I’m going to run Peter’s Canyon today. I finally have 3 days off in a row from work and this is the first day I didn’t feel like a zombie in a while. My work schedule has not been the greatest this week. I worked 2 nights in a row starting Thursday, October 25th, with Saturday off, back on Sunday, off on Monday, on Tuesday, off Wednesday, and back on Thursday. Since I work night shift that literally means I was at work every single day. Yesterday I was up for about 24 hours, which is good for 100 mile training if I was training for one now, but I digress.
I haven’t run Peter’s Canyon since June 2017, which was before the October 2017 fire. It was closed for a long time, so I was excited to go someplace that was somewhat familiar and new at the same time. Chris and I got there at around 10am and it was warmer than what I was hoping it would be. I do not do well running in heat. Before I started grad school, I used to get up at 4am to get an early start on my run that day. Now I can barely wake up at 7am on my days off.
At first I was feeling pretty good. I ran Hacienda a few days ago and felt great! According to my Garmin watch, I ran 6.5 miles there at an elevation gain of 1,563 feet at a 12:47 average pace. I can do this!!! I remember Peter’s Canyon has a lot of rolling hills, but I’ve been running consistently for the past week so I wasn’t too worried. I kept up with Chris at the beginning. It was a pretty flat trail until we hit that first big hill. I remember there being a hill at the beginning, but I forgot how steep it was. I slowed down and stopped, drinking water as an excuse to rest and assess the situation. I told Chris to go ahead and I watched him run up the hill with no trepidation. Of course he runs mountains every weekend so this should be easy for him! I managed to slow “run” about 75% of the way up before walking the rest. A second hill came quickly after that one and I ran/walked that one too. As such, my confidence was a little shaken and not as high as it was in the beginning.
At the heart of Peter’s Canyon is a bunch of rolling hills. In order to reach said hills, one has to climb a hill that is loftier than the first 2 hills I spoke about. Chris and I joked about bringing his daughter here on Father’s Day. We laughed about how we would not win any Parents of the Year award or century, for that matter. I let Chris run ahead and I ran about half-way up before stopping to hyperventilate and then ran a little more before stopping again to hyperventilate.
“Hey hon,” Chris said, pulling me aside when I reached the top. “That girl who passed you with the Starbucks cup looked back at you and smirked when she saw you huff and puff.”
What??? Now I don’t know if she really did that to me or he just said that to waken my dormant competitive side up. Regardless of the reason, it worked. I could see the girl at the top of the next hill. She was probably half my weight with really short shorts. You are on girl. I ran past Chris to catch up to her. As she was walking down the next hill, I ran past her. “Excuse me,” I said, passing her on the left so she could watch my back moving further away from her. No one is going to smirk at me!!
I was on a running high for the next mile or so. By mile 4, though, my energy had waned and all I wanted to do was get into my car and drive home or have Chris drive me home. It was a pretty uneventful trail towards the end with a couple of inclines. I stopped a few times to walk before getting the energy to run again. I told Chris that I was completely going to stop to walk at mile 5, which was ok by him, as he had planned to do the same. I was exhausted, but I was glad I did it. Consistency is the key and I felt stronger than I did a month ago, which is good because I have been feeling pretty low as seen by my last few posts. I just have to keep running at least 4 or 5 times a week in order to get to a comfortable baseline to begin training with for American River. Running Peter’s Canyon or any trail is not easy, but I know I am getting better at running them with each passing day. I may silently curse trail running, but some of the best moments in life must be worked for.
