Last night I made sure that I packed up all my trail running gear so I could hop out of bed and hit the trail.  I was in bed by 930 PM.  I woke up without an alarm at 430 AM`.

I met up with Steve Bradley at 6OO AM ready to hit the trail and do some running.  It was 53 degrees and I was scantily dressed in just a t-shirt and running short because I knew that within an hour we would be hot.  It turned out be quite a reunion at the start because we saw 5 of our other lady friends (2 separate groups) getting ready to trail run up Mission Peak.  Steve and I were feeling quite studly with an entourage of 5 women.  This quickly dissipated as 2 of the ladies broke off from within a minute of their arrival.   The other group of 3 ladies left us after 40 minutes.  Back to Earth for Steve and I.

The spring flowers and green grass was better than visiting an arboretum.   The last dowsing of rain extended the wild flowers for at least another week.  I am always amazed at how beautiful the area is that we do our trail runs on.

Our first destination was Mt. Allison, approximately 2500 feet.  I completely lost track of time.  Not that it really matters.  We have a total time goal in mind and we stick to that for our trail runs.  I snacked on dried cherries, apples, and figs.  I lost interest in the high priced runners snacks and usually mix up my own.

Steve was in a time crunch, but I convinced him into doing a loop down to the horse ranch.  What a bonus that was!  We were able to see 20-30 beautiful horses running like wild horses on the trail.  As I was snapping pictures of the horses, they walked around me and I felt like Moses when he parted the Red Sea.  I was surrounded by an ocean of horses.

Everything was perfect about this trail run.  Both of us were not complaining about being tired.  Steve was gearing up for his trail run up Rose Peak tomorrow.  My legs felt like they had another 20 miles in them.  It’s a nice feeling when a 15 mile run is a “light” run.  This is not bragging.  It is what it is.

I broke off from Steve after being out 2 hours as I wanted to run over 3 hours.  I ran the trail up Mission Peak.  As usual, it was very crowded.  Being selfish, I wished that it was less crowded.  I am sure the hundreds of other hikers were thinking the same thing.  If I wanted solitude, I would have been on the peak at 6 AM.

In all my years of running, I usually come to the same conclusion about the trail run that I just completed-it’s one of the best runs in my life.

Steve and I both commented on a little secret goal that we don’t want a certain runner beating us when we race the Ohlone Wilderness run at the end of May.