Sunday, April 15, 2007

Happy Trails

My week ended with an adventure with Rob, running on Tiger Mountain. Last Saturday, both he and Eric had invited me to run the "twelve Peaks" run with them for 34 miles. I thought they were joking at first, but I replied that if I could do half, I would join them.

Eric said there was a way to do half, so I was in. Later, Rob decided to just do half as well, and chose this alternate route for us. A route he had run before in the Western Washington Fat Ass.
It didn't really matter to me where we went. I guess, i had told them I just didn't want to hurt all week recovering from the run. They described the run as somewhat like Mt. Peak, but not just straight up and straight down like Mt. Peak. Okay, so I'll hurt a little, that's okay.

I'll send you over to Rob's blog to read his recounting of the day. He describes it so well.
It really was a great run, despite not always knowing if you are heading in your intended direction. We got back, had a hard workout, and spent the morning on the trails and that was what mattered. Besides, I had never run there before, so how was I supposed to know if we were heading in the correct direction? I just followed Rob!

Once we got to the point in the trail to actually head to the summit of West Tiger Mountain, I dubbed the trail the "elevator shaft." If I didn't have a water bottle in each hand, i would have probably been using them to help me climb up!

We didn't stay too long at the top. It was overcast and there were several people there. It was cold too. So we headed down a different, direct route down the mountain. It was comical how steep it was. This too was an "elevator shaft" down. It must have been washed out or something. Rob said there was another trail that was less direct somewhere. At one point I felt like a runaway train. I called out" I'm a runaway train" and decided to lean uphill and kind of sit down to stop myself! So I was muddy down my left leg and bottom. My left hand and water bottle were covered in mud too. Rob turned around and laughed. It was funny. I said I'd rather stop that way than fall and roll, or run into a tree and get really hurt. At least it was controlled that way! No injuries. I slipped earlier in the run too on a wooden bridge-type pathway. It was wet and slimy and on a slanted curve. My foot just slipped out from under me. No injuries there either.

Once we were down and finished we changed and headed back to my car that I left at Eric and Michelle's house. I had rode up with Eric, who was running 34 miles on the Twelve Peaks route with two other Maniacs. We stopped for a short visit and I headed home.

Later in the evening, my husband and kids and I went out to dinner with my parents and niece and nephew. My parents are babysitting this weekend while my twin brother and his wife spent the weekend in Seattle for the end of their spring break. It was a fun dinner. My parents had gone to all the Tacoma Museums on Friday while the kids were at school/daycare. They went to the Washington State history museum, Museum of glass and back here in Puyallup, the Meeker Mansion. They bought me a t-shirt that says "History is not for wimps." I love it!

We left dinner at about 7pm. I was exhausted. I wasn't feeling any pain, but I was extremely tired. That's pretty much how I felt today too. Not too sore, just a bit. I can tell I had a hard workout, but I am extremely tired! Hopefully, I can get to sleep early tonight and survive school tomorrow!

The rest of my running week looked like this:
Monday: rest
Tuesday: 4 miles at Y track
Wednesday: 4 miles at Y track
Thursday: 6 miles at and around Rogers HS track
Friday : Rest
Saturday: 14ish miles on Tiger Mountain
Sunday: rest and garden (and take care of my throwing up daughter)

My taper towards the Eugene marathon has begun. This week my running will look similar to this week, but no more mountains. Next weekend I want to run about 10 miles, but when and with whom I do not know. There is tons going on, The YMCA Daffodil Dash 5k and the Mt.Si ultra. I would like to go and be crew for some folks doing the ultra and run with them a bit. We'll see how it all pans out!

Have a great week!

Grace and Peace to you.

7 comments:

Backofpack said...

Glad to hear you are not sore. I think Amy, and maybe Linda are going to join in on Eugene.

I'm sorry to hear someone is tossing her cookies. I hate when the kids are sick - it's hard to see them feeling bad.

I'll see you Friday!

Journey to a Centum said...

As it turned out if I had realized that tc had his car at the half way point you could have run with us the first 17 miles. Rob and you could have shuttled tc's car back from there and you would have been able to see the first half of 12 summits. It took us three hours to get to tc's car. Dang!

From the sounds of it the trail you took down from T3 was the Nook Trail. Did you see a sign that said "Unmaintained Trail"?

Hope the legs are not too sore today. Did you take an ice bath when you got home? I didn't see any mention of one. Oh well, not a problem if your legs are OK.

Have fun with the taper this week!

Cheers

Unknown said...

It was a great adventure and hopefully next time we can stay on the intended course so we can summit T1, T2, and T3. I think we need to go on a clear day so you can see the views.

I am tired and stiff, but not really sore. I did run yesterday with Lisa. And yes, I survived the kids, however, we also had an accident, which resulted in a broken, hand/wrist.

Tony C said...

Glad you had fun Jenny! I too wish that we had thought to tell you about my car at the other end. It was actually a last minute thing so I wasn't thinking ... by the way, it took us almost 4 hours. Eric must have lost an hour somewhere out there on the course. I'll have to take him out there again to see if we can find it ;-)

Joe said...

What cool opportunities you guys have out there!!! Neat write up!!

You will be in Eugene soon...no muddy water bottles there!!

Olga said...

Sounds like you guys had a great time! I often get lost (though it gets harder as I know more trails in the Gorge), but if time is not an issue, I like it this way:)

Anonymous said...

Took me time to read the whole article, the article is great but the comments bring more brainstorm ideas, thanks.

- Johnson