Well, I didn't make it up to Tahoe for the
half marathon this year, but a friend of mine and fellow library worker,
Dave, invited me to go run around Donner Lake. That was awesome of him because I was really quite depressed about not getting to compete. The plan was three trips around but we settled for two after the knees started protesting (on my part, anyway). It's almost exactly 7 miles around (7.05 his Garmin said). He has a training regime where he runs slowish and stops at each mile to finish out what ever is left of that minute before starting up again. I could have run the first lap around the lake quite easily without stopping, but this type of training surprisingly agreed with me, because it gave me the energy to keep going through the second lap with a good amount of energy. It was a beautiful morning, and the perfect temperature for a nice long run. And I made a great discovery: I LOVE running on pine needles! They are soft to run on, and have a very satisfying crunch. Not to mention the pleasant sappy smell they release when cracked open. I even found myself swerving for patches of them just so I
could run on them. The other thing I noticed today was how LOW the lake was! The spot where they have the swimming start for the
Donner Lake Triathlon (which was sadly, but justly, canceled due to smoke from the thousands of California fires this summer) was almost empty! There was a spot in the middle that was just an island of mud. I wonder if they drained it or something?
Anyway, back to running. Today set a new PR for me. Not in time, but in distance. While I definitely didn't break any records in the running-without-stopping department, but this is the furthest I've ever gone in one go. Here are Dave and I post-run, and feeling good! Thanks for pushing me Dave. :) I owe ya one...
Even though I wasn't up at Tahoe today in person, I was there in spirit- congrats and great job to all who ran today!
4 comments:
That's my favorite run, one I usually do several times a week!
They opened up the dam about two weeks ago. They usually do that this time of year, and it stays that way all winter so there is plenty of room for the spring run-off. Then in summer they close down the flow so the lake stays pretty high.
Ah. I figured something was up- and that totally makes sense.
How many times do you usually run around Donner? It got kinda interesting during section with the construction... Beautiful run- I hope I can get up there more often before it gets too cold!
What a beautiful day for a run! Donner must have been awesome. Wish I would have stopped at 14 miles...
Thanks for a great morning Snow Lep! You rocked on the hills. We gotta get Capt. Kev and your 6 year-old wreckin' crew up to Donner!
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