mile 4.5 and 7,  I was not in a good place mentally.   It also was some uphill pulls, but finding a rhythm was tough for that 3 mile stretch.

Photo by Patrick Temple. Coming into the Rough Go-Live Oak Aid Station (#2)about 4 miles in. Shortly after this I hit my "rough patch"

Once I saw the second picnic table on the South Burma Trail I knew I’d covered all the hard climbs and I began to find my rhythm on the downhill stretch and noticed the toll it had taken on my legs.  On previous training runs along this stretch I felt strong and nimble.  This time I was finding  that rock-hopping along the downgrades didn’t feel as sure as they had before.  It showed in my pace later.

I rolled into Buick Meadow (the 8 mile mark) at 1:38:00 (a 12:15 pace over the 1480 feet of elevation gain).  Unbeknownst to me the winner had been done 10 minutes already.  As I swung down the Marsh Trail I found a pace that seemed workable but instead of passing people as I’d done before along this stretch in training, I found I was the one being passed.  It was a struggle to maintain a turnover and stride that I was used to on this technical but downhill stretch.  The early miles had put a hurt on me.

As the trails widened out and began to level out my fuel tank was draining fast.  I noticed I was not as careful placing my feet, and had some stumbles and an ankle twist that elicited comments of  ”nice recovery!” from runners behind me as I did the High Hop- Recover- Just Keep Running move.  More runners passed me, and I just wanted to not walk for the next two miles.

That wide, flat smooth fire road was the most challenging stretch mentally as I ran past trailheads that were previous run’s stopping points.   My rabbits (people I wanted to catch) had left me behind as I passed a spectator who informed me it was only another quarter mile.  Normally I have another gear, a kick if you will, at the end.  This time I had NOTHING.  I crossed the finish line, heard my name and saw 02:32:14 and was just thankful I was done.  I was the 180th runner to cross the finish out of 279 runners who started the race.

At the finish, finally. Marc Strozyk (the furthest to the right) remarked later that he thought I was going to "Tackle Pete (the race announcer) and me..." at the finish. I guess I was a little intense? Photo by Alan Marshall

After getting my medal, and stumbling to the food table, a handful of salty pretzels fended off the cramp that was threatening in my left calf, and I watched the runners behind me finish.

In comparing to the previous year, I came into this race 5, maybe 8 pounds heavier.  Despite the later date, I still feel I was better prepared last year.  I still haven’t mastered my pre-race meal, and that is something I will try to improve before I run the 2011 Salt Point trail run in August (If I’m not hunting).

I would like to thank the generous sponsors who made this premiere event possible below.  Many of these local businesses are people I do business with in my everyday life.  You can bet I will thank them for their support of a great event and return the favor through using their products and services.

New Balance sponsored many of the Age Group, and overall awards and was a huge part of the success of the Annadel Half Marathon.

Jeff Knapp shows the medal each of the finishers received at the end of the 13.1 miles. Photo by Patrick Temple