At 5:15, I managed to get out the door for a 5-mile run. I was doing great when, in middle of mile 4, I tripped on a crack in the road and went down. No scrapes, but I came close to going into the ditch. I got lucky I suppose, and was only down for a minute or so.
Splits
Mile 1: 9:30
Mile 2: 9:41
Mile 3: 10:11
Mile 4: 10:27
Mile 5: 09:33
.08 mi: 00:43(9:22/mi)
5.08 miles, 50:08, 9:52/mi, 702 calories burned
When finished, I got my things together and headed down to the church for our monthly Get Out hike. This time around, it was Round Top & Winnemucca Lakes, in the Kirkwood area of Lake Tahoe.
TOPO
Google Earth
Getting started went pretty well, but people really weren't used to the elevation. It started at around 8500 feet and peaked out at 9400, which I've done before, but that was quite a while ago. So it was a challenge.
Gregory, being the "run until you pass out" 7-year-old kid, outpaced us all.
The elevation being what it was, there were quite a few patches of slow left. This gave some adults a chance to be a kid, and let Gregory see something he'd never seen: snow in August.
We ate lunch at Round Top Lake, and discussed going to the peak, but it just wasn't to be. As we were sitting there we heard strains of Bob Marley of all people. Looking down the trail, two snowboarders were coming, boards in tow, blaring Marley for the world to hear. For some reason this really, really got to me. Not only were there altogether too many people on the trail (we saw at least 40 or 50 people as we hiked), but here these people were blaring music!
I said, "Ah, adding to the wilderness experience, are we?" One of the boarders responded, "Yeah," and holding up his hands in quote-gesture, "WILDERNESS... it's right off the highway." I had to let it go. At least I won't be seeing him on Mt. Whitney anytime soon. I hope.
After spending time at the lake, we headed back. On the way we met up with a terrific group made up with a dad, his father, and 4 or 5 kids, all backpacking for the first time. We talked for a little while, and that family really had the right idea. The kids were all smiles, ranging from 4 years to 12. Now that was a great sight to see!
Anyway, we were able to add another experience to the Get Out! catalog. I told everyone, next month it's Rob's choice where we'll go.
For a collection of all 62 photos, click here for my Flickr gallery. The last frame of the gallery is a short video from the hike.
Or, if you wish, you can see it here.
If you're interested, I burned 1974 calories over 5 1/2 hours. You can visit RunSaturday.com or MapMyHike.com more workout details.
