Santiago Oaks

I set out early this morning for some trails I’ve never run.  I met friends Sheila and Kelly in a shopping center parking lot at the base of the mountains and we took off on the streets for some trail running in the foothills.  I felt surprisingly well for this being my tenth consecutive day running.  And we took some pretty good climbs together. 

We ran a trail called Bumblebee that lead to gorgeous views of The O.C.  The weather was perfect, our loop rolling and joyful. ( I could see Santiago Peak off in the distance and longed for it.)

We got in some fire road, some gravel, some single track, some switchback and cliff trails.  Running up Anaheim Hills Trail we met a couple of hikers who mentioned that they renamed that trail “Dirty Rotten Filthy Hill,” and their friend called it “Cardiac Hill.”  That really cracked me up because I’m a trail re-namer too.  (I’ve renamed Mentally Sensitive to “Psycho-Path,” and I’ve named a portion of West Ridge, “Good Girls Don’t.”)

In all, we three women ran 8.33 miles on this Thursday morning (13.41 km).  Lovely, lovely run.  And here’s the best thing as we approach the end of the year:  with over 1,600 miles logged, I am UNINJURED.  I have so many things to credit for this fact, which I’ll save for another entry.  I will write that part of the non-injury stuff comes from my cross-training at the gym.  But alas, 2011 is an end of an era for me.  My gym membership runs out in a few days.  And I won’t be renewing.  Though I am a fairly new runner (meaning I started in middle-age), I have pretty much always been a gym member.  I don’t even feel like going back now knowing that I won’t be renewing.  But at the same time, I feel like I need to go back, knowing that in a few days I won’t have a choice. Yet, I have learned much over the past few years, so I’m confident I can keep up the non-injury streak without a gym membership.   

Scenes from a run though Santiago Oaks: