The gates of running heaven

Sure enough… it was a beach weekend… and as my brother-in-law says… ‘if you are lucky enough to be at the beach… you are lucky enough.’ So true.

Saturday I was itching to explore my new running grounds and decided to head out through Fogerty Park and up to the roads I could see on my running maps. A ran into the park… but where were the roads? Na-da… nothing.

I was beginning to lose faith, when across the park I saw a gate. When I approached, it was clear that this was “the place”, these were the gates to my beach running area.



The initial few hundred yards were quite step… barely runnable in my current shape, but after I popped out on top it flattened out and I was on small double track under thick canopy of trees. No cars... no people... just nature and a middle aged runner-wanna-be trudging along through the forest. It was if the road had been built just for me… and I almost felt a tear well up… because it was clear I was in my own running heaven.

Now… the roads of my running heaven are not flat… but they were not so bad that I couldn’t run them. It is definitely more trail-type running that I am used to. The 5 mile run I did on Saturday had my legs burning from the hills. I will get used to it though.

I will also need to pay close attention to where I am. There are no roads signs… no street names, and usually the forest is so thick I can’t tell which way is east, and which way is west. I can use Google maps to plan the run though… 2.1 miles then left at the branch… 3.4 miles then right… etc… My wife wants me to start running with a cell phone though… and I admit if I twisted an ankle up there… it was be difficult to get back down.

Sunday I had a 16 miler on the schedule… but my legs were still tired. I decided to stay on the flats and headed down 101 to the sign for drift creek falls and kept running until I hit 8 miles… then turned around. I was a hard run because of the state of my legs… but I made it. The country road out toward drift creek falls was also amazingly peaceful. It was clear the people/dogs/cows etc… around there were not used to seeing runners.

Overall the first weekend at our beach house exceeded my expectations. I even found a huge agate on the beach! Running wise… I have found my running nirvana… out past the gates of running heaven.