Mount Diablo Marathon

So, yesterday I ran the PCTR Mount Diablo Marathon. I met up with several friends that I've known from many other races and ultra events. It was a great crowd.

Particularly, I met up with Addy, who I promised to run with. We took it easy and along with time we took for photos and admiring the views, it took us 9hrs 10 minutes to complete the marathon distance. This has to be the longest time that I've taken to run a marathon, but not the longest time I've taken on an ultra trail race. The weather conditions were fabulous, the trail was dry, but most of our course was single track trails that were pretty steep and covered in loose material. It was really technical, especially the last 8 miles of downhill.



This photo was taken somewhere in the first few miles of the course. We were climbing almost constantly from the start up to the Summit around mile 9 of the course.




When we reached the Summit, we were encouraged to climb to the top of the observation deck to view the surrounding landscape. Awesome!






The early morning overcast hasn't burned off yet, in the valley that we climbed out of.







Here are my friends Addy and Karen. Addy & I ran the complete distance together and had a great time. Karen didn't spend as much time taking pictures as we did, so I think she finished an hour ahead of us.



This is Addy as we're leaving the Juniper Aid Station for the second time.
We're on our way to the Summit for the final time with less than 10 miles to the finish.

To read more about our run, check out Addy's blog from my favorite blogs list. She's an English major and is so much more prolific in her writing than I am.