Blanchard Mountain

Great day on Blanchard Mountain today. Friend Seth was looking for some miles, and I didn’t want to go too far due to rumors of dirty weather. To our good luck, our run morphed into an impromptu group of six runners—a true fun run---with clear skies and long views over the islands from the lookouts.

The run almost didn’t happen. Seth and I only confirmed around midnight the night before. Seth has had an absolutely amazing year, knocking off Western States and spending six weeks in Nepal, amongst plenty of other cool things. It was good to hang out.

He came up with his friend Kelly, and he managed to recruit Pablo for the run as well. Then, friend Bill just happened to show up at the trailhead, and so he joined in. And Then, we met up with Alex at the top of the Oyster Dome, someone I ran with briefly a few years ago on Blanchard.

18 miles total, and the hills took their toll. We ran the standard Blanchard ultra loop the first time, with an extra detour to the Oyster Dome lookout; and then ran/hiked the short loop up by the Lilly/Lizard trailheads.  I struggled starting out, feeling yesterday’s eats, but felt pretty normal by the end. I'm always a little shy about running in groups, since I never know how I'm going to feel or run. But nobody ran away from anyone--a very relaxed day. Just the same, I think we were all tuckered by the end.

Afterwards, Pablo, Seth, Kelly and I hit the Porterhouse. The after-the-after party consisted of a couch, the worst Husky game in a long time, and an ok World Series game.

Looking forward to running the Ron Herzog 50k next weekend in Granite Falls. Miles and good company.