Living on the coast in North San Diego County, it's a 2 hour drive to the Art Museum from my house. I know, boo-hoo, but the short of it is that I got a late start. I didn't get on the trail until 6:30 AM. I somehow let myself be convinced that I needed to pack more than I did, and as a result I ended up with a lot of dead weight slowing me down. Finally, I'm motivated by catching people on the trail, chatting for a moment, and then leaving them behind. There were very few people on the trail today, so I was pretty much on my own. No problem.
I indicated in my original post that I might run a bit along the way, but since this was my first C2C2C and only my second time on the trail, I decided to just take it steady, striding out an easy 3 mph walking pace. I figured that would leave me with plenty in the tank for the descent, and I'd still finish in daylight. Of course, a 3 mph walk down the street is one thing, but that takes a bit more effort on these trails. I realize that, but I also ran 80 miles last week, so the pace wasn't really a concern.
After starting off at 6:30, I was pretty successful at maintaining that goal average pace, even over the dicey areas up in the pines. I reached the ranger station in 3:42. That was my only stop, and just long enough to fill out the permit. From there, straight to the summit, which I reached 1:38 later (5:20 from the base). Above 7,000 feet I seem to get very bogged down. I'm sure that's a result of doing all my running at sea level. The only times I've been above 7,000 feet in the last 20 years was two weeks ago on my first C2C hike and today. Need some time to acclimate.
After hanging out and getting a few pictures at the summit, I headed down, this time stopping at the ranger station to refill my water. By opening my stride up and letting gravity do its work, I made the ranger station in 1:23 (6:43 from the start).
Heading down from Long Valley was entirely new for me, so I approached the upper trail with caution. I felt like I was really losing time, so I was pretty glad to get down below the pines. As it turns out, I was pretty far ahead of schedule, and ended up getting back to the Art Museum in just 3:16 (9:59 from the start).
Overall, I'm happy with the hike. I got in a decent workout on an absolutely beautiful, clear day. Now that I'm home, my legs don't feel very tight, so it looks like my running schedule suffered minimal disruption, too. I'm already thinking about my next C2C2C (or C2C2C2C?) excursion, and I'm sure I can go significantly faster now that I'm know the trail well and am confident in the descent. Another factor that will help is reducing the dead weight.
Here's what I wore:
1. New Balance 070 lightweight trail running shoes
2. CEP compression socks
3. Brooks running shorts (feel free to poke fun at them in the picture below)
4. Patagonia base layer II longsleeve
5. Toes on the Nose rash guard T-shirt
6. running hat
7. running sunglasses
8. running gloves
In my Osprey Raptor 10 pack, I poured 80oz of Ultima and packed two Builder's bars. Frankly, what you see above is all I really needed. And my car keys.
But being the "prepared" type, I also packed…
1st aid kit
3 Mojo bars
Petzl micro headlamp
running pants
extra socks
wallet
camera
mini tripod
iPhone
All that was totally unnecessary. Next time I'll go light. If I could figure out how to cache fluids (and get in some altitude runs), I think I could get to the summit in under 4 hours by running.
There is water at the ranger station and at round valley so you definitely could get away with just enough to get you up to the ranger station and then refuel.
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