M.O.R.E.: Fabulous Fourteen!

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Fabulous Fourteen!

Ok, there was nothing fabulous about it except it is over! C and I met this morning to run 14 miles, as part of our marathon training. We had managed to get out of the COC race on Thurs. night, and both felt a little guilty, so there was no question we would be out there today, slogging through 14. Marathon Mom had already crossed this run off her list last week, so the pressure was on us not only to run, but to try and get the correct amount of miles in without a GPS. We decided that we preferred to run Sat. instead of with the group on Sunday, so we tried to duplicate (somewhat) her course from last week. We started out at the Decoro McDonald's and ran down McBean to the trail that runs behind the car dealers, we then headed to the South Fork Trail and took that to the very end. When we were getting ready to leave the South Fork and run under the bridge, we noticed that a guy that was running ahead of us (obviously on a long run) had dropped the water bottle that he had just filled at the fountain. We drop our bottles all the time, they have to snap or they drop as soon as you start running again, so we ran after him to give it back. I am sure he would have missed it a couple of miles later when he went to get a drink. He seemed grateful when I finally caught up to him (I am lucky he was running pretty slowly) and mentioned he was running another 6 or 7 miles, well we were too! We took the trail to McBean, crossed the bridge and followed the trail to Bridgeport Park. At Bridgeport we crossed Newhall Ranch and started working our way toward Copperhill, the only bright spot in this leg of our run is when we ran into our friend K who was out for her own Sat. run. I would say we were doing pretty good until we hit the Heritage Trail at Decoro, I did not want to run on the trail because McBean was so cool and shady, but was afraid that we wouldn't get our mileage if we didn't. We lost our shade and although it wasn't hot, we were now running in the sun, add that to the rude bikers (bite me!) and the steady uphill on wobbly legs and it was the part of the run we will work to forget. We came out of the trail and headed to McBean, crossed over the paseo to Cheesepark and gladly ran downhill, in the shade back to McDonald's. So glad that run is over, I tried to convince C that we would look back fondly to our 14 miler, in a couple of weeks when we were suffering through 16. I am going to start thinking of it as an awsome run, and count it as the "Half Marathon Plus" that we ran this Sat! We missed Marathon Mom, I am sure we would have been done sooner with her in the lead, and we missed her GPS!

2 comments:

marathon mom said...: Believe it or not, I was thinking about you guys while I was vacationing and wondering if you ended up doing the race and the 14 miles. I will have to get the scoop on why you guys decided not to race on Thursday. I'm glad you survived the 14 miles. Did you do the run/walk at all?; August 9, 2009 at 4:55 PM
Patty said...: Yes we did run/walk, but without a watch, I don't know how accurate we were. I think we lost some time with the walking. I also think it really helped, I am not sore at all today, at least not any more than I would be from one of our normal weekend runs.; August 9, 2009 at 9:49 PM

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Favorite Trails

South Fork 3.1: Start from dirt parking lot on Magic Mtn Pkway and run to the loop at Wiley Bridge and return the same way.

Tesoro 3.25: Start in Albertson parking lot and take sidewalk/trail until it ends and then enter the water tower road to the top two towers where the ends. Return the same way.

Chesebrough 3.25/4.60: From Chesebrough Park, N. to Copperhill, So. on Bike Trail, turn around at Decoro, back up trail to power lines to bridge at park. Turn around at Heritage will give you 4.6 miles.

Chesebrough 3.5: Chesebrough Park down to McBean, south to Northpark Dr., the paseo trailhead. Take the paseo to Helmers and back. Very hilly.

Bridgeport 4.0: Fairly flat, run toward Lowes and under Bouquet bridge to RiverPark community until you reach the closed gates and return. For a hilly run, go north into Helmers and run up the paseo switchbacks into Northpark where the paseo ends and return the same way.

Chesebrough 4.0: N. to Copperhill to west side of river trail, run S. on Bike Trail past Decoro bridge, across Decoro to the east side of river trail, up back to power lines trail, back to park.

Chesebrough 4.0: From park down power line trail to Heritage Park and back same way.

Bridgeport 4.0: From School, cross McBean via bridge or street and head into industrial center on Ave. Scott Bridge and enter bike trail going south toward the train bridge. Turn around at train bridge and return same way or cross the bridge and head toward Peet's after crossing train bridge and back onto the Lowes Trail.

Heritage 4.0: From park, run up bike trail to Decoro, over McBean Bridge into Helmers, and into Bridgeport through lake trail back to park. Can be done in reverse. Moderately hilly.

Chesebrough 4.25: Chesebrough north to Copperhill, left to Albertson side of bike trail. Run south on trail to Decoro and cross over bridge and head north all the way to Copperhill on east side of river trail and back to the park the same way as started.

Cheese/Decoro/Helmers 4.25: From the park, down dirt trail to bike path, south to Decoro. Leave bike path at Decoro and cross paseo bridge at McBean. Stay on paseo up hill towards Helmers. Run up water tower trail once then continue on to switchbacks and paseos back to park.

Heritage/Bridgeport 3.3: Heritage Park south to McBean Bridge @ Panera. Cross and head toward Lowes bike trail and head east toward Bridgeport Park. Halfway mark is at park bathroom, head back by entering trail along the lake and back onto the bridge.

Lowes 4.25: Lowe's parking lot to McBean, cross the bridge and to South Fork. At Valencia Bridge, enter trail behind Hart Baseball diamonds. Continue on trail to Bouquet and across the bridge on the east side and back under the bridge again towards Lowes.

Peet's & Decoro 5.2: Peet's Coffee to train bridge path; to Decoro and across bridge; back down McBean side of bike trail back to Peete's.

Peet's & Wiley 6.0: Start at Peet's Coffee and head east toward South Fork trail and past the Wiley Bridge. Keep running another 200 yards to where the trail forks left and right. Turn back same way.

Peet's & Copperhill 6.0: From Peet's to bike trail heading north to Copperhill and back.

Albertson 7.0: From the Albertson parking lot on Copperhill, enter the westside bike trail and head south until the train bridge. Return the same way.

Peet's 8.5: Run to Copperhill on east side of river trail and return via train bridge on other side.

Lowes 10: Start in the Lowes parking lot. Enter the bike trail heading west. At McBean, cross the bridge and head east toward SouthFork trail. Continue on trail until you come to the Wiley bridge and head back the same way.

McBean 14: This route can be done from anywhere along the trail route. Starting from McDonald's across the post office, run to the end of the South Fork trail and return the same way, cross the McBean bridge and run on the Lowes trail until you hit Bridgeport Elementary and then cross Newhall Ranch via the bridge or street and run back towards McBean. Continue north on McBean until you hit Copperhill. At Copperhill, cross McBean and enter San Francisquito bike trail and run south on the trail until you are back at McDonalds.