Archive for February, 2013

Running – Ralston Creek Half Marathon

Sunday, February 10th, 2013

Clare Running the Ralston Creek Half Marathon
Ralston Creek Half Marathon Picture Courtesy of SkiPix.com

My friend Linda signed up to run the Ralston Creek Half Marathon, in part to celebrate turning 60 (back in Dec). She asked me if I wanted to run it with her, so of course I signed up. Besides, I figured I could work it in as part of my Ultramarathon training.

At the race, they served chicken noodle soup at the finish line, so that was an extra special treat. I would definitely recommend running Ralston Creek in the future. It was very organized and professional!

I ran the race very smart and achieved a time right in the range my coach suggested: 8 min 16 sec/mile pace. I was 9th place in my age/gender division. Yay!

I could have run faster, but I’m really happy I played it cool. Running a half is so much faster than I had been training; even at the “slow pace” I ran, I still managed to tweak my foot! Thank goodness the tweak healed a few weeks later and just in time for my Ultra race!

Snowshoe Hike – Fletcher via Drift Peak, Attempt

Saturday, February 2nd, 2013

Sunrising on Fletcher
I met Doug at 5pm and we drove to the Mammoth Ride Share Lot to pick up Bill. Bill works part time on Ski Patrol, so he’s a good guy to have on a winter adventure. Our objective was to climb the centennial Fletcher Mountain (13,951) via Drift Peak. Bill was on AT skis and Doug and I were snowshoeing it.

Mayflower Creek Trail

Unfortunately, we greatly underestimated the traffic on the slopes. We figured there would be a trail packed down all the way to the ridge, from the Mayflower Creek trail head. When we got to the trailhead, there was evidence the trail would be as we suspected, so we decided to leave the snowshoes in the car. It was nice hiking with lighter packs!

Thanks to Doug for supplying pictures, I forgot my camera…so all these are from Doug!

(more…)