Vertical Turtle: The Other Side of Diablo

Burnout Bear and I decided to complete this week's 22 mile long run on Mt. Diablo. We set the bar high and decided to run over the mountain, down to Rock City, and back up and over. This would be perfect preparation for the Ohlone 50k due to its double-mountain profile and steep, relentless climbs.

As we slowly got out of the car at the Mitchell Canyon trail entrance, I remembered the first time we parked in this same lot back in Sept. 2010: We were heading for a hike that day and saw the setup for a race being cleared up. There were tents and picnic tables full of food, and a humble finish line marked with caution tape and a large, red digital clock. Nearby was a van labeled "Coastal Trail Runs". It was love at first sight. I walked up to one of the volunteers sitting in the biggest tent and asked for information about the events. Apparently they had everything from a 5 mile race to a 50k!

I felt excited about the idea of trail running, but after our hike that day to Eagle Peak, I started doubting if I could do it, let alone on Mt. Diablo itself. I had slipped on the trail several times and my legs were trashed from a simple hike which didn't even include the main mountain peak. I was an ex-road runner, out of shape, carrying at least 10-15 extra pounds. It seemed like a dream to run that mountain. But I placed the Coastral Trail Runs flier on the fridge when I returned home and it served as a reminder to keep getting fit. It is still posted on my fridge to this day.

And now here we were almost a year and a half later strapping on Camelbaks full of Hammer products and salt tabs, and lacing up our rugged trail running shoes for a training run. Crazy! And, well, that's what everyone else thought of us, as well. We received so many random comments from hikers that I decided to jot them down:

"Don't wait for us! We'll see you up there!"
"Go runners!!"
"Oh, I can do that!"
"Don't go too fast... You're going to make us look bad!"
And when we asked the Ranger beforehand if there was water in Rock City: "Wow, you are going all the way to Rock City?? Good luck then! And are you coming back?.... TODAY?!?"

I guess we have officially crossed the line from "normal" (hiker) to insane trail runner. And I couldn't be happier about it. We managed to run all 23 miles (we missed a turn, adding another mile) in just over four and a half hours. Not too shabby.