Girls Gone Wildwood

This wasn't a run to my favorite brewery Double Mountain , but that would make for an interesting 100k. The morning was cold enough that we both wore our warmest running clothes. I was afraid I was going to over heat since the first part of the run was a nice longish climb up to the Pittock Mansion . Luckily that didn't happen and we were rewarded with views of Mount St. Helens and Mount Hood, Mount Rainier was even poking out a bit, so I guess was almost a Triple Mountain Run. Mt. St. Helens Susan enjoying the views Mt. Hood and the Portland skyline Pittock Mansion  We turned back around and headed down Wildwood to Aspen, to connect with Leif. We weren't even 2 miles in on Leif when we saw mile maker dressed up as a mouse. I love Portland. Susan and Miler Marker Mouse We ran Leif to Maple, it had been a long time since we had been on Maple, it felt like running a whole new trail. I loved the gradual uphill to Wildwood. We finished our run by run

2012 has been real discovery of what it means to be trail / ultra runner. In 2011 we were just running on trails, this year we experimented with nutrition, discovered gaiters, got packs so we could run longer without stopping to fill up water bottles, found a whole community through pod casts, picked up water purification tablets and a first aid kit. We wanted to share some of our favorite things from this year. We are looking forward to continuing our trail / ultra running adventure in 2013, hopefully running longer distances, tapping into the local trail / ultra community, trying and posting more recipes, and who knows what else. Best Event Long: PCT Bunker to Bonneville 50k Epic:  The North Face Endurance Challenge - San Francisco 50k   Short: Mt Hood Scramble Best Disaster Running out of (potable) water on a 26 mile run in 92 degree heat in the Columbia Gorge. Best Trail It's a toss-up between the sheer joy of taking a day off work to run the waterfall-fill

@REI tweeted the following: I then saw +Brooks Running respond, which caused me to 1 up their #giftpick request. And I ended up with a customized gift list from REI. Good picks REI! I own similar items to all the things listed, but I really love the fact that the Brooks gloves have the removable thumb cover, my current gloves don't have that. Enjoy!

We chose the North Face Endurance Challenge 50k in the Marin Headlands north of San Francisco because it's an easy flight, near a city we like, on some fun trails with gorgeous views and likely decent weather in early December. What we ended up with is a radically different story, which I will preface by saying that both Ann and I enjoyed the run. It was challenging, and we enjoyed it. Faced with the threat of massive amounts of rain (4-7" each day), North Face was forced to reroute the event. Instead of a chain of three connected loops, the day before the race we were notified that the course would consist of a small inner loop, a larger outer loop with an out-and-back at the far end and another out-and-back right to the start/finish line, and then a repeat of the small loop. There was no updated elevation map, which was perhaps a good thing. The highest elevation section-- a loop through Muir Woods around Mt Tamalpais-- was removed and the course was actually 30 miles rath