A Beautiful Day on Mt. Tam

I'm going to do my best to let my pictures do the talking here, as they are more than worthy of the responsibility. I ran an awesome 1/2 marathon today in the Santa Cruz mountains, running a respectable 2:52 (Ed ran an even more respectable 1:50!). That post is for another day, but the run did take a lot out of me, leaving me less than eloquent.

So, without further ado, here in pictures is our 8 mile jaunt on Mt Tam last weekend. We took Alpine Spring trail to West Point Inn, and from there took a fire trail up to the summit. It was a place we always wanted to visit, and we were excited to go there on foot.

(A lizard checking out the view)

Taking a break in a Mt Tam Gravity Car

We were very happy with the views, and accidently took a mile-ish trail around the summit, which sported amazing views of our whole surroundings.

Ed taking a break running on a side trail (I was too nervous about the bees that were hanging at the trail)

The summit lookout - I'd seen this in photos before

Then, we got a chance to go to the very top!

We made good time on the way down, but I was hurting by the end. I think it was just too much time outside (we spent a while on the summit) - mostly, dehydrated, sunburned and low in electrolytes.

The view from our car at the finish of our run

On the way down, we stopped to check out a place to take photos together after the wedding (we wanted redwoods), and were pleased.

Shortly thereafter, I started feeling incredibly sick - nauseous and pretty miserable. We also hadn't eaten in well over 5 hours, and my breakfast was french toast, not exactly lasting food. So, we stopped for sandwhiches - I tried to come in, but felt a bit like I was going to keel over, so I hurried back to the car. Ed saved the day with a big bag of salty chips and a good sandwich. It helped a lot, and soon I was feeling better and we were heading home.

Amazing to think that the next time we are on that mountain, it will be for our wedding :).