That’s what Greg Lanctot (RD) told us during the pre-race briefing while we stood around warming ourselves with the rising sun. And boy was he right. Everything in Woodside felt lush, green & vibrant and the trails were bouncy, but not muddy. Temperatures starting out in the low 40’s and warming up to 60’s. Couldn’t have asked for a better day for forest bathing. My Strava activity:

Woodside Trail Run 50K

I’m going to keep this one short. Suffice to say my body and mind needed this run so badly. With just 47 of us (I think much of the crowd probably went to TNF-50) running the 50K, there was plenty of elbow room on the trails and lots of built-in solitude. Awesome to see Char Kuperstein and Rob Rhodes out on the run.

Timothy Yuen (Redwood City) and his best friend Timothy Yuen (Danville), both running their first 50K and would go on to finish minutes under the 8-hour cut-off. So awesome.

I tried to keep up with Robert Rhodes for the first mile and he lost me on the climb up Richards Road pretty quickly. But Caroline Boller (holds the National Best 50M record). Wow. She was flying down Bay Trail right from the start and would go on to place 1st overall in a blistering 4:37.

The highlight of the run was definitely the short new segment with a 28% grade 🙂 That was fun!

I love the last 5 miles of downhill on this course. Tired as I was, I left the last aid station with Vicki Stronge just passing me. I caught up with her on the downhill and I have to say, but for her, I would’ve stopped or slowed down in this stretch. Was nice to get that nudge as I rolled into the finish line in 5:50 and change. 13th overall and 4th in AG. The pictures really don’t do justice to the Shinrin Yoku that I felt all day long. One of the finest trails in the bay area.