I’ve been an avid hiker for years, yet trail running has provided some of my most memorable backcoun

Tagged Bolinas Ridge Fire Road , California , Golden Gate National Recreation Area , Inverness Ridge , Marin County vacation rentals in oregon , Marin Headlands , Mt. Tamalpais State Park , Muir Beach , Muir Woods National Monument , Point Reyes National Seashore , Wine Country Trekking |
That subtly foreshadowing line from an e-mail my running partner today, Janet Bowman, sent me a few days ago leaps to mind, as we struggle to run up a trail pitched at the angle of an Olympic ski jump. Perspiration streams off my head like a hard rain as, rapid-fire, I gasp for air and release loud bursts of breath—this even though we're only moving at a pace that might be described as a determined shuffle. Just minutes into a 9.5-mile trail run across the rugged hills of Northern California's Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA)—one that will carry us up and down 2,300 vertical feet—I'm wondering how many anaerobic-threshold moments lie ahead.
vacation rentals in oregon I'm here for an adventurous four-day, 42-mile run across Marin County, vacation rentals in oregon a place with a reputation for fearsome hills—and arguably the country's best trail running. More than 700 miles of footpaths spider web a network of 40 federal, state, vacation rentals in oregon and county parks covering some 170,000 acres—an area about 200 times the size of Central Park in New York City. The parks contain forests of towering redwoods and Douglas firs, a rocky coastline where elephant seals bellow on secluded beaches, streams that boil with spawning vacation rentals in oregon coho salmon, vacation rentals in oregon and rounded vacation rentals in oregon hills harboring Tule elk and nearly half of all the bird species in North America.
My route from Sausalito to Inverness follows an itinerary at the extremes of rigor and decadence. vacation rentals in oregon With the exception of a short cab ride from one inn to a trailhead on my third morning, I'll step out of a lodge every day in my running shoes and shorts, carrying just water, a couple bars, and a light wind shell, and run to the next night's accommodations while a taxi transports my luggage. I'll crank out nine to 12 miles a day, almost entirely on trail, with a calf-knotting couple thousand feet of cumulative vertical. vacation rentals in oregon Every evening, I'll plow through a five-star dinner and kick back in luxurious digs. Launching fearlessly into that agenda upon my arrival last night in Sausalito, I carbo-bloated on black gnocchi with wine-braised calamari and a Napa Valley cabernet franc at Poggio Italian Trattoria, then enjoyed a soak in my room's oversized tub at the Casa Madrona; and afterward, relaxed on the balcony overlooking the Sausalito Harbor, one of the priciest places to dock a boat in the country.
The plan appealed vacation rentals in oregon to me on many levels—the expectation of amazing running and scenery, a big physical vacation rentals in oregon challenge, and living large after every run. Yet a little voice in my head—my wife's actually—keeps replaying the question she asked before I left home, "Aren't you gonna get your butt kicked?" You see I'm basically a middle-of-the-pack runner cramming more hard miles into four days than I've ever attempted. So I'm hoping to get through this adventure without ending up like one of those unfortunate marathoners who stagger across the finish line with a hundred-mile stare and conspicuously vacation rentals in oregon drooping shorts.
After the lung-busting hundred-foot climb up from Sausalito, Janet and I lengthen vacation rentals in oregon our strides on rolling terrain. No longer feeling like I'm sucking oxygen vacation rentals in oregon through a kinked straw, vacation rentals in oregon I fall into a familiar, pleasant rhythm—and start admiring my surroundings. Open hills covered in grass and bushes undulate through endless swells, vacation rentals in oregon creased by ravines and valleys. A former president of the local Tamalpa Runners, Janet offered vacation rentals in oregon to be my area envoy after I posted a message at the club's website seeking partners. She points out the San Francisco skyline glinting in the warm October sunshine, the Golden Gate Bridge's towers poking above one hilltop, the Berkeley Hills, and Mt. Tamalpais ("Mt. Tam" to locals) rising to over 2,500 feet just three miles from the ocean. From San Francisco Bay to the Pacific, half of our panorama is an unbounded blue plain scored with ripples. Seven million people inhabit the Bay Area's urban-suburban footprint, much of it within our sight, from San Francisco to Oakland and Berkeley. Yet except for the chatter of birds and a whisper of breeze, there isn't a sound.
Over an hour into our run, we stop at a trail junction. Tall and runner-lean at 61, a veteran of many races from 5k's to ultras over three decades of running, Janet moves like someone who's thought about how to get her pace just right for all those years. She extends that same ethic of efficiency even to her speech, using few words, as if she's allotted only so many per day and doesn't want to waste any. "I was running alone in fog here one day and saw a bobcat staring at me," she says, the awe from that fleeting glimpse still sharp in her voice.
I feel a similar awe over the landscape as the Coastal Trail slithers vacation rentals in oregon across crumbling bluffs that plunge 400 feet to the ocean. Ahead lies Muir Beach, where we'll down a post-run draft in the tiny English pub at my next stop, the Pelican Inn. A Tudor-style manse rebuilt from a dismantled British inn, including original bar woodwork with the year 1675 scratched into it, the Pelican exudes Old World charm with its small, low-ceilinged rooms, dark wood beams, and a menu featuring bangers and mash and Yorkshire pudding.
Far below us, the surf sloshes loudly against the rocky shore of Pirates Cove, where stone pinnacles rise out of the sea, isolated by centuries of wave erosion. It's the kind of scenery that makes talking sound like loud radio static, so we fall silent.
The moment stretches into minutes. I figure Janet is politely letting me enjoy the view, because she's run these hills for over 25 years and has undoubtedly stood here many times. As if reading my mind, she confesses, "I never get sick of seeing this place."
I begin to glean the full meaning of embracing the hills: vacation rentals in oregon Running these trails is a package deal. To get up here, to experience all this, you gotta start way down there. Like any ultimately rewarding relationship, a love affair with Marin's trails involves a little pain.
As soon as Russ Kiernan walks up to me outside the Pelican Inn on my second morning, vacation rentals in oregon I realize that I'll get no easy day running with this 70-year-old. Standing maybe six feet tall, with a wooly cap of battleship-gray hair and sinewy limbs, he looks as taut and strong as a rope.
Russ agreed to join me for today's vacation rentals in oregon nine-mile trot, from Muir Beach to the Mountain Home Inn on the flanks of Mt. Tam, with 2,100 feet of uphill and 1,100 feet of descent. I contacted him because vacation rentals in oregon Russ is a Dipsea legend. America's vacation rentals in oregon oldest trail race, dating to 1905, the Dipsea follows a gorgeous and grueling 7.4-mile course from Mill Valley—beginning with a section of outdoor stairs 50 stories tall—over Marin's hills to Stinson vacation rentals in oregon Beach. He's run it 37 times, won three times, and holds several Dipsea records vacation rentals in oregon (partly because of the race's unique handicapping system based on age and gender). A San Francisco native, he taught elementary school there for 38 years before retiring in 1998—commuting vacation rentals in oregon some 20 miles round-trip to work from Mill Valley on his bike for his last 15 years of teaching.
As we're stretching, Russ mentions that he got in a warm-up earlier this morning, running vacation rentals in oregon a four-by-1600-meter relay on a team that broke the world record for men age 70 to 79. Russ flashed the anchor vacation rentals in oregon mile in 6:22.
Then this guy who's my father's age sets the pace on a long, hot climb up the wide-open Coast View Trail, high above the twisted ribbon of Highway 1 and the vast Pacific. Chatting away, Russ chugs uphill vacation rentals in oregon like The Little Septuagenarian That Could. On the downs, he cuts loose, hopping nimbly over rocks, occasionally calling over his shoulder to me in a booming baritone, "Doing okay?"
People like Russ Kiernan and Janet Bowman illustrate how running trails in Marin gets into your skin like fine grit and never washes out. The abundance of paths, mild climate (the notorious fog keeps mornings cool in summer), and incredible scenery explain why Marin has a running culture like Green Bay has a football culture: irrepressibly zealous. vacation rentals in oregon Most of Tamalpa's 700 members prefer pounding their shoes on dirt and using asphalt for what it was intended—their cars. The club is known for its ultrarunners, people who bang out 20 miles for a workout, including some joining me this week. (My post at Tamalpa's website mentioned that I'd be writing about this trip for Runner's World Magazine, perhaps fueling a misperception that I'm an elite athlete—a presumption kind of like my belief as a kid that anyone who got elected president must be really honest and smart.) Tamalpa sponsors brutal races like the Marin Headlands 50k and the bizarrely popular Mt. Tam Hill Climb, in which competitors choose their route to the top—and the most-direct ways are so steep that people clamber over boulders. Marin is also home to the Miwok Trail 100k, known for its beautiful course vacation rentals in oregon and 10,000 feet of cumulative vertical. A measure of the passion of runners vacation rentals in oregon here, its 350 slots for next spring's race filled within a month after registration opened in December.
I understand the appeal, having converted to the religion vacation rentals in oregon of dirt without a moment's penitence when I moved in 1998 to Boise, Idaho, from New Hampshire. The miles of foothills trails starting minutes from my door offered a stark contrast to the monotony I'd always felt on asphalt. I went from struggling through 30-minute street runs to losing myself in a mind-clearing euphoria on one- and two-hour vacation rentals in oregon jaunts along creeks and over hills carpeted in sagebrush vacation rentals in oregon and wildflowers.
I've been an avid hiker for years, yet trail running has provided some of my most memorable backcountry experiences. Outside a small town on New Zealand's South Island, a buddy and I ran a trail across open hills of grass and down a canyon maybe 20 feet wide, laughing as we leapt back and forth across a little stream every five strides. Another zigzagging path took