Mom'n Up, Trail Style

Ok, so I was going to say Man'n Up, but that didn't sound right.

So, despite the fact that I have sun shining in my back yard right now...the Beast and I had to dig deep on this morning's gruelingly tough run.  We have a cold front coming in this evening. Don't laugh WA family, they are saying possible snow on the valley floor, which is unheard of and I'm sure wont actually happen, but Diablo should get a fair amount of snow.  While I was expecting drizzles off and on all day, the Beast was sure it wasnt' going to rain. I at least wore my arm warmers and a visor, not for sun, but for any drizzles. The Beast was sporting capris, a short sleeve tech shirt, and sun glasses.  She's always optimistic!

Playing with the cows never gets old!

Isn't this the cutest cow ever??

This is what a blurry picture of rain looks like.

 Today's run starts with a long, steep climb right out of the gate. I generally love this because it tends to make the rest of the run and any smaller hills seem easier. But today, it just meant we were up on an exposed fire road, running into a steady, strong wind, which was accompanied with steady rain. And...it was cold. It was 43 before we got up there, with no wind and rain...so ad that in and we were cold! My skin on my thighs was bright red and felt like ice when I put my hand on it, and the Beast's face was burning like when you go skiing and are gettting hit with blowing icy/snow when you go up the chair lift....from the wind and rain hitting her. My visor was keeping the majority of the rain off my face, but had two steady drips of water  that kept blowing right into my face.

We tossed around cutting down off the ridge at Little Yosemite. Actually, I had said, "well, we can cut down at Little Yosemite instead of going out to Wall rd if you want." To which the Beast said, "Yes. I don't want to go further than that."  But, once we got to the cut down, I ignored the marker and said, "go to the right". The Beast doesnt' know my Mt. like I do, and did not know she had just been denied her cut down.  After we were a safe distance away, I told her we were going to come down at Wall, and did my best to convince her it's much funner because we get to go through 11 creeks, the section where the creek is still running over the trail for about 1/3 of a mile, and maybe the frogs would still be out (they were not there, it was totally quiet).  She called me a name and took off up the hill. : )

I've been wanting to get the beast out to this section of creek/trail for a while, it's always fun!

LOVE this pic of the Beast attacking the creek!

The rain was coming down pretty heavy running back out Stage, it was already getting pretty muddy, but the wind wasnt' as bad down there in the valley.  Once you get that chilled, you pretty much stay that way until you can hit a warm shower, though. After a few creek crossings, I asked her if that last one felt warm to her, which it did. I said, "I think that means our bodies are too cold".

We were freezing, soaked, muddy, running through creeks out in the woods, in the rain, tired.........and I think we were both secretly loving every minute of it!   Well.....at least one of us was. : )

Got red, icy cold skin?

Here's a peek at the run from a map/elevation chart view-