Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Echo Mountain

My running has hit a rut of late. So much that I have trouble getting my arse out the door, even though I have concrete goals. Methinks the reason is that I do most of my runs along the same route... and obviously it gets boring.

On Sunday, attempting to break the spell, I drove to Altadena at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. The streets were full of cars and I had to park a few hundred yards away from the start of a single-track trail that leads to the 'top' of echo mountain. The trail is full of switch backs and gains 1600-feet in elevation and it is purported to be 2.7 miles long. It ended up being a 'blessing' that I parked about .15 miles down the road for the trail ends in a straight-away that is at least .15 miles. The round trip would be a nice six-miler as I am annal about running distances that result in integers.

As I was making my way to the head of the trail I hoped/prayed I would not regret wanting to change sceneries. I used to 'run' this trail regularly with an ultra-friend and got to do the ascent in just over 30 minutes. It was pure hell then. It is still pure hell now. I made it to the one mile marker in blistering time, 11:25 (insert ironic emoticom here)... my lungs had began burning half-a-mile before, and my quads were tightening. The irony is that if you were to hike it, the trail does not seem all that steep; in fact, it averages to an 11% grade. And I was 'forced' to take a walking break. I would 'run' the mild climbs/flat sections and I would 'hike' the steeper, shorter sections. From the moment my lungs started complaining to end of the trail, the unpleasant feeling that one gets during the third-mile of a 5K was ever present. I made it to the top and was elated to see the mild straight descent. I stopped my watch in 36:03. At 3200-feet, the top of Echo Mountain rewarded me with a hazy but still beautiful view of the Los Angeles Basin.

One would think that the return would be a breeze. And while it was a breeze to my humbled lungs, it was not easy. The narrowness of the single-track trail, the switchbacks and the uneven terrain all combine to make it quite hazardous if you venture to speed up. I managed just under 9 min pace as I found myself constantly breaking.

All in all I am glad I did it; however, it was a vivid reminder why I hate hills so much.

1 comment:

Appletini said...

I LOVE hiking that trail! My soul sister and I have plans to hik eit this Sunday.

I DIE just walking up it..I can't imagine running ;0